Evening star., 1924-12-17
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

man in an adjoining room II he
became excited.
Two or three years a. go DIR. Coblentz
of the United States Bureau of Stand
ards produced a thermocouple for
measuring the heat of stars-even
of invisible stars. 1t was so sensi-
tive that 1t would respond to the
heat of candle 30 miles away: but
DR.. Coblentz, unsatisfied, has refined
| 1t so that now if man light can
die in Philadelphia II will affect the
thermocoupie at the Bureau of Stand
ards, providing there be nothing to
screen it's rays.
DR.. c. q. Abbott, the astronomer
of the Smithsonian Institution, is
authority for the statement that
Petit and Nicholson of the Mount
Wilson Observatory, California, have
j produced a bolometer Invented by
| the late Prof. Langley of the Smith
sonian Institution) to which no
/ thermocouple can hold a candle"
DR.. Abbott himself, with this bo-
lometer, has measured the differences
| In the heat of. the colors of a split
sunbeam, marking the differences be-
I tween cold blues" and warm red.
or yellow, and can tell how hot are
the Invisible infra-red rays of the
| spectroscope. HHe declares that to
measure the heat of one candle 900
miles away is difficult only because
OF the rotundity of the earth, and
he facetiously offers to do it if any
one WIN carry the candle straight
upward 1000 miles.
y ~
Answering the irrepressible ques-
tion as to what good there is in
| pure science. DR.. Abbott, referring
! to modern methods of sonnic Sound
ings of ocean depths, says:
In the first place, all knowledge
Is good to take away ignorance and
1 superstition and point the way to
ne" olscoVeries. No one could
have predicted in 1880 that Faraday's
and Henry's experiments in magnetic
effects of electric currents would
have grown UP into the telegraph.
telephone, dynamo and all modern
electrical installations"
| Yet, IL II had not been for Franz,
Inns kite and the experiments of men
i like Faraday and Henry, a century
ago, where would now be Marconj
Edison and Jenkins? Let nots the
world be harsh upon science; it is
young yet.
Americans are talking glfbIy of our
world monopoly OF helium gas with
which we can safely fly our airshfps
i because of its non-infiammsbiIjfv
| What is the story of helium so ra.
Gently learned? It is not merely thai
1t was first found in the sun. through
the spectroscope, but in its pages are
| writ the story of creation.
| Our forefathers, taking the sum.
Dollsm or Genesis as literal measure
1 or creation in six days, &. 0OO vears
ago, opposed scientific facts which in
hnitely magnify the glory and the
grandeur OF creation.
| T0r ygitfta,,-
versity, says:
Among the radioactive changes
| appear processes in which the rAtn!
| uranium transforms itself through
SUGGESTIONS of intermediate stages
| into the metal lead and into the gas
| heium. The rate Of trans.
| formation Is such that per cent of
quantity or uranium changes into
! lead and helium in about $40 million
years. We find uranium. lead and
! helium associated together In a great
| many minerals, and 1t is natural to
t'suppose that the helium and the lead
were produced by the disiutaaration
OF the uranium during the past ages
II Calculations based upon the
9uan'lty or iead>fh Uranium ores vary
from $40 millions tosi 700 millions OF
years, according to the locality from
| which the ore is obtained
The ages calculated from radioactive
| data, represent the length of time
during which we may suppose the
| chemical elements to have been in
mechanical contact with each other
They do not represent the time that
| has elapsed since the earth may have
reached a state capable of supporting
organic life as we know IT."
But nobody has figured out where
that original uranium came from, nor
how II was made.