OCR Text |
Show SIB WILLUM GROOKES- TK OF THE If! London Observer: An erroneous announcement during the week made yesterday the eighty-third anniversarv of the birthday of Sir William Crookes, O. M , and he was the recipient recipi-ent of letters of congratulation. As a representative of The Observer the distinguished scientist pointed out that, as a matter of fact, he is older bj more than a month than this announcement an-nouncement made him out to be "I understand," he said, "that I was born on June 17, 1832, As far as energy and mental powers go, I do not feel, however, any different from what I was at forty. I still take the same interest in scientific work, and I am in my laboratory as much as over." Except that the pointed beard and moustache have become quite white, Sir William has altered in appearance astonishingly little since middle age Still wonderfully active, he has just joined the new Inventions Board at the I Admiralty, Is busily engaged on the Royal Society and Chemical Society's Committees and is hard at work on scientific research. Though he must have used his eyes as much as any man living, he I can read without glasses print that would tax the sight of men of half his years. Yesterday, for example, he took, as an interesting test, the "smallest "smal-lest distlonary In the world," that curious little thumbnail work reduced by photography to the merest mite of a" book. He read with ease lines that others, eVen with the aid of glasses, could scarcely distinguish. Had this grand old man of science a message, one wondered, for those who are younger'' "I really cannot tell them," he said, "what to do. But I consider that a good deal of my own present feeling and position Is due to the fact that I have always been working work-ing tolerably hard and always doing something I take a great Interest in and am enthusiastic about. That, I think, keeps one's mind healthy and in a good state, and tends to keep one going." Inventions For the Navy. As to his appointment on the Admiralty Ad-miralty Board of Inventions, he! i said thnt he was asked some time agoj if he would allow his name to be putj down among others' and he accepted! gladly 'I cannot say," he replied to aj questions for the Navy, "for one must not prophesy : but when a number of. scientific men are brought together' and have a problem before them theyj are sure In some way or other to, work It out. The difficulty in scien-' tific research is to know exactly what Is wanted Once the problem is clearly clear-ly stated, it Is not very difficult to find the solution." "So that, for example," he was asked, ask-ed, "one may hope for an Invention that will protect vessels from submarines?" sub-marines?" "Yes," he replied. "I think so. Any number of suggestions have already been made, and there is a prospect that something may come of thorn." 'Of course," he added, "with regard to the utility of such an invention during tne progress ot tne war, n it means building ships with a slightly different construction, it may take a long time. But then we cannot say how long the war Is going to last. My own view Is that it will be a matter of exhaustion for one side or the other, oth-er, and I think we can stand the strain longer than the enemy." Wireless and X-Rays. On his own discoveries Sir William did not care to dwell. "That Is for others to judge," he said when asked what he considered to be the greatest of them all. "1 have had a good deal to do," he agreed, "with certain things that are playing some part In the present war, but others have done more, much more, and have gone farther." One recalls, indeed, a remarkable article in the "Fortnightly Review," almost a quarter of a century ago In Which he clearly foreshadowed "the bewildering possibility of telegraphy without wires, posts, cables or any of our present costly appliances," and showed how it could be worked. Then there are the X-rays. Some persons havo given him the credit of I their discovery. The real facts, how- . ever, ho explained,' are these: "I was at work on a very similar subject In my laboratory that was leading up to them, but they were brought out by Roentgen and Lenard. "No doubt, If I had been able to give a few more months to the subject sub-ject I should have been successful, but just as I was on the point of getting get-ting results 1 was called away on a scientific mission to South Africa. Whilst I was there my assistant in England sent me a letter containing an account o( the discovery He started start-ed working upon it in the laboratory and sent me some photographs of the kind of skeleton hancjs that one sees under the X-rays That was all I had to do with the discovery. The others deserve the credit, for they did the work. I missed it, and there is no credit in missing a thing when it Is in front of one's nose." Eye-Preserving Glasses. "Here is an important thing," Sir William said, taking up some. pieces of colored glass which had been prepared pre-pared by the addition of various metallic me-tallic oxides for cutting off those rays from highly heated molten glass which damage the eyes of workmen The results of his research in this subject are also seen In the preparation of glasses which cut off the ultra-violet rays, as well as a sufficient amount of luminous rays to take off the glare of the sun shining on snow or white cliffs, or reflected from the sea. In the commercial aspect of the discovery dis-covery Sir William has no interest. "I simply worked at it," he said, "and sent a paper to the Roynl Society, and there, so far as I am concerned, is an end of the matter. My interest, In It is purely scientific." Future of Science. As to the future of science, "we are," he said, "pushing on In all bran-1 2 ; ches and getting more and more re- hl suits, but how far we can go beyond 'H the next step, which is pretty well iH known to us, I cannot say, for that Is )H going into an unknown field altogeth- H Sir William's own researches at the Hl present time are connected with the iH spectrum and tlie constitution of met- ilH eorites. They are being conducted In vmW his suite of laboratories at his home jjH in Kensington Park gardens. Meteor- lM ites have, of course, been carefully i analysed by scientists, but the spect- rum is taking the examination from W another point of view, and in one or M two directions throwing a new light j upon the subject. 11 It is amidst these surroundings of the spectrum and specimens of met- M eorites and photographic plates that M one takes one's leave of the dlstln- IH guished scientist of eighty-three, who M tc.lls you, as he shakes you by the i hand, that he has talked with Lowell j! of life in other planets, and sees no 91 reason why it should not exist, and K whoso own vision and understanding nM impress him with the belief that when fH this life comes to an end there Is con- f stant progress for the surviving spirit jtH in tho next 11 |