SCIENCE. 



217 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Progress. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



Published at 

 TRIBUNE BUILDING, NEW YORK. 



P. O. Box 3838. 



SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1881. 



The alleged discovery of a new motive force for 

 driving engines, patented by Professor Gamgee, of 

 Washington, is already condemned on theoretical 

 grounds, both in this country and in Europe. 



The principle involved is not a new one, and, so 

 far, all previous attempts in the same direction have 

 ended in failure. In this case, Chief Engineer 

 Isherwood, of the United States Navy, gives an en- 

 dorsement to Professor Gamgee's scheme, which has 

 caused some eminent physicists to give an attention 

 to it which perhaps it hardly deserved. 



From what we can gather, we understand that Pro- 

 fessor Gamgee proposes to work his engine with am- 

 monia, taking advantage of the fact that in a liquified 

 state it boils at — 37.3° Fahr., and that at 60° Fahr. it 

 exerts a pressure of seven atmospheres — or, say, 100 

 lbs. to the square inch. 



Authorities differ on this subject, but so far as 

 liquid ammonia is concerned, it is stated as follows : 

 " That at atmospheric pressure, and a temperature of 

 62° Fahr., 1 lb. of the gas occupies about 23 cubic 

 feet, while 1 lb. of liquid ammonia would occupy 

 only 36 cubic inches." 



According to Mr. Isherwood, the "zero-motor" is an 

 apparatus in which liquid ammonia can be vaporized 

 under considerable pressure by means of the heat in 

 water, or in the external atmosphere, and the gas so 

 obtained is used to propel a piston through a cylin- 

 der — the gas being employed with the greatest 

 measure of expansion found possible. 



At this point the difficulty is presented of return- 

 ing the ammonia to the boiler. Professor Gamgee 

 offers no explanation, but claims to be able to accom- 

 plish it by some method he has invented. He asserts 

 that in its expansion the liberated gas is refrigerated 

 and diminished in bulk, and becomes partially liqui- 

 fied at the end of the stroke of the piston, when it is 

 exhausted and returned from whence it came. 



Against this, Professor Simon Newcomb and 

 some English writers assert, that in the absence of 



demonstration to the contrary, it will absorb as much 

 power to convert the ammonia gas into the liquid 

 form as the latter will give out when vaporized. 



In the "zero-motor" Professor Gamgee professes to 

 have an engine capable of exerting great power, and 

 without the necessity of using any fuel, and indirectly 

 the claim is made of solving successfully the problem 

 of perpetual motion. 



Apart from some fundamental errors which under- 

 lie the scheme, many theoretical difficulties could be 

 suggested, but as a practical test of " the discovery " 

 will probably be made, further discussion may profit- 

 ably be postponed until the result of the trial is 

 known. 



It will no doubt be a genuine surprise to all stu- 

 dents of nature to learn that a German scientist has 

 found fossil plants and animal forms in most of the 

 meteorites (chondrites) which he has examined for the 

 purpose. 



Dr. Otto Hahn, who has taken a prominent part 

 in the discussion on .the " Eozobn canadense" has, in 

 the usual way, prepared sections of many of these 

 bodies. These he has had photographed and thereby 

 attained a result which is independent of the micros- 

 copist's vision. Dr. Hahn claims that they show 

 many forms of plants and animals in a fossil state 

 contained in their mass, of which the highest forms 

 are crinoids, corals and allied species. He has placed 

 this collection of sections in the hands of Dr. Wein- 

 land of Tubingen, (formerly of Philadelphia) for 

 thorough classification. 



We regret that we are unable to endorse this inter- 

 esting discovery. Professor Whitfield, superintendent 

 of the fossils and minerals in the American Museum 

 of Natural History, has seen Dr. Hahn's drawings and 

 was unable to verify the presence of the organic forms 

 referred to. He attributed Dr. Hahn's error to a too 

 sanguine temperament, and an "imagination which 

 bodies forth the form of things unknown." 



We are indebted to our Washington correspondent 

 for a brief mention of an interesting paper by Dr. 

 George M. Sternberg, on "A Fatal Form of Septi- 

 caemia in the Rabbit, produced by Subcutaneous In- 

 jection of Human Saliva." 



Dr. Sternberg recently published a translation of 

 Dr. Antoine Magnin's work on Bacteria, and has had 

 considerable experience in making investigations on 

 septic organisms. He now asserts that the human 

 saliva carries with it a deadly poison, which will kill 

 a rabbit in forty-eight hours ; other animals also ap- 

 pear to be influenced more or less by the same cause, 

 while still others — the dog, for instance — resist the 



