The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-09-23

S.-HE light OF the hre-ny and other luminous
creatures-the strange angle nsh, jelly
fishes and the shining deep-sea shrimp
s-has been the subject of recent study by the
Government Bureau OF Standards, which has
found out a good many things about II that are
exceedingly interesting. One conclusion drawn
is that 1t is about 200 times cheap as the
electric incandescent lamp, reckoning Its cost
on the basis OF energy expnded in production.
The light OF the nreny. in fact. is the ideal
Hight. only in respect to color. II only
could hnd out exactly how It is produced and
initiate the process on large scale making u
white instead OF yellow green. enormous
beneht would be conferred upon mankind
The result of the observation bottled down
into figures was this: That the FREELY 300
per OF Its lamp energy for light and does
1t naturally. An ordinary carbon Elow-lamp
uses of It's total given out energy only forty
three hundredths of per cent for light
giving purposes To illustrate this better
a consumer of electricity pays a bill of 5000
for lights he has actually used up for lighting
purposes only SC cents worth of electricity
Experiments were also tried with other artl-
hcial illumnants and IL found that where
the luminous efficiency OF the ordinary glow
lamp gave forty-three hundredths of one per
cent, the tungsten gave one and three this
per cent and the mercury three and eight
tenths per cent. Thus the tungsten is some-
thing over three times as economical as the
ordinary ineandescent and the mercury arc nine
times. To put this in tabular form. for a bill
of 5000 for the ordinary incandeseent he would
receive In light. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. SS6 worth
win the tungsten '''''''........... 100 worth
with tho mercury arc............... 100 worth
NSo IL man had several rooms of the same
size to be lighted and had only $780, where only
one room could be lighted with incandescents
three could be lighted with Tungstens and nine
with the mercury arc But II lightning bugs
were available or II their secret known and
applicable u human rt,,upo.. Irf .tf 5000 Sl93
worth OF light would be given, or the number
OF rooms that could be lighted would be about 225.
Hence the practical Importance of the eX.
pertments mere described. which were conducted
by H. e Ives and w. w. Coblentz. The insect
chosen for the purpose common species
of "lghtning bug" known to science as Pho.
linus pyralis. 1t is about half an inch long and
Its light is a faint glow. which al intervals OF
few seconds flashes out with greatly Increased
Intensity. Examination under the microscope
shows that the luminous portion OF the creature
tthe last three segments of the abdomen), when
not giving out The bright lash. scntillates KIN
numerous small and brilliant points.
The object of the Investigators was o find out.
hrst, the exact lght-giving efficiency OF the nre
ny. as compared with other sources of light sucb
as candle or an electric glow lamp; secondly
to ascertain the amount Of heat incidentally
produced uhis being accurate measure of the
energy utlized), and. thirdly. to determine the
range OF colors in the rays emitted by the insect
The method first adopted was to imprison q
number OF hrefies In a small cage with white
wall at the back, from which their light woult
be reflected into the slit. But this did no
serve. because the Insects. In cap;:y1,y q,lirkI,