Part 4 of "The Popular Science .

Educator" will be on sale next Thursday, October 24th I

I
I
T may be interesting to discuss the
plan of the POPULAR SCIENCE
EDUCATOR so that readers who are
taking it in order to give themselves
an all-round knowledge of the sciences
may know how the course will proceed.
The Physiography section begins
natural ly with Astronomy, describing
the uni verse at large, the solar system,
and the various planets that are the
Earth's companions in Space. Here also
we learn about the Moon, comets,
meteorites, and distant uni verses whose
existence has only become known in
recent years.
The section will then go on to deal
with Geology, the structure of the
Earth, its rock formations and-minerals,
and lead up to Physical Geography
describing the world as it is today. We
shall learn all about the land and the
sea, the mountains and volcanoes,
earthquakes a nd currents, and then we
shall come to Meteorology, the st ory of
t he weather. This will t ell us about
winds and storms and rain and snow
and hail and lightning and thunder,
a nd climate generally.
The Physics section began with the
constituti on of matter, and is now
dealing with the subject of Heat . It
will go on to Light and its myst eries,
Sound and music, and those fascinating
sciences of Magnetism and Electricity
with their developments in the modern
world.
THE BOY'S BOOK OF WONDER
AND INVENTION
Anybody who wants to give an
intelligent boy a present that he will
thoroughly enjoy and will get
pleasure from for months together,
should give him a copy of the
Editor's new six shilling book,
THE BOY' S BOOK OF WONDER
AND INVENTION, which is packed
full of illustrations, explanatory
drawings, thrilling scientific articles,
and experiments that can be per-
formed in the home. It is certainly
one of the cheapest six shillings'
worth ever provided.
In the Chemistry section we are
studying the various elements one by
one and learning how they combine t o
form compound substances, many of
which are of the utmost importance to
ma nkind. Vve shall learn all aboutacids
and alkalis and solids, metals and non-
metals, valence and ions, and we shall
be shown how important the chemist is
in modern industry.
The Biology section will lead up from
lowly forms of life to the more complex
creatures in both the n i m ~ and plant
kingdoms. We shall learn how li ving
creatures reproduce their kind and all
the wonders of the huma n body with
its structure of bone and its network
of nerves a nd blood vessels, and its
muscles t o move the various part s.
In the Mechanics section the prin-
ciples on which modern machinery
works will be described and illustrated.
We shall see the various important laws
which -have to be observed and how by
i11genious devices man is able t o carr y
out t asks that otherwise would be
impossible to him. In this section we
shall have explained t o us by large
double-page drawing;; such compli cated
machines as locomotives and motor-
cars and marine engines and printing
machines, and so on.
Throughout, the book will depend as
much upon its illustrations as upon its
letterpress for making, clear to the
reader the great wonders of science.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL FEATURES IN PART 4
THE MARVEL OF COLOUR THAT IS FOUND IN THE WONDER OF WATER
THE ANIMAL WORLD A full account of this important substance 11 1thout
A fine plate in full colour showing how brilliant are the which none of us could live for more than a day or two.
hues of some of the creatures in every department of We learn about its chemical composition, its behaviour
the animal kingdom. We see the magnificent macaw. under varying circumst ances, the strange facts about
a brilliant butterfly of Polynesia and, in additi on, its freezing, and why the sea keeps our climat e equable.
richly coloured fish , and sea anemones of the British
waters .
THE SIMPLEST OF ALL ANIMALS AND PLANTS
An interesting account of some very lowly creatures
whose bodies consist of only a single cell, with a
description of how they feed and move.
THE AMOEBA LIVES ITS STRANGE LIFE
A full-page drawing showing the life st ory of an
amoeba, the simplest of all animal forms.
THE GREAT CARBON CYCLE
A full -page drawing, .showing how plants breathe in
carbon dioxide gas, seize the carbon in it with which to
make their t issues, and give off the oxygen. The oxygen
is then taken in by ani mals and used for burning the
plant substances they take as food in the course of
which carbon dioxide is formed and breathed out.
' THE EARTH'S NEAREST NEIGHBOUR
A graphic account of the Moon and its scenery with a
description of its giant craters and the strange con-
ditions that reign on the Earth's sat ellite. Illustrated.
A GIANT JUMP ON A LITTLE WORLD
A fine full-page illustration combining photography and
drawing and showing how athletes could multiply
their records by six if they lived on the Moon.
HOW PURE WATER IS PROVIDED FOR
GREAT POPULATIONS
OUR
A fine double-page drawing showing the whole story of
water supply, its purification a'na storage.
THE INCLINED PLANE AND HOW IT COMES INTO
EVERYDAY LIFE
The story of t his important mechanical device with its
developments in the wedge and t he screw. Picture-
diagrams a re given showing the enormous advantage
that it gives to man in the raising of heavy loads or the
application of great pressure. Illustrated.
MANY EXAMPLES OF THE INCLINED PLANE
A double-page of drawings showing the different ways
in which this device is utilised in everyday life.
THE HEAT THAT MYSTERIOUSLY VANISHES
An account of how things are made t o burn, with an
explanation of ignition point, why some things burn
more easily than others, slow and rapid combustion,
and how different substances absorb and hold different
quantitiP.s of heat. Illustrated.
THE MANY DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH MAN
MAKES FIRE
A full page of drawings showing some of the inge\iifous
methods by which fire is produced in different parts
of the world today.
[ Ask Your Newsagent to Send You "The Popular Science Educator" Every Week
J
THE GLORY OF THE SUN WHEN ECLIPSED
T he Sun throws out from i t s surface vast flames of incandescent hydrogen gas, and these flames rise up to a great height,
sometimes half a mi ll ion miles. T hey are best observed during a total eclipse, but they can also be examined and photo-
graphed by means of an instrument called the Spectrohel i ograph even when the Sun is not eclipsed. In addition, the Sun
when totally ecl ipsed is seen to be surr ounded by a hal o of l ight. It i s of a pearly tinge and contrasts strongly with the scarlet
flames or promi nences. It is made up of fil aments which diverge l i k e rays and ar e in some cases intertwined. T he nature
of t his corona is not defi nitely known. T he parts remote from the Sun are believed to be due to reflected light on part icles
of matter, probably el ectr ons, but near er t he Sun 's surface, wher e the corona i s brighter, it is thought the !ight must be due
to incandescent gas. Some scientists think t hat t he corona i s of electrical origin and is like a vast auroral display
CHEMISTRY!
................................ ............ .
The Science of the Elements of which all the matter in - the
Universe is made up
The Wonders of COMBUSTION and CHEMICAL COMBINATION
THE COMMONEST OF ALL ELEMENTS
More than half the Earth's crust, a third of all the water in the world, and a fifth of the
atmosphere is made up of oxygen gas, an interesting account of which is given here
W
E have seen that when an electric
current is passed through
water, the water gradually
disappears and in its place two gases
are produced the volume of one . being
twice as great as that of the other.
The gas of the double volume is
hydrogen, about which we read on
page 55, and the other gas is oxygen,
which is nearly sixteen times as heavy
as hydrogen.
This gas, oxygen, is perhaps the most
wonderful of all the elements. As Mr.
Ellwood Hendrick says, " 'The heathen
in his blindness bows down to wood
and stone,' but if he had . studied
chemistry he surely would have
worshipped oxygen. We can im;i,gine
him engaging in -genufiexions before
an effigy with wings to indicate the
air, and the tail of a .fish to show for
the water and with
as many other
attributes as the
devout sc u l pt or
could affix to it."
Oxygen is, in
fact, the substance
that gives us life
and without which
we should perish in
a very fewminutes.
It is the common-
est of all the e le-
men ts, forming
one half of the
crust of the Earth,
one-fifth of the
atmosphere, and
one third bv vol-
ume, but not 'by
weight, of all the
water in the world.
We breathe it in
as an elen1ent, we
breathe it out as
a compound in the .
carbon dioxide gas
which all animals
exhale ; we drink.it as a liquid, and eat
large quantities of it when we consume
our foods which are made up largely of
oxygen gas.
More than 3.5 per cent of a loaf
consists of water, 87 per cent of milk
is water, 73 per cent of an egg, 53 per
cent of mutton, 19 per cent of beef,
62 per cent of bacon, 70 per cent of a
fresh herring, 35 per cent of a bloater,
34 per cent of cheese, 78 per cent of a
potato, 90 per cent of a cabbage, 82 per
cent of an apple, 74 per cent of a
banana, 95 per cent of a cucumber,
and nearly 5 per cent of a nut. And of
any quantity of water it must. be
remembered that eight-ninths by
weight consists of oxygen.
" It appears from researches made
in physiological laborafories," says Mr.
Hendrick, "that oxygen plays a very
important part in what we call the
mystery of sleep. Although we con-
tinue both asleep and awake to inhale
the free oxygen and to exhale oxygen
that has done its work of oxidation
and is in combination with carbon as
carbon dioxide, there is a difference in
the comparative amounts of oxygen
inhaled and exhaled at such times.
" \Vhile we are awake it seems we
exhale more . oxygen than we inhale.
When we sl.eep we inhale more than
we exhale. We deolete the store awake
and increase it while we sleep. Now
we cannot live without it. It providPs,
by its reactions, by processes of
oxidation within us, for bodily heat and
for the chemical processes of life. How
needful it is we are reminded when
Making oxygen gas by heating chlor-
ate of p'otash and black oxide of
manganese-. The potassium chlorate
becomes potassium chloride, giving
up its oxygen which is co!lec_ted under
water. On the right a piece of char-
coal is seen. burning with a brilliant
flame in a jar of oxygen
we consider how quickly' we are
drowned.
" In the history of torture one of
the most cruel methods of putting
culprits to death was simply to keep
them awake until they died. Without
sleep they could not make up for the
oxygen lost, and so they died of oxygen
starvation."
What kind of a substance is this
wonderful oxygen on which so. much
of our welfare and our very existence
depends? \Vell, it is a colourless,-
61
odourless and tasteless gas slightly
heavier than air and nearly sixteen
times as heavy as hydrogen :__ 159 to
be exact. At a temperature of rrS-8
below freezing point, that is, at -1188
centigrade and under a pressure of
497 atmospheres, it becomes a pale
blue liquid with magnetic properties.
Bv cooling the liquid oxygen still
further with liquid hydrogen the gas
becomes a pale blue snow-like solid.
This solid melts at -219 centigrade
and boils at - 1825 in an_ open vessel
at ordinary atmospheric pressure.
Oxygen is slightly soluble in water,
a fact that is of great importance, for
fish are dependent for their supply upon
the dissolved gas,
being unable to
breathe it in from
the air as do mam-
mals and birds.
All these are the
physical properties
of the gas, but it
is its chemical pro-
perties that make
oxygen of suprnme
importance. with
one or two excep-
tions it will com-
bine with all the
other e I em en t s,
forming what are
known as oxides.
The process of com-
bining is called
oxidation and
sometimes t h i s
takes place rapid-
ly, as when we
burn magnesium
wire and a powder
which is magnes-
ium oxide is form-
ed, while at other
times it takes place
slowlv, as when a
knife- blade or an
iron fender or a
d o o r - k e y gets
rusty. The red rust
is reallv oxide of iron or, as chemists
call it, ,ferric oxide.
Generally oxidation is .accompanied
by heat and light. We notice this in
the burning of the coa.l_in the grate
and the combustion of tbe food in our
bodies, which is really oxidation and
is the source of the warmth of the body.
There are various ways of preparing
oxygen gas. We have seen on page 59
that it is obtained when water is broken
up by having an electric current s s ~ d
through it; and on page 15 that it is
c
THE COMMONEST ELEMENT
released when mercuric oxide or. red
precipitate is heated.
A cheaper way of obtaining large
quantities is by heating potassium
chlorate, when the whole of the oxygen
is given off and potassium chloride is
left. Chemists express the action by
the equation :
2 K Cl 0 3 = 2 K Cl + 3 0 2
K is the initial of kalium, the Latin
name for potassium, and the equation
means that two molecules of potassium
chlorate yield two molecules of potas-
sium chloride each containing one atom
of potassium and one of chlorine, and
release three molecules of oxygen each
conhining two atoms of that gas.
The chlorate is known as a salt, and
its white crystals melt at 357 centi-
grade. At 380 bubbles of oxygen
appear. By mixing with the potassium
chlorate about a quarter of its weight
of black manganese dioxide the pro-
duction of the oxygen is greatly
accelerated. The manganese dioxide
undergoes no change ; it merely accele-
rates the speed of the chemical action
of the potassium chlorate and enables
it to take place at a temperature below
200.
As manganese dioxide is sometimes
adulterated with organic matter, which
may. cause a violent explosion, it
should be tested before attempting to
prepare oxygen, by heating a very
small quantity in a test tube.
There are other ways of preparing
oxygen in the laboratory, as for example
by allowing water to fall upon sodium
peroxide contained in a flask. Oxygen
is released and sodium hydroxide left.
But for the preparation of oxygen
on a large scale for commercial pur-
poses it is obtained either by the
oxygen is set free and passed into the
air, where it is breathed in by animals,
while the carbon is absorbed by the
plant and used in its growth.
If the oxygen in 'foe .itmosphere were not
diluted with nitrogen gas, not only the fire but
the stove itself would also burn
The chemical change which takes
place in an animal's body through
the action of the oxygen is ictenhcal
with that which goes on when charcoal
e 1 e c t r o 1 y s i s of
water, which is ex-
pensive, but gives
a pure product;
or by liquefying
air, 1 e t ti n g the
nitrogen evaporate
first, and then col-
lecting the oxygen
in cylinders. This
is easy, because,
w hi 1 e nitrogen's
boiling point, that
is, the temperature
at which it changes
from the liquid to
the gaseous form,
is - 194 , that of
oxygen is -1825.
It is interesting
to know that a
natural process by
which oxygen is
When a coal fire is burning brightly rapid combustion is going
on, but combustion is going on -equally in the coal .. cellar among
the loose coal. In that case, however, the combustion is very
slow and the heat generated is carried off by the air so that the
coal does not catch fire
prepared is seen in the plant world.
The gas is set free by the action of
sunlight upon carbon dioxide gas con-
tained in the air. This is done by
means of the green colouring matter
of plants. Sunlight has the power in
the presence of this green colouring
matter of breaking up the carbon
dioxide breathed in by the plant. The
is burned in oxygen gas or in the air,
which is merely diluted oxygen.
A simple experiment will prove this.
Into a jar of oxygen in which a piece
of charcoal has been burned pour some
clear lime water This will become
milky owing to the formation of chalk
by the combination of the lime in the
water and the carbon dioxide formed
62
by the combination of the oxygen and
charcoal.
Now pour some more clear lime
water into a clean glass jar and breathe
into it through a straw. The water
will become milky in the same way.
The carbon dioxide breathed out
through the straw will combine with
the lime and form chalk. If the jars
are left for a time the chalk particles
will sink to the bottom.
Just as the getting of atoms of
oxygen into a chemical compound is
known as oxidation, so the getting of
atoms of oxygen out of the compound
molecule is called reduction. The
smelting of iron in a. blast furnace is
reduction being carried out on a large
scale.
At one time there must have been
much more free oxygen in the world
than there is now, but as time went on
all the silicon and most of the metals
were oxidized. It is interesting to look
round and see the substances which are
already oxidized and those which are
not. The former will not burn as they
have already combined with as much
oxygen as they can possibly take, but
the latter are all able to burn, that is,
at a certain temperature to combine
with oxygen.
Earth, sand, chalk, granite are
examples of substances already oxi-
dized, while paper, wood, coal and fat
are examples of substances waiting
to be oxidized, that is, burnt.
It must be explained at this point
that though oxidation is combustion,
all combustion is not necessarilv oxida-
tion. Combustion in the true scientific
sense is any act of chemical combina-
tion which is accompanied by the
generation of heat and more or less
light, and oxygen need not necessarily
take part in it. Thus chlorine gas will
burn in an atmo-
sphere of hydrogen,
p r o d u c i n g both
heat and light, and
forming hydro-
chloric acid.
It was the French
chemist Lavoisier
who first gave a
true explanation of
combustion. Before
his time the Phlo-
giston theory was
b e 1 i e v e d by all
scientists. When a
fire burns flames
are seen leaping up,
and this suggested
the escape of some-
thing. Men of
science b e l i e v e d
that all bodies
which burn or
undergo changes like rusting contain
a substance which they called phlo-
giston, from a Greek word meaning to
set on fire. When charcoal heated
in air burnt away leaving very little
ash it was supposed that this sub-
stance was nearly pure phlogiston.
Then in 1774 Joseph Priestley, an
English divine, discovered oxygen by
heating red precipitate or mercuric
oxide confined in a glass vessel over
mercury, by means of the Sun's rays
concentrated by a burning- glass.
" What surprised me more than I can
well express," says Priestley, " was
that a candle burned in this air with a
remarkably vigorous flame." He could
not understand his discovery, but called
the gas " dephlogisticated air," that is,
air deprived of its phlogiston.
Lavoisier, however, began to study
oxygen and soon found that it was one
of the constituents of the atmosphere.
He named it oxygen, which means
acid-producer, believing that it was a
oxygen a peculi.ir odour resulted, and
the substance produced, which was
capable of oxidizing various substances,
he named ozone, which means to smell.
It has since been found that ozone
is only another form of oxygen in
which the molecule contains three
instead of two atoms. It is a blue gas,
and can be condensed to an indigo-blue
liquid. It is much more soluble in
water than is oxygen, and is used for
purifying water supplies and the air of
tube railwavs.
It is rea"ily a more active form of
oxygen and is used for bleaching oils,
waxes, ivory, flour and starch. It is
0 "'"' ""
0 " c !.:' ' 0 0 ..
0
0

0
into o
0
the air throuqh stomata-,
' rmr;uths of leaves
0 0
,o
constituent of all acids. In that,
however, he was wrong, for some
acids, like hydrochloric acid, have
no oxygen.
Oxygen is used for many pur-
poses-for artificial respiration,
for disposing of sewage and the
oxidation of waste matter in
general, for welding metals by
means of the oxy-acetylene and oxy-
hydrogen blowpipe, for the oxidation
of linseed oil, for the blast furnace
and steel converter, and so on. Hun
dreds of tons of oxygen are produced
every day in Europe and America for
commercial uses.
Oxidation may take place so slowly
as to escape detection by ordinary
means, or it may happen very rapidly,
and be accompanied by an explosion.
The speed of the oxidation depends
upon many factors, such as tempera
ture, fineness of material, concentra-
tion, and so on.
In 1785 a . Dutch chemist, Van
Marum, noticed that when an electric
spark was passed through air or
prepared on a large scale by the dis-
charge of electric waves in oxygen or
air. In Nature, ozone is formed in the
upper dust-free atmosphere by the
action of the ultra-violet rays on
oxygen, and it is also produced in
small quantities during thunderstorms
by the action of the lightning on the
oxygen in the air. This is due to the
addition of energy to the oxygen
molecules. Any ozone that finds its
way into the lower atmosphere, how
ever, is soon changed back into ordinary
oxygen by giving up its energy owing
to contact with the minute dust
particles. Whenever ozone changes
into oxygen energy is liberated so that
ozone is really oxygen plus energy.
63
THE COMMONEST ELEMENT
It is sometimes said that there is
ozone in sea air, but if this is so the
quantity must be very small indeed.
In describing the preparation of
oxygen from potassium chlorate on
page 62, it was mentioned that the
chemical action was helped by adding a
small quantity of black manganese
dioxide to the potassium chlorate. A
chemical thus added, not for the purpose
of changing itself, but to assist the
chemical action of other bodies, is
known as a catalyst, from a Greek word
meaning to loosen.
The action of a catalyst is curious and
interesting. Mr. Ellwood Hendrick
The green leaves of plants are great
manufacturers of oxygen. They
breathe in from the atmosphere the
carbon dioxide gas which has been
breathed out by animals and give!1
off by fires. Then by means of
their green chlorophyll, or
matter, acted upon by the Sun, they
extract the carbon to build :.JP their
tissues and breathe out the oxygen
through little mouths called stomata,
as shown in this drawing
has described it rather
amusingly. " Let us
take," he says, "two
bodies that according
to all the rules of our
reasoning should combine when we
bring them together. They should,
but they don't. Of course, there is a
reason for this, but what we are after
is the reaction.
" If you strike a match the reaction
will begin from the heat of the rubbing.
Hold the match to the prepared surface
and nothing will happen. Heat makes
the atoms move around in the molecule
at a livelier pace. They seem to swing
in a larger orbit and are more easily
caught up by some other matable atom
that is swinging round in its molecule.
But in these cases nothing happens.
"We have, let us say, two bodies
which should combine, but don't,
dissolved in water in one vessel. We
THE COMMONEST ELEMENT
heat it and shake it and still nothing
happens. Then we add the catalyst,
which is a foreign body, and to all
appearances it has no relation to what
we have or the combination we want ;
nevertheless, as soon as. it is added,
sometimes even in an absurdly slight
amount, presto ! the solution straight-
way froths up, there is a grand commo-
tion, and a reaction involving every
molecule in the solution takes place.
"What we wanted to happen does
happen, and the little catalyst may be
found at the bottom of the beaker just
as it was when we put it in, to all
appearances, chemically and otherwise
oil lamps all use up the oxygen of the
air and give out into it carbon dioxide.
So in a matter of ventilation these have
to be taken into consideration.
One of the difficulties of mountain
climbing at great heights is the rarity
of the atmosphere and consequently
the diminution of the supply of oxygen
to the body. Those who climb to great
heights or rise very high in open
balloons suffer from what is known as
mountain sickness. This is due chiefly
to the cutting down of the supply of
oxygen.
Men who are climbing and thereby
using much energy need a greater
atmospheres of pure oxygen. At such
high pressures the blood contains about
twenty-eight volumes of oxygen to each
100 cubic centimetres of blood, instead
of twenty volumes, which is the usual.
The additional eight volumes of oxygen
are contained in solution.
Fish are killed when the oxygen
pressure in the water they swim in is
increased to the extent of ten volumes
of dissolved oxygen in each 100 cubic
centimetres of water.
The demand for . oxygen varies a
great deal in different creatures. Mam-
mals and birds must have a constant
supply, and if it is cut off they become
Many substances, like those shown here, will not burn because they are already burnt, that is, are already combined with oxygen
unchanged. There are volumes and
volumes written about this, and there
<tre theories galore, but I shall not
develop them, The fact is the catalyst,
which is the active agent in the process
of catalysis, behaves generally like a
human trouble-maker."
It is interesting to know that an
average person breathes into his body
in twenty-four hours over 346 cubic
feet of air, or nearly thirty pounds, and
out of this air the lungs take up daily
just over twenty cubic feet of oxygen,
or twenty-nine ounces.
Now as at every breath some oxygen
is taken from the air and a quantity
of carbon dioxide gas given back to it,
supply of oxygen than is normally the
case. It is true that the atmosphere,
one-fifth of which is composed of
oxygen, supplies us with an excess of
that gas over the actual needs of the
body in normal circumstances, but in
performing heavy muscular work as,
for example, in climbing, the muscles
use up more oxygen, and if the work
even at sea level is heavy and is main-
tained for a considerable time, the
quantity of oxygen supplied by the air
may be insufficient. High up in the
mountains, w h r ~ the supply
is less than normal, it be-
e o mes insufficient, even
though the rate of respiration
eaves
rapidly exhausted and very soon
perish. The lower backboned crea-
tures, however, can survive asphyxia
for many hours if. they are kept in
places of low temperature.
Cats apparently must have an ade-
quate supply of oxygen or they die.
There are no cats, it is said, living at
heights above II,500 feet. If they are
taken into the lofty villages of the
Cordillera Mountains of America, they
very soon become dejected. Then
they have convulsions like those of
epileptic fits and finally die.
On the other hand, the condors
apparently need less oxygen, for they
fly from the sea level to the tops of the
Substances like those shown here are combustible, that is, they will burn readily because they are able to combine with oxygen
if the atmosphere around a person were
not renewed he would at last be
suffocated because he would be unable
to get from the air the oxygen he
required. In other words, he would die
of oxygen starvation. His death would
be of exactly the same kind as if his
head were - placed under the receiver
of an air-pump and all the air around
him removed.
The amount of fresh air required in
a given room is determined by the
number of persons who are gathered
in it. A supply ample for one person
would naturally be insufficient for
two. Of course, fires, gas-burners, and
be increased so as to take in more air.
Too much oxygen may act as a
poison, and experiments have shown
that the maximum th<tt can be used
advantageously is when the atmosphere
breathed contains rather more than
half its volume of oxygen. All living
creatures, animals and plants alike, are
killed when the supply of oxygen is
sufficiently high, that is, from 300 to
400 per cent, as against the 20 per cent
of the ordinary atmosphere.
Warm-blooded animals like ourselves
die with convulsions when submitted
to an atmosphere which is equal to
fifteen atmospheres of air or three
64
lofty peaks of the Andes in a few
minutes. They have been seen flying
at a height, it is believed, of five miles.
All this shows the extraordinary
importance of oxygen to life in all its
forms. The more active a creature is
the more oxygen it needs. Walking
fast, running, climbing up a hill or
mountain, all necessitate a great supply
of oxygen, and as up mountains the air
becomes rarer so that the supply of
oxygen is less, the breathing has to be
increased in order that greater volumes
of the rarefied air may be taken into
the lungs. This puts an increased
strain on the heart.
THE STORY OF OZONE GAS AND ITS VARIOUS USES
Ozone ,gas, which We often hear exists at the Seas.id_e more
than elsewhere, though this is doubtful-, is a form
of oXygen, but instead of having two atoms in the molecule,
as is the case with o?'ygen, ozQne has three._. l_t __is -formed
oxygen by _ultra-violet rays from the 81;..m iri the
_upper "atmosphere, and in the- lower, atmosphere by
lightning. Ozone molecules have more energy than those
Of ox.Ygen; but when theY come -in coiitact_ with_ dust
'particles. in the lower air they give up their energy and
become oxygeti molecules. Ozone cart be prepared
_a"rtifi-cially . by PaSsing an 'electric disch_arge through
oxygen in an apparatus like that shown at the bottom.
This has two concentric tubes, the inner tube being coated
On its inner surface .with tinfoil, and the outer tube-c:oated
on its outer surface with tinfoil. The latter is placed in
di"lute sulphuric acid, and the terminals are arranged as
shown. Most of _the oxygen . is by the electric current
changed _into ozone;- and cari be collected. Ozone is
Us_ed_ for the _air in underground railway tubes
and the water in reservoirs. As can be seen, the molecule
of ozone iS not VerV sta':ble. It very soon changes back
into oxygerl, as for, example when i_t comes in contact
With the dust pa"rticles in the lower atmosphere. These
absOrb itS er1ergy and leave it oxygen once more
THE WONDERFUL CELLS THAT MAKE UP OUR BODIES
Our bodies are made up of millions of tiny units called cells. They vary according to the work they have to do. We see some
of the different kinds of cells in our bodies greatly magnified on page 69. Here is a cell enormously magnified so that we can
see what it is like. In principle all the cells in our body are of this character. The cell itself has a thin membrane for a wall,
and is filled with a jelly-like substance called protoplasm. In this is a nucleus which plays an important part in growth.
We grow by the cells dividing and forming new cells, and this division begins with the nucleus, which divides into two and
afterwards the protoplasm arranges itself round the two divisions, spreads out, and eventually the whole cell divides into
two. The nucleus itself has a centre called the nucleolus, or little nucleus. The centrosome helps in cell division
66
The Story of Life and Living Things and how these are constantly being affected
by their surroundings
PHYSIOLOGY, ZOOLOGY, EMBRYOLOGY and BOTANY
ALL LIFE BUILT UP OF CELLS
The body of every living creature, whether it be animal or plant, large
or small, simple or complex, is, as we read here, built up of tiny cells
I
F we take a thin slice of any part of
a plant, leaf, stem or root, and
examine it by means of a powerful
microscope, we find that it has a honey-
comb-like appearance. The same thing
is true if we take a thin slice from any
part of an animal.
It was an Englishman, Dr. Robert
Hooke, who first drew attention to this
fact, and he gave the name of "cell"
to each of the little compartments which
he saw in his botanical specimens. The
structure of the plant and animal parts
seen through the microscope suggested
to him the cells in a bee's comb.
Years afterwards it was found that
the cells of both animals and plants
were filled with a jelly-like substance,
to which a German botanist, Hugo von
Mohl, gave the name " protoplasm,". a
word made up from two Greek words,
and meaning "the first formative
material.''
This substance is thick
and semi-fluid and is filled
with innumerable white
granules which ,fis the cell
expands flow 'in streams
from the centre to the cir-
cumference in never-ceasing
activity. The name proto-
plasm was given because this
is.the simplest form of living
matter which is known to us,
and out of it all the life of
the plant or animal springs.
Living Protoplasm
to have what appear to be many
minute bubbles in it.
In all important respects the proto-
plasm seems to be alike in both plants
and animals. It is the protoplasm that
is sensitive to light, and that moves.
There is a large amount of protoplasm
in, say, a man's body, but in man, as
well as in all other animals and in
plants, the profoplasm is shut off in
tiny Jumps, as it were, by definite cells
or membranes. It is the single bit of
protoplasm within its membrane that
forms the cell.
In larger plants and animals the outer
layers of cells in the body are usually
dead. Protoplasm
is no longer there,
and only the dead
cell remains. This
is true of the out-
side of our skins, of
different kinds of cells in the leaf, the
stem iJ.nd the root of a plant. .
The cells of a body have been likened
to the bricks and tiles that go to the
building up of a house. But while the
simile is interesting and useful up to
a point in helping us to understand
matters, we must bear in mind that
cells are not added to cells as bricks are
added to bricks to make a house. As
one scientist has said : " It is not that
the cells make the plant ; it is the plant
that makes the cells," and the same
thing is true about animals.
What really happens is this. Food
materials are gradually changed by
protoplasm into living substance like
itself, and the process is known as
assimilation, a word which tneans " to
become like." As a result the amount
of protopiasm increases and the cell
grows. If this process continued in-
definitely the cell would in
time become very large.
But that does not happen.
When the cell has reached
its normal size, the nucleus
divides, and very soon the
halves separate and form
two nuclei. Then the body
of the cell also divides and
cell walls form between the
parts till at last two cells
exist where formerly there
was only one.
Growth Goes On
Chemists have found that
this living protoplasm is
made up chiefly of the four
elements, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen and carbon, and
Why can a living creature made up of tiny jelly-like cells stand erect? It
is because the fluid in the cells presses out in the enclosing skin just as
the gas in a balloQn presses outward and enables it to stand up stiffly
These cells assimilate and
divide, and so the growth of
the plant or animal goes on.
The simplest of all plants
and animals consists of one
cell only, but trees and
plants have the power of manufactur-
ing it out of non-living matter in the
air and in the soil in which they grow.
Exactly how this is done by the plant
is not known. But it is a curious fact
that animals whose bodies are made up
of this same kind of living matter are
unable to manufacture it out of none
living matter. We, and all animals,
can only obtain it by feeding upon
plants, or on other animals which have
fed upon plants. The plants make
protoplasm from lifeless matter, and
pass it on to living animals.
Now it is the protoplasm of living
things that seems to be the matter
that can grow. Seen through a micro-
scope of small power it looks something
like white of egg, but under a more
powerful microscope it is seen to con-
sist of an exceedingly fine network, and
the hide of a horse, and the bark of a
tree.
Now though all living creatures are
made up of cells of protoplasm, . the
cells are not all alike in form. Even
in our own bodies there , are many
different kinds of cells. They vary
in size and in shape. Some have thick
walls and some thin. Some have
various kinds of solid bodies floating
inside them, while others have few or
none at all. Some have small bubbles
of a clear liquid, while others have
larger bubbles. In some plants' cells
the protoplasm can be distinctly seen
moving about.
The different kinds of cells make up
different parts of our bodies. We find
one kind of cell in the skin, another in
the liver, another in the bones, another
in the brain, and so on. Then there are
67
horses and men have many millions.
Even the tiny wheel animalcule that
can easily pass through the eye of a
needle has nearly a thousand cells.
Yet even the most complex living
creature like a human being begins life
as a fertilised egg-cell, which divides
and divides again till with the multi-
plication of cells the embryo is formed.
The whole living plant or animal is
called an organism. This is made up
of parts called organs, and the organs
are made up of tissue, which is itself
built tip of a number of cells, the cells
being built up of protoplasm.
We must remember, however, that
in the cell there may be other substances
that cannot be regarded as protoplasm.
These are of various kinds, such as
starch grains, globules of oil, pigment
granules, crystals, and so on.
c*
THE LIFE CELLS
Some scientists speak of the whole
qf the matter in a cell as cytoplasm, a
word which simply means "cell sub-
stance." They call the granules
globules, and other unessential elements
metaplasm, which means " sharing
" In the great fairs of long ago," he
says, "thete used to be a grouping of
similar booths together-all the
clothiers in one place, all the toolmakers
in another ; and when in the course of
time a town grew up like a fair all the
year round, there were streets compose(!
of similar shops. These correspond to
what are called tissues in living
creatures, for a tissue is a.combination
of similar cells doing the same kind of
work. Thus the skin of a leaf or of a
root is a tissue, and the wood and pith
of a stem are tissues.
matter," and then they
describe the protoplasm as
the cytoplasm minus the
meta plasm.
Sir J. A. Thomson uses
an apt illustration to ex-
plain how different kinds
of cells are grouped to-
gether to do different work
in a plant or animal.
" Numerous cells, similar or different,
are often compacted together so that
they form an organ, like a leaf or a root,
a tendril or part of a flower. Plants have
not so many organs and tissues as
_animals, where the division of labour is
greater."
Cells are very
small and it needs
a microscope to see
them. It would
take at least five
hundred ordi.nary
cells laid side by
side to make an
inch, and it can be
understood there-
fore that it needs a
very powerful
microscope and
One of the marvels of all life is that the tiny cells of which a plant or animal is made up perform
so many functions. The cells vary a good deal in form, yet in principle they are alike, consisting
of a membrane containing living matter -known as protoplasm. It is this protoplasm that
enables the animal or plant to grow, for it causes the cells to divide and multiply. It seems
marvellous that such soft and jelly-like units can build up in one case a delicate and fragile
plant like the toadstool shown here on the left, and in another a massive, solid elephant like
the great African specimen shown above. The elephant stands firm and erect, with_ hard, rigid
tusks, and yet it is made up of millions of soft cells. The rigidity is obtained chiefly by the pres-
sure of the protoplasm on the walls of the cells. In addition, each cell builds up for itself a kind of
framework or scaffolding out of non-living matter, and the combined result of the myriad frame.
works helps a man or elephant or tree to stand erect, instead of flopping on the ground like a jelly
68
Every living
creature's body
is made up of
tiny eel Is, but in
higher creatures
there are differ'
ent kinds of cells
for the different
tissues t-hat
make up the
organs doing
different kinds of
work. Here Rre
some of the
different kinds of
cells in the
human body.
The striated cells
are in the-volu11 ...
tary muscl.es like
those of the arms
and Jegs ; the
other m uSCI e
cells are in parts
like the heart
special methods to examine their
minutest parts.
When an object has a diameter less
than 1/125,oooth of an inch it cannot
be seen distinctly by merely magnifying
it. It is too small for the wavelengths
that are visible t6 our eyes to .reveal it.
But modern science makes it possible
to see such minute objects by what .is
known as the ultra-microscope.
The working .of this device may be
made clear by a simple illustration.
We know that an ordinary room is
filled with myriads of dust particles
far too small to be seen by our eyes in
ordinary daylight. Yet when a strong
beam of sunlight enters the morn
through a crevice, the particles of dust
are seen in the beam. Why is this ?
Well, the invisible has not become
visible in the ordinary sense. What we
see is not the particles themselves but
the rays of light from the surfaces of the
brilliantly illuminated particles. So
in the ultra-microscope, first used in
1903, a powerful horizontal beam
reveals shining points of diffracted
light from the very minute particles in
the protoplasm of a cell. The particles
are not seen directly ; they are detected
indirectly by the scattered light rays.
All the renewal of tissue in a body
with the healing of wounds and growth
generally depends upon the ability
of cells to divide and form new cells.
And the marvel is that cells become
specialised for the different kinds of
work they have to do in the plant or
animal.
As Dr. Logan Clendening says:
"Muscle cells have a special structure
which gives them the property of con-
tractility. Thisistheirworkin the body,
and they cannot be made to . do any
other kind of work. They cannot, for
instance, assume the functions of gland-
cells, which are endowed with the
property of secreting or manufacturing
material, usually a juice, useful in the
carrying on of the bodily activities.
"All cells, however, have certain
gene.ta] activities in common-all are
able to maintain life in themselves by
converting food and air into energy and
into protoplasm."
There are five principal kinds of
tissue in animals formed by th(') different
varieties of cell. There is the epithelial
tissue of the skin, the covering of the
inside of the mouth and the coat of the
stomach and intestines. Then there is
the connective tissue found in tendons,
bones, cartilage and gristle. Another
tissue is the blood, made up of two
distinct types of cells-the white and
red blood corpuscles-:-which swim in a
voluntary muscles,
as of the arms and
legs, those of the in-
voluntary muscles,
such as are found
in the intestines and
the heart muscle-
liquid kriown as the
serum.
Next there is the
muscle-tissue, made
up of three kinds of
cells, those of the
cells. Finally, there is the
tissue made up of very
specialised cells.
All these different kinds of tissue are
found together in various parts of the
body, and they work together as a unit.
If protoplasm is a fluid or a jelly it
may well be asked how animals and
trees can stand up rigidly. The sequoia
or eucalyptus tree rises vertically to a
height of 300 feet or more and stands
against the winds and storms, and the
giraffe raises its long neck twenty feet
above the ground and the elephant
stij.nds as firm as a rock. How can these
things happen if the cells making up the
trees and animals are mere collections
of soft jelly ?
Well, the rigidity is in two
ways-partly by the pressure of the
69
THE LIFE CELLS
protoplasm on the cell walls, which is
known as turgidity or the quality of
being swollen, just as a child's balloon
will stand up when it is blown out ;
and secondly by a kind of scaffolding
or supporting framework which the
cell builds up for itself out of non-
living matter.
Living cells have the property of
being irritable, that is, reacting or chang-
ing in response to a change of their
environment. Some cells ate sensitive
to chemicals, others to light, heat,
pressure, and so on. All cells indeed
are laboratories in which chemical
reactions supply energy.
It is a very remarkable fact that
isolated pieces of tissue detached from
the plant or animal may continue
to live for long periods. A tissue from
the embryo of a chicken, for example,
kept at a suitable temperature and
supplied with oxygen, has gone on living
for ten years just as though it were still
part of a living hen. " Throughout all
that time," says Professor Patrick
Geddes, " there was growth as well as
life, and the growth-rate was practically
uniform throughout,:.'
How long can a cell lfve when it
forms part of a living plant or animal ?
A giant sequoia tree can live .for 3,000
years, but this does not mean that any
individual cells have lived all that time.
Much of the tree is dead skeleton and
the living cells are constantly being
renewed.
"From the continuance of the life
of the organism as a whole," ,says
Professor Geddes, " one cannot argue
to the longevity of particular cells,
except in cases where no replacement
occurs and the individual cells remain
alive. Thus it is generally believed that
when the brain of a back boned animal
has once reached its normal size there
THE LIFE CELLS
is nci further multiplication ot its nerve-
cells.; therefore a living nerve-cell of
that brain has lived since the animal's
maturity at least. It is generally
believed that there is no increase in the
number of our brain-cells after birth.
If this is quite correct then those nerve-
cells of a centenarian's brain that remain
alive must have lived for a hundred
years.
"The American botanist, D. T.
MacDougal, has recently pointed out
that the cells of the pith of the tree
cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) may con-
tinue to grow and function for more
than a century. It .does not seem to be
the living matter or protoplasm
that grows old in a cell ; it is
rather what may be called the
furniture of the cell-laboratory,
that is to sav, the more stable
plasmic framework within which
metabolism occurs. Thus if a
cell is no:t very highly differen-
tiated it should live longer than
one that is specialised. As for
single-celled organisms, which
divide periodically, it
seems that many of them
must have evaded natural
death altogether:"
When examining a cell
through a microscope it is
always exceedingly inter-
esting to watch the be-
haviour of the nucleus.
When, for example, a plant
cell is about to strengthen
its membrane at some
point by adding fresh
layers of cellulose, the
nucleus will be seen to
leave its normal p()sition
irt the centre of the cell
and move across to the
point where the work is being done.
There it remains till the work is com-
pleted, when it returns to its original
place in the qmtre of the cell. Its
behaviour certainly suggests that the
nucleus takes an active part in the
construction of the cell wall. The
nucleus indeed acts as a kind of fore-
man or overseeing all the work
that has to be; done in the cell.
70
The body of a human being, like that of other
animals, is made up of cPrtain elements corn- .
bined in various compounds. If a man's body
could l>e taken and split up into its elements
and then rearranged, we see here what be
produced. There would be about ten gallons of
water, enough ammonia to carr.y out the;
spring .. cleaning in a house, a good-size packet
of sulphur tablets, sugar enough to sweete;r)
the tea at a mothers' meeting, sufficient
phosphorus to tip the matches of several.
dozen boxes, magnesium ribbon enough to
take two or three flashlight photographs, salt
to cook several dinners, enough soap to wash
a family for six months, enough iron for one
nail, and enough for a henhouse
Howthemighty
Forces of Nature are applied and made to work for the
benefit of Mankind ' .

STATICS, HYDROSTATICS, KINEMATICS and ENGINEERING
THE GREAT ADVANTAGE OF THE PULLEY
The pulley, which is described here, is really only an adaptation of the lever.
It is certainly one of the. greatest mechanical inventions man has devised
W
. E have already seen how very
valuable a device the lever is in
its various forms. Well, there
are two developments of the lever,
the wheel and axle and the pulley,
which are almost equally useful to man-
kind. Although these are generally
spoken of as distinct mechanical de-
vices or simple machines, they are, as
can be seen from the picture-diagrams
on page 75, only levers in an unusual
form.
In the wheel and axle there are two
cylinders with the same axis, but one
of the cylinders is larger in diameter
than the other. The larger cylinder is
spoken of as the wheel and the smaller
bne as the axle. '
There is no definite proportion be-
tween the two any more than there is
in the arms of a lever. The diameters
are varied according to the kind of
work the machine is required to per-
form. Sometimes the wheel is very
large and the axle small, while at other
times there is not so much difference
getween them.
A Handle for a Wheel
A simple form of the wheel and axle
in ope,ration is the windlass by which
water is drawn up from the well. In
this . case a handle is generally sub-
stituted for a complete wheel. Another
familiar example is the Elomestic mangle
where the complete wheel is retained
and is turned by a .handle attached to
its circumference for convenience.
Let us see how this device operates.
In the case of the windlass the rope
supporting the pail is wound round the
axle and the axle is"rotated by turning
the. handle which corresponds with the
wheel. We can see at once that the
handle, as it turns, passes through a
much greater distance than a point on
the circumference of the axle. We
therefore get the same effect as in an
ordinary lever when one arm is much
longer than the other.
Mechanical Advantage
The arm turning the handle. (or
wheel) part of the device passes
through a much greater distance than
the weight or pail is raised by the
winding of the rope round the axle.
According as the diameter of the
wheel is increased in proportion to that
of the axle, so a correspondingly smaller
power is needed in turning the wheel
to raise a weight on the axle.
Suppose the radius of the wheel to
be six times that of the axle, then a
power equal to one pound at the wheel
will raise a weight equal to six pounds
on the axle.
Other familiar examples of the wheel
and axle in daily life are the pedal of an
ordinary push bicycle and the capstan
of a ship.
The law relating to the wheel and
axle is practically the same as for the
lever and may be expressed thus : the
power multiplied by the radius of the
wheel will balance the weight multiplied
by the radius of the axle.
It is not only in the raising of a
weight that the wheel and axle is
useful. It is also of great service where
it is desired to exert a large force at the
axle by applying only a small force at
the wheel. The domestic mangle is a
good example of this. A woman can
turn the wheel withouJ undue exertion
and apply great force at the axle,
which will enable her to wring the water
out of wet clothes or smooth dry ones
in a way that she would find impossible
without the advantage which the
application of the wheel and axle gives
her.
In the bicycle pedal it is also of great
use and the principle is applied in our
watches and clocks, where changes
in velocity or power are obtained by
trains of toothed wheels working on the
wheel and axle principle. The device is
also used in many forms of cranes, the
power being applied sometimes by
human hands and at other times by
means of a leather band round the
wheel worked by steam or electric
power.
A Genius of the Past
While the lever was probably a
chance discovery the wheel and axle
must have been a definite invention,
for it does not exist ready-made in
Nature as does the lever. No one,
however, knows. who the genius was
who first thought of the clever device.
A still more useful of the
lever is the pulley; va.qomi_ forms of
which are given on pagei?''J2 and 73.
Every pulley consists of parts.
First of all there is a plate or disc or
wheel with a groove cut round its cir-
cumference. This wheel, which is able
On the left 'is the simple machine known as the wheel and axle, in which two cylinders, one large and one small, are fixed
on one axle. The -0ther three drawings show familiar uses .of this device, which is really an adaptation of the lever
7r
THE MANY KINDS OF PULLEYS THAT ARE USED
The pulley is one of the most useful devices that man has invented to help him do his work, and as we see on page 75 it
is really only an adaptation of the lever. The simplest form of pulley, which is shown in picture A, is merely a wheel
fixed in a frame turning on an axle, and having a groove round its circumference for a rope. But there are many varia-
tions, as we can see in this drawfng that runs across the two pages. Sometimes the pulley is fixed, while at other times it is'
movable, and the greatest advantage is obtained by using a series of fixed and movable pulleys, as shown in many of these
pictures. The amount of power that has to be exerted to balance a certain weight is shown in each case, and, of course, if
a little more power is exerted the weight is then raised. In A the pulley merely changes the dir:ection of the pull.. Where
the weight is much greater than the pull exerted the power has to be made through a greater distance. than the weight
is raised. In example D, where 10 pounds balance.160 pounds, it is necessary in order to raise the weight one foot that
the pull should be exerted through 16 feet. Where mechanical advantage as well as change of direction is wanted, the type
of pulley used is that shown in examples J to 0. It is by means of a train .of pulleys that a couple of men are able to
raise a great steel safe weighing several tons from the pavement to a fifth or sixth floor window. If we watch such an
operation going on we shall notice that though the men pull yards and yards of chain through the pulley, the safe goes up
72
IN LIFTING WEIGHTS
vertically very slowly. We see the application
of the pulley to cranes of
various kinds in the
double-page
drawing on
pages 76
and 77
! l ~
73
~
I
THE PULLEY
to move freely on an axis, is called the
sheave. Then there is a frame in
which the wheel is placed, and in the
sides of which the axle. of the wheel is
fixed for support. This is called the
block. Finally, there is a cord which
passes over the groove in the sheave
and this is called the tackle.
There are two . kinds of pulley, one
known as the fixed pulley and the
other as the movable pulley. The
simplest of all pulleys is a single fixed
pulley,_ such as that on the clothes-line
post in the garden, or that over which
the sash-cord works in a window.
Now, the clothes-post in the garden
is an excellent example of the advan-
tage which the pulley gives in doing
on one end is communicated to every
other part, so that if she pulls with a
force equal to, say, half a hundred-
weight, this pull is communicated right
through the rope.
Of course, some of the work put into
the pull by the maid is lost in friction
between the rope and the pulley wheel..
We see this simple form of pulley in
use in many spheres. When a roof is
being repaired the tiles, mortar and
other materials are often pulled up in a
basket by means of a rope passing over
a single fixed pulley. The work can be
done much more rapidly and easily in
this way than if a labourer had to climb
up a long ladder carrying the basket of
materials with him.
by pulling. upward on the other end of
the rope is able to raise a weight equal
to double the force put into the pulley.
Half the weight is, of course, sup-
ported by that part of the cord which is
fixed to the beam, while the other half
is supported by that part of the cord
which the man is holding.
Such an arrangement is inconvenient,
but it can be made of much greater
value if instead of pulling upward the
man passes his end of the cord over a
fixed pulley attached to the beam, as
shown in the second example on page 72,
and pulls downward.
The movable pulley halves the power
which has to be exerted to support the
weight, and the fixed pulley enables the
The capstan on a ship which raises and lowers the anchor, or does other work, is an excellent example of the wheel .and axle
work. In order that they may dry
quickly the clothes on the line must be
hauled high up where they will catch
the wind. It would J>e exceedingly in-
convenient if the maid had to get a
ladder or pair of steps, climb to the
top of the pole and then pull the line
up with the clothes on it.
What does she do ? She takes hold
of the end of a rope which passes up
and over the pulley wheel, the other
end of which forms the clothes-line.
Instead of pulling the clothes-line up
she pulls it down, and is able to do
this easily and comfortably.
' What the pulley has done is to change
the direction of the pull. The rope being
flexible, without being elastic, the force
thich is brought to bear by the maid
But the change in the direction of the
pull or work clone is not the only
advantage which is obtained by the use
of the pulley. When a combination of
pulleys is used a great weight can be
raised by the exertion of a little force,
exactly in the same way as can be done
by adjusting the arms of a lever.
With a single fixed pulley the amount
of weight that can be raised is no more
than the force put into the downward
pull on the other end of the rope. Of
course, in actual practice the weight
raised is less. as some of the work is lost
in overcoming friction.
Now take the s ~ of a single movable
pulley. One end of the cord or rope is
fixed to a beam and passes round the
groove of the movable pulley. A man
74
force to be exerted in a downward
direction instead of an upward.
Now if we think carefully about this
type of pulley while looking at the
picture of it, we shall realise that for
every two feet that the man pulls down
the rope the weight rises only one foot.
The reason is easy to understand. The
length of two feet pulled down by the
man is divided between the two ropes
on each side of the movable pulley.
When the man lengthens his end of the
rope by two feet each of those ropes is
shortened by one foot, and so the weight
is raised only one foot.
This is the principle of the pulley,
which makes it such a valuable machine
in the performance of work.
What we lose in distance we gain in
The upper picture
shows how the pul-
ley is an adaptation
of the lever, and
the other drawings
make clear the
identity of the wheel
and axle with levers
of the first, second
and third orders,
each having .un-
equal arms. The
axle of the pulley
wheel is, of course,
the fulcrum of the
lever
power, and when a number of fixed
pulleys and a nuniber of movable
pulleys are used together we are able
by the use of very little force exerted
through a great distance to lift a very
great weight through a short distance
Various examples of this are given
on pages 72 and 73. In actual prac-
tice, where several fixed and movable
pulleys are used together, these are
generally fixed side by sige jn the
blocks, for by such an arrangement a
great deal of space is saved.
How the Pulley Helps
We may often see as we go about in
town or country examples of the
tremendous advantage which the use
of the pulley gives in raising heavy
weights. Sometimes a very heavy safe
has to be pulled up to the top of a tall
building. At other times a massive
girder has to be raised.
A very large number of men would
be needed to do this work if they
merely lifted the great mass. .But by
having the chain which holds the safe
or girder passed round and round the
sheaves or wheels of the pulley, two or
three men are able to raise the great
weight gradually. If we watch them,
however, we shall see that though the
safe or girder goes up very slowly
indeed, the men are all the time pulling
a great length of chain.
The principle on which the work is
done can be seen by examining the
example J on page 73. There are two
pulleys, each with three blocks, one
being fixed and the other movable.
There are six ropes, three on one side
of the sheaves and three on the other
side, and it is clear that
for every six inches that
the loose rope is pulled
down by the man, the
weight will rise only one
inch. But the power exer-
ted to support the weight
will be only one-sixth of
that weight. Thus, if the
weight is sixty pounds, a
power or weight of only
ten pounds on the loose
end of the rope will sup-
port that heavy weight,
and a little more power
exerted will draw the
weight up slowly.
The use of the pulley in
various forms can be seen
in the different types of
crane which are used at
docks, railway depots and
factories. Some examples
of these are given on
pages 76 and 77, and the
drawings there should
be studied in conjunction
with the pictures of the
pulleys on pages 72 and
73.
Of course, in actual
practice some of the
mechanical advantage
gained in the use of the
pulley is wasted in over-
75
THE PULLEY
coming the friction of the rope on the
sheaves, and of the sheaves as they turn
on their axles. Some work also has to
be expended in raising the movable
pulleys themselves as the weight goes
up.
But all this does not affect the
principle of the pulley, which is one of
the most useful devices ever invented
by man:
Perhaps one of the most interesting
examples of the action of a pulley is
that where a rope thrown over a fixed
pulley has one end of it attached to a
man's body or a seat in which a man
is sitting, and the other end is in the
bands of the man himself.
By pulling on the rope with his hands
with a force equal to half his weight or
less, he is able to support himself, and
with a little more exertion can easily
draw himself up to the pulley. . At
first sight this might seem as though
the fixed pulley was a balancer of
different intensities of force, but what
actually happens is that the man throws
more than half his weight by bis
strength on one side of the pulley, and
thus the rope which supports him on
one side balances the rope which he is
holding on the other side. As stated,
a little extra exertion enables him to
pull himself up.
A man by a pulley
thus arranged can let
himself down into a
deep well, or from the
brow of a diff, knowing
that he will be able
quite easily to pull him-
self up again without
help. It is a wonder
that the pulley has not
been more used as a
fire-escape from the
upper stories of lofty
buildings. A pulley of
this kind also offers a
convenient means of
taking a plunge bath
from the stern windows
of a sailing ship.
THE MANY KINDS OF CRANE IN WHICH THE
In this drawing we see all sorts of cranes, large and small, such as do the lifti.ng 11t a dock. In the top left-hand is an
electric transporter crane, the cradle of which is moved i\long the extended girders by gears driven by electric motors in the
hanging cabin. This cabin also houses the lifting motors for operating the grab l:Juoket, When a ship is about to come
alongside the QU<!.Y the cabin is run back and the whole extended front pf the crane is raised by the motors and pulleys on the
top. The ship is thus enabled to come immediately tlnderneath, and when she is in position the front is lowered once more,
and the cabin and grab bucket run out to begin the unloading frqm the ho!ds. In the electric hammer-headed crane show-II
on the left of the drawing pulleys worked by electric motors pull the cradle along the top of the crane, while a separate set of
motors operates the lifting pulleys. The whole head of this crane can be turned round on its turntable, thus giving a very
wide range to the apparatus. The small hand-crane shown at the angle of the dock basin is operated, as its name implies,
by hand-power, through a winch and gears. The Scotch derrick crane shown at the bottom of the picture is worl<:ed by steam
through a piston and cranks, the chain or cable passing over pulleys to the top of an extended arm, which cari be raised or
lowered by another system of pulleys also worked by steam. The whole revolves on a turntable. The railway breakdown
crane on the right is another type using steam, and operates in a similar way. In the hydraulic crane, which travels on rails,
water is admitted to the large cylinder, which pushes up a piston or plunger, and by the system of pulleys shown raises the
load. The electric travelling crane is worked by electric motors and pulleys, and the motors also drive it along the rails of
the quay. The large floating crane is used chiefly in shipbuilding, for fitting up ships with boilers, etc., after they .have been
PRINCIPLE .QF THE PULLEY JS ADAPTED TO USE
launched. Powerful electric motors work the lifting gear, and also the tilting gear, to enable the crane to get right.over the
ship. Two sets of pulleys are shown, one for lighter material and the lower set for very heavy loads. The whole revolves
on a turntable. Without the 'pulley the
whole structure of modern civilisation
would collapse, for it wouid be quite m p o s ~
sible to load ships with heavy and bulky
material, and set up great modern build-
ings constructed of .massive iron or steel
girders without the crane.
We have only to look at any
dock, railway goods yard or
big building enterprise to see
how much the pulley comes
into use. The invention of
the pulley is ascribed to
11.rchimedes in the third
century before Christ
77
HOW HEAT AFFECTS A. GAS, A LIQUID AND A SOLID
Heat is really movement in the molecules of a body. When a gas is heated, as in
the balloon at the top, the molecules begin to move violently and spread out. As
they move about they knock against the walls of the balloon, and so when the gas is
heated the balloon expands. The same thing happens when a liquid is heated. The
molecules rush about faster and spread out so that the volume of the liquid expands.
This is shown in the middle of the drawing. At the bottom we
seethe metals of a railway line, with the molecules close together.
When a solid is heated the molecules cannot spread, but swing
to and fro and the metal expands, as shown on the right
Molecules
ofqas in
/Ja/loon
account of the Physical Pr-rUes of Mauer and some of the great Natural I
Forces harnessed by man
LIGHT, SOUND, HEAT, MAGNETISM and ELECTRICITY .

..................................
WHAT HEAT REALLY IS
!t used to be thought that heat was a substance which was contained in all hot
bodies, but, as we read here, it is now known that heat is really a form of motion
I
F we put a hot poker into a pail of
cold water the poker will become
cool, but the water will be warmed.
The poker has given up heat and the
water has received it. Similarly, if we
put a cold spoon into a cup of hot tea
the spoon will get hot, whereas the
cup of tea becomes cooler. The spoon
receives heat and the tea gives it up.
Many examples of this kind could
be given, and it is perhaps not sur-
prising that for centuries men of
science supposed that heat was some
kind of fluid contained to a greater or
smaller in <Ul substances, They
called this substance caloric and sup-
posed that some bodies bad less
capacity than others
for receiving it,
The caloric or
heat fluid was be-
lieved to behave like
the molecules of a
gas, so that it al-
ways tended to flow
from a body where
its pressure was
high to one where it
:was lower.
Getting Hot
But centuries before there were men
who thought that heat was due to the
movement or vibration of the particles
of which a body was made up. Plato
wrote "heat and fire which generate
and sustain other things are themselves
begotten by impact and friction : but
this is motion."
Hundreds of years later Francis
Bacon gave his. opinion that heat is
" motion acting upon the smaller
particles of bodies," and John Locke
declared emphatically that heat is
motion and that " the utmost degree
o-f cold is the cessation of that motion."
These men, as modern investigations
have shown, were right. Heat, it is now
in Bavaria, where he became Minister of
War, was superintending the boring of
some cannon and noticed the great heat
of the metal fragments shaved off. By
placing the gun-barrel in a vessel filled
with nineteen pounds of water. he was
able. by the heat generated in the boring
to boil the water in a little more than
two hours.
" It would be difficult," he wrote,
" to describe the surprise and astonish-
ment expressed in the countenances of
the bystanders on seeing so large a
quantity of cold water heated, and
actually made to boil, without any
fire."
Experiments were afterwards carried
out by Sir Humphry
Davy to show that
heat was not a sub-
stance but a form of
energy, but it was
t h e Englishman,
James Prescott
Joule, a Salford
man, . who finally
demonstrated the
matter by measur-
ing the quantity of
heat obtained from
carrying out a given
amount of work.
Measuring Heat
When" a metal
spoon or other ob-
j e c 1; is :rubbed
sha:rply with a cloth
to polish it, it be-
comes warm, and
whenagas is quickly
compressed, as in a
bicycle-tyre pump,
it soon gets hot. In
the case of the gas .
the heat was sup-
posed to be squeezed
out of it by the
compression, and in
polishing the spoon
the metal was sup-
posed also to be
slightly compressed
so that some of the
caloric or heat fluid
stored up in it was
squeezed out, just
as water ij! squeezed
out of a sponge.
The ac;:tion of heat in a solid and in a liquid or gas has been likened to what is seen at a village
fair. In a liquid or gas as heat is applied the molecu.les move about faster in all directions
and jostle one another like the people in the crowd. In a solid the movement of the molequles
is speeded up, but it is with a regular to-and-fro motion, analogous to t_hat of the swing,boats
He made an ap-
paratus called a
calorimeter or heat
measurer, and it is
shown on page 83.
Inside a c o p p e r
vessel a brass
paddle-wheel w a s
made to rotate and
churn up the water.
A set of vanes sol-
dered to the side of
the vessel prevented
the water from
merely moving
round as a whole.
The paddles were
made to rotate by
the falling of two
weights through a
measured distance
of sixty--three feet.
The great objec-
tion to the theory was that when an
object or substance was heated it
weighed neither more nor less than it
did when cold. Yet right down to the
beginning of the nineteenth century
this theory of heat was believed in, and
so late as 1850 a great and author-
itative encyclopedia upheld it.
known, is, a form of energy, just. as
electricity/ light and mechanical move-
ment are .. ;' -:
In 1.798 Count Rumford, who was
really a British subject named Benjamin
Thomson and had fought on the
English side in the American War of
Independence and afterwards settled
79
As soon as they
reacheQ. the bottom they could be wound
up ;i.g;;tin without the paddles turning,
and then the operation was repeated.
Altogether the weights went down
twenty times, turning the paddles and
imparting their energy to the water
which became heated. The mechanical
energy of the moving weights was
THE WONDER OF A REFRIGERATOR SHIP:
One of the reasons why the great mass of the people in a country like Great Britain can be
so well fed to-day is that vast quantities of cheap food, meat, fruit and other products are
brought from distant parts of the world. This can only be done because of the principle of
refrigeration. When the meat or other food is kept below a certain temperature no
decomposition sets in, and the meat will remain fresh and sweet for weeks and even
months. In order to maintain the cold that is necessary,.to preserve t ~ e meat, an
elaborate refrigerating plant is installed on the ship, and similar arrangements are made
for storage when the meat arrives ori shore. The principle adopted in modern cold
storage is to absorb the heat from refrigerating chambers and keep these insulated so
that heat cannot enter from outside. In doing this ammonia is used. The chemical is
inserted into a system of pipes iri the liquid form under pressure. The cold liquid
ammonia passes to the refrigerating holds through pipes, and the pressure being relieved,
it changes into a gas, absorbing heat as it does so. A substance always absorbs heat
when changing from a liquid into a gas. The absorption of heat from the pipes and
refrigerating chambers keeps these cold. The ammonia ga:s at low pressure eventually
So
HOW OUR MEAT IS CARRIED IN COLD STORAGE
passes back to a compressor, where it is put under pressure, and then passes at high
pressure to a condenser, where cold water dripping over the pipes in which the ammonia
gas is passing changes it into a liquid, taking up its heat. The ammonia then passes
through a valve. back into the coils of pipes in the refrigerating cfl.ambers, the whole
process being repeated continuously. The water passing over the condenser pipes
falls into a tank, and is pumped back to the top by means of centrifugal pumps.
The same ammonia is used again and again. The refrigerating chambers are insulated
by layer.s of cork which prevent the heat from outside getting into the chambers. There
are, of course, automatic valves in .the ammonia compr.essor and also hand valves which
control the whole system. The pumps whi.ch keep the cold water in circulation are
worked by an electric motor. It was a famous Englishman, Sir Francis Bacon, who first
discovered the value of refrigeration and thus gave the world one of its most valuable
ideas. He stuffed a chicken with snow and in doing so caught a cold from which he died
a few days later. New discoveries are constantly being rriade in connection with the
preservation of foods at cold temperatures
81
WHAT HEAT IS
transformed into heat energy and after
allowing for friction and a certain
amount of heat imparted to the
calorimeter itself J oub found that the
ratio of the work done on the calori-
meter to the heat produced was a
constant quantity that did not vary in
successive experiments.
In other words, he found that when
work is transformed into heat, the heat
produced is mechanically equivalent to
the work done.
La1er experiments of different kinds
proved that the results were the same
when the change of mechanical into
and material objects are made up of
very small particles called molecules,
far too small to be seen even with a
powerful microscope. In a solid these
molecules are packed closely together ;
in a liquid they are less closely packed,
and in a gas they are packed still more
loosely.
But, as the discoverer of the Brownian
movement described on page 21 found,
the molecules are not still and fixed. In
gases -and liquids they are in rapid
motion, while even in solids they are
also moving.
The difference is that in a gas or
when boiling water pours out of the
kettle spout, and when the child's
expanded balloon swells out larger and
larger in the sunshine or in front of a
fire.
Each little. molecule possesses mass
or weight, and in a liquid or gas _
presses against the sides of the vessel
containing it. When the balloon is
warmed the pressure of the gas inside
increases and this pressure is due to the
impact of the molecules against the
sides as their speed is increased.
The number of molecules of gas
enclosed in the balloon remains the
A striking example of incomplete combustion. This is a fire at a large rubber works, and, as we can see, although the tyres
and other rubber articles were destroyed the heat was not sufficient to consume the carbon in the rubber and so vast quantities
went up in myriads of tiny particles as smoke. Intenser heat would have consumed these particles of carbon
heat energy was made in other ways, as,
for example, when silk was rubbed on
copper and when lead was hammered
on sandstone.
To raise 1 pound of water 1 Fahren-
heit, 778 foot-pounds of work are
required. We see on page 32 what a
foot pound is.
Joule's work will always remain of
the greatest importance in physics. It
was wonderfully accurate seeing he
was a pioneer, but in recent years with
more elaborate apparatus more strictly
accurate results have been obtained.
They only :confirm, however, the
V<llue of Joule's methods.
Baving learnt that heat is a form of
energy and not a substance, let us see
exactly what happens when an object
gets hot or cold.
We have learnt that all substances
liquid the molecules are moving about
in all directions, and they collide with
one another, just as people jostle one
another in a moving crowd ; while
in a solid they are merely vibrating or
swinging to and fro.
This movement of the molecules in a
body is really the heat. When the
temperature of a body is raised what
happens is that the movement of the
molecules is speeded up and as a
result there are collisions between the
particles.
As the heat increases, that is, as the
motion or vibration of the molecules
grows greater, the particles spread out
farther and farther from one another,
and so tlie body as a whole expands.
We see this happening when the hot
sunshine expands the railway metals
and makes their ends go close together:
82
same, that is, their mass is unchanged.
The growing pressure, therefore, shown
by the expansion of the balloon, can
only be due to the molecules moving
faster, and covering the distance
between one part of the balloon wall
and another in a shorter time than
before. The number of impacts per
second is increased, and with growing
speed the molecules will strike the
walls harder. The result is the balloon
is expanded or pushed out to make
room for the turmoil going on inside.
In a liquid the same thing happens,
though to a less degree, and even in a
solid the molecules, though unable to
move about so freely, swing to and fro
like the bob of a pendulum. The
oscillations or vibrations produce the
sensation of heat.
If a bar of metal supported on two
points, ot a gong, be sounded so that
the metal is made to vibrate violently,
though it appears stationary, and we
place .our finger close to the vibrating
metal or actually upon it, we shall get a
sensation very much like that of
touching a heated metal object-our
finger will tingle. In both cases the
molecules of the metal are vibrating.
In a solid body the molecules of
which it is composed are held close
together by a force called Cohesion.
It is because of this power of cohesion
that the molecules of a solid body are
unable to move about freely as in a
At this point it is important that we
should know the difference between the
terms temperature and heat. Tempera-
ture expresses the condition of a body,
that is, indicates whether it ishotorcold,
or how hot or cold it is. Heat, on the
other hand, is a form of energy which a
hot object can give out or a cold object
receive to make it hotter.
Suppose we put on the gas-stove two
vessels of cold water, one a small kettle
and the other a large saucepan. The
number of gas-jets in each ring may be
the same. The kettle of water soon
boils, but it takes a much longer time
Yanes fixed
to side of
vessel
Water becominq
hot as ener,q.11 .
is imparted'fbil
liquid or
gas where
cohesion between
the molecules is much
less strong.
If, however, the heat be
increased greatly so that
molecules move more and nior.e
apart, their swing or vibration al{last
becomes so great and they separafe;s0
far that the power of cohesion is
ened and the solid becomes a liquid,;,, ro . make
If the heat be still further the Dig sauce-
the substance is at last e11hged intif:'; "pan- boil.
a gas, by the molecules being still _other words a great
further separated as they move about,' deal more heat or energy
violently, has to be put into the big
On .. the contrary, if heat be lessened, saucepan than into the small kettle to
a gas will become a !:quid and bring the temperatures of the two
evenhially a solid. It is belause in a quantities of water to the same figure,
gas or liquid the molecules are free to namely, 212 Fahrenheit.
go where they like that matter in these Similarly, the furnace of a small
forms adapts its shape to the vessel locomotive and that of a giant liner
containing it. Ice remains a solid may be at the same temperature, but
block, but water fills a jug or vessel of the big furnace of the liner contains
any shape, and so does water vapour much more heat or energy than does
83
WHAT HEAT IS
the small furnace of the locomotive.
Take another illustration. We put
a large vessel of cold water on a gas-
ring and it takes a certain time to boil.
If we put the vessel on two lighted gas-
rings we boil it in half the time, not
because we have raised the temperature
of the gas-flames underneath, but
because we have doubled the quantity
of heat.
All boiling water under normal con-
ditions is at the same temperature,
namely, 212 Fahrenheit, but two quarts
of boiling water contain twice as much
heat as one quart.
We may say that tempera-
ture is a condition of a body
which can be altered by adding
or taking away heat, while heat
is a form of energy which we may
have in either large or small
In this drawing we see
how Dr. Joule, a British
stientist, proved that heat
is a form of energy and
measured the amount of energy
required to produce a given quantity
of heat. He rotated a paddle in a vessel
of water by, all.owing two weights to fall a
dista.nce of sixty,three feet. After doing this
twenty times in succession the amount -of heat
generated by the mechanical action of the
paddles was measured by noting the ri-se in
temperature of the water
quantities. Temperature has also been
accurately defined as the degree of hot-
ness of a body and the condition which
determines the direction in which heat
will flow when two bodit:s are placed in
contact with one another. To test tem-
perature a thermometer must be used.
Touch is an unreliable guide.
HOW STORMS QN THE SUN AFFECT OUR WIRELESS
Sunspots are terrific tempests on the Sun's surface, and when they appear
streams of particles full of energy are thrown out and reach our Earth in about
a day and a half. On arrival they are deflected to the north and south mag-
netic poles and at once cause magnetic .storms on the Earth affecting the
magnetic needle and causing atmospherics which interfere with the reception
on our wireless sets. These particles of energy from the sunspots al$o give
rise to magnificent auroral displays round the North and South Poles of the
Earth. Further, it is found that they affect the Earth's weather so that the
depth of water in some lakes, like the Victoria Nyanza in Africa, keeps pace
with the appearance of sunspots. Yet these sunspots never cover more than
one-thousandth .of the Sun's visible surface at any one time
PHYSIOGRAPHY
A description of the Physical Universe with tlie Daily, Monthly
and Yearly Happenings in Earth and Sky
AStRONOMY, GEOLOGY, PHYSICAL CEOGRAPHY and METEOROLOGY
THE MARVEL OF THE LIFE-GIVING SUN
If the Suii were blotted out all life would disappear from the Earth, for, as
we read here, it is the Sun's warmth and light that sustain life on the Earth
W
HEN we look up at the Sun in the
sky it seems about the same size
as the Moon, but this is only
because it is much farther away. While
the Moon is but 252,970 miles distant
at its farthest point, the Sun is
94,524,000 miles away at its farthest.
We are not surprised, therefore, to
learn that the Sun is much greater in
size than the Moon, but how much
greater it is will probably astonish us
if we have never thought of the matter.
The Moon is 2,163 miles in diameter,
or a little more than a quarter that of
the Earth, but the Sun is 865,000 miles
acros$, and it would take 64,000,000
Moons to make up one Sun in size.
It is important that we should know
something about the Sun, for it is, after
our own Earth, the most important
member of the solar system. Indeed,
without the Sun shedding forth its heat
and light there could be no life on the
Earth at all.
The Sun is the parent of all the other
planets and how it is believed to have
given birth to its family of worlds is
shown in the picture-diagram on page 7.
While these worlds have cooled down
and become solid bodies the Surt re-
mains a great ball of fire, with a heat
that is quite inconceivable to us.
We speak of it as fire, but it is not
burning in our usual sense of the word,
On the
left is a
photograph
of the Sun
taken with or-
dinary light
showing sunspots,
and on the right
one taken by hydrogen
light showing the upper layers
of the Sun's atmosphere, which
consists of hydrogen gas
85
for there is no chemical combination
going on between oxygen and the other
elements in the Sun.
Everything on the Sun is too hot to
burn. The temperature of the surface
has been measured and proves to be
about 7,000 centigrade or 12,000
Fahrenheit. This is nearly twice the
highest temperature we can obtain
artificially on the Earth, namely, that
of the electric arc, which is about
4,000 centigrade.
But deep down in the body of the
Sun, according to Sir Arthur Eddington,
the distinguished Cambridge astrono-
mer, enormous temperatures exist and
at the Sun's centre the temperature is
probably 55,000,000 centigrade.
We cannot, of course, conceive such
tremendous heat, but Sir James Jeans
helps us somewhat by explaining that
to maintain a pinhead at such a tem-
perature would need all the energy
generated by an engine of 3,000 million
million horse-power, and then the tiny
pinhead would generate enough heat to
THE MARVEL OF THE SUN
kill anyone within a thousand miles
of it.
Now that marvellous instrument, the
spectroscope, which breaks up light into
a colour band and shows lines at
various places on the band according
to the particular element which is
Four ,successive photo ..
graphs of a huge sun-
spot taken at Mount
W i Ison Observatory,
California. In the fourth
photograph the sunspot
has reached the Sun's
edge and is about to
disappear as the Sun
rotates. These pictures
clearly show that a sun-
spot is a raging and
whirling, tempest of fire
givmg out the light, enables us to
discover some of the elements that
make up the Sun. They are the same
as those that make up the Earth, a
confirmation of the fact that the
Earth was once part of the Sun.
So sensitive is this spectroscopic
analysis that the instrument will in
the case of some metals disclose the
presence of one-3,000,000,oooth of an
ounce.
The Sun is surrounded by a glowing
atmosphere of fiery gases and it is, of
course, these only that we can examine.
But already forty elements which exist
on the Earth have been found in the
Sun. These include iron, tin, copper,
zinc, lead, sodium, silver, nickel, cobalt,
hydrogen, calcium, carbon, silicon,
aluminium, magnesium, manganese,
and helium.
Finding a Strange Line
It is a marvellous fact that this last-
mentioned element, helium, was dis-
covered in the Sun. by means of the
spectroscope before it was known to
exist on the Earth. Then a search was
made and it was found on the Earth.
During an eclipse in I868, Sir Norman
Lockyer, the. English astronomer, took
photographs, with the aid of the
scope, of the fiery clouds round the Sun's
darkened disc and found a strange line
on the spectrum which seemed to
indicate an unknown element. He.
called it helium, from the Greek name
for the Sun, helios.
Then scientists at once began to
search on the Earth for this unknown
element, and in 1895 Sir William
Ramsay found it while examining the
spectrum of a gas extracted from pitch-
blende. Now helium gas
is used for filling airships.
It is found in large quan-
tities only in North
America.
To return to the many
elements found in the Sun,
it must not be supposed
that these exist there in
the same state as they do
on the Earth. On the Earth
they are mostly in" the
form of chemical com-
pounds, whereas in the
Sun they are almost en-
til'.ely uncombined and
exist as gases at enor-
mously high tempera-
tures. Even iron is
found as a gas in the
Sun.
It is curious that
most of the elements
found in the Sun are
metals, but some of the
heaviest element.s such
as gold and quicksilver
have not yet been dis-
covered. No doubt
they are deep down in the Sun's body.
An ordinary photograph of the Sun's
disc shows a more or less even disc with
perhaps a few dark spots which we call
sunspots. But by taking the photo-
graph. in a special way so that only a
particular kind of light such as hydro-
86
gen or calcium light comes through
the camera, we get a photograph that
shows the Sun's face to be mottled
or granulated all over. It appears to
consist of smaU luminous masses with
darker openings b.etween. Because of
their appearance these mottle marks
are often called " rice grains."
A Sheet of Luminous Clouds .
Why the Sun has this appearance is
not quite certain, but scientists believe
that the photosphere, or visible surface,
is a sheet of clouds floating in a less
luminous atmosphere, just as clouds of
water vapour float in the Earth's
atmosphere.
This photosphere is believed to be
intensely bright, for the same reason
that a gas mantle is bright : it outshines
the flame which heats it.
The outer layer of gas surrounding
the Sun . like an atmosphere and
believed to be 5,000 miles or more in
depth is called the chromosphere,
which means "colour sphere." Photo-
sphere means " light sphere." The
chromosphere is made up chiefly of the
gases hydrogen, helium, and calcium.
Then there is what is known as the
Sun's corona, a beautiful halo of a
pearly-white colour surrounding the
Sun and visible only when the Sun's
disc is hidden by the Moon during a
total eclipse. It is not evenly dis-
tributed like the Earth's
atmosphere, but has
streamers reaching out
here and there, some
times to a distance of
several million miles.
The spectroscope tells
us much about the
corona, arid shows that
it is due partly to the
presence of incandescent
gases ?nd partly to re.
fleeted sunlight. It is
believed that mixed up
with the gas is some kind of fog or
dust of meteoric origin.
Unfortunately, the corona can only
be studied during the few moments of
a total eclipse, so there is much yet to
be learned about it.
The mottling of the. Sun's surface is
not the only marking detected on its
face. There are the dark sunspots
which can sometimes be detected with
the naked eye when the Sun is
examined through a piece of dark
coloured or smoked glass.
Seen through a telescope a sunspot
consists of a dark
central part sur-
rounded by a
lighter fringe. But
the apparent dark-
ness is due to the
contrast with the
greater brilliance
of the other parts
of the Sun's sur-
face. Even the
blackest portion of
a sunspot is much
brighter than the
dazzling light of an
acetylene lamp.
other spots have been forming. The
irregular group stretches out ecist and
west, and generally there is a large spot
in front of the group and another at the
rear. Sometimes the rear spot is the
larger. After a time the smaller spots
disappear and frequently the leading
THE MARVEL OF THE SUN
these storms the fiercest tornado on the
Earth is mere child's play. A storm
on the Sun rages over 150,000 square
miles or more, and reaches a height of
over half a million miles. In such a
titanic storm of fire the Earth and all
the planets would be consumed in a
moment of time.
When the sunspot
in its p a s s a g e
across the Sun's
disc is seen to
reach the edge a
great red flame
is thrown up tens
of thousands and
sometimes h u n -
dreds of thousands
of miles high.
Sunspots gener-
ally appear in
groups, and it used
to be supposed that
they were all cavi-.
ties in the surface
of the Sun. The
sunspots t rave 1
across the Sun's
disc and when they
near the edge they
often appear as
saucer-shaped hol-
lows with sloping
sides.
A sunspot, which is a stirring-up of th_e Sun's surface, releases heat from the interior in the same
way as heat is released from the inside of the fire when we stir it up with a poker
For some reason
not yet understood
the gases in the
Sun's atmosphere
expand suddenly
and as always hap-
pens when a gas
expands suddenly,
its temperature
drops. It is that
drop in . tempera-
ture that causes
the sunspot to
appear dark in
comparison with
t h e surrounding
surface.
The tempera.ture
All the spots, however, do not give
this appearance, and it is now thought
that the spots are at various levels,
some really forming cavities while
others are raised up.
While some of these sunspots are
small, not exceeding 500 miles in
width, in others the dark part is
50,000 miles across, and the less dark
part surrounding brings the total width
up to I 50, OOO
miles, or nearly
twenty times the
diameter of the
Earth. Such a spot
is big enough to
swallow up the
whole of the
planets at a gulp.
big spot goes with them. Then the
biggest spot of all may break up.
Now what are these curious spots ?
Well, it is believed that they are gigantic
storms or tornadoes of flaming hydro- .
gen. A photograph of the Sun's disc
taken in a hydrogen light shows the
spots as huge maelstroms, and a
succession of such photographs taken
at close intervals makes clear that there
of a sunspot is
about 3,000 centigrade, compared
with the 6,ooo to rn,000 of other
parts of the Sun's disc. The hotter
parts are deep down in the hydro-
gen atmosphere.
It was by the movement of the
sunspots across the Sun's disc that it
was first discovered that the Sun
rotates on its axis. The fact has been
confirmed by the spectroscope, for the
motion of the Sun
as it goes round
causes the lines
in the spectrum to
shift, and the time
the Sun takes to
turn on its axis
can be worked out
by studying these
shifting lines. There are vari-
ous stages in the
development of a
sunspot. First of
all appear bright
streaks and patches
called faculae, a
Latin word mean-
ing little torches.
Next come a num-
ber of small dark
points which in-
crease in size and
join together.
This chart clearly shows how the activity of the magnetic needle on the Earth, Auroral displays
In the Arctic and Antarctic, and the height of water in Lake Victoria Nyanza all keep pace with
the appearance from time to time of sunspots on the Sun's surface
One thing the
movement of the
sunspots has
shown is that the
whole of the Sun's
surface does not
rotate about its
axis at the same
rate. The equator
takes about 25
days to complete
the circuit, whereas
at latitude 30,
Then a kind of fringe made up of
filament-like structures appears and
forms a penumbra round the umbra or
dark part.
The whole process may take several
days, but on the other hand it may
happen in a few hours, and meanwhile
is a vortex motion, and the sunspot
appears as a huge whirlpool of flame.
These titanic revolving storms on
the Sun are believed to be due to the
sudden expansion of solar gases,
hydrogen from above being sucked
down into the vortex. Compared with
87
which on the Earth would correspond
with the Canary Islands and Florida,
the period of rotation is 27 days, and at
latitude 45, corresponding with France
and Nova Scotia, the period is 29 days.
The polar regions take 35 days to
complete the circuit.
THE MARVEL OF THE SUN
Do these sunspots; these terrific
storms on the Sun's surface, affect the
Earth? Well, there seems no doubt
at all that they do. Professor Schwabe, .
of Dessau, after years of patient
study, discovered that the number of
spots not only varies from year to year,
but that the numbers run in cycles over
regular periods of 11 t yyars. In other
words the number of spots that occur
varies from yea:r; to year, but after II!
years the conditions of the previous
11 t years are more or less closely
repeated.
In the first place the sunspots
undoubtedly have something to do
with the displays of the Northern and
Southern Lights, for careful observation
has shown that the variations in the
Aurora Borealis and the sunspots: over
a course of years closely coincide.
Then the variations ih the magnetic
needle, and the appearance of sunspots
in -greater or lesser numbers also cor-
respond very, closely. When the
magnetic needle is much disturbed it
means 1;hat a magnetic storm is going
on, and if a chart be drawn with two
lines representing yariations in the
nurriber of sunspots and also in the
number of magnetic storms the :
correspond very closely. At periods of
great magnetic ac;tivity we find that
our wireless is a good deal interfered
with and that the so-called atmos-
pherics are very bad. .
What really happens is that the sunc
spots throw out streams of particles
like, electrons and ions (the electrified
particles into which a substance is
broken up by an electric current) and
these travel across the intervening
space and enter our atmosphere.
When they collide with the upper
atmosphere. they cause the auroral
displays and set up electric currents
which disturb the Earth's magnetic
field.
The particles take about a day and a
half to reach the Earth and in their
passage describe a series of arcs, some-
thing like those when water falls from
a revolving garden hose.
The particles thrown out by the sun-
spots interfere with wireless trans-
mission because the wireless waves
travel in the same upper layers of the
atmosphere as those in which the
magnetic variations are produced.
There is soine reason to suppose that
sunspots also affect the Earth's weather.
The weather seems to run in cycles of
IIi years like. the sunspots, and it has
been noticed that when the sunspots
change their latitude or position on the
Sun's surface .there is a change in the
storm belt on the Earth.
To what extent the sunspots affect
the Earth's "weather it is difficult, as
yet, to say. When the spots are at their
A remarkable series of photographs of a flame
thrown up by the Sun and photographed during
the total eclipse of1928. One hour and eleven
minutes elapsed between the taking of the
top photograph and. the bottom one. In that
time the great flame had risen to a height of
567,000 miles. The photographs are given here
by courtesy of the Royal Astronomical Society
88
maxilnum they never cover so much- as
a thousanclth part of the visible solar
disc, and so it would seem that they
could not affect.very much the amount
of heat received by the Earth.
The curious thing, however, is that
though th,e temperature of sunspots is
less than that of the other parts of
the Sun's disc, the Sun gives three or
four ner cent more heat at the period of
sunSP.()t maximum than it does when
the spots are at their minimum.
It is thought that these vast storms
on the Sun's surface have the same
effect as when we stir the domestic fire
with a poker. . The storms stir up the
of the Sun and release some of
the intense' interior heat.
The' waxing and waning of the
numoer of sunspots, it is found, cor-
with the change from hot dry
summers to cold wet seasons. Another
interesting fact has been discovered by
Professor Douglass, who says that the
concentric rings seen in the cross-
section of a fir or pine tree indicate by
their thickness whether the year in
which each one grew was dry or wet.
It has also been found that the height
of water in the big African lake Vic-
toria !'lya:ijza keeps pace with the
appearance of sunspots. When sun-
spots aie frequent the year is wet, and
the lake high. . ...
As to the Sun, regarded as a great
globe of fire, its mass or weight is
333,000 times that of the Earth, or in
other words it is l,998 million million
million million tons. In volume it is
1,305.000 times the Earth, or 339,300
million million cubic miles. Its surface
area iil over 12,000 times that of th,e
Earth
1
or2,:i83,621 millionsquaremile!jl.
At its. equator the Sun's rotation is
at the rate of 4.407 miles an hour, and
a complete rotation is made in 25 days,
7 hours 48 minutes. The pull of gravity
at the Sun's surface is nearly .28 times
that of the Earth. While at its greatest
distance from the Earth the Sun is
94,524,000 miles, at its least distance it
is 91,406,000 miles.
The . total attraction between the
Earth and Sun is equal to the pull of
more :than three and a half million
million-tons,, The energy radiated from
each square.foot of the Sun's surface is
equal tO 1_5,000 horse-power. The light
given out by the Sun is l,575 million
million' million: million times as great
as a stan\fard candle would give.
About 40 per cent of the Sun's radia-
tion is absorbed by the atmosphere
before it reaches the solid earth, that is
when the atmosphere is clear. In
cloudy weather more is absorbed.
The energy radiated by every square
yard of the Sun's surface is equal to
i4o,ocio horse-power, and to generate so
much. energy a layer of anthracite coal
25 feet thick wo.uld have to be con-
ey_ery hour. The heat given out
by the Sun would melt a layer of ice
4,000 feet thick every hour all over its
surfape. . Yet only about a hundred
mil_lii>nth of this vast :flood of energy is
intercepted by. the planets.