- dermic and suture needles and other surgical
instruments. These are replacing similar articles of steel.
The sharp edge of a gold blade is almost perfectly smooth; that of steel, no matter how fine the edge, is rough and saw-like. Because it is porous, the steel blade has never made a perfect surgical instrument. In the meshes of that metal may be hidden the infinitesimal germs of a virulent disease, or there may be a rust spot so tiny that it could not be discerned by the surgeon, but which might be sufficient seriously to poison the tissues in which the knife makes a wound, resulting in blood-poisoning that would cause death. In gold, being dense, this danger does not exist, and gold does not rust.
Besides, the gold blade divides evenly the flesh or tissue which it cuts; the steel blade really saws or tears its way through. Therefore, even when there is no infection, the wound made with a steel instrument does not heal nearly so readily as that made with gold. Another feature of a gold blade is that the wound which it makes leaves no scar.
(1645)
INSULATION
In 1846 Werner Siemens, of Berlin, discovered
the non-conducting properties of
gutta-percha. He coated several miles of
copper wire with gutta-percha, and submerged
it in the Rhine from Deutz to
Cologne. Electric communication was thus
established beneath the water from shore to
shore. In 1850 a submarine cable was laid
across the English Channel from Dover to
Cape Grisnez. It consisted of a half-inch
copper wire covered with nothing but gutta-percha,
and loaded with lead to keep it down.
The communication was perfect for a day,
and then the wire refused to act. The electrical
engineers were unable to explain the
facts. At last the mystery was dissipated
by a fisherman. A French fisherman set his
trawl off Cape Grisnez. When he hauled it
in, he picked up the submerged cable, from
which he cut off a piece. This piece he carried
in triumph to Bologne, where he exhibited
it as a specimen of rare seaweed with
its center filled with gold. The ignorant
man had mistaken the copper wire for gold,
but unwittingly he had served the electricians.
They saw from the accident that it
was not sufficient perfectly to insulate the
cable, but that it must also be protected. In
1851 there was laid across the Channel a
cable twenty-four miles long, consisting of
four copper wires, insulated by gutta-percha,
covered with tarred yarn, and protected by
an outer covering of galvanized iron wires.
That submarine cable proved a success, and
ocean telegraphy became possible through an
accident which compelled invention.—Youth's Companion.
(1646)
INTEGRITY
Stephen V. White, a New York financier,
became involved and only able to pay thirty-five
cents on the dollar. His character for
honesty and integrity was so established
that his creditors gave him an absolute, legal
release from an indebtedness of almost a
million. Within about a year he repaid
principal and interest.—James T. White,
"Character Lessons."
(1647)
INTEGRITY, EVIDENCE OF
Samuel Appleton, when twenty-eight years
old, began the business of cotton manufacturing.
He was incapable of anything indirect
or underhand. He knew but one
way of speaking, and that was to speak the
truth. As an evidence of the way in which
he was regarded: when a note purporting to
be signed by him was pronounced by him
a forgery, altho no one was able to distinguish
one handwriting from the other, the
jury found a verdict in his favor, because
they were quite sure that Mr. Appleton
would not dispute the payment except upon
the certainty of his not making it.—James T.
White, "Character Lessons."
(1648)
Intelligence—See Knowledge Values.
INTELLIGENCE, ANIMAL
One of the many delusions engendered by
our human self-conceit and habit of considering
the world as only such as we know
it from our human point of view, is that of
supposing human intelligence to be the only
kind of intelligence in existence. The fact
is, that what we call the lower animals have
special intelligence of their own as far
transcending our intelligence as our peculiar
reasoning intelligence exceeds theirs. We
are as incapable of following the track of a
friend by the smell of his footsteps as a dog
is of writing a metaphysical treatise. (Text.)—W.
Mattieu Williams, "Science in Short
Chapters."
(1649)
Intelligence in Creation—See Design in Nature.
