El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-09-06

sion in Washington, affords an inter- |
esting opportunity to consider what !
applied chemistry has done for hu-
mainly and to speculate upon what !
the future will bring forth The !
most impressive fact concerning chem
ical knowledge is the same that char |
acterizes most scientific knowledge !
the discovery of race benetttlng pro-
cesses and methods is far ahead of their I
adoption by the people OF even the !
most civilized nations.
Many Operators Waste Energies.
If the farmer, for instance, could !
adopt into his work all of the chemi-
cal knowledge of soils and crops that
has been gathered for him, the high
cost of living might become a forgot
ten issue. Farm life then would be-
come 50 att. active that the drift OF
humanity would be away from the
city instead Of toward it. There mere
matter Of intelligent fertilization
would result in doubling the American
yield of farm crops of every descrip-
ton. Comparing the results obtained
on TIE average American farm with
those securL6 or the progressive far
mer's fields, the average American
farmer wastes far more than half his
opportunities, simply by his failure TO
mix chemistry and allied sciences with
the Drawn he uses.
But the farmer is not the only man
who wastes more than half Of his en-
ergies. The coal operator mines coal
by expensive processes lifts it hun
dreds Of feet to thc surface, loads it on
cars, ana hauls it away. so that the
value CT the coal when the consumer
gets it is a dozen times or more
greater than its value before lOOsened
by the miners pick A dozen ways
have been proposed to change all or
this. One Of the recent propositions
is to grind the coal into minute par
ticles in the mine, mix II with water,
and then pump 1t out as they pump
a Nra--
the Panama canal with suction
dredges: big pipe lines would then be
laid from The mine 10 the contiguous
cities, and the liquid coal carried as
petroleum is carried now.
Would Generate Gas In Mines.
Another suggestion for the utiliza-
ton of coal without mining 1t and
transporting II Ky rail comes from Sir
William Ramsay the noted English
chemist who now is attending the
Chemists congress in this country He
says that it is feasible TO bore holes
down to the coal stratum and through
them fire the coal by electricity. Air
would be sent down only in sufficient
quantities to provide a regulated fire,
which would transform the coal dt-
rectly into producer gas. Great gas
tanks would be located at the mouth
of the well, and they would be con-
nected with gas engines, which, in
turn, would drive great dynamos Tor
the making of electric current He
estimates that this current could be
delivered several hundred miles with
much less loss of energy than char
acterizes the present Wasteful methods
Of coal mining.
The savings that would thus be eff
fected in the delivery of power from
the unn.ine6 coal to the driving shafts
of big factories, find a counterpart
in those affected already IN metal
mining operations through smelters
and the like. With these millions OF
~fra~
: otherwise be unavailable because the
/ amount Of metal in a given guam
| tity of ore would not be sufficient to
! justify separation under old methods.
/ and steel, prices would be prohtbiuVe
/ but for the arts of chemical ana
/ electrO-chemical extraction devised By
( the modern chemical engineer.
| Seek to Reduce Cost of Living.
J The chemist is going to the ant and
/ considering his ways in many fields.
! Every one realizes that our lighting
/ bills are too heavy, and that we use
/ vastly more energy than we should IN
| generating our illuminants- II we
( could make our light with US as lit
1 tie expenditure of energy as does the
( common FREELY gas bill that now IS
] SIS would be is cents. In large
J number of chemical laboratories Scien-
| lists are trying TO master the myster-
+. les of the fire-fly's lighting establish
! ment While there is not much hope
that they viii be able to tell US at
/ any early date how 10 reduce our
! gas bills to so great an extent, they
/ do hold out hope that we will soon
I get our illumination at infinitely less
expenditure of energy than we now
get it.
only recently a French chemist an
, nounced that ne has succeeded in pro-
I ducing a cold electric light, when
1 gives off light with the expenditure OF
/ the two hundredth part of the cleo
f-f.- rad mr. q
( light with the ordinary filament lamp
( This would be even more economical
/ than the FREELY, but whether IL can
be used outside of the laboratory or
/ not remains to be seen. The inventor
claims that with this light boy or
/ girl could carry around anywhere
| battery powerful enough to HSnt an
J ordinary dwelling
send Pictures BY Wire.
While the matter of talking by wire
| has been in use so long that people
1 consider it nothing unusual now, send
I ing pictures by wire still eXcltes great
/ interest The newspapers of Paris
now are doing that right along, how
! ever, thanks to the genius of the
I chemist who has made it possible TO
| transmit half tones. The doings at
Monte Carlo are being lllustratea IN IN
: this way although the intervening
! distance is some 500 miles. copper
! film is prepared by Photographic
| means, so as to give II the little dots
| OF a lalI tone. Geldllnt IG4lldAuo bAA
| the film where the shadows appear
and the copper is bare where the
lights are encountered. An electric
needle passes over the plate, making
a contact and sending electrical I'M
! pulses which correspond to the lights
and shadows OF the picture. At the
receiving end there is similar cop
per film untreated. A ray of light
shines through a pin hole. and shut
| ter cuts it off, and makes 1t weak or
strong, according to the contact OF
the needle at the sending end. When
the whole film has thus received It's
impressions of light and shadow 1t IS
developed and turned over to the photo
| engraving room for reproduction
May Soon See By Wire.
Will we ever be able to see by
wire? This is a question often asked
and usually answered in the negative
by the layman. But he who has seen
the rise of the elegraph, the telephone,
! and the wireless apparatus and mas
| considered how all OF these were re-
garded as impossible in their turn.
will scarcely deny the possibility OF
| such an invention. All OF these things
spring Indirectly from the chemical
wizard. and he is not ready to admit
that there is no possibility of further
| progress. Not only have pictures been
transmitted by wire but by wireless