Evening star., 1939-01-28
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

0y 4HOHtuo ~. I1C"Ys
An invisibly faint blue "ghost" light is
emitted by rusting metals.
This finding has just been reported in
the Journal of the Soviet Academy of
Sciences by DR.. A. A. Uljanov of the
State Institute of Electrochemistry.
The light emission, which, the discov-
erer says, "opens up new and entirely
unexplored region in research, is found
by the direct exposure of sensitive plates
for long periods to various metals under
going corrosion. This radiation is pre-
sumably due, he says, to the formation
and destruction of protective films In
certain centers Of corrosion because of
chemical, electrochemical or purely
physical agents.
A metal when exposed to the action
of moist air, he believes. becomes coated
with natural protective film of its own
oxides. This film must be destroyed be-
fore the rusting process can get under
way. The finding may be of value, he
believes, as means of detecting the first
evidences of rust.
THE intensity and luminous efficiency
of corrosion processes in metals" he says
would appear to be determined by the
chemical affinity of such metals to oXy-
gen, chlorine or other elements or rad
lcals Wherever there is no breach of
continuity in the film the latter protects
the metals not only from corroson but
also from radiation. The crystallization
of the film lays bare fresh metal sur
face which begins to corrode and ra-
diate"
He found the hitherto unknown radia-
ton in tests with lead, aluminium, zinc
and magnesium. The light emitted fell
in the blue band neighborhood of $3.50
angstrom units of wave length.
The experiments justify the theoreti-
cal assumption" he says, that emission
is proportional to the rate of corrosion
and is an index of the kinetics of the
formation and destruction of protective
films. The use for this purpose of highly
sensitive modern photoelectric counters
photo current amplifiers and reproduce
ers will enable us to reproduce the be-
haVlor OF metals under corrosion and to
STUDY the klnetics of the origin and de-
velopment of primary centers of corro-
sion, undiscoverable by any methods so
lar available, as we'll as to study the state
OF metal surfaces under Corrosion. It
may make possible tests for resistance to
corroSlon OF metal articles, apparatus
and whole units of equipment, as well as
tests OF the properties of protective COW
erlng OF metal with dyes, or electroytic
or oxldlzed layers. These problems are
OF Importance, because of the corrosion
OF metal parts under static or dynamic
loads, such as mine pumps, chemical
apparatus, brldges or aviation equipment.
The apparatus embodies all the ac-
curacy and sensitivity of modern photo
electric technique and is thus able not
only to reflect all the specific features of
the behaVlor OF metals undergoing corro-
sion, but also accurately to register and
measure the kinetics of that process bv
either the optical or acoustical method,
or by automatic recording. The appara-
tus is the prototype of the 'corrioso-
scope which has long been awaited bv
the metal industries"
The origin of the word maize" the
world wide name for Indian corn, has
just been traced by Dr. John P. Harring-
ton, Smithsonian Institution ethnoloeist
1t is significant as, in all probability.
the only word extant which traces hack
directly to the language spoken by the
Indians who first greeted Columbus.
the clue came to DR.. Harrington from
book written by a Spaniard named
OVleoo who lived on the Island of Santa
Domingo for 20 years in the earlv 10th
century, probably from 1920 to 1910
This book remained in manuscript for
351 years and still is almost unknown To
historians. 1t constitutes probably the
only source of knowledge concerning the
original Indian tongue.
1t was dialect of AraWak, a language
widely dispersed through the West In
dies and Northern South America at the
time OF the first contacts with the whites
OVledo gives the native name for the
chief grain crop of the island with two
spellngs, "Maisi' and "Majisie' For
tunately these alternative forms give a
clear clue to its pronunciation-that is.
that 1t was three syllable word.
Says DR.. Harrington: There are In
dians on the mainland of South America
who still speak a dialect of Arawak. In
this dialect We find that the word for
corn is 'marise.' Why should r. take
the place of Oviedo's 'j'? No one knows
This old native Cuban word for corn
was taken into Spanish as 'mais,' with
an accent over the Il to show that it corr
stltutes separate syllable. 1t will be
seen that only the j. and final i' of
Ovledos word are missing This Span
ish word is the name for corn in prac-
tically all the languages of Europe and
Asia. except in English where the old
Anglo-Saxon word corn which original
ly meant any kind of grain, but which
has taken on a new restricted meaning.
has knocked it out.
"The botanical name is Zea mays Linn.
the last term showing that the name was
given to the plant by the great Linneaus,
father of modern botanical classification
But he spelled this word wrongly. The
writing of ~ instead of Il is far from
the spelling given by Oviedo and prob
ably has thrown etymologists off the