Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1892 — The Firefly’s Light and Heat. [ARTICLE]

The Firefly’s Light and Heat.

From some recent experiments of Professor Langley it appears that, after, all has been said and done, the firefly's light is not emitted without generating a certain amountof hsat—glow and warmth seeming to be insepnrab’e. Langley finds that the firefly’s light is substantially from the green side of the spectrum. As far as human contact with the insect is concern*!, there is no appreciable heat contained iu the light, but the professor’s wonderful and dolicate little instrument, which he calls a “bolosoope,” and with which he measured the heat emitted by the “bug,” shows that it is about onehalf of one-per cent, of that given out with an equal amount of light from the candle and other common combustible illuminants. That the fight produoed by the firefly is a chemical product would seem.to be indicated by the fact that it is decreased by the processes whioh check combustion and incereased by the opposite; that nitrogen quenches it and oxygen stimulates it, while the product of the operation, whatever it may finally prove to be, appears to be a fine carbon dioxide.—[St. Louis Republic. A stylish and nseful gown for early spring wear is of either black or blue serge with a bell skirt and an Eton jacket worn over a gay little red surah aiik blouse figured in black.