192 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1260 



systems of measurement of dimension, capa- 

 city, weight, etc. They substituted the exact 

 centigrade thermometer with 100 degrees be- 

 tween freezing and boiling of water, for the 

 system without absolute bases. They gave 

 America and other countries an exact decimal 

 system of moneys. They devised a decimal 

 system for classification, for books, correspond- 

 ence, etc. 



But in the field of sound-notation or sound- 

 representation, nothing comparable with the 

 foregoing contributions to the world's progress 

 and civilization has been done. For untold 

 ages, the general capacity of the human vocal 

 organs to make sounds has been the same. 

 Each has the same provision of lips, teeth, 

 tongue, palate, and the same provision as to 

 lungs, larynx, windpipe, pharynx and nasal 

 passages. Every normal person can, if trained, 

 at least when young, make exactly the same 

 vocal sounds as can any other normal person. 



Ages ago men began to use these vocal 

 sounds to express ideas; spoken languages re- 

 sulted. Ages later " Cadmus, the Phenicians, 

 or whoever it was,'' Egyptians, or others, 

 struck upon the thought that a certain mark 

 might stand for a certain sound. An alphabet 

 was devised. Others developed, either off- 

 shoots of the first, or independently. To-day 

 we have many alphabets. They were made 

 originally for a particular language or dialect, 

 and were limited to the sounds of that tongue; 

 or they were borrowed from another people 

 and but imperfectly suited the sounds of the 

 borrowing language. None was made for all 

 mankind; none was devised and none is 

 adapted for the whole world. To-day in the 

 new era after the war, the world needs an 

 alphabet, a universal alphabet, a world-alpha- 

 bet, a standard set of signs, characters or 

 letters, full and complete, so that every sound 

 used by any collection of human beings to 

 indicate (alone or with other sounds) an idea, 

 or to form a word of spoken language or 

 dialect, shall be represented by one letter and 

 only one letter; and so that every such letter 

 shall stand for one and for only one sound. 



The Eoman alphabet which we and much of 

 western and southern Europe uses, the Gothic, 



used (not to the exclusion of, but rather con- 

 currently with Eoman) by Germans and some 

 Scandinavians, the Greek of Greece, etc., the 

 Cyrillic of Russia and other peoples, the Gaelic, 

 the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, the many cursive 

 characters of Arabic, the Indian alphabets, the 

 ideographs of the Orient, the special alpha- 

 bets devised for aboriginal tribes of America, 

 Africa and elsewhere — none meets the require- 

 ments set out above for a universal, world- 

 alphabet. Such standard alphabet must be a 

 scientific creation, or adaptation and adoption 

 from present alphabets. 



In the reorganization of the world at this 

 time, a world conference of scholars and stu- 

 dents, versed in many lines of art and science, 

 should be held to devise and present a world- 

 alphabet for consideration and adoption. 

 j. c. ruppenthal 



Washington, D. C. 

 (Eussell, Kans.) 



NONSILVERABLE CONTAINERS FOR SILVER- 

 ING MIRRORS 



Under this title^ the writer has recently 

 called attention to the observation that certain 

 sample-s of " granite ware " enamelled iron 

 pans did not seem to attract silver, in the ordi- 

 nary process of silvering glass mirrors. How- 

 ever, it was not intended to convey the idea 

 that one would expect this to hold true as a 

 general rule. 



Just why these pans did not take on a coat 

 of silver while certain white enamelled pans 

 did receive a thick coat of silver, is not under- 

 stood — as is true of a great many other phe- 

 nomena observed in attempiting to deposit 

 silver <ihemically upon glass. Eor example, it 

 has been found easier to salver optical (white 

 crown) glass than a certain mirror made of 

 ordinary plate glass. One concave mirror, 

 which is made of ordinary glass, always shows 

 a spot where the dejwsit of silver is different 

 from the rest of the surface, even after making 

 a special effort in polishing and cleaning the 

 glass surface. Again, making a container by 

 tying a rim of clean writing paper around the 

 edge of a glass disk, good mirrors were pro- 



1 Science, 48, p. 345, 1918. 



