TRIUMPHS OF SCIENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 April 1926, Page 4

TRIUMPHS OF SCIENCE.

WOK I .TVS LARGEST TELESCOPE. SAN FRANCISCO. -March HI. Ac oriling to a telegram received in Sa.ii Francisco, lite “Brooklyn Daily re: eived a dLpalch saying a teh (cop- more than twice as large as nin existent o is. being built by PrnU-'or George Willis Ritchey. Ibe noted a.-li simmer, in Pari'-.

With it Professor Ritchey Impes to observe, stars 17,001! times more distant than any at proem visible through the largest instruments. Through il the moon would appear only nil unies awav. and the ohscrvaole universe v,ouifi be increased 1TT0.OO) times hi volume, he estimates. Tin? new ivlfcrtor is to be iWit. Kin. i.i di '.meter. It is e.lmost read.v lor the (ritual baking process Hjon which its success is expected io depend, and it will he tinished during the summer, if all goes -monthly. Professor Ritchey was .superintendent of instrument eoiistnu tion at the solar observatory at the Carnegie 1 n.vti tu to ;» Paj-ecJena. California. It had been believed by scientists 11.:it the limit of size in telescope const ruction had been reached, because ol tlie dill'eren: e of expansion and eontraction of the palls of a large, solid reflect mirror. In the new parabolic mirror Professor Ritchey believes he has overcome this difficulty b.v making the mirror in cells resembling those of a hoiievoomb.

Nearly twenty years' resefireh in the “rare earth" group of the chemical field finally has resulted in the discovery of one of the five unknown hut stlpp i-edly R-xistent elements w hich make up all known com; omuls.

The discovery, the first ever made in Amorim, was announced by the l in versity of Illinois at Urhana .is the work of Dr B S. Hopkins, president of Inorganic Chemistry, assisted b.v L. F. I.yntema and .1. A, Harris of the chemistry stall'.

The new element is known as number sixty-one. No name lias teen suggested for it. In the list of ninety-two known and unknown elements of the earth, a place wus .saved for an unknown element between sixty, neodymium, and number sixty-two. Samarium. Previously the newest element was ha! ninm. discovery of which was announced in Copenhagen in 192:1. That announcement created great interest, but the element has remained comparatively little known. Helium is the youngest familiar element. Whether number sixty-one, which is of metallic nature, may prove of high value commercially or otherwise, hits not been predicted. It may prove to he exceedingly scarce, however, since only one-half ounce remained of the original TOO pounds of “rare earth" material used by the researchers.