A GREAT SCIENTIST

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 293, 6 September 1919, Page 7

A GREAT SCIENTIST

LATE LORD RAM! THE DISCOVERER OF ARGON Lord Ravleigh, ulios-; death was announced recently, was a. member of the band of eminent British physicists who look in) the work initiated by Robert Uovln in the lbth century. Joseph Priestley. Davy, haraday, Joule, ClerkMaxwell and Kelvin were among ilio mo.it notable ot them (says the ".Manchester Guardian"). Ho entered Trinity College, Cambridge, from nrivate .study, and 'at the early ago of twenty took his degree in the Mutliomiitical THuo.s wilh lirst place—that is, Senior Wrangler. 'J'he "Times" noted: "His success is attributed more to his nersßverjince than to his brilliant Intent." The "Daily Telegraph" devoted a leader to the event of this success uf the son of .a nobleman, and compared ' if. to that; of William, seventh Duke of Devonshire, who. however, wr.s only Sei, ond Wrangler, in 1823, and was nephew, not, son. to the actual Duke. After his degree he worked hard at his nrivate laboratory on his lather's eslalo at Terlinsr. in Essex. He was elected T'.R.S. in, 1873. Jle was secretary, of tho docietv from 1870 to 1881, and on the death of Clerk-Maxwell in 1879,, tlio Chair of Experimental Physics, . which had been founded expressly l'or him, was continued nnd practically offered to Lord HavleiL'li. who held it for five years, during, which he did. much valuable work, some of it iii' collaboration with his sis-ter-in-law. Mrs. Henry Sigwick. He also initiated organised elementary teaching in Dractical physics on lines which had been suzzested by tlia American l'ickerin?. "Everyday Happenings." Uavleirfi's deserts wero recognised during his'life bv the highest honours in Hie rifl; of universities, academies, and Clov-eniuienl-s. His work s havo been collected from timo to time, and occupy no : fewer than five thick quarto volumes. ■ Therein" ho lias shown from tho outset extraordinary skill in devising experiments. accuracy in quantitative determination. and complete mastery in the application of 'mathematical analysis to their elucidation. It is not too much to say that in many ways he rccalls William Thomson. Lord JCelvin. What we. may call "everyday, happenings" fascinated him. 'J'ho beautiful headed character of liquid jct.s as wo wav notice them from a small pipe, and their dependence on oscillations; tlio lnvelv laco work of Slie ripple marks oil the sands of tho sea lloo'r; bells; the soaring of the 'albatross, which • has sines br.su so largely .studied now that tlio problem .of aviation has become a practical one; tho shadows of lizht ann of sound; pinhole images, so much prized by somo photographers; the effect of winds on tho draught of ohinineyfi Iho grinding and, polishing of glass—all these gave riso lo researches embodied in papers of great interest, written (apart from Iheir mathematics) in ' a, llowing <slyle, well composed, and eminently, attractive to the cultured laity, from whom, alas! they aro buried away. , They lie in scientific periodical transactions or journals, or in Iho lwije.ilie sepulchre ot tjio "Collected WJrks," which tho layman, ueed&ssly, feels too awed, lo open.

The Discovery of Argon. In 1888 Lord Rayleigh opened a fresh ; investigation for (no redetermination of tho physical properties of gases, including, of course, their speeilic gravities. When ho canio to mlrogeiii the gas tluitf forms, roughly, ioiir-fittns of our atmosphere, ho found marked divergences ill tlio results accordin:; as ho procured it by removing all otncr known constituents from tile air oxygen, carbonic acid, and water-vapour) or li'oni tho decomposition of nitrogen compounds such as ammonia, this "chemical nitrogen being tho lighter, las _ scientific erudition recalled a similar discrepancy noted mid roughly measured a century bcloru by Cavendish, though tho record was masked in the difficult and obsolete terminology of the "phlogiston" theory. He soon found that though chemistry had been his first love, as iie ( stated in his presidential address to the British Association at Montreal in ISS-l, the difficulties of tho task demanded fho colla- . boration of an expert in this science, lind he invited the assistance of Sir William (then only Professor) Ramsay. ]n 1891 tho sensational result of this collaboration-was announced to tho British Association at Oxford (though tho ( full paper was only presented to the Royal Society a year later). The aliuoupliero was 'found to contain an unexpected constituent to the amount of 1 per cent.—n gas which differed from pure nitrogen in its greater density (20:11), its spectrum, ami especially in its absolute inertness, for then, as ever since, it ] utendily refused to enter into any chemi- i en j combination. On this ground they i baptised it "Argun" (Ureek, "w.orklcs.i"). ; Prom the rato of transmission of sound it was inferred that its molecule conhiined but a single atom, instead of two, lib most elementary gases.