The Dickinson press., 1914-07-04
OUR DULL SENSES
Wonders All Around Us They Are
Unable to Discern.
We LIVE IN A HIDDEN WORLD.

There Are Colors Our Eyes Cannot
Sec and Music and Other Sounds to
Which Our Ears Are Deaf, While
Our Sense of Feeling Is Very Crude.
1fD,Only we had keener senses what
wonders of nature would be revealed
to u~s-wonders that we touch and
know not every day Of u lives! They
are all around us. these hidden marvels,
but i~mperceptible to us because Of our
human limitations.
OF course every one knows by now
that everything we hear or see comes
in a wave motion. But it is not so
we'll known that there are u great
many waves that we cannot detect at
all by means Of any of our senses and
presumably a great many more that
we have never been able to detect even
artiicially.
Take ether waves, for instance. We
know that those of a certain length are
heat waves. They can be felt, but not
seen. Shorter ones are light waves,
from the long red to the short violet.
Even shorter one are what are known
as the ultraviolet, and these have to be
detected arti1cially, by the taking Of n
picture in the dark. Even shorter ones
are the x rays. which are invisible.
Much longer ones than the longest heat
wave are the electric waves of wire
less telegraphy. Now, remember that
all the waves specified differ in only
n particular-that of length.
We cannot conceive of there being
only waves Of these wave lengths TAX
ing place in the ether. There must be
waves Of nearly all lengths, from the
tril1ionth Of an inch to many miles.
We know that other media may have
waves Of various lengths going through
them at the same time. The question
is how to detect these other waves and
what effect they have in nature.
If our bodies had better sense organs
or more in number it Is astonishing to
think of what new sensations we
should have. If the eye, for instance,
could perceive a shorter wave length
than the color violet and a longer one
than the color red we should have nu-
merous and beautiful colors added to
the list. If we could detect still longer
ones than the infra-red each one Of IS
would be a receiving wireless station
and could get all the messages sent out
without other apparatus than our eyes.
1t would simply be a flash Of light of
a hitherto unknown color appearing
and disappearing in the sky. We could
see it, however, even If it appeared be-
hind us, as the electric wave goes
through bodies. So convenient added
vision would be ours. If we could &C.
tually see the x rays we should need
no platino-barium-cyanide screen to
look through to see the bones in u
hands under the ray, as we do at pres
ent.
If the ear was more delicate and our
brains more sensitive we could per-
ceive the thousand and one wave
lengths made in the air around us, Of
which we now are unconscious. The
rapid vibration of an insects wing
would probably furnish us with even
more eery music than the mosquitoes
song. The wind as it blows across Il
wide meadow would give us a basso
unheard at present. The soft falling
Of snow would make the softest and
most beautiful music to u senses. 1t
would be like q whisper in its lowness.
but would be rather high pitched, like
a Japanese tinkle a mile away. The
falling of the rain would be louder and
even more high pitched.
Our very electric lights, run by an
alternating current and consequently
getting DINNER and brighter a hun
dred times a second, would cause sound
waves Of low pitch and low amplitude
in the air, but would give a known
| musical note.
If our sense Of touch a more deli
cate we could. feel the roughnesses
| along the surface Of the smoothest mir
ror, for it has them. We should be
able to. detect small particles in the
air that now brush us by unconscious
ly. The breeze on u cheek would
feel like so many tiny balls Of paper
rushing and rafting by. The body
would feel every thread Of the texture
of the garments covering it. Some Of
these things, of course. would not be
| pleasant until we got used to them.
1t is the idea Of some philosophers
that all actual heaven would be an in
crease in our perceptions and senses to
an enormous power, for then we should
certainly live in a different world, one
far surprising in knowledge and pleas
ure and power the n we live inland
yet it would be actually the same
world, the difference being simply In
our power to cognize it.-A. L. Hodges
in Chicago Record-Herald.
An Easy Job.
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