THE NEW EDUCATION
CHEMISTRY IN MODERN LIFE
COMETS
MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 30
the
THE EDUCATION OF CHEMISTS
March 26
SUN
Relative
the sun.
most difficult problems
This has long re-
to
the way that
Twenty-five years ago it was the
1 find chemistry
Now every in-
... —..........      111(1 most high
schools as well, have a chemical laboratory; and
A healthful hunger for a great idea is a beauty
and blessedness of life.—Jean Ingelow.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY, A. & M. COLLEGE, 1909 ’10
Ritter, Hamon, F. C. Hamilton, Hubler, McArthur, J. IL
Hamilton, McKay, Wilde, Bonnett, Spaulding, Baade,
Crawford, Chambliss, Rose, Baird, Blackwell.
equipped with all the modern appliances, chemi-
cals and apparatus used by other first-class col-
leges in training young men to be chemists.
There is no question that the development of
the natural resources, mineralogical and agricul-
tural, of the whole United States—and particu-
larly of Oklahoma—is still in its infancy. More
chemists will be needed every year to supervise
and control manufacturing processes, and make
analyses of minerals, soils, etc. .
The young man who has acquired a sound
first-hand knowledge of the laws which govern
the action of one substance on another under
known conditions of temperature, etc.; the young
man who has, furthermore, acquired skill in ma-
nipulation and can accurately analyse a sample
of ore, soil, fertilizer, water, drug or other manu-
factured product, is well equipped for valuable
service in any community. An article in Mun-
sey’s Magazine for March tells what the science
of chemistry has already done for the human
race and those who are engaged in chemical
work know that the science is still young and
doing more and more for mankind every year.
The course in chemistry at the A. & M. College
is designed to prepare young men for responsible
positions as analysts or as chemists for any one
of the very large number of manufacturing pro-
ceses where a chemist is always needed. The in-
structors in the department have had wide ex-
perience in analytical work and as consulting
experts along the lines of chemical manufacture.
HARDEE CHAMBLISS.
The Gettysburg Address
(Delivered by Abraham Lincoln at the Dedication of
National Cemetery at Gettysburg, November 19th, 1863.)
“Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers
brought forth upon this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposi-
tion that all men are created equal. Now we are
engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedi-
cated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a
portion of it as the final resting-place of those
who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this. But in a large sense we cannot
dedicate,—we cannot consecrate,—we cannot hal-
low this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here, have consecrated it far above
our power to add or detract. The world will little
note, nor long remember, what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is for
us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly
carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedi-
cated to the great task remaining before us, that
from these honored dead we take increased devo-
tion to that cause for which they here gave the
last full measure of devotion; that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in
vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a
new birth of freedom, and that Government of the
people, by the people and for the people, shall not
perish from the earth.'’
SOCIAL OBSERVANCES
The trials and tribulations of the book agent,
the sewing machine agent and the kitchen utensil
agent are many; but not all agents yet realize
that there are tribulations they bring upon them-
selves. There is a story of a young and ambitious
freshman book agent, of a college, undoubtedly a
thousand miles from Oklahoma, who, in his per-
ambulations one balmy morning in June, en-
countered at her father’s farm house a spirited
young lady student of the A. & M. C. class on
Social Observances. He was the fourth gentleman
of his calling and deportment she had met at the
door that morning and she approached it again
with dough on her hands and desperation in her
soul.                                                ,    .
“Madam,” said the book agent as the door was
opened, “I am selling a new book on etiquette
and deportment.”
“Oh, you are,” she responded. Go down there
on the’ grass and clean the" mud off your feet.”
“Yes’m,” and he went. “As 1 was saying,
ma’am,” he continued, as he again came to the
door, “I am sell----"
"Take off your hat! Never address a strange
lady at her door without removing your hat."
"Yes’m.” And off went the hat. “Now, then, as
I was saying---”
"Take your hands out of your pockets. No
gentleman ever carries his hands there.
"Yes’m,” and his hands clutched at his coat
lapels. “Now, ma’am, this work on eti
“Throw out your tobacco. I f a gentleman
chews tobacco he is at least careful not to disgust
others by the habit.”                        (
"Yes’m,” and the tobacco disappeared. Now,
ma’am,” as he wiped his brow, “in calling your
attention to this valuable ----”
“Wait. Put that dirty handkerchief out ot
sight. 1 don’t want your book. You can comejn,
however, and talk with the lady of the house.
The young man, it is related, retreated in dis-
order, but returned the next day with reinforce-
ments in the form of a haircut, a bath, a shave a
“shine” clean linen and a new suit, and, like
Sheridan at the battle of Cedar Creek, gloriously
won victory from defeat.
Of all of the different branches of science
taught in colleges and universities, there is prob-
ably not one which has grown in recognition
during the past few decades m t
chemistry has.
exception and not the rule to
taught with laboratory practice,
stitution of higher learning, a
the students not only learn how others “do
things”, but they learn to “do things" them-
selves.
The Department of Chemistry of the A. & M.
College has a large two-story building well
Although knowledge like virtue is its own re-
ward, still if the pursuit of any particular branch
of knowledge offers additional inducements beside
knowledge for knowledge's sake, it is well for us to
consider from time to time just what other claim
to our serious attention is offered.
What is the science of chemistry doing
day by day to arrest the diseases ami alleviate
the sufferings of mankind? In what way does she
help to supply the needs of humanity? To what
extent does the chemist influence modern busi-
ness? To the average individual, chemistry has
something to do with drugs and when a young
man says he is a chemist many people forthwith
picture him in a drug store dispensing soft drinks
during the summer and everything else during the
winter. There are many other divisions of chem-
istry, not so important perhaps, but neverthe-
less quite indispensible to our modern life. The
store of chemical knowledge was quite large and
many applications qf it were known before it oc-
curred to any one to use chemical compounds as
curative agents. Nor is pharmacy the only di-
vision of chemical science which has for its object
the alleviation of human suffering.
Immuno-chemistry which treats of the compo-
sition and characteristics of all those substances
which when introduced into the human system
render the patient more or less immune to dis-
ease, has ever before it the possibility of discover-
ing new substances of this kind and applying
them to diseases now considered incurable.
The toxicologist, who studies the chemistry
and properties of poisons, is working to find an
antidote for every poison and many such investi-
gations have already been carried to successful
completion.       HARDEE CHAMBLISS.
(To be continued)
Halley’s comet is now visible in the eastern
sky just before sunrise. Today, May the 15th,
it has reached its greatest angular distance west
of the sun. It will now begin to approach the
sun as seen from earth. May the 18th it will be
between us and the sun and will transit the sun s
disk, an event of unusual interest to astronomers.
As soon as the transit is made the comet will be
on the eastern side of the sun so that the sun
will set first, and the comet will be visible in the
western sky right after sunset. As the comets
actual distance from the sun is daily becoming
greater its actual speed in space is decreasing,
but its apparent speed is increasing on account
of its nearness to earth so that the comet will be
visible higher in the western sky each day and is
expected to become a magnificent object after its
transit.
Halley’s comet is only one of four that have
been seen this year. It is the most brilliant ot
them and is of special interest because it is a
regular visitor once in seventy-five years. Ot al
the periodic comets that have been observed
more than once, none but Halley’s has so long a
period as seventy-live years. There are, however,
comets whose period may be one thousand years
or more. In i682 Halley saw the comet and
computed its path, basing his calculations on the
law of gravitation, which had just then been dis-
covered by Newton. He came to the conclusion
that it was the same as the one seen in 1531 and
1607 and he predicted its return in about seventy-
five years. The comet has been on time ever
since. It has been claimed that it was seen by
the Chinese as early as 420 B. C.
The popular fear of comets was partly over-
come when the true nature of these bodies was
explained by Halley. A collision with a come
is however, not an absolute impossibility, but
the chances for such a collision are extremely
small It has been calculated that according to
the law of probability a collision ought to occur
once in fifteen million years. But the earth has
on previous occasions been enveloped in a
comet’s tail, and it is again expected to be
touched by the tail of Halleys comet on May
the 18th. The earth will pass through un-
harmed.
A comet is made up of a great number of solid
particles separated by intervals of gas. It might
be compared to a cloud of dust. Opinions differ
as to the size of the particles. In the tail the
particles are exceedingly small. When the comet
is moving toward the sun the tail follows it, but
when the comet is moving away from the sun
the tail is ahead; in other words,, the tail is always
pointing away from
mained one of the
the force with which it attracts the more distant
part. This is in accordance with the law of gravi-
tation, according to which the attraction between
two bodies varies inversely as the square of then-
distance. If the attraction is represented by one
at the given distance, the attraction at twice that
distance would be only one-fourth. This would
cause a strain in the comet and this strain is in
some cases great enough to split the comet into
two or more fragments. This process may be
continued at each approach to the sun until the
comet is. entirely disintegrated. In this manner,
some comets are supposed to have been changed
into a swarm of meteors which keep on moving
in the original path until the attraction of some
larger body they may meet changes their orbit.
CARL GUNDERSON.
^arth\s
Positions of Earth, Sun and Halley’s Comet,
March 26th—May 18th, 1910
solve. Kepler, who observed Halley's comet
seventy-five years before Halley saw it, at-
tempted the solution of the problem by means of
the emission theory of light, then accepted Bo
Newton and Euler and many others worked with
the problem, but not until our time has a theory
been found which seems to explain the facts
^^By ThTelectro-magnetic theory of light, which
is generally accepted today, the light waves
striking an object exert a force which is capable
of producing motion in very small particles.
When this force strikes the line particles of the
comet these are thrown off and carried in the
direction away from the sun. The tail we see is,
therefore, never the same. New particles are
constantly being thrown off and gradually lost
in space. By applying these principles of
the pressure of light to laboratory experiments,
Professors Nichols and Hall have succeeded in
producing a comet’s tail artificially. Most comets
appear to move in p arabolas, n Jr '        ■
bolas: all periodic comets move in ellipses. It is
possible that the paths that have been taken for
parabolas and hyperbolas may be ellipses, since
these curves are all nearly alike in that part which
we can observe. If this is so, the comets do not
come to us from the region of the fixed stars
but are members of our solar system, some o
them having paths that carry them far beyond
the orbit of Neptune and possibly periods ot
several thousand years. When a comet is very
close to the sun this body attracts the nearer
part of the comet with a force much greater than