362 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Mat 1, 1885, 



Here, again, the difference diminishes as the temperature 

 decreases, but not so remarkably as in the case of the 

 sUk. 



Eumford was surprised at this, and says, "From hence 

 it should seem that a covering may, under certain circum- 

 stances, be very good for confining small degrees of 

 warmth, which would be but very indifferent when made 

 use of for confining a more intense heat, and vice versd." 

 He adds, " This, I believe, is a new fact, and I think the 

 knowledge of it may lead to farther discoveries relative to 

 the causes of the warmth of coverings, or the manner in 

 which heat passes through them." 



I must pass over the details of other experiments made 

 with charcoal, lycopodinm, lamp-black, wood-ashes, &c. 

 He selected charcoal because it "is supposed to be composed 

 almost entirely of phlogiston," his object being to deter- 

 mine whether " that principle was the cause either of the 

 conducting power, or the non-conducting power of bodies 

 which contain it." (This was written In 1787, when 

 phlogiston occupied a place in the scientific imagination 

 similar to that which is now held by the luminiferous 

 ether. Rumford subsequently renounced it.) 



The results with these powders were similar to those 

 with the fibres. The more finely-divided and looser the 

 material the greater the resisting power. Thus lamp- 

 black was more resistant than powdered charcoal, and the 

 lycopodium (" semen lycopodii "), or " witch meal," which 

 is an excessively fine and light powder, and greatly excelled 

 them both. 



As in all these experiments there was air as well aa the 

 fibres or powders, the materials for answering the question 

 of the relative resisting power of the solids and the gas 

 were in hand, but on examination of the results a curious 

 paradox presented itself 



Comparing the resisting power of the air itself, when that 

 alone filled the bulb, with that of the same space containing 

 a mixture of air and fibres, the resisting action was in- 

 creased by the introduction of the fibres to an extent ex- 

 ceeding that which would be due to them if they were not 

 merely bad conductors of heat, but absolute non-conductors. 

 " Their volumes or solid contents were so exceedingly 

 small in proportion to the capacity of the globe in which 

 they were placed, that, had they had no effect whatever 

 upon the air filling their interstices, that air would have 

 conducted all the heat communicated in less time than was 

 actually taken up in the experiment." 



In the case of the raw silk having a specific gravity of 1,7 .3 4 

 (water 1000) the volume of the 16 grains was=0-0.37294 

 of a cubic inch, while the space between the bulb of the 

 thermometer and the outer globe amounted to 2 05755 

 cubic inches. The silk was distributed so as to apparently 

 fill this space, and yet occupied but ^'j of it. 



In the first experiment, when the space between the 

 bulb of the thermometer and the glass globe, in the centre 

 of which it was confined, was filled with nothing but air, 

 the time taken up by the thermometer in cooling from 

 70° to 10° was 576 seconds, but when this same space was 

 filled with 54 parts of air and 1 part of raw silk, the time 

 of cooling was 1,284 seconds. A similar quantity of eider- 

 down raised it from 576 to 1,304 seconds, while four times 

 as much eiderdown only brought it to 1,615 seconds. 



The dilemma is thus stated by Rumford : — " Now, 

 supposing that the silk had been totally incapable of con- 

 ducting any heat at all, if we suppose at the same time that 

 it had no power to prevent the air remaining in the globe 

 from conducting it, in that case its presence in the globe 

 could only have prolonged the time of cooling in proportion 

 to the quantity of air it had displaced to the quantity that 

 remained, that is to say, as 1 is to 54, or a little more than 



10 seconds. But the time of cooling was actually prolonged 

 708 seconds ; and this shows that the silk not only did not 

 conduct the heat itself, but that it prevented the air, by 

 which its interstices were filled, from conducting it, or, at 

 least, it greatly weakened its power of conducting it." 



This presents the questions which Rumford next pro- 

 ceeded to answer experimentally : — " How can air be 

 prevented from conducting hoat ? And this necessarily 

 involves another, which is, How docs oir conduct heat 1 " 



The answers given by the air itself >7lien put to the 

 torture by Rumford will be stated in my ij<>xt. Their 

 fundamental bearing upon the present subject will then be 



A DARING LOTTERY SWINDLE. 

 By Richard A. Proctor. 



NOTHING in the history of gambling seems to me to 

 speak more strongly of man's tendency to this vice, 

 and of his blindness and folly in its pursuit, than the 

 State Lottery of Louisiana. This lottery is the only one 

 of the kind now permitted in the United States, and even 

 this is as far as possible limited in its action to the State 

 of Louisiana, the Government of Washington preventing 

 the postal service of the nation (as far as possible) from 

 being used for this gross swindle. But the lottery thrives 

 all the same. It is advertised in hundreds of papers, and 

 always in such terms as amount in reality to the admis- 

 sion that it is a swindle. I have one of these amazing 

 advertisements before me. It announces that 100,000 tickets 

 are sold, each at 5 dols., but shares can be bought in pro- 

 portion. It states that two Commissioners — Generals Beau- 

 regard and Early — manage the drawings, and that these 

 drawings are conducted with fairness and honesty and in 

 good faith to all parties. And then it states the value of 

 the prizes. The total value of all the prizes amounts 

 to 265,000 dols. Supposing all the tickets sold, the balance 

 of profit amounts to 235,000 dols. From this monthly 

 profit deduct 1,000 dols. paid to each Commissioner 

 monthly, and say 1,000 dols. monthly for advertising, or 

 3,000 dols. ; and deduct further 2,000 dols. for all other 

 expenses. The balance, 230,000 dols. is the monthly profit. 

 This gives an income of 2,760,000 dols., or £550,000, if all 

 the tickets are disposed of each month, and this without a 

 particle of risk. It is urged by some that as there is 

 always the probability that some tickets may remain un- 

 sold, this profit is not certain. I am told that nearly the 

 full number of tickets are sold each month. But in i-eality 

 the character of the swindle is not at all affected by the 

 chance that in bad times the total number of tickets may 

 not be purchased. The monthly profits may be diminished, 

 but the transaction is as rascally, let the number of 

 tickets sold be what it may. This is carefully hidden 

 under the assurance that whatever the number of sold 

 tickets all the prizes are distributed, after the drawings have 

 been made. This is actually done. But the 100,000 numbers 

 are all distributed first, those sold being distributed to their 

 respective buyers, those unsold to the company; thecompany 

 take their chance on these with the rest, and, in the long 

 run, win their due proportion of the numbers thus left in 

 their hands. Consider how this works. Suppose 50,000 

 tickets sold and the rest left in the company's hands — 

 though they seldom have so many tickets left over as this. 

 Then the company receive 250,000 dols. for the tickets sold. 

 On these tickets they have to pay all prizes falling to the 

 ticket-holders, and, taking one month with another for long 

 periods of time, the value of prizes thus drawn for half the 

 number of tickets would be half the total value of all the 



