The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1909-05-14
LIGHT WITHOUT HEAT.
The Puzzle Of the Tiny FREELY
and the Mighty Comet.
EACH HOLDS THE SECRET.
u Is a Mystery to Science, and the Man
Who Is Able to Penetrate That Mys-
terry viii BE In Position to Rsve-
lutionize This Planet Of Ours.


terry Will BE In a Position to Rsve-
Iutienixe This Planet Of Ours.
This is not an Aesop fable. although
1t has a moral.
There are two things in whose pres
encc science stands wondering and
abashed-the little glowworm Tor the
yet TIMER firefly) and the mighty comet
arching the sky with its glimmering
train Each of them holds the same
secret-how to make light without
. heat. The man who gets that secret
will revolutionize the planet.
The late president Of the Royal As
Economical Society Of Great Britain
referred to the value of the comets
secret in his retiring address. He
thought that we do not sufficiently ap-
preciate the wondrous spectacle Of a
comets tail. 1t shows us hundreds Of
billions of cubic miles Of space stimuli
taneously glowing with luminosity
whose origin is a mystery.
1t is a gigantic experiment in a
branch Of physics of which we as yet
know very little. The comet is i'm
mersed in what we may well regard
as vacuum; at least it Is far more
perfect vacuum than we can produce.
Yet the persistent glow Of the comets
tail shows that there is no real vacuum
there, but vast quantity Of extreme
" attenuated matter which no doubt
Is the cause Of the luminosity.
We ought, Professor Newall thinks,
to awake to the Importance Of this
hint. who knows" he says, "wheth-
or. II we could discover q method Of
disrupting gases and vapors in ultra
vacuous spaces artifcially maintained
on earth. we should not have a meth
cd of artificial illumination as econom-
ical as that of the glowworm and as
brilliant as is needed for our nocturnal
life?'
This thing may really be within our
reach, although at the present time
we cannot even suggest to ourselves
exactly how 1t is to be attained. But
the tendency of recent investigation is
in that direction. AS Sir John Her
schel said Of another discovery which
was just at the door, 1--WE can feel 1t
trembling niong the farreaching line
Of our analysis"
There are not few men, who are
regarded by their harder headed scien-
tific brethren as "dreamers," who pic
ture to themselves fast coming time
when we shall not only obtain light at
as cheap rate as the freely has 1t,
but when we shall have tapped the ex-
haustiess stores of energy that sleep
all around us in nature.
We are like one In a dream sus-
pended in the midst OF a vast work
shop crowded with multitudinous ma
chimes. all whirling and fiuttering In
storm Of energies, but which he can
neither control nor understand. IF
we could see these things they might
terribly US, as the dreamer is terrified
by the whirring belts and spinning
wheels Of his vision. seeming to grasp
Mt his life.
If the scientific investigator needs
to establish a raison d'etre in the eyes
Of the public, which cannot follow
either his processes or his results, he
has only to point to the fact that the
greatest practical discoveries of mod
ern times have come out Of the labora-
tories from things as incomprehensible
to the initiated as SO much magic. It,
Is well known fact that the growing
might Of Germany springs from her
devotion to pure research"
Referring again to the pregnant hint
OF the comet, Professor Newall is
clearly right. in saying, "Here Is a
theme that should. stir up the most
commercial mind in the support Of as
tronomy. Garrett p. Serviss In New
York American.