32 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[pEnRUARY, 1907. 



prohlcms of llii' univtTSc l:irki-il ihic rccoijiiilioTi by Miss 

 Ck-rku, who ])(Mri>rnu'ci as it srcnu'ii no oIIut wiiti-r 

 coiiki li;i\L' (ii)iu' the work ol colhition and intirpri'la- 

 tion 1)1 this I'lioniKuis mass of now material, t-viT point- 

 iiij;' the wav to new liokls of invcstit;atioii, oltcn hy 

 one preynanl siiijt^cstion swoipini^' asiik' a w hok' slu'af 

 of tentative conjeetiires and indiratiiit;, if not llie true 

 line — for in many eases the truth is yet to seek — at 

 least a plausible and seientilie line well worth pur- 

 .'Uiini;'. " There is one other point on whieh we should 

 like to dwell. No writer of her time had a juster sense 

 of style. In a nation which consumes lietion as its 

 staple liter;irv food, the quality of literary style when 

 apparent in other kinds of literature is likelv ti> be 

 o\erlo!)ked. lUil Miss Clerke ]5ossessed it in the 

 hitjhest desjree. There is a passaiifc in one of the eha]i- 

 ters of .Modern Cosmogonies, "'The Inevitable lather," 

 whieh h.is always seemed to us a model of style, eleijant 

 without alTi'rtation, fastidious without sacriliee of mean- 

 ini;, iiunitablv riijht in its ehoioe of words. W'e quote 

 it : — 



"To the very brinl< of that mysterious oce;m the 

 science of the twentieth ccnturv has hroui;ht us; and it 

 is with a thrill of wondering' awe that we stand at its 

 verge and rurvcy its illimitable expanse. 'The glory of 

 the heaxcns is transitory, but the imjialpahlc, invisible 

 ether inconceivably remains. .Such as it is to-day, it 

 idready was when the Fiat Lux was spoken; its be- 

 ginning must have been coeval with that of time. 

 Xotbing or c\erything- according to the manner in 

 w hirh it is accounted of, it is evasive of common notice, 

 while obtrusive to delicate scrutiny. Its negative 

 qualities are numerous and baffling. It has no effect 

 in impeding motion; it docs not perceptiblv arrest, ab- 

 sorb, or scatter light; it pervades, yet has (apparentiv) 

 no share in the displacements of gross matter. Look- 

 ing, however, below the surface of things, we find the 

 semi-fabulous quintessence to be unobtrusively doing 

 all the world's work. It embodies the energies of 

 motion; is, perhaps, in a wry real sense, the true 

 primiim mobile; the potencies of matter are rooted in 

 it; the substance of matter is latent in it; universal inter- 

 course is maintained by means of the ether; cosmic 

 inlluenccs can be exerted only through its aid; unfelt, it 

 i.s the source of solidity; unseen, it is the vehicle of 

 light; itself non-phenomenal, it is the indispensable 

 originator of phenomena. .\ contradiction in terms, it 

 points the perennial moral that what eludes the senses 

 is likely to be more permanently and intensely actual 

 than what strikes them." 



'That is not fine writing; it is literature; and w-hatever 

 Miss Gierke's place in the history of astronomv, it will 

 be a high one in the history of letters. 



E. S. G. 



In Memoriam— Agrnes Mary Clerke. 



I Icrs was the part to glean the scattered grains 

 Of truth, which reach us from the starry field; 

 To weigh results which calculations yield, 



.See where they tend and gather up the gains 



Of many a night-long watch. .She remains 



The mistress of a style, v.hose greatness sealed 

 It to sublimest science, which revealed 



Deep study, and far-reaching thought contains. 



And she who, judging the cosmogonies. 



Marked what they lacked, dimly preceived how 

 A Power outside of Nature guideth all 



By ordered paths — a Power which vivifies 



And upwards leads. She has g:onc from us now, 

 .■\nd from her eves earth's darkening glasses 

 f""- ' T. K. Hhatii, F.'r.'A.S. 



Photography. 



Pure arvd Applied. 



By Chapman Jones, I'M.C, I'.C.S., &c. 



M \^^ of the (le\elo|)crs that are remark- 

 Hnersetic ,^,^j^, ^^^^. ^^^^.^^. ^.,^^. ^ .,„j ,-apiditv of 

 Developers. _. , ,, , ' . . 



action, such .is metnl and paramido- 



plvcnol (11k' latter is the acli\r agi-nt of ni<linal and 

 uiial) are, chi'inicall) s|X'aking, basic substances, ;ind 

 are supplied in combination with acids, as salts, becau.se 

 the free bases are ton unstable' for pi;ictical purposes. 

 'They are g:'nerall\- sold in coiiiliination with hvdro- 

 chloric acid or siilphiirie acid, and when dissoKrd with 

 alkali gi\e ri.se to alk.dinc chloride or sulphate, which 

 mav ha\o, and, doubtless, sometimes decs have, a re- 

 tarding action. Messrs. Lumiere and Sevewetx have 

 sought to overcome this dr.-iwback without the loss of 

 stabililv in iIh' solid material, by combining the bases 

 with sulphurous acid instead of sulphuric or hydro 

 chloric, SOI that the alkali in the mixed dexclopcr shall 

 give its sulphite instead of its sulphate or chloride. .Vs 

 alkaline sul|5hite is always added in considerable 

 f|iKinlilies to such developers, the small amount so 

 pnxluced has no' appreciable effect. 'They report that 

 the products "are stable enough for commercial purposes, 

 and behave in developers as if the free bases had been 

 used. The compounds do not appear to be very defi- 

 nite, as they contain several molecules (six to ten) of 

 the organic base to cne of sulphurous acid. Experience 

 alone can show whether these new compounds will 

 prove advantageous, and we certainly should feel 

 grateful to the.se investigators for working at the sub- 

 ject. Hut as alkaline sulphates in small qu.antities do 

 not notably retard development, and the simultaneous 

 reduction in the restrainer ;ind alkali is often of \ery 

 doubtful benefit, there does not appear to be much 

 room for improvement in this direction. 



We learn from a letter sent by Mr. 

 Colour Julius Rheinberg to Kaiurc (Novem- 



Photography. l)er .'9), that the method of colour photo- 

 graphy with a lined screen and narrow 

 angle prism recently described by Professor Lippmann, 

 and referred to in this Journal for October last, was 

 the subject of a patent by F. \V. Lanchester in 1895, 

 was described by Julius Rheinberg in January, 1904, 

 and was patented in France early in 1906. Thus, it 

 appears that the process has been invented, according 

 to records, four times, and it is stated that others than 

 those named have been working on similar lines. 



When formaline was first introduced, 

 The it w^i, thought that it might perhaps 



Hardenins of displace common alum and chrome 

 Uelatine. alum as hardeners of gelatine. But 

 further experience with it has shown 

 that it also has its weak points. One essential differ- 

 ence between it and the alums is its volatility, and this 

 is not only annoying to the user, but remains a source 

 of uncertainty in its effects. It appears from some 

 recent work of Messrs. I.umiere and Seyewetz that 

 the treated gelatine is a more or less loo.se combination 

 of gelatine and formaldehyde, and that the formalde- 

 hyde is always ready to pass off and leave the gelatine 

 in its original soluble condition. It mav be separated 



