Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 246, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1913 — Coronium Discovered at Last [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Coronium Discovered at Last

7 Ss that will-o’-the-wisp of the physicist, the gas coronium, at last in the grip of the chemist, as was stated in a cable dispatch from London the other day? Have Sir William Ramsay and his fellows actually found earthly sub stances from which this elusive and extraordinary light element can be * produced? If so aviation, or more accurately the range of the dirigible balloon, will be enormously increased. But this is only one aspect of a very wide field of possible services and significance. The discovery of coronium is another example of the astonishing revelations which have come with the development of the spectroscope and its union witfi photography. By means of this wonderful instrument physicists have been able to detect and render visible the unseen of millions of miles away. As Professor Mendenhall expressed It a few years ago: “By this device man is put into communication with every considerable body in the universe, including even the invisible. The goings on of Sirius and Algol, of Orion and the Pleiades are reported tp him across enormous stretches of millions of millions of miles of space, empty save of r the ethereal medium itself, by this most wonderful wireless telegraphy. And It is by the vibratory motion of the Invisibly small that all of this is revealed ; the infinitely little has enabled us to conquer the inconceivably big.” But the spectroscope would be incomplete were it not for the exceedingly ingenious apparatus called the bolometer, invented by the late Prof. S. P. Langley. The sensitiveness of the bolometer is so exquisite that it responds to temperature changes of a millionth of a degree. The bolometer is an eye that sees in the dark. To quote Professor Langley: “Since it is one and the same'solar energy whose manifestations are called light’ or ‘heat,’ according to the medium which interprets them, what Is light’ to the eye is ‘heat’ to the bolometer and what is seen as a dark line by the eye is felt as a solid line by the sentient instrument.’’ Here is an example of how thiß apparatus revealed to Professor Langley what had been considered far beyond the pale of the recordable. He was using the bolometer up on Mount Whitney and was working away at the known spectrum, patiently measuring the heat of the various lines. He stumbled upon a great discovery. “He went down the spectrum, noting the evidence of invisible heat die out on the scale of the instrument until he eame to the apparent end of the invisible, beyond which the most prolonged researches of investigators up to that time had shown nothing. “There he watched the indications grow fainter and fainter until they, too, ceased at the point where the French investigators believed they had found the very end of the end. By some happy thought he pushed the Indications of this delicate instrument into the region still beyond. In the still air of this lofty region the sunbeams passed unimpeded by the mists of the lower earth, and the curve of heat which had fallen to nothing began to rise again. There was something there! For he found, suddenly, unexpectedly, a new spectrum of great extent, wholly unknown to science and whose presence was revealed by the bolometer.” Thus the way was prepared for the detection of coronium. During the solar eclipse of May 28, 1900, Professor Abbott, with the aid of Professor Mendenhall, was able to measure the heat of the corona, apd that was probably the first time that it was really shown to exist. Here, again, the spectroscope, photography and the bolometer rendered great service. The sun as ordinarily Been is bound- ' ed by the so-called photosphere and is really but a small part of the true sun. Outside the photosphere is an envelope composed mainly of hydrogen, and outside of thiß there is another envelope which has been called the corona. The beautiful photograph, taken in May of 1900, which accompanies this article, illustrates this part of the sun. It is estimated that the height of the corona in the sun’s atmosphere is a matter of half a million miles; and it Is believed that toward the photosphere the heat is so Intense that the chemical elements are dissociated Into finer forms of matter. In the

cooler regions of the sun's atmosphere, near the boundaries of the corona, vapors give place to solid particles and masses. The corona intercepts enormous quantities of heat from the sun, and in this seething zone coronium is born, at least, so says the spectroscope. The nearest approach we have in nature and upon this globe to the Intensely heated atmosphere of the corona of the sun is in the molten masses deep in the earth. The only normal outward .evidence of this combustion is that afforded by active volcanoes. Accordingly, we might reasonably expect some of these to exhale coronium, and such indeed ias been found to be the case. About 15 years ago Professor Nasini of the of Padua, Italy, submitted a note to the French academy in which he declared that he had found coronium in the gases taken from the crater of Vesuvius. In view of this volcanoes may assume a new "importance along practical lines, and even dead craters may prove of use, because within the lava may be found the material from which coronium may be manufactured. Hitherto hydrogen has been the unit of weight by which the specific gravity of other gases has been measured. Hydrogen is about twelve times as light as the air we breathe. Now comes coronium, which 1b 16 times as light as hydrogen, and therefore 192 times as light as air. It is easy to realize what this would mean to aeronautics if the new found gas could be produced in large quantities. There are some hardheaded scientists, however, who are not encouraging, and among them is Dr. Rankine, who is associated with Sir Willim Ramsay. Dr. Rankine says: “Personally I cannot see that even when found coronium will he of much use to airships. One thing against it will be its' elusiveness. Helium is four times heavier than hydrogen, but it manages to creep out of any receptacle we can devise. It escapes from us almost as rapidly as we collect it.” But other men of science reply that this is really a mechanical problem and Is quite apart from the ( productloiT of coronium. Electricity is elusive enough, they point out, and yet man has found ways to control it. Anyhow enthusiasts of a so-called scientific turn have already been giving their imaginations full play, and If coronium can be produced here they predict a revolution in aerostatics. One of them has said that we need not worry about the days to come when the light of the sun grows dim and this globe of ours becomes too chilly for comfort. When that time arrives the frostbitten human denizens of this sphere can take passage in airships, thanks to coronium, and sail away to any distant planet that may seem more habitable. He hedges, however, by saying that thisywill not be necessary for a million 'years to come, and by that time, he hopefully concludes, means will have been discovered by which it will be possible to combat atmospheric conditions during the trip from the earth to the other world. One of these conditions is a lack of oxygen. A short while ago three meteorological experts went up in a balloon to a height of 33,000 feet, and at that altitude life was sustained only by breathing through a special respirator that supplied them with fresh oxygen. The Germans have actually prepared a breathing apparatus which will sustain aeronauts up to a height of 50,000 feet —at least this has been established by laboratory experiments. The lK|ing power of 1,000 cubic feet of coal gaß is equal to about 14 pounds, while a similar volume of hydrogen will raise 70 pounds. Hydrogen’s lightness, despite its elusiveness. therefore, has so far made It the best obtainable buoyant agent for aircraft. The latest Zeppelin airships have gib bags which have a capacity of nearly 700,000 cubic feet, have a diameter of 40 odd feet and are of 500

feet and more in length. The biggest of these have a total lifting capacity of 20 tons. If coronium could, be employed instead of hydrogen, an airship of the same lifting capacity would have a total length of a trifle over 200 feet and its maximum diameter would be considerably less than twenty feet. In the place of gas bags holding 700,cubic feet of hydrogen its containers would have within them bub 43,000 cubic feet of the lighter gas. The smaller airship would obviously be cheaper to construct, speedier and more manageable.* It would be able to stay afolt longer and sail further. The best of the Zeppelins have remained aloft about thirty-five hours, and this is suggestive of what the more mobile smaller and swifter airship could do when sustained by means of coronium. There is another phase of aeronautics in which cornium • would be of great value. Meterorologists have been reaching ever higher'into the atmospheric zones in their endeavor to determine the conditions that prevail there. Sounding balloons charged with hydrogen have been used to take temperatures at different heights up to fifteen miles. Could coronium be used instead of hydrogen the ocean of air could be penetrated a great deal further and possibly astonishing information would be obtained. One remarkable discovery has already resulted from the use of sounding balloons. Theoretically the temperature of the air falls one degree Fahrenheit for approximately every 300 feet of ascent, and this rate of reduction was supposed to go on reguraly. It is now established that within the lower two miles of the atmosphere this rule is frequently reversed. Above this, however, there is more regularity. Formerly it was supposed that this went on unbrokenly until the cold of distant space was reached, something in the neighborhood of absolute zero. When the sounding balloon records were accumlated one of the (first facts apparent was that at a height, generally of something like six miles, the temperature actually ceased to fall and even tended to rise. This continues to be the case as far as the sounding balloons have gone afolt. This zone of comparatively mild temperature is also apparently a region of relative calm, but we do not yet know how far heavenward this stratum extends. So far consideration has been given only to the services that coronium may fill for man because of its lightness, but who shall say that there are not other ways in 'which it may act helpfully? It is the unsuspected properties of radium that have proved of the utmost value since its discovery. Perhaps coronium may hold pos. sibilities of an equally important nature.