THE BOEDEELAND OF CHEMISTEY AND ELECTEICITY. 
215 
telephone which reproduces the sound. Beginning 1 with heat you end 
with heat; therefore if you are born in a warm climate you may end 
in a warm climate. (Laughter.) When certain finely divided metals 
are thrown into the atmosphere, combustion or oxidation takes place. 
The aerolites and meteorites coming into contact with our atmosphere 
become visible owing to the great heat generated by friction against 
the molecules of air. 
Sir Robert Ball states that a meteorite which burst 185 miles above 
the surface of the earth and produced a sound which was heard over a 
district in America nearly as large as the United Kingdom was pro¬ 
bably not much larger than an ordinary billiard ball. It was travelling, 
as far as can be computed, between fifty and sixty miles a second ; the 
vibration in the molecules of this body became so great that it evidently 
reached something beyond heat, and I suggest that possibly the action 
might be described as sudden electrical disintegration of a solid body 
into cosmic dust—the dust that exists in a vacuum tube and which 
is visible as radiant matter, which after long action deposits itself on 
the interior surface of the glass like a mirror. 
Suppose this piece of iron I hold in my hand were to suddenly 
disintegrate in the way that small heavenly body did; the enormous 
force generated would turn this audience and the building itself into 
microscopical dust. It is reckoned that to produce the same explosive 
force and sound as the aerolite, several million pounds of dynamite 
would be required; I need hardly say that no gun was ever 
manufactured that could project even a bullet at the rate at which this 
small tramp of the heavens was travelling. 
The following little experiment but poorly shows the phenomena of 
light and heat produced by friction in the atmosphere; I pour a little 
mixture of bisulphide of carbon and phosphorus on to this paper, and 
by waving it in the atmosphere it catches fire—(applause)—It has 
been suggested that this mixture was probably used by the ancient 
Greeks, and that it is identical with what was known as f Greek fire.’ 
By allowing hydrogen gas to impinge upon spongy platinum, 
heat and light are produced by means of the friction of the gas 
on the molecules of the metal; this apparatus that I have here is 
known as the f Philosopher’s Lamp.’ The hydrogen is produced as 
you see by the action of sulphuric acid and water on zinc, and on 
allowing the resultant gas to impinge on this piece of platinum con¬ 
tained in the small copper box it immediately becomes red-hot, and 
the hydrogen catches fire—(applause)—This kind of apparatus was 
used some thirty years back amongst a certain set of naval men, and 
assumed this form as it was treated as a scientific toy and utilised for 
lighting cigars ; it is a curious fact that the last patent taken out for 
the incandescent gas-light for automatic lighting is an apparatus of a 
similar kind, coal gas taking the place of the hydrogen for producing 
the necessary heat for lighting the burner. 
We have thus obtained heat and light in various simple ways from 
chemical action; there is a mysterious something apart from the 
