Such an unusual genius was Professor Robert Ogden Doremus, whose
enthusiasm was only matched by his modesty. In studying what he
accomplished, I wonder whether he was not sent from the central yet
universal "powers that be" to give us answers to some of the riddles
of life; or had he visited so many planets further advanced than our
own--for as Jean Paul Richter wrote "There is no end"--that he had
learned that the supposedly impossible could be done. He assisted John
W. Draper in taking the first photograph of the human face ever made.
Science with him was never opposed to religion. His moving pictures
and spectral analysis were almost miracles at that time. He delighted
to show how the earth in forming was flattened at the poles, and he
would illustrate the growth of the rings of Saturn. As a lecturer he
was a star, the only chemist and scientist to offer experiments. His
lectures were always attended by crowds of admirers. As a toxicologist
he was marvellous in his accuracy; no poisoner could escape his exact
analysis. His compressed cartridges, made waterproof and coated with
collodion, were used in the blasting operations at the Mont Cenis
tunnel through eight miles of otherwise impenetrable stone, solid
Alpine rock, between France and Italy.
When the obelisk in Central Park showed signs of serious decay, he
saved the hieroglyphics by ironing it with melted parafine. He makes
us think of the juggler who can keep a dozen balls in the air as if it
were an easy trick, never dropping one.
[Illustration: PROFESSOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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