Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-08-12

lew who have seen the FREELY flashing
in the night have not wondered where
its light comes from, how it is
produced and why science has not been able
to discover the secret of its lighting appara-
tus and give it to mankind. But the FREELY
light is insignificant compared to that which
certain fishes and other denizens Of the deep
are able to produce. The lights Of a FREELY
and a luminous fish are basically exactly the
same.
AS a result of years of experiment by the
Biological Department of Princeton Univer-
sity, carried on by Professors Uric Dahl
gren, Edwin Conklin and Edmund n. Har-
vey, this secret has now been found. The
announcement is made that the substance
which produces luminosity can be secured
in sufficient quantities for commercial pur-
poses from a certain species of Japanese fish
and other animals, and that when sufficient
funds are available the same substance can
be manufactured alphabetically in the labor
atory without having to 60 to natures crea-
lures themselves. The japanese fish in
question is SO numerous. however, and has
so much of the pigment that produces the
light, that it is not even necessary to manu-
facture the substance.
The Importance Of this discovery to the
world cannot be over-estimated. 1t is as
epoch-making as Edison's discovery of the
electric light in 1873.
Besides e~ffecting an enormous saving in
fuel energy, it may solve the problem of the
submarine. This animal light in mass pos
sesseS the power OF penetrating water to far
greater distances than any other artificial
light. The suns light at it's greatest inten-
sity only penetrates to a distance of 400
feet, approximately. The fish which has the
largest light-producing organs can penetrate
with the glow from them thirty feet of water,
. and those OrOanS 0ra not LARGO II 10 O mat
ter of simple mathematics, therefore, to cal
culate through how many feet of water any
given mass Of the substance will penetrate.
Submarines equipped with the substance
can search beneath the seas for the "blind"
submarines Of a nation not possessing the
secret, a task heretofore impossible because
of the impenetrability of water to artificial
light. But more can be done than this. An
area which it is known that submarines in
fest can be lighted at the bottom as a street
is lighted by lamp posts. Glass tubes at
tached to a mechanism which will feed the
substance with oxygen can be weighted for
any depth and will illuminate the black "a
dius along which the undersea pirates stink
on their errands of murder just as a city's
dark corners are lighted to drive out the
criminals that flourish in blackness.
AS oxygen is a necessary element in max
ing the substance luminous these undersea
lamps would have to be attended to Just az
the lamp lighter or the electric wagon does
now. Divers could do this. The submar-
Inc cannot descend further than four hun
dred feet and there are diving suits now
which enable men to withstand this same
pressure.
Still another utilization of the substance
in submarine hunting would be to fill bombs
with it and then a submarine equipped with
observation windows could scout along the