The Washington times., 1919-09-07
By DR.. w. II. BaIIou

FF we could discover the secret Of the
light produced BY the freely and by
= certain deep-sea fishes and other lumi,
nous organisms we could not only ouf
down materially the high cost Of living. but
also provide q constant dependable and
cheap source Of illumination. Such de.
coYery and its application to commercial
use would be a greater step in progress
than was even Edison's discovery Of the
electric light IN 1878.
The light we get at present al high cost
from electric and gas plants represents
oa1y Is per cent Of the energy expended
i1 manufacturing It. This means that s5
per cent Of the fuel utilized goes praeti,
uaIly to waste. as the annual consump-
Ton Of fuel for light-making purposes goes
MO the millions Of tons, Il is plain at once
what saving and what q reduction in the
price Of coal alone this would bring about
The phosphoreseent fish and frefies use
sS-ber cent of energy in the production Of
their illumination! Furthermore, a par.
ticle Of their light-giving substance retains
Its luminosity even when diluted in 1,7O0..
ObO times its bulk in water!
Drs. Maynard n Metcalf and Hoyt s,
Hopkins, of the Oberlin University, Ohio,
have recently made the closest approach
to the eonquering Of this secret Of nature.
The result of their work so far is set forth
in a bulletin by the United States National
Museum. In this bulletin the scientists
describe several kinds of extraordinarily
luminous organisms which exist in masses
in ali Of the salt waters of the world, and
which they describe as "the most brill.
iantly luminous Of all marine organisms"
They have also isolated the organisms
which produce this light, and efforts are
now being made to analyze them fully with
q view Of producing them synthetically for
everyday use in lighting.
This light, it has been found, is not only
entirely heatless. but actually produces
simultaneously with it a lower temperature
than the surrounding medium. This ex-
traordinsry quality of cold light" has been
Investigated by William w. Cobenz in his
exhaustive study of the freely, published
by the Carnegie Institute of Washington.
DR.. Coblenz, in writing of this extraOrdi-
nary phenomenon, indicates that the ennis
sion of light from the peculiar substances
involved may be said to be accompanied
by an actual absorption of heat. For ex-
ample. one FREELY flashing eighty to ninety
times a minute caused cooling effect Of
Eve to six centimetres detection in a deli
cate instrument used to measure heat.
Still another specimen flashing three times
a second gave a maximum cooling deiec-
ton of six to seven centimetres" This
quality of heatless light is one Of the most
haffling to science.
The researches of Drs. Metcalf and Hop
kIns were made upon 213 colonies of these
maximum light-giving organisms, and from
them the experimenteEs defined thirteen
distinct species and varieties.
The little animals are given the name Of
Pyrosoma, and belong to a group known
SIS Tunicates. In many ways they are most
nearly related to the ascidians, forms of
life which were the first to appear in water
and which managed to survive until now,
entirely obliviOus and undlsturbed by the
changes and convulsions Of this erratic
sphere, during a career Of millions Of years.
A single Pyrosoma is no larger than q
hea. In its body Is a cluster Of luminous
lieF and light up the whole structure Of the
animal He Is always lghted-unlike