Poe Knew Argon

Wil! Lord R:iyleigh and Professor Kamsay have to shuie the honor of "gpottiing" tlie third constituent of the atmosphere with Edgar Al)ui Pre? It ceitaiuly looks like it. ií we cousider the evidenco addv.ced bya e m ieat of a Freuch journal, who h;:s beeu dippiiig into the '"Tales of Mystery and Imagination. " The passage upon whioh this gentleman resta Poe's claims is contained in "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans PfaalL " It is worth while quoting it in full : "I tlien tuok opportunities of conveying by night to a retired sitnation east of Rotterdam five iron bonnd casks, to contaiu abont 50 gallons each, and ono of a larger size : six tin tnbes 3 inohes in diameter, properly shaped and 10 feet in leiigth ; a quantity of a particular metallic substance, or semimetal, which I ahall not name, and a dozen demijohns of a very common acid. The gas to be formed from the.e latter materials is a gas never yet geuerated by any other person than myself - or at least applied to any similar purpose. I can only venture to say liere that it is a constituent, of azote (nitrogen), so long considered irreducible, and that its density is about 37.4 times less than of hydrogen. It is tasteless, but not odorless; burns, when pure, with a greenish flame and is instautaneously fatal to animal life. lts f all secret I would make no difnculty in disclosing, but that it of right belougs to a citizen of Nantes, in Prance, by ■wliom it was conditionally commnnicáted to myself . " It must be conf essed that the mysterious gas evolved by the force of Poe's imagination has not a little in coinmon with the argon, whose acquaintance we are now privileged to make some 50 years later. The "particular metallic substance or semiinetal, " used by Hans Pfaall, bas its fellow in clevite, from which we have been led to understand argón has been extracted when treated with an acid, after the manner of the veracious Dutch balloonist. If the new gas is not precisely regarded as "a constituent of nitrogen," it has at least been declared by some to be an allotropic modification of it. No doubt the physical and chemical qualities of Edgar Alian Poe's gas are not exactly those of argon. But what of that? Instead, for example, of being 37 times lighter than hydrogen, argoii, we understand, is very much heavier. It must be remembered, however, tliat Hans Pfaall had to make a journey to the moon. Had bis gas: been heavier, how could he have dropped a couple of ballast bags on the head of Mynheer Superbus Van Underduk, and have disappeared above the clouds almostbefore the worthy burgomaster had recovered himself ? The romancer, even when he is a man of science, must surelv be allowed a little latitude with his chemistry. -