Vol.. XXIII. No. 3.] 



POPULAR SCIETTOE ITEWS. 



41 



Slje Popular Scieijce Ijews 



BOSTON, MARCH i, 1889. 



AUSTIN p. NICHOLS, S.B Editor. 



WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D., . Associate F.ditor. 



A MOST important discovery — if it really 

 is a discovery — is reported from Munich, 

 where Dr. Kruss has been investigating the 

 twin metals, cobalt and nickel, which were de- 

 scribed at length in the Science News for 

 October 1888. While making a determina- 

 tion of their atomic weights, he succeeded in 

 separating from them a new metal hitherto 

 unknown, but which appears to belong to the 

 same chemical group as the metals with which 

 it is associated. It occurs combined with both 

 nickel and cobalt, and it seems very strange 

 that it has been overlooked so long. The al- 

 most identical atomic weights and other chem- 

 ical and physical properties of nickel and co- 

 balt, have always been a puzzle to chemists, 

 and it is evident that if this discovery is con- 

 firmed it will have an important bearing upon 

 the matter. W'hen separated from the new 

 metal the salts of pure nickel are dark green 

 in color, and those of cobalt, violet. We 

 shall await further intelligence in regard to the 



supposed new element with great interest. 



*^* 



A heated discussion has been raging in 

 England, as to the propriety of introckicing 

 half-molecules into a chemical symbol, such, 

 for instance, as the double tartrate of anti- 

 mony and potassium (SbOKC4H406) 1-2H2O. 

 One side claims, and with reason, that a 

 half-molecule is a scientific absurdity ; the 

 other, that in the case referred to, it only 

 indicates a certain proportion of water of 

 crystallization, and is a legitimate expression 

 of that fact. It seems to us that both sides 

 are partially right, and that it all depends 

 upon the sense in which the symbol is to be 

 understood. If it is only meant to indicate 

 the proportions of the different constituent el- 

 ements, the half-molecule may be allowable ; 

 but if the symbol is meant to indicate, as it 

 almost invariably is, the actual atomic struct- 

 ure of the substance, then its use involves a 

 contradiction of terms. In any case, the use 

 of half-molecules only confuses the student, 

 and really serves no good purpose, and the 

 symbol of the above salt had much better be 

 written in all cases (Sb O K C4 H4 Os)^ Hj O, 

 thus indicating its constitution just as clearly 

 and truthfully, and avoiding the perplexing 



and irrational half-molecule of water. 

 *»»^ 



News from the total solar eclipse of last 

 January comes in slowly. The observations 

 were generally successful, and the corona 

 was very distinct and beautiful, closely re- 

 sembling the one observed during the eclipse 

 of 1878. One observer reported the discov- 

 ery of an intra-Mercurial planet, but all others 

 failed to observe it. A comet was also ob- 

 served near the sun. The red prominences 

 were numerous and strongly marked. Per- 



haps the most important observation, was that 

 of the expansion of the sun's surroundings in 

 the plane of its equator, first discovered by 

 Newcomb in 1878. This expansion was seen 

 to extend some two million miles on either 

 side of the sun, and had the appearance of 

 two forked wings of light. The party from 

 Harvard College, under charge of Professor 

 Pickering, also obtained some twenty photo- 

 graphs of the spectrum of the corona, includ- 

 ing the less refrangible end. These photo- 

 graphs will be of the utmost value and im- 

 portance, and are alone, \vorth the whole 



trouble and expense of the expedition. 



+♦+ 



The electric railway connecting this city 



with adjoining towns, has been successfull} 

 operated this winter, with no more trouble 

 and delay than always attends any new enter- 

 prise. The current is taken from wires buried 

 in a conduit beneath the street, in the crowded 

 part of the city, while an overhead wire is 

 used in the suburbs. The change from one 

 system to another is made with only a mo- 

 ment's delay, and the speed and regularity of 

 the electric power is a great improvement on 

 the horses which it replaces. The compara- 

 tive cost of electric and horse-power yet re- 

 mains to be determined, but it may be ob- 

 served that it is on a road where the travel 

 is large and constant, that electricity can be 

 most economically used. Where only occa- 

 sional trips are made, horses are still the 

 cheapest source of power. The unusually 

 mild winter has been very favorable to the op- 

 eration of the new system, as the tracks have 

 hardly been obstructed with ice or snow dur- 

 ing the entire season. 



+♦« 



That ubiquitous personage, the oldest in- 

 habitant, fails to remember a January like 

 the one of the present year. The greater 

 part of the month was as mild as spring-time, 

 with but little snow, and hardly any frost in the 

 ground, while the rivers and ponds, either re- 

 mained entirely open, or were only covered 

 with a very thin coating of ice. The grass 

 has been green, the willow catkins and arbu- 

 tus in bloom, and an ajsple blossom was 

 plucked from a tree in this vicinity about the 

 middle of the month. Some irrepressible 

 small boys, on an unusually warm day im- 

 proved the occasion to go swimming in the 

 Merrimack river, which at this season is usu- 

 ally frozen a foot thick. The cause of this 

 abnormally high tempei-ature is, undoubtedly, 

 the absence of the cold northwest winds which 

 usually prevail at this season, but why they 

 have failed to blow, is a question no one can 

 answer. At the time of writing (February 

 4th) the weather has become more seasonable, 

 and the temperature has fallen to zero for the 



first time during the winter. 



*♦•■ 



The mild weather, and anticipated failure 

 of the ice crop, developed an entertaining 

 humbug, which was extensively described by 



the daily newspapers, in the shape of a small 

 tin box, said by the inventor to contain cer- 

 tain mysterious chemicals, which had the 

 power of reducing ths temperature of the re- 

 frigerator or chamber in which it was placed 

 many degrees below zero, and retaining its 

 power for several years. Such an invention is 

 a scientific impossibility, and the astonished 

 newspaper men were undoubtedly deceived 

 by a box containing one of the well known 

 freezing mixtures, which do indeed pro- 

 duce a great amount of cold, but whose 

 action only lasts for a few hours, and the ex- 

 pense of which is vastly greater than ice, even 



at the highest prices ever charged for it. 



+»> 



As has often been stated in these columns, 

 alcohol has no nutritive or strength-giving 

 power when taken into the lumian system, 

 and its habitual use is rarely productive of 

 anything but evil. Its value as a medicine in 

 certain cases is, we think, however, indisput- 

 able. We refer to those cases where a pow- 

 erful and readily diffusible stimulant is re- 

 quired to tide over an emergency, in case of 

 the sudden failure of the vital forces from 

 shock or exhaustion. It is true, that in such 

 cases it really creates no' strength, but by 

 stimulating the organs of the body to an ex- 

 traordinary effort, a crisis may be passed safe- 

 ly over, and the system left in a condition to 

 respond to the healing powers of Nature. 

 This use of a stimulant is as legitimate as it 

 would be to urge a jaded horse to increased 

 speed with the whip, in order to escape an 

 impending danger, but, as far as we can per- 

 ceive, such cases are the only ones in which 

 alcohol serves any really useful or indispensa- 

 ble purpose in medicine. 



— -n»* 



Self-developing photographic dry-plates 

 are the latest novelty, in which the chemicals 

 used in developing are applied in the solid 

 form to the back of the plate. After the ex- 

 posure it is only necessary to immerse the 

 plate in a tray of water, when the developing 

 salts will dissolve and form a bath all ready for 

 use. The convenience of this method to 

 travellers, and pliotographic amateurs away 

 from their base of supplies, will, undoubtedly, 



be very great. 



— «♦> ^ — 



The atomic weight of Ruthenium has been 

 re-determined by M. Joly, who finds that it 

 should be, not 104 as heretofore supposed, 

 but a number very near 101.5. This will 

 aflTect its position in the " periodic system," 

 and differentiate it still further from Rho- 

 dium, the atomic weight of which is, also, very 

 near 104, the weight formerly given to Ruth- 

 enium. 



COPPER. 



Copper is one of the most useful and valua- 

 ble of the baser metals, and its power to resist 

 oxidation, combined with its great malleability, 

 renders it applicable for many purposes where 

 the cheaper metal iron could not be used. For 



