Making a World to Order By René Bache O take the world apart and put it together again, is the somewhat difficult task that has been undertaken by the Geophysical Laboratory, which, located in Washington, is the latest offspring of that wonderful mother-hen of science, the Carnegie Institution. A great building on a hill in the outskirts of the city is now being prepared for the reception of the requisite plant, which, when the apparatus is installed, will enable the experts in charge to utilize for experimental purposes electrical and other energies far surpassing any such powers hitherto made available for human use. It is desired to find out how the rocks that go to compose the crust of the earth were originally formed; and, in order to solve this problem, it is proposed to manufacture similar rocks artificially. To do this, of course, enormously high temperatures and equally tremendous pressures must be employed. For what is contemplated is nothing less than the counterfeiting, on a small scale, of the volcanic processes by which all rockstuffs were originally created. The way in which this is to be accomplished is by employing electric furnaces, so modified that the substances fused in them may be subjected to great pressure. By such means a pretty fair imitation is obtained of the conditions under which rock-stuffs are thrown up from the bowels of the earth. Necessarily, the pressure in the depths, far down beneath the surface layer of the globe, is immense, while the temperature far surpasses that of the hottest part of the electric arc. Nevertheless, the heat of the electric furnace, which will cause asbestos to flow like water, and still have several hundred degrees to spare, is adequate for the experimental purposes in view; and, as for pressure, the Laboratory already has a machine which will run it up to 3,000 pounds to the square inch. The purpose of the Carnegie Institution is, in a word, to establish a laboratory in which the temperature and pressures of the earth's interior can be as nearly as possible reproduced, with a view to studying the actual formation of rocks and minerals. All minerals and rocks were at some time liquid; and, in order to accomplish the end sought, it is obviously necessary to liquefy them INTERIOR OF GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY should be realized that a pressure of not more than 150 pounds to the square inch is used to propel the largest ocean steamship. When, in the Carnegie establishment, this is multiplied by twenty within the steel walls of what are known as "bomb furnaces," it is evident that a little carelessness, resulting in an explosion, might cause disastrous results. We are accustomed to use the term "red hot" as expressing a very high temperature. It means, as a matter of fact, about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. "White hot," of course, is a good deal hottersomething like 2,000 degrees. Iron can be melted in a stone pot without injury to the receptacle; and even platinum, which has a melting point remarkably high, can logical Survey, while waiting for the permanent structure to be erected-has proved itself capable of developing a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That such tremendous heat cannot be measured by any ordinary thermometer, goes without saying; but a special instrument is used for the purpose, far superior to any contrivance of the kind in existence anywhere else in the world. It records temperatures by the expansion of hydrogen gas; and its determinations are made permanent and available for general use by establishing a scale with fixed divisions represented by represented by the melting-points of various metals, arranged at convenient intervals. ac of an inch thick. This he complishes by melting pure quartz crystal in a thin graphite box inside of an electric furnace, under 500 pounds to the square inch, utilizing an alternating current to produce a heat of over 2,000 degrees. Ordinary glass melts at 700 degrees; quartz glass will stand 2,000 degrees. In a quartz-glass vessel, gold, copper, or silver may be melted, or even distilledthat is to say, vaporized-without injuring the receptacle. If a window of the material were put into a fireproof steel safe, and the latter were exposed to the RIPPLE MARKS OF AN ANCIENT BEACH PRESERVED IN STONE. fiercest flames, the safe would suffer Showing nature's work in the formation of sedimentary rocks. In trying to reproduce by artificial means different kinds of rocks, a beginning is being made with the simplest ones, naturally. This is an entirely new departure in scientific investigation, and it is necessary to start with what is least complex. Accordingly, for one of the initial experiments, feldspar has been picked out as a suitable substance. It is composed of quartz, lime, and aluminaall three of them simple and common things in nature. The problem is to mix them together and form counterfeit feldspar. Quartz (which is silica) is about the only mineral that is found pure in nature. Obviously, then, it was a first-rate kind of stuff with which to begin. Dr. Arthur L. Day, who is in charge of the Geophysical Laboratory, has been working with quartz in his electric furnaces; and incidentally he has made quite a wonderful discovery-nothing less, in fact, than a process by which quartz glass can be successfully manufactured. The importance of this discovery may be judged from the circumstance that the substance in question, hitherto obtained only in small globules, is literally worth its weight in gold.. Out of these globules, fused together, small vessels and even lenses have been made; but Doctor Day, by the employment of the high temperatures and pressures he has at command, has succeeded in turning out plates of quartz glass, beautifully clear and almost entirely free from bubbles, six inches long by two inches wide and three-quarters greater damage than the window. Common glass breaks with heat because it expands; but quartz glass expands almost not at all; and hence cold water will not break it if poured over it when it is white hot. What a material for the lamp-chimneys of the future, to be sure! Another point of interest about quartz glass is that it transmits freely the ultravoilet rays of light, to which ordinary glass is almost entirely opaque. Thus it is very superior to the latter as material for lenses of photographic cameras, giving sharper images; and by its aid astron omers should be able to extend much further than hitherto their observations HUGE ELECTRO-MAGNET FOR TESTING MAGNETISM OF MAGNETIC IRON ORES. Its grip has the strength of four locomotives. ually cooled down to its present condition, the mineral substances composing the planet must at some time have been pretty well mixed together. How then, in the process of cooling, did they come. to separate, so that we find in one place masses of marble, in another place granite, and so on? It is a rather puzzling question-one of the most important questions, in fact, that confront the experts of the Carnegie establishment. So far as they have gone, they are inclined to think that, after the first thin crust of the globe had hardened, liquid rockstuffs from below were forced up through weak spots, and that the masses thus extruded, being of different compositions, formed rocks of many different kinds of one kind in one locality, of another kind in another. Granite is one of the most familiar of rocks. Some day the experts may try to make it artificially; but certainly not for a good while yet. It is too complex, and for this reason presents too difficult a problem. But for problem. Tiny crystals of many colors. and textures, from bright quartz to feldspar, contribute to its make-up, with little flakes of mica scattered through. It would be much easier to manufacture marble, which is only carbonate of lime. Marble is a limestone rock which has undergone metamorphosis under conditions on the spectra of distant stars. But for its expensiveness-for it is likely to continue to be extremely dear-it would doubtless soon replace common glass wherever heat-resistance was wanted. To return, however, to the Geophysical Laboratory, it may be said that, the earth having been originally molten, and grad of heat and pressure. These conditions could be imitated in the electric furnace, exposing lime at a high temperature to carbonic acid gas. A good deal remains to be ascertained. about the effects of steam, under high pressure, upon ores of the valuable metals. Indeed, one may say that nothing is known as yet on the subject. When the desired information has been secured, something at least will have been learned of the secret of the rich deposits which contribute so much to the wealth of this country. The ores of all these metals were at one time dissolved in water. There is copper, for example. Water evidently had much to do with the making of the great copper deposits. But in what way? Nobody can say exactly; it is one of the things that the Geophysical Laboratory is anxious to determine, if possible. get at the bottom of the puzzle. Oxide of aluminum sometimes crystallizes as ruby, sometimes as sapphire, and sometimes as plain, unornamental emery. Why? Nobody can say, but an effort will be made to ascertain. And, speaking of volcanoes, at what temperatures are minerals of various kinds separated out of the stuff ejected by burning ONE OF THE LARGEST METEORITES EVER KNOWN A contribution from the sky to the crust of our planet. Found at Bacubirito, The experts will try to make precious stones-diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and other kinds of gems. Not for commercial purposes, however. It is a scientific problem, pure and simple, that they are attacking. Microscopic diamonds have already been produced in the electric furnace by Crookes and De Moissan, and quite recently real rubies have been crystallized from corundum by similar means-worthless, alas! by reason of their poor color and the thinness of the crystals. But the Geophysical Laboratory has resources of energy and apparatus at its command such as nobody else has hitherto possessed; it may yet smash the gem market to "smithereens" by discoveries novel and spectacular. Diamonds are known to be a volcanic product. So much is certain; but the manner of their formation is in dispute. The Carnegie folks are going to try to mountains, so as to cool in the forms of different species of rocks? It is a question to which as yet no answer can be given. When the matter comes to be considered, it is really astonishing how little we know about the way in which the crust of the planet on which we dwell was formed. We recognize, here and there, various kinds of rocks; but we have no very definite notion of the way in which they were made. Many useful metals we dig out of the earth, but we cannot tell how they got there. In fact, what we know seems to be only a small fraction of what there is to be known. We are only on the edge of acquaintance with the subject necessarily so interesting to all mankind, and for its further illumination we must look to the scientists in Washington who have newly taken up this original and picturesque branch of investigation. |