Steam-jets 

 Stone 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



652 



come intensely heated. When the pressure 

 is relieved by the formation of a crack or 

 fissure in the superincumbent mass of rock, 

 the escape of the superheated steam will be 

 of very violent character, and may be at- 

 tended with the most striking and destruc- 

 tive results. In the existence of high tem- 

 peratures beneath the earth's surface, and 

 the presence in the same regions of im- 

 prisoned water capable of passing into the 

 highly elastic gas which we call steam, we 

 have a cause fully competent to produce 

 all the phenomena which we have described 

 as occurring at Stromboli. JUDD Volcanoes, 

 ch. 2, p. 21. (A., 1899.) 



3226. STEAM-NAVIGATION Its 



Gradual Development. From the earliest 

 dawn of history men used rowing or sail- 

 ing vessels for coasting trade or for cross- 

 ing narrow seas. The Carthaginians sailed 

 nearly to the equator on the west coast 

 of Africa, and in the eleventh century 

 the Northmen reached North America on 

 the coast of New England. Exactly five 

 hundred years ago Vasco da Gama sailed 

 from Portugal round the Cape of Good 

 Hope to India, and in the next century 

 Columbus and his Spanish followers crossed 

 the Atlantic in its widest part to the West 

 Indies and Mexico. From that time sailing 

 ships were gradually improved, till they 

 culminated in our magnificent frigates for 

 war purposes and the clipper ships in the 

 China and Australian trade, which were in 

 use up to the middle of the century. But 

 during all this long course of development 

 there was no change whatever in principle, 

 and the grandest three-decker or full-rigged 

 clipper ship was but a direct growth, by 

 means of an infinity of small modifications 

 and improvements, from the rudest sailing 

 boat of the primeval savage. Then, at the 

 very commencement of the present [nine- 

 teenth] century, the totally new principle 

 of steam-propulsion began to be used, at 

 first experimentally and with many failures, 

 on rivers, canals, and lakes, till about the 

 year 1815 coasting steamships of small size 

 came into pretty general use. These were 

 rapidly improved; but it was not till the 

 year 1838 that the "Great Western," of 

 1,340 tons and 400 horse-power, made the 

 passage from Bristol to New York in four- 

 teen days, and thus inaugurated the system 

 of ocean steam-navigation which has since 

 developed to such an enormous extent. 

 WALLACE The Wonderful Century, ch. 1, p. 

 8. D. M. & Co., 1899.) 



3227. STEEL AS A FACTOR IN HU- 

 MAN PROGRESS Iron the Universal Metal 

 Metallurgy Dependent on Chemistry. 

 Without metal-working, civilization, as we 

 understand it at the present day, would be 

 impossible. Much has been made possible in 

 the past half-century by progress in the 

 metallurgy of iron alone. It seems almost 

 incredible, but it is nevertheless a fact, that 

 Steel has been sold in the United States 



in the last few years at a price per ton 

 which is often obtained for hay. Iron is the 

 universal metal. It is found in every hu- 

 man trade, and devoted to every possible 

 technical art. Steel, which is only a pe- 

 culiar variety of iron, can be made almost 

 as cheap as pig iron itself. Dominant in 

 the arts of peace, as it is in the art of 

 war, it rules every battle, whether of peace 

 or war. It is doubtful whether any mis- 

 sionary effort, no matter how successful it 

 has been, has had an influence on the de- 

 velopment of humanity such as has been 

 exercised by the Bessemer converter. Iron 

 and steel are almost synonyms for prog- 

 ress and intelligence. It is not necessary 

 to spend any time to show how intimately 

 the science and art of chemistry are inter- 

 woven with the metallurgy of iron and steel. 

 Every step has been made possible by the 

 researches of the chemist, and every im- 

 provement in the application of chemical 

 principles. WILEY Relations of Chemistry 

 to Industrial Progress (Address at Purdue 

 University, Lafayette, Ind., 1896, p. 22). 



3228. STELLAR PERPLEXITIES 



Nebula?, Star-clusters, or Stars in Perspec- 

 tive? A region which appears singularly 

 rich in stars may be a true star-cluster a 

 subordinate star-system or it may be a 

 region where the line of sight passes through 

 an almost interminable range of stars. 

 Seemingly minute stars may form schemes 

 of suns far smaller than our own, or than 

 any of the leading orbs of the heavens, or 

 they may be orbs surpassing even Sirius 

 in magnitude and splendor, but set at depths 

 compared with which his enormous distance 

 is relatively as insignificant as the distance 

 of our moon compared with the dimensions 

 of the solar system. A cloud of light in 

 the star-depths may be a vast mass of nebu- 

 lous matter, or it may be a scheme of stars 

 as magnificent as the most splendid of all 

 the star-clusters discernible with the tele- 

 scope. PROCTOR Our Place among Infinities, 

 p. 2u7. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



3229. STILLNESS OF THE DEEP 



SEA Animals There Found Less Muscular in 

 Consequence. It is very probable, however, 

 that these currents at the bottom of the 

 ocean are extremely slow, and as the water 

 is never affected by tides or storms, the gen- 

 eral character of the deep sea is probably 

 one of calm repose. This is a matter of no 

 little importance; for, in the consideration 

 of the characters presented by the fauna of 

 any particular region, it is always necessary 

 to take into account the physical difficulties 

 the animals have to contend against and the 

 modifications of structure they present to 

 combat these difficulties. Thus in a region 

 such as that presented by the deep sea, 

 where there are no rapid tides, we should 

 not expect to find such a powerful set of 

 body muscles in the free-swimming forms, 

 nor such a firm vertebral column as in the 



