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Show THE REVIEW. 3 ready phenomenal, and yet men have only just begun to learn its marvelous possibilities. It is rapidly revolutionizing commerce and customs, and changing the direction of the arts of agriculture, as well as the potency of munitions of war. The year of 1897 did not immortalize itself as a year of new discoveries, in any broad or startling sense; it rather directed and applied to new utilities the wonderful inventions and - discoveries of the pregnant years immediately preced- The daring calculations of scientific ing. tain The Roentgen rays, or the X rays of Tesla, were the discovery of 1896; but last year so widened the sphere of investigation they opened, so enlarged their operations and possibilities, that the world is greatly enriched. In photography and telegraphy, their assistance has wrought wonders and their suggestions in correlated pursuits are prophetic of marvelous results. In the field of surgery the use of the Roentgen ray has proven invaluable, locating with absolute exactness every foreign substance, so that the surgeons knife can move in its work with unerring certainty. Among profound analysts, the discovery of a new element in the atmosphere, named Helium, is considered prophetic of important revelations. Just what the new element does, or what its potency may prove to be, it is premature, as yet, even to guess; but these are days when wise men look to the unseen agencies, hidden in air and sky, for the most startling unfoldings, and it is hoped that hitherto unsolvable problems may find the key to their mysteries in the action of this unknown Electricity and magnetism) whatever their mutual relations to each other, or whether entirely separate and dissimilar forces, both work through the attraction and repulsion of atoms, either in the earth itself, or in that tenwous envelope that surrounds the earth which we call its atmosphere. co-efficie- nt. discovery have now gone beyond these, that we may call terrestial phenomena, and thought is piercing the unknown void beyond, the immensity of space. Twenty years ago it was theorized that the familiar phenomenon of light was caused by the propulsion of mal molecules from any luminiferous body; but it is now believed, we might say proven, that light is the result of waves or vibrations, in a cercolorless, elastic substance of incomprehensible ten u ity, which we call ether. The poetic Greeks called the measureless blue of the sky ether, from the Greek verb, to shine, because they all-pervadi- ng, believed it the abode of the Immortal Gods and brilliant with everlasting light. To us, until very recently, the word has been the synonym of all imaginary, immaterial nothingness. It turns out here, as in so many other things, that the fanciful mythology was truer than the truest reasoning of would-b- e wise philosophy. Ether is indeed not only the abode of immortal creative energies, but it is itself the world former, and its vibrations bring us the rosy beams of the mornd ing, the warmth of summer and the music and melody of derable, all pervasive, mysterious, unknown body, if we may be permitted to use so solid a word as body, when speaking of a something whose density is so minute that we cannot express it in conceivable terms. Nevertheless, elusive and unsatisfactory as the best definitions of ether prove, it the development of etherial possibilities that science looks for its is to grandest triumphs. Light rays, properly understood, are ether rays, vibrating with a certain rapidity; and so all changing colors, from red to violet, are merely the result of differences in the number of oscillations per second. Just so, electric rays and Roentgen rays are producible only through vibrations of the same universal ether, the vibrations occurring with immense rapidity. Hence are derived the induced currents of electricity which are the basis of modern, wireless telegraphy. Since ether-wavpass through all es solid bodies, through brick and stone and adamant, there seems to be absolutely no limit to their possible application as dynamic forces. Signor Marconi claims to have sent, successfully, telegraphic dispatches through a hill, a distance of at least three-fourth- s of a mile, and directly through the air, a distance of two miles. If, at the very inception of the world. It was no fanciful metaphor when this branch of investigation so much it was said the morning stars sang toas this has been verified, it is easy gether at creations birth the only for imagination to project itself mistake is to suppose they ever stopinto the future and see all the ped singing. Our material ears can nations of the earth made literally only catch the rhythm of vibrations one people, through the uniting bonds covering a limited range, 32,000 per of a resistless power that knows no second being the highest possibility; distance and no obstacle. Great but scientific measurements record Britain, in her pride as queen of the vibrations mounting into the trillions seas, rejoices in having built in 1897, per second, and every vibration is a the fastest battleship that ever parted musical note in the onward march of the waves of the ocean; but of what the triumphal stars, if only our ears avail would be her batd tle ship, if from any one of the U. S. were turned to the eternal harmony. All the electrical phenomena of the lighthouses an electric ray could exits magazine as far away as a day are possible only as electric waves plode beam of light could be thrown? excite responsive waves in this impon With wireless telegraphy signaling flower-crowne- swift-winge- SPECIAL COHNS DRV GOODS STORE, 222 and 224 Main Street. HANDKERCHIEF. SALE We secured for Spot Cash a 600 dozen lot of Ladies ro?r.?xTr013Sred Handkerchiefs at a GREAT AKGAIN. We are able to offer them to the trade flT S?0T.MLr THEIR REQULflR YflUIl re selling prices 10c, 12Wc, piece is worth double. All our mends shouldEvery avail themselves of this offering. i 5c, 20c and 2oc. |