THE INVISIBLE MAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE INVISIBLE MAN.

ONE OF OLDEST DREAMS. FHEOOSOPHICAIi B,ETI<ECTION/ »'..'• r' TOY; Stories of invisible men are not without 'their uses. , ? Even students of science.. may jtfearn something from them, says Professor Regis Jlassac; of.McGill University, Montreal, writing in. "La Science'Moderne" (Paris). Professor Massac analyses; particularly the tales of H. G. Wells-and-his imitators. Hβ does not: mention the • recent claim of a German investigator, who, as reported in the daily. Press, asserts that he has actually succeeded in rendering bodies invisible; but his dfecussion of the use or.uselessness of s'ucih a process is both informing and illuminating. Writes Professor Massac, in substance: The miracle of invisibility is one of the oldest of dreams. The lej-end of the ring of Gyges is' related both by Plato and by Herodotus. From this point we should have to leap suddenly to the wellknown tale- of'H..G. Wells, -f.we did not find-on our road the fai (astic account of Cyrano de Bergerac* who describes, among other wonders) that of invisibility realised. It was during his journey to the sun; that .this .adventure occurred. He says: "I.rcalised that, by a secret .necessity of light at It's source, ray vehicle and I had both become transparent. ■ I suppose that the 1 sun, in regions so near to it,"purges b>'lies more completely of their opacity b-' arranging more nearly in straight iines, the ultimate particles of matter." In other words, light had become capable of passing between the.atoms. The e-n's ray?, in fact, had become X-rays, "■ : • ■-.'/■ The very insufficiency of tl-*- T xtive, amusing "as it is, rather .**'.*:■ -.n----vincing, causes us; to realise 'Jetter the difficulties, of the problem, us to understand -why the' storrS '..'invisible men are' J ihiieh"more"dbj^; , '-? than those of artificial" men, or. fl ; j\ . ; hien, or men who cannot be killed. S;; , make invisibility probable was t6^3 t (r eat a task for the science of Cyr/'v.V time. The theories of- the-propagat'v. v .. :' light are still a subject of infinite, c< ; '.roversy (U not Einstein's theory partly a desperrfte effort.to put an end; to.it?) and optics is a scicifcc of slow development, difficult to popularise. . . Tissue of Difficuities. Tt is not surprising, then, that* we have had to wait.-until modern times — e-"n. contemporary ones —to see the in-visible-inan stories cropping up.> All the talcs of this sort thatL-kuow gravitate around that of Wells. This is based on the fact that what prevents a transparent body from being completely invisible is the fact that it has not the same index- of refraction as the air; although.light-rays'pas's through, they are deviated and the contours of the object are seen. -It suffices then to find a means not only ":of making objects transparent, but of giving 'them the •same refractive power as the air. This means, Wells' hero discovers.'. He makes himself .invisible, but: lie' cannot . invisibilise his clothes or'iaiiything , 'else -about' him. life . : beeomesran inextricable tissue of difficulties. The tale: is quite as much philosophic as scientific.

The imitators have'.added-almost noth-. ing to the scientific; part of the, invention. The fertile ; romaneer,:Louis Boussenard, .in "Monsieur Rien" JMr.' Nbr thing), has tackled the—question of clothing: Monsieur .Rien, 'before. Tendering himself.invisible, developed .'considerably, by means of an appropriate preparation (not any more difficult thanfindiii.s the formula for invisibility), the vitality of the hairy coatiii" of. his skin, turning it into a veritable fleece. He became a furry; animal,, but an invisible one, since . each hair naturally.. participated in the qualities of the whole organism and thus 'was perfectly transparent. But the trouble was that when it rained, our man carried about a "wetdog" odour that betrayed his presence. Also, when,he walked in-the rain, his outline was vaguely marked by \he. rebounding droplets. .-, ? " ' '.Vanity of the Whole Affair. Edmond -. Cazal, in "Joe Eollon" '(French, edition, .1919), imitates Wells still more directly, since his hero begins by stealing from a descendant of Wells' "Invisible Man" the papers containing, his famous formula.. But he undertakes to improve it, for Joe Rollon regards him as a person without foresight. He obtains a second formula enabling him to make himself visible again, and he is thus only temporarily invisible, whenever he so chooses. He also solves the problem of clothing, for he succeeds in rendering invisible his shoes,. pyjamas, trousers, and dressing-gown. Joe becomes a millionaire:'one of his adventures is when he hides, behind a statue in a village church and showers hanknotes on a poor. peasant. The author ends, like Wells, by demonstrating the vanity of the whole thing; his hero finally gives-iip invisibility and destroys, the famous formula.

The fatality. with -which.'this connlu-, sion imposes itself, may lead us to a few philosophic reflections. . ; After reading two or three invisible-man stories we soon perceive how childish U the whole idea. ■ The conception is --impregnated with the mentality of the puerile age that invented the Gyges 'fable. To-day, it this miracle" could ever"be.;-realisedj it would be only a scientific .toy, suited only to amuse the crowd for a few months, and a thousand times less important than the theory, of. luminous phenomena implied in its realisation, about which a word'may-now be said. Such realisation is decidedly doubtful, and the tales/or. Wells .and his imitators raise at several - points -objections of scientific nature. Refractive index* equal to that of the air?/ Very.pjro.£.ty;:.but is the index of refraction of. the air always the same? This index should'vary -with' the humidity, and that "of the invisible bodies would not follpw.it. Invisibilitywould neyer.ior rarely,-be perfect. Maurice IJenard, in "The sfan Who Would be Invisible," states another objection that,is still more serious. If all parts of the', body" are permeable by light-rays; the' tissues of the eye would bo so themselves/'.' They, wonlil be absolutely incapable of reflecting and absorbing (: to; transform it ■ into iuriiinous ";sensatibns. .'-It; follows thift the invisible"man. would also be a !blind 7nan. ; This., is"; what'.'-. happened- './to Krnard's hjeroV who ■ havingiblinded himV s=elf 'by his manipulation?, believes that he has actually invisible. Pityi»; and complaisant; relatives foster this illusion, which consoles hinv in liis blindness.; ;""-. ■•■?>.-.-•'.."■. ; y" • '_ ." ■;.. [■'• Thus'this'idea.of invisibility..so sedneii.ve at firstsightl so rich in possibilities from a .literary as well as -a. scientific point of view, ends only in- a fiascq./