The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-11
LIGHT GIVING ANIMALS.
Curious Pbosphorescent Creatures
 Found in Sea.

New York Tribune
 If some inventor shall arise who can
 devise ways and means whereby every
 home in the United States can be suc- cessfulIy equipped with an inexhaust- ible supply of pyrosoma, 1t is possible
 there will be no more wrangling over
 gas bills, no more with breaking car
 bons In electric light bulbs: in short. it is just possible that the lighting problem will have been solved. But that is all--it is not at all probable, and until scientists know more about the pyrosoma than they do now that an- inlal will remain simply curiosity; one of the most interesting phosphoros- cent animals in the world.
 According to a writer in the Scientific American there are, however. on re- cord several instances of persons hav- ing put the light emitted by this pe- cuiiar animal to practical purposes. one specimen kept alive in a tank in a dark room would, when stirred With a stick, emit a light strong enough to enable one 10 read medium- sized print. The light is described as ghostiy, and though the writer does not say so, the sensation must have been anything put comfortable when reading i'll ught from such source.
 still another writer tells or having written his name with his finger upon the side of a giant pyrosoma, where upon tine characters were instantly re- produced in letters of living fire. A
 French zoologist who met school Of pyrosoma, says that they resembled 'red-hot balls of fire.'' but the claim is advanced for Bibra. a Brazilian nat uralist that he was the first to put the light of these queer creatures to practical purpose. Placing six small ones in swinging glass in his cabin. he Is said to have written description of the animals by their own light.
 By some pyrosoma is called the fire barrel and the name is not out of place. fos the animal does resemble barrel, being about foot In length and open at one end. It Is in the tropics that it is found at its best, but it iS also found sone- times in the waters of the islands of Southern California. One caught in Avalon Bay in these waters some time and photographed. First seen. q blaze of light about ten feet below the sur face as 1t slowly rose to the surface, 1t was supposed to be huge jelly fish. Through the window of Il glass-bot- toned boat It's course was followed as it rose, and then its shape was seen to | be long and cylindrical X faint light was emitted from the animal. but the moment 1t was touched it blazed out in | bright glare of slvery green light. Close examination. ss well as It's pho tograph, reveals the fact that the pyro- soma is not one animal. but in reality millions of minute little creatures all | joined together in one body by ipsolu- | ble ties Each of these little individual animals in feeding draws in water that l is expelled into the inside space, and | out into the sea again through the orenjng at one cn1 of the composite an l imal II is thls process of taking In and ejecting water that forces the py- l rosoma along. In the tropics the pyro- soma often grows to great size One | found there is said to have measured 1 four feet In length and to have been | ten inches in diameter. Scientists give the pyrosoma high rank in the differ ent stages of animal life, chasing it little lower than the fishes. Indeed. 1t
 Is claimed that in the larvae of soma
 forms a notocord Is to be found, be- lieved by some to be a primitive back bone.
 The light emitted by those wonderful animals varies both In tint and color, some giving off a comparatively white
 light, others a bluish light. and still
 others beautiful pale Sreenish light.
 The brilliapcX of the light given of by a vast number of those animals whom grouped together Is best described
 by Sir WyVille Thompson, who wrote of sailing through a large number of them in this fashion: "It was an easy matter to read the smallest print sit ting at the after port in my cabin. ana the bows shed on either sid" rapidly widening spaces of radiance SO vivid as to throw tho sails and rigging Into iiehts and shadows"