Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1902 — Science Superior to nature. [ARTICLE]

Science Superior to nature.

As marvels of mechanism, the eye and the ear have long been regarded aa the most wonderful things In the world. But compared with the implements of a present-day laboratory, the sensitiveness of all human organs seems gross enough, says Haider's Magazine. A photographic plate, coupled with a telescope, will reveal the presence of millions of stars whose light does not affect the retlaa in the feast. The microscope toot with Its revelations of Urn world of the infinitely small, tells os how crude after all is this most delicate of the senses. Indeed we may liken it to a piano where only a single octave, toward the middle, sounds. From the ultra violet to the lowest reaches of the spectrum Is a range of some nine octaves of light vibrations, of only one of which, save for our new mechanical senses, we should ever have been conscious. The ear hears little of what Is going on around us. By means of a microphone the tread of a fly sounds like the tramp of cavalry. Our heat sense is very vague; we need a variation of at least one-fifth of a degree on a thermometer to realize any diffference In temperature. Professor Langley's little bolometer will note the difference of a millionth of a degree. It Is two hundred thousand times as sensitive as our skin.