Year: 1868

entries from all parts of the Union.


Let There he Light.


Longinus and all other critics have attri-
buted the highest sublimity to the verse in
Genesis which describes the creation of light
'And God said, Let there be light, and there
was light" When the Almighty issued this
mandate chemistry teaches US that the ele-
ments must have commenced their combina-
tions, and from our knowledge of the structure
of one of the planets floating around the cen
tral throne, oxygen must have been the element
which first exhibited its afinities. The various
metallic oxides which form the earth must
have evolved light and its associated forces
when these unions occurred. The essential
harmony between the revelations of Scrip
ture and science is finely illustrated by the fact
that this diffused light existed even before the
greater light to rule the day and the lesser
light to rule the night, and the stars also were
set in the armament of the heavens to give
light upon the earth.


Light and heat are the means employed by
the Creator at the present day in developing
and sustaining life upon the earth. The mar
vellous changes in the plant are accomplished
by the sunlight leaping the chasm of one hun
dred millions of miles. The ''cattle upon the
thousand hills" depend upon the vegetable
world. And men, in their turn, depend upon
both animal and vegetable life. We are, there
fore, born of the sunbeam children of light
and not of darkness"


Man is distinguished from the lower animals
by his godlike audacity in handling fire.
There is no tradition of any Prometheus of the
Simian tribe. The rapid human advancement
of the last hundred years is the result of in
creased knowledge in producing and regulating
heat and light.


The very latest discovery in this direction is
due to certain French chemists, of whose pro-
cesses for accomplishing the long desired re-
suit of producing pure oxygen abundantly and
at price which will enable us to employ it for
heating and Illuminating purposes we publish
to-day full and interesting report by Professor
Doremus. We also publish report OF recent
experiments by Professor Doremus in the pho
tometric room of the New York College with



ports we refer for details of this cheap and
speedy method of producing oxygen. DR..
DOremus shows how we are indebted to the
chemical afinities of oxygen for the artificial
production of power and the imponderable
forces Of heat, light galvanism and electro
magnetism He indicates the manifold uses Of
oxygen in union with fuel, applied to machinery
in factories, vessels for freight or travel, to
gunpowder, gun cotton the Eliminates, nitro
glycerine. in furnaces. laboratories and all
culinary operations He sets forth the facts on
which the processes for obtaining the new light
depend, and gives his reasons for endorsing the
claims of Messrs Tessie du Motay and Mare
chal to this important discovery, which he pro-
nounces to be one of the most brilliant revela-
tions Of the age. He predicts that it will work
an entire revolution in our system of lighting
streets as well as public and private buildings,
and that, in great variety Of ways, it will
prove an inestimable benefit to the civilized
world.


Dr. Doremus enumerates the peculiar ad-
vantages of the new light. BY repeating him
self the photometric experiments made at Paris,
he finds that it is many times more brilliant
than the standard gaslight with the consump-
ton of coal gas According to the French
reports it exceeds sixteen and half
times that produced in Paris, and it exceeds to
the same and sometimes to still greater ex-
tent the light of our Manhattan Gas Company,
consumed in the English standard argand
nrx- l. 4 I-~skI IL IL:
ney seven inches in height. For brilliancy,
and also economy and health, this new light
surpasses all other lights usually employed.
More purely white than any of the latter, its
blending of the various colors in quantity and
proportion more nearly approaches the sun
beam. 1t reveals all the more delicate shades
of every hue almost as if they were illu-
minated by daylight. 1t is steady and
unflickering, and thus guarantees against
the frequent diseases of the eye, to W hich stu
dents, printers and the artisans of many trades
obliged to work at night or in the daytime by
artificial light are liable. Flames must flicker,
but this light emanates steadily from solid
pencil of compresse d magnesia fixed in solid
support and rendered incandescent by jets OF
carburetted hydrogen Cor hydrogen), burning
with pure oxygen. 1t is admirably adapted
for outdoor illuminations, not only by its in
tense brilliancy, but also because it cannot be
blown out in the stormiest weather. 1t throws
out much less heat than any Of the gas or
petroleum flames, although it excels them all
in brilliancy. Thus it will enable us to get rid
of the oppressive beat which in summer rem
ders churches, theatres and concert rooms so
uncomfortable and unhealthy. No such smoke
as usually darkens the ceilings and walls, in
juring pictures, books and furniture, escapes
from this new light II does not vitiate but on
the contrary tends to purify the air. Even the
making of :his oxygen is attended by no i'll