The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-11-25
AMERICAN INVENTIONS
VIII-SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS
BY FREDERIC ! HASKIN

steam and yet permit the back an
forth motion OF the piston.
Science, however. does not requi :
only delicate Instruments. Some
the apparatus must be as powerful {
the other instruments are delicat|
For instance. the huge equilater
telescope must be operated
hydraulic methods, and must col
dense the light gathered on twent
six inch glass into a little thread
light which will pass through a pi
hole. There must be measuring IN
chimes which will register a pressu
OF million pounds on the one han
or the effort required to crack a n
or break an egg-shell on the othS
There must be methods of product
cold OF such intensity that hydrog&
gas may be transformed into liQlI
and then frozen into solid ice. Su
a temperature extended over q
earth's surface would transform
entire atmosphere into liquid air al
then freeze 1t solid as a block OF ice
On the other hand, the scientl
must make heat so intense TIL
steel boils like tea-kettle and pass
off into gas like the steam from Il
kettle. Not content with that hej
he has forced the notch still higher
TO 1000 degrees, which is twice as h
as Is necessary to boil steel. EveN
known substance melts under SUI
heat. Iron would go like ice befoZ
a blowpipe: steel would melt like b
ter In furnace; even nickel al
platinum. most refractory of all md
ais. would behave like beeswax in
bake oven. One of those who
produced such heat is f. g. Atchis'
Of Niagara Falls. II melts his y
naces every time he fires them;
not until 1t has given him carbon,
dunn, the hardest known substance
The value OF one piece of scienti
apparatus often depends upon the d
of another. The spectroscope rendt
its most remarkable service VIII
used In connection with fine gratinl
for the analysis Of rays of light. The
gratings must have as many as Il
900 lines TO the inch. or course, Il
impossible for any human hand
draw that many perfect lines to
have a machine to do such work II
Rowland dividing engine was one
the answers to this necessity, and
diamond point draws lines on nd
steel at the race of more than 100,
to an inch. These gratings sell at
much as $50 per square inch.
square foot OF these lines would q
more than $1,000.
Another instance OF how two gr(
inventions often are combined
render a single service Is that Of
telescope and the camera. With
finest telescope in existence the
or the astronomr can Sc no more ST
in proportion to the total num
known to him, that the naked eye
see in proportion to those visible
the telescope-aided eye. Finally, so
astronomer happened to think OF
ing picture OF the heavens throt
a telescope. Since then the phd
graphic plate has revealed to m
kind the presence of countless
lions OF stars which the human
has never seen, even through
greatest of telescopes. Ii is expec
thdI III tut COIuilS years the pnQ
graphic plate. made a thousand tin
more sensitive to light than the
man eye will tell astronomers OF
world stories of the universe m
wonderful than any present power
prediction.
IL the meteorological wants to ku
about the weather. he invents mech
isms which tell him. If the oce
ographer wishes to explore the caveI
of the deep, he devises deep-sea TIL
mometers, PRESSURE gauges. and Ell
Photographic apparatus. II the d
uralist wants picture OF the nj
timid bird or the most dangerous I
NAL In the world, be produces api
atus which will not fail him when
psychological moment arrives. 1
same Is true In every walk OF sci
tiflc life. The scientist usually n
great discoverer because he is fird
great inventor.
Tomorrow-American invented
IX.-EHects Of Invention.