Doubleday, Page & Co., New York
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48454_
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Electrical:
A New Electric Phenomenon.
Writing recently in the London _Times_, Professor
Silvanus P. Thompson has described a discovery of effects
which "appear to point to a true electric momentum." "To two
men, Professor Nipher, of St. Louis, and Dr. Mathias Cantor,
of Würzburg, the question seems to have occurred whether, if a
flow of electricity is caused abruptly to turn its path round
a sharp corner, anything is observable in the neighbourhood of
the sharp corner, that would suggest a momentum of the
electric corpuscles. Nipher employed as conductor a
sharply-bent splinter of bamboo, carrying a high-tension
discharge from a large influence machine. Cantor used a thin
metallic film of gold or platinum formed by deposition on the
faces of a glass plate bevelled to a sharp edge; the current
being provided by a battery. Nipher, investigating by photographic
plates, discovered that the current passing the sharp
corner emitted radiations akin to the X-rays, and capable of
giving shadow pictures, even through ebonite 3/16 of an inch
thick. He has also used thin metal wires bent into a series of
sharp corners, and finds that at every corner some of the
electrons leave the wire, tending to persevere in their
original direction of movement rather than undergo a sudden
change of direction. Cantor, exploring electrically with a
wire attached to a charged insulated electrometer, found the
electrometer discharged by the emanations (or radiations) from
the acute angle of his conducting film. Later, but without
knowledge of what Nipher had accomplished, Cantor also exposed
a photographic plate to the angle of the film, and found it
marked with streaks as if charged particles had left the angle
in a particular direction. Both experimenters had already made
numerous observations under different circumstances before
publishing their results. Nipher’s discovery was communicated
to the American Philosophical Society in the early summer, and
an account of his work appeared in _Science_ of July 17
last [1909] . Cantor’s observations were announced to the
German ‘Naturforscher’ meeting at Cologne on September 23.
"If," remarks Professor Thompson, "we accept the modern
doctrine that all inertia in what we call matter is due to the
magnetic field surrounding a moving charge of electricity,
this newly-discovered effect takes its natural place beside
the other known effects."
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: TELEGRAPHY:
The Printer System.
The _Electrical Review_ of January 2, 1909, gave the
following account of the extent to which the "printer system"
of telegraphy had then come into use in the United States:
"Over fifty printer circuits are now in regular operation on
the Western Union lines, between leading business centres of
the United States, and additional wires are being equipped as
fast as the printer apparatus can be installed. This is a
system of rapid automatic telegraphy by which telegrams are
transmitted at a high rate of speed and received at their
destination printed on the regular message forms by a
typewriter automatically operated by the electrical impulses
transmitted over the wire. The appearance of the message as
received is identical with a message turned out by the most
expert typewriter operator on Morse circuits. The messages are
ready for delivery as soon as they come off the wire, and the
only attention required by the typewriter as it receives the
messages from the wire is that of removing the blank when the
message is completed and supplying a fresh, sheet to the
machine for the next message."
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Wireless Telegraphy.
Statement from Marconi.
"Up to the commencement of 1902 the only receivers that could
be practically employed for the purposes of wireless
telegraphy were based on what may be called the coherer
principle—that is, the detector, the principle of which is
based on the discoveries and observations made by S. A.
Varley, Professor Hughes, Calsecchi Onesti, and Professor
Branly. Early in that year the author was fortunate enough to
succeed in constructing a practical receiver of electric
waves, based on a principle different from that of the
coherer. … The action of this receiver is in the author’s
opinion based upon the decrease of magnetic hysteresis, which
takes place in iron when under certain conditions this metal
is exposed to high frequency oscillations of Hertzian waves. …
"This detector is and has been successfully employed for both
long and short distance work. It is used on the ships of the
Royal Navy and on all trans-Atlantic liners which are carrying
on a long-distance news service. It has also been used to a
large extent in the tests across the Atlantic Ocean. … The
adoption of this magnetic receiver was the means of bringing
about a great improvement in the practical working conditions
of wireless telegraphy by making it possible to do away with
the troublesome adjustments necessary when using coherers, and
also by considerably increasing the speed at which it is
possible to receive, the speed depending solely on the ability
of the individual operators. Thus a speed of over 30 words a
minute has been easily attained. …
"In the spring of 1903 the transmission of news messages from
America to the London _Times_ was attempted, and the
first messages were correctly received and published in that
newspaper. A breakdown in the insulation of the apparatus at
Cape Breton made it necessary, however, to suspend the
service, and, unfortunately, further accidents made the
transmission of messages unreliable, especially during the
spring and summer.
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In consequence of this, the author’s company decided not to
attempt the transmission of any more public messages until
such time as a reliable and continuous service could be
maintained and guaranteed under all ordinary conditions. … In
October, 1903, it was found possible to supply the Cunard
steamship _Lucania_ during her entire crossing from New
York to Liverpool with news transmitted direct to that ship
from Poldhu and Cape Breton."
_G. Marconi,
Recent Advances in Wireless Telegraphy
(Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 1905-1906,
pages 137-142)._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Real Problem.
"It is well to remember that the year 1903 is the earliest
date at which radio-telegraphy could be regarded as really
workable, and of material practical utility. Previous to then,
‘wireless ’ working was very uncertain, but in that year tuning
devices were introduced, the principle of which was originally
due to Sir Oliver Lodge; and it is these that have made so much
difference in the application of Hertzian waves for the
purposes of telegraphy. Practical success in radio-telegraphy
should not, in fact, be judged from the point of view of the
distance at which signals can be sent—or received—but rather
from the standpoint of non-interference and secrecy. The
essential element in wireless telegraphy—above all others—is,
indeed, a discriminating or selective method. For the main
purposes of radio-telegraphy, immunity from interference by
syntony is essential. Thus a selective system in time of war
would be invaluable; a non-selective system almost worse than
useless. Syntonic wireless telegraphy entails in the first
place, a similar rate of oscillation, or time—i. e., a similar
wave length—at the sending and receiving ends. Indeed, the
real problem in wireless telegraphy is to arrange the
receiving apparatus so that it is alive to notes of one
definite frequency, or pitch, but deaf to any other notes,
even though of but slightly different pitch. This is effected
by the proper adjustment of inductance and capacity, as first
shown by Sir Oliver Lodge. … It is, however, at present,
impossible to secure really complete secrecy from any method
of open wave radiation. A radio-telegraphist, with the right
apparatus and a knowledge of the tune, could upset any system
of Hertzian wave telegraphy. It should, therefore, be clearly
understood that there are, as yet, definite limits to the
practical results of tuning for securing absolute selectivity
and secrecy."
_Charles Bright,
The Useful Sphere for Radio-Telegraphy
(Westminster Review, April, 1908)._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Singular Unexplained Phenomena.
Speaking at Stockholm, Sweden, on the occasion of his
receiving the Nobel Prize, in December, 1909, Mr. Marconi gave
the following account of some unexplained phenomena that are
experienced in the working of radio-telegraphy. He said that
"a result of scientific interest which he first noticed during
the tests on the steamship _Philadelphia_ and which was a
most important factor in long distance radio-telegraphy was
the very marked and detrimental effect of daylight on the
propagation of electric waves at great distances, the range by
night being usually more than double that attainable during
daytime. He did not think that this effect had yet been
satisfactorily investigated or explained. … He was now
inclined to believe that the absorption of electric waves
during the daytime was due to the ionization of the gaseous
molecules of the air effected by ultra-violet light, and as
the ultra-violet rays which emanated from the sun were largely
absorbed in the upper atmosphere of the earth, it was probable
that the portion of the earth’s atmosphere which was facing
the sun would contain more ions or electrons than that portion
which was in darkness, and therefore, as Sir J. J. Thomson had
shown, this illuminated and ionized air would absorb some of
the energy of the electric waves. Apparently the length of
wave and amplitude of the electrical oscillations had much to
do with this interesting phenomenon, long waves and small
amplitudes being subject to the effect of daylight to a much
smaller degree than short waves and large amplitudes. …
"For comparatively short waves, such as were used for ship
communication, clear sunlight and blue skies, though
transparent to light, acted as a kind of fog to these waves. …
It often occurred that a ship failed to communicate with a
near-by station, but could correspond with perfect ease with a
distant one. … Although high power stations were now used for
communicating across the Atlantic, and messages could be sent
by day as well as by night, there still existed short periods
of daily occurrence during which transmission from England to
America, or _vice versa_, was difficult."
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Transatlantic Service.
"The Transatlantic wireless service was inaugurated in
October, 1907, between Ireland and Canada, the charges being
reduced from 1s. per word for business and private messages
and 5d. per word for Press messages to 5d. and 2½d.
respectively, these charges not including the land line
charges on both sides of the Atlantic. …
"The first wireless messages across the Atlantic were sent
from the Canadian station at Table Head, in Cape Breton, in
1902. This station was afterwards removed to its present site,
five miles inland, and there greatly enlarged. Ever since 1902
Mr. Marconi has been conducting experiments and making new
discoveries and improvements until, at the present day,
wireless telegraphy across the Atlantic, over a distance of
2000 miles, is an assured success. … Press traffic … was
started on October 17, 1907. On February 3, 1908, the service
was extended to private and business telegrams between
Montreal and London. The number of words transmitted during
the past year is in the neighbourhood of 300,000."
_Correspondence of the London Times,
June 25, 1909._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Equipments at Sea.
Extent of the Service.
Compulsory Legislation Pending.
"Although an installation was carried on the St. Paul for one
trip in 1899, the credit of being the pioneers in the use of
wireless telegraphy on the ocean belongs to the North-German
Lloyd and Cunard Companies. The first vessel fitted was the
Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, and the lead of the Germans was
immediately followed by the English company. Both vessels were
fitted by the Marconi Company, which has the distinction of
being the first company to equip vessels on a commercial
basis. … The Marconi Company alone has up to the present
fitted nearly 200 merchant ships, while the United Wireless
Telegraph Company has fitted nearly 170 ships. …
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"A very large number of vessels engaged in the coasting trade
of America and on the Great Lakes are fitted with wireless
telegraphy; the American list shows that 133 vessels are
equipped, while a statement issued by the United Wireless
Telegraph Company shows 31 other vessels to have been fitted
up to April 2, besides 15 Great Lake steamers either fitted or
in course of equipment. …
"Nearly 500 warships belonging to nine different countries
have been fitted, or are in course of equipment, with
radio-telegraphy. According to the American list the United
States Navy has been foremost among the navies of the world in
the use of ‘wireless.’ On October 1 last 173 United States
warships were fitted with various systems. The Berne lists,
issued up to May 1 last, show Great Britain to have 157
vessels equipped, Germany 80, Netherlands 11, Denmark 9, and
Spain 5.
"In February last the United States House of Representatives
passed a Bill providing that ‘every ocean passenger steamer
certified to carry 50 passengers or more, before being granted
a clearance for a foreign or domestic port 100 miles or more
distant from the port of her departure from the United States,
shall be equipped with an efficient radio-telegraph
installation, and shall have in her employ and on board an
efficient radio-telegrapher.’ … The Bill, it is understood,
will be considered by the Senate in the autumn, and will it is
thought be passed after it has undergone some slight
modification. Following the example of the United States
Congress a Bill has been introduced in the Canadian House of
Commons. … An Italian Royal Decree dated March 14 last
provides that all vessels of whatever nationality clearing
from Italian ports with emigrants shall carry a wireless
installation. So far as this country [Great Britain] is
concerned no legislative action is likely to take place, at
least for the present."
_Correspondence of the London Times,
July 2, 1909._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Cry that brought Help to the Steamship "Republic."
On the 23d of January, 1909, the service of the wireless
telegraph to imperilled ships was illustrated by an incident
which thrilled the world. In a dense fog, off the island of
Nantucket, 26 miles distant, the steamship "Republic," of the
White Star Line, was struck amidships by an Italian liner, the
"Florida." Two passengers on the former were killed and two
were seriously injured, while four sailors of the other were
killed. Both steamers were shattered to the sinking point, but
the state of the "Republic" was the worse. Fortunately she was
equipped with the wireless apparatus for telegraphy, and its
operator, "Jack" Binns, was a man equal to the emergency. His
appealing signals, "C. Q. D." ("Come Quick! Danger"), were
flashed out into all surrounding space, and brought many
responses from sea and shore; but then came the difficulty of
finding the sinking ships in the black fog. The first rescuing
vessel to reach their vicinity was the "Baltic" of the "White
Star Line," and she was helped in her groping to them, not
only by the ceaseless exchange of wireless messages, but by
the sounding of the submarine bell of the Nantucket lightship.
The "Baltic" was fitted with receivers for taking guidance
from these bells, as her Captain described afterwards in a
published account of his search. "On my ship," he said, "there
are two apertures on either side of the bow, which you might
call submarine ears. They are connected by wires with a
telephone receiver on the bridge. By listening at this
telephone and switching the instrument from the starboard
‘ear’ to the port ‘ear’ and back again, you can hear the faint
tones of the lightship’s submarine bell when you get in range
of it. If the tone is louder through the starboard ‘ear’ than
through the port ‘ear,’ you know the lightship is on your
starboard side. If the tone is exactly the same through both
‘ears,’ you know the lightship is dead ahead. This apparatus
helped me greatly."
Nevertheless, the "Baltic’s" search for the "Republic" went on
through twelve hours, like that of "a hound on the scent," as
the Captain described it. Meantime, the passengers of the
"Republic" had been transferred to the "Florida," which seemed
well afloat, and the "Baltic" now took everybody from both,
the total exceeding 1500. The "Republic" was then towed toward
Martha’s Vineyard, but sank a few miles from land, her Captain
remaining until the last minute on board. The conduct of all
connected with the peril and the rescue was fine, and none
more so than that of the sleepless and tireless operator of
the wireless telegraph.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Marconi Coast Stations in Great Britain taken over by
the British Government.
The following announcement was made by the British Postmaster
General in the House of Commons on the 30th of September,
1909:
"I am glad to say that arrangements have been completed with
the Marconi Company for the transfer to the Post Office of all
their coast stations for communication with ships, including
all plant, machinery, buildings, land, and leases, &c., and
for the surrender of the rights which they enjoy under their
agreement with the Post Office of August, 1904, for licences
or facilities in respect of coast stations intended for such
communication.
"In addition, the Post Office secures the right of using, free
of royalty, the existing Marconi patents and any future
patents or improvements, for a term of 14 years, for the
following purposes:—Communication for all purposes between
stations in the United Kingdom and ships, and between stations
on the mainland of Great Britain and Ireland on the one hand
and outlying islands on the other hand, or between any two
outlying islands; and (except for the transmission of public
telegrams) between any two stations on the mainland; and on
board Post Office cable ships. The inclusive consideration to
be paid to the company is £15,000.
"The arrangement is in no sense an exclusive one. All the
stations will, under the International Radio-Telegraphic
Convention, be open for communication equally to all ships,
whatever system of wireless telegraphy they may carry; and the
Post Office will be free to use or to experiment with any
system of wireless telegraphy at its discretion. All inland
communication of messages by wireless telegraphy will be
entirely under the control of the Post Office. The company
will retain the licence for their long-distance stations at
Poldhu and Clifden, which are primarily intended for
shore-to-shore communication with America. Arrangements have
also been made with Lloyd’s for the transfer to the Post
Office of their wireless stations for communication with
ships, and for the surrender of all claims to licences for
such communication."
{600}
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Notes of Recent Progress.
A despatch from Seattle, March 5, 1909, reported that "the
steamship Aki Maru of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha fleet
accomplished her recent passage from Yokohama, Japan, to Puget
Sound, a distance of 4,240 miles, without losing communication
with wireless stations on either the Japanese or American
coasts. The accomplishment was made possible by relaying
messages through other vessels of the company, which were
picked up between the Aki Maru and the coast. The Aki Maru was
able to communicate directly with the Japanese coast stations,
when she was 1,400 miles away."
According to Paris correspondence of the London _Daily
Telegraph_, quoted in the New York _Evening Post_ of
August 21, "wireless messages from New York are now received
or intercepted almost daily by the military station on the
Eiffel Tower. Occasionally radio telegrams have also been
received from Canada, which, it is believed, forms a record in
wireless telegraphy. The communications are at present only of
a desultory nature, but the officer, Commandant Ferie, who is
in charge of the station, hopes to be able soon to organize a
regular service for government, and, perhaps, also for
commercial, purposes. The new apparatus which is now being set
up in the underground office on the Champ de Mars will be more
powerful than any preceding ones, and will be ready probably
by the end of next month. Wireless messages will then be
exchanged regularly between Paris and the eastern coast of the
United States, and perhaps also with Canada."
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Electro-Chemistry: The Study of the Infinitely Little.
"A new branch of physical chemistry has lately been developed
from the study of the infinitely little which promises to be
the most important science of the future; for it deals most
intimately with the problems of life. This subject is called
electro-chemistry. It is based upon the effect of electricity
in revealing the important reactions and motions of the
smallest particles of matter. The literature of this subject
in current periodicals already exceeds that of any other
department of physical science. Until a comparatively late
day, heat and light were considered the principal agents which
chemists employed to study the reactions of matter. In the new
subject of electro-chemistry, electricity occupies the first
place, as a destroyer and a readjuster; and heat and light are
merely subordinate parts of its manifestations, differing from
it only in length of waves in the ether. The to-and-fro
motion, which is our incontestable fact, is an electrical
vibration. When we consider the investigations in
electro-chemistry, we perceive that the most important actions
of electricity are not those we are conscious of in their
great practical applications; it is rather in subtle and
silent effects that it works its greatest changes on life and
matter."
_John Trowbridge,
The Study of the Infinitely Small
(Atlantic Monthly, May, 1902)._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Entomological Study: What we Owe to it?
Practical Affairs.
"The insect friends and enemies of the farmer are getting
attention. The enemy of the San José scale was found near the
Great Wall of China, and is now cleaning up all our orchards.
The fig-fertilizing insect imported from Turkey has helped to
establish an industry in California that amounts to from fifty
to one hundred tons of dried figs annually, and is extending
over the Pacific coast. A parasitic fly from South Africa is
keeping in subjection the black scale, the worst pest of the
orange and lemon industry in California."
_Message of President Roosevelt to Congress, 1904._
"The business man, always on the outlook for a dividend, has
sometimes complained that some of our inquiries do not seem to
him practical, but he must have patience and faith. A few
years ago no knowledge could seem so useless to the practical
man, no research more futile than that which sought to
distinguish between one species of a gnat or tick and another;
yet to-day we know that this knowledge has rendered it
possible to open up Africa and to cut the Panama canal."
_A. E. Shipley,
on Research in Zoology, at Meeting of
British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1909._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Esperanto.
Dr. Zamenhof, a Russian physician, inventor of the proposed
international language called Esperanto, published his first
pamphlet on the subject in 1887; but it was not until ten
years later that the prospect of its extensive use as such
began to be realized. "It was well received, first in Russia,
then in Norway and Sweden. Then it was taken up in France, by
M. de Beaufront. The latter had himself invented an artificial
language, but gave it up as soon as he became acquainted with
the admirable work of his Russian competitor. He is the man
who forced the world at large to stop and seriously consider
Esperanto as the solution of the great problem proposed by men
like Roger Bacon, Descartes, Pascal, Leibnitz, Locke,
Condillac, Voltaire, Diderot, and so many others. From France
it went to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and finally
to England, where thirty societies of Esperantists were
created within a little over a year. …
"The general principle upon which Dr. Zamenhof has worked is
this: to eliminate all that is accidental in our national
languages, and to keep what is common to all. In consequence,
and strictly speaking, he invents nothing; he builds entirely
with material that has been in existence for a long time.
Here, then, is the way in which he proceeds regarding the
various elements that are necessary to the formation of a
language.
"_The Sounds_.
Sounds that are peculiar to one language are eliminated. The
English _th_ and _w_ are not found in French or
German, therefore they are dropped. On the other hand, the
French _u_, the German _ü_, and the French nasals do
not exist in English; they too are dropped. The Spanish
_ñ_ and _j_, and the German _ch_, have the same
fate. Thus, only sounds which are found everywhere are kept,
and no one will have any difficulty about pronunciation, no
matter to what country he belongs. Spelling is of course
phonetic: one and the same sound for one letter. There are no
mute letters, as in French; neither are there double letters.
…
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"_The Accent_ is always on the penultimate syllable.
Esperanto reminds one of Italian, when spoken, and has proved
extremely melodious for singing.
"_The Vocabulary._ The principle of internationalism is
applied here in a most ingenious fashion. Dr. Zamenhof
proceeded thus: he compared the dictionaries of the different
languages, and picked out first those words which are common
to them all. He spelled them according to the phonetic system,
dropped the special endings in each idiom, and adopted them as
root-words in his proposed language. … Then he picked out
those which appear in most languages, although not in all. …
For the remaining words,—and there are comparatively few
left,—which are never the same in the different languages, Dr.
Zamenhof selected them in such a manner as to make the task of
acquiring Esperanto equally difficult or equally easy for all
concerned."
_A. Schinz,
Esperanto: the Proposed Universal Language
(Atlantic Monthly, January, 1906)._
The sixth international Congress of teachers and promoters of
Esperanto is appointed to be held at Washington in 1910. An
influential Esperanto Association has been organized in the
United States, under the presidency of Dr. D. O. S. Lowell, of
the Boston Latin School.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Eugenics: The Science and Art of being Well-born.
"We know that the old rule, ‘Increase and multiply,’ meant a
vast amount of infant mortality, of starvation, of chronic
disease, of widespread misery. In abandoning that rule, as we
have been forced to do, are we not now left free to seek that
our children, though few, should be at all events fit, the
finest, alike in physical and psychical constitution, that the
world has seen?
"Thus has come about the recent expansion of that conception
of _eugenics_—or the science and art of being well-born,
and of breeding the human race a step nearer towards
perfection—which a few among us, and more especially Mr.
Francis Galton, have been developing for some years past.
Eugenics is beginning to be felt to possess a living actuality
which it was not felt to possess before. Instead of being a
benevolent scientific fad, it begins to present itself as the
goal to which we are inevitably moving. … Human eugenics need
not be, and is not likely to be, a cold-blooded selection of
partners by some outside scientific authority. But it may be,
and is very likely to be, a slowly growing conviction—first
among the more intelligent members of the community, and then
by imitation and fashion among the less intelligent
members—that our children, the future race, the torch-bearers
of civilisation for succeeding ages, are not the mere result
of chance or Providence, but that, in a very real sense, it is
within our grasp to mould them, that the salvation or
damnation of many future generations lies in our hands, since
it depends on our wise and sane choice of a mate. …
"Eventually, it seems evident, a general system, whether
private or public, whereby all personal facts, biological and
mental, normal and morbid, are duly and systematically
registered, must become inevitable if we are to have a real
guide as to those persons who are most fit or least fit to
carry on the race. Unless they are full and frank, such
records are useless. But it is obvious that for a long time to
come such a system of registration must be private. … Through
the munificence of Mr. Galton and the co-operation of the
University of London the beginning of the attainment of these
eugenic ideals has at length been rendered possible. The
senate of the University has this year appointed Mr. Edgar
Schuster, of New College, Oxford, to the Francis Galton
Research Scholarship in Natural Eugenics. It will be Mr.
Schuster’s duty to carry out investigations into the history
of classes and of families, and to deliver lectures and
publish memoirs on the subject of his investigations. It is a
beginning only, but the end no man can foresee."
_Havelock Ellis,
Eugenics and St. Valentine
(Nineteenth Century, May, 1906)._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Gasoline Engine.
Writing in 1905, in an article entitled "The Age of Gasoline,"
contributed to the _American Review of Reviews_, Mr. F.
K. Grain, M. E., gave this brief account of the rapid
development of its use as a producer of power, threatening to
supersede coal: "About fifteen years ago we first began to
hear much of the gasoline engine, which was then in a very
crude state. Its possibilities, however, were so attractive,
and the field for its use so large,—practically
unlimited,—that inventors and manufacturers at once bent their
energies to its development, with the result that the gasoline
engine has reached a degree of perfection in the past few years
that is surprising in view of the fact that the designers were
working out a new problem in a practically unknown field, and
consequently had no data, theoretical or practical, of any value
to assist. … As a motive power, utilized by means of the
internal-combustion engine, gasoline is at this time
revolutionizing travel, through the automobile. The
automobile, in turn, has been the means of adapting gasoline
to propulsion of railway trains, as this form of power is
found especially useful on short lines where the traffic is
light. Several railroads are now building gasoline motor cars
of considerable size. …
"The gasoline engine as now made is an adaptation of the steam
engine, employing the gas produced by gasoline as a means of
energy. Contrary to the general understanding, the gas or
gasoline engine is but a high-pressure caloric motor. The
power in the gasoline motor is derived by igniting the gas
produced in the cylinder, which in turn by its heat expands,
the atmosphere imparting energy to the piston by its
expansion. A common error is the supposition that the
explosion of the gas produces the power, the same as a blow
from a hammer, whereas it is the heat generated by the
ignition of the compressed gases acting expansively."
One of the speakers at a Congress of Applied Chemistry held in
London in May, 1909, said that it seemed almost certain that
for most purposes on land the internal combustion engine would
before long replace the steam engine, at any rate for moderate
powers; for whereas the best types of the latter furnish only
about 12 per cent, of the energy of the fuel in the form of
work, the former can ordinarily be made to yield 25 per cent.,
and in the case of the Diesel engine the return is as much as
37 per cent.
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SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Interferometer, The:
Principle of the Invention of Professor Michelson for
Infinitesimal Measurements.
Suggestion of an Unvarying Unit of Measurement.
"In the measurement of length or motion a most refined
instrument is the interferometer, devised by Professor A. A.
Michelson, of the University of Chicago. It enables an
observer to detect a movement through one five-millionth of an
inch. The principle involved is illustrated in a simple
experiment. If by dropping a pebble at each of two centres,
say a yard apart, in a still pond, we send out two systems of
waves, each system will ripple out in a series of concentric
circles. If, when the waves meet, the crests from one set of
waves coincide with the depressions from the other set, the
water in that particular spot becomes smooth because one set
of waves destroys the other. In this case we may say that the
waves interfere. If, on the other hand, the crests of waves
from two sources should coincide, they would rise to twice
their original height. Light-waves sent out in a similar mode
from two points may in like manner either interfere, and
produce darkness, or unite to produce light of double
brilliancy. These alternate dark and bright bands are called
interference fringes. When one of the two sources of light is
moved through a very small space, the interference fringes at
a distance move through a space so much larger as to be easily
observed and measured, enabling an observer to compute the
short path through which a light-source has moved. … Many
diverse applications of the interferometer have been
developed, as, for example, in thermometry. The warmth of a
hand held near a pencil of light is enough to cause a wavering
of the fringes. A lighted match shows contortions. … When the
air is heated its density and refractive power diminish: it
follows that if this experiment is tried under conditions
which show a regular and measurable displacement of the
fringes, their movement will indicate the temperature of the
air. This method has been applied to ascertain very high
temperatures, such as those of the blast furnace. Most metals
expand one or two parts in 100,000 for a rise in temperature
of one degree centigrade. When a small specimen is examined
the whole change to be measured may be only about 1/10000
inch, a space requiring a good microscope to perceive, but
readily measured by an interferometer. It means a displacement
amounting to several fringes, and this may be measured to
within of a fringe or less; so that the whole displacement may
be measured to within a fraction of one per cent. Of course,
with long bars the accuracy attainable is much greater.
"The interferometer has much refined the indications of the
balance. In a noteworthy experiment Professor Michelson found
the amount of attraction which a sphere of lead exerted on a
small sphere hung on an arm of a delicate balance. The amount
of this attraction when two such spheres touch is proportional
to the diameter of the large sphere, which in this case was
about eight inches. The attraction on the small ball on the
end of the balance was thus the same fraction of its weight as
the diameter of the large ball was of the diameter of the
earth,—something like one twenty-millionth. So the force to be
measured was one twenty-millionth of the weight of this small
ball. In the interferometer the approach of the small ball to
the large one produced a displacement of seven whole fringes."
_George Iles,
Inventors at Work,
pages 214-218 (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York)._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
International Congresses of Science.
The most notable of the gatherings at St. Louis in 1904,
connected with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was the
Congress of Arts and Science.
See (in this Volume)
ST. LOUIS: A. D. 1904.
Hardly less important from some points of view was the meeting
of the First Pan-American Scientific Congress, at Santiago,
Chile, beginning on the 25th of December, 1908. It had been
preceded by three scientific congresses of the Latin-American
states, at Buenos Aires in 1898, at Montevideo in 1901, and at
Rio de Janeiro in 1905. The Pan-American comprehensiveness was
given to a fourth one by an official invitation from the
Chilean Government to the Government of the United States to
send delegates to the meeting, and a further invitation from
the Chilean Committee of Organization to fifteen of the
prominent universities of the United States to do the same.
The response to the invitation was cordial, and both of the
American continents were well represented at the Congress. The
programme of topics for discussion included a number of
historically and politically scientific questions of specially
American interest, such, for example, as the following:
"An explanation of the reasons why the colonies of English
America were able to unite into a single state after they had
attained their independence, while those of Spanish America
never succeeded in establishing a permanent union.
"The extent to which America has come to possess a
civilization, as well as interests and problems, different
from those of Europe.
"Given the special circumstances of the states of the New
World, would it be feasible to create an American
international law? and if so, upon what bases should it rest,
and how should it be composed?"
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Moving Picture Show.
The Millions entertained by it in the United States.
In 1908, in the United States, "the moving-picture show drew
an attendance of 4,000,000 daily, a total attendance of more
than a billion; or an average of one visit a month to this
form of amusement for every man, woman, and child in the whole
country. Already this infant industry has developed to a point
where $50,000,000 is invested in it, and 7,000 moving-picture
houses are scattered over the country. Of the larger cities,
Chicago has at present 313 moving-picture shows, and probably
will have 500 before the end of the present year. New York has
300, St. Louis 205, Philadelphia 186, San Francisco 131,
Pittsburgh 90, and Boston 31. Hundreds of smaller cities and
towns have from one to a dozen, and the craze has extended to
Mexico, Central and South America, and the Panama Canal Zone.
Nearly 1,000,000 feet, or 190 miles, of films are shown every
day in the United States. … Making of these films is in itself
an enormous business. The organization which controls them not
only has agents photographing scenes in every part of the
world, but maintains theatres and out-of-door establishments,
where complete plays and all sorts of other activities are
presented before the camera."
_New York Evening Post._
{603}
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Opsonins:
A remarkable new Discovery in Biology.
Discovery of the functions of the white corpuscles found in
the blood of animals was begun, it is said, by Dr. Augustus
Waller, in 1843, and continued in much later years by
Professor Metchnikoff, who was associated with the work of
Pasteur. The latter determined the surprising and extremely
important fact that the white corpuscles or cells are
essentially minute living creatures, which serve the larger
creature they inhabit as a sanitary guard, defending it
against the invasion of microbes that are hostile to its
health. They pursue and devour these malignant invaders;
whence the name that has been given to them, of "phagocytes,"
or "eating cells."
"When we study the process familiarly known as ‘inflammation,’
we find the most perfect illustration at once of the duties of
the white blood-cells and of the new phase and meaning of a
common occurrence which are revealed by research.
‘Inflammation’ is a process which follows upon a large variety
of injuries, and which marks the onset and course of many
diseases, from a scratch on the finger to an inflammation of
the lungs. … Given a simple scratch and the phagocytes
stimulated by the injury to the tissues will come hurrying to
the scene of the accident like ambulance men, eager to assist
in the removal of any deleterious matter, and to give their
aid in the healing process and in the formation of the new
tissue, the production of which will complete the cure. But
given a scratch that inoculates the finger with ‘dirt,’ which
is only another name for microbes, and the nature of
inflammation becomes clearer to us. In a few hours the finger
will begin to feel painful; its temperature will rise; it will
appear red and ‘inflamed,’ and it will exhibit swelling. Later
on, if we puncture the swelling, we shall find a yellow fluid,
which we name ‘pus,’ or ‘matter,’ escaping from the puncture.
Now to what are the symptoms of inflammation due? The plain
answer is, that they represent the results of a great
migration of phagocytes from the blood-vessels, destined to
attack, and if possible remove, the infective particles which
threaten to do us injury. The inflammation, in this view, is
the evidence of a battle being fought in our favour, and often
with very long odds against us. If our phagocytes gain a
complete victory, we escape the suppuration which we saw to
result in the shape of the ‘festering’ finger. If, on the
other hand, they sustain defeat, they will fight on, leaving
their dead behind. It is the dead white blood-cells, which
have fallen in the fray, which constitute the ‘pus’ or
‘matter’ we find in wounds. … These dead cells, like the
corpses of soldiers who fall in battle, later become hurtful
to the organism they in their lifetime were anxious to protect
from harm, for they are fertile sources of septicaemia and
pyaemia (blood-poisoning)—the pestilence and scourge so much
dreaded by operative surgeons.
"Such is the story which forms the natural prologue to the
history of ‘Opsonins.’ For many a day after the publication of
Metchnikoff’s discoveries regarding the germ-killing power of
the phagocytes, it was held that these living cells alone
accomplished the duty of disposing of troublesome invaders.
Later on, other opinions were advanced to the effect that
while the phagocytes did undoubtedly accomplish their work in
the direction indicated, they demanded aid to that end from an
outside source. This source was indicated and represented by
the plasma or blood-fluid itself. The fluid part of the blood
had long been known to possess germ-killing properties, but
the extent of its powers in this direction had not been duly
determined, nor had the important point been settled whether
the plasma as a whole or only part thereof aided the white
blood-cells in their forays on microbes. … Researches made
prior to the year 1903 gave cause for the belief in the
importance of the blood-plasma in whole or in part, but it was
in the year just named that very important investigations were
undertaken with the view to determining the exact status of
the blood-fluid in work of bactericidal kind. Drs. Wright and
Douglas of St. Mary’s Hospital, London, undertook a piece of
research conducted on lines somewhat different from those on
which previous work of this nature had been carried on. They
proceeded first of all by the aid of delicate processes to
separate the blood-corpuscles from the blood-fluid. The white
blood-cells were thus kept in a medium or fluid of neutral
kind, while the blood-fluid itself on the other hand was
obtained free from its corpuscles. Next in order an emulsion
of certain microbes capable of producing disease was made in a
solution of salt. When the phagocytes, alive, of course, in
their neutral fluid, were allowed access to the germs they did
not attack them. It was as if two contending armies had been
brought face to face, waiting to attack, but restrained by
some negotiations proceeding between the commanders. The case
was at once altered, and the battle began, when the
experimenters brought the separated blood-fluid into the
field. Added to the germs and to the phagocytes these
elements, which had been ‘spoiling for a fight,’ joined issue,
and the white blood-cells performed their normal work of
microbe-baiting. There was but one inference to be drawn from
these facts. Clearly, the addition of the blood-fluid supplied
some condition or other, necessary for the development of the
fighting powers of the cells. … Our investigators are of the
opinion that the real source of the power possessed by the
blood-fluid or ‘plasma’ is to be sought and found in
substances contained therein and called ‘Opsonins.’ We can now
appreciate the meaning of this term. It is derived from the
classic verb for catering, for preparing food or for providing
food. The view taken of opsonic action justifies the use of
the word, for it is believed that these substances perform
their share of the germ-destroying work, not by urging on or
stimulating the phagocytes to the attack, but, on the
contrary, by acting on the microbes, by weakening their powers
of resistance and by rendering them the easy prey of the white
blood-cells. The ‘Opsonins’ are carried by the blood-stream
everywhere, and it is when they come in contact with any
microbe-colonies in the body that they exert their specific
action on the germs. … The idea that the more active our white
blood-cells are, and the more extensive and complete their
work, the greater the amount of ‘Opsonins’ present, is one
which seems to be founded on a rational basis. This view
regards these substances as the real cause of phagocytic
activity. That ‘Opsonins’ furthermore appear to possess
definite degrees of power seems proved by the observation that
a person’s blood may contain sufficient to deal with one
disease in the way of stimulating the phagocytes to work,
while the same quantity would not equal half that required to
effect a satisfactory attack on another and different disease.
What has been called the ‘opsonic index ’ of a person is the
standard, if so we may call it, or measure of his germ-killing
power, in so far as the amount of ‘Opsonins’ contained in his
blood is concerned. By a technical procedure and calculation
the experimenter can compute the opsonic power of a given
specimen of blood."
_Andrew Wilson,
About Opsonins
(Cornhill, January, 1907)._
{604}
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Medical.
See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Physical:
The New Conceptions of Electricity, Matter and Ether.
Statement by Madame Curie.
Sir Joseph Thomson’s Address to the British Association
at Winnipeg.
Sir Oliver Lodge on the Ether of Space.
"One point which appears to-day to be definitely settled is a
view of atomic structure of electricity, which goes to confirm
and complete the idea that we have long held regarding the
atomic structure of matter, which constitutes the basis of
chemical theories. At the same time that the existence of
electric atoms, indivisible by our present means of research,
appears to be established with certainty, the important
properties of these atoms are also shown. The atoms of
negative electricity which we call electrons, are found to
exist in a free state, independent of all material atoms, and
not having any properties in common with them. In this state
they possess certain dimensions in space, and are endowed with
a certain inertia, which has suggested the idea of attributing
to them a corresponding mass.
"Experiments have shown that their dimensions are very small
compared with those of material molecules, and that their mass
is only a small fraction, not exceeding one one-thousandth of
the mass of an atom of hydrogen. They show also that if these
atoms can exist isolated, they may also exist in all ordinary
matter, and may be in certain cases emitted by a substance
such as a metal without its properties being changed in a
manner appreciable by us.
"If, then, we consider the electrons as a form of matter, we
are led to put the division of them beyond atoms and to admit
the existence of a kind of extremely small particles able to
enter into the composition of atoms, but not necessarily by
their departure involving atomatic destruction. Looking at it
in this light, we are led to consider every atom as a
complicated structure, and this supposition is rendered
probable by the complexity of the emission spectra which
characterize the different atoms. We have thus a conception
sufficiently exact of the atoms of negative electricity.
"It is not the same for positive electricity, for a great
dissimilarity appears to exist between the two electricities.
Positive electricity appears always to be found in connection
with material atoms, and we have no reason, thus far, to
believe that they can be separated. Our knowledge relative to
matter is also increased by an important fact. A new property
of matter has been discovered which has received the name of
radioactivity. Radioactivity is the property which the atoms
of certain substances possess of shooting off particles, some
of which have a mass comparable to that of the atoms
themselves, while the others are the electrons. This property,
which uranium and thorium possess in a slight degree, has led
to the discovery of a new chemical element, radium, whose
radioactivity is very great. Among the particles expelled by
radium are some which are ejected with great velocity, and
their expulsion is accompanied with a considerable evolution
of heat. A radioactive body constitutes, then, a source of
energy.
"According to the theory which best accounts for the phenomena
of radioactivity, a certain proportion of the atoms of a
radioactive body is transformed in a given time, with the
production of atoms of less atomic weight, and in some cases
with the expulsion of electrons. This is a theory of the
transmutation of elements, but differs from the dreams of the
alchemists in that we declare ourselves, for the present at
least, unable to induce or influence the transmutation.
Certain facts go to show that radioactivity appertains in a
slight degree to all kinds of matter. It may be, therefore,
that matter is far from being as unchangeable or inert as it
was formerly thought; and is, on the contrary, in continual
transformation, although this transformation escapes our
notice by its relative slowness."
_Madame Curie,
Modern Theories of Electricity and Matter
(Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, 1905-1906,
pages 103-104)._
A remarkable summary of recent advances in physical science,
by Sir Joseph Thomson, in his presidential address at the
opening (August 25, 1909) of the seventy-ninth annual meeting
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,
held at Winnipeg, Canada, contains what is, without doubt, the
most successful of endeavors to give some understanding of the
new conceptions of matter, ether and electricity, with which
scientists are now working, to minds that have not been
scientifically trained. Sir Joseph treats the subject at more
length than can be given to it here, but abridgment seems
possible without robbing it of the more important parts of its
rich content of information:
"The period which has elapsed since the Association last met
in Canada [1897] has been," said the President, "one of almost
unparalleled activity in many branches of physics, and many
new and unsuspected properties of matter and electricity have
been discovered. The history of this period affords a
remarkable illustration of the effect which may be produced by
a single discovery; for it is, I think, to the discovery of
the Röntgen rays that we owe the rapidity of the progress
which has recently been made in physics. A striking discovery
like that of the Röntgen rays acts much like the discovery of
gold in a sparsely populated country; it attracts workers who
come in the first place for the gold, but who may find that
the country has other products, other charms, perhaps even
more valuable than the gold itself. The country in which the
gold was discovered in the case of the Röntgen rays was the
department of physics dealing with the discharge of
electricity through gases, a subject which, almost from the
beginning of electrical science, had attracted a few
enthusiastic workers, who felt convinced that the key to
unlock the secret of electricity was to be found in a vacuum
tube.
{605}
Röntgen, in 1895, showed that when electricity passed through
such a tube the tube emitted rays which could pass through
bodies opaque to ordinary light; which could, for example,
pass through the flesh of the body and throw a shadow of the
bones on a suitable screen. … It is not, however, to the power
of probing dark places, important though this is, that the
influence of Röntgen rays on the progress of science has
mainly been due; it is rather because these rays make gases,
and, indeed, solids and liquids, through which they pass,
conductors of electricity. … The study of gases exposed to
Röntgen rays has revealed in such gases the presence of
particles charged with electricity; some of these particles
are charged with positive, others with negative, electricity.
The properties of these particles have been investigated; we
know the charge they carry, the speed with which they move
under an electric force, the rate at which the oppositely
charged ones recombine, and these investigations have thrown a
new light, not only on electricity, but also on the structure
of matter. We know from these investigations that electricity,
like matter, is molecular in structure, that just as a
quantity of hydrogen is a collection of an immense number of
small particles called molecules, so a charge of electricity
is made up of a great number of small charges, each of a
perfectly definite and known amount. … Nay, further, the
molecular theory of matter is indebted to the molecular theory
of electricity for the most accurate determination of its
fundamental quantity, the number of molecules in any given
quantity of an elementary substance.
"The great advantage of the electrical methods for the study
of the properties of matter is due to the fact that whenever a
particle is electrified it is very easily identified, whereas
an uncharged molecule is most elusive; and it is only when
these are present in immense numbers that we are able to
detect them. …
"We have already made considerable progress in the task of
discovering what the structure of electricity is. We have
known for some time that of one kind of electricity—the
negative—and a very interesting one it is. We know that
negative electricity is made up of units all of which are of
the same kind; that these units are exceedingly small compared
with even the smallest atom. … The size of these corpuscles is
on an altogether different scale from that of atoms; the
Volume of a corpuscle bears to that of the atom about the same
relation as that of a speck of dust to the Volume of this
room. Under suitable conditions they move at enormous speeds,
which approach in some instances the velocity of light. The
discovery of these corpuscles is an interesting example of the
way Nature responds to the demands made upon her by
mathematicians. Some years before the discovery of corpuscles
it had been shown by a mathematical investigation that the
mass of a body must be increased by a charge of electricity.
This increase, however, is greater for small bodies than for
large ones, and even bodies as small as atoms are hopelessly
too large to show any appreciable effect; thus the result
seemed entirely academic. After a time corpuscles were
discovered, and these are so much smaller than the atom that
the increase in mass due to the charge becomes not merely
appreciable, but so great that, as the experiments of Kaufmann
and Bucherer have shown, the whole of the mass of the
corpuscle arises from its charge.
"We know a great deal about negative electricity; what do we
know about positive electricity? Is positive electricity
molecular in structure? Is it made up into units, each unit
carrying a charge equal in magnitude though opposite in sign
to that carried by a corpuscle? … The investigations made on
the unit of positive electricity show that it is of quite a
different kind from the unit of negative; the mass of the
negative unit is exceedingly small compared with any atom; the
only positive units that up to the present have been detected
are quite comparable in mass with the mass of an atom of
hydrogen; in fact they seem equal to it. This makes it more
difficult to be certain that the unit of positive electricity
has been isolated, for we have to be on our guard against its
being a much smaller body attached to the hydrogen atoms which
happen to be present in the vessel. … At present the smallest
positive electrified particles of which we have direct
experimental evidence have masses comparable with that of an
atom of hydrogen.
"A knowledge of the mass and size of the two units of
electricity, the positive and the negative, would give us the
material for constructing what may be called a molecular
theory of electricity, and would be a starting point for a
theory of the structure of matter; for the most natural view
to take, as a provisional hypothesis, is that matter is just a
collection of positive and negative units of electricity, and
that the forces which hold atoms and molecules together, the
properties which differentiate one kind of matter from
another, all have their origin in the electrical forces
exerted by positive and negative units of electricity, grouped
together in different ways in the atoms of the different
elements. As it would seem that the units of positive and
negative electricity are of very different sizes, we must
regard matter as a mixture containing systems of very
different types, one type corresponding to the small
corpuscle, the other to the large positive unit. Since the
energy associated with a given charge is greater the smaller
the body on which the charge is concentrated, the energy
stored up in the negative corpuscles will be far greater than
that stored up by the positive. The amount of energy which is
stored up in ordinary matter in the form of the electrostatic
potential energy of its corpuscles is, I think, not generally
realized. … This energy is fortunately kept fast bound by the
corpuscles; if at any time an appreciable fraction were to get
free the earth would explode and become a gaseous nebula. The
matter of which I have been speaking so far is the material
which builds up the earth, the sun, and the stars, the matter
studied by the chemist, and which he can represent by a
formula; this matter occupies, however, but an insignificant
fraction of the universe; it forms but minute islands in the
great ocean of the ether, the substance with which the whole
universe is filled.
{606}
"The ether is not a fantastic creation of the speculative
philosopher; it is as essential to us as the air we breathe.
For we must remember that we on this earth are not living on
our own resources; we are dependent from minute to minute upon
what we are getting from the sun, and the gifts of the sun are
conveyed to us by the ether. It is to the sun that we owe not
merely night and day, springtime and harvest, but it is the
energy of the sun, stored up in coal, in waterfalls, in food,
that practically does all the work of the world. … On the
electro-magnetic theory of light, now universally accepted,
the energy streaming to the earth travels through the ether in
electric waves; thus practically the whole of the energy at
our disposal has at one time or another been electrical
energy. The ether must, then, be the seat of electrical and
magnetic forces. We know, thanks to the genius of Clerk
Maxwell, the founder and inspirer of modern electrical theory,
the equations which express the relation between these forces,
and although for some purposes these are all we require, yet
they do not tell us very much about the nature of the ether.
"Let us consider some of the facts known about the ether. When
light falls on a body and is absorbed by it, the body is
pushed forward in the direction in which the light is
travelling, and if the body is free to move it is set in
motion by the light. Now it is a fundamental principle of
dynamics that when a body is set moving in a certain
direction, or, to use the language of dynamics, acquires
momentum in that direction, some other mass must lose the same
amount of momentum; in other words, the amount of momentum in
the universe is constant. Thus, when the body is pushed
forward by the light, some other system must have lost the
momentum the body acquires, and the only other system
available is the wave of light falling on the body; hence we
conclude that there must have been momentum in the wave in the
direction in which it is travelling. Momentum, however,
implies mass in motion. We conclude, then, that in the ether
through which the wave is moving there is mass moving with the
velocity of light. The experiments made on the pressure due to
light enable us to calculate this mass. …
"The place where the density of the ether carried along by an
electric field rises to its highest value is close to a
corpuscle, for round the corpuscles are by far the strongest
electric fields of which we have any knowledge. We know the
mass of the corpuscle, we know from Kaufmann’s experiments
that this arises entirely from the electric charge, and is
therefore due to the ether carried along with the corpuscle by
the lines of force attached to it. … Around the corpuscle
ether must have an extravagant density; whether the density is
as great as this in other places depends upon whether the
ether is compressible or not. If it is compressible, then it
may be condensed round the corpuscles, and there have an
abnormally great density; if it is not compressible, then the
density in free space cannot be less than the number I have
just mentioned. With respect to this point we must remember
that the forces acting on the ether close to the corpuscle are
prodigious. … I do not know at present of any effect which
would enable us to determine whether ether is compressible or
not. And although at first sight the idea that we are immersed
in a medium almost infinitely denser than lead might seem
inconceivable, it is not so if we remember that in all
probability matter is composed mainly of holes. We may, in
fact, regard matter as possessing a bird-cage kind of
structure in which the Volume of the ether disturbed by the
wires when the structure is moved is infinitesimal in
comparison with the Volume enclosed by them. If we do this, no
difficulty arises from the great density of the ether; all we
have to do is to increase the distance between the wires in
proportion as we increase the density of the ether."
Some English journals, in discussing Sir Joseph Thomson’s
address at Winnipeg, spoke doubtingly of its scientific
soundness, regarding it as too speculative, representing
conclusions in advance of what physical science had obtained a
real warrant to draw. These newspaper critics were called
sharply to account by Sir Oliver Lodge, and told that they
were suspicious of Sir Joseph’s statements only because they
knew nothing of the data on which he founded them.
In a magazine article of the previous year, Sir Oliver Lodge
had already traversed part of the ground covered by the
impressive review of Sir Joseph Thomson. In that article he
said of the present conception of the ether of space, as
accepted among the leaders of physical science:
"When a steel spring is bent or distorted, what is it that is
really strained? Not the atoms—the atoms are only displaced;
it is the connecting links that are strained—the connecting
medium—the ether. Distortion of a spring is really distortion
of the ether. All strain exists in the ether. Matter can only
be moved. Contact does not exist between the atoms of matter
as we know them; it is doubtful if a piece of matter ever
touches another piece, any more than a comet touches the sun
when it appears to rebound from it; but the atoms are
connected, as the planets, the comets and the sun are
connected, by a continuous _plenum_ without break or
discontinuity of any kind. Matter acts on matter solely
through the ether. But whether matter is a thing utterly
distinct and separate from the ether, or whether it is a
specifically modified portion of it—modified in such a way as
to be susceptible of locomotion, and yet continuous with all
the rest of the ether,—which can be said to extend everywhere,
far beyond the bounds of the modified and tangible portion
called matter—are questions demanding, and I may say in
process of receiving, answers.
"Every such answer involves some view of the universal, and
possibly infinite, uniform, omnipresent connecting medium, the
ether of space."
_Oliver Lodge,
The Ether of Space
(North American Review, May, 1908)._
[Transcriber's Note: The Michelson-Morley experiment 21
years earlier had cast doubt on the ether concept.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70888]
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Radium and Radio-activity:
The Discovery by Professor and Madame Curie.
The Light it throws on many Scientific Problems.
Faraday’s Prophetic Anticipation.
The Dissolution of Atoms.
"In his first treatise on the X-rays, Röntgen [see in Volume
VI.] drew attention to the fact that they proceeded from those
parts of the Röntgen tubes where the glass, under the
influence of the impinging cathode rays, showed the most
fluorescence. It therefore seemed possible that the existence
of these mysterious rays was in some way dependent on
previously acquired fluorescence, and many physicists tried to
ascertain with the well-known Balmain dyes, which become
luminous after exposure to the light, if results could be
obtained resembling those with a Röntgen tube.
{607}
"Similar attempts by the French physicist, Henri Becquerel,
were crowned with success in an unexpected direction. He
exposed a uranium salt to the light, and then placing it in a
dark room on a photographic plate covered with opaque paper he
demonstrated the action of these rays on the plate through the
paper, thin sheets of metal, etc. But the supposed and
sought-for relation of the rays to the previous fluorescence
was not evident, for Becquerel obtained precisely the same
results with preparations of uranium which had not only not
been previously exposed directly to the light, but had
purposely been kept some time in darkness and could therefore
display no stored-up luminescence. He had, however, discovered
the uranium or Becquerel rays. …
"At Becquerel’s suggestion Madame Curie undertook a systematic
investigation of all the chemical elements and established the
fact that with none of them, excepting uranium and thorium,
could an appreciable effect indicating rays be obtained with
her apparatus. On the other hand, she found that many of the
minerals investigated showed noticeable action in this
direction. The fact that a few of them, the uranium
pitchblende, for example, from Joachimsthal, Bohemia, emitted
rays three or four times stronger than those of pure uranium,
and which could not therefore be announced as uranium rays,
led her to suppose that in the pitchblende itself, apart from
the uranium, there must exist a still more powerful
radioactive substance. It is a matter of record how, in this
research, which might serve as a model for such work, she and
her husband, so soon afterwards to lose his life by a
deplorable accident, succeeded in tracing this supposed
substance more and more accurately, and finally in obtaining
it pure. Madame Curie thus became the discoverer of radium, a
new element possessed of wonderful, of fabulous qualities.
"Besides Madame Curie no other investigator but Professor
Braunschweig, so far as I know, has yet succeeded in obtaining
pure radium."
_Franz Himstedt,
Radioactivity (Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution,
1905-1906, pages 117-118)._
"The phenomena of radio-activity revive interest in the
prophetic views of Michael Faraday. In 1816, when he was but
twenty-four years of age, he delivered a lecture at the Royal
Institution in London on Radiant Matter. In the course of his
remarks there occurs this passage:—‘If we now conceive a
change as far beyond vaporization as that is above fluidity,
and then take into account the proportional increased extent
of alteration as the changes arise, we shall perhaps, if we
can form any conception at all, not fall short of radiant
matter; and as in the last conversion many qualities were
lost, so here also many more would disappear. It was the
opinion of Newton, and of many other distinguished
philosophers, that this conversion was possible, and
continually going on in the processes of nature, and they
found that the idea would bear without injury the applications
of mathematical reasoning—as regards heat, for instance. If
assumed, we must also assume the simplicity of matter; for it
would follow that all the variety of substances with which we
are acquainted could be converted into one of three kinds of
radiant matter; which again may differ from each other only in
the size of their particles or their form. The properties of
known bodies would then be supposed to arise from the varied
arrangements of their ultimate atoms, and belong to substances
only as long as their compound nature existed; and thus
variety of matter and variety of properties would be found
co-essential.’"
George Iles,
Inventors at Work,
pages 204-205 (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York).
"An ascertained commercial value of £4 per milligramme
(equivalent to £114,000 per ounce) has been placed upon radium
by a contract just entered into between the British
Metalliferous Mines (Limited) and Lord Iveagh and Sir Ernest
Cassel for the supply of 7½ grammes (rather more than a
quarter of an ounce) of pure radium bromide. This very large
order for radium will be supplied from the above named
company’s mine near Grampound Road in Cornwall."
_London Times, June 21, 1909._
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Mono-Rail Gyroscopic System.
A mechanical invention not yet developed, but which seems more
than likely to count among the most important of the next few
years, is that known as the Brennan mono-rail system, which
balances cars and trains of cars on a single rail by use of
the principle of the gyroscope. It was first exhibited by its
English inventor, Mr. Louis Brennan, in model form, before the
Royal Society, in 1907, and won so much confidence in its
possibilities that the British War Office and the India Office
gave financial assistance to meet the cost of the long
experiments that were necessary for adapting the system to
service on a large practical scale. The result of these
experiments was exhibited in public trials at New Brompton,
England, and, subsequently, at New York, in the later part of
1909. The following account of the exhibition at New Brompton
was given by _The Times_:
"The car with which the test runs were carried out is 40 ft.
in length and 10 ft. in width; its weight is 22 tons, and it
is designed for a load of 10 to 15 tons. The weight of the
gyroscopes, of which there are two, is 1½ tons, each having a
diameter of 3 ft. 6 in. The speed of rotation is 3,000 r. p.
m., or considerably less than it was in the 6 ft. model
exhibited before the Royal Society. It would be possible for
the car to obtain the necessary power by collecting current
from an overhead wire with a consequent saving of weight, but
in the present example the motive power is provided by two
Wolseley petrol engines, one of 80 h. p., and the other of 20
h. p., driving two direct-current shunt-wound motors of the
Siemens type. It is not necessary that the car should be
propelled electrically, and steam or other motive power could
be employed; but in any case it would be necessary to spin the
gyroscopes electrically, this method being ideal for the
purpose. The air is exhausted from the gyroscope cases, the
pressure in them being equivalent to from ½ in. to 5/8 in. of
mercury. It is hoped in future installations to design the
gyroscopes for higher speeds, and in that case it would be
possible to reduce the size and weight of the equipment. In
this first car the gyroscopes run in the vertical plane, but
that is merely for convenience, the essential feature being
that the trunnions should be at right angles to the track. …
{608}
"Several experimental trips were made on the factory circular
track as well as on the straight, and the car travelled with
remarkable steadiness throughout. It is not likely that the
Brennan mono-rail will find any wide field of application in
this country, but there would appear to be great advantages in
the system for mountain railways in India and elsewhere, and,
indeed, it seems suitable for adoption in any country where
new railways are being planned. The inventor lays stress on
the absolute safety of the system at speeds ranging up to
about 150 miles per hour."
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Sanitary.
See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
Submarine Signal Bells.
In May, 1909, it was announced from Washington that "the
Government, recognizing the substantial service rendered to
shipping by submarine bells, has decided to extend their
installation from time to time to light vessels and stations
on both coasts and upon the great lakes. At present forty-six
of the light vessels are thus equipped, and the signals which
they send out are of undoubted aid to deep-water navigation.
Canada, England, Germany, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark
are following suit. The bells operate during fogs and at night
and the sound waves emitted by the bell under water have been
known to travel as far as twenty-seven miles. These sound
waves are picked up by the receiving microphones on board
ships, and by the code signal of each station the vessel’s
navigator is able to tell where he is."
See (in this Volume) above,
ELECTRICAL: WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY:
THE CRY THAT BROUGHT HELP.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Turbine Steam Engine.
Its Successful Development.
First Use on Ocean Steamers.
The "Lusitania" and "Mauretania."
"For a long time and well into the nineteenth century, water
was lifted by pistons moving in cylindrical pumps. Meantime
the turbine grew steadily in favor as a water motor, arriving
at last at high efficiency. This gave designers a hint to
reverse the turbine and use it as a water lifter or pump: this
machine, duly built, with a continuous instead of an
intermittent motion, showed much better results than the
old-fashioned pump. The turbine-pump is accordingly adopted
for many large waterworks, deep mines and similar
installations. This advance from to-and-fro to rotary action
extended irresistibly to steam as a motive power. It was clear
that if steam could be employed in a turbine somewhat as water
is, much of the complexity and loss inherent in reciprocating
engines would be brushed aside. A pioneer inventor in this
field was Gustave Patrich De Laval, of Stockholm, who
constructed his first steam turbine along the familiar lines
of the Barker mill. Steam is so light that for its utmost
utilization as a jet a velocity of about 2,000 feet a second
is required, a rate which no material is strong enough to
allow. De Laval by using the most tenacious metal for his
turbines is able to give their swiftest parts a speed of as
much as 1400 feet a second. His apparatus is cheap, simple and
efficient; it is limited to about 300 horse-power. Its chief
feature is its divergent nozzle, which permits the outflowing
steam to expand fully with all the effect realized in a steam
cylinder provided with expansion valve gear. Another device of
De Laval which makes his turbine a safe and desirable prime
mover is the flexible shaft which has a little, self-righting
play under the extreme pace of its rotation.
"Of direct action turbines the De Laval is the chief; of
compound turbines, in which the steam is expanded in
successive stages, the first and most widely adopted was
invented by the Honourable Charles A. Parsons of
Newcastle-on-Tyne. … In 1894 Mr. Parsons launched his
Turbinia, the first steamer to be driven by a turbine. Her
record was so gratifying that a succession of vessels,
similarly equipped, were year by year built for excursion
lines, for transit across the British Channel, for the British
Royal Navy, and for mercantile marine service. The
thirty-fifth of these ships, the _Victorian_ of the Allan
Line, was the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean, arriving at
Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 18, 1905. She was followed by the
_Virginian_ of the same line which arrived at Quebec, May
8, 1905. Not long afterward the Cunard Company sent from
Liverpool to New York the _Carmania_ equipped with steam
turbines, and in every other respect like the Caronia of the
same owners, which is driven by reciprocating engines of the
best model. Thus far the comparison between these two ships is
in favor of the Carmania. The new monster Cunarders, the
_Lusitania_ and the _Mauretania_, each of 70,000
horse power, are to be propelled by steam turbines. The
principal reasons for this preference are thus given by
Professor Carl C. Thomas:—Decreased cost of operation as
regards fuel, labor, oil, and repairs. Vibration due to
machinery is avoided. Less weight of machinery and coal to be
carried, resulting in greater speed. Greater simplicity of
machinery in construction and operation, causing less
liability to accident and breakdown. Smaller and more deeply
immersed propellers, decreasing the tendency of the machinery
to race in rough weather. Lower centre of gravity of the
machinery as a whole, and increased headroom above the
machinery. According to recent reports, decreased first cost
of machinery."
_George Iles,
Inventors at Work,
pages 452-456
(Doubleday, Page & Co., New York)._
In August, 1908, the _Lusitania_ made the voyage from
Queenstown to New York in 4 days and 15 hours; again in
February, 1909, in 4 days, 17 hours and 6 minutes. In
September, 1909, the _Mauretania_ crossed from New York
to Queenstown in 4 days, 13 hours and 41 minutes.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Washington Memorial Institution.
Extension of the Usefulness of Scientific Work in Departments
of the Government.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901.
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT:
The Nobel Prizes.
See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.
See also
EARTHQUAKES.
----------SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: End--------
----------SCOTLAND: Start--------
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1901 (March).
Census.
According to the returns of the decennial enumeration made on
the night of the 31st of March, 1901, the population of
Scotland that day, "including those in the Royal Navy, and
belonging to the Mercantile shipping in Scottish Ports or on
Scottish waters, number 4,472,000 persons, of whom 2,173,151
are males, and 2,298,849 females.
"When compared with the corresponding population as enumerated
at the Census of 1891, a total increase of 446,353 is found to
have occurred; the male increase being 230,434, and the female
215,919.
{609}
The percentage rate of increase of both sexes during the
decennial period is 11.09—that of the males being 11.86, and
of the females 10.37. The corresponding total rate of increase
during the preceding decennium, 1881-1891, was 7.77 per cent.
… The rate at the present Census for Scotland is, with the
exception of that at 1881, the highest since the decennial
period 1821-1831. …
"In 19 Counties an increase in the population has taken place,
in 14 a decrease. The highest rate of increase—both sexes
combined—is in Linlithgow, 24.4 per cent.; followed by Lanark
with an increase of 21.1 per cent.; Stirling with one of 20.6
per cent.; Renfrew with one of 16.5 per cent.; Dumbarton with
one of 16.2 per cent.; Kincardine with one of 15.3 per cent.;
Fife with one of 15.0 per cent. The greatest falling off
occurs in Berwick, 4.6 per cent.; in Orkney, 5.7 per cent.; in
Roxburgh, 8.8 per cent.; in Caithness 8.9 per cent.; in
Wigtown, 9.4 per cent.; and in Selkirk 15.8 percent. Inverness
stands almost as it was, having increased but 0.1 per cent.,
and the minimum rate of falling off as to population is in
Banff, 0.3 per cent., and Argyll, 0.6 per cent. …
"Among the larger Burghs the increase of population varies not
a little. Thus, in Motherwell, which heads the list, the
increase during the decennial period 1891-1901, is at the rate
of 62.5 per cent. Partick follows with a rate of increase of
48.6 per cent.; Wishaw with one of 36.8 percent.; Hamilton
with one of 31.8 per cent.; Kirkcaldy with one of 25.5
percent.; Falkirk with one of 24.3 per cent.; Govan with one
of 24.2 per cent.; Coatbridge with one of 21.3 per cent.;
Aberdeen with one of 22.9 per cent.; Kilmarnock with one of
20.1 per cent.; Paisley with one of 19.5 per cent.; Airdrie
with one of 16.5 per cent.; Glasgow with one of 15.5 per
cent.; Ayr with one of 15.1 per cent.; Edinburgh with one of
14.8 per cent.; Dunfermline with one of 14.1 percent.; Leith
with one of 12.6 per cent.; Inverness with one of 10.3 per
cent.; Perth with one of 9.9 per cent.; Greenock with one of
7.4 per cent.; and Dundee with one of 4.5 percent.; while
Arbroath indicates a decrease at the rate of 1.9 per cent."
_Preliminary Report to Parliament._
The division of population between town districts and rural
districts is shown in the following table:
Groups of Districts. Males. Females. Total.
Town Districts 1,404,382 1,520,698 2,925,080
(Pop. 2,000 and upwards)
Mainland-Rural Districts 479,009 495,172 974,841
Insular-Rural Districts 58,666 67,060 125,726
Total 1,942,717 2,082,930 4,025,647
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1901.
Mr. Carnegie’s great Gift to Universities and Students.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: SCOTLAND: A. D. 1901.
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1904-1905.
Decision of the House of Lords against the Union, in 1900,
of the Free Church with the United Presbyterian.
All Property given to the Opposing Remnant.
"In 1900, the United Free Church was formed by the union of
the majority of the Free Church with the entire body of the
United Presbyterians, …
See, in Volume VI. of this work,
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1900)
A new organisation placed in the field of Church politics in
Scotland almost equals in respect of numbers and resources to
the Established Church. The small minority opposed to this
union inside the Free Church seceded, held some of the
churches and manses by force, defying authority to the extent,
in one instance, of a month’s imprisonment, and retained the
denomination of ‘The Free Church of Scotland.’ As their
fathers left a ‘vitiated’ Establishment on purpose to preserve
the freedom and purity of the National Church, so they refused to
enter the new union, in order, by standing out, to save the
principles, doctrines, and purposes identified with the
Disruption of 1843. This minority of not more than
twenty-seven ministers and as many congregations, mostly
located in fastnesses beyond the Grampians, is now the Free
Church of Scotland, with Presbytery, Assembly, Moderator—in
short, with the offices and institutions, on a condensed
scale, which are essential in Presbyterian polity. These few
determined people claim to be the faithful remnant of the
Disruptionists. Like Milton’s Abdiel, ‘unshaken, unseduced,
unterrified,’ nor moved to ‘swerve from truth’ or ‘change
their constant mind,’ they claim to have kept their loyalty,
their love, their zeal in the cause of the Disruption through
all the temptations of an age in thought Pyrrhonist, in
morality lax, and in religion Latitudinarian. On the
assumption that they alone were the Free Church, they invoked
the aid of the Civil Courts in their defence. The Court of
Session—both the Ordinary and the Inner Courts—decided in
favour of the United Free Church. Home-made law could not
satisfy the minority, and, on appeal, the House of Lords
reversed the judgment of the Court of Session, declaring the
remnant to be the Free Church of Scotland, and finding that
the United Free Church was a modern composite body which, on
the evidence of its ambidextrous and Latitudinarian
constitution, had abandoned the fundamental doctrines and
principles held by the Disruptionists. In consequence of this
decision, the property of the Free Church, as it existed prior
to the union of 1900, now belongs to the remnant of the
Disruptionists.
"From the side of the losing United Free Church a bitter cry
has arisen against this finality in law. The decision is
formally accepted, yet denounced as unjust and incompetent, as
denying toleration and the right to change its creed to an
autonomous body; and there are murmurs about of the necessity
of an appeal to Parliament. … It seems the rankest injustice
to transfer more than one million in invested funds, nearly a
thousand church buildings, three superior colleges devoted to
the training of Divinity students (one in Edinburgh, another
in Glasgow, and a third in Aberdeen), the magnificent Assembly
Hall in Edinburgh, with the offices attached, probably also
much property in foreign missions, from the United Free Church
to this remnant of Disruptionists, the custodians of the dying
embers of Obscurantism in Scotland."
_J. M. Sloan,
The Scottish Free Church
(Fortnightly Review, September, 1904)._
{610}
To consider the situation created by the decision of the House
of Lords, a Royal Commission was appointed, which investigated
all the questions involved and reported its findings in April,
1905. In the judgment of the Commission, the Free Church (the
"Wee Frees," as that body was now commonly dubbed) had neither
the numbers nor the resources for putting to their proper use
the enormous endowment which it claimed. At the same time
there would be no justice in delivering those endowments
unconditionally to the United Free Church. It was recommended,
accordingly, that a Commission be constituted by Act of
Parliament to take charge of the whole property and funds
involved, and to arrange for the allocation of the same, to
the end of securing "adequate provision for the due
performance of the purposes for which the funds were raised
and the trusts on which they are held." A Bill in accordance
with this recommendation was passed during the next session of
Parliament.
On the request of the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland, the same Act enabled the Church to change the
formula of subscription required from its ministers, under the
Act of 1693, so that, on being ordained, a minister shall only
make a "declaration of his faith in the sum and substance of
the doctrine of the Reformed Churches therein contained,
according to such formula as may from time to time be
prescribed by the General Assembly."
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1904-1909.
Peace followed by Threatened Conflict in
the Coal Mining Industry.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: SCOTLAND.
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1909.
Working of the Old Age Pensions Act.
See (in this Volume)
POVERTY, PROBLEMS OF: PENSIONS.
----------SCOTLAND: End--------
SCOTT, James Brown:
Technical Delegate to the Second Peace Conference.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.
SCOTT, Captain K. T.:
Commander of Antarctic Expedition.
See (in this Volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION.
SEAL FISHERY NEGOTIATIONS.
"Negotiations for an international conference to consider and
reach an arrangement providing for the preservation and
protection of the fur seals in the North Pacific are in
progress with the governments of Great Britain, Japan, and
Russia. The attitude of the governments interested leads me to
hope for a satisfactory settlement of this question as the
ultimate outcome of the negotiations."
_Message of the President of the United States to Congress,
December 6, 1909._
SEATTLE: A. D. 1909.
The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
"The fair at Seattle," said _The World's Work_ of August,
1909, "is beautiful; that goes without saying, for the best of
man’s art is fitted to the best of Nature’s workmanship to
make a balanced and blended picture never excelled in the long
list of great exhibitions. But better than that, the fair at
Seattle is a definite commercial lesson—and lessons in
commerce last forever. Primarily, the fair is teaching the
people of the United States to know the Pacific coast;
secondarily, it is teaching them a little of Alaska, a little
of Japan, and a little of the Philippines. And the distinctive
feature of this particular fair is the determined effort to
make those lessons true." This seems to describe the
impression which the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition made
generally on the visitors who went to it with an intelligent
purpose in going. It gave them what they went to see, with
fidelity, with fulness, and in most attractive forms of
display. Like its Northwestern predecessor, at Portland, four
years before, it was an almost startling revelation of the
possibilities of planting and ripening in cities, states, and
their social institutions, that lie within trivial spaces of
time in this wonderful present age.
The Exposition was on the grounds of Washington University,
and seven of the principal buildings erected for it were of
permanent construction and remain for the use of the
University. Again, as at Portland, the most interesting of
these buildings architecturally was that for the forestry
exhibit, built of logs and other timber in a state as nearly
natural as it could be kept.
The Exposition was open from June 1st until October 16, and
registered about 3,740,000 visitors.
SEBAHEDDIN.
See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).
SECTARIAN SCHOOL QUESTION.
See (in this Volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1903;
also
CANADA: A. D. 1905.
SEDDON, Richard J.: Prime Minister of New Zealand.
His Death.
See (in this Volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1906-1909.
SEGNATURA, The.
See (in this Volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1908.
SEIYU-KAI.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1902 (August); 1903 (June), and 1909.
SELFRIDGE, Lieutenant T. E.
See (in this Volume)
SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: AERONAUTICS.
SENATORS, United States:
Proposed Election by Direct Popular Vote.
See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES SENATORS.
SENEGAMBIA: A. D. 1904.
Cession of a portion of territory by England to France.
See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).
SENUSSIA,
SENOUSSI:
The Pan-Islamic Movement in Africa.
Sidi Mahomed bin Ali es Senussia and his Sect.
His Doctrine and its Aim.
"We have recently heard, principally apropos of the
disturbances in Egypt, a considerable amount concerning
Pan-Islamism. Taking into consideration how much has been
written on this subject, it is surprising to find how little
has been said concerning one of the principal organisations
for the propagation of Pan-Islamism. I refer to the sect known
as Senussia. … At this present moment there is throughout
Africa very general discontent among the native population,
not only in Mohammedan countries, but universally over the
length and breadth of the entire continent. …
"It is a comparatively easy matter to so influence any warlike
Moslem people to religious enthusiasm that they are instantly
ready in arms to strike a blow for the faith. But the most
significant and sinister symptom of this anti-Christian
crusade is that the message carried by the Senussia agents is,
‘Wait, for the time is not yet ripe. Rest now, but when the
hour arrives, rise, slay, and spare not.’ Taking into
consideration the fact that the Senussia sect was founded in
1835, that its rise has been enormously rapid, and that its
propaganda has been actively and diligently preached in
British possessions for many years past, with scarcely one
definite item of intelligence concerning it being known, it
shows clearly that the motive power and organising
intelligence must be something considerably above the average.
…
{611}
"The sect was founded in 1835 by Sidi Mahomed bin Ali es
Senussia, otherwise known as Sheikh Senussi, an Algerian Arab
born near Mostaganem towards the end of the Turkish dominion.
A lineal descendant of the prophet Mahomed, he first gained a
reputation for sanctity at Fez. He then proceeded to Mecca,
where he commenced preaching. However his success, which was
remarkably rapid, caused great local jealousy and he had
perforce to fly to Egypt. He started a zawia or monastery at
Alexandria, but being excommunicated by the Sheikh el Islam at
Cairo, he was again compelled to seek safety in flight. This
time he fled across the Lybian desert to Jebel el Akhdar near
Benghazi on the north coast, where he again established a
zawia, and in a short time had obtained a considerable
following. There he lived and preached, and died in 1859 or
1860, having firmly established the Senussia sect. He was
succeeded by his son Mahomed.
"The doctrine preached by the Sheikh Senussi, and which still
comprises the doctrines and aims of his disciples, was as
follows: To free the Mahommedan religion from the many abuses
which have crept into it. To restore, under one universal
leader, the former purity of faith. Finally, and most
especially, to free all Moslem countries, more particularly
those in Africa, from the dominion of the infidel."
_H. A. Wilson,
The Moslem Menace
(Nineteenth Century, September, 1907)._
"The growth of the Senoussi has been one of the most striking
developments of modern Islam. They have adopted an active
missionary policy and have spread southwards through heathen
Africa, while their organization has been framed with the idea
of including and coordinating all existing brotherhoods. The
Senoussi have established in all countries where the Moslem is
governed by an alien race a system of occult government side
by side, and coinciding in its boundaries, with the state
administration. This occult government exists in Algeria,
Egypt, and India, and its emissaries are at work in Nigeria.
The Senoussi now include within their brotherhood practically
all the Sunnis, that is the majority of Moslems in Arabia,
Turkey, North Africa, Turkestan, Afghanistan and East Asia.
The Shiites, who predominate in Persia, are alone prevented by
their conception of orthodoxy from being Senoussi.
"The Senoussi had their headquarters at Djarboub, but some
twenty years ago it was decided to send their official
representative to Constantinople, and the venerable Mokkadem
who occupies this position is even more powerful in councils
than the Sheik ul Islam, who, nominated by the Sultan,
occupies in the hierarchy the place of Expounder of the Law,
second only to that of the Caliph, the ‘Shadow of God on
Earth.’"
_A. R. Colquhoun,
Pan-Islam
(North American Review, June, 1906)._
See, also, in Volume VI., page 835.
SERGIUS, Grand Duke,
Assassination of.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.
SERVIA.
See (in this Volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: SERVIA.
SEVASTOPOL:
Riot and Naval Mutiny.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1905 (FEBRUARY-NOVEMBER).
SHACKLETON, LIEUTENANT ERNEST H.:
Antarctic Explorations.
See (in this Volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION.
SHA-HO, BATTLE OF THE.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (SEPTEMBER-MARCH).
SHANGHAI: A. D. 1902.
Withdrawal of Foreign Troops.
See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1902.
SHANGHAI: A. D. 1905.
Boycott of Americans and American Goods.
See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1908.
SHANGHAI: A. D. 1909.
International Opium Commission.
See (in this Volume)
OPIUM PROBLEM.
SHAW, LESLIE M.:
Secretary of the Treasury.
See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905, and 1905-1909.
SHEIKH-UL-ISLAM, The:
His Authority and Function at Constantinople.
See (in this Volume)
SENUSSIA.
SHEIKH-UL-ISLAM, The:
His Part in the Turkish Constitutional Revolution.
See (in this Volume)
TURKEY; A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER), and after.
SHEMSI PASHA,
Assassination of.
See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER).
SHERIAT, The.
See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).
SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT, of 1890.
See (in this Volume)
RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1890-1902.
SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT, of 1890.
Action of National Civic Federation on its Amendment.
See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &c.:
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908-1909.
SHERMAN, James S.:
Elected Vice-President of the United States.
See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
SHEVKET PASHA, Mahmud:
Commander of the Turkish Constitutional Forces.
See (in this Volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).
SHIPBUILDING AGREEMENT (BRITISH) OF 1908, THE.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: ENGLAND: A. D. 1908.
SHIPPING COMBINATION, North Atlantic.
See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: INTERNATIONAL.
SHIRÉ HIGHLANDS:
Their Suitability for European Colonization.
See (in this Volume)
AFRICA.
SHIRTWAIST-MAKERS’ STRIKE, THE.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909-1910.
SHONTS, Theodore P.:
Chairman of the Panama Canal Commission.
See (in this Volume)
PANAMA CANAL: A. D. 1905-1909.
SHOOA-ES-SULTANEH.
See (in this Volume)
PERSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.
SHORT BALLOT REFORM.
See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES.
SIA-GU-SHAN HILL, CAPTURE OF.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (May-January).
SIAM: A. D. 1902.
Treaty with France.
By a fresh treaty with Siam, secured in October, 1902, France
won from that kingdom another piece of territory to add to her
Indo-China domain. The new acquisition is between the Rolnos
and Piek Kompong Tiam rivers, on the Great Lake. In return
France restores the port of Chantabun, which she has held for
a long time without right, and which she agreed to restore in
1899.
See (in Volume VI.)
SIAM.
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SIAM: A. D. 1904.
Declaration of England and France touching Influence in Siam.
See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).
SIAM: A. D. 1905.
Suppression of Gambling and Edict for
the Extinction of Slavery.
An official notification of the suppression of gambling and a
royal edict decreeing the abolition of the last remnants of
slavery in the Kingdom of Siam were communicated to the
American Government, through its Minister at Bangkok, in March
and April, 1905. In part, the former stated:
"His Majesty has long been impressed by the fact that although
the revenue derived from gambling is an important factor in
the finances of the Kingdom the evils resulting therefrom are
much greater than the benefits. People expend in gambling not
only their own wealth but the wealth of others. They devote to
gambling time during which they should be attending to their
work. Under present conditions large sums of money which come
into the hands of the gambling farmers are sent out of the
kingdom. Gambling is also responsible for much of the crime
that is committed. The abolition of gambling would, therefore,
not only result in an improvement in the morals of the people
and in increased industry, but money now expended therein
would remain in circulation within the country, thereby adding
to the wealth of the community. In order, however, to replace
the loss of the revenue derived from gambling, some taxes must
be increased and new taxes devised. In the increase of certain
of these taxes it will be necessary to enter upon negotiations
with foreign powers. Gambling cannot, therefore, be suppressed
at once, but must be gradually abolished. His Majesty,
therefore, has been pleased to order the abolition of gambling
within the period of three years."
The decree concerning slavery opens thus:
"Although slavery in our realm is very different from slavery
as it has existed in many other countries—most slaves being
persons who have become so voluntarily and not by force and
the powers of the master over the slaves being strictly
limited—yet we have always considered that the institution,
even in this modified form, is an impediment to the progress
of our country. We have, therefore, from the commencement of
our reign, taken steps, by the enactment of laws and
otherwise, for the abolition of slavery. … We now deem it time
to take more sweeping measures which will gradually result in
the entire disappearance of slavery from Siam." Accordingly, a
law is decreed as follows: "All children born of parents who
are slaves shall be free without the execution of the
condition stated in the law of Pee Chau. No person now free
can be made a slave. If any person now a slave shall hereafter
become free he cannot thereafter again become a slave.
Wherever any person is now held a debt slave, the master shall
credit upon the principal of the debt for which he is held a
slave the sum of four (4) tieals for each month after the 1st
of April, 124, provided that no credit shall be allowed for
any time during which the slave may desert his master. If a
slave changes his master, no increase shall be made in the
debt for which he is actually held."
SIAM: A. D. 1909.
Treaty with Great Britain, Ceding three States
in the Malay Peninsula.
By a treaty with Siam, signed on the 10th of March, 1909,
Great Britain added 15,000 square miles to her dominion in the
Malay Peninsula. Siam renounced, in favour of Great Britain,
her suzerain rights over the native States of Kelantan,
Trengganu, and Kedah, and perhaps other districts, in the
Peninsula. In return the British Government consented to
certain modifications in the extra-territorial rights enjoyed
by British subjects in Siam. The Government of the Federated
Malay States will advance to Siam the capital, about
£4,000,000, required for the construction of railways in
Southern Siam, by which it is hoped that direct railway
communication will soon be established between Bangkok and
Singapore. Kelantan lies 374 miles distant from Singapore and
about 500 from Bangkok, on the shore of the China Sea. It is a
purely Malay State under the rule of a Rajah, who has not,
like his predecessors, adopted the higher title of Sultan, but
who claims to be an independent Sovereign, though he has been
compelled to acknowledge the King of Siam as his suzerain.
This condition of affairs has led to the transfer of his
allegiance, very much, it is said, against his wish.
SIENKIEWICZ, HENRY K.
See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.
SIFTON, CLIFFORD: CANADIAN MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR.
How he started the "American Invasion"
of the Canadian Northwest.
See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1896-1909.
SIGANANDA.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: NATAL: A. D. 1906-1907.
SILVER:
Suspension of Free Coinage in Mexico.
See (in this Volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1904-1905.
SILVER EXCHANGE, WITH THE ORIENT.
See (in this Volume)
FINANCE AND TRADE: ASIA: A. D. 1909.
SIMON, GENERAL ANTOINE:
President of Haiti.
See (in this Volume)
HAITI: A. D. 1908.
SIMPLON TUNNEL.
See (in this Volume)
RAILWAYS: SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1903.
SINHA, Satyendra Prasanna:
Appointment as a Member of the Executive Council
of the Viceroy of India.
See (in this Volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1908-1909.
SINN FEIN, THE.
See (in this Volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1905.
SIOUX INDIANS:
Colony in Nicaragua.
See (in this Volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA: NICARAGUA.
SIPAHDAR, The.
See (in this Volume)
PERSIA: A. D. 1908-1909.
SIPIAGIN, M.:
Assassination of.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1901-1904.
SLAVERY:
In Portuguese Africa.
See (in this Volume)
AFRICA: PORTUGUESE: A. D. 1905-1908.
SLAVERY:
Abolition in Siam.
See (in this Volume)
SIAM: A. D. 1909.
SLAVERY:
Legal, but not Practical Ending in Zanzibar.
See (in this Volume)
ZANZIBAR: A. D. 1905.
SLEEPING SICKNESS.
See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH.
SLOCUM, CONSUL-GENERAL C. R.:
Report on Affairs in the Congo State.
See (in this Volume)
CONGO STATE: A. D. 1906-1909.
"SLOCUM," BURNING OF THE.
See (in this Volume)
"GENERAL SLOCUM."
SMALL HOLDINGS ACT.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1907-1908.
{613}
SMIRNOFF, GENERAL.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-AUGUST).
SMITH, CHARLES E.:
Postmaster-General.
See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905.
SMITH, GOLDWIN:
On Discontent in India.
See (in this Volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1907-1909.
SMITH, CONSUL-GENERAL JAMES A.:
Report on Affairs in the Congo State.
See (in this Volume)
CONGO STATE: A. D. 1906-1909.
SMITH, JAMES F.:
Governor-General of the Philippine Islands.
See (in this Volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1906-1907.
SYNDER, R. M.:
Municipal "Boodler" of St. Louis.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: ST. LOUIS.
SOCIAL BETTERMENT: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909.
The Housing and Town-Planning Act.
A Housing and Town Planning Bill, brought over from the
previous session of Parliament, was introduced anew in April,
1909, by Mr. John Burns, President of the Local Government
Board. It passed the Commons and went in November to the
Lords, who gave it amendments which were thought to have
brought it to wreck. The House of Commons would not accept
them; but many in both Houses were keenly anxious for
legislation on the subject, and private negotiation brought
about a compromise of their differences, securing the
enactment in a fairly satisfactory form.
The first part of the Act aims at improving the dwelling
accommodation of the working classes, both by making it
obligatory on all local authorities to provide new housing
where required, and also by elaborate provisions for sanitary
inspection. Every county council is required to appoint a
public health and housing committee and also a medical officer
of health, who shall devote his whole time to the supervision
of the county area. Almost all working class dwellings in the
country are covered by provisions ensuring that they shall be
kept fit for human habitation throughout their tenancy.
Enlarged powers of compulsory purchase, of closing and of
demolition are also conferred upon local authorities or their
authorized agents.
The provisions of the Act relating to town-planning are
commended by _The Times_ as marking "a new departure in
legislation in this country. Hitherto new centres of
population have been allowed to grow up, and existing urban
areas have been allowed to expand, without control or
prevision. The result has too often been that the haphazard
development of land in the vicinity of urban centres has
produced slums, prevented the orderly growth of towns, and
involved enormous expenditure in clearing sites, widening
streets, and providing necessary open spaces. The Bill aims at
securing in the future sanitary conditions, amenity, and
convenience by enabling schemes to be made under which
building land will be developed with due regard to future
requirements. With this end in view the Local Government Board
are empowered to authorize local authorities to prepare town
planning schemes in connexion with land likely to be used for
building purposes, or to adopt any such schemes proposed by
owners of land. The schemes are to have effect, however, only
if approved by the Local Government Board. The Bill provides
for the payment of compensation to any person whose property
is injuriously affected by the making of a town planning
scheme, and, on the other hand, the local authority is
empowered to recover from any person whose land is increased
in value by the making of the scheme a proportion of the
amount of that increase."
In anticipation of the passage of this important Act, a party
of eighty representatives of municipalities and other bodies
in Great Britain who would be concerned in its administration
passed the Easter holidays of 1909 in some of the German
cities which are most famous for the manner in which they have
dealt with the problems of town-growth. The four cities
selected were Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, and Wiesbaden,
each of which has formulated its own way of dealing with the
problem and offers a different point of view.
SOCIAL BETTERMENT: PRUSSIA: A. D. 1905.
A Government Bureau of Charities.
In 1905 a law passed by the Prussian Diet created a national
Charity Bureau, the duties of which are stated as follows:
(1) To follow the development of charity work and keep the
government informed of this development;
(2) to advise the state of conditions which justify change in
existing laws or the passing of new laws, or which suggest
change in government methods;
(3) to draw up opinions and make proposals which will help in
framing laws for the benefit of the people;
(4) to take general control of relief stations in case of
great calamities.
It will also be the duty of the department
(1) to establish relations between different charity
organizations, suggest improvements in the methods of these
organizations, and economize the forces of the various bodies;
(2) to follow the progress of charitable work and make an
index and collection of all literature relating to the
subject;
(3) to give information and advice in reference to
philanthropic endeavor when requested to do so;
(4) to make reports to the state at short intervals in
reference to the development and progress of the work in the
nation at large;
(5) to draw up opinions and make proposals for the improvement
or better organization of the charity propaganda in part or as
a whole;
(6) to take charge of the development of the work in any
section;
(7) to assist in putting in operation any suggestions or plans
which may be made or worked out for the improvement of social
conditions.
SOCIAL BETTERMENT: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900-1909.
The National Civic Federation.
Its Origin.
Its Purposes.
Its Organization.
Its Work.
The Federation was organized in 1900, in Chicago, after a
succession of national conferences had been held upon such
subjects as Primary Election Reform, Foreign Policy and Trusts
and Combinations. It consisted of an advisory council of five
hundred members and an Executive Committee. On the Executive
Committee were several of the members of the present National
Executive Committee, including Franklin MacVeagh, Archbishop
Ireland, Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, D. J. Keefe, John W.
Stahl, and Benjamin Ide Wheeler. The prospectus, published at
the time, stated the purpose of the organization to be as
follows:
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"… To organize the best brains of the nation in an educational
movement toward the solution of some of the great problems
related to social and industrial progress; to provide for
study and discussion of questions of national import; to aid
thus in the crystallization of the most enlightened public
opinion; and, when desirable, to promote legislation in
accordance therewith."
"Fifteen national subjects were named, and it was expected
that from time to time the formation of committees would
result having as their special province the consideration of
the subjects suggested.
"By vote, it was decided to take up for discussion, through
national conferences, the three subjects of industrial
arbitration, taxation and municipal ownership. The first
conference, that on industrial arbitration, was held at
Chicago, in December, 1900, and resulted in the organization
of the Industrial Department, with A. C. Bartlett, of Chicago,
chairman. In the following June a national conference on
taxation was held in Buffalo, resulting in the formation of
the Department on Taxation, with Edwin R. A. Seligman as
chairman. It was the intention to hold the Conference on
Municipal Ownership in New York the following December, but in
the meantime a number of large strikes, especially the Steel
Strike, the National Machinists’ strike and a threatened
Anthracite Coal Strike absorbed so much of the energy and
attention of the active members of the Federation at that time
that the Public Ownership Conference was postponed for the
time being.
"Through the work done by the committee in connection with the
coal and steel strikes, Senator Hanna became interested in the
organization, and in December of that year was made President
of the organization. His selection for that office, together
with the appointment of other men of national reputation on
the committee, attracted the attention of the country to the
organization. For two years following that department was the
only one prominent before the public, and its work in the
prevention of strikes and lockouts was naturally regarded as
the only purpose of the organization. The conferences held
during this period were naturally confined to the subject of
conciliation and collateral phases of the work. As national
labor disturbances then became less frequent after two years
of this special work the organization was able to resume its
original programme, holding itself, however, in readiness to
concentrate its energies on the industrial work at any time
the need might arise.
"It was at this time that the national conference on
immigration was called, and the Department of Immigration
organized. After that a national commission on Municipal
Ownership was formed, and by that time the public began to
take interest in the broader aspects of the organization.
Later came the establishment of the Industrial Economics
Department, which has taken up some of the most important
problems of the day, including Socialism and Trusts and
Combinations. The holding of a national conference on
Political Reform resulted in the organization of a department
especially devoted to these subjects.
"While the subjects to be taken up by the organization are
determined by the Executive Committee, the fact is here
emphasized that in devoting itself to other matters than
questions relating to strikes and lockouts, the organization
has not deviated from, but has returned to, its original
lines."
_The National Civic Federation Review,
March, 1909._