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Lay Excursions in Science

Second Paper

By CHARLES PIERCE BURTON
Author of "The Bashful Man and Others"

T IS NATURAL, perhaps, that the spectacular in science should imHe becomes in

press the layman.

terested, even fascinated, at once by liquid air and all its manifold possibilities which the imagination can suggest and a well-developed imagination in a layman can suggest many things. In this he has an advantage over the scientist, who is obliged to chain down his imagination to demonstrable facts. But there is nothing in scientific achievement or endeavor which so appeals to the lay public as the thought of airships and the whole question of aërostation.

When Santos Dumont steers his dirigible balloon around the Eiffel Tower, the whole world wonders and applauds, although this same world may not be on speaking terms with the law of gravitation. Laymen, in all ages since that wonderful triumph of science, the sea-going ship, made man master of ocean as well as of land navigation, have watched with longing eyes and souls on fire the flight of birds through the impalpable atmosphere.

“O, that I had the wings of a dove!" sang the Psalmist, that most human and, most god-like of the ancients, three thousand years ago.

And these words have echoed in human hearts ever since. But not until comparatively recent times has navigation of the air seemed possible.

The imagination of the ancients pictured Dædalus and Icarus as flying with manufactured wings. The latter flew so near the sun that the waxen wings melted, and he was precipitated into the sea, there to become an island-not the worst fate that could befall a man. Yet, so impossible did the achievement seem

even in those days of robust imaginations, that only the greatest of the gods had the power of flight. To-day, however, when men of recognized scientific standing are experimenting more or less successfully with aëronautics, there is hope that the imagination of the layman. will soon become a fact of science, and the world will move on to another era.

To a layman, nothing so greatly emphasizes the difference between the scientific world of to-day and the epoch immediately preceding, as the exhibit of flying machines or airships at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. That the American Congress should experiment in that direction is no cause for wonder when we have seen this same Congress bombarding the offending atmosphere in vain efforts to produce rain. But when a hurdle race of airships is actually made a part of the program at an international exposition, in the expressive language of the day, "there is something doing."

Think of it! Flying machines! And constructed with the approval of science! Only a few years have passed since "Darius Green and his flying machine" started from the barn and fell into ignominy. But here in the twentieth century, Professor Langley launches his airship and falls into glory. In the nineteenth century, public opinion, regardless of its hopes, was prone to class promoters of the flying machine with those of perpetual motion, which has always had such a fascination for laymen, notwithstanding. It seemed like flying in the face of Providence, so to speak.

As a matter of fact, successful air sailing is only a little more than a century old. At the beginning of the sixteenth

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century, an Italian chemist in Scotland tried to fly to France; but, while his idea was commendable, the execution was disastrous. The law of gravitation refused to make an exception and suspend operations in his case, and so he fell, breaking the bone of his thigh. The trouble seems to have been, according to the prevailing belief, not in the idea but in the construction of the wings. In this important matter he used rooster instead of cagle feathers an inexcusable blunder. The flight of the eagle is well known and phenomenal. On pinions strong he rises through space as if to reach the very sun. But the rooster is satisfied if he can manage to get over the barnyard fence. How could mortal man expect to fly with such a handicap? The rooster feathers pulled him down. The audacious Italian cleared the fence, then straightway commenced wallowing and scratching in the neighbor's garden.

Not until June 5, 1783, was the first balloon ascension made by two daring brothers named Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier. It is a noteworthy fact that their success was largely due to "hot air." Since then the balloon has been a factor in the scientific world, as well as an important adjunct to the phenomenon known as the county fair, and "hot air" has become one of the world's great motive powers.

But balloons are one thing, and airships something entirely different. How to steer these balloons, that is the question. The balloon will never become popular as a means of conveyance until it can be depended upon to run on something like schedule time and to arrive somewhere near its destination. What will it avail to ascend into the air, no matter to how great altitude, if you have to walk back? The layman does not care whether the ascent is made by means of a gas bag or an inclined plane, if only he can navigate the air and enjoy some new sensations. I'll stake my scientific reputation on the prediction that this will some time happen. Man will some day be master of the air as he is now of land and ocean.

There are some of us even now who

have no patience with phenomena like airships, although, if the truth were known, we have been chasing them under some other name all our lives, and shall keep on in the pursuit until we ourselves become airships and take our flight from this world of care and mystery. Yet, there is nothing unreasonable in the thought of an airship. The mystery lies in the fact that man has not succeeded in flying before this. Since Elijah of old made his spectacular ascent into Heaven, we have been trying to "get off the earth."

The world is full of mysteries, and one more or less cannot matter. Man himself, the greatest mystery of all, spends his brief existence working out their solution, and with every discovery makes the mystery more profound. Could we clear up all of the enigmas, life would lose much of its spice. Still, among the other mysteries, it must be confessed that the term airship has a peculiar flavor, and we roll it beneath the tongue with special unction.

It is so in keeping with our longings and aspirations. Think of it! To mount through space! To leave behind this. world of care and trouble for a brief period of rest beyond reach of the smoke and dirt of civilization! To pass even beyond the clouds that in their purity o'erhang the earth as great, white-winged thoughts o'erhang the soul! What hopes and aspirations would come to us in that ethereal retirement! Methinks, as the ancient giant, ignoble son of earth, took on new bodily vigor with every contact with the soil, so should we, exalted sons of Heaven, expand in mind and soul with every flight.

O, the airships of life-hopes and aspirations, vain imaginings of things to be, which uplift the soul! These, after all, are the real things. The great dream life is the real life, and the daily experience is the dream. From childhood to age we sail these ethereal seas. Fortunate is he who can sail on schedule time; who can translate these hopes and ideals into experience; who, far from the sordidness of earth, can “hitch his wagon to a star" and arrive at his destination.

Costume and Custom

The Strange Practice of Tattooing A Survival of Barbarism that Has Its Counterpart in the Modern Passion for Fashionable

Bodily Adornment

D

ECORATING THE THE FACE AND FORM has been a human weakness since the earliest knowledge of man. The same innate yanity that prompts the woman of certain parts of the globe to paint her cheeks a roseate hue, to punch ear-ring holes in her ears, wear sparkling diamonds, and bind her waist in a vise-like encasement to mould its outlines, causes the women and men of other regions to paint their faces and forms most glaringly and in many-hued designs, to carve their skins, and to decorate their persons with feathers and rings. The Chinese woman who incases her foot in iron slip

TATTOOED MARQUESAS ISLANDER

pers to keep them small, laughs at the American woman who binds her waist, thus cramping and restraining the growth and actions of the vital organs; and the American woman who binds her waist laughs in turn at the Chinese woman who is so foolish as to restrict the growth of her feet. The Marquesan or Japanese who tattooes her whole body with brilliant images of birds, leaves, and animals, thinks she is supremely beautiful and the envy of all women who do not endure the torture of similarly decorating themselves.

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Excessive decorating of the body with knife, paint, and ornaments is practiced by nearly all savages, but gradually diminishes among a people in proportion to their advancement in civilization. turning to the custom is said to be an unmistakable sign of degeneracy. This is one reason why the woman of to-day is in general said to be inferior to the man, and why she is said to resemble more closely the savage.

Tattooing is one of the most ancient and general methods of personal ornamentation. In Japan and the Marquesas Islands it has reached its most advanced stage; but there, like everywhere else, it is confined to the ignorant and uncivilized. In Japan, tattooing is often made a substitute for clothing. The custom prevails throughout Polynesia, but is most popular in the Marquesas Islands. There, many persons may be found with every part of the body decorated, from the crown of the head to the toe nails. There, as well as in certain parts of Japan, some of the women wear nothing but a small cloth around their waists,

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sometimes carrying an additional wrap which they can throw over their bodies to keep off the hot sun. The accompanying illustrations from the Scientific American aptly depict the practice. Women sometimes have their tongues tattooed as an expression of grief for loss of their husbands.

Tattooing is one of the most painful of tortures. The principal motive of its origin was to leave a perpetual evidence on the body, of the physical suffering the person had undergone to prove his fortitude. Many instances have occurred, however, when the young warriors have been overcome by the agony, have fled from the scene of the operation, crazed with pain, and hence have ever afterward been despised as cowards.

The operator, called the "Matai," first traces out his pattern on the skin, and, this being done, commences to drive his toothed tattooing comb into the flesh. This comb is made of many fine cambric needles firmly bound to a piece of bamboo about seven inches long. In this process is used a mallet with which the

Matai strikes the comb sharp and rapid taps, driving the needles deeply into the flesh. Assistants are ready with strips of white "masi" to clean off the blood as it flows from the wounds. It usually takes an hour to tattoo a space three inches square, which generally is as much as is done at one operation. The "patient" returns every week or two until the operation is completed. One payment is demanded before the first "sitting;" and when the operation is about half done, another is asked for. If this is not made, the operator refuses to complete the work, and the young chief may be left "half dressed," so to speak, for the rest of his life. Therefore the payment, as a usual thing, is promptly forthcoming. Although the victim suffers indescribable agonies while the operation is in progress, he glories in the achievement when the work is completed, as it signifies his admission to manhood and makes him the more admired by the women. Cinnabar and India ink are the ingredients used. Tattooing among women is more popular in Japan than in Polynesia.

Metals Under the Microscope

Beautiful Crystalline Construction Often Explains Mooted Mysteries

TONDERFUL APPEAR

W

ANCES and conditions in the construction of metals are revealed through the microscope, an instrument that has lately added a hundred-fold in interest to the study of metallurgy. If you have never examined a piece of iron or steel or zinc or other metal with the microscope, you have no idea of the beauty or nature of its real construction. You may find it to be something entirely different from what you thought it was; and in the sight you see, you may discover the explanation of many strange characteristics of metals that you have marveled at before.

Microscopic examination of polished and etched specimens of metals shows most intricate and extremely minute variations in their internal structure. A noted French metallurgist who studied the direct reduction of iron from its ores, and who followed the successive changes by the aid of the microscope, has this to

say:

"If to these analytical data, observations under the microscope with a magnification of 300 to 400 diameters be added, it is seen that ordinary iron is merely a metallic network with a close-grained tissue and submerged

scoriaceous opaline, sometimes subcrystalline, portions, with little globules and metallic grains arranged in every direction. Sometimes nests of translucent prismatic and bacillary crystals, with metallic portions adhering, are noticed hidden in the paste; these are grains of steel which can be made to disappear by heating."

Dr. Sorby says: "Steel must be regarded as an artificial crystallized rock." The keynote of metallurgy may be found in these words.

Until recently the applications of the metals to the arts and sciences have been based almost wholly upon the results of chemical analyses and certain mechanical tests involving breaking strength and limit of elasticity. But chemical analysis can only partially determine the constitution and physical properties of complex bodies; it can take no account of the mechanical treatment the metal has undergone in the process of manufacture Hammering, rolling, squeezing, drawing, annealing, etc., induce changes which profoundly modify the elasticity and other physical properties, though they do not in the least change the ultimate chemical composition. The effects of impact, torsion, alternations of stress, and excessive strain, can be appreciated only

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