Evening star., 1923-03-22

On Mr- 9Edison's birthday he start
ed a discussion by his criticisms of
daily newspapers. He complained
that they pay too little attention to
the discoveries Of science.
A cynical newspaperman, brother
of scientist, mockingly taunted his
brother with the alleged uselessness
of ultra science. The brother, Prof.
Nicholson OF the Chicago University,
had been exultingly telling Of triumph
OF the spectroscope, by which he
could test whether there was sodium
In the suns atmosphere.
who the devil cares" retorted
the horny-brained journalist That
seemed conclusive reply to both the
Chicago scientist and to Mr.. Edison
but was 1t? The practical achieve
ments of science are all about us,
but SO soon do we become familiar
with results that we forget origins.
The spectroscope. for splitting
beams of light into their elements,
is not toy today, as it was few
decades ago. 1t is in daily practical
use in every sugar factory, for test
ing sugar. 1t is used in other chem
istry, and some businesses are
wholly dependent upon it. BY the
spectroscope the presence of any
mineral in a gas through which light
passes, is made absolutely certain
as indisputable as is a thumb print
for identifying a person.
In 1858 one of the pure scientists"
such as Mr.. Michaelson, the jour-
nalist scoffed at-Sir Norman Lock-
yer-detected a light in the promi-
nences of the suns corona, which
differed in it's spectroscopic mark
lngs, from the light given out by any
substance known on earth. He,
therefore. named it from the Greek
word "helos," meaning the sun
In 1895 Sir William Ramsay dis
covered identically the same spectro-
scopic markings in a hitherto un-
known metal on earth. So the new"
metal was found in the sun twenty
seven years before it was found on
earth. This was helium.
devil cares?"
Helium, thus discovered, appeared
of comparatively little interest-in
getting out a newspaper or running
a factory-but wait
In 1869 Sir William Crookes made
an experiment with a vacuum tube
of glass. There is no such thing
as perfect vacuum; it is impos-
sible to extract all air from any re-
ceptable. but Crookes created what
passes, for practical purposes, as a
vacuum" and what atmosphere re-
| mained in the tube he assumed was
ether, such as. in theory, fills all
space.
He sent a charge of electricity
through the vacuum and discovered
shooting sparks therefrom. with a
speed which he measured. by sci
entif1c means, to be 100000 miles a
second-equal to four times around
the earth-in a second. AS this was
caused by the cathode or negative
electricity, he called the light Ca
thode rays" To Crookes, the rays
were merely scientific wonder.
who the devil cares?"
Crookes made little practical use
of his cathode rays" but he was
interested in their luminosity. He
thought that the matter remaining
in his vacuum tube" was merely
electrified and was making light
waves in the ether.
Other scientists continued to ex-
pertinent with the effect of those
light waves, or cathode rays upon
various metals, and Becquerel dis
covered that with the salts of uran-
ium, under the influence of cathode
rays, he got something which would
glow on its own account: it would
even photograph through Opaque
substances. Uranium and cathode
rays were leading to something