132 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[September, 1888. 



the film. A bubble blown at the end of a wide 

 tube, and lowered into the vapor, hangs like a 

 heavy drop when removed ; and if held in the beam 

 of an electric light, the vapor is seen oozing 

 through the film, and fulling away in a heavy 

 stream ; while a light applied to the mouth of the 

 tube fires the issuing inflammable vapor, and a 

 large flame, like that of a bunsen burner, is the 

 result. 



A variety of experiments are described in which 

 bubl)les are rolled along troughs made of soap-film 

 — either straight, circular, or spiral — the promi- 

 nent feature being, that bubbles will roll upon or 

 within one another, as if they were made of India- 

 rubber; they will even, where apparently in con- 

 tact, take up the vibrations of a tuning-fork, and 

 this will not force them to touch. There is one 

 influence, however, which they cannot resist; and 

 that is electrification. When two bubbles which 

 are resting against one another, provided that one 

 is not within the other, are exposed to the influ- 

 ence of an even feebly electrified body, they instantly 

 coalesce and become one, and so act as a delicate 

 electroscope. When one bubble is within the 

 other, the outer one may be pulled out of shape by 

 electrical action, and yet the inner one is perfectly 

 screened from the electrical influence, thus showing 

 in a striking manner, that there is no electrical 

 force within a conductor not even as near the 

 surface as one side of a soap-film is near the other; 

 for though the force outside is so great that the 

 bubble is deformed, yet the fact that the inner one 

 remains separate shows that the force within is too 

 small to be detected. One of the experiments 

 described shows at the same time the difference 

 between the behavior of two bubbles, one blown 

 inside a third, and the other brought to rest 

 against the third from the outside. Under these 

 conditions, if electricity is produced in the neigh- 

 borhood, the two outer bubbles become one, and 

 the inner one, unharmed, rolls down and rests at 

 the bottom of the now enlarged outer bubble. 



One experiment is described in which a cylindri- 

 cal bubble is blown with oxygen gas between the 

 poles of an electro-magnet. If the length is 

 propei-ly adjusted, the bubble breaks into two 

 directly the exciting current is turned on ; though 

 the force due to the magnetic nature of oxygen is 

 so feeble, that not the slightest change of shape 

 can be detected in a spherical bubble under the 

 same conditions. — Nature. 



CHEMISTRY. 



BY C. A. MAYO, PH.G.^ 



Tins, gentlemen, closes our preliminary course 

 in general chemistry. Of the many wonderful 

 truths revealed by this fascinating science, I have 

 been able to give you a glimpse only. 



In the physical world all is change, — continuous 

 change. The slow disintegration of the hardest 

 rocks yields soft, rich loam. The gradual absorp- 

 tion by the roots of plants changes this into an 

 integral portion of the tenderest flowers. 



The carbon which we see to-day as a black and 

 grimy fuel, forms to-morrow a portion of a color- 

 less, odorless gas. The gas is absorbed into the 

 pores of the fresh green foliage; and we see the 

 carbon again in the brilliant crimson of the rose, 

 the pure loveliness of the lily, and the warm russet 

 of the bearded grain. 



AVith gleaming scythe the reaper garners the 



golden sheaves; and, through the homely arts of 



' the miller and housewife, the carbon comes upon 



the table in sturdy brown loaves or tempting 

 sweets. It blooms in the damask cheek of the fair 

 young girl, strengthens the sinews of the sun- 

 browned toiler, and stays yet a little while the 

 waning vigor of the old man slowly tottering to 

 his grave; and when at last the dull rumble of 

 the clod upon the coflin-lid strikes a sudden, solemn 

 chill to the heart of the mourner, and we say of 

 the departed, that, " after life's fitful fever, he 

 sleeps well," we know, that, in only a little while, 

 the clay now lying cold and silent in the tomb will 

 live again in the verdure of the spring and the 

 bloom of summer. 



Each leaf and blossom is but the rehabilitation 

 of atoms, which, in the eternal round of "strange 

 mysterious change," in other forms have lived and 

 loved and died. 



The summer winds, whispering sweet and low 

 through the solemn arches of the pines, but give 

 inarticulate voice to tongues of birds and men 

 which sung and laughed beneath them, but which 

 in the round of " change from birth to death, from 

 death to birth," now murmur softly in the cool 

 green foliage. Matter is indestructible: nothing 

 is lost; all is changed. And if the coarser earthy 

 element of ourselves, the body, is never destroyed, 

 but lives again in other shapes, performing other 

 duties, can it be that our higher parts, the intelli- 

 gence, the soul, shall be resolved into nothingness? 

 No: it cannot be! We look through Nature up to 

 Nature's God, confident, that, in the spiritual as in 

 the physical world, matter is indestructible, noth- 

 ing is lost. 



" The more we gaze up into heaven, the more 

 do we feel our gaze foiled. All attempts to explore 

 heaven's infinite gladness are baffled by .something 

 like infinite sadness ; " but turning to the world 

 around us, the tangible realities of life with which 

 we come into daily contact, we find a fascination in 

 research for the hidden reasons of things, an appe- 

 tite for the acquirement of knowledge and the at- 

 tainment of truth that grows by what it feeds upon. 



"The truth is mighty, and will prevail;" and 

 chemists have this great axiom prominently brought 

 before them at every turn. Under certain condi- 

 tions, certain results inevitably follow. If the 

 results are not obtained, the conditions have not 

 been observed. However sincere you may have 

 been in endeavoring to establish them, your sin- 

 cerity counts for nothing if you have not actually 

 brought about the desired conditions. 



Chemistry takes no motives into consideration, 

 makes no allowances for ignorance of her laws. 

 The child who innocently drops a spark upon a 

 mass of gunpowder as inevitably brings about an 

 explosion as the anarchist who artfully contrives 

 his death-dealing bomb. 



These laws already exist, and we are uncon- 

 .sciously carrying them out every moment of our 

 lives. When known and taken advantage of, they 

 serve the best interests of the race. When neg- 

 lected and disregarded, they carry out their fulfil- 

 ment regardless of our weal or our woe. It rests 

 with yourselves which course jou will pursue. Take 

 up the study of the sciences, and you will find a 

 world of new ideas, a wealth of knowledge, opened 

 out before you which only awaits an earnest effort 

 on your part to make a source of recreation, enter- 

 tainment, improvement, and gain, both in the esti- 

 mation of the world, and in a knowledge of the 

 beauty of the wisdom of God. 



' From a lecture delivered before the Young Men's Institute 

 of the Young Men's Chriutlnn Associiitlon of tlie city of New 

 Yoik. 



Astronomy was cultivated in Egypt and Chaldea 

 2800 B.C.; in Persia, 3209; in India, 3101, and in 

 China, 2952. 



AiiisTOTLE founded the science of botany about 

 347 B.C. 



SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES. 



A Petrified Sea-Serpent. — Off the Lizard 

 coast, in Cornwall, a freak of nature has been re- 

 discovered which may have something to do with 

 the name of that part of the coast. In the live 

 rock is a picture of a gigantic serpent, coil after 

 coil reaching down to the sea, just above the 

 surface of which the scaly head, and even the eyes, 

 can be seen. 



Lightning-Flashes. — W. Kohlrausch has es- 

 timated the current and quantity of electricity in 

 a lightning-flash. He calculates that it will take 

 9,2i amperes to melt a copper rod of 2.5 centi- 

 meters diameter. Such a current, concentrated in 

 a fla.sh, would contain from 52 to 270 coulombs, 

 which would decompo.se from 5 to 25 milligrams of 

 water, and form 9 to 45 cubic centimeters of explo- 

 sive gas. If this enei-gy were stored up, and dis- 

 tributed for electric-lighting, it would require 

 from 7 to 35 flashes to keep one incandescent lamp 

 lighted for an hour. 



Cobalt. — One curious discovei-y of M. Berthe- 

 lot is, that the accepted etymology of cobalt is 

 questionable. It is generally believed that the 

 word is of German origin, referring to the demons 

 which were credited with the difficulties in the 

 working of cobaltiferous ores. Cobalt blue has, 

 however, been found in Gi-eek and Koman antiqui- 

 ties and Egyptian beads; and M. Berthelot calls 

 attention to a passage in the Lexicon Alchemia: 

 liulandi, " Cobatiorum fumus est koboU," and finds 

 the same expression in a passage cited by Olym- 

 piodore in his Greek text. There has, then, been 

 a probable confusion between an ancient Greek 

 word and a German one, notwithstanding that the 

 precise sense of the modern word "cobalt" is 

 different from that of its progenitor, which referred 

 to a sulphurous arsenical mineral. 



A Fury of the Chemical World. — "The 

 fury of the chemical world," says Mr. Mattieu 

 Williams, " is the element fluorine. It exists 

 peacefully in company with calcium in fluor-spar 

 and also in a few other compounds; but when 

 i.solated, as it recently has been by M. Henri 

 Moissan, is a rabid gas that nothing can resist. 

 It combines with all the metals, explosively with 

 some; or if they are already combined with some 

 other non-metallic element, it tears them from it, 

 and takes them to itself. In uniting with sodium, 

 potassium, calcium, magnesium, and aluminium, 

 the metals become heated, even to redness, by 

 the fervor of its embrace. Iron-filings, slightly 

 warmed, burst into brilliant scintillations when 

 exposed to it. ^langanese does the same. Even 

 the noble metals, which at a melting-heat proudly 

 resist the fascinations of oxygen, succumb to this 

 chemical siren at moderate temperatures. Glass 

 is devoured at once ; and water ceases to be water 

 by contact with this gas, which, combining with 

 its hydrogen, at the same moment forms the acrid, 

 glass-dissolving hydrofluoric acid, and liberates 

 ozone." 



Crystallized Phosphorus. — Mr. Herman 

 recently brought before the Society of Chemical 

 Industry some exceedingly curious specimens of 

 phosphorus crystallized by slow sublimation in 

 closed tubes from which the air had been extracted. 

 The forms of the crystals belong to the cubic sys- 

 tem, like those of the diamond; and they are, like 

 the latter, formed of a very large number of fa- 

 cettes. Their action upon light is also similar to 

 that exerted by the dianjoud ; so that the crystals 

 of phosphorus, small as they are, give out all the 

 colors of the spectrum with great brilliancy. They 

 are, in fact, like miniature diamonds. When ex- 

 po.sed to the light, they become covered with an 

 opaque red coating. 



