The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-12-15
MAGIC or COLORS
BY 1t We Know Of What the Sun
and Stars Are Composed.
SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE.

ashes Are Primitive SpectroscoPss.
The miracle of the spectroscope is To-.
peated before our eyes every day and
every night without our recognizing II.
If people were more obseTvant and
more accustomed TO think about the
meaning OF what they see great dis
coverlcs would be as plentiful as din
monds in Kimberley pipe.
A man said TO me the other day.
''What is all this color that | see when
squint my eyes and look nj an elec-
tric lieht?'
replied: ut is the greatest rev
elation that man has ever bad In the
physical wOrld-it is spectrum analy.
Is Your crowded eyelashes become
an astronomical instrument and ant
lyze the light Tor you into its primary
colors The multitude OF narrow Sits
| through which the light passes as YOU
| squint your eyes act like attraction
| grating and change the direction Of the
| various waves OF light i'm accordance
with their length
THE red waves are long, one thir-
uine-thousandth Of an inch in length.
and they keep on without much change
of direction, but the violet waves are
! short, one fifty seven-thouSaudth II
an inch in length and they are consid-
| erably turned out OF straight line
! An the intermediate waves. from or
! angc, through yellow. green. blue and
indigo, decrease in length ana are
! more and more turned aside as they
! get shorter The consequence is TINT
you see through your nearly closed
eyelashes a band OF colors. which "a
nothing but the famous spectrum oe
! the astronomers.
BY the discovery Of that spectrum
and the reasoning that it led TO we
have found out what the sun and the
stars are made Of Every known Gle
ment Of matter. when il is made %
shine, gives out wave lengths peculiar
to Itself Spectroscopic instruments
! more perfect than the eyelasbcs reveal
! these special waves ia the light OF the
sun and the stars and by that revela-
ton enable us 60 detect the incandes
| cent clouds composed Of the hor va
pors Of iron, copper. nickel. platinum
carbon. calcium. sodium and many
ether substances which glow in the
atmosphere Of the heavenly bodies.
We nnd these things In stars so far
| away that their light may require
| 1000 years 10 come 10 us. although g
! flies with a speed of 10000 miles per
| second
Look around you when YOU enter Il
brilliantly lighted parlor with crystal
chandeliers hanging from the ceiling
/ The mysterious spectrum flashes at
you from hundred directions at once.
| The glass crystals OF the chandeliers
are also spectroScopes ana they. TOO,
separate the various colored waves,
! though on a somewhat different prln
ciple They act NOT as diffraction graf
ings. but as prisms. but the effect is
nearly the Same. When light goes
through prism the red waves are less
bent ont OF their course than the or
angc the orange less than the yellow.
TIC yellow less than the green, the
thal the indigo and the indigo less
than the violet Tho result IS that
what was white light. with all IFS
waves iutermingled, when il entered
the prism comes out ia beautiful
sheaves OF color
A similar effect is produced boy the
beveicd edge OF mirror or the facets
of piece of cut glass giittering on %
dinner table.
The beauty OF jewels depends upon
.neir spcctroscopic powers Every
| transparent substance has its own in
dcv of refraction.' which means iis
peculiar power Of turning light waves
aside The diamond, as the king ~
| gems. possesses this power in the high
est degree. Calling the refractiye in
dcy OF air 100 that OF glass is from
1J1 TO III. according 10 its density
while that OF the diamond is 24I.
This property alone furnishes q
means OF detecting the gcnuinencSs "
a diamond Taking advantage of its
high retroactive power and shaping its
facets accordingly. the icwcler can
vastly increase the brilliancy Of n dia-
mond by proper emitting He can bring
about internal reflections that make
the stone blaze rs If its atoms were all
anrc
The Skinner of colors in an opal is
due 10 the existence OF invisibly MI
mute assures. which split up the light
waves and scatter their hues I'm deli
cate. iutermiugied rainbows
Nature has been doing these things
for thousands Of years in plain sight
before man found out that he could
use the principle on which she acted
20 uncover the secrets OF the universe
Very likely she is giving US many 9th
er equally valuable hints which we are
stin too stupid 10 understand Garrett
Z. Serviss in spokane Spokesman-Re-
view