The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-03
SECRET OF THE GLOwwORM.
The Insects Message of Science and
LOve-The Superiority of Its Meth
DDS of illumination.

GOlQSnlIn once spoke OF the glow
worm as that little animal which
makes such a distinguishing figure in
the descriptions of our posts" Now
adays it's eminence seems to have
been transferred to the page of the
Philosophical Transactions.
Sir Oliver Lodge has lately called
attention to a curious observation
that during a thunderstorm a glow
worm extinguished its flash for
second of a second and a half be-
fore each flash, relighting at an equal
intervals after the fash" and asks
whether any other student of nature
can throw light on this habit. One
might hazard the guess that the
glowwormn, like the rest of us, mas
been suffering from hard times and
shortage of money, and emulates the
careful housewife by economizing in
light though even she hardly goes so
far as to stand by the switch in
order to save a farthing's worth of
electricity during thunderstorm.
The GIOwwOrm's Lesson.
Whether the observation mentioned
by Sir Oliver Lodge. prove to be ac-
curate or not. there is a good deal of
instruction-both scientific and social
to be derived from the light of the
glow-worm. Boswell once discovered
a sketch for fable among the papers
of his eminent friend. in which a use
full moral lesson is inculcated. "Glow-
worm lying in the garden" wrote john
son, saw a candle in a neighboring
palace, and complained of the little
ness of his own light; another observed,
Wait a little: soon dark--have cut
lasted many of these glazing lights,
which are only brighter as they haste
10 - -ci
ence finds a much more practical in
centive in the contemplation of the
glowworm's humble spark of light.
The remarkable feature of the glow
worm is that it has solved the problem,
which will some day make a colossal
fortune for human electrician of Civ
ing out light without heat.
Any one who considers our human
methods of artificial illumination will
see the vast superiority of the glow
worm in a world where the supply of
energy is limited and coal has to be
used with thrift. Gas and lamps and
candles all give out an amount of heat
which is both unpleasant in hot wealth
er and indicative of a terrible waste of
energy on a mere side show, or parer-
gon. The electric light seems to be
superior in this respect, but any one
who has had the curiosity to visit one
of the places where it is made knows
better. Look at the furnaces and
boilers of great steam engine driv-
ing a group of dynamos," Sir oliver
Lodge has said. land estimate the en-
ergy expended; and then look at the
incandescent filaments of the lamps
excited by them, and estimate how
much of their radiated energy is of real
service to the eye. 1t will be as the
energy of a pitch pipe to an entire or
chestra. 1t Is not too much to say
that a boy turning a handle could. II
his energy were properly directed, pro-
duce quite as much real light as is
produced by all this mass of mechan-
ism and consumption of material.
. q 1t is as though. in order to sound
some little shrill octave of pipes in an
organ, we were obliged to depress every
key and every pedal and to blow
young hurricane.
Light without Heat.
This means, of course, that what we
call light is made sensible to our eyes
when the ether is thrown into a par
ticular set of vibrations, varying In
length from about $4,000 to about Co.
900 to the inch. In practice we know
no way of exciting the ether to these
vibrations without also setting up any
number of MUCH larger vibrations,
which make themselves sensible chief
ly as heat and also as electrical waves
of all kinds The waste is obvious.
The glowworm, in common with many
other organisms which produce light
in their healthy living state-such as
the FREELY, the fungi which shine at
night on aged trees, or the little Noe
tiluca, which gives rise to the COM
mon but beautiful spectacle of phos-
phorescent sea-haS solved the prob
lem, thought as yet our investigation
has failed to make out its secret. Any
out of curiosity knows that il is as
cold as the "sweecoes" which so much
surprised Peter Wilkins in the lamps
of the Flying Islanders; and it has
clearly no room for the boilers and
dynamos which light our own houses.
All we can Say is that it knows how
to set the ether vibrating at the prop
err rate without any of our clumsy and
wasteful expedients; and it gives us
reason to hope that some day we shall
learn to do as much for ourselves; why
should man acknowledge a permanent
inferiority to the glowworm?
Its Uses.
Not only the origin of the glowworm's
light, but the use to which ii is put,
deserves study. There are several the
cries of the purposes for which certain
organisms have evolved a light-pro-
ducing power in the mysterious his
tory of life. In some cases IL may
serve to attract prey, which comes up
to inquire into the unusual phenome-
non, and remains to furnish dinner; in
others ii acts as a protective frighten-
ing away the assailant. much as a bur-
glar may be driven out of the house by
judicious handling of a two-way
switch. A more simple reason for its
existence is that it serves like the
cyclists lamp, to illuminate a dark
road, or enable its possessor who lives
in the unlighted depths of the sea to
find the way about The old-fashioned
advocate of final causes" who argued
that snuff was the real cause of the
human nose would have added that
the FREELY was endowed with light
giving powers in order to decorate the
hair of South American beauties. or to
help the heroes of Capt. Mayne Reid
TO read secret missives
The light of the glowworm comes
under yet another classification The
best opinion seems TO be that ii is
one of the numerous and fantastic
match making contrivances with which
so many of the lower creation are en-
dowed by nature, happier therein, than
man, proud man." who has to trust
his tailor. In Coldsmith's delightful
account of Animated Nature" the
suggestion was hazarded-probably out
of Goldsmth's own poetic head-that
the light of the female glowworm was
IAN emanation which she sent forth
to allure the male to her company"
Naturallsts of the time laughed at
Goldsmith, but he was quite right The