Speaker 1: A lesson in chemistry by Charles B. Cory. I took
the powder as agreed, and sat down to read the
evening paper before retiring, with the result that I did
not retire at all. I became interested in an article
on new explosives with which the government has been lately experimenting,
and had nearly finished it when I heard a voice
say to me, interesting subject, isn't it. I turned and
saw seated on my lounge a peculiar looking man. His
clothes seemed to be all run in together. You could
make out the outlines of the man, but the figure
was not clear, sort of foggy. You know. What surprised
me most was that I could look right through him
and see the back of the lounge. I said to myself,
is this a dream or the effect of the powder
I had taken? And I pinched my leg and rubbed
my eyes. But although I seem to be perfectly wide awake,
the shape did not disappear. What did you say, I asked.
I remarked that the subject of high explosives was decidedly interesting,
answered the shape. I was a chemist when alive, but
it makes me sad to think how very little I
really knew. Chemistry as well as the other branches of science,
has made great strides during the past generation since my day,
but even now they really know very little. But I answered,
it seems to me the high explosives which we now
have are sufficiently powerful if we knew how to use
them with safety. That's it, answered the shape. Now I
have a couple of hours to spare, and if it
would interest you, and you care to come over to
my laboratory, I will be happy to give you one
or two points which may prove of value to you.
I say my laboratory, but it really is not mine.
I use any laboratory that is handiest, and I know
most of the good ones in the city. You see,
I do not need to have a key to enter
a room. That is one of the great advantages we have,
as you will discover one of these days. Just now,
I can get you in very well. Because the owner
of the laboratory to which we will go is out
of town. I will go in first and unlock the
door for you. I told him that I should be
most happy to accept his invitation. It seemed the most
natural thing in the world to be conversing with a
ghost and to have him invite me to go to
somebody's laboratory and use up his chemicals. It never occurred
to me that it might not be considered quite good form.
We went out of my room and downstairs, the shadow
floating alongside of me in the most friendly manner possible.
I could see by the position of his body that
he had hold of my arm, but his fingers did
not show on my coat sleeve. We went uptown for
perhaps half a mile and entered a large brick building
in which I noted were various studios. It was dark,
but going up three flights of stairs, my guide opened
a door and ushered me into a large and expensively
furnished laboratory, evidently belonging to some scientific man of means
and experience. The ghost turned the button on the electric light,
and then motioned me to a seat. My time, he said,
is somewhat limited, because I have an appointment with a
lady at twelve. But I'll show you what a high
explosive really is, and then if we have time, we
will talk of something else. The difficulty in high explosives
is not in making them, but in using them. After
they are made, you create a gigantic power which you
do not know how to handle. The rather modern discovery
of how to make liquid air has simplified matters a
good deal. When you can make liquid hydrogen in quantities,
you will have a still better agent for many purposes. Now,
let's take a little of this liquid air. You see,
it pours like water. As I happen to know, our
absent host has nearly two gallons of it, or had
this afternoon. Some of it has evaporated, but as you see,
there is still more than a gallon left, and we
will not steal much as all we want for our
experiment to illustrate to you the greatest explosive which can
be manufactured is about as much liquid air as you
can hold in a thimble. How do you propose to
try your explosive here? Mister I hesitated? By the way,
what is your name? Oh call me any old name,
It does not matter, mister spook. Shall we say ahem
a little personal perhaps, but it will do as well
as another. Now, as I was saying, I will show
you how to make the most powerful explosive that has
ever been invented. It is possible that I did not
show as much interest and enthusiasm as he expected, and
to tell the truth, I was a little nervous. Spooks
do not have the same interest in being careful in
their experiments. An accident or two is of little consequence
to them, but might be decidedly disagreeable to me. I
may have shown something of what I was thinking in
my manner, for Spook looked at me keenly, what is
the matter? You do not appear interested. On the contrary,
I answered, I am deeply so. But do we not
run considerable risk in trying such experiments in a laboratory
without the consent of its owner. Not at all, Not
at all. I will use a very very small amount
of the explosive and there will be no damage done.
Have you attempted to make it before, mister Spook? I ventured,
Oh yes, last week. That was a mistake, you see
now I know all about it. I didn't then. The
explosive was something awful. It blew the building pretty much
all to pieces. If I had been alive, I don't
believe you could have found a piece of me as
large as your finger. They call it spontaneous combustion. However,
we won't have anything of that kind tonight. Please don't,
I answered, no. I promise you. Now we will take
a little of this red phosphorus ordinary phosphorus will not answer,
and pour a little liquid air on it, stir it
gently as you see. Now, if I should let that dry,
it would explode at the slightest touch. But we do
not want that, and we wish to increase its power.
So we add a little chlorine of potassium. Now watch
it dry. See the color change to a light red brown. There.
If you should strike that or put fire to it,
it would wreck this building as completely as if you'd
exploded fifty pounds of dynamite in it. I drew away
from the table instinctively. Have no fear. I will not
explode it. Now watch me closely. I will ignite a
minute quantity, about as much as would make the head
of a small black pin or a number four bird shot.
See the rest we will put in a pail of water. There.
Now all is ready, Here goes He lit a match
and touched the little brown dot. A tremendous explosion followed,
and the wooden table was split into pieces. The sound
was so terrific and the shock so unexpected, that I
was dizzy and frightened. Good heavens, I explained, you have
broken everything in the laboratory, No, replied the ghost, rather shamefacedly.
Not so bad as all that. But I'm afraid that
I have ruined the table and cracked a few things. However,
I will be more careful next time. It is even
more powerful than I thought. What do you suppose will
be the effect on a warship if struck by a
shell containing one hundred pounds of that stuff? I answered
that she would be destroyed, destroyed, I should say she
would the largest battleship would be blown to atoms. Thus
Bouch glanced up at the old fashioned Dutch clock in
the corner of the laboratory. Fine clock, that glad I
didn't break it with our little racket. Just now, I
see I have nearly an hour to spare. Is there
any experiment you would like to try? I said anything
would interest me, but I didn't care for any more explosives.
I suppose you know how to make diamonds, don't you?
I answered that for years Ben had tried to manufacture diamonds,
but practically without success. That as far as I was aware,
they had only succeeded in making them so small as
to be practically of no use commercially, and the expense
of manufacture was far in excess of their value. That's
all right, answered the spook. But really it is a
very simple matter. Here I will make a diamond for you.
He walked across the room to the fireplace, and, taking
from the grate a lump of coal about the size
of a billiard ball, he laid it upon the table. This,
he said, is nearly pure carbon, and as you are
well aware, it is practically what a diamond is. Now
I will illustrate to you how you may make a
diamond from this piece of coal, which will be as
good as any diamond ever found in the mines. We
will manufacture it instead of letting nature do it. We
will first place it in this glass bowl and pour
over it sufficient liquid air to cover it completely. We
will let it remain until it is thoroughly cold, say
at least two hundred below zero. There Now, all we
have to do is to heat it and then subject
it to a powerful gray g hosephad five minutes to twelve.
I must go appointment with a lady at twelve. But
I say, old fellow, just hold it under a blowpipe
until it gets hot, just as hot as you can.
I will be back soon, Tadah, his last words, came
to me faintly through the window he had already floated out.
I took the queer colored piece of coal and began
heating it under the blowpipe. It did not burn as
I thought it would, but turned red and then white.
Gradually it seemed to grow larger and larger, brighter and brighter,
until I opened my eyes and found myself in bed,
with the sun shining full upon me through the open window.
The end of a Lesson in Chemistry by Charles B.
Cory