The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1905-02-03
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.
MATERIAL ADVANCES MADE IN
KNOWLEDGE DURING 1904.
Achievements That May Pave the
Way to Discoveries OF Great Indus
trial and PhIosophic VaIue-There
is No Remedy for Cancer. Yet.

laI advances nave DECH ICCOluC W*Ih
in the last twelve months which are
comparable in interest with those an
nounced a year or two previous. The
most sensational observations regard
ing radium-that it constantly emits
a small amount OF heat. and that a va
por which it evolves apparently
changes into helium-were made in
1903 Believing that the last men
toned phenomenon is q genuine trans
mutation Of one element into another,
Sir William Ramsay has been follow
ing up his earlier experiments with
others, parallelling the efforts of the
medieval alchemists to make gold
out OF the baser metals. He has OBJ
tanned a microscopic quantity OF
something closely resembling lead,
from the glass of a vessel exposed to
long continued influence from radium.
OF course, it would never pay to man
ufacture lead by the aid OF an element
more costly than diamonds; but the
achievement, if repeated and fully
verified, might pave the way to other
discoveries which would have great
industrial or philosophic value
Wireless telegraph has virtually
been at a standstill No greater dis
tances have been traverged than that
between, Poldhu, England, and those
Cod, which was spanned nearly two
years ago. One Of the recognized
methods Of securing secrecy is to
tune" the transmittcr to emit waves
Of a certain frequency, say five nun
dred thousand a second, and then to
adjust the receiver to respond more
readily to that rate than to any other.
OF course, if an unauthorized person
could find out what frequency was
being employed in a tuned system
he might regulate his own receiver
so as to steal a message. 1t is said
that an instrument, called wave fire.
quency meter, has been invented,
which will enable an expert to get. the
desired information in a few min@,es
The facility with which cable mes
sages can be recorded has apparently
been enhanced by a device original
ing with Stephen Dudley Field, ne
phew of Cyrus w Field, and an cleo
trica engineer of standing. He calls
it's an "amplifior."
In ordinary biography apparatus is
now coming into use whereby the
sending operator manipulating a key
board like that of a typewriter, and
the message comes Off the wire in
print. Several devices for doing such
work have been known for years,
but most of them have been costly
and somewhat uncertain One now in
service between New York and Buff
falo is less expensive, and equally or
more reliable.
In making pig iron it is usual to
mix fuel with ore in a blast furnace,
and to promote combustions and
smelling with a powerful current OF
air. The moisture in the atmosphere
makes it necessary to burn more coke
than would otherwise be required, and
variation in the humidity from day to
day .embarrasses the furnacemen
still further and involves inequalities
in the excellence of the product.
James Gayley, one Of the vice presi-
dents of the United States Steel Cor
poration has shown that by robbing
the air of its moisture (by means OF
a refrigerating planO better results
can be insured. Tests In August last
led Mr. Gayley to think that with a
dry blast HE could get a pound of iron
by burning only four pounds Of COKE,
whereas it had previously been neces-
sary to use six. Other economies
were found to attend the new process,
which ought to cheaper iron and steel,
although fuel is not the only item OF
expense. Ore and labor must not be
ignored.
A dozen or more men have at va
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