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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
&>
"A . i
of cleanup up mailers WhicTiTfequently come under no 1 ice in conversation, but
are only known in a vague and obscure way." Chambers' Journal.
V Of the above popular Work 10,000 Copies were sold within Ten
Months from the first day of its publication.
KENT AND CO. (LATE BOGUE), FLEET STEEET.
NEW WORK ON PAINTING.
Just ready, in small 8vo, with Frontispiece and Vignette,
PAINTING
POPULARLY EXPLAINED;
WITH
j* Jratfia jrf
AND
HISTOKICAL NOTICES OF ITS PEOGBESS,
BY
THOMAS J. GULLICK, PAINTER,
AND
JOHN TIMES, F.S.A.
THE plan of this work is thus sketched in the Intro-
duction :
"There have been in the history of Art, four grand styles of
imitating Nature Tempera, Encaustic, Fresco, and Oil. These,
together with the minor modes of Painting, we propose arranging
in something like chronological sequence but our design being to
offer an explanation of the Art derived from practical acquaintance,
rather than attempt to give its history, we shall confine ourselves
for the most part to so much only of the History of Painting as is
necessary to elucidate the origin of the different practices which have
obtained at different periods."
By this means, the Authors hope to produce a work which may
be valuable to the Amateur, and interesting to the Connoisseur, the
Artist, and the General Reader.
LONDON:
KENT & CO. (LATE BOGUE), FLEET STREET.
MOUTH OF THE GREAT ROSSE TELESCOPE, AT PAK80NSTOWN.
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
Things not generally Known
Familiarly Explained.
CURIOSITIES OF SCIENCE,
fast an* present.
A BOOK FOR OLD AND YOUNG.
BY JOHN TIMES, F.S.A.
AUTHOR OF THINGS NOT GKNERALI.Y KNOWN; AND EDITOR OF THE
YF.AR-BOOK OF FACTS.
Model of the Safety-Lamp, made by Sir Humphry Davy's own hand
in the possession of the Royal Society.
LONDON:
KENT AND CO. (LATE BOGUE), FLEET STREET.
MDCCCLYIII.
The Author reserves the right of authorising a Translation oj this Work.
LONDON :
PRINTED BY LEVEY, ROBSON, AND FRANKLYJT,
Great New Street end Fetter Lane.
GENTLE READER, I
The volume of "CURIOSITIES" which I here present to your
notice is a portion of the result of a long course of reading, obser-
vation, and research, necessary for the compilation of thirty volumes
of "Arcana of Science" and "Year -Book of Facts," published
from 1828 to 1858. Throughout this period nearly half of the
Psalmist's "days of our years" I have been blessed with health
and strength to produce these volumes, year by year (with one
exception), upon the appointed day; and this with unbroken at-
tention to periodical duties, frequently rendered harassing or
ungenial. Nevertheless, during these three decades I have found
my account in the increasing approbation of the reading public,
which has been so largely extended to the series of " THINGS NOT
GENERALLY KNOWN," of which the present volume of" CURIOSITIES
OF SCIENCE" is an instalment. I need scarcely add, that in its pro-
gressive preparation I have endeavoured to compare, weigh, and
consider, the contents, so as to combine the experience of the Past
with the advantages of the Present.
In these days of universal attainments, when Science becomes
not merely a luxury to the rich, but bread to the poor, and when
the very amusements as well as the conveniences of life have taken
a scientific colour, it is reasonable to hope that the present volume
may be acceptable to a large class of seekers after " things not
generally known." For this purpose, I have aimed at soundness as
well as popularity; although, for myself, I can claim little beyond
being one of those industrious " ants of science" who garner facts,
and by selection and comparison adapt them for a wider circle of
readers than they were originally expected to reach. In each case,
as far as possible, these "CURIOSITIES" bear the mint-mark of au-
thority; and in the living list are prominent the names of Humboldt
and Herschel, Airy and Whewell, Faraday, Brewster, Owen, and
Agassiz, Maury, Wheatstone, and Hunt, from whose writings and
researches the following pages are frequently enriched.
The sciences here illustrated are, in the main, Astronomy and
Meteorology ; Geology and Paleontology ; Physical Geography ;
Sound, Light, and Heat; Magnetism and Electricity, the latter
with special attention to the great marvel of our times, the Elec-
tro-magnetic Telegraph. I hope, at no very distant period, to ex-
tend the " CURIOSITIES" to another volume, to include branches of
Natural and Experimental Science which are not here presented.
I. T.
November 1858.
M35S761
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY . I_IQ
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 11-26
SOUND AND LIGHT 27-53
ASTRONOMY 54-103
GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY . . . . 104-145
METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA 146-169
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA .... 170-192
MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY 193-219
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 220-228
MISCELLANEA , . 229-241
&{u dT0ttibpb.ce.
THE GREAT ROSSE TELESCOPE.
The originator and architect of this magnificent instrument had long
been distinguished in scientific research as Lord Oxmantown ; and may
be considered to have gracefully commemorated his succession to the
Earldom of Rosse, and his Presidency of the Royal Society, by the com-
pletion of this marvellous work, with which his name will be hereafter
indissolubly associated.
The Great Reflecting Telescope at Birr Castle (of which the Fron-
tispiece represents a portion*) will be found fully described at pp. 96-99
of the present volume of Curiosities of Science.
This matchless instrument has already disclosed "forms of stellar
arrangement indicating modes of dynamic action never before contem-
plated in celestial mechanics." "In these departments of research,
the examination of the configurations of nebulae, and the resolution of
nebulae into stars (says the Rev. Dr. Scoresby), the six-feet speculum
has had its grandest triumphs, and the noble artificer and observer the
highest rewards of his talents and enterprise. Altogether, the quan-
tity of work done during a peiiod of about seven years including a
winter when a noble philanthropy for a starving population absorbed the
keenest interests of science has been decidedly great ; and the new-
knowledge acquired concerning the handiwork of the great Creator
amply satisfying of even sanguine expectation."
SIR HUMPHRY DAVY'S OWN MODEL OF HIS SAFETY-LAMP.
Of the several contrivances which have been proposed for safely light-
ing coal-mines subject to the visitation of fire damp, or carburetted
hydrogen, the Safety- Lamp of Sir Humphry Davy is the only one which
has ever been judged safe, and been extensively employed. The in-
ventor first turned his attention to the subject in 1815, when Davy
began a minute chemical examination of fire-damp, and found that it
required an admixture of a large quantity of atmosphei'ic air to render
it explosive. He then ascertained that explosions of inflammable gases
were incapable of being passed through long narrow metallic tubes,
and that this principle of security was still obtained by dimiiiishing
their length and increasing their number. This fact led to trials upon
sieves made of wire-gauze ; when Davy found that if a piece of wire-
gauze was held over the flame of a lamp, or of coal-gas, it prevented
the flame from passing ; and he ascertained that a flame confined in a
cylinder of very fine wire-gauze did not explode even in a mixture of
oxygen and hydrogen, but that the gases burnt in it with great vivacity.
These experiments served as the basis of the Safety-Lamp. The
apertures in the gauze, Davy tells us in his work on the subject, should
not be more than ^d of an inch square. The lamp is screwed on to
the bottom of the wire-gauze cylinder. When it is lighted, and gradu-
ally introduced into an atmosphere mixed with fire-damp, the size and
length of the flame are first increased. When the inflammable gas forms
as much as T \th of the volume of air, the cylinder becomes filled with a
feeble blue flame, within which the flame of the wick burns brightly, and
the light of the wick continues till the fire-damp increases to ith or -J-th ;
* From a photograph, with figures, to show the relative size of the tube aperture .
Viii THE VIGNETTE.
it is then lost in the flame of the fire-damp, which now fills the cylinder
with a pretty strong light ; and when the foul air constitutes one-third
of the atmosphere it is no longer fit for respiration, and this ought to
be a signal to the miner to leave that part of the workings.
Sir Humphry Davy presented his first communication respecting
his discovery of the Safety- Lamp to the Royal Society in 1815. This
was followed by a series of papers remarkable for their simplicity and
clearness, crowned by that read on the llth of January 1816, when the
principle of the Safety- Lamp was announced, and Sir Humphry pre-
sented to the Society a model made by his own hands, which is to this
day preserved in the collection of the Royal Society at Burlington House.'
From this interesting memorial the Vignette has been sketched.
There have been several modifications of the Safety-Lamp, and the
merit of the discovery has been claimed by others, among whom was
Mr. George Stephenson ; but the question was set at rest forty-one
years since by an examination, attested by Sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S.,
Mr. Brande, Mr. Hatchett, and Dr. Wollaston, and awarding the inde-
pendent merit to Davy.
A more substantial, though not a more honourable, testimony of
approval was given by the coal-owners, who subscribed 2500^. to pur-
chase a superb service of plate, which was suitably inscribed and pre-
sented to Davy.*
Meanwhile the Report by the Parliamentary Committee " cannot
admit that the experiments (made with the Lamp) have any tendency
to detract from the character of Sir Humphry Davy, or to disparage
the fair value placed by himself upon his invention. The improvements
are probably those which longer life and additional facts would have
induced him to contemplate as desirable, and of which, had he not been
the inventor, he might have become the patron."
The principle of the invention may be thus summed up. In the
Safety-Lamp, the mixture of the fire-damp and atmospheric air within
the cage of wire-gauze explodes upon coming in contact with the flame ;
but the combustion cannot pass through the wire-gauze, and being there
imprisoned, cannot impart to the explosive atmosphere of the mine any
of its force. This effect has been erroneously attributed to a cooling
influence of the metal.
Professor Playfair has eloquently described the Safety- Lamp of Davy
as a present from philosophy to the arts ; a discovery in no degree the
effect of accident or chance, but the result of patient and enlightened
research, and strongly exemplifying the great use of an immediate and
constant appeal to experiment. After characterising the invention as
the shutting-up in a net of the most slender texture a most violent and
irresistible force, and a power that in its tremendous effects seems to
emulate the lightning and the earthquake, Professor Playfair thus con-
cludes : " When to this we add the beneficial consequences, and the
saving of the lives of men, and consider that the effects are to remain
as long as coal continues to be dug from the bowels of the earth, it may
be fairly said that there is hardly in the whole compass of art or science
a single invention of which one would rather wish to be the author. . . .
This," says Professor Playfair, " is exactly such a case as we should
choose to place before Bacon, were he to revisit the earth ; in order to
give him, in a small compass, an idea of the advancement which philo-
sophy has made since the time when he had pointed out to her the
route which she ought to pursue."
* Weld's History of the Royal Society, vol. ii. p. 188.
CURIOSITIES OF SCIENCE.
Entrotiuctorg.
SCIENCE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.
IN every province of human knowledge where we now possess
a careful and coherent interpretation of nature, men began by
attempting in bold flights to leap from obvious facts to the
highest point of generality to some wide and simple principle
which after-ages had to reject. Thus, from the facts that all
bodies are hot or cold, moist or dry, they leapt at once to the
doctrine that the world is constituted of four elements earth,
air, fire, water ; from the fact that the heavenly bodies circle
the sky in courses which occur again and again, they at once
asserted that they move in exact circles, with an exactly uni-
form motion ; from the fact that heavy bodies fall through the
air somewhat faster than light ones, it was assumed that all
bodies fall quickly or slowly exactly in proportion to their
weight ; from the fact that the magnet attracts iron, and that
this force of attraction is capable of increase, it was inferred
that a perfect magnet would have an irresistible force of at-
traction, and that the magnetic pole of the earth would draw
the nails out of a ship's bottom which came near it ; from the
fact that some of the finest quartz crystals are found among
the snows of the Alps, it was inferred that the crystallisation
of gems is the result of intense and long-continued cold : and
so on in innumerable instances. Such anticipations as these
constituted the basis of almost all the science of the ancient
world ; for such principles being so assumed, consequences were
drawn from them with great ingenuity, and systems of such
deductions stood in the place of science. Edinburgh Review,
No. 216.
SCIENCE AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE.
The earliest science of a decidedly English school is due,
for the most part, to the University of Oxford, and specially
to Merton College, a foundation of which Wood remarks, that
B
Things not generally Known.
there was no other for two centuries, either in Oxford or Paris,
which could at all come near it in the cultivation of the sci-
ences. But he goes on to say that large chests full of the
writers of this college were allowed to remain untouched by
their successors for fear of the magic which was supposed to be
contained in them. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to trace
the liberalising effect of scientific study upon the University in
general, and Merton College in particular ; and it must be
remembered that to the cultivation of the mind at Oxford we
owe almost all the literary celebrity of the middle ages. In
this period the University of Cambridge appears to have ac-
quired no scientific distinction. Taking as a test the acqui-
sition of celebrity on the continent, we find that Bacon, Sa-
crobosco, Greathead, Estwood, <fcc. were all of Oxford. The
latter University had its morning of splendour while Cambridge
was comparatively unknown ; it had also its noonday, illus-
trated by such men as Briggs, Wren, Wallis, Halley, and
Bradley.
The age of science at Cambridge may be said to have begun
with Francis Bacon ; and but that we think much of the dif-
ference between him and his celebrated namesake lies more in
time and circumstances than in talents or feelings, we would
rather date from 1600 with the former than from 1250 with
the latter. Praise or blame on either side is out of the ques-
tion, seeing that the earlier foundation of Oxford, and its
superiority in pecuniary means, rendered all that took place
highly probable ; and we are in a great measure indebted for
the liberty of writing our thoughts, to the cultivation of the
liberalising sciences at Oxford in the dark ages.
With regard to the University of Cambridge, for a long
time there hardly existed the materials of any proper instruc-
tion, even to the extent of pointing out what books should be
read by a student desirous of cultivating astronomy.
PLATO'S SURVEY OF THE SCIENCES.
Plato, like Francis Bacon, took a review of the sciences of his time :
he enumerates arithmetic and plane geometry, treated as collections
of abstract and permanent truths ; solid geometry, which he *' notes
as deficient" in his time, although in fact he and his school were in
possession of the doctrine of the " five regular solids ;" astronomy, iu
which he demands a science which should be elevated above the mere
knowledge of phenomena. The visible appearances of the heavens
only suggest the problems with which true astronomy deals ; as beau-
tiful geometrical diagrams do not prove, but only suggest geometrical
propositions. Finally. Plato notices the subject of harmonics, in which
he requires a science which shall deal with truths more exact than the
ear can establish, as in astronomy he requires truths more exact than
the eye can assure us of.
In a subsequent paper Plato speaks of Dialectic as a still higher
Curiosities of Science.
element of a philosophical education, fitted to lead men to the know-
ledge of real existences and of the supreme good. Here he describes
dialectic by its objects and purpose. In other places dialectic is spoken
of as a method or process of analysis ; as in the Pkcedrus, where Socrates
describes a good dialectician as one who can divide a subject according
to its natural members, and not miss the joint, like a bad carver.
Xenophon says that Socrates derived dialectic from a term implying
to divide a subject into parts, which Mr. Grote thinks unsatisfactory as
an etymology, but which has indicated a practical connection in the
Socratic school. The result seems to be that Plato did not establish
any method of analysis of a subject as his dialectic ; but he conceived
that the analytical habits formed by the comprehensive study of the
exact sciences, and sharpened by the practice of dialogue, would lead
his students to the knowledge of first principles. Dr. Whewell.
FOLLY OF ATHEISM.
Morphology, in natural science, teaches us that the whole
animal and vegetable creation is formed upon certain funda-
mental types and patterns, which can be traced under various
modifications and transformations through all the rich variety
of things apparently of most dissimilar build. But here and
there a scientific person takes it into his foolish head that there
may be a set of moulds without a moulder, a calculated grada-
tion of forms without a calculator, an ordered world without
an ordering God. Now, this atheistical science conveys about
as much meaning as suicidal life : for science is possible only
where there are ideas, and ideas are only possible where there
is mind, and minds are the offspring of God ; and atheism
itself is not merely ignorance and stupidity, it is the purely
nonsensical and the unintelligible. ProfessorBlackie; Edin-
burgh Essays, 1856.
THE ART OF OBSERVATION.
To observe properly in the very simplest of the physical
sciences requires a long and severe training. No one knows
this so feelingly as the great discoverer. Faraday once said,
that he always doubts his own observations. Mitscherlich on
one occasion remarked to a man of science that it takes
fourteen years to discover and establish a single new fact in
chemistry. An enthusiastic student one day betook himself to
Baron Cuvier with the exhibition of a new organ a muscle
which he supposed himself to have discovered in the body of
some living creature or other ; but the experienced and saga-
cious naturalist kindly bade the young man return to him with
the same discovery in six months. The Baron would not even
listen to the student's demonstration, nor examine his dissec-
tion, till the eager and youthful discoverer had hung over the
object of inquiry for half a year ; and yet that object was a
mere thing of the senses. North-British Review, No. 18.
Things not generally Known.
MUTUAL RELATIONS OF PHENOMENA.
In the observation of a phenomenon which at first sight
appears to be wholly isolated, how often may be concealed the
germ of a great discovery ! Thus, when Galvani first stimu-
lated the nervous fibre of the frog by the accidental contact of
two heterogeneous metals, his contemporaries could never have
anticipated that the action of the voltaic pile would discover
to us in the alkalies metals of a silver lustre, so light as to
swim on water, and eminently inflammable ; or that it would
become a powerful instrument of chemical analysis, and at the
same time a thermoscope and a magnet. When Huyghens first
observed, in 1678, the phenomenon of the polarisation of light,
exhibited in the difference between two rays into which a pencil
of light divides itself in passing through a doubly refracting
crystal, it could not have been foreseen that a century and a
half later the great philosopher Arago would, by his discovery of
chromatic polarisation, be led to discern, by means of a small frag-
ment of Iceland spar, whether solar light emanates from a solid
body or a gaseous covering ; or whether comets transmit light
directly, or merely by reflection. Humboldi's Cosmos, vol. i.
PRACTICAL RESULTS OF THEORETICAL SCIENCE.
What are the great wonders, the great sources of man's
material strength, wealth, and comfort in modern times? The
Railway, with its mile-long trains of men and merchandise,
moving with the velocity of the wind, and darting over chasms
a thousand feet wide ; the Electric Telegraph, along which
man's thoughts travel with the velocity of light, and girdle the
earth more quickly than Puck's promise to his master ; the
contrivance by which the Magnet, in the very middle of a strip
of iron, is still true to the distant pole, and remains a faithful
guide to the mariner ; the Electrotype process, by which a
metallic model of any given object, unerringly exact, grows
into being like a flower. Now, all these wonders are the result
of recent and profound discoveries in theoretical science. The
Locomotive Steam-engine, and the Steam-engine in all its other
wonderful and invaluable applications, derives its efficacy from
the discoveries, by Watt and others, of the laws of steam. The
Railway Bridge is not made strong by mere accumulation of
materials, but by the most exact and careful scientific exami-
nation of the means of giving the requisite strength to every
part, as in the great example of Mr. Stephenson's Britannia
Bridge over the Menai Strait. The Correction of the Magnetic
Needle in iron ships it would have been impossible for Mr.
Airy to secure without a complete theoretical knowledge of
Curiosities of Science.
the laws of Magnetism. The Electric Telegraph and the Elec-
trotype process include in their principles and mechanism the
most complete and subtle results of electrical and magnetical
theory. Edinburgh Review, No. 216.
PEKPETUITY OF IMPROVEMENT.
In the progress of society all great and real improvements
are perpetuated : the same corn which, four thousand years
ago, was raised from an improved grass by an inventor wor-
shiped for two thousand years in the ancient world under the
name of Ceres, still forms the principal food of mankind ; and
the potato, perhaps the greatest benefit that the old lias derived
from the new world, is spreading over Europe, and will con-
tinue to nourish an extensive population when the name of the
race by whom it was first cultivated in South America is for-
gotten. Sir H. Davy.
THE EARLIEST ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC TREATISE.
Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, wrote a treatise on the Astro-
labe for his son, which is the earliest English treatise we have
met with on any scientific subject. It was not completed ; and
the apologies which Chaucer makes to his own child for wilting
in English are curious ; while his inference that his son should
therefore " pray God save the king that is lord of this lan-
guage," is at least as loyal as logical.
PHILOSOPHERS' FALSE ESTIMATES OF THEIR OWN LABOURS.
Galileo was confident that the most important part of his
contributions to the knowledge of the solar system was his
Theory of the Tides a theory which all succeeding astrono-
mers have rejected as utterly baseless and untenable. Des-
cartes probably placed far above his beautiful explanation of
the rainbow, his d priori theory of the existence of the vortices
which caused the motion of the planets and satellites. New-
ton perhaps considered as one of the best parts of his optical
researches his explanation of the natural colour of bodies,
which succeeding optical philosophers have had to reject ; and
he certainly held very strongly the necessity of a material cause
for gravity, which his disciples have disregarded. Davy looked
for his greatest triumph in the application of his discoveries to
prevent the copper bottoms of ships from being corroded. And
so in other matters. Edinburgh Review, No. 216.
RELICS OF GENIUS.
Professor George Wilson, in a lecture to the Scottish So-
ciety of Arts, says: "The spectacle of these things ministers
6 Things not generally Known.
only to the good impulses of humanity. Isaac Newton's tele-
scope at the Royal Society of London ; Otto Guericke's air-
pump in the Library at Berlin ; James Watt's repaired New-
comen steam-engine in the Natural-Philosophy class-room of
the College at Glasgow ; Fahrenheit's thermometer in the cor-
responding class-room of the University of Edinburgh ; Sir H.
Davy's great voltaic battery at the Royal Institution, London,
and his safety-lamp at the Royal Society ; Joseph Black's
pneumatic trough in Dr. Gregory's possession ; the first wire
which Faraday made rotate electro-magnetically, at St. Bar-
tholomew's Hospital ; Dalton's atomic models at Manchester ;
and Kemp's liquefied gases in the Industrial Museum of Scot-
land, are alike personal relics, historical monuments, and
objects of instruction, which grow more and more precious
every year, and of which we never can havo too many."
THE ROYAL SOCIETY I THE NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL.
The Royal Society was formed with the avowed object of
increasing knowledge by direct experiment ; and it is worthy
of remark, that the charter granted by Charles II. to this cele-
brated institution declares that its object is the extension of
natural knowledge, as opposed to that which is supernatural.
Dr. Paris (Life of Sir H. Davy, vol. ii. p. 178) says : " The
charter of the Royal Society states that it was established for
the improvement of natural science. This epithet natural was
originally intended to imply a meaning, of which very few
persons, I believe, are aware. At the period of the establish-
ment of the society, the arts of witchcraft and divination were
very extensively encouraged ; and the word natural was there-
fore introduced in contradistinction to supernatural."
THE PHILOSOPHER BOYLE.
After the death of Bacon, one of the most distinguished
Englishmen was certainly Robert Boyle, who, if compared
with his contemporaries, may be said to rank immediately
below Newton, though of course very inferior to him as an ori-
ginal thinker. Boyle was the first who instituted exact expe-
riments into the relation between colour and heat ; and by
this means not only ascertained some very important facts,
but laid a foundation for that union between optics and ther-
motics, which, though not yet completed, now merely waits
for some great philosopher to strike out a generalisation large
enough to cover both, and thus fuse the two sciences into a
single study. It is also to Boyle, more than to any other Eng-
lishman, that we owe the science of hydrostatics in the state
Curiosities of Science.
in which we now possess it.* He is also the original discoverer
of that beautiful law, so fertile in valuable results, according
to which the elasticity of air varies as its density. And, in
the opinion of one of the most eminent modern naturalists, it
was Boyle who opened up those chemical inquiries which went
on accumulating until, a century later, they supplied the
means by which Lavoisier and his contemporaries fixed the
real basis of chemistry, and enabled it for the first time to
take its proper stand among those sciences that deal with the
external world. Buckle's History of Civilization, vol. i.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S ROOMS AND LABORATORY IN TRINITY
COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
Of the rooms occupied by Newton during his early resi-
dence at Cambridge, it is now difficult to settle the locality.
The chamber allotted to him as Fellow, in 1667, was " the
Spiritual Chamber," conjectured to have been the ground-
room, next the chapel, but it is not certain that he resided
there. The rooms in which he lived from 1682 till he left
Cambridge, are in the north-east corner of the great court,
on the first floor, on the right or north of the gateway or
Principal entrance to the college. His laboratory, as Dr.
lumphrey Newton tell us, was " on the left end of the garden,
near the east end of the chapel ; and his telescope (refracting)
was five feet long, and placed at the head of the stairs, going
down into the garden. "f The east side of Newton's rooms has
been altered within the last fifty years : Professor Sedgwick,
who came up to college in 1804, recollects a wooden room,
supported on an arcade, shown in Loggan's view, in place of
which arcade is now a wooden wall and brick chimney.
Dr. Humphrey Newton relates that in college Sir Isaac very rarely
went to bed till two or three o'clock in the morning', sometimes not till
five or six, especially at spring and fall of the leaf, when he used to
employ about six weeks in his laboratory, the fire scarcely going out
either night or day ; he sitting up one night, and Humphrey another,
till he had finished his chemical experiments. Dr. Newton describes
the laboratory as " well furnished with chymical materials, as bodyes,
receivers, heads, crucibles, &c., which was made very little use of, ye
crucibles excepted, in which he fused his metals : he would some-
times, though very seldom, look into an old mouldy book, which lay in
his laboratory ; I think it was titled Agricola de Metallis, the trans-
muting of metals being his chief design, for which purpose antimony
* Dr Whewell (Bridgewater Treatise, p. 266) well observes, that Boyle and
Pascal are to hydrbstatics what Galileo is to mechanics, and Copernicus, Kepler,
and Newton are to astronomy.
t The Kev. Mr. Tumor recollects that Mr Jones, the tutor, mentioned, in one
of his lectures on optics, that the reflecting telescope belonging to Newton was
then lodged in the observatory over the gateway; and Mr. Turner thinks that
he once saw it, with a finder affixed to it.
Things not generally Known.
was a great ingredient." " His brick furnaces, pro re nata, he made
and altered himself without troubling a bricklayer." " What obser-
vations he might make with his telescope, I know not, but several of
his observations about comets and the planets may be found scattered
here and there in a book intitled The Elements of Astronomy, by Dr.
David Gregory."*
NEWTON'S " APPLE-TREE."
Curious and manifold as are the trees associated with the
great names of their planters, or those who have sojourned in
their shade, the Tree which, by the falling of its fruit, sug-
gested to Newton the idea of Gravity, is of paramount interest.
It appears that, in the autumn of 1665, Newton left his college
at Cambridge for his paternal home at Woolsthorpe. " When
sitting alone in the garden," says Sir David Brewster, "and
speculating on the power of gravity, it occurred to him, that as
the same power by which the apple fell to the ground was not
sensibly diminished at the greatest distance from the centre of
the earth to which we can reach, neither at the summits of
the loftiest spires, nor on the tops of the highest mountains,
it might extend to the moon and retain her in her orbit, in
the same manner as it bends into a curve a stone or a cannon-
ball when projected in a straight line from the surface of the
earth." Life of Newton, vol. i. p. 26. Sir David Brewster
notes, that neither Pemberton nor Whiston, who received from
Newton himself his first ideas of gravity, records this story of
the falling apple. It was mentioned, however, to Voltaire by
Catherine Barton, Newton's niece ; and to Mr. Green by Mar-
tin Folkes, President of the Royal Society. Sir David Brewster
saw the reputed apple-tree in 1814, and brought away a portion
of one of its roots. The tree was so much decayed that it was
cut down in 1820, and the wood of it carefully preserved by
Mr. Tumor, of Stoke Rocheford.
* The story of the dog " Diamond" having caused the burning of certain
papers is laid in London, and in Newton's later years. In the notes to Maude's
~W enUysdal?. a person then living (1780) relates, that Sir Isaac being called out
of bis study to a contiguous room, a little dog, called Diamond, the constant
but incurious attendant of his master's researches, happened to be left among
the papers, and by a fatality not to be retrieved, as it was in the latter part of
Sir Isaac's days, threw down a lighted candle, which consumed the almost
finished labour of some years. Sir Isaac returning too late but to behold the
dreadful wreck, rebuked the author of it with an exclamation (ad sidern p/ilmas),
" O Diamond ! Diamond ! thou little knowest the mischief done!" without adding
a single stripe. M. Biot gives this fiction as a true story, which happened
Borne years after the publication of the Prii.cipin; and he characterises the acci-
dent as having deprived the sciences forever of the fruit of so much of Newton's
labours. Brewster's Life. vol. ii. p. 1P9, note. Dr. Newton remarks, that Sir
Isaac never had any communion with dogs or cats; and Sir David Brewster
adds, that the view which M. Biot has taken of the idle story of the dog Dia-
mond, charged with fire-raising among Newton's manuscripts, and of the influ-
ence of this accident upon the mind of their author, is utterly incomprehensible.
The fiction, however, was turned to account in giving colour to M. Biot'b misre-
presentation.
Curiosities of Science.
De Morgan (in Notes and Queries, 2d series, No. 139, p. 169) ques-
tions'whether the fruit was an apple, and maintains that the anecdote
rests upon very slight authority ; more especially as the idea had for
many ye irs been floating before the minds of physical inquirers ; al-
though Newton cleared away the confusions and difficulties which pre-
vented very able men from proceeding beyond conjecture, and by this
means established universal gravitation.
NEWTON'S " PKINCIPIA."
" It may be justly said," observes Halley, " that so many
and so valuable philosophical truths as are herein discovered
and put past dispute were never yet owing to the capacity and
industry of any one man." " The importance and generality
of the discoveries," says Laplace, "and the immense number
of original and profound views, which have been the germ of
the most brilliant theories of the philosophers of this (18th)
century, and all presented with much elegance, will ensure to
the work on the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
a preeminence above all the other productions of human
genius."
DESCAKTES' LABOURS IN PHYSICS.
The most profound among the many eminent thinkers
France has produced, is Rene Descartes, of whom the least
that can be said is, that he effected a revolution more decisive
than has ever been brought about by any other single mind;
that he was the first who successfully applied algebra to geo-
metry; that he pointed out the important law of the sines;
that in an age in which optical instruments were extremely
imperfect, he discovered the changes to which light is sub-
jected in the eye by the crystalline lens ; that he directed at-
tention to the consequences resulting from the weight of the
atmosphere ; and that he moreover detected the causes of the
rainbow. At the same time, and as if to combine the most
varied forms of excellence, he is not only allowed to be the first
geometrician of the age, but by the clearness and admirable
precision of his style, he became one of the founders of French
prose. And, although he was constantly engaged in those lofty
inquiries into the nature of the human mind, which can never
be studied without wonder, he combined with them a long
course of laborious experiment upon the animal frame, which
raised him to the highest rank among the anatomists of his
time. The great discovery made by Harvey of the Circulation
of the Blood was neglected by most of his contemporaries ; but
it was at once recognised by Descartes, who made it the basis
of the physiological part of his work on man. He was likewise
the discoverer of the lacteals by Aselli, which, like every great
10 Things not generally Known.
truth yet laid before the world, was at its first appearance, not
only disbelieved, but covered with ridicule. Buckles History
of Civilization, vol. i.
CONIC SECTIONS.
If a cone or sugar-loaf be cut through in certain directions,
we shall obtain figures which are termed conic sections : thus,
if we cut through a sugar-loaf parallel to its base or bottom,
the outline or edge of the loaf where it is cut will be a circle.
If the cut is made so as to slant, and not be parallel to the base
of the loaf, the outline is an ellipse, provided the cut goes quite
through the sides of the loaf all round ; but if it goes slanting,
and parallel to the line of the loaf's side, the outline is a para-
bola, a conic section or curve, which is distinguished by charac-
teristic properties, every point of it bearing a certain fixed rela-
tion to a certain point within it, as the circle does to its centre.
Dr. Paris' s Notes to Philosophy in Sport, <c.
POWEE OF COMPUTATION.
The higher class of mathematicians, at the end of the seven-
teenth century, had become excellent computers, particularly
in England, of which Wallis, Newton, Halley, the Gregorys, and
De Moivre, are splendid examples. Before results of extreme
exactness had become quite familiar, there was a gratifying
sense of power in bringing out the new methods. Newton, in
one of his letters to Oldenburg, says that he was at one time too
much attached to such things, and that he should be ashamed
to say to what number of figures he was in the habit of carrying
his results. The growth of power of computation on the Conti-
nent did not, however, keep pace with that of the same in Eng-
land. In 1696, De Laguy, a well-known writer on algebra, and
a member of the Academy of Sciences, said that the most skil-
ful computer could not, in less than a month, find within a unit
the cube root of 696536483318640035073641037. De Morgan.
" THE SCIENCE OF THE COSMOS."
Humboldt characterises this " uncommon but definite ex-
pression" as the treating of " the assemblage of all things with
which space is filled, from the remotest nebulas to the climatic
distribution of those delicate tissues of vegetable matter which
spread a variegated covering over the surface of our rocks."
The word cosmos, which primitively, in the Homeric ages,
indicated an idea of order and harmony, was subsequently
adopted in scientific language, where it was gradually applied
to the order observed in the movements of the heavenly bodies ;
to the whole universe ; and then finally to the world in which
this harmony was reflected to us.
Curiosities of Science. 1 1
ALL THE WOELD IN MOTION.
HUMBOLDT, in his Cosmos* gives the following beautiful illus-
trative proofs of this phenomenon :
If, for a moment, we imagine the acuteness of our senses preterna-
turally heightened to the extreme limits of telescopic vision, and bring
together events separated by wide intervals of time, the apparent re-
pose which reigns in space will suddenly vanish ; countless stars will be
seen moving in groups in various directions ; nebulae wandering, con-
densing, and dissolving like cosmical clouds ; the milky way breaking
up in parts, and its veil rent asunder. In every point of the celestial
vault we shall recognise the dominion of progressive movement, as on
the surface of the earth where vegetation is constantly putting forth its
leaves and buds, and unfolding its blossoms. The celebrated Spanish
botanist, Cavanilles, first conceived the possibility of " seeing grass
grow," by placing the horizontal micrometer wire of a telescope, with a
high magnifying power, at one time on the point of a bamboo shoot, and
at another on the rapidly unfolding flowering stem of an American aloe ;
preciselv as the astronomer places the cross of wires on a culminating
star. Throughout the whole life of physical nature in the organic as
in the sidereal world existence, preservation, production, and develop-
ment, are alike associated with motion as their essential condition.
THE AXIS OF ROTATION.
It is remarkable as a mechanical fact, that nothing is so per-
manent in nature as the Axis of Rotation of any thing which is
rapidly whirled. We have examples of this in every-day prac-
tice. The first is the motion of a boy's hoop. What keeps the
hoop from falling ? It is its rotation, which is one of the most
complicated subjects in mechanics.
Another thing pertinent to this question is, the motion of a
quoit. Every body who ever threw a quoit knows that to make
it preserve its position as it goes through the air, it is necessary
to give it a whirling motion. It will be seen that while whirl-
ing, it preserves its plane, whatever the position of the plane
may be, and however it may be inclined to the direction in
which the quoit travels. Now, this has greater analogy with
the motion of the earth than any thing else.
Another illustration is the motion of a spinning top. The
greatest mathematician of the last century, the celebrated
Euler, has written a whole book on the motion of a top, and
his Latin treatise De motu Turbinis is one of the most remark-
able books on mechanics. The motion of a top is a matter of
* Bolm's edition.
12 Things not generally Known.
the greatest importance ; it is applicable to the elucidation of
some of the greatest phenomena of nature. In all these in-
stances there is this wonderful tendency in rotation to preserve
the axis of rotation unaltered. Prof. Airy's Lect. on Astronomy.
THE EARTH'S ANNUAL MOTION.
In conformity with the Copernican view of our system, we
must learn to look upon the sun as the comparatively motion-
less centre about which the earth performs an annual elliptic
orbit of the dimensions and exeentricity, and with a velocity,
regulated according to a certain assigned law ; the sun occupy-
ing one of the foci of the ellipse, and from that station quietly
disseminating on all sides its light and heat ; while the earth
travelling round it, and presenting itself differently to it at dif-
ferent times of the year and day, passes through the varieties of
day and night, summer and winter, which we enjoy. Sir John
HerscheVs Outlines of Astronomy.
Laplace has shown that the length of the day has not varied
the hundredth part of a second since the observations of Hippar-
chus, 2000 years ago.
STABILITY OF THE OCEAN.
In submitting this question to analysis, Laplace found that
the equilibrium of the ocean is stable if its density is less than the
mean density of the earth, and that its equilibrium cannot be sub-
verted unless these two densities are equal, or that of the earth
less than that of its waters. The experiments on the attraction
of Schehallien and Mont Cenis, and those made by Cavendish,
Reich, and Baily, with balls of lead, demonstrate that the mean
density of the earth is at least five times that of water, and hence
the stability of the ocean is placed beyond a doubt. As the seas,
therefore, have at one time covered continents which are now
raised above their level, we must seek for some other cause of
it than any want of stability in the equilibrium of the ocean.
How beautifully does this conclusion illustrate the language of
Scripture, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further" ! (Job
xxxviii. 11.)
COMPRESSION OF BODIES.
Sir John Leslie observes, that air compressed into the fiftieth
part of its volume has its elasticity fifty times augmented : if it
continued to contract at that rate, it would, from its own in-
cumbent weight, acquire the density of water at the depth of
thirty-four miles. Bat water itself would have its density
doubled at the depth of ninety -three miles, and would attain the
density of quicksilver at the depth of 362 miles. In descending,
therefore, towards the centre, through nearly 4000 miles, the
condensation of ordinary substances would surpass the utmost
Curiosities of Science. 13
powers of conception. Dr. Young says, that steel would be
compressed into one-fourth, and stone into one-eighth, of its
bulk at the earth's centre. Mrs. Somerville.
THE WORLD IN A NUTSHELL.
From the many proofs of the non-contact of the atoms, even
in the most solid parts of bodies ; from the very great space
obviously occupied by pores the mass having often no more
solidity than a heap of empty boxes, of which the apparently
solid parts may still be as porous in a second degree and so on ;
and from the great readiness with which light passes in all direc-
tions through dense bodies, like glass, rock-crystal, diamond,
&c., it has been argued that there is so exceedingly little of
really solid matter even in the densest mass, that the whole
world, if the atoms could be brought into absolute contact,
might be compressed into a nutshell. We have as yet no means
of determining exactly what relation this idea has to truth.
Arnott.
THE WORLD OF ATOMS.
The infinite groups of atoms flying through all time and
space, in different directions and under different laws, have
interchangeably tried and exhibited every possible mode of ren-
counter : sometimes repelled from each other by concussion ;
and sometimes adhering to each other from their own jagged
or pointed construction, or from the casual interstices which
two or more connected atoms must produce, and which may be
just adapted to those of other figures, as globular, oval, or
square. Hence the origin of compound and visible bodies ;
hence the origin of large masses of matter ; hence, eventually,
the origin of the world. Dr. Good's Book of Nature.
The great Epicurus speculated on " the plastic nature " of
atoms, and attributed to this nature the power they possess of
arranging themselves into symmetric forms. Modern philoso-
phers satisfy themselves with attraction; and reasoning from,
analogy, imagine that each atom has a polar system. Hunt's
Poetry of Science.
MINUTE ATOMS OF THE ELEMENTS I DIVISIBILITY OF MATTER.
So minute are the parts of the elementary bodies in their
ultimate state of division, in which condition they are usually
termed atoms, as to elude all our powers of inspection, even
when aided by the most powerful microscopes. Who can see the
particles of gold in a solution of that metal in aqua regia, or
those of common salt when dissolved in water ? Dr. Thomas
Thomson has estimated the bulk of an ultimate particle or
atom of lead as less than ^a^saoogooooooth of a cubic inch,
14 Things not generally Known.
and concludes that its weight cannot exceed the
of a grain.
This curious calculation was made by Dr. Thomson, in order
to show to what degree Matter could be divided, and still
be sensible to the eye. He dissolved a grain of nitrate of lead
in 500,000 grains of water, and passed through the solution
a current of sulphuretted hydrogen ; when the whole liquid
became sensibly discoloured. Now, a grain of water may
be regarded as being almost equal to a drop of that liquid,
and a drop may be easily spread out so as to cover a square
inch of surface. But under an ordinary microscope the mil-
lionth of a square inch may be distinguished by the eye. The
water, therefore, could be divided into 500,000,000,000 parts.
But the lead in a grain of nitrate of lead weighs 0*62 of a
grain ; an atom of lead, accordingly, cannot weigh more than
sioooooooooo th of a grain ; while the atom of sulphur,
which in combination with the lead rendered it visible, could
not weigh more than ^orgooooooooo? that is, the two-billionth
part of a grain. Professor Low ; Jameson's Journal, No. 106.
WEIGHT OF AIE.
Air can be so rarefied that the contents of a cubic foot shall
not weigh the tenth part of a grain : if a quantity that would
fill a space the hundredth part of an inch in diameter be sepa-
rated from the rest, the air will still be found there, and we
may reasonably conceive that there may be several particles
resent, though the weight is less than the seventeen-hun-
red-millionth of a grain.
DURATION OF THE PYRAMID.
The great reason of the duration of the pyramid above all
other forms is, that it is most fitted to resist the force of gra-
vitation. Thus the Pyramids of Egypt are the oldest monu-
ments in the world.
INERTIA ILLUSTRATED.
Many things of common occurrence (says Professor Tyndall)
are to be explained by reference to the quality of inactivity.
We will here state a few of them.
When a railway train is moving, if it strike against any ob-
stacle which arrests its motion, the passengers are thrown
forward in the direction in which the train was proceeding.
Such accidents often occur on a small scale, in attaching car-
riages at railway stations. The reasofi is, that the passengers
share the motion of the train, and, as matter, they tend to
persist in motion. When the train is suddenly checked, this
tendency exhibits itself by the falling forward referred to. In
Curiosities of Science. 15
like manner, when a train previously at rest is suddenly set in
motion, the tendency of the passengers to remain at rest evinces
itself by their falling in a direction opposed to that in which
the train moves.
THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA.*
Sir John Leslie used to attribute the stability of this tower
to the cohesion of the mortar it is built with being sufficient to
maintain it erect, in spite of its being out of the condition re-
quired by physics to wit, that " in order that a column shall
stand, a perpendicular let fall from the centre of gravity must
fall within the base." Sir John describes the Tower of Pisa to
be in violation of this principle ; but, according to later au-
thorities, the perpendicular falls within the base.
EARLY PRESENTIMENTS OF CENTRIFUGAL FORCES.
Jacobi, in his researches on the mathematical knowledge of
the Greeks, comments on " the profound consideration of nature
evinced by Anaxagoras, in whom we read with astonishment a
passage asserting that the moon, if the centrifugal force were
intermitted, would fall to the earth like a stone from a sling."
Anaxagoras likewise applied the same theory of " falling where
the force of rotation had been intermitted" to all the mate-
rial celestial bodies. In Aristotle and Simplicius may also be
traced the idea of " the non-falling of heavenly bodies when
the rotatory force predominates over the actual falling force,
or downward attraction ;" and Simplicius mentions that " wa-
ter in a phial is not spilt when the movement of rotation is
more rapid than the downward movement of the water." This
is illustrated at the present day by rapidly whirling a pail half-
filled with water without spilling a drop.
Plato had a clearer idea than Aristotle of the attractive force
exercised by the earth's centre on all heavy bodies removed
from it ; for he was acquainted with the acceleration of falling
* When at Pisa, many years since, Captain Basil Hall investigated the
origin and divergence of the tower from the perpendicular, and established
completely to his own satisfaction that it had been built from top to bottom
originally just as it now stands. His reasons for thinking so were, that the line
of the tower, on that side towards which it leans, has not the same curvature as
the line on the opposite, or what may be called the upper side. If the tower
had been built upright, and then been made to incline over, the line of the wall
on that side towards which the inclination was given would be more or less
concave in that direction, owing to the nodding or "swagging over" of the top,
by the simple action of gravity acting on a very tall mass of masonry, which is
more or less elastic when placed in a sloping position. But the contrary is the
fact; for the line of wall on the side towards which the tower leans is decidedly
more convex than the opposite side. Captain Hall had therefore no doubt
whatever that the architect, in rearing his successive courses of stones, gained
or stole a little at each layer, so as to render his work less and less overhanging
as he went up; and thus, without betraying what he was about, really gained
stability. See Patchwork,
16 Things not generally Known.
bodies, although he did not correctly understand the cause.
John Philoponus, the Alexandrian, probably in the sixth cen-
tury, was the first who ascribed the movement of the heavenly
bodies to a primitive impulse, connecting with this idea that
of the fall of bodies, or the tendency of all substances, whether
heavy or light, to reach the ground. The idea conceived by
Copernicus, and more clearly expressed by Kepler, who even
applied it to the ebb and flow of the ocean, received in 1666
and 1674 a new impulse from Robert Hooke ; and next New-
ton's theory of gravitation presented the grand means of con-
verting the whole of physical astronomy into a true mechanism
of the heavens.
The law of gravitation knows no exception ; it accounts ac-
curately for the most complex motions of the members of our
own system ; nay more, the paths of double stars, far removed
from all appreciable effects of our portion of the universe, are
in perfect accordance with its theory. *
HEIGHT OF FALLS.
The fancy of the Greeks delighted itself in wild visions of the
height of falls. In Hesiod's Theogony it is said, speaking of the
fall of the Titans into Tartarus, " if a brazen anvil were to fall
from heaven nine days and nine nights long, it would reach
the earth on the tenth." This descent of the anvil in 777,600
seconds of time gives an equivalent in distance of 309,424 geo-
graphical miles (allowance being made, according to Galle's
calculation, for the considerable diminution in force of attrac-
tion at planetary distances) ; therefore 1 times the distance
of the moon from the earth. But, according to the Iliad, He-
phaestus fell down to Lemnos in one day ; " when but a little
breath was still in him." Note to Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. iii.
KATE OF THE FALL OF BODIES.
A body falls in gravity precisely 1 6 T ^ feet in a second, and
the velocity increases according to the squares of the time, viz. :
In i (quarter of a second) a body falls . . 1 foot.
i (half a second) 4 feet.
1 second . . . . . . . 16 ,,
2 ditto 64
3 ditto 144
* Lord Bacon proposed that, in order to determine whether the gravity of the
earth arises from the gravity of its parts, a clock-pendulum should be swung in
a mine, as was recently done at Harton colliery by the Astronomer Royal.
When, in 1812, Ampere noted the phenomena of the pendulum, and showed
that its movement was produced only when the eye of the observer was fixed
on the instrument, and endeavoured to prove thereby that the motion was due to
a play of the muscles, some members of the French Academy objected to the
consideration of a subject connected to such an extent with superstition.
Curiosities of Science. 1 7
The power of gravity at two miles distance from the earth is
four times less than at one mile ; at three miles nine times
less, and so on. It goes on lessening, but is never destroyed.
Notes in various Sciences.
VARIETIES OF SPEED.
A French scientific work states the ordinary rate to be :
per second.
Of a man walking 4 feet.
Of a good horse in harness 12
Of a rein- deer in a sledge on the ice . . . 26
Of an English race-horse . . 43
Of a hare 88
Of a good sailing ship 19
Of the wind 82
Of sound 1038
Of a 24-pounder cannon-ball .... 1300
LIFTING HEAVY PERSONS.
One of the most extraordinary pages in Sir David Brewster's
Letters on Natural Magic is the experiment in which a heavy
man is raised with the greatest facility when he is lifted up the
instant that his own lungs, and those of the persons who raise
him, are inflated with air. Thus the heaviest person in the
party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being supported by
the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one at each
leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him the per-
son to be raised giving two signals, by clapping his hands. At
the first signal, he himself and the four lifters begin to draw a
long and full breath ; and when the inhalation is completed, or
the lungs filled, the second signal is given for raising the per-
son from the chair. To his own surprise, and that of his bearers,
he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were no heavier than
a feather. Sir David Brewster states that he has seen this
inexplicable experiment performed more than once; and he
appealed for testimony to Sir Walter Scott, who had repeatedly
seen the experiment, and performed the part both of the load
and of the bearer. It was first shown in England by Major H.,
who saw it performed in a large party at Venice, under the di-
rection of an officer of the American navy.*
Sir David Brewster (in a letter to Notes and Queries, No. 143)
further remarks, that " the inhalation of the lifters the moment
the effort is made is doubtless essential, and for this reason :
when we make a great effort, either in pulling or lifting, we
always fill the chest with air previous to the effort ; and when
* This curious fact was first recorded by Pepys, in his Diary, under the date
31st of July 1665.
18 Things not generally Known.
the inhalation is completed, we close the rima glottidis to keep
the air in the lungs. The chest being thus kept expanded, the
pulling or lifting muscles have received as it were a fulcrum
round which their power is exerted ; and we can thus lift the
greatest weight which the muscles are capable of doing. When
the chest collapses by the escape of the air, the lifters lose their
muscular power; reinhalation of air by the liftee can certainly
add nothing to the power of the lifters, or diminish his own
weight, which is only increased by the weight of the air which
he inhales."
" FORCE CAN NEITHER BE CREATED NOR DESTROYED."
Professor Faraday, in his able inquiry upon " the Conserva-
tion of Force," maintains that to admit that force may be de-
structible, or can altogether disappear, would be to admit that
matter could be uncreated; for we know matter only by its
forces. From his many illustrations we select the following :
The indestructibility of individual matter is a most important case of
the Conservation of Chemical Force. A molecule has been endowed with
powers which give rise in it to various qualities ; and those never change,
either in their nature or amount. A particle of oxygen is ever a particle
of oxygen ; nothing can in the least wear it. If it enters into combina-
tion, and disappears as oxygen ; if it pass through a thousand combina-
tions animal, vegetable, mineral ; if it lie hid for a thousand years, and
then be evolved, it is oxygen with the first qualities, neither more nor
less. It has all its original force, and only that ; the amount of force
which it disengaged when hiding itself, has again to be employed in a
reverse direction when it is set at liberty : and if, hereafter, we should
decompose oxygen, and find it compounded of other particles, we should
only increase the strength of the proof of the conservation of force ; for
we should have a right to say of these particles, long as they have been
hidden, all that we could say of the oxygen itself.
In conclusion, he adds :
Let us not admit the destruction or creation of force without clear
and constant proof. Just as the chemist owes all the perfection of his
science to his dependence on the certainty of gravitation applied by the
balance, so may the physical philosopher expect to find the greatest
security and the utmost aid in the principle of the conservation of force.
All that we have that is good and safe as the steam-engine, the electric
telegraph, &c. witness to that principle ; it would require a perpetual
motion, a fire without heat, heat without a source, action without re-
action, cause without effect, or effect without cause, to displace it from
its rank as a law of nature.
NOTHING LOST IN THE MATERIAL WORLD.
"It is remarkable, 1 ' says Kobell in his Mineral Kingdom,
" how a change of place, a circulation as it were, is appointed
for the inanimate or naturally immovable things upon the earth ;
and how new conditions, new creations, are continually deve-
loping themselves in this way. I will not enter here into the
Curiosities of Science. 19
evaporation of water, for instance from the widely-spreading
ocean ; how the clouds produced by this pass over into foreign
lands and then fall again to the earth as rain, and how this
wandering water is, partly at least, carried along new journeys,
returning after various voyages to its original home : the mere
mechanical phenomena, such as the transfer of seeds by the
winds or by birds, or the decomposition of the surface of the
earth by the friction of the elements, suffice to illustrate this."
TIME AN ELEMENT OF FOKCE.
Professor Faraday observes that Time is growing up daily
into importance as an element in the exercise of Force, which
he thus strikingly illustrates :
The earth moves in its orbit of time ; the crust of the earth moves in
time ; light moves in time ; an electro-magnet requires time for its charge
by an electric current : to inquire, therefore, whether power, acting either
at sensible or insensible distances, always acts in time, is not to be me-
taphysical ; if it acts in time and across space, it must act by physical
lines of force ; and our view of the nature of force may be affected to
the extremest degree by the conclusions which experiment and obser-
vation on time may supply, being perhaps finally determinate only by
them. To inquire after the possible time in which gravitating, magnetic,
or electric force is exerted, is no more metaphysical than to mark the
times of the hands of a clock in their progress ; or that of the temple of
Serapis, and its ascents and descents ; or the periods of the occultation
of Jupiter's satellites; or that in which the light comes from them to
the earth. Again, in some of the known cases of the action of time
something happens while the time is passing which did not happen be-
fore, and does not continue after ; it is therefore not metaphysical to
expect an effect in every case, or to endeavour to discover its existence
and determine its nature.
CALCULATION OF HEIGHTS AND DISTANCES.
By the assistance of a seconds watch the following inter-
esting calculations may be made :
If a traveller, when on a precipice or on the top of a building, wish
to ascertain the height, he should drop a stone, or any other substance
sufficiently heavy not to be impeded by the resistance of the atmosphere ;
and the number of seconds which elapse before it reaches the bottom,
carefully noted on a seconds watch, will give the height. For the stone
will fall through the space of 16J feet during the first second, and will
increase in rapidity as the square of the time employed in the fall : if,
therefore, 16j be multiplied by the number of seconds the stone has
taken to fall, this product also multiplied by the same number of seconds
will give the height. Suppose the stone takes five seconds to reach the
bottom :
16^ x 5=80| x 5=403&, height of the precipice.
The Count Xavier de Maistre, in his Expedition nocturne autoiir de
ma Ckambre, anxious to ascertain the exact height of his room from the
ground on which Turin is built, tells us he proceeded as follows : " My
heart beat quickly, and I just counted three pulsations from the instant
20 Things not generally Known.
1 dropped my slipper until I heard the sound as it fell in the street,
which, according to the calculations made of the time taken by bodies
in their accelerated fall, and of that employed by the sonorous undula-
tions of the air to arrive from the street to my ear, gave the height of
my apartment as 94 feet 3 inches 1 tenth (French measure), supposing
that my heart, agitated as it was, beat 120 times in a minute."
A person travelling may ascertain his rate of walking by the aid of a
slight string with a piece of lead at one end, and the use of a seconds
watch ; the string being knotted at distances of 44 feet, the 120th part
of an English mile, and bearing the same proportion to a mile that half
a minute bears to an hour. If the traveller, when going at his usual
rate, drops the lead, and suffers the string to slip through his hand, the
number of knots which pass in half a minute indicate the number of
miles he walks in an hour. This contrivance is similar to a log-line for
ascertaining a ship's rate at sea : the lead is enclosed in wood (whence
the name log), that it may float, and the divisions, which are called
knots, are measured for nautical miles. Thus, if ten knots are passed in
half a minute, they show that the vessel is sailing at the rate often knots,
or miles, an hour : a seconds watch would here be of great service, but
the half-minute sand-glass is in general use.
The rapidity of a river may be ascertained by thro wing- in a light
floating substance, which, if not agitated by the wind, will move with
the same celerity as the water : the distance it floats in a certain number
of seconds will give the rapidity of the stream ; and this indicates the
height of its source, the nature of its bottom, &c. See Sir Howard
Douglas on Bridges. Thomson's Time and Time-keepers.
SAND IN THE HOUE-GLASS.
It is a noteworthy fact, that the flow of Sand in the Hour-
glass is perfectly equable, whatever may be the quantity in the
glass ; that is, the sand runs no faster when the upper half of
the glass is quite full than when it is nearly empty. It would,
however, be natural enough to conclude, that when full of sand
it would be more swiftly urged through the aperture than when
the glass was only a quarter full, and near the close of the hour.
The fact of the even flow of sand may be proved by a very
simple experiment. Provide some silver sand, dry it over or
before the fire, and pass it through a tolerably fine sieve. Then
take a tube, of any length or diameter, closed at one end, in
which make a small hole, say the eighth of an inch ; stop this
with a peg, and fill up the tube with the sifted sand. Hold the
tube steadily, or fix it to a wall or frame at any height from a
table ; remove the peg, and permit the sand to flow in any mea-
sure for any given time, and note the quantity. Then let the
tube be emptied, and only half or a quarter filled with sand ;
measure again for a like time, and the same quantity of sand
will flow : even if you press the sand in the tube with a ruler
or stick, the flow of the sand through the hole will not be in-
creased.
The above is explained by the fact, that when the sand is
poured into the tube, it fills it with a succession of conical
Curiosities of Science.
heaps ; and that all the weight which the bottom of the tube
sustains is only that of the heap which first falls upon it, as
the succeeding heaps do not press downward, but only against
the sides or walls of the tube.
FIGURE OF THE EARTH.
By means of a purely astronomical determination, based
upon the action which the earth exerts on the motion of the
moon, or, in other words, on the inequalities in lunar longi-
tudes and latitudes, Laplace has shown in one single result the
mean Figure of the Earth.
It is very remarkable that an astronomer, without leaving his obser-
vatory, may, merely by comparing his observations with mean analytical
results, not only be enabled to determine with exactness the size and
degree of ellipticity of the earth, but also its distance from the sun and
moon ; results that otherwise could only be arrived at by long and ar-
duous expeditions to the most remote parts of both hemispheres. The
moon may therefore, by the observation of its movements, render ap-
preciable to the higher departments of astronomy the ellipticity of the
earth, as it taught the early astronomers the rotundity of our earth by
means of its eclipses. Laplace's Expos, du Syst. du Monde.
HOW TO ASCERTAIN THE EARTH'S MAGNITUDE.
Sir John Herschel gives the following means of approxima-
tion. It appears by observation that two points, each ten feet
above the surface, cease to be visible from each other over still
water, and, in average atmospheric circumstances, at a distance
of about eight miles. But 10 feet is the 528th part of a mile ;
so that half their distance, or four miles, is to the height of
each as 4 x 528, or 2112:1, and therefore in the same propor-
tion to four miles is the length of the earth's diameter. It
must, therefore, be equal to 4x2112=8448, or in round num-
bers, about 8000 miles, which is not very far from the truth.
The excess is, however, about 100 miles, or s^th part. As convenient
numbers to remember, the reader may bear in mind, that in our latitude
there are just as many thousands of feet in a degree of the meridian as
there are days in the j^ear (365) ; that, speaking loosely, a degree is
about seventy British statute miles, and a second about 100 feet ; that
the equatorial circumference of the earth is a little less than 25,000
miles (24,899), and the ellipticity or polar flattening amounts to ^th
part of the diameter. Outlines of Astronomy.
MASS AND DENSITY OF THE EARTH.
With regard to the determination of the Mass and Density
of the Earth by direct experiment, we have, in addition to the
deviations of the pendulum produced by mountain masses, the
variation of the same instruments when placed in a mine 1200
feet in depth. The most recent experiments were conducted
Things not generally Known.
by Professor Airy, in the Harton coal-pit, near South Shields :*
the oscillations of the pendulum at the bottom of the pit were
compared with those of a clock above ; the beats of the clock
were transferred below for comparison by an electric wire ; and
it was thus determined that a pendulum vibrating seconds at the
mouth of the pit would gain 2 seconds per day at its bottom.
The final result of the calculations depending on this experiment,
which were published in the Philosophical Transactions of 1856,
gives 6*565 for the mean density of the earth. The celebrated
Cavendish experiment, by means of which the density of the
earth was determined by observing the attraction of leaden
balls on each other, has been repeated in a manner exhibiting
an astonishing amount of skill and patience by the late Mr. F.
Baily.f The reoult of these experiments, combined with those
previously made, gives as a mean result 5 '441 as the earth's
density, when compared with water ; thus confirming one of
Newton's astonishing divinations, that the mean density of the
earth would be found to be between five and six times that of
water.
Humboldt is, however, of opinion that " we know only the mass of
the whole earth and its mean density by comparing it with the open
strata, which alone are accessible to us. In the interior of the earth,
where all knowledge of its chemical and mineralogical character fails,
we are limited to as pure conjecture as in the remotest bodies that
revolve round the sun. We can determine nothing with certainty re-
garding the depth at which the geological strata must be supposed to
be in a state of softening or of liquid fusion, of the condition of fluids
when heated under an enormous pressure, or of the law of the increase
of density from the upper surface to the centre of the earth." Cosmos,
vol. i.
In M. Foucault's beautiful experiment, by means of the
vibration of a long pendulum, consisting of a heavy mass of
metal suspended by a long wire from a strong fixed support, is
demonstrated to the eye the rotation of the earth. The Gyro-
scope of the same philosopher is regarded not as a mere philo-
sophical toy ; but the principles of dynamics, by means of
which it is made to demonstrate the earth's rotation on its own
axis, are explained with the greatest clearness. Thus the inge-
nuity of M. Foucault, combined with a profound knowledge of
mechanics, has obtained proofs of one of the most interesting
problems of astronomy from an unsuspected source.
THE EARTH AND MAN COMPARED.
The Earth speaking roundly is 8000 miles in diameter ;
* The result of these experiments for ascertaining the variation of the gra-
vity at great depths, has proved beyond doubt that the attraction of gravitation
is increased at the depth of 1250 fret by -^-^ part.
t See the account of Mr. Baily's researches (with two illustrations) in Things
not generally Known, p. vii., and " Weight of the Earth," p. 16.
Curiosities of Science. 23
the atmosphere is calculated to be fifty miles in altitude ; the
loftiest mountain peak is estimated at five miles above the level
of the sea, for this height has never been visited by man ; the
deepest mine that he has formed is 1650 feet; and his own
stature does not average six feet. Therefore, if it were possible
for him to construct a globe 800 feet or twice the height of
St. Paul's Cathedral in diameter, and to place upon any one
point of its surface an atom of 45 ' 6(j th of an inch in diameter,
and ^th of an inch in height, it would correctly denote the
proportion that man bears to the earth upon which he moves.
When by measurements, in which the evidence of the method ad-
vances equally with the precision of the results, the volume of the earth
is reduced to the millionth part of the volume of the sun. ; when the sun
himself, transported to the region of the stars, takes up a very modest
place among the thousands of millions of those bodies that the telescope
has revealed to us ; when the 38,000,000 of leagues which poparate the
earth from the sun have become, by reason of their comparative small-
ness, a base totally insufficient for ascertaining the dimensions of the
visible universe ; when even the swiftness of the luminous rays (77,000
leagues per second) barely suffices for the common valuations of science;
when, in short, by a chain of irresistible proofs, certain stars have re-
tired to distances that light could not traverse in less than a million of
years ; we feel as if annihilated by such immensities. In assigning to
man and to the planet that he inhabits so small a position in the ma-
terial world, astronomy seems really to have made progress only to
humble us. Arago.
MEAN TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE.
Professor Dove has shown, by taking at all seasons the
mean of the temperature of points diametrically opposite to
each^ other, that the mean temperature of the whole earth's sur-
face in June considerably exceeds that in December. This re-
sult, which is at variance with the greater proximity of the
sun in December, is, however, due to a totally different and
very powerful cause, the greater amount of land in that
hemisphere which has its summer solstice in June (i. e. the
northern) ; and the fact is so explained by him. The effect of
land under sunshine is to throw heat into the general atmo-
sphere, and to distribute it by the carrying power of the latter
over the whole earth. Water is much less effective in this
respect, the heat penetrating its depths and being there ab-
sorbed ; so that the surface never acquires a very elevated
temperature, even under the equator. Sir John HerscheVs
Outlines.
TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH STATIONARY.
Although, according to Bessel, 25,000 cubic miles of water
flow in every six hours from one quarter of the earth to another,
and the temperature is augmented by the ebb and flow of every
Things not generally Known.
tide, all that we know with certainty is, that the resultant
effect of all the thermal agencies to which the earth is exposed
has undergone no perceptible change within the historic period.
We owe this fine deduction to Arago. In order that the date
palm should ripen its fruit, the mean temperature of the place
must exceed 70deg. Fahr. ; and, on the other hand, the vine
cannot be cultivated successfully when the temperature is
72 deg. or upwards. Hence the mean temperature of any
place at which these two plants flourished and bore fruit must
lie between these narrow limits, i. e. could not differ from
71 deg. Fahr. by more than a single degree. Now from the
Bible we learn that both plants were simultaneously cultivated
in the central valleys of Palestine in the time of Moses ; and
its then temperature is thus definitively determined. It is the
same at the present time ; so that the mean temperature of
this portion of the globe has not sensibly altered in the course
of thirty-three centuries.
THEORY OF CRYSTALLISATION.
Professor Pliicker has ascertained that certain crystals, in
particular the cyanite, " point very well to the north by the
magnetic power of the earth only. It is a true compass-needle ;
and more than that, you may obtain its declination." Upon
this Mr. Hunt remarks : " We must remember that this crystal,
the cyanite, is a compound of silica and alumina only. This
is the amount of experimental evidence which science has
afforded in explanation of the conditions under which nature
pursues her wondrous work of crystal formation. We see just
sufficient of the operation to be convinced that the luminous
star which shines in the brightness of heaven, and the cavern-
secreted gem, are equally the result of forces which are known
to us in only a few of their modifications." Poetry of Science.
Gay Lussac first made the remark, that a crystal of potash-
alum, transferred to a solution of ammonia-alum, continued to
increase without its form being modified, and might thus be
covered with alternate layers of the two alums, preserving its
regularity and proper crystalline figure. M. Beudant after-
wards observed that other bodies, such as the sulphates of iron
and copper, might present themselves in crystals of the same
form and angles, although the form was not a simple one, like
that of alum. But M. Mitscherlich first recognised this cor-
respondence in a sufficient number of cases to prove that it was
a general consequence of similarity of composition in different
bodies. Graham's Elements of Che,
IMMENSE CRYSTALS.
Crystals are found in the most microscopic character, and
Curiosities of Science. 25
of an exceedingly large size. A crystal of quartz at Milan is
three feet and a quarter long, and five feet and a half in cir-
cumference : its weight is 870 pounds. Beryls have been found
in New Hampshire measuring four feet in length. Dana.
VISIBLE CRYSTALLISATION.
Professor Tyndall, in a lecture delivered by him at the Royal
Institution, London, on the properties of Ice, gave the following
interesting illustration of crystalline force. By perfectly clean-
ing a piece of glass, and placing on it a film of a solution of chlor-
ide of ammonium or sal ammoniac, the action of crystallisation
was shown to the whole audience. The glass slide was placed
in a microscope, and the electric light passing through it was
concentrated on a white disc. The image of the crystals, as
they started into existence, and shot across the disc in exqui-
site arborescent and symmetrical forms, excited the admira-
tion of every one. The lecturer explained that the heat, causing
the film of moisture to evaporate, brought the particles of salt
sufficiently near to exercise the crystalline force, the result
being the beautiful structure built up with such marvellous
rapidity.
UNION OF MINERALOGY AND GEOMETRY.
It is a peculiar characteristic of minerals, that while plants
and animals differ in various regions of the earth, mineral matter
of the same character may be discovered in any part of the world,
at the Equator or towards the Poles ; at the summit of the
loftiest mountains, and in works far beneath the level of the
sea. The granite of Australia does not necessarily differ from
that of the British islands ; and ores of the same metals (the
proper geological conditions prevailing) may be found of the
same general character in ail regions. Climate and geographi-
cal position have no influence on the composition of mineral
substances.
This uniformity may, in some measure, have induced philo-
sophers to seek its extension to the forms of crystallography.
About 1760 (says Mr, Buckle, in his History of Civilization),
Rome de Lisle set the first example of studying crystals, ac-
cording to a scheme so large as to include all the varieties of
their primary forms, and to account for their irregularities and
the apparent caprice with which they were arranged. In this
investigation he was guided by the fundamental assumption,
that what is called an irregularity is in truth perfectly regular,
and that the operations of nature are invariable. Haiiy ap-
plied this great idea to the almost innumerable forms in which
minerals crystallise. He thus achieved a complete union be-
tween mineralogy and geometry ; and, bringing the laws of space
Things not generally Known.
to bear on the molecular arrangements of matter, he was able
to penetrate into the intimate structure of crystals. By this
means he proved that the secondary forms of all crystals are de-
rived from their primary forms by a regular process of decrement ;
and that when a substance is passing from a liquid to a solid
state, its particles cohere, according to a scheme which provides
for every possible change, since it includes even those subse-
quent layers which alter the ordinary type of the crystal, by
disturbing its natural symmetry. To ascertain that such viola-
tions of symmetry are susceptible of mathematical calculation,
was to make a vast addition to our knowledge ; and, by proving
that even the most uncouth and singular forms are the natural
results of their antecedents, Haiiy laid the foundation of what
may be called the pathology of the inorganic world. However
paradoxical such a notion may appear, it is certain that sym-
metry is to crystals what health is to animals ; so that an irre-
gularity of shape in the first corresponds with an appearance of
disease in the second. See Hist. Civilization, vol.i.
REPRODUCTIVE CRYSTALLISATION.
The general belief that only organic beings have the power
of reproducing lost parts has been disproved by the experiments
of Jordan on crystals. An octohedral crystal of alum was frac-
tured ; it was then replaced in a solution, and after a few days
its injury was seen to be repaired. The whole crystal had of
course increased in size ; but the increase on the broken surface
had been so much greater that a perfect octohedral form was
regained. G. H. Lewes.
Tnis remarkable power possessed by crystals, in common
with animals, of repairing their own injuries had, however,
been thus previously referred to by Paget, in his Pathology,
confirming the experiments of Jordan on this curious subject:
" The ability to repair the damages sustained by injury . . .
is not an exclusive property of living beings ; for even crystals
will repair themselves when, after pieces have been broken from
them, they are placed in the same conditions in which they
were first formed."
GLASS BROKEN BY SAND.
In some glass-houses the workmen show glass which has
been cooled in the open air ; on this they let fall leaden bul-
lets without breaking the glass. They afterwards desire you
to let a few grains of sand fall upon the glass, by which it is
broken into a thousand pieces. The reason of this is, that the
lead does not scratch the surface of the glass ; whereas the sand,
being sharp and angular, scratches it sufficiently to produce
the above effect,
Curiosities of Science. 27
Sountr ant ILtgfjt
SOUNDING SAND.
MR. HUGH MILLER, the geologist, when in the island of Eigg,
in the Hebrides, observed that a musical sound was produced
when he walked over the white dry sand of the beach. At each
step the sand was driven from his footprint, and the noise was
simultaneous with the scattering of the sand ; the cause being
either the accumulated vibrations of the air when struck by
the driven sand, or the accumulated sounds occasioned by the
mutual impact of the particles of sand against each other. If
a musket-ball passing through the air emits a whistling note,
each individual particle of sand must do the same, however
faint be the note which it yields ; and the accumulation of
these infinitesimal vibrations must constitute an audible sound,
varying with the number and velocity of the moving particles.
In like manner, if two plates of silex or quartz, which are but
crystals of sand, give out a musical sound when mutually
struck, the impact or collision of two minute crystals or par-
ticles of sand must do the same, in however inferior a degree ;
and the union of all these sounds, though singly imperceptible,
may constitute the musical notes of " the Mountain of the
Bell" in Arabia Petraea, or the lesser sounds of the trodden
sea-beach of Eigg. North-British Review, No. 5.
INTENSITY OF SOUND IN RAREFIED AIR.
The experiences during ascents of the highest mountains
are contradictory. Saussure describes the sounds on the top
of Mont Blanc as remarkably weak : a pistol-shot made no
more noise than an ordinary Chinese cracker, and the popping
of a bottle of champagne was scarcely audible. Yet Martius,
in the same situation, was able to distinguish the voices of the
guides at a distance of 1340 feet, and to hear the tapping of a
lead pencil upon a metallic surface at a distance of from 75 to
100 feet.
MM Wertheim and Breguet have propagated sound over
the wire of an electric telegraph at the rate of 11,454 feet per
second.
DISTANCE AT WHICH THE HUMAN VOICE MAY BE HEARD.
Experience shows that the human voice, under favourable
circumstances, is capable of filling a larger space than was ever
28 Things not generally Known.
probably enclosed within the walls of a single room. Lieutenant
Foster, on Parry's third Arctic expedition, found that he could
converse with a man across the harbour of Port Boweu, a dis-
tance of 6696 feet, or about one mile and a quarter. Dr. Young
records that at Gibraltar the human voice has been heard at a
distance of ten miles. If sound be prevented from spreading
and losing itself in the air, either by a pipe or an extensive flat
surface, as a wall or still water, it may be conveyed to a great
distance. Biot heard a flute clearly through a tube of cast-iron
(the water-pipes of Paris) 3120 feet long : the lowest whisper was
distinctly heard j indeed, the only way not to be heard was riot
to speak at all.
THE ROAR OF NIAGARA.
The very nature of the sound of running water pronounces
its origin to be the bursting of bubbles : the impact of water
against water is a comparatively subordinate cause, and could
never of itself occasion the murmur of a brook ; whereas, in
streams which Dr. Tyndall has examined, he, in all cases where
a ripple was heard, discovered bubbles caused by the broken
column of water. Now, were Niagara continuous, and without
lateral vibration, it would be as silent as a cataract of ice. In
all probability, it has its "contracted sections," after passing
which it is broken into detached masses, which, plunging suc-
cessively upon the air-bladders formed by their precursors, sud-
denly liberate their contents, and thus create the thunder of the
waterfall.
FIGURES PRODUCED BY SOUND.
Stretch a sheet of wet paper over the mouth of a glass tum-
bler which has a footstalk, and glue or paste the paper at the
edges. When the paper is dry, strew dry sand thinly upon its
surface. Place the tumbler on a table, and hold immediately
above it, and parallel to the paper, a plate of glass, which
you also strew with sand, having previously rubbed the edges
smooth with emery powder. Draw a violin-bow along any
part of the edges ; and as the sand upon the glass is made to
vibrate, it will form various figures, which will be accurately
imitated by the sand upon the paper ; or if a violin or flute be
played within a few inches of the paper, they will cause the
sand upon its surface to form regular lines and figures.
THE TUNING-FORK A FLUTE-PLAYER.
Take a common tuning-fork, and on one of its branches
fasten with sealing wax a circular piece of card of the size of
a small wafer, or sufficient nearly to cover the aperture of a
pipe, as the sliding of the upper end of a flute with the mouth
Curiosities of Science. 29
stopped : it may be tuned in unison with the loaded tuning-
fork by means of the movable stopper or card, or the fork may
be loaded till the unison is perfect. Then set the fork in vi-
bration by a blow on the unloaded branch, and hold the card
closely over the mouth of the pipe, as in the engraving, when
a note, of surprising clearness and strength will be heard. In-
deed a flute may be made to " speak" perfectly well, by holding
close to the opening a vibrating tuning-fork, while the fingering
proper to the note of the fork is at the same time performed.
THEORY OF THE JEW^S HARP.
If you cause the tongue of this little instrument to vibrate,
it will produce a very low sound ; but if you place it before a
cavity (as the mouth) containing a column of air, which vi-
brates much faster, but in the proportion of any simple mul-
tiple, it will then produce other higher sounds, dependent upon
the reciprocation of that portion of the air. Now the bulk of
air in the mouth can be altered in its form, size, and other cir-
cumstances, so as to produce by reciprocation many different
sounds ; and these are the sounds belonging to the Jew's Harp.
A proof of this fact has been given by Mr. Eulen stein, who
fitted into a long metallic tube a piston, which being moved,
could be made to lengthen or shorten the efficient column of
air within at pleasure. A Jew's Harp was then so fixed that
it could be made to vibrate before the mouth of the tube, and
it was found that the column of air produced a series of sounds,
according as it was lengthened or shortened ; a sound being
produced whenever the length of the column was such that its
vibrations were a multiple of those of the Jew's Harp.
SOLAR AND ARTIFICIAL LIGHT COMPARED.
The most intensely ignited solid (produced by the flame of
Lieutenant Drummond's oxy-hydrogen lamp directed against a
surface of chalk) appears only as black spots on the disc of the
sun, when held between it and the eye ; or in other words,
Drummond's light is to the light of the sun's disc as 1 to 146.
Hence we are doubly struck by the felicity with which Galileo,
as early as 1612, by a series of conclusions on the smallness of
the distance from the sun at which the disc of Venus was no
longer visible to the naked eye, arrived at the result that the
blackest nucleus of the sun's spots was more luminous than
the brightest portions of the full moon. (See " The Sun's
Light compared with Terrestrial Lights," in Things not generally
Known, pp. 4, 5.)
SOURCE OF LIGHT.
Mr. Robert Hunt, in a lecture delivered by him at the
Russell Institution, " On the Physics of a Sunbeam," mentions
30 Things not generally Known.
some experiments by Lord Brougham on the sunbeam, in which,
by placing the edge of a sharp knife just within the limit of
the light, the ray was inflected from its previous direction, and
coloured red ; and when another knife was placed on the op-
posite side, it was deflected, and the colour was blue. These
experiments (says Mr. Hunt) seem to confirm Sir Isaac New-
ton's theory, that light is a fluid emitted from the sun.
THE UNDULATORY SCALE OF LIGHT.
The white light of the sun is well known to be composed of
several coloured rays ; or rather, according to the theory of
undulations, when the rate at which a ray vibrates is altered,
a different sensation is produced upon the optic nerve. The
analytical examination of this question shows that to produce
a red colour the ray of light must give 37,640 undulations in
an inch, and 458,000,000,000,000 in a second. Yellow light re-
quires 44,000 undulations in an inch, and 535,000,000,000,000
in a second ; whilst the effect of blue results from 51,110 un-
dulations within an inch, and 622,000,000,000,000 of waves in
a second of time. Hunt's Poetry of Science.
VISIBILITY OF OBJECTS.
In terrestrial objects, the form, no less than the modes of
illumination, determines the magnitude of the smallest angle
of vision for the naked eye. Adams very correctly observed
that a long and slender staff can be seen at a much greater
distance than a square whose sides are equal to the diameter of
the staff. A stripe may be distinguished at a greater distance
than a spot, even when both are of the same diameter.
The minimum optical visual angle at which terrestrial ob-
jects can be recognised by the naked eye has been gradually
estimated lower and lower, from the time when Robert Hooke
fixed it exactly at a full minute, and Tobias Meyer required
34" to perceive a black speck on white paper, to the period
of Leuwenhoeck's experiments with spiders' threads, which are
visible to ordinary sight at an angle of 4" 7. In Hueck's most
accurate experiments on the problem of the movement of the
crystalline lens, white lines on a black ground were seen at an
angle of 1"'2 ; a spider's thread at 0"*6 ; and a fine glistening
wire at scarcely 0"*2.
Humboldt, when at Chillo, near Quito, where the crests of the
volcano of Pichincha lay at a horizontal distance of 90,000 feet, was
much struck by the circumstance that the Indians standing near distin-
guished the figure of Bonpland (then on an expedition to the volcano),
as a white point moving on the black basaltic sides of the rock, sooner
than Humboldt could discover him with a telescope. Bonplaud was
enveloped in a white cotton poncho : assuming the breadth across the
shoulders to vary from three to five feet, according as the mantle clung
Curiosities of Science. 31
to the figure or fluttered in the breeze, and judging from the known
distance, the angle at which the moving object could be distinctly seen
varied from 7" to 12". White objects on a black ground are, according
to Hueck, distinguished at a greater distance than black objects on a
white ground.
Gauss's heliotrope light has been seen with the naked eye reflected
from the Brocken on Hobenhagen at a distance of about 227,000 feet,
or more than 42 miles ; being frequently visible at points in which the
apparent breadth of a three-inch mirror was only 0"'43.
THE SMALLEST BRIGHT BODIES.
Ehrenberg has found from experiments on the dust of dia-
monds, that a diamond superficies of Tro^h of a line in diameter
presents a much more vivid light to the naked eye than one of
quicksilver of the same diameter. On pressing small globules
of quicksilver on a glass micrometer, he easily obtained smaller
globules of the T <3c>th to the ^o^th of a line in diameter. In
the sunshine he could only discern the reflection of light, and
the existence of such globules as were ^th of a line in dia-
meter, with the naked eye. Smaller ones did not affect his
eye ; but he remarked that the actual bright part of the glo-
bule did not amount to more than no-oth of a line in diameter.
Spider threads of a^th m diameter were still discernible
from their lustre. Ehrenberg concludes that there are in or-
ganic bodies magnitudes capable of direct proof which are in
diameter Too ' 00() of a line ; and others, that can be indirectly
proved, which may be less than a six-millionth part of a Paris-
ian line in diameter.
VELOCITY OF LIGHT.
It is scarcely possible so to strain the imagination as to con-
ceive the Velocity with which Light travels. " What mere
assertion will make any man believe," asks Sir John Herschel,
" that in one second of time, in one beat of the pendulum of
a clock, a ray of light travels over 192,000 miles; and would
therefore perform the tour of the world in about the same time
that it requires to wink with our eyelids, and in much less time
than a swift runner occupies in taking a single stride 1 ?" Were
a cannon-ball shot directly towards the sun, and were it to main-
tain its full speed, it would be twenty years in reaching it; and
yet light travels through this space in seven or eight minutes.
The result given in the Annuaire for 1842 for the velocity
of light in a second is 77,000 leagues, which corresponds to
215,834 miles ; while that obtained at the Pulkowa Observatory
is 189,746 miles. William Richardson gives as the result of the
passage of light from the sun to the earth 8' 19" '28, from which
we obtain a velocity of 215,392 miles in a second. Memoirs of
the Astronomical Society ', vol. iv.
32 Things not generally Known.
In other words, light travels a distance equal to eight times
the circumference of the earth between two beats of a clock.
This is a prodigious velocity; but the measure of it is very cer-
tain. -Professor Airy.
The navigator who has measured the earth's circuit by his
hourly progress, or the astronomer who has paced a degree of
the meridian, can alone form a clear idea of velocity, when we
tell him that light moves through a space equal to the circum-
ference of the earth in the eighth part of a second in the twink-
ling of an eye.
Could an observer, placed in the centre of the earth, see this moving
light, as it describes the earth's circumference, it would appear a lumin-
ous ring ; that is, the impression of the light at the commencement of
its journey would continue on the retina till the light had completed its
circuit. Nay, since the impression of light continues longer than the
fourth part of a second, two luminous rings would be seen, provided the
light made two rounds of the earth, and in paths not coincident.
APPARATUS FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF LIGHT.
Humboldt enumerates the following different methods
adopted for the Measurement of Light : a comparison of the
shadows of artificial lights, differing in numbers and distance ;
diaphragms ; plane-glasses of different thickness and colour ;
artificial stars formed by reflection on glass spheres ; the juxta-
position of two seven-feet telescopes, separated by a distance
which the observer could pass in about a second ; reflecting in-
struments in which two stars can be simultaneously seen and
compared, when the telescope has been so adjusted that the
star gives two images of like intensity ; an apparatus having
(in front of the object-glass) a mirror arid diaphragms, whose
rotation is measured on a ring ; telescopes with divided ob-
ject-glasses, on either half of which the stellar light is received
through a prism ; astrometers, in which a prism reflects the
image of the moon or Jupiter, and concentrates it through a
lens at different distances into a star more or less bright.
Cosmos ', vol. iii.
HOW FIZEAU MEASURED THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT.
This distinguished physicist has submitted the Velocity of
Light to terrestrial measurement by means of an ingeniously
constructed apparatus, in which artificial light (resembling
stellar light), generated from oxygen and hydrogen, is made
to pas? back, by means of a mirror, over a distance of 28,321
feet to the same point from which it emanated. A disc, hav-
ing 720 teeth, which made 12'6 rotations in a second, alter-
nately obscured the ray of light and allowed it to be seen
between the teeth on the margin. It was supposed, from the
marking of a counter, that the artificial light traversed 56,642
Curiosities of Science. 33
feet, or the distance to and from the stations, in -j-g-Voth part of
a second, whence we obtain a velocity of 191,460 miles in a se-
cond.* This result approximates most closely to Delarnbre's
(which was 189,173 miles), as obtained from Jupiter's satellites.
The invention of the rotating mirror is due to Wheatstone, who made
an experiment with it to determine the velocity of the propagation of the
discharge of a Leyden battery. The most striking application of the
idea was made by Fizeau and Foucault, in 1853, in carrying out a pro-
position made by Arago, soon after the invention of the mirror : we have
here determined in a distance of twelve feet no less than the velocity
with which light is propagated, which is known to be nearly 200,000
miles a second; the distance mentioned corresponds therefore to the
77-millionth part of a second. The object of these measurements was
to compare the velocity of light in air with its velocity in water; which,
when the length is greater, is not sufficiently transparent. The most
complete optical and mechanical aids are here necessary: the mirror of
Foucault made from 600 to 800 revolutions in a second, while that of
Fizeau performed 1200 to 1500 in the same time. Prof. Helmholtz on
the Methods of Measuring very small Portions of Time.
WHAT IS DONE BY POLAEISATION OF LIGHT.
Malus, in 1808, was led by a casual observation of the light
of the setting sun, reflected from the windows of the Palais de
Luxembourg, at Paris, to investigate more thoroughly the phe-
nomena of double refraction, of ordinary and of chromatic po-
larisation, of interference and of diffraction of light. Among
his results may be reckoned the means of distinguishing between
direct and reflected light ; the power of penetrating, as it were,
into the constitution of the body of the sun and of its luminous
envelopes ; of measuring the pressure of atmospheric strata,
and even the smallest amount of water they contain ; of ascer-
taining the depths of the ocean and its rocks by means of a
tourmaline plate ; and in accordance with Newton's prediction,
of comparing the chemical composition of several substances
with their optical effects.
Arago, in a letter to Humboldt, states that by the aid of his polari-
scope, he discovered, before 1820, that the light of all terrestrial objects
in a state of incandescence, whether they be solid or liquid, is natural,
so long as it emanates from the object in perpendicular rays. On the
other hand, if such light emanate at an acute angle, it presents mani-
fest proofs of polarisation. This led M. Arago to the remarkable co:i-
clusion, that light is not generated on the surface of bodies only, but that
some portion is actually engendered within the substance itself, even in
the case of platinum.
A ray of light which reaches onr eyes after traversing many
millions of miles, from the remotest regions of heaven, an-
nounces, as it were of itself, in the polariscope, whether it is
* Fizeau gives his result in leagues, reckoning twenty-five to the equatorial
degree. He estimates the velocity of light at 70,000 such leagues, or about
210,000 miles in the second.
34* Things not generally Known.
reflected or refracted, whether it emanates from a solid or fluid
or gaseous body ; it announces even the degree of its intensity.
Humboldt's Cosmos, vols. i. and ii.
MINUTENESS OF LIGHT.
There is something wonderful, says Arago, in the experi-
ments which have led natural philosophers legitimately to talk
of the different sides of a ray of light ; and to show that mil-
lions and millions of these rays can simultaneously pass through
the eye of a needle without interfering with each other !
THE IMPORTANCE OF LIGHT.
Light affects the respiration of animals just as it affects the
respiration of plants. This is novel doctrine, but it is demon-
strable. In the day-time we expire more carbonic acid than
during the night; a fact known to physiologists, who explain
it as the effect of sleep : but the difference is mainly owing to
the presence or absence of sunlight ; for sleep, as sleep, increases,
instead of diminishing, the amount of carbonic acid expired,
and a man sleeping will expire more carbonic acid than if he
lies quietly awake under the same conditions of light and tem-
perature ; so that if less is expired during the night than during
the day, the reason cannot be sleep, but the absence of light.
Now we understand why men are sickly and stunted who live
in narrow streets, alleys, and cellars, compared with those who,
under similar conditions of poverty and dirt, live in the sun-
light. BlackwoocTs Edinburgh Magazine, 1858.
The influence of light on the colours of organised creation is well
shown in the sea. Near the shores we find seaweeds of the most beau-
tiful hues, particularly on the rocks which are left dry by the tides ; and
the rich tints of the actiniae which inhabit shallow water must often
have been observed. The fishes which swim near the surface are also
distinguished by the variety of their colours, whereas those which live at
greater depths are gray, brown, or black. It has been found that after
a certain depth, where the quantity of light is so reduced that a mere
twilight prevails, the inhabitants of the ocean become nearly colourless.
Hunt's Poetry of Science.
ACTION OF LIGHT ON MUSCULAR FIBRES.
That light is capable of acting on muscular fibres, indepen-
dently of the influence of the nerves, was mentioned by several
of the old anatomists, but repudiated by later authorities. M.
Brown Sequard has, however, proved to the Royal Society that
some portions of muscular fibre the iris of the eye, for example
are affected by light independently of any reflex action of the
nerves, thereby confirming former experiences. The effect is
produced by the illuminating rays only, the chemical and heat
rays remaining neutral. And not least remarkable is the fact,
Curiosities of Science. 35
that the iris of an eel showed itself susceptible of the excite-
ment sixteen days after the eyes were removed from the creature's
head. So far as is yet known, this muscle is the only one on
which light thus takes effect. Phil. Trans. 1857.
LIGHT NIGHTS.
It is not possible, as well-attested facts prove, perfectly to
explain the operations at work in the much-contested upper
boundaries of our atmosphere. The extraordinary lightness of
whole nights in the year 1831, during which small print might
be read at midnight in the latitudes of Italy and the north of
Germany, is a fact directly at variance with all that we know,
according to the most recent and acute researches on the cre-
puscular theory and the height of the atmosphere. Biot.
PHOSPHORESCENCE OF PLANTS.
Mr. Hunt recounts these striking instances. The leaves of
the cenothera macrocarpa are said to exhibit phosphoric light
when the air is highly charged with electricity. The agarics
of the olive-grounds of Montpelier too have been observed to be
luminous at night ; but they are said to exhibit no light, even
in darkness, during the day. The subterranean passages of the
coal-mines near Dresden are illuminated by the phosphores-
cent light of the rkizomorpha pkosp/wreus, a peculiar fungus.
On the leaves of the Pindoba palm grows a species of agaric
which is exceedingly luminous at night; and many varieties
of the lichens, creeping along the roofs of caverns, lend to them
an air of enchantment by the soft and clear light which they
diffuse. In a small cave near Penryn, a luminous moss is
abundant; it is also found in the mines of Hesse. According
to Heinzmann, the rhizomorpha subterranea and aidulce are also
phosphorescent. See Poetry of /Science.
PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA,
By microscopic examination of the myriads of minute insects
which cause this phenomenon, no other fact has been elicited
than that they contain a fluid which, when squeezed out, leaves
a train of light upon the surface of the water. The creatures
appear almost invariably on the eve of some change of weather,
which would lead us to suppose that their luminous phenomena
must be connected with electrical excitation ; and of this Mr. C.
Peach of Fowey has furnished the most satisfactory proofs yet
obtained.*
LIGHT FROM THE JUICE OF A PLANT.
In Brazil has been observed a plant, conjectured to be an
* See Things not generally Known, p. 88.
36 Things not generally Known.
Euphorbiura, very remarkable for the light which it yields when
cut. It contains a milky juice, which exudes as soon as the
plant is wounded, and appears luminous for several seconds.
LIGHT FROM FUNGUS.
Phosphorescent funguses have been found in Brazil by Mr.
Gardner, growing on the decaying leaves of a dwarf palm. They
vary from one to two inches across, and the whole plant gives
out at night a bright phosphorescent light, of a pale greenish
hue, similar to that emitted by fire-flies and phosphorescent
marine animals. The light given out by a few of these fungi
in a dark room is sufficient to read by. A very large phospho-
rescent species is occasionally found in the Swan River colony.
LIGHT FEOM BUTTONS.
Upon highly polished gilt buttons no figure whatever can
be seen by the most careful examination; yet, when they are
made to reflect the light of the sun or of a candle upon a piece
of paper held close to them, they give a beautiful geometrical
figure, with ten rays issuing from the centre, and terminating
in a luminous rim.
COLOURS OF SCRATCHES.
An extremely fine scratch on a well-polished surface may
be regarded as having a concave, cylindrical, or at least a
curved surface, capable of reflecting light in all directions; this
is evident, for it is visible in all directions. Hence a single
scratch or furrow in a surface may produce colours by the inter-
ference of the rays reflected from its opposite edges. Examine
a spider's thread in the sunshine, and it will gleam with vivid
colours. These may arise from a similar cause ; or from the
thread itself, as spun by the animal, consisting of several
threads agglutinated together, and thus presenting, not a cy-
lindrical, but a furrowed surface.
MAGIC BUST.
Sir David Brewster has shown how the rigid features of a
white bust may be made to move and vary their expression,
sometimes smiling and sometimes frowning, by moving rapidly
in front of the bust a bright light, so as to make the lights and
shadows take every possible direction and various degrees of
intensity ; and if the bust be placed before a concave mirror,
its image may be made to do still more when it is cast upon
wreaths of smoke.
COLOURS HIT MOST FREQUENTLY DURING BATTLE.
Jt would appear from numerous observations that soldiers
Curiosities of Science. 37
are hit during battle according to the colour of their dress in
the following order : red is the most fatal colour ; the least
fatal, Austrian gray. The proportions are, red, 12 ; rifle-green,
7 ; brown, 6 ; Austrian bluish-gray, 5. Jameson's Journal, 1853.
TRANSMUTATION OF TOPAZ.
Yellow topazes may be converted into pink by heat ; but it
is a mistake to suppose that in the process the yellow colour is
changed into pink : the fact is, that one of the pencils being
yellow and the other pink, the yellow is discharged by heat,
thus leaving the pink unimpaired.
COLOURS AND TINTS.
M. Chevreul, the Directeur des Gobelins, has presented to the
French Academy a plan for a universal chromatic scale, and a
methodical classification of all imaginable colours. Mayer, a
professor at Gottingen, calculated that the different combina-
tions of primitive colours produced 819 different tints; but M.
Chevreul established not less than 14,424, all very distinct and
easily recognised, all of course proceeding from the three pri-
mitive simple colours of the solar spectrum, red, yellow, and
blue. For example, he states that in the violet there are twenty-
eight colours, and in the dahlia forty-two.
OBJECTS REALLY OF NO COLOUR.
A body appears to be of the colour which it reflects ; as we
see it only by reflected rays, it can but appear of the colour
of those rays. Thus grass is green because it absorbs all except
the green rays. Flowers, in the same manner, reflect the va-
rious colours of which they appear to us : the rose, the red rays ;
the violet, the blue; the daffodil, the yellow, &c. But these
are not the permanent colours of the grass and flowers; for
wherever you see these colours, the objects must be illuminated;
and light, from whatever source it proceeds, is of the same na-
ture, composed of the various coloured rays which paint the
grass, the flowers, and every coloured object in nature. Objects
in the dark have no colour, or are black, which is the same
thing. You can never see objects without light. Light is com-
posed of colours, therefore there can be no light without co-
lours ; and though every object is black or without colour in
the dark, it becomes coloured as soon as it becomes visible.
THE DIORAMA WHY SO PERFECT AN ILLUSION.
Because when an object is viewed at so great a distance
that the optic axes of both eyes are sensibly parallel when
directed towards it, the perspective projections of it, seen by
38 Things not generally Known.
each eye separately, are similar ; and the appearance to the
two eyes is precisely the same as when the object is seen by
one eye only. There is, in such case, no difference between
the visual appearance of an object in relief and its perspective
projection ou a plane surface ; hence pictorial representations
of distant objects, when those circumstances which would pre-
vent or disturb the illusion are carefully excluded, may be
rendered such perfect resemblances of the objects they are in-
tended to represent as to be mistaken for them. The Diorama
is an instance of this. Professor W/ieatstone; Philosophical
Transactions, 1838.
CURIOUS OPTICAL EFFECTS AT THE CAPE.
Sir John Herschel, in his observatory at Feldhausen, at the
base of the Table Mountain, witnessed several curious optical
effects, arising from peculiar conditions of the atmosphere in-
cident to the climate of the Cape. In the hot season "the
nights are for the most part superb ;" but occasionally, during
the excessive heat and dryness of the sandy plains, " the op-
tical tranquillity of the air" is greatly disturbed. In some
cases, the images of the stars are violently dilated into nebular
balls or puffs of 15' in diameter; on other occasions they form
" soft, round, quiet pellets of 3' or 4' diameter," resembling
planetary nebulas. In the cooler months the tranquillity of
the image and the sharpness of vision are such, that hardly any
limit is set to magnifying power but that which arises from
the aberration of the specula. On occasions like these, optical
phenomena of extraordinary splendour are produced by viewing
a bright star through a diaphragm of cardboard or zinc pierced
in regular patterns of circular holes by machinery : these phe-
nomena surprise and delight every person that sees them.
When close double stars are viewed with the telescope, with a
diaphragm in the form of an equilateral triangle, the discs of
the two stars, which are exact circles, have a clearness and
perfection almost incredible.
THE TELESCOPE AND THE MICROSCOPE.
So singular is the position of the Telescope and the Micro-
scope among the great inventions of the age, that no other
process but that which they embody could make the slightest
approximation to the secrets which they disclose. The steam-
engine might have been imperfectly replaced by an air or an
ether-engine ; and a highly elastic fluid might have been, and
may yet be, found, which shall impel the "rapid car," or drag
the merchant- ship over the globe. The electric telegraph,
now so perfect and unerring, might have spoken to us in the
Curiosities of Science. 39
rude " language of chimes ;" or sound, in place of electricity,
might have passed along the metallic path, and appealed to
the ear in place of the eye. For the printing-press and the
typographic art might have been found a substitute, however
poor, in the lithographic process ; and knowledge might have
been widely diffused by the photographic printing powers of
the sun, or even artificial light. But without the telescope and
the microscope, the human eye would have struggled in vain to
study the worlds beyond our own, and the elaborate structures
of the organic and inorganic creation could never have been
revealed. North- British Review, No. 50.
INVENTION OF THE MICROSCOPE.
The earliest magnifying lens of which we have any know-
ledge was one rudely made of rock-crystal, which Mr. Layard
found, among a number of glass bowls, in the north-west palace
of Nimroud ; but no similar lens has been found or described
to induce us to believe that, the microscope, either single or
compound, was invented and used as an instrument previous
to the commencement of the seventeenth century. In the
beginning of the first century, however, Seneca alludes to the
magnifying power of a glass globe filled with water ; but as he
only states that it made small and indistinct letters appear
larger and more distinct, we cannot consider such a casual re-
mark as the invention of the single microscope, though it might
have led the observer to try the effect of smaller globes, and
thus obtain magnifying powers sufficient to discover pheno-
mena otherwise invisible.
Lenses of glass were undoubtedly in existence at the time
of Pliny ; but at that period, and for many centuries after-
wards, they appear to have been used only as burning or as
reading glasses ; and no attempt seems to have been made to
form them of so small a size as to entitle them to be regarded
even as the precursors of the single microscope. North- British
Review, No. 50.
The rock-crystal leiis found at Nineveh was examined by Sir David
Brewster. It was not entirely circular in its aperture. Its general form
was that of a plano-convex lens, the plane side having been formed of one
of the original faces of the six-sided crystal quartz, as Sir David ascer-
tained by its action on polarised light: this was badly polished and
scratched. The convex face of the lens had not been ground in a dish-
shaped, tool, in the manner in which lenses are now formed, but was
shaped on a lapidary's wheel, or in some such manner. Hence it was
unequally thick ; but its extreme thickness was T 3 s ths of an inch, its
focal length being 4 inches. It had twelve remains of cavities, which
had originally contained liquids or condensed gases. Sir David has
assigned reasons why this could not be looked upon as an ornament, but
a true optical lens. In the same ruins were found, some decomposed
glass.
40 Things not generally Known.
HOW TO MAKE THE FISH-EYE MICROSCOPE.
Very good microscopes may be made with the crystalline
lenses of fish, birds, and quadrupeds. As the lens of fishes is
spherical or spheroidal, it is absolutely necessary, previous to
its use, to determine its optical axis and the axis of vision
of the eye from which it is taken, and place the lens in such a
manner that its axis is a continuation of the axis of our own.
eye. In no other direction but this is the albumen of which
the lens consists symmetrically disposed in laminae of equal
density round a given line, which is the axis of the lens ; and
in no other direction does the gradation of density, by which
the spherical aberration is corrected, preserve a proper relation
to the axis of vision.
When the lens of any small fi.sh, such as a minnow, a par, or trout,
has been taken out, along with the adhering vitreous humour, from the
eye-ball by cutting the sclerotic coat with a pair of scissors, it should be
placed upon a piece of fine silver-paper previously freed from its minute
adhering fibres. The absorbent nature of the paper will assist in re-
moving all the vitreous humour from the lens ; and when this is care-
fully done, by rolling it about with another piece of silver-papei", there
will still remain, round or near the equator of the lens, a black ridge,
consisting of the processes by which it was suspended in the eye-ball.
The black circle points out to us the true axis of the lens, which is per-
pendicular to a plane passing through it. When the small crystalline
has been freed from all the adhering vitreous humour, the capsule which
contains it will have a surface as fine as a pellicle of fluid. It is then to
be dropped from the paper into a cavity formed by a brass rim, and its
position changed till the black circle is parallel to the circular rim, in
which case only the axis of the lens will be a continuation of the axis of
the observer's eye. Edin. Jour. Science, vol. ii.
LEUWENHOECK'S MICROSCOPES.
Leuwenhoeck, the father of microscopical discovery, com-
municated to the Royal Society, in 1673, a description of the
structure of a bee and a louse, seen by aid of his improved mi-
croscopes ; and from this period until his decease in 1723, he
regularly transmitted to the society his microscopical observa-
tions and discoveries, so that 375 of his papers and letters are
preserved in the society's archives, extending over fifty years.
He further bequeathed to the Royal Society a cabinet of twenty-
six microscopes, which he had ground himself and set in silver,
mostly extracted by him from minerals; these microscopes were
exhibited to Peter the Great when he was at Delft in 1698. In
acknowledging the bequest, the council of the Royal Society,
in 1724, presented Leuwenhoeck's daughter with a handsome
silver bowl, bearing the arms of the society. Weld's History
of the Royal Society, vol. i.
DIAMOND LENSES FOR MICROSCOPES.
In recommending the employment of Diamond and other
Curiosities of Science. 41
gems in the construction of Microscopes, Sir David Brewster
has been met with the objection that they are too expensive for
such a purpose ; and, says Sir David, " they certainly are for
instruments intended merely to instruct and amuse. But if
we desire to make great discoveries, to unfold secrets yet hid
in the cells of plants and animals, we must not grudge even a
diamond to reveal them. If Mr. Cooper and Sir James South
have given a couple of thousand pounds a piece for a refracting
telescope, in order to study what have been miscalled * dots '
and ' lumps ' of light on the sky ; and if Lord Rosse has ex-
pended far greater sums on a reflecting telescope for analysing
what has been called ' sparks of mud and vapour ' encumber-
ing the azure purity of the heavens, why should not other phi-
losophers open their purse, if they have one, and other noble-
men sacrifice some of their household jewels, to resolve the mi-
croscopic structures of our own real world, and disclose secrets
which the Almighty must have intended that we should know ?"
Proceedings of the British Association, 1857.
THE EYE AND THE BRAIN SEEN THROUGH A MICROSCOPE,
By a microscopic examination of the retina and optic nerve
and the brain, M. Bauer found them to consist of globules of
oyfrqth to 4o7K>th of an inch diameter, united by a transparent
viscid and coagulable gelatinous fluid.
MICROSCOPICAL FXAMINATION OF THE HAIR.
If a hair be drawn between the finger and thumb, from the
end to the root, it will be distinctly felt to give a greater resist-
ance and a different sensation to that which is experienced
when drawn the opposite way : in consequence, if the hair be
rubbed between the fingers, it will only move one way (travel-
ling in the direction of a line drawn from its termination to its
origin from the head or body), so that each extremity may thus
be easily distinguished, even in the dark, by the touch alone.
The mystery is resolved by the achromatic microscope. A
hair viewed on a dark ground as an opaque object with a high
power, not less than that of a lens of one-thirtieth of an inch
focus, and dully illuminated by a cup, the hair is seen to be in-
dented with teeth somewhat resembling those of a coarse round
rasp, but extremely irregular and rugged : as these incline all
in one direction, like those of a common file, viz. from the
origin of the hair towards its extremity, it sufficiently explains
the above singular property.
This is a singular proof of the acuteness of the sense of feel-
ing, for the said teeth may be felt much more easily than they
can be seen. We may thus understand why a razor will cut a
hair in two much more easily when drawn against its teeth than
in the opposite direction. Dr. Goring.
42 Things not generally Known.
THE MICROSCOPE AND THE SEA.
What myriads has the microscope revealed to us of the rich
luxuriance of animal life in the ocean, and conveyed to our as-
tonished senses a consciousness of the universality of life ! In
the oceanic depths every stratum of water is animated, and
swarms with countless hosts of small luminiferous animalcules,
mammaria, Crustacea, peridinea, and circling nereides, which,
when attracted to the surface by peculiar meteorological condi-
tions, convert every wave into a foaming band of flashing light.
USE OF THE MICROSCOPE TO MINERALOGISTS.
M. Dufour has shown that an imponderable quantity of a
substance can be crystallised ; and that the crystals so obtained
are quite characteristic of the substances, as of sugar, chloride
of sodium, arsenic, and mercury. This process may be ex-
tremely valuable to the mineralogist and toxicologist when the
substance for examination is too small to be submitted to tests.
By aid of the microscope, also, shells are measured to the thou-
sandth part of an inch.
FIXE DOWN OF QUARTZ.
Sir David Brewster having broken in two a crystal of quartz
of a smoky colour, found both surfaces of the fracture abso-
lutely black ; and the blackness appeared at first sight to be
owing to a thin h'lm of opaque matter which had insinuated
itself into the crevice. This opinion, however, was untenable,
as every part of the surface was black, and the two halves of the
crystals could not have stuck together had the crevice extended
across the whole section. Upon further examination Sir David
found that the surface was perfectly transparent by transmitted
light, and that the blackness of the surfaces arose from their
being entirely composed of a fine down of quartz, or of short
and slender filaments, whose diameter was so exceedingly small
that they were incapable of reflecting a single ray of the strong-
est light ; and they could not exceed the one third of the mil-
lionth part of an inch This curious specimen is in the cabinet
of her grace the Duchess of Gordon.
MICROSCOPIC WRITING.
Professor Kelland has shown, in Paris, on a spot no larger
than the head of a small pin, by means of powerful microscopes,
several specimens of distinct and beautiful writing, one of them
containing the whole of the Lord's Prayer written within this
minute compass. In reference to this, two remarkable facts in
Layard's latest work on Nineveh show that the national records
of Assyria were written on square bricks, in characters so small
as scarcely to be legible without a microscope ; in fact, a micro-
scope, as we have just shown, was found in the ruins of Mmroud.
Curiosities of Science. 43
HOW TO MAKE A MAGIC MIRROR.
Draw a figure with weak gum-water upon the surface of a
convex mirror. The thin film of gum thus deposited on the
outline or details of the figure will not be visible in dispersed
daylight ; but when made to reflect the rays of the sun, or those
of a divergent pencil, will be beautifully displayed by the lines
and tints occasioned by the diffraction of light, or the inter-
ference of the rays passing through the film with those which
pass by it.
SIR DAVID BREWSTER'S KALEIDOSCOPE.
The idea of this instrument, constructed for the purpose of
creating and exhibiting a variety of beautiful and perfectly
symmetrical forms, first occurred to Sir David Brewster in 1814,
when he was engaged in experiments on the polarisation of
light by successive reflections between plates of glass. The
reflectors were in some instances inclined to each other ; and
he had occasion to remark the circular arrangement of the
images of a candle round a centre, or the multiplication of the
sectors formed by the extremities of the glass plates. In repeat-
ing at a subsequent period the experiments of M. Biot on the
action of fluids upon light, Sir David Brewster placed the fluids
in a trough, formed by two plates of glass cemented together at
an angle ; and the eye being necessarily placed at one end, some
of the cement, which had been pressed through between the
plates, appeared to be arranged into a regular figure. The re-
markable symmetry which it presented led to Dr. Brewster's
investigation of the cause of this phenomenon ; and in so doing
he discovered the leading principles of the Kaleidoscope.
By the advice of his friends, Dr. Brewster took out a patent
for his invention ; in the specification of which he describes the
kaleidoscope in two different forms. The instrument, however,
having been shown to several opticians in London, became
known before he could avail himself of his patent ; and being
simple in principle, it was at once largely manufactured. It is
calculated that not less than 200,000 kaleidoscopes were sold
in three months in London and Paris ; though out of this num-
ber, Dr. Brewster says, not perhaps 1000 were constructed upon
scientific principles, or were capable of giving any thing like a
correct idea of the power of his kaleidoscope.
THE KALEIDOSCOPE THOUGHT TO BE ANTICIPATED.
In the seventh edition of a work on gardening and plant-
ing, published in 1739, by Richard Bradley, F.K.S., late Pro-
fessor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, we find the
following details of an invention, u by which the best de-
44 Things not generally Known.
signers and draughtsmen may improve and help their fancies.
They must choose two pieces of looking-glass of equal bigness,
of the figure of a long square. These must be covered on the
back with paper or silk, to prevent rubbing off the silver. This
covering must be so put on that nothing of it appears about the
edges of the bright side. The glasses being thus prepared, must
be laid face to face, and hinged together so that they may be
made to open and shut at pleasure like the leaves of a book."
After showing how various figures are to be looked at in these
glasses under the same opening, and how the same figare may
be varied under the different openings, the ingenious artist thus
concludes: " If it should happen that the reader has any num-
ber of plans for parterres or wildernesses by him, he may by this
method alter them at his pleasure, and produce such innumer-
able varieties as it is not possible the most able designer could
ever have contrived."
MAGIC OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
Professor Moser of Konigsberg has discovered that all bo-
dies, even in the dark, throw out invisible rays ; and that these
bodies, when placed at a small distance from polished surfaces
of all kinds, depict themselves upon such surfaces in forms
which remain invisible till they are developed by the human
breath or by the vapours of mercury or iodine. Even if the
sun's image is made to pass over a plate of glass, the light
tread of its rays will leave behind it an invisible track, which
the human breath will instantly reveal.
Among the early attempts to take pictures by the rays of the sun
was a very interesting and successful experiment made by Dr. Thomas
Young. In 1802, when Mr. Wedgevvood was " making profiles by the
agency of light," and Sir Humphry Davy was " copying on prepared
paper the images of small objects produced by means of the solar micro-
scope," Dr. Young was taking photographs upon paper dipped in n so-
lution of nitrate of silver, of the coloured rings observed by Newton ;
and his experiments clearly proved that the agent was not the luminous
rays in the sun's light, but the invisible or chemical rays beyond the
violet. This experiment is described in the Bakerian Lecture, 1803.
Niepce (says Mr. Hunt) pursued a physical investigation of the cu-
rious change, and found that all bodies were influenced by this principle
radiated from the sun. Daguerre* produced effects from the solar pencil
which no artist could approach ; and Talbot and others extended the
application. Herschel took up the inquiry; and he, with his usual
* Some time before the first announcement of the discovery of sun-painting',
the following extract from Sir John Herschel's Treatise on Light, in the Encyclo-
pcediaMrtropolitana, appeared in a popular work entitled Parlour Magic: " Strain
a piece of paper or linen upon a wooden frame, and sponge it over with a solution
of nitrate of silver in water; place it behind a painting upon glass, or a stained
window-pane, and the light, traversing the painting or figures, will produce a
copy of it upon the prepared paper or linen ; those parts in which the rays were
least intercepted being the shadows of the picture."
Curiosities of Science. 45
power of inductive search and of philosophical deduction, presented the
world with a class of discoveries which showed how vast a field of inves-
tigation was opening for the younger races of mankind.
The first attempts in photography, which were made at the insti-
gation of M. Arago, by order of the French Government, to copy the
Egyptian tombs and temples and the remains of the Aztecs in Central
America, were failures. Although the photographers employed suc-
ceeded to admiration, in Paris, in producing pictures in a few minutes,
they found often that an exposure of an hour was insufficient under the
bright and glowing illumination of a southern sky.
THE BEST SKY FOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
Contrary to all preconceived ideas, experience proves that
the brighter the sky that shines above the camera the more
tardy the action within it. Italy and Malta do their work
slower than Paris. Under the brilliant light of a Mexican sun,
half an hour is required to produce effects which in England
would occupy but a minute. In the burning atmosphere of
India, though photographical the year round, the process is
comparatively slow and difficult to manage ; while in the clear,
beautiful, and moreover cool, light of the higher Alps of Eu-
rope, it has been proved that the production of a picture re-
quires many more minutes, even with the most sensitive pre-
parations, than in the murky atmosphere of London. Upon
the whole, the temperate skies of this country may be pro-
nounced favourable to photographic action ; a fact for which
the prevailing characteristic of our climate may partially ac-
count, humidity being an indispensable condition for the
working state both of paper and chemicals. Quarterly Review.
No. 202.
PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING.
The following authenticated instances of this singular phe-
nomenon have been communicated to the Royal Society by
Andres Poey, Director of the Observatory at Havana :
Benjamin Franklin, in 1786, stated that about twenty years previ-
ous, a man who was standing opposite a tree that had just been struck
by "a thunderbolt" had on his breast an exact representation of that
tree.
In the New-York Journal of Commerce, August 26th, 1853. it is re-
lated that " a little girl was standing at a window, before which was a
young maple-tree ; after a brilliant flash of lightning, a complete image
of the tree was found imprinted on her body."
M. Raspail relates that, in 1855, a boy having climbed a tree for
the purpose of robbing a bird's nest, the tree was struck, and the boy
thrown upon the ground ; on his breast the image of the tree, with the
bird and nest on one of its branches, appeared very plainly.
M. Olioli, a learned Italian, brought before the Scientific Congress
at Naples the following four instances : 1. In September 1825, the fore-
mast of a brigantine in the Bay of St. Arniro was struck by lightning,
when a sailor sitting under the mast was struck dead, and on his back
46 Things not generally Known.
was found an impression of a horse-shoe, similar even in size to that
fixed on the mast-head. 2. A sailor, standing in a similar position,
was struck by lightning, and had on his left breast the impression of the
number 4 4, with a dot between the two figures, just as they appeared at
the extremity of one of the masts. 3. On the 9th October 1836, a young
man was found struck by lightning ; he had on a girdle, with some gold
coins in it, which were imprinted on his skin in the order they were
placed in the girdle, a series of circles, with one point of contact, being
plainly visible. 4. In 1847, Mme. Morosa, an Italian lady of Lugano,
was sitting near a window during a thunderstorm, and perceived the
commotion, but felt no injury ; but a flower which happened to be in
the path of the electric current was perfectly reproduced on one of her
legs, and there remained permanently.
M. Poey himself witnessed the following instance in Cuba. On July
24th, 1852, a poplar-tree in a coffee -plantation was struck by lightning,
and on one of the large dry leaves was found an exact representation
of some pine-trees that lay 367 yards distant.
M. Poey considers these lightning impressions to have
been produced in the same manner as the electric images ob-
tained by Moser, Riess, Karster, Grove, Fox Talbot, and others,
either by statical or dynamical electricity of different intensi-
ties. The fact that impressions are made through the gar-
ments is easily accounted for by their rough texture not pre-
venting the lightning passing through them with the impres-
sion. To corroborate this view, M. Poey mentions an instance
of lightning passing down a chimney into a trunk, in which
was found an inch depth of soot, which must have passed
through the wood itself.
PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEYING.
During the summer of 1854, in the Baltic, the British
steamers employed in examining the enemy's coasts and for-
tifications took photographic views for reference and minute
examination. With the steamer moving at the rate of fifteen
knots an hour, the most perfect definitions of coasts and bat-
teries were obtained. Outlines of the coasts, correct in height
and distance, have been faithfully transcribed ; and all details
of the fortresses passed under this photographic review are ac-
curately recorded.
It is curious to reflect that the aids to photographic development -all
date within the last half-century, and are but little older than photo-
graphy itself. It was not until 1811 that the chemical substance called
iodine, on which the foundations of all popular photography rest, was
discovered at all ; bromine, the only other substance equally sensitive,
not till 1826. The invention of the electro process was about simul-
taneous with that of photography itself. Gutta-percha only just pre-
ceded the substance of which collodion is made ; the ether and chloro-
form, which are used in some methods, that of collodion. We say
nothing of the optical improvements previously contrived or adapted
for the purpose of the photograph : the achromatic lenses, which cor-
rect the discrepancy between the visual and chemical foci ; the double
Curiosities of Science. 47
lenses, which increase the force of the action ; the binocular lenses,
which do the work of the stereoscope ; nor of the innumerable other
mechanical aids which have sprung up for its use.
THE STEREOSCOPE AND THE PHOTOGRAPH.
When once the availability of one great primitive agent
is worked out, it is easy to foresee how extensively it will assist
in unravelling other secrets in natural science. The simple
principle of the Stereoscope, for instance, might have been
discovered a century ago, for the reasoning which led to it
was independent of all the properties of light ; but it could
never have been illustrated, far less multiplied as it now is,
without Photography. A few diagrams, of sufficient identity
and difference to prove the truth of the principle, might have
been constructed by hand, for the gratification of a few sages ;
but no artist, it is to be hoped, could have been found possessing
the requisite ability and stupidity to execute the two portraits,
or two groups, or two interiors, or two landscapes, identical in
every minutia of the most elaborate detail, and yet diffe/ing
in point of view by the inch between the two human eyes, by
which the principle is brought to the level of any capacity.
Here, therefore, the accuracy and insensibility of a machine
could alone avail ; and if in the order of things the cheap popu-
lar toy which the stereoscope now represents was necessary for
the use of man, the photograph was first necessary for the ser-
vice of the stereoscope. Quarterly Review, No. 202.
THE STEREOSCOPE SIMPLIFIED.
When we look at any round object, first with one eye, and
then with the other, we discover that with the right eye we
see most of the right-hand side of the object, and with the left
eye most of the left-hand side. These two images are combined,
and we see an object which we know to be round.
This is illustrated by the Stereoscope, which consists of two
mirrors placed each at an angle of 45 deg., or of two semi-lenses
turned with their curved sides towards each other. To view
its phenomena two pictures are obtained by the camera on pho- .
tographic paper of any object in two positions, corresponding
with the conditions of viewing it with the two eyes. By the
mirrors on the lenses these dissimilar pictures are combined
within the eye, and the vision of an actually solid object is
produced from the pictures represented on a plane surface.
Hence the name of the instrument, which signifies Solid I see.
Hunt's Poetry of Science.
PHOTO-GALVANIC ENGRAVING.
That which was the chief aid of Niepce in the humblest
dawn of the art, viz. to transform the photographic plate into
48 Things not generally Known.
a surface capable of being printed, is in the above process
done by the cooperation of Electricity with Photography. This
invention of M. Pretsch, of Vienna, differs from all other
attempts for the same purpose in not operating upon the pho-
tographic tablet itself, and by discarding the usual means of
varnishes and bitings-in. The process is simply this : A glass
tablet is coated with gelatine diluted till it forms a jelly, and
containing bi-chromate of potash, nitrate of silver, and iodide
of potassium. Upon this, when dry, is placed face downwards
a paper positive, through which the light, being allowed to
fall, leaves upon the gelatine a representation of the print. It
is then soaked in water; and while the parts acted upon by the
light are comparatively unaffected by the fluid, the remainder
of the jelly swells, and rising above the general surface, gives
a picture in relief, resembling an ordinary engraving upon
wood. Of this intaglio a cast is now taken in gutta-percha,
to which the electro process in copper being applied, a plate
or matrix is produced, bearing on it an exact repetition of
the original positive picture. All that now remains to be done
is to repeat the electro process ; and the result is a copper-plate
in the necessary relievo, of which it has been said nature fur-
nished the materials and science the artist, the inferior work-
man being only needed to roll it through the press. Quarterly
Review, No. 202.
SCIENCE OF THE SOAP-BUBBLE.
Few of the minor ingenuities of mankind have amused so
many individuals as the blowing of bubbles with soap -lather
from the bowl of a tobacco-pipe ; yet how few who in child-
hood's careless hours have thus amused themselves, have in
after-life become acquainted with the beautiful phenomena of
light which the soap-bubble will enable us to illustrate !
Usually the bubble is formed within the bowl of a tobacco-
pipe, and so inflated by blowing through the stern. It is also
produced by introducing a capillary tube under the surface of
soapy water, and so raising a bubble, which may be inflated to
any convenient size. It is then guarded with a glass cover, to
prevent its bursting by currents of air, evaporation, and other
causes.
When the bubble is first blown, its form is elliptical, into
which it is drawn by its gravity being resisted ; but the instant
it is detached from the pipe, and allowed to float in air, it be-
comes a perfect sphere, since the air within presses equally in
all directions. There is also a strong cohesive attraction in
the particles of soap and water, after having been forcibly dis-
tended ; and as a sphere or globe possesses less surface than
any other figure of equal capacity, it is of all forms the best
Curiosities of Science. 49
adapted to the closest approximation of the particles of soap
and water, which is another reason why the bubble is globular.
The film of which the bubble consists is inconceivably thin
(not exceeding the two-millionth part of an inch) ; and by the
evaporation from its surface, the contraction and expansion of
the air within, and the tendency of the soap-lather to gravitate
towards the lower part of the bubble, and consequently to ren-
der the upper part still thinner, it follows that the bubble lasts
but a few seconds. If, however, it were blown in a glass vessel,
and the latter immediately closed, it might remain for some
time ; Dr. Paris thus preserved a bubble for a considerable period.
Dr. Hooke, by means of the coloured rings upon the soap-
bubble, studied the curious subject of the colours of thiii plates,
and its application to explain the colours of natural bodies.
Various phenomena were also discovered by Newton, who thus
did not disdain to make a soap-bubble the object of his study.
The colours which are reflected from the upper surface of the
bubble are caused by the decomposition of the light which falls
upon it ; and the range of the phenomena is alike extensive and
beautiful.*
Newton (says Sir D. Brewster), having covered the soap-
bubble with a glass shade, saw its colours emerge in regular
order, like so many concentric rings encompassing the top of
it. As the bubble grew thinner by the continual subsidence
of the water, the rings dilated slowly, and overspread the whole
of it, descending to the bottom, where they vanished succes-
sively. When the colours had all emerged from the top, there
arose in the centre of the rings a small round black spot, di-
lating it to more than half an inch in breadth till the bubble
burst. Upon examining the rings between the object-glasses,
Newton found that when they were only eight or nine in num-
ber, more than forty could be seen by viewing them through a
prism ; and even when the plate of air seemed all over uni-
formly white, multitudes of rings were disclosed by the prism.
By means of these observations Newton was enabled to form
his Scale of Colours, of great value in all optical researches.
Dr. Reade has thus produced a permanent soap-bubble :
Put into a six-ounce phial two ounces of distilled water, and set
the phial in a vessel of water boiling on the fire. The water in the
phial will soon boil, and steam will issue from its mouth, expelling the
whole of the atmospheric air from within. Then throw in a piece of
soap about the size of a small pea, cork the phial, and at the same in-
* In his book on Colours, Mr. Doyle informs us that divers, if not all, essen-
tial oils, as also spirits of wine, when shaken, "have a good store of bubbles,
which appear adorned with various and lively colours." He mentions also that
bubbles of soap and turpentine exhibit the same colours, which " vary according
to the incidence of the sight and the position of the eye;" and he had seen a
glass-blower blow bubbles of glass which burst, and displayed " the varying
colours of the rainbow, which were exceedingly vivid."
B
50 Things not generally Known.
staiit remove it and the vessel from the fire. Then press the cork fur-
ther into the neck of the phial, and cover it thickly with sealing-wax ;
and when the contents are cold, a perfect vacuum will be formed within
the bottle, much better, indeed, than can be produced by the best-
constructed air-pump.
To form a bubble, hold the bottle horizontally in both hands, and
give it a sudden upward motion, which will throw the liquid into a wave,
whose crest touching the upper interior surface of the phial, the tena-
city of the liquid will cause a film to be retained all round the phial. Next
place the phial on its bottom ; when the film will form a section of the
cylinder, being nearly but never quite horizontal. The tilm will be now
colourless, since it reflects all the light which falls upon it. By re-
maining at rest for a minute or two, minute currents of lather will de-
scend by their gravitating force down the inclined plane formed by the
film, the upper part of which thus becomes drained to the necessary
thinness ; and this is the part to be observed.
Several concentric segments of coloured rings are produced ;
the colours, beginning from the top, being as follows :
1st order : Black, white, yellow, orange, red.
2d order : Purple, blue, white, yellow, red.
%d order : Purple, blue, green, yellowish-green, white, red.
4th order : Purple, blue, green, white, red.
5th order : Greenish-blue, very pale red.
6th order : Greenish-blue, pink.
7th order : Greenish-blue, pink.
As the segments advance they get broader, while the film be-
comes thinner and thinner. The several orders disappear up-
wards as the film becomes too thin to reflect their colours,
until the first order alone remains, occupying the whole surface
of the film. Of this order the red disappears first, then the
orange, and lastly the yellow. The film is now divided by a
line into two nearly equal portions, one black and the other
white. This remains for some time ; at length the film becomes
too thin to hold together, and then vanishes. The colours are
not faint and imperfect, but well defined, glowing with gor-
geous hues, or melting into tints so exquisite as to have no
rival through the whole circle of the arts. We quote these de-
tails from Mr. Tomlinson's excellent Student's Manual of Natu-
ral Philosophy.
We find the following anecdote related of Newton at the above
period. When Sir Isaac changed his residence, and went to live in
St. Martin's Street, Leicester Square, his next-door neighbour was a
widow lady, who was much puzzled by the little she obsei'ved of the
habits of the philosopher. A Fellow of the Royal Society called upon
her one day, when, among her domestic news, she mentioned that some
one had come to reside in the adjoining house who, she felt certain, was
a poor crazy gentleman, " because," she continued, " he diverts himself
in the oddest way imaginable. Every morning, when the sun shines so
brightly that we are obliged to draw the window-blinds, he takes his
seat on a little stool before a tub of soapsuds, and occupies himself for
hours blowing soap-bubbles through a common clay -pipe, which bubbles
Curiosities of Science. 51
he intently watches floating about till they burst. He is doubtless," she
added, ' ' now at his favourite amusement, for it is a fine day ; do come
and look at him." The gentleman smiled, and they went upstairs ;
when, after looking through the staircase- window into the adjoining
court-yard, he turned and said : " My dear madam, the person whom
you suppose to be a poor lunatic is no other than the great Sir Isaac
Newton studying the refraction of light upon thin plates; a phenomenon
which is beautifully exhibited on the surface of a common soap-bubble."
LIGHT FROM QUARTZ.
Among natural phenomena (says Sir David Brewster) illus-
trative of the colours of thin plates, we find none more remark-
able than one exhibited by the fracture of a large crystal of
quartz of a smoky colour, and about two and a quarter inches
in diameter. The surface of fracture, in place of being a face
or cleavage, or irregularly conchoidal, as we have sometimes
seen it, was filamentous, like a surface of velvet, and consisted
of short fibres, so small as to be incapable of reflecting light.
Their size could not have been greater than the third of the
millionth part of an inch, or one-fourth of the thinnest part of
the soap-bubble when it exhibits the black spot where it bursts.
CAN THE CAT SEE IN THE DARK ?
No, in all probability, says the reader; but the opposite
popular belief is supported by eminent naturalists.
Buffon says : " The eyes of the cat shine in the dark somewhat like
diamonds, which throw out during the night the light with which they
were in a manner impregnated during the day."
Valmont de Bamare says : " The pupil of the cat is during the night
still deeply imbued with the light of the day ;" and again, " the eyes of
the cat are during the night so imbued with light that they then appear
very shining and luminous."
Spallanzani says : " The eyes of cats, polecats, and several other ani-
mals, shine in the dark like two small tapers ;" and he adds that this
light is phosphoric.
Treviranus says: ' ' The eyes of the cat shine where no rays of light
penetrate ; and the light must in many, if not in all, cases proceed from
the eye itself."
Now, that the eyes of the cat do shine in the dark is to a
certain extent true : but we have to inquire whether by dark
is meant the entire absence of light ; and it will be found that
the solution of this question will dispose of several assertions
and theories which have for centuries perplexed the subject.
Dr. Karl Ludwig Esser has published in Karsten's Archives
the results of an experimental inquiry on the luminous appear-
ance of the eyes of the cat and other animals, carefully distin-
guishing such as evolve light from those which only reflect it.
Having brought a cat into a half- darkened room, he observed
from a certain direction that the cat's eyes, when opposite the
52 Things not generally Known.
window, sparkled brilliantly; but in other positions the light
suddenly vanished. On causing the cat to be held so as to ex-
hibit the light, and then gradually darkening the room, the
light disappeared by the time the room was made quite dark.
In another experiment, a cat was placed opposite the win-
dow in a darkened room. A few rays were permitted to enter,
and by adjusting the light, one or both of the cat's eyes were
made to shine. In proportion as the pupil was dilated, the eyes
were brilliant. By suddenly admitting a strong glare of light
into the room, the pupil contracted ; and then suddenly dark-
ening the room, the eye exhibited a small round luminous point,
which enlarged as the pupil dilated.
The eyes of the cat sparkle most when the animal is in a
lurking position, or in a state of irritation. Indeed, the eyes
of all animals, as well as of man, appear brighter when in rage
than in a quiescent state, which Collins has commemorated in
his Ode on the Passions :
" Next Anger rushed, his eyes on fire."
This brilliancy is said to arise from an increased secretion of the
lachrymal fluid on the surface of the eye, by which the re-
flection of the light is increased. Dr. Esser, in places absolutely
dark, never discovered the slightest trace of light in the eye
of the cat ; and he has no doubt that in all cases where cats'
eyes have been seen to shine in dark places, such as a cellar,
light penetrated through some window or aperture, and fell
upon the eyes of the animal as it turned towards the opening,
while the observer was favourably situated to obtain a view of
the reflection.
To prove more clearly that this light does not depend upon
the will of the animal, nor upon its angry passions, experiments
were made upon the head of a dead cat. The sun's rays were
admitted through a small aperture ; and falling immediately
upon the eyes, caused them to glow with a beautiful green light
more vivid even than in the case of a living animal, on account
of the increased dilatation of the pupil. It was also remarked
that black and fox-coloured cats gave a brighter light than
gray and white cats.
To ascertain the cause of this luminous appearance Dr. Es-
ser dissected the eyes of cats, and exposed them to a small re-
gulated amount of light after having removed different por-
tions. The light was not diminished by the removal of the
cornea, but only changed in colour. The light still continued
after the iris was displaced ; but on taking away the crystalline
lens it greatly diminished both in intensity and colour. Dr.
Esser then conjectured that the tapetum in the hinder part of
the eye must form a spot which caused the reflection of the
Curiosities of Science. 53
incident rays of light, and thus produce the shining ; and this
appeared more probable as the light of the eye now seemed to
emanate from a single spot. Having taken away the vitreous
humour, Dr. Esser observed that the entire want of the pigment
in the hinder part of the choroid coat, where the optic nerve
enters, formed a greenish, silver-coloured, changeable oblong
spot, which was not symmetrical, but surrounded the optic
nerve so that the greater part was above and only the smaller
part below it ; wherefore the greater part lay beyond the axis
of vision. It is this spot, therefore, that produces the reflection
of the incident rays of light, and beyond all doubt, according
to its tint, contributes to the different colouring of the light.
It may be as well to explain that the interior of the eye is
coated with a black pigment, which has the same effect as the
black colour given to the inner surface of optical instruments :
it absorbs any rays of light that may be reflected within the eye,
and prevents them from being thrown again upon the retina
so as to interfere with the distinctness of the images formed
upon it. The retina is very transparent ; and if the surface be-
hind it, instead of being of a dark colour, were capable of re-
flecting light, the luminous rays which had already acted on
the retina would be reflected back again through it, and not
only dazzle from excess of light, but also confuse and render
indistinct the images formed on the retina. Now in the case
of the cat this black pigment, or a portion of it, is wanting ; and
those parts of the eye from which it is absent, having either a
white or a metallic lustre, are called the tapetum. The small-
est portion of light entering from it is reflected as by a concave
mirror ; and hence it is that the eyes of animals provided with
this structure are luminous in a very faint light.
These experiments and observations show that the shining
of the eyes of the cat does not arise from a phosphoric light,
but only from a reflected light ; that consequently it is not an
effect of the will of the animal, or of violent passions ; that
their shining does not appear in absolute darkness ; and that
it cannot enable the animal to move securely in the dark.
It has been proved by experiment that there exists a set of
rays of light of far higher refrangibility than those seen in the
ordinary Newtonian spectrum. Mr. Hunt considers it probable
that these highly refrangible rays, although under ordinary
circumstances invisible to the human eye, may be adapted to
produce the necessary degree of excitement upon which vision
depends in the optic nerves of the night-roaming animals. The
bat, the owl, and the cat may see in the gloom of the night
by the aid of rays which are invisible to, or inactive on, the
eyes of man or those animals which require the light of day
for perfect vision.
54> Things not generally K
nown.
THE GREAT TRUTHS OF ASTRONOMY.
THE difficulty of understanding these marvellous truths has
been glanced at by an old divine (see Things not generally
Known, p. 1) ; but the rarity of their full comprehension by
those unskilled in mathematical science is more powerfully
urged by Lord Brougham in these cogent terms :
Satisfying himself of the laws which regulate the mutual actions of
the planetary bodies, the mathematician can convince himself of a truth
yet more sublime than Newton's discovery of gravitation, though flow-
ing from it ; and must yield his assent to the marvellous position, that
all the irregularities occasioned in the system of the universe by the
mutual attraction of its members are periodical, and subject to an eter-
nal law, which prevents them from ever exceeding a stated amount, and
secures through all time the balanced structure of a universe composed
of bodies whose mighty bulk and prodigious swiftness of motion mock
the utmost efforts of the human imagination. All these truths are to
the skilful mathematician as thoroughly known, and their evidence is as
clear, as the simplest proposition of arithmetic to common understand-
ings. But how few are those who thus know and comprehend them !
Of all the millions that thoroughly believe these truths, certainly not a
thousand individuals are capable of foil owing even any considerable por-
tion of the demonstrations upon which they rest ; and probably not a
hundred now living have ever gone through the whole steps of these
demonstrations. Dissertations on Subjects of Science connected with
Natural Theology, vol. ii.
Sir David Brewster thus impressively illustrates the same
subject :
Minds fitted and prepared for this species of inquiry are capable of
appreciating the great variety of evidence by which the truths of the
planetary system are established ; but thousands of individuals, and
many who are highly distinguished in other branches of knowledge, are
incapable of understanding such researches, and view with a sceptical
eye the great and irrefragable truths of astronomy.
That the sun is stationary in the centre of our system ; that the earth
moves round the sun, and round its own axis ; that the diameter of
the earth is 8000 miles, and that of the sun one hundred and ten times
as great; that the earth's orbit is 190,000,000 of miles in breadth ; and
that if this immense space were filled with light, it would appear only
like a luminous point at the nearest fixed star, are positions absolutely
unintelligible and incredible to all who have not carefully studied the
subject. To millions of our species, then, the great Book of Nature is
absolutely sealed ; though it is in the power of all to unfold its pages, and
to peruse those glowing passages which proclaim the power and wisdom
of its Author.
Curiosities of Science. 55
ASTRONOMY AND DATES ON MONUMENTS.
Astronomy is a useful aid in discovering the Dates of ancient
Monuments. Thus, on the ceiling of a portico among the ruins
of Tentyris are the twelve signs of the Zodiac, placed according
to the apparent motion of the sun. According to this Zodiac,
the summer solstice is in Leo ; from which it is easy to com-
pute, by the precession of the equinoxes of 50"' 1 annually, that
the Zodiac of Tentyris must have been made 4000 years ago.
Mrs. Somerville relates that she once witnessed the ascer-
tainment of the date of a Papyrus by means of astronomy. The
manuscript was found in Egypt, in a mummy-case ; and its an-
tiquity was determined by the configuration of the heavens at
the time of its construction. It proved to be a horoscope of the
time of Ptolemy.
" THE CRYSTAL VAULT OF HEAVEN."
This poetic designation dates back as far as the early period
of Anaximenes ; but the first clearly defined signification of the
idea on which the term is based occurs in Empedocles. This
philosopher regarded the heaven of the fixed stars as a solid
mass, formed from the ether which had been rendered crystal-
line by the action of fire.
In the Middle Ages, the fathers of the Church believed the
firmament to consist of from seven to ten glassy strata, incas-
ing each other like the different coatings of an onion. This
supposition still keeps its ground in some of the monasteries of
southern Europe, where Humboldt was greatly surprised to
hear a venerable prelate express an opinion in reference to the
fall of aerolites at Aigle, that the bodies we called meteoric
stones with vitrified crusts were not portions of the fallen stone
itself, but simply fragments of the crystal vault shattered by it
in its fall.
Empedocles maintained that the fixed stars were riveted to
the crystal heavens ; but that the planets were free and uncon-
strained. It is difficult to conceive how, according to Plato in
the TimcBus, the fixed stars, riveted as they are to solid spheres,
could rotate independently.
Among the ancient views, it may be mentioned that the
equal distance at which the stars remained, while the whole vault
of heaven seemed to move from east to west, had led to the
idea of a firmament and a solid crystal sphere, in which An-
axirnenes (who was probably not much later than Pythagoras)
had conjectured that the stars were riveted like nails.
MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.
The Pythagoreans, in applying their theory of numbers to
56 Things not generally Known.
the geometrical consideration of the five regular bodies, to the
musical intervals of tone which determine a word and form
different kinds of sounds, extended it even to the system of
the universe itself; supposing that the moving, and, as it were,
vibrating planets, exciting sound-waves, must produce a spheral
music, according to the harmonic relations of their intervals of
space. " This music," they add, " would be perceived by the
human ear, if it was not rendered insensible by extreme famili-
arity, as it is perpetual, and men are accustomed to it from
childhood."
The Pythagoreans affirm, in order to justify the reality of the tones
ng take
where there is an alternation of sound and silence. The inaudibility of
,
produced by the revolution of the spheres, that hearing takes place only
the spheral music is also accounted for by its overpowering the senses.
Aristotle himself calls the Pythagorean tone-myth pleasing and ingeni-
ous, but untrue.
Plato attempted to illustrate the tones of the universe in an
agreeable picture, by attributing to each of the planetary spheres
a syren, who, supported by the stern daughters of Necessity,
the three Fates, maintain the eternal revolution of the world's
axis. Mention is constantly made of the harmony of the
spheres, though generally reproachfully, throughout the writ-
ings of Christian antiquity and the Middle Ages, from Basil the
Great to Thomas Aquinas and Petrus Alliacus.
At the close of the sixteenth century, Kepler revived these
musical ideas, and sought to trace out the analogies between
the relations of tone and the distances of the planets ; and Tycho
Brahe was of opinion that the revolving conical bodies were
capable of vibrating the celestial air (what we now call "resist-
ing medium") so as to produce tones. Yet Kepler, although he
had talked of Venus and the Earth sounding sharp in aphelion
and flat in perihelion, and the highest tone of Jupiter and that
of Venus coinciding in flat accord, positively declared there
to be " no such things as sounds among the heavenly bodies,
nor is their motion eo turbulent as to elicit noise from the attri-
tion of the celestial air." (See Things not generally Knoivn^. 44.)
" MORE WORLDS THAN ONE."
Although this opinion was maintained incidentally by va-
rious writers both on astronomy * and natural religion, yet M.
* The original idea is even attributed to Copernicus. M. Blundevile, in his
Treatise on Cosmogrnphy , 1594, has the following passage, perhaps the most dis-
tinct recognition of authority in our language: " How prooue (prove) you that
there is but one world ? By the authentic of Aristotle, who saieth that if there
were any other world out of this, then the earth of that world would mooue
(move) towards the centre of this world," &c.
Sir Isaac Newton, in a conversation with Conduitt, said he took "all the
planets to be composed of the same matter with the earth, viz. earth, water, aud
stone, but variously concocted."
Curiosities of Science.
Fontenelle was the first individual who wrote a treatise on the
Plurality of Worlds, which appeared in 1685, the year before the
publication of Newton's Principia. Fontenelle's work consists
of five chapters: 1. The earth is a planet which turns round
its axis, and also round the sun. 2. The moon is a habitable
world. 3. Particulars concerning the world in the moon, and
that the other planets are also inhabited. 4. Particulars of the
worlds of Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. 5. The
fixed stars are as many suns, each of which illuminates a world.
In a future edition, 1719, Fontenelle added, 6. New thoughts
which confirm those in the preceding conversations, and the
latest discoveries which have been made in the heavens. The
next work on the subject was the Theory of the Universe, or
Conjectures concerning the Celestial Bodies and their Inhabitants,
1698, by Christian Huygens, the contemporary of Newton.
The doctrine is maintained by almost all the distinguished
astronomers and writers who have flourished since the true
figure of the earth was determined. Giordano Bruna of Nola,
Kepler, and Tycho Brahe, believed in it; and Cardinal Cusa
and Bruno, before the discovery of binary systems among the
stars, believed also that the stars were inhabited. Sir Isaac
Newton likewise adopted the belief; and Dr. Bentley, Master
of Trinity College, Cambridge, in his eighth sermon on the Con-
futation of Atheism from the origin and frame of the world,
has ably maintained the same doctrine. In our own day we
may number among its supporters the distinguished names of
the Marquis de la Place, Sir William and Sir John Herschel,
Dr. Chalmers, Isaac Taylor, and M. Arago. Dr. Chalmers main-
tains the doctrine in his Astronomical Discourses, which one
Alexander Maxwell (who did not believe in the grand truths of
astronomy) attempted to controvert, in 1820, in a chapter of a
volume entitled Plurality of Worlds.
Next appeared Of a Plurality of Worlds, attributed to the
Rev. Dr.Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge; urging
the theological not less than the scientific reasons for believing
in the old tradition of a single world, and maintaining that " the
earth is really the largest planetary body in the solar system,
its domestic hearth, and the only world in the universe." " I
do not pretend," says Dr. Whewell, " to disprove the plurality of
worlds ; but I ask in vain for any argument which makes the
doctrine probable." " It is too remote from knowledge to be
either proved or disproved." Sir David Brewster has replied
to Dr. Whewell's Essay, in More Worlds than One, the Creed
of the Philosopher and the Hope of the Christian, emphatically
maintaining that analogy strongly countenances the idea of all
the solar planets, if not all worlds in the universe, being peo-
pled with creatures not dissimilar in being and nature to the
58 Things not generally Known.
inhabitants of the earth. This view is supported in Scientific
Certainties of Planetary Life, by T. C. Simon, who well treats one
point of the argument that mere distance of the planets from
the central sun does not determine the condition as to light
and heat, but that the density of the ethereal medium enters
largely into the calculation. Mr. Simon's general conclusion is,
that " neither on account of deficient or excessive heat, nor with
regard to the density of the materials, nor with regard to the force
of gravity on the surface, is there the slightest pretext for sup-
posing that all the planets of oar system are not inhabited by
intellectual creatures with animal bodies like ourselves, moral
beings, who know and love their great Maker, and who wait,
like the rest of His creation, upon His providence and upon His
care. " One of the leading points of Dr. WhewelFs Essay is, that
we should not elevate the conjectures of analogy into the rank
of scientific certainties; and that " the force of all the presump-
tions drawn from physical reasoning for the opinion of planets
and stars being either inhabited or uninhabited is so small, that
the belief of all thoughtful persons on this subject will be deter-
mined by moral, metaphysical, and theological considerations."
WORLDS TO COME ABODES OF THE BLEST.
Sir David Brewster, in his eloquent advocacy of the doc-
trine of " more worlds than one," thus argues for their peo-
pling :
Man, in his future state of existence, is to consist, as at present,
of a spiritual nature residing in a corporeal frame. He must live, there-
fore, upon a material planet, subject to all the laws of matter, and per-
forming functions for which a material body is indispensable. We must
consequently find for the race of Adam, if not races that may have
preceded him, a material home upon which they may reside, or by
which they may travel, by means unknown to us, to other localities in
the universe. At the present hour, the inhabitants of the earth are nearly
a thousand millions ; and by whatever process we may compute the
numbers that have existed before the present generation, and estimate
those that are yet to inherit the earth, we shall obtain a population
which the habitable parts of our globe could not possibly accommodate.
If there is not room, then, on our earth for the millions of millions
of beings who have lived and died upon its surface, and who may yet
live and die during the period fixed for its occupation by man, we can
scarcely doubt that their future abode must be on some of the primary
or secondary planets of the solar system, whose inhabitants have ceased
to exist like those on the earth, or upon planets in our own or in other
systems which have been in a state of preparation, as our earth was,
for the advent of intellectual life.
" GAUGING THE HEAVENS."
Sir William Herschel, in 1785, conceived the happy idea
of counting the number of stars which passed at different
Curiosities of Science. 59
heights and in various directions over the field of view, of fif-
teen minutes in diameter, of his twenty-feet reflecting tele-
scope. The field of view each time embraced only 8a smooth of
the whole heavens ; and it would therefore require, according
to Struve, eighty-three years to gauge the whole sphere by a
similar process.
VELOCITY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
M. E. W. G. Struve gives as the splendid result of the
united studies of MM. Argelander, 0. Struve, and Peters,
grounded on observations made at the three Russian observa-
tories of Dorpat, Abo, and Pulkowa, "that the velocity of the
motion of the solar system in space is such that the sun, with
all the bodies which depend upon it, advances annually to-
wards the constellation Hercules* 1*623 times the radius of the
earth's orbit, or 33,550,000 geographical miles. The possible
error of this last number amounts to 1,733,000 geographical
miles, or to a seventh of the whole value. We may, then, wager
400,000 to 1 that the sun has a proper progressive motion, and
1 to 1 that it is comprised between the limits of thirty-eight
and twenty-nine millions of geographical miles."
That is, taking 95,000,000 of English miles as the mean radius of
the Earth's orbit, we have 95 + 1 '623= 354-185 millions of miles; and
consequently,
English Miles.
The velocity of the Solar System . 154,185,000 in the year.
.... 422,424 in a day.
,, .... 17,601 in an hour.
,, ,, .... 293 in a minute.
.... 57 in a second.
The Sun and all his planets, primary and secondary, are therefore now
in rapid motion round an invisible focus. To that now dark and mys-
terious centre, from which no ray, however feeble, shines, we may in
another age point our telescopes, detecting perchance the great lu-
minary which controls our system and bounds its path : into that vast
orbit man, during the whole cycle of his race, may never be allowed to
round. North-British Review, No. 16.
NATURE OF THE SUN.
M. Arago has found, by experiments with the polariscope,
that the light of gaseous bodies is natural light when it issues
from the burning surface ; although this circumstance does not
prevent its subsequent complete polarisation, if subjected to
* Sir William Herschel ascertained that our solar system is advancing to-
wards the constellation Hercules, or more accurately to a point in space whose
right ascension is 245 52' 80", and north polar distance 40 22'; and that the
quantity of this motion is such, that to an astronomer placed in Sirius, our sun
would appear to describe an arc of little more than a second every year. North-
British Review, No. 3.
60 Thinqs not qenerallii Known.
i7 y ./
suitable reflections or refractions. Hence we obtain a most
simple method of discovering the nature of the sun at a distance
of forty millions of leagues. For if the light emanating from
the margin of the sun, arid radiating from the solar substance
at an acute angle, reach us without having experienced any
sensible reflections or refractions in its passage to the earth,
and if it offer traces of polarisation, the sun must be a solid or
a liquid body. But if, on the contrary, the light emanating
from the sun's margin give no indications of polarisation, the
incandescent portion of the sun must be gaseous. It is by means
of such a methodical sequence of observations that we may
acquire exact ideas regarding the physical constitution of the
sun. Note to Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. iii.
STRUCTURE OF THE LUMINOUS DISC OF THE SUN.
The extraordinary structure of the fully luminous Disc of
the Sun, as seen through Sir James South's great achromatic,
in a drawing made by Mr. Grwilt, resembles compressed curd,
or white almond -soap, or a mass of asbestos fibres, lying in
a quaquaversus direction, and compressed into a solid mass.
There can be no illusion in this phenomenon ; it is seen by
every person with good vision, and on every part of the sun's
luminous surface or envelope, which is thus shown to be not
& flame, but a soft solid or thick fluid, maintained in an incan-
descent state by subjacent heat, capable of being disturbed by
differences of temperature, and broken up as we see it when
the sun is covered with spots or openings in the luminous
matter. North- British Review, No. 16.
Copernicus named the sun the lantern of the world (lucerna irnindi};
and Theon of Smyrna called it the heart of the universe. The mass of
the sun is, according to Encke's calculation of Sabine's pendulum for-
mula, 359,551 times that of the earth, or 355,499 times that of the earth
and moon together ; whence the density of the sun is only about (or
more accurately 0'252) that of the earth. The volume of the sun is
600 times greater, and its mass, according to Galle, 738 times greater,
than that of all the planets combined. It may assist the mind in con-
ceiving a sensuous image of the magnitude of the sun, if we remember
that if the solar sphere were entirely hollowed out, and the earth placed
in its centre, there would still be room enough for the moon to describe
its orbit, even if the radius of the latter were increased 160,000 geo-
graphical miles. A railway-engine, moving at the rate of thirty miles
an hour, would require 360 years to travel from the earth to the sun.
The diameter of the sun is rather more than one hundred and eleven
times the diameter of the earth. Therefore the volume or bulk of the
sun must be nearly one million four hundred thousand times that of the
earth. Lastly, if all the bodies composing the solar system were formed
into one globe, it would be only about the five-hundredth part of the
size of the sun.
Curiosities of Science. 61
GREAT SIZE OF THE SUN ON THE HORIZON EXPLAINED.
The dilated size (generally) of the Sun or Moon, when seen
near the horizon, beyond what they appear to have when high
up in the sky, has nothing to do with refraction. It is an illu-
sion of the judgment, arising from the terrestrial objects inter-
posed, or placed in close comparison with them. In that situ-
ation we view and judge of them as we do of terrestrial objects
in detail, and with an acquired attention to parts. Aloft we
have no association to guide us, and their insulation in the
expanse of the sky leads us rather to undervalue than to over-
rate their apparent magnitudes. Actual measurement with a
proper instrument corrects our error, without, however, dis-
pelling our illusion. By this we learn that the sun, when just
on the horizon, subtends at our eyes almost exactly the same,
and the moon a materially less, angle than when seen at a
greater altitude in the sky, owing to its greater distance from
us in the former situation as compared with the latter. Sir
John HerscheVs Outlines.
TRANSLATORY MOTION OF THE SUN.
This phenomenon is the progressive motion of the centre
of gravity of the whole solar system in universal space. Its
velocity, according to Bessel, is probably four millions of miles
daily, in a relative velocity to that of 61 Cygni of at least
3,336,000 miles, or more than double the velocity of the revolu-
tion of the earth in her orbit round the sun. This change of the
entire solar system would remain unknown to us, if the ad-
mirable exactness of our astronomical instruments of measure-
ment, and the advancement recently made in the art of ob-
serving, did not cause our progress towards remote stars to be
perceptible, like an approximation to the objects of a distant
shore in apparent motion. The proper motion of the star 61
Cygni, for instance, is so considerable, that it has amounted
to a whole degree in the course of 700 years. Huntboldt's Cos-
mos, vol. i.
THE SUN'S LIGHT COMPARED WITH TERRESTRIAL LIGHTS.
Mr. Ponton has by means of a simple monochromatic pho-
tometer ascertained that a small surface, illuminated by mean
solar light, is 444 times brighter than when it is illuminated by
a moderator lamp, and 1560 times brighter than when it is
illuminated by a wax-candle (short six in the Ib.) the artifi-
cial light being in both instances placed at two inches' distance
from the illuminated surface. And three electric lights, each
62 Things not generally Known.
equal to 520 wax-candles, will render a small surface as bright
as when it is illuminated by mean sunshine.
It is thence inferred, that a stratum occupying the entire
surface of the sphere of which the earth's distance from the
sun is the radius, and consisting of three layers of flame, each
10 ' 00 th of an inch in thickness, each possessing a brightness
equal to that of such an electric light, and all three embraced
within a thickness of -^th of an inch, would give an amount
of illumination equal in quantity and intensity to that of the
sun at the distance of 95 millions of miles from his centre.
And were such a stratum transferred to the surface of the
sun, where it would occupy 46,275 times less area, its thick-
ness would be increased to 94 feet, and it would embrace
138,825 layers of flame, equal in brightness to the electric light ;
but the same effect might be produced by a stratum about
nine miles in thickness, embracing 72 millions of layers, each
having only a brightness equal to that of a wax-candle.*
ACTINIC POWER OF THE SUN.
Mr. J. J. Waterston, in 1857, made at Bombay some ex-
periments on the photographic power of the sun's direct light,
to obtain data in an inquiry as to the possibility of measuring
the diameter of the sun to a very minute fraction of a second,
by combining photography with the principle of the electric
telegraph ; the first to measure the element space, the latter
the element time. The result is that about 20 ^ 00 th of a se-
cond is sufficient exposure to the direct light of the sun to
obtain a distinct mark on a sensitive collodion plate, when
developed by the usual processes ; and the duration of the
sun's full action on any one point is about ^Wth of a second.
M. Schatt, a young painter of Berlin, after 1500 experi-
ments, succeeded in establishing a scale of all the shades of
black which the action of the sun produces on photographic
paper ; so that by comparing the shade obtained at any given
moment on a certain paper with that indicated on the scale,
the exact force of the sun's light may be determined.
HEATING POWER OF THE SUN.
All moving power has its origin in the rays of the sun.
While Stephenson's iron tubular railway-bridge over the Menai
Straits, 400 feet long, bends but half an inch under the hea-
viest pressure of a train, it will bend up an inch and a half
from its usual horizontal line when the sun shines on it for
* See M. Arago's researches upon this interesting subject, in Things not gener-
ally Known, p. 4.
Curiosities of Science. 63
some hours. The Bunker-Hill monument, near Boston, U.S.,
is higher in the evening than in the morning of a sunny day ;
the little sunbeams enter the pores of the stone like so many
wedges, lifting it up.
In winter, the Earth is nearer the Sun by about $ than in
summer ; but the rays strike the northern hemisphere more
obliquely in winter than the other half year.
M. Pouillet has estimated, with singular ingenuity, from a
series of observations made by himself, that the whole quantity
of heat which the Earth receives annually from the Sun is
such as would be sufficient to melt a stratum of ice covering
the entire globe forty-six feet deep.
By the action of the sun's rays upon the earth, vegetables,
animals, and man, are in their turn supported ; the rays be-
come likewise, as it were, a store of heat, and " the sources of
those great deposits of dynamical efficiency which are laid up
for human use in our coal strata" (Herschel).
A remarkable instance of the power of the sun's rays is re-
corded at Stonehouse Point, Devon, in the year 1828. To lay
the foundation of a sea-wall the workmen had to descend in a
diving-bell, which was fitted with convex glasses in the upper
part, by which, on several occasions in clear weather, the sun's
rays were so concentrated as to burn the labourers' clothes
when opposed to the focal point, and this when the bell was
twenty- five feet under the surface of the water !
CAUSE OF DAEK COLOUR OF THE SKIN.
Darkness of complexion has been attributed to the sun's
power from the age of Solomon to this day, "Look not upon
me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon
me :" and there cannot be a doubt that, to a certain degree,
the opinion is well founded. The invisible rays in the solar
beams, which change vegetable colour, and have been em-
ployed with such remarkable effect in the daguerreotype, act
upon every substance on which they fall, producing myste-
rious and wonderful changes in their molecular state, man not
excepted. Mrs. Somerville.
EXTREME SOLAR HEAT.
The fluctuation in the sun's direct heating power amounts
to Ts tn > which is too considerable a fraction of the whole in-
tensity not to aggravate in a serious degree the sufferings of
those who are exposed to it in thirsty deserts without shelter.
The amount of these sufferings, in the interior of Australia for
instance, are of the most frightful kind, and would seem far to
exceed what have ever been undergone by travellers in the
64 Thinys not generally Known.
northern deserts of Africa. Thus Captain Sturt, in his account
of his Australian exploration, says : " The ground was almost
a molten surface ; and if a match accidentally fell upon it, it
immediately ignited." Sir John Herschel has observed the
temperature of the surface soil in South Africa as high as 159
Fahrenheit. An ordinary lucifer-match does not ignite when
simply pressed upon a smooth surface at 212 ; but in the act
of withdrawing it it takes fire, and the slightest friction upon
such a surface of course ignites it.
HOW DR. WOLLASTON COMPARED THE LIGHT OF THE SUN AND
THE FIXED STARS.
In order to compare the Light of the Sun with that of a
Star, Dr. Wollaston took as an intermediate object of compa-
rison the light of a candle reflected from a bulb about a quarter
of an inch in diameter, filled with quicksilver ; and seen by one
eye through a lens of two inches focus, at the same time that
the star on the sun's image, placed at a proper distance, was
viewed by the other eye through a telescope. The mean of
various trials seemed to show that the light of Sirius is equal
to that of the sun seen in a glass bulb -^th of an inch in dia-
meter, at the distance of 210 feet ; or that they are in the
proportion of one to ten thousand millions : but as nearly one
half of this light is lost by reflection, the real proportion be-
tween the light from Sirius and the sun is not greater than
that of one to twenty thousand millions.
" THE SUN DARKENED."
Humboldt selects the following example from historical
records as to the occurrence of a sudden decrease in the light
of the Sun :
A.D. 33, the year of the Crucifixion. "Now from the sixth hour
there was darkness over all the land till the ninth hour" (St. Matthew
xxvii. 45). According to St. Luke (xxiii. 45), " the sun was darkened.' 1
In order to explain and corroborate these narrations, Eusebius brings
forward an eclipse of the sun in the 2J2d Olympiad, which had been
noticed by the chronicler Phlegon of Tralles (Ideler, Handluch der
Mathem. Chronologic, Bd. ii. p. 417). Wurn, however, has shown that
the eclipse which occurred during this Olympiad, and was visible over
the whole of Asia Minor, must have happened as early as the 24th of
November 29 A.D. The day of the Crucifixion corresponded with the
Jewish Passover (Ideler, Bd. i. pp. 515-520), on the 14th of the month
Nisan, and the Passover was always celebrated at the time of the full
moon. The sun cannot therefore have been darkened for three hours by
the moon. The Jesuit Scheiner thinks the decrease in the light might
be ascribed to the occurrence of large sun-spots.
THE SUN AND TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
The important influence exerted by the Sun's body, as a
S Curiosities of Science. 65
mass, upon Terrestrial Magnetism, is confirmed by Sabine in
the ingenious observation, that the period at which the inten-
sity of the magnetic force is greatest, and the direction of the
needle most near to the vertical line, falls in both hemispheres
between the months of October and February ; that is to say,
precisely at the time when the earth is nearest to the sun, and
moves in its orbit with the greatest velocity.
IS THE HEAT OF THE SUN DECREASING ?
The Heat of the Sun is dissipated and lost by radiation, and
must be progressively diminished unless its thermal energy be
supplied. According to the measurements of M. Pouillet, the
quantity of heat given out by the sun in a year is equal to that
which would be produced by the combustion of a stratum of
coal seventeen miles in thickness ; and if the sun*s capacity for
heat be assumed equal to that of water, and the heat be sup-
posed drawn uniformly from its entire mass, its temperature
would thereby undergo a diminution of 20 '4 Fahr. annually.
On the other hand, there is a vast store of force in our system
capable of conversion into heat. If, as is indicated by the
small density of the sun, and by other circumstances, that
body has not yet reached the condition of incompressibility,
we have in the future approximation of its parts a fund of
heat, probably quite large enough to supply the wants of the
human family to the end of its sojourn here. It has been cal-
culated that an amount of condensation which would diminish
the diameter of the sun by only the ten-thousandth part, would
suffice to restore the heat emitted in 2000 years.
UNIVERSAL SUN-DIAL.
Mr. Sharp, of Dublin, exhibited to the British Association
in 1849 a Dial, consisting of a cylinder set to the day of the
month, and then elevated to the latitude. A thin plane of
metal, in the direction of its axis, is then turned by a milled
head below it till the shadow is a minimum, when a dial on
the top shows the hours by one hand, and the minutes by an-
other, to the precision of about three minutes.
LENGTH OF DAYS AT THE POLES.
During the summer, in the northern hemisphere y places
near the North Pole are in continual sunlight the sun never
sets to them ; while during that time places near the South
Pole never see the sun. When it is summer in the southern
hemisphere, and the sun shines on the South Pole without
setting, the North Pole is entirely deprived of his light. In-
deed, at the Poles there is bit one day and one night ; for the
p
66 Things not generally Known.
sun shines for six months together on one Pole, and the other
six months on the other Pole.
HOW THE DISTANCE OF THE SUN IS ASCERTAINED BY THE
YARD-MEASURE.
Professor Airy, in his Six Lectures on Astronomy, gives a
masterly analysis of a problem of considerable intricacy, viz.
the determination of the parallax of the sun, and consequently
of his distance, by observations of the transit of Venus, the con-
necting link between measures upon the earth's surface and the
dimensions of our system. The further step of investigating
the parallax, and consequently the distance of the fixed stars
(where that is practicable), is also elucidated; and the author,
with evident satisfaction, thus sums up the several steps :
By means of a yard-measure, a base-line in a survey was measured ;
from this, by the tria.ngulations and computations of a survey, an arc of
meridian on the earth was measured ; from this, with proper observa-
tions with the zenith sector, the surveys being also repeated on different
parts of the earth, the earth's form and dimensions were ascertained ;
from these, and a previous independent knowledge of the proportions of
the distances of the earth and other planets from the sun, with observa-
tions of the transit of Venus, the sun's distance is determined ; and from
this, with observations leading to the parallax of the stars, the distance
of the stars is determined. And every step in the process can be dis-
tinctly referred to its basis, that is, the yard-measure.
HOW THE TIDES ARE PRODUCED BY THE SUN AND MOON.
Each of these bodies excites, by its attraction upon the
waters of the sea, two gigantic waves, which flow in the same
direction round the world as the attracting bodies themselves
apparently do. The two waves of the moon, on account of
her greater nearness, are about 3| times as large as those ex-
cited by the sun. One of these waves has its crest on the
quarter of the earth^s surface which is turned towards the
moon ; the other is at the opposite side. Both these quarters
possess the flow of the tide, while the regions which lie be-
tween have the ebb. Although in the open sea the height of
the tide amounts to only about three feet, and only in certain
narrow channels, where the moving water is squeezed together,
rises to thirty feet, the might of the phenomenon is never-
theless manifest from the calculation of Bessel, according to
which a quarter of the earth covered by the sea possesses dur-
ing the flow of the tide about 25,000 cubic miles of water
more than during the ebb ; and that, therefore, such a mass of
water must in 6 hours flow from one quarter of the earth to
the other. Professor Helmhottz.
Curiosities of Science. 67
SPOTS ON THE SUN.
Sir John Herschel describes these phenomena, when watched
from day to day, or even from hour to hour, as appearing to en-
large or contract, to change their forms, and at length disappear
altogether, or to break out anew in parts of the surface where
none were before. Occasionally they break up or divide into
two or more. The scale on which their movements takes place
is immense. A single second of angular measure, as seen from
the earth, corresponds on the sun's disc to 461 miles ; and a
circle of this diameter (containing therefore nearly 167,000
square miles) is the least space which can be distinctly dis-
cerned on the sun as a visible area. Spots have been observed,
however, whose linear diameter has been upwards of 45,000
miles ; and even, if some records are to be trusted, of very much
greater extent. That such a spot should close up in six weeks
time (for they seldom last much longer), its borders must ap-
proach at the rate of more than 1000 miles a-day.
The same astronomer saw at the Cape of Good Hope, on the
29th March 1837, a solar spot occupying an area of near five
square minutes, equal to 3,780,000,000 square miles. "The
black centre of the spot of May 25th, 1837 (not the tenth part
of the preceding one), would have allowed the globe of our
earth to drop through it, leaving a thousand miles clear of
.contact on all sides of that tremendous gulf." For such an
amount of disturbance on the sun's atmosphere, what reason
can be assigned ?
The Rev. Mr. Dawes has invented a peculiar contrivance,
by means of which he has been enabled to scrutinise, under
high magnifying power, minute portions of the solar disc. He
places a metallic screen, pierced with a very small hole, in the
focus of the telescope, where the image of the sun is formed.
A small portion only of the image is thus allowed to pass
through, so that it may be examined by the eye-piece without
inconveniencing the observer by heat or glare. By this ar-
rangement, Mr. Dawes has observed peculiarities in the con-
stitution of the sun's surface which are discernible in no other
way.
Before these observations, the dark spots seen on the sun's
surface were supposed to be portions of the solid body of the
sun, laid bare to our view by those immense fluctuations in
the luminous regions of its atmosphere to which it appears to
be subject. It now appears that these dark portions are only
an additional and inferior stratum of a very feebly luminous
or illuminated portion of the sun's atmosphere. This again in
its turn Mr. Dawes has frequently seen pierced with a smaller
and usually much more rounded aperture, which would seem
68 Things not generally Known.
at last to afford a view of the real solar surface of most intense
blackness.
M. Schwabe, of Dessau, has discovered that the abundance
or paucity of spots displayed by the sun's surface is subject to
a law of periodicity. This has been confirmed by M. Wolf, of
Berne, who shows that the period of these changes, from mini-
mum to minimum, is 11 years and 1 1-hundredths of a year,
being exactly at the rate of nine periods per century, the last
year of each century being a year of minimum. It is strongly
corroborative of the correctness both of M. Wolf's period and
also of the periodicity itself, that of all the instances of the
appearance of spots on the sun recorded in history, even before
the invention of the telescope, or of remarkable deficiencies in
the sun's light, of which there are great numbers, only two are
found to deviate as much as two years from M. Wolf's epochs.
Sir William Herschel observed that the presence or absence of
spots had an influence on the temperature of the seasons ; his
observations have been fully confirmed by M. Wolf. And, from
an examination of the chronicles of Zurich from A.D. 1000 to
A.D. 1800, he has come to the conclusion "that years rich in
solar spots are in general drier and more fruitful than those of
an opposite character ; while the latter are wetter and more
stormy than the former."
The most extraordinary fact, however, in connection with
the spots on the sun's surface, is the singular coincidence of
their periods with those great disturbances in the magnetic
system of the earth to which the epithet of " magnetic storms"
has been affixed.
These disturbances, during which, the magnetic needle is greatly
and universally ao-itated (not in a particular limited locality, but at one
and the same instant of time over whole continents^ or even over the
whole earth), are found, so far as obsei-vation has hitherto extended,
to maintain a parallel, both in respect of their frequency of occui-rence
and intensity in successive years, with the abundance and magnitude
of the spots'in the same years, too close to be regarded as fortuitous.
The coincidence of the epochs of maxima and minima in the two series
of phenomena amounts, indeed, to identity; a fact evidently of most
important significance, but which neither astronomical nor magnetic
science is yet sufficiently advanced to interpret. Herschel 's Outlines.
The signification and connection of the above varying phe-
nomena (Humboldt maintains) can never be manifested in their
entire importance until an uninterrupted series of representa-
tions of the sun's spots can be obtained by the aid of me-
chanical clock-work and photographic apparatus, as the result
of prolonged observations during the many months of serene
weather enjoyed in a tropical climate.
M. Schwabe has thus distinguished himself as an indefatigable ob-
server of the sun's spots, for his researches received the Royal Astrono-
Curiosities of Science. 69
mical Society's Medal in 1857. " For thirty years," said the President
at the presentation, "never has the sun exhibited his disc above the
horizon of Dessau without being confronted by Schwabe's imperturbable
telescope ; and that appears to have happened on an average about
300 days a-year. So, supposing that he had observed but once a-day,
he has made 9000 observations, in the course of which he discovered
about 4700 groups. This is, I believe, an instance of devoted persist-
'ence unsurpassed in the annals of astronomy. The energy of one
man has revealed a phenomenon that had eluded the suspicion of astro-
nomers for 200 years."
HAS THE MOON AN ATMOSPHERE ?
The Moon possesses neither Sea nor Atmosphere of appreci-
able extent. Still, as a negative, in such case, is relative only
to the capabilities of the instruments employed, the search for
the indications of a lunar atmosphere has been renewed with
fresh augmentation of telescopic power. Of such indications,
the most delicate, perhaps, are those afforded by the occulta-
tion of a planet by the moon. The occultation of Jupiter,
which took place on January 2, 1857, was observed with this
reference, and is said to have exhibited no hesitation, or change
of form or brightness, such as would be produced by the refrac-
tion or absorption of an atmosphere. As respects the sea, if
water existed on the moon's surface, the sun's light reflected
from it should be completely polarised at a certain elongation
of the moon from the sun ; and no traces of such light have
been observed.
MM. Baer and Maedler conclude that the moon is not en-
tirely without an atmosphere, but, owing to the smallness of
her mass, she is incapacitated from holding an extensive cover-
ing of gas; and they add, "it is possible that this weak en-
velope may sometimes, through local causes, in some measure
dim or condense itself." But if any atmosphere exists on our
satellite, it must be, as Laplace says, more attenuated than
what is termed a vacuum in an air-pump.
Mr. Hopkins thinks that if there be any lunar atmosphere,
it must be very rare in comparison with the terrestrial atmo-
sphere, and inappreciable to the kind of observation by which
it has been tested ; yet the absence of any refraction of the
light of the stars during occultation is a very refined test. Mr.
Nasmyth observes that " the sudden disappearance of the stars
behind the moon, without any change or diminution of her
brilliancy, is one of the most beautiful phenomena that can be
witnessed."
Sir John Herschel observes : The fact of the moon turning
always the same face towards the earth is, in all probability,
the result of an elongation of its figure in the direction of a
line joining the centres of both the bodies, acting conjointly
70 Things not generally Known.
with a non- coincidence of its centre of gravity with its centre
of symmetry.
If to this we add the supposition that the substance of the
moon is not homogeneous, ani that some considerable pre-
ponderance of weight is placed excentrically in it, it will be
easily apprehended that the portion of its surface nearer to that
heavier portion of its solid content, under all the circumstances
of the moon's rotation, will permanently occupy the situation
most remote from the earth.
In what regards its assumption of a definite level, air obeys precisely
the same hydrostatical laws as water. The lunar atmosphere would
rest upon the lunar ocean, and form in its basin a lake of air, whose
upper portions at an altitude such as we are now contemplating would
be of excessive tenuity, especially should the provision of air be less
abundant in proportion than our own. It by no means follows, then,
from the absence of visible indications of water or air on this side of the
moon, that the other is equally destitute of them, and equally unfitted
for maintaining- animal or vegetable life. Some slight approach to such
a state of things actually obtains on the earth itself. Nearly all the
land is collected in one of its hemispheres, and much the larger portion
of the sea in the opposite There is evidently an excess of heavy mate-
rial vertically beneath the middle of the Pacific ; while not very remote
from the point of the globe diametrically opposite rises the great table-
land of India and the Himalaj^a chain, on the summits of which the air
has not more than a third of the density it has on the sea-level, and
from which animated existence is for ever excluded. Herschel s Out-
5th edit.
LIGHT OF THE MOON.
The actual illumination of the lunar surface is not much
superior to that of weathered sandstone-rock in full sunshine.
Sir John Herschel has frequently compared the moon setting
behind the gray perpendicular faQade of the Table Mountain
at the Cape of Good Hope, illuminated by the sun just risen
from the opposite quarter of the horizon, when it has been
scarcely distinguishable in brightness from the rock in contact
with it. The sun and moon being nearly at equal altitudes,
and the atmosphere perfectly free from cloud or vapour, its
effect is alike on both luminaries.
HEAT OF MOONLIGHT.
M. Zantedeschi has proved, by a long series of experiments
in the Botanic Gardens at Venice, Florence, and Padua, that,
contrary to the general opinion, the diffused rays of moonlight
have an influence upon the organs of plants, as the Sensitive
Plant and the Desmodium gyrans. The influence was feeble
compared with that of the sun ; but the action is left beyond
further question.
Melloni has proved that the rays of the Moon give out a
Curiosities of Science. 71
slight degree of Heat (see Things not generally Known, p. 7) ;
and Professor Piazzi Smyth, from a point of the Peak of Tene-
riffe 8840 feet above the sea-level, has found distinctly per-
ceptible the heat radiated from the moon, which has been so
often sought for in vain in a lower region.
SCENERY OF THE MOON.
By means of the telescope, mountain-peaks are distinguished
in the ash-gray light of the larger spots and isolated brightly-
shining points of the moon, even when the disc is already
more than half illuminated. Lambert and Schroter have shown
that the extremely variable intensity of the ash-gray light of
the moon depends upon the greater or less degree of reflection
of the sunlight which falls upon the earth, according as it is
reflected from continuous continental masses, full of sandy de-
serts, grassy steppes, tropical forests, and barren rocky ground,
or from large ocean surfaces. Lambert made the remarkable
observation (14th of February 1774) of a change of the ash-
coloured moonlight into an olive-green colour bordering upon
yellow. " The moon, which then stood vertically over the
Atlantic Ocean, received upon its right side the green terres-
trial light which is reflected towards her when the sky is clear
by the forest districts of South America. "
Plutarch says distinctly, in his remarkable work On the Face
in the Moon, that we may suppose the spots to be partly deep
chasms and valleys, partly mountain -peaks, which cast long
shadows, like Mount Athos, whose shadow reaches Lemnos.
The spots cover about two-fifths of the whole disc. In a clear
atmosphere, and under favourable circumstances in the position
of the moon, some of the spots are visible to the naked eye ;
as the edge of the Apennines, the dark elevated plain Grimal-
dus, the enclosed Mare Crisium, and Tycho, crowded round with
numerous mountain ridges and craters.
Professor Alexander remarks, that a map of the eastern
hemisphere, taken with the Bay of Bengal in the centre, would
bear a striking resemblance to the face of the moon presented
to us. The dark portions of the moon he considers to be con-
tinental elevations, as shown by measuring the average height
of mountains above the dark and the light portions of the
moon.
The surface of the moon can be as distinctly seen by a good
telescope magnifying 1000 times, as it would be if not more
than 250 miles distant.
LIFE IN THE MOON.
A circle of one second in diameter, as seen from the earth,
on the surface of the moon contains about a square mile.
72 Things not generally Known.
Telescopes, therefore, must be greatly improved before we
could expect to see signs of inhabitants, as manifested by edi-
fices or changes on the surface of the soil. It should, however,
be observed, that owing to the small density of the materials of
the moon, and the comparatively feeble gravitation of bodies
on her surface, muscular force would there go six times as far
in overcoming the weight of materials as on the earth. Owing
to the want of air, however, it seems impossible that any form
of life analogous to those on earth can subsist there. No
appearance indicating vegetation, or the slightest variation of
surface which can in our opinion fairly be ascribed to change of
season, can any where be discerned. Sir John Herschel's Out-
lines.
THE MOON SEEN THROUGH LORD ROSSE's TELESCOPE.
In 1846, the Rev. Dr. Scoresby had the gratification of ob-
serving the Moon through the stupendous telescope constructed
by Lord Rosse at Parsonstown. It appeared like a globe of
molten silver, and every object to the extent of 100 yards was
quite visible. Edifices, therefore, of the size of York Minster,
or even of the ruins of Whitby Abbey, might be easily per-
ceived, if they had existed. But there was no appearance of
any thing of that nature ; neither was there any indication of
the existence of water, or of an atmosphere. There were a
great number of extinct volcanoes, several miles in breadth ;
through one of them there was a line of continuance about 150
miles in length, which ran in a straight direction, like a rail-
way. The general appearance, however, was like one vast ruin
of nature ; and many of the pieces of rock driven out of the
volcanoes appeared to lie at various distances.
MOUNTAINS IN THE MOON.
By the aid of telescopes, we discern irregularities in the sur-
face of the moon which can be no other than mountains arid
valleys. for this plain reason, that we see the shadows cast
by the former in the exact proportion as to length which they
ought to have when we take into account the inclinations of
the sun's rays to that part of the moon's surface on which they
stand. From micrometrical measurements of the lengths of the
shadows of the more conspicuous mountains, Messrs. Baer and
Maedler have given a list of heights for no less than 1095 lunar
mountains, among which occur all degrees of elevation up to
22,823 British feet, or about 1400 feet higher than Chimbo-
razo in the Andes.
If Chimborazo were as high in proportion to the earth's
diameter as a mountain in the moon known by the name of
Curiosities of Science. 73
Newton is to the moon's diameter, its peak would be more
than sixteen miles high.
Avago calls to mind, that with a 6000-fold magnifying
power, which nevertheless could not be applied to the moon
with proportionate results, the mountains upon the moon
would appear to us just as Mont Blanc does to the naked eye
when seen from the Lake of Geneva.
We sometimes observe more than half the surface of the
moon, the eastern and northern edges being more visible at
one time, and the western or southern at another. By means
of this libration we are enabled to see the annular mountain
Malapert (which occasionally conceals the moon's south pole),
the arctic landscape round the crater of Gioja, and the large
gray plane near Endymion, which conceals in superficial extent
the mare vaporum.
Three-sevenths of the moon are entirely concealed from our
observation ; and must always remain so, unless some new and
unexpected disturbing causes come into play. Humboldt.
The first object to which Galileo directed his telescope was tho
mountainous parts of the moon, when he showed how their summits
might be measured : he found in the moon some circular districts sur-
rounded on all sides by mountains similar to the form of Bohemia.
The measurements of the mountains were made by the method of the
tangents of the solar ray. Galileo, as Helvetius did still later, measured
the distance of the summit of the mountains from the boundary of the
illuminated portion at the moment when the mountain summit was
first struck by the solar ray. Humboldt found no observations of the
lengths of the slwdows of the mountains : the summits were " much
higher than the mountains on our earth " The comparison is remark-
able, since, according to Biccioli, very exaggerated ideas of the height
of our mo;.:;tains were then entertained. Galileo like all other observers
up to the close of the eighteenth century, believed in the existence of
many seas and of a lunar atmosphere.
THE MOON AND THE WEATHER.
The only influence of the Moon on the Weather of which
we have any decisive evidence is the tendency to disappearance
of clouds under the full moon, which Sir John Herschel refers
to its heat being much more readily absorbed in traversing
transparent media than direct solar heat, and being extinguished
in the upper regions of our atmosphere, never reaches the sur-
face of the atmosphere at all.
THE MOON'S ATTRACTION.
Mr. G. P. Bond of Cambridge, by some investigations to
ascertain whether the Attraction of the Moon has any effect
upon the motion of a pendulum, and consequently upon the
rate of a clock, has found the last to be changed to the amount
74 Things not generally Known.
of TWO of a second daily. At the equator the moon's attrac-
tion changes the weight of a body only ?000 oo6 of the whole ;
yet this force is sufficient to produce the vast phenomena of
the tides !
It is no slight evidence of the importance of analysis, that
Laplace's perfect theory of tides has enabled us in our astro-
nomical ephemerides to predict the height of spring-tides at
the periods of new and full moon, and thus put the inhabitants
of the sea on their guard against the increased danger attending
the lunar revolutions.
MEASURING THE EARTH BY THE MOON.
As the form of the Earth exerts a powerful influence on the
motion of other cosmical bodies, and especially on that of its
neighbouring satellite, a more perfect knowledge of the motion
of the latter will enable us reciprocally to draw an inference
regarding the figure of the earth. Thus, as Laplace ably re-
marks : " an astronomer, without leaving his observatory, may,
by a comparison of lunar theory with true observations, not
only be enabled to determine the form and size of the earth,
but also its distance from the sun and moon ; results that other-
wise could only be arrived at by long and arduous expeditions
to the most remote parts of both hemispheres." The compres-
sion which may be inferred from lunar inequalities affords an
advantage not yielded by individual measurements of degrees
or experiments with the pendulum, since it gives a mean
amount which is referable to the whole planet. Humboldt's
Cosmos, vol. i.
The distance of the moon from the earth is about 240,000
miles ; and if a railway-carriage were to travel at the rate of
1000 miles a-day, it would be eight months in reaching the
moon. But that is nothing compared with the length of time
it would occupy a locomotive to reach the sun from the earth :
if travelling at the rate of 1000 miles a-day, it would require
260 years to reach it.
CAUSE OF ECLIPSES.
As the Moon is at a very moderate distance from us (astro-
nomically speaking), and is in fact our nearest neighbour, while
the sun and stars are in comparison immensely beyond it, it
must of necessity happen that at one time or other it must
pass over, and occult or eclipse, every star or planet within its
zone, and, as seen from the surface of the earth, even some-
what beyond it. Nor is the sun itself exempt from being thus
hidden whenever any part of the moon's disc, in this her tor-
tuous course, comes to overlap any part of the space occupied
Curiosities of Science. 75
in the heavens by that luminary. On these occasions is ex-
hibited the most striking and impressive of all the occasional
phenomena of astronomy, an Eclipse of the Sun, in which a
greater or less portion, or even in some conjunctures the whole
of its disc, is obscured, and, as it were, obliterated, by the su*
perposition of that of the moon, which appears upon it as a
circularly-terminated black spot, producing a temporary dimi-
nution of daylight, or even nocturnal darkness, so that the
stars appear as if at midnight. Sir John Herschel's Outlines.
VAST NUMBERS IN THE UNIVERSE.
The number of telescopic stars in the Milky Way uninter-
rupted by any nebulae is estimated at 18,000,000. To com-
pare this number with something analogous, Humboldt calls
attention to the fact, that there are not in the whole heavens
more than about 8000 stars, between the first and the sixth
magnitudes, visible to the naked eye. The barren astonish-
ment excited by numbers and dimensions in space when not
considered with reference to applications engaging the mental
and perceptive powers of man, is awakened in both extremes
of the universe in the celestial bodies as in the minutest
animalcules. A cubic inch of the polishing slate of Bilin con-
tains, according to Ehrenberg, 40,000 millions of the siliceous
shells of Galionellse.
FOR WHAT PURPOSE WERE THE STARS CREATED 1
Surely not (says Sir John Herschel) to illuminate our nights,
which an additional moon of the thousandth part of the size of
our own would do much better ; nor to sparkle as a pageant
void of meaning and reality, and bewilder us among vain con-
jectures. Useful, it is true, they are to man as points of exact
and permanent reference ; but he must have studied astronomy
to little purpose, who can suppose man to be the only object of
his Creator's care, or who does not see in the vast and wonder-
ful apparatus around us provision for other races of animated
beings. The planets derive their light from the sun ; but that
cannot be the case with the stars. These doubtless, then, are
themselves suns ; and may perhaps, each in its sphere, be the
presiding centre round which other planets, or bodies of which
we can form no conception from any analogy offered by our
own system, are circulating.*
NUMBER OF STARS.
Various estimates have been hazarded on the Number of
Stars throughout the whole heavens visible to us by the aid of
* This eloquent advocacy of the doctrine of " More Worlds than One" (refer-
red to at p. 51) is from the author's valuable Outlines of Astronomy.
76 Things not generally Known.
our colossal telescopes. Struve assumes for Herschel's 20-feet
reflector, that a magnifying power of 180 would give 5,800,000
for the number of stars lying within the zones extending 30
on either side of the equator, and 20,374,000 for the whole
heavens. Sir William Herschel conjectured that 18,000,000 of
stars in the Milky Way might be seen by his still more powerful
40-feet reflecting telescope. Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. iii.
The assumption that the extent of the starry firmament is
literally infinite has been made by Dr. Gibers the basis of a
conclusion that the celestial spaces are in some slight degree
deficient in transparency ; so that all beyond a certain distance
is and must remain for ever unseen, the geometrical progres-
sion of the extinction of light far outrunning the effect of any
conceivable increase in the power of our telescopes. Were it
not so, it is argued that every part of the celestial concave
ought to shine with the brightness of the solar disc, since no
visual ray could be so directed as not, in some point or other of
its infinite length, to encounter such a disc. Edinburgh Re-
view, Jan. 1848.
STAKS THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED.
Notwithstanding the great accuracy of the catalogued po-
sitions of telescopic fixed stars and of modern star-maps, the
certainty of conviction that a star in the heavens has ac-
tually disappeared since a certain epoch can only be arrived at
with great caution. Errors of actual observation, of reduction,
and of the press, often disfigure the very best catalogues. The
disappearance of a heavenly body from the place in which it
had been before distinctly seen, may be the result of its own
motion as much as of any such diminution of its photometric
process as would render the waves of light too weak to excite
our organs of sight. What we no longer see, is not necessarily
annihilated. The idea of destruction or combustion, as ap-
plied to disappearing stars, belongs to the age of Tycho Brahe.
Even Pliny makes it a question. The apparent eternal cosmical
alternation of existence and destruction is not annihilation ;
it is merely the transition of matter into new forms, into com-
binations which are subject to new processes. Dark cosmical
bodies may by a renewed process of light again become lu-
minous. Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. iii.
THE POLE-STAB FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO.
Sir John Herschel, in his Outlines of Astronomy, thus shows
the changes in the celestial pole in 4000 years :
At the date of the erection of the Pyramid of Gizeh, which precedes
the present epoch by nearly 4000 years, the longitudes of all the stars
Curiosities of Science. 77
were less by 55 45' than at present. Calculating from this datum
the place of the pole of the heavens among the stars, it will be found
to fall near a Draconis ; its distance from that star being 3 44' 25".
This being the roost conspicuous star in the immediate neighbourhood,
was therefore the Pole Star of that epoch. The latitude of Gizeh being
just 30 north, and consequently the altitude of the North Pole there
also 30, it follows that the star in question must have had at its
lowest culmination at Gizeh an altitude of 25 15' 35". Now it is a
remarkable fact, that of the nine pyramids still existing at Gizeh, six
(including all the largest) have the narrow passages by which alone they
can be entered (all which open out on the northern faces of their re-
spective pyramids) inclined to the horizon downwards at angles the
mean of which is 26 47'. At the bottom of every one of these passages,
therefore, the Pole Star must have been visible at its lower culmination ;
a circumstance which can hardly be supposed to have been uninten-
tional, and was doubtless connected (perhaps superstitiously) with the
astronomical observations of that star, of whose proximity to the pole
at the epoch of the erection of these wonderful structures we are thus
furnished with a monumental record of the most imperishable nature.
THE PLEIADES.
The Pleiades prove that, several thousand years ago even
as now, stars of the seventh magnitude were invisible to the
naked eye of average visual power. The group consists of
seven stars, of which six only, of the third, fourth, and fifth
magnitudes, could be readily distinguished. Of these Ovid
says (Fast. iv. 170) :
" Quae septem dici, sex tamen esse solent."
Aratus states there were only six stars visible in the Pleiades.
One of the daughters of Atlas, Merope, the only one who
was wedded to a mortal, was said to have veiled herself for
very shame and to have disappeared. This is probably the
star of the seventh magnitude, which we call Celaene ; for Hip-
parchus, in. his commentary on Aratus, observes that on clear
moonless nights seven stars may actually be seen.
The Pleiades were doubtless known to the rudest nations
from the earliest times ; they are also called the mariner's stars.
The name is from TrAeiv (plein), ' to sail.' The navigation of
the Mediterranean lasted from May to the beginning of Novem-
ber, from the early rising to the early setting of the Pleiades.
In how many beautiful effusions of poetry and sentiment has
" the Lost Pleiad" been deplored ! and, to descend to more fa-
miliar illustration of this group, the " Seven Stars," the sailors'
favourites, and a frequent river-side public-house sign, may be
traced to the Pleiades.
CHANGE OF COLOUR IN THE STARS.
The scintillation or twinkling of the stars is accompanied
by variations of colour, which have been remarked from a very
early age. M. Arago states, upon the authority of M. Babinet,
78 Things not generally Known.
that the name of Barakesch, given by the Arabians to Sirius,
signifies th star of a thousand colours ; and Tycho Brahe, Kep-
ler, and others, attest to similar change of colour in twinkling.
Even soon after the invention of the telescope, Simon Marius
remarked that by removing the eye-piece of the telescope the
images of the stars exhibited rapid fluctuations of bright-
ness and colour. In 1814 Nicholson applied to the telescope
a smart vibration, which caused the image of the star to be
transformed into a curved line of light returning into itself,
and diversified by several colours ; each colour occupied about
a third of the whole length of the curve, and by applying ten
vibrations in a second, the light of Sirius in that time passed
through thirty changes of colour. Hence the stars in general
shine only by a portion of their light, the effect of twinkling
being to diminish their brightness. "This phenomenon M. Arago
explains by the principle of the interference of light.
Ptolemy is said to have noted Sirius as a red star, though
it is now white. Sirius twinkles with red and blue light, and
Ptolemy's eyes, like those of several other persons, may have
been more sensitive to the red than to the blue rays. Sir David
Brewster's More Worlds than One, p. 235.
Some of the double stars are of very different and dissimilar
colours ; and to the revolving planetary bodies which apparently
circulate around them, a day lightened by a red light is suc-
ceeded by, not a night, but a day equally brilliant, though illu-
minated only by a green light.
DISTANCE OF THE NEAREST FIXED STAE FROM THE EARTH.
Sir John Herschel wrote in 1833 : " What is the distance
of the nearest fixed star? What is the scale on which our
visible firmament is constructed ? And what proportion do its
dimensions bear to those of our own immediate system ? To this,
however, astronomy has hitherto proved unable to supply an
answer. All we know on this subject is negative." To these
questions, however, an answer can now be given. Slight
changes of position of some of the stars, called parallax, have
been distinctly observed and measured ; and among these stars
No. 61 Cygni of Flamstead's catalogue has a parallax of 5", and
that of a Centauri has a proper motion of 4" per annum.
The same astronomer states that each second of parallax in-
dicates a distance of 20 billions of miles, or 3J years' journey of
light. Now the light sent to us by the sun, as compared with
that sent by Sirius and a Centauri, is a,bout 22 thousand mil-
lions to 1. " Hence, from the parallax assigned above to that
star, it is easy to conclude that its intrinsic splendour, as com-
pared with that of our sun at equal distances, is 2*3247, that
of the sun being unity. The light of Sirius is four times that
Curiosities of Science. 79
of a Centauri, and its parallax only 0'15". This, in effect, as-
cribes to it an intrinsic splendour equal to 96'63 times that of
a Centauri, and therefore 224' 7 times that of our sun."
This is justly regarded as one of the most brilliant triumphs
of astronomical science, for the delicacy of the investigation is
almost inconceivable ; yet the reasoning is as unimpeachable
as the demonstration of a theorem of Euclid.
LIGHT OF A STAE SIXTEENFOLD THAT OF THE SUN.
The bright star in the constellation of the Lyre, termed
Vega, is the brightest in the northern hemisphere ; and the com-
bined researches of Struve, father and son, have found that
the distance of this star from the earth is no less than 130 bil-
lions of miles ! Light travelling at the rate of 192 thousand
miles in a second consequently occupies twenty-one years in
passing from this star to the earth. Now it has been found,
by comparing the light of Vega with the light of the sun, that
if the latter were removed to the distance of 130 billions of
miles, his apparent brightness would not amount to more than
the sixteenth part of the apparent brightness of Vega. We
are therefore warranted in concluding that the light of Vega
is equal to that of sixteen suns.
DIVERSITIES OF THE PLANETS.
In illustration of the great diversity of the physical peculi-
arities and probable condition of the planets, Sir John Herschel
describes the intensity of solar radiation as nearly seven times
greater on Mercury than on the earth, and on Uranus 330 times
less ; the proportion between the two extremes being that of
upwards of 2000 to 1. Let any one figure to himself, (adds
Sir John,) the condition of our globe were the sun to be sep-
tupled, to say nothing of the greater ratio ; or were it dimi-
nished to a seventh, or to a 300th of its actual power !
Again, the intensity of gravity, or its efficacy in counter-
acting muscular power and repressing animal activity, on Ju-
piter is nearly two-and-a-half times that on the earth ; on
Mars not more than one-half; on the moon one-sixth; and on
the smaller planets probably not more than one-twentieth ;
giving a scale of which the extremes are in the proportion of
sixty to one. Lastly, the density of Saturn hardly exceeds one-
eighth of the mean density of the earth, so that it must consist
of materials not much heavier than cork.
Jupiter is eleven times, Saturn ten times, Uranus five times, and
Neptune nearly six times, the diameter of our earth.
These four bodies revolve in space at such distances from the sun,
that if it were possible to start thence for each in succession, and to travel
at the railway speed of 33 miles per hour, the traveller would reach
80 Things not generally Known.
Jupiter in . . 1712 years
Saturn .... 3113
Uranus . . . 6226 ,,
Neptune . . . 9685
If, thei'efore, a person had commenced his journey at the period of the
Christian era, he would now have to travel nearly 1300 years before he
would arrive at the planet Saturn ; more than 4300 years before he
would reach Uranus ; and no less than 7800 years before he could reach
the orbit of Neptune.
Yet the light which comes to us from these remote confines of the
solar system first issued from the sun, and is then reflected from the
surface of the planet. When the telescope is turned towards Neptune,
the observer's eye sees the object by means of light that issued from
the sun eight hours before, and which since then has passed nearly
twice through that vast space which railway speed would require al-
most a century of centuries to accomplish. Bouvier's Familiar Agtro-
GEAND RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF JUPITER'S
SATELLITES. '
This discovery, one of the first fruits of the invention of the
telescope, and of Galileo's early and happy idea of directing its
newly-found powers to the examination of the heavens, forms
one of the most memorable epochs in the history of astronomy.
The first astronomical solution of the great problem of the
longitude, practically the most important for the interests of
mankind which has ever been brought under the dominion of
strict scientific principles, dates immediately from this disco-
very. The final and conclusive establishment of the Coperni-
can system of astronomy may also be considered as referable
to the discovery and study of this exquisite miniature system,
in which the laws of the planetary motions, as ascertained by
Kepler, and specially that which connects their periods and
distances, were specially traced, and found to be satisfactorily
maintained. And (as if to accumulate historical interest on
this point) it is to the observation of the eclipses of Jupiter's
satellites that we owe the grand discovery of the aberration of
light, and the consequent determination of the enormous velo-
city of that wonderful element 192,000 miles per second. Mr.
Dawes, in 1849, first noticed the existence of round, well-de-
fined, bright spots on the belts of Jupiter. They vary in situa-
tion and number, as many as ten having been seen on one
occasion. As the belts of Jupiter have been ascribed to tho
existence of currents analogous to our trade-winds, causing tho
body of Jupiter to be visible through his cloudy atmosphere, Sir
John Herschel conjectures that those bright spots may possibly
be insulated masses of clouds of local origin, similar to the
cumuli which sometimes cap ascending columns of vapour in
our atmosphere.
It would require nearly 1300 globes of the size of our earth
Curiosities of Science. 81
to make one of the bulk of Jupiter. A railway-engine travel-
ling at the rate of thirty- three miles an hour would travel
round the earth in a month, but would require more than
eleven months to perform a journey round Jupiter.
WAS SATURN'S RING KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS ?
In Maurice's Indian Antiquities is an engraving of Sani,
the Saturn of the Hindoos, taken from an image in a very an-
cient pagoda, which represents the deity encompassed by a ring
formed of two serpents. Hence it is inferred that the ancients
were acquainted with the existence of the ring of Saturn.
Arago mentions the remarkable fact of the ring and fourth
satellite of Saturn having been seen by Sir W. Herschel with
his smaller telescope by the naked eye, without any eye- piece.
The first or innermost of Saturn's satellites is nearer to the
central body than any other of the secondary planets. Its dis-
tance from the centre of Saturn is 80,088 miles ; from the sur-
face of the planet 47,480 miles ; and from the outmost edge of
the ring only 4916 miles. The traveller may form to himself
an estimate of the smallness of this amount by remembering
the statement of the well-known navigator, Captain Beechey,
that he had in three years passed over 72,800 miles.
According to very recent observations, Saturn's ring is di-
vided into three separate rings, which, from the calculations
of Mr. Bond, an American astronomer, must be fluid. He is
of opinion that the number of rings is continually changing,
and that their maximum number, in the normal condition of
the mass, does not exceed twenty. Mr. Bond likewise maintains
that the power which sustains the centre of gravity of the ring
is not in the planet itself, but in its satellites ; and the satellites,
though constantly disturbing the ring, actually sustain it in the
very act of perturbation. M. Otto Struve and Mr. Bond have
lately studied with the great Munich telescope, at the observa-
tory of Pulkowa, the third ring of Saturn, which Mr. Lassell and
Mr. Bond discovered to \& fluid. They saw distinctly the dark
interval between this fluid ring and the two old ones, and even
measured its dimensions ; and they perceived at its inner mar-
gin an edge feebly illuminated, which they thought might bo
the commencement of a fourth ring. These astronomers are of
opinion, that the fluid ring is not of very recent formation, and
that it is not subject to rapid change; and they have come to
the extraordinary conclusion, that the inner border of the ring
has, since the time of Huygens, been gradually approaching to
the body of Saturn, and that we may expect, sooner or later,
perhaps in sortie dozen of years, to see the rings united with the
body of the planet. But this theory is by other observers pro-
nounced untenable.
82 Things not generally Known.
TEMPERATURE OF THE PLANET MERCURY.
Mercury being so much nearer to the Sun than the Earth,
he receives, it is supposed, seven times more heat than the
earth. Mrs. Somerville says: "On Mercury, the mean heat
arising from the intensity of the sun's rays must be above that
of boiling quicksilver, and water would boil even at the poles."
But he may be provided with an atmosphere so constituted as
to absorb or reflect a great portion of the superabundant heat ;
so that his inhabitants (if he have any) may enjoy a climate as
temperate as any on our globe.
SPECULATIONS ON VESTA AND PALLAS.
The most remarkable peculiarities of these ultra-zodiacal
planets, according to Sir John Herschel, must lie in tin's condi-
tion of their state : a man place i on one of them would spring
with ease sixty feet high, and sustain no greater shock in his
descent than he does on the earth from leaping a yard. On
such planets, giants might exist ; and those enormous animals
which on the earth require the buoyant power of water to coun-
teract their weight, might there be denizens of the land. But
of such speculations there is no end.
IS THE PLANET MARS INHABITED ?
The opponents of the doctrine of the Plurality of Worlds
allow that a greater probability exists of Mars being inhabited
than in the case of any other planet. His diameter is 4100
miles ; and his surface exhibits spots of different hues, the
seas, according to Sir John Herschel, being green, and the laud
red. " The variety in the spots," says this astronomer, " may
arise from the planet not being destitute of atmosphere and
cloud ; and what adds greatly to the probability of this, is the
appearance of brilliant white spots at its poles, which have
been conjectured, with some probability, to be snow, as they
disappear when they have been long exposed to the sun, and are
greatest when emerging from the long night of their polar
winter, the snow-line then extending to about six degrees from
the pole." " The length of the day," says Sir David Brew-
ster, " is almost exactly twenty-four hours, the same as that
of the earth. Continents and oceans and green savannahs
have been observed upon Mars, and the snow of his polar re-
gions has been seen to disappear with the heat of summer. "
We actually see the clouds floating in the atmosphei-e of Mars,
and there is the appearance of land and water on his disc.
In a sketch of this planet, as seen in the pure atmosphere of
Calcutta by Mr. Grant, it appears, to use his words, " actually
Curiosities of Science. 83
as a little world," and as the earth would appear at a distance,
with its seas and continents of different shades. As the dia-
meter of Mars is only about one half that of our earth, the
weight of bodies will be about one half what it would be if they
were placed upon our globe.
DISCOVERY OF THE PLANET NEPTUNE.
This noble discovery marked in a signal manner the matu-
rity of astronomical science. The proof, or at least the urgent
presumption, of the existence of such a planet, as a means
of accounting (by its attraction) for certain small irregularities
observed in the motions of Uranus, was afforded almost simul-
taneously by the independent researches of two geometers,
Mr. Adams of Cambridge, and M. Leverrier of Paris, who were
enabled from theory alone to calculate whereabouts it ought
to appear in the heavens, if visible, the places thus indepen-
dently calculated agreeing surprisingly. Within a single de-
gree of the place assigned by M. Leverrier's calculations, and
by him communicated to Dr. Galle of the Royal Observatory
at Berlin, it was actually found by that astronomer on the very
first night after the receipt of that communication, on turning
a telescope on the spot, and comparing the stars in its imme-
diate neighbourhood with those previously laid down in one of
the zodiacal charts. This remarkable verification of an indica-
tion so extraordinary took place on the 23d of September 1846.*
Sir John Herschels Outlines.
Neptune revolves round the sun in about 172 years, at a
mean distance of thirty, that of Uranus being nineteen, and
that of the earth one : and by its discovery the solar system
has been extended one thousand millions of miles beyond its
former limit.
Neptune is suspected to have a ring, but the suspicion has
not been confirmed. It has been demonstrated by the obser-
vations of Mr. Lassell, M. Otto Struve, and Mr. Bond, to be
attended by at least one satellite.
One of the most curious facts brought to light by the dis-
covery of Neptune, is the failure of Bode's law to give an ap-
proximation to its distance from the sun ; a striking exempli-
fication of the danger of trusting to the universal applicability
of an empirical law. After standing the severe test which led
* Professor Challis, of the Cambridge Observatory, directing the Northum-
berland telescope of that, institution to the place assigned by Mr. Adams's calcu-
lations and its vicinity on the 4th and 12 th of August 1846, saw the planet on
both those days, and noted its place (among those of other stars) for re-observa-
tion. He, however, postponed the comparison of the places observed, and not
possessing Dr. Bremiker's chart (which would at once have indicated the pre-
sence of an unmapped star), remained in ignorance of the planet's existence as a
visible object till the announcement of such by Dr. Galle.
84- Things not generally Known.
to the discovery of the asteroids, it seemed almost contrary to
the laws of probability that the discovery of another member
of the planetary system should prove its failure as an univer-
sal rule.
MAGNITUDE OF COMETS.
Although Comets have a smaller mass than any other cos-
mical bodies being, according to our present knowledge, pro-
bably not equal to 3o ' 00 th part of the earth's mass yet they
occupy the largest space, as their tails in several instances ex-
tend over many millions of miles. The cone of luminous va-
pour which radiates from them has been found in some cases
(as in 1680 and 1811) equal to the length of the earth's distance
from the sun, forming a line that intersects both the orbits of
Venus and Mercury. It is even probable that the vapour of
the tails of comets mingled with our atmosphere in the years
1819 and 1823. Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. i.
COMETS VISIBLE IN SUNSHINE THE GREAT COMET OF 1843.
The phenomenon of the tail of a Comet being visible in
bright Sunshine, which is recorded of the comet of 1402, oc-
curred again in the case of the large comet of 1843, whose
nucleus and tail were seen in North America on February 28th
(according to the testimony of J. G. Clarke, of Portland, State
of Maine), between one and three o'clock in the afternoon.
The distance of the very dense nucleus from the sun's light
admitted of being measured with much exactness. The nu-
cleus and tail (a darker space intervening) appeared like a very
pure white cloud. American Journal of Science, vol. xiv.
E. C. Otte, the translator of Bonn's edition of Humboldt's
Cosmos, at New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S., Feb. 28th, 1843,
distinctly saw the above comet between one and two in the
afternoon. The sky at the time was intensely blue, and the
sun shining with a dazzling brightness unknown in European
climates.
This very remarkable Comet, seen in England on the 17th
of March 1843, had a nucleus with the appearance of a planetary
disc, and the brightness of a star of the first or second magni-
tude. It had a double tail divided by a dark line. At the
Cape of Good Hope it was seen in full daylight, and in the im-
mediate vicinity of the sea ; but the most remarkable fact in
its history was its near approach to the sun, its distance from
his surface being only one- fourteenth of his diameter. The heat
to which it was exposed, therefore, was much greater than that
which Sir Isaac Newton ascribed to the comet of 1680, namely
200 times that of red-hot iron. Sir John Herschel has com-
puted that it must have been 24 times greater than that which
Curiosities of Science. 85
was produced in the focus of Parker's burning lens, 32 inches
in diameter, which inelts crystals of quartz and agate.*
THE MILKY WAY UNFATHOMABLE.
M. Struve of Pulkowa has compared Sir William Herschel's
opinion on this subject, as maintained in 1785, with that to
which he was subsequently led ; and arrives at the conclusion
that, according to Sir W. Herschel himself, the visible extent
of the Milky Way increases with the penetrating power of the
telescopes employed ; that it is impossible to discover by his
instruments the termination of the Milky Way (as an inde-
pendent cluster of stars) ; and that even his gigantic telescope
of forty feet focal length does not enable him to extend our
knowledge of the Milky Way, which is incapable of being
sounded. Sir William Herschel's Theory of the Milky Way was
as follows : He considered our solar system, and all the stars
which we can see with the eye, as placed within, and consti-
tuting a part of, the nebula of the Milky Way, a congeries of
many millions of stars, so that the projection of these stars
must form a luminous track on the concavity of the sky ; and
by estimating or counting the number of stars in different di-
rections, he was able to form a rude judgment of the probable
form of the nebula, and of the probable position of the solar
system within it.
This remarkable belt has maintained from the earliest ages
the same relative situation among the stars ; and, when exa-
mined through powerful telescopes, is found (wonderful to
relate !) to consist entirely of stars scattered by millions, like
glittering dust, on the black ground of the general heavens.
DISTANCES OF NEBULA.
These are truly astounding. Sir William Herschel esti-
mated the distance of the annular nebula between Beta and
Gamma Lyrse to be from our system 950 times that of Sirius ;
and a globular cluster about 5g south-east of Beta Sir William
computed to be one thousand three hundred billions of miles
from our system. Again, in Scutum Sobieski is one nebula in
the shape of a horseshoe ; but which, when viewed with high
magnifying power, presents a different appearance. Sir William
Herschel estimated this nebula to be 900 times farther from us
than Sirius. In some parts of its vicinity he observed 588
stars in his telescope at one time ; and he counted 258,000 in
a space 10 long and 2 wide. There is a globular cluster
between the mouths of Pegasus and Equuleus, which Sir Wil-
* For several interesting details of Comets, see " Destruction of the World
by a Comet," in Popular Errors Explained and Illustrated, new edit. pp. 165-168.
86 Things not generally Known.
Ham Herschel estimated to be 243 times farther from us than
Sirius. Caroline Herschel discovered in the right foot of An-
dromeda a nebula of enormous dimensions, placed at an incon-
ceivable distance from us : it consists probably of myriads of
solar systems, which, taken together, are but a point in the
universe. The nebula about 10 west of the principal star in
Triangulum is supposed by Sir William Herschel to be 344
times the distance of Sirius from the earth, which would be the
immense sum of nearly seventeen thousand billions of miles
from our planet.
INFINITE SPACE.
After the straining mind has exhausted all its resources in
attempting to fathom the distance of the smallest telescopic
star, or the faintest nebula, it has reached only the visible con-
fines of the sidereal creation. The universe of stars is but an
atom in the universe of space ; above it, and beneath it, and
around it, there is still infinity.
ORIGIN OF OUR PLANETARY SYSTEM. THE NEBULAR
HYPOTHESIS.*
The commencement of our Planetary System, including the
sun, must, according to Kant and Laplace, be regarded as an
immense nebulous mass filling the portion of space which is
now occupied by our system far beyond the limits of Neptune,
our most distant planet. Even now we perhaps see similar
masses in the distant regions of the firmament, as patches of
nebulae, and nebulous stars ; within our system also, comets,
the zodiacal light, the corona of the sun during a total eclipse,
exhibit resemblances of a nebulous substance, which is so thin
that the light of the stars passes through it unenfeebled and
unref meted. If we calculate the density of the mass of our
planetary system, according to the above assumption, for the
time when it was a nebulous sphere which reached to the path
of the outmost planet, we should find that it would require
several cubic miles of such matter to weigh a single grain.
Professor Helmholtz.
A quarter of a century ago, Sir John Herschel expressed his
opinion that those nebulae which were not resolved into indivi-
dual stars by the highest powers then used, might be hereafter
completely resolved by a further increase of optical power :
* The letters of Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Bentley, containing suggestions for
the Boyle Lectures, po-sess a peculiar interest in the present day. " They show"
(says Sir Pavid Brewster) "that the nebulnr hypothesis, the dull and dangerous
heresy of the age, is incompatible with the established laws of the material uni-
verse, and that an omnipotent arm was required to give the planets their posi-
tions and motions in spare, and a presiding intelligence to assign to them the
different functions they had to perform." Life of Newton, vol. ii.
Curiosities of Science. 87
In fact, this probability has almost been converted into a certainty
by the magnificent reflecting telescope constructed by Lord Rosse, of
6 feet in aperture, which has resolved, or rendered resolvable, multitudes
of nebulae which had resisted all inferior powers. The sublimity of the
spectacle afforded by that instrument of some of the larger globular and
other clusters is declared by all who have witnessed it to be such as no
words can express.*
Although, therefore, nebulae do exist, which even in this powerful
telescope appear as nebulae, without any sign of resolution, it may very
reasonably be doubted whether there be really any essential physical
distinction between nebulae and clusters of stars, at least in the nature of
the matter of which they consist ; and whether the distinction between
such nebulae as are easily resolved, barely resolvable with excellent tele-
scopes, and altogether irresolvable with the best, be any thing else than
one of degree, arising merely from the excessive minuteness and multi-
tude of the stars of which the latter, as compared with the former, con-
sist. Outlines of Astronomy, 5th edit. 1858.
It should be added, that Sir John Herschel considers the
" nebular hypothesis" and the above theory of sidereal aggre-
gation to stand quite independent of each other.
ORIGIN OF HEAT IN OUR SYSTEM.
Professor Helmholtz, assuming that at the commencement
the density of the nebulous matter was a vanishing quantity,
as compared with the present density of the sun and planets,
calculates how much work has been performed by the conden-
sation ; how much of this work still exists in the form of me-
chanical force, as attraction of the planets towards the sun, and
as vis viva of their motion ; and finds by this how much of the
force has been converted into heat.
The result of this calculation is, that only about the 45th part of
the original mechanical force remains as such, and that the remainder,
converted into heat, would be sufficient to raise a mass of water equal to
the sun and planets taken together, not less than 28,000,000 of degrees
of the centigrade scale. For the sake of comparison, Professor Helm-
holtz mentions that the highest tempernture which we can produce by
the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, which is sufficient to vaporise even platina,
and which but few bodies can endure, is estimated at about 2000 degrees.
Of the action of a temperature of 28,000.000 of such degrees we can
form no notion. If the mass of our entire system were of pure coal,
by the combustion of the whole of it only the 350th part of the above
quantity would be generated.
The store of foixfe at present possessed by our system is equivalent
to immense quantities of heat. If our earth were by a sudden shock
brought to rest in her orbit which is not to be feared in the existing
arrangement of our system by such a shock a quantity of heat would
be generated equal to that produced by the combustion of fourteen such
earths of solid coal. Making the most unfavourable assumption as to
its capacity for heat, that is, placing it equal to that of water, the mass
* The constitution of the nebulae in the constellation of Orion has been re-
solved by this instrument; and by its aid the stars of which it is composed
burst upon the sight of man for the first time.
88 Things not generally Known.
of the earth would thereby be heated ll^OO 3 ; it would therefore be quite
fused, and for the most part reduced to vapour. Tf, then, the earth,
after having been thus brought to rest, should fall into the sun, which
of course would be the case, the quantity of heat developed by the shock
would be 400 times greater.
AN ASTRONOMER'S DREAM VERIFIED.
The most fertile region in astronomical discovery during
the last quarter of a century has been the planetary members
of the solar system. In 1833, Sir John Herschel enumerated ten
planets as visible from the earth, either by the unaided eye or
by the telescope ; the number is now increased more than five-
fold. With the exception of Neptune, the discovery of new
planets is confined to the class called Asteroids. These all
revolve in eliptic orbits between those of Jupiter and Mars.
Zitius of Wittemberg discovered an empirical law, which
seemed to govern the distances of the planets from the sun ;
but there was a remarkable interruption in the law, according
to which a planet ought to have been placed between Mars and
Jupiter. Professor Bode of Berlin directed the attention of
astronomers to the possibility of such a planet existing ; and
in seven years' observations from the commencement of the
present century, not one but four planets were found, differing
widely from one another in the elements of their orbits, but
agreeing very nearly at their mean distances from the sun with
that of the supposed planet. This curious coincidence of the
mean distances of these four asteroids with the planet accord-
ing to Bode's law, as it is generally called, led to the conjecture
that these four planets were but fragments of the missing
planet, blown to atoms by some internal explosion, and that
many more fragments might exist, and be possibly discovered
by diligent search.
Concerning this apparently wild hypothesis, Sir John Her-
schel offered the following remarkable apology : " This may
serve as a specimen of the dreams in which astronomers, like
other speculators, occasionally and harmlessly indulge."
The dream, wild as it appeared, has been realised now. Sir
John, in the fifth edition of his Outlines of Astronomy , published
in 1858, tells us:
Whatever may be thought of such a speculation as a physical hypo-
thesis, this conclusion has been verified to a considerable extent as a
matter of fact by subsequent discovery, the I'esult of a careful and mi-
nute examination and mapping down of the smaller stars in and near
the zodiac, undertaken with that express object. Zodiacal charts of this
kind, the product of the zeal and Industry of many astronomers, have
been constructed, in which every star down to the ninth, tenth, or even
lower magnitudes, is inserted ; and these stars being compared with the
actual stars of the heavens, the intrusion of any stranger within their
limits cannot fail to be noticed when the comparison is systematically
Curiosities of Science. 89
conducted. The discovery of Astraea and Hebe by Professor Hencke,
in 1845 and 1847, revived the flagging spirit of inquiry in this direction ;
with what success, the list of fifty-two asteroids, with their names and
the dates of their discovery, will best show. The labours of our indefa-
tigable countryman, Mr. Hind, have been rewarded by the discovery of
no less than eight of them.
FIRE-BALLS AND SHOOTING STARS.
Humboldt relates, that a friend at Popayan, at an elevation
of 5583 feet above the sea-level, at noon, when the sun was
shining brightly in a cloudless sky, saw his room lighted up by
a fire-ball : he had his back towards the window at the time,
and on turning round, perceived that great part of the path
traversed by the fire-ball was still illuminated by the brightest
radiance. The Germans call these phenomena star-snuff, from
the vulgar notion that the lights in the firmament undergo a
process of snuffing, or cleaning. Other nations call it a shot or
fall of stars, and the English star-shoot. Certain tribes of the
Orinoco term the pearly drops of dew which cover the beautiful
leaves of the heliconia star-spit. In the Lithuanian mythology,
the nature and signification of falling stars are embodied under
nobler and more graceful symbols. The Parca3, Werpeja, weave
in heaven for the new-born child its thread of fate, attaching
each separate thread to a star. When death approaches the
person, the thread is rent, and the star wanes and sinks to the
earth. Jacob Grimm.
THEORY AND EXPERIENCE.
In the perpetual vicissitude of theoretical views, says the
author of Giordano Bruno , "most men see nothing in philo-
sophy but a succession of passing meteors; whilst even the
grander forms in which she has revealed herself share the fate
of comets, - bodies that do not rank in popular opinion amongst
the external and permanent works of nature, but are regarded
as mere fugitive apparitions of igneous vapour."
METEORITES FROM THE MOON.
The hypothesis of the selenic origin of meteoric stones de-
pends upon a number of conditions, the accidental coincidence
of which could alone convert a possible to an actual fact. The
view of the original existence of small planetary masses in space
is simpler, and at the same time more analogous with those
entertained concerning the formation of other portions of the
solar system.
Diogenes Laertius thought aerolites came from the sun ; but Pliny
derides this theory. The fall of aerolites in bright sunshine, and when
the moon's disc was invisible, probably led to the idea of sun-stones.
Moreover Anaxagoras regarded the sun as " a molten fiery mass ;" and
90 Things not generally Known.
Euripides, in Phaeton, terms the sun "a golden mass," that is to say,
a fire-coloured, brightly-shining matter, but not leading to the infer-
ence that aerolites are golden sun-stones. The Greek philosophers had
four hypotheses as to their origin : telluric, from ascending exhalations;
masses of stone raised by hurricanes ; a solar origin ; and lastly, an
origin in the regions of space, a* heavenly bodies which had long re-
mained invisible: the last opinion entirely according with that of the
present day.
Chladni states that an Italian physicist, Paolo Maria Terzago, on
the occasion of the fail of an aerolite at Milan, in 1660, by which a Fran-
ciscan monk was killed, was the first who surmised that aerolites were
ofselenic origin. Without any previous knowledge of this conjecture,
Olbers was led, in 1795 (after the celebrated fall at Siena, June 16th,
1794), to investigate the amount of the initial tangential force that
would be required to bring to the earth masses projected from the
moon. Olbers, Brandes, and Chaldni thought that "the velocity of 16
to 32 miles, with which fire-balls and shooting-stars entered our atmo-
sphere," furnished a refutation to the view of their seleiiic origin. Ac-
cording to Olbers, it would require to reach the earth, setting aside the
resistance of the air. an initial velocity of 8292 feet in the second ; ac-
cording to Laplace, 7862 ; to Biot, 8282 ; and to Poisson, 7595. Laplace
states that this velocity is only five or six times as great as that of a
cannon-ball ; but Olbers has shown that " with such an initial velocity
as 7500 or 8000 feet in a second, meteoric stones would arrive at the
surface of our earth with a velocity of only 35,000 feet." But the mea-
sured velocity of meteoric stones averages upwards of 114, 000 feet to a
second ; consequently the original velocity of projection from the moon
must be almost 110,000 feet, and therefore 14 times greater than Laplace
asserted. It must, however, be recollected, that the opinion then so pre-
valent, of the existence of active volcanoes in the moon, where air and
water are absent, has since been abandoned.
Laplace elsewhere states, that in all probability aerolites " come
from the depths of space ;" yet he in another passage inclines to the hy-
pothesis of their lunar origin, always, however, assuming that the stones
projected from the moon "become satellites of our earth, describing
around it more or less eccentric orbits, and thus not reaching its atmo-
sphere until several or even many revolutions have been accomplished."
In Syria there is a popular belief that aerolites chiefly fall on clear
moonlight nights. The ancients (Pliny tells us) looked for their fall
during lunar eclipses. Abridged from HumboldCs Cosmos, vol. i. (Bonn's
edition).
Dr. Laurence Smith, U.S., accepts the "lunar theory," and
considers meteorites to be masses thrown off from the moon,
the attractive power of which is but one-sixth that of the earth;
so that bodies thrown from the surface of the mocn experience
but one sixth the retarding force they would have when thrown
from the earth's surface.
Look again (says Dr. Smith) at the constitution of the meteorite,
made up principally of pure iron. It came evidently from some place
where there is little or no oxygen. Now the moon has no atmosphere,
and no water on its surface. There is no oxygen there. Hurled from
the moon, these bodies, these masses of almost pure iron, would
flame in the sun like polished steel, and on reaching our atmosphere
would burn in its oxygen until a black oxide cooled it ; and this we find
Curiosities of Science. 91
to be the case with all meteorites, the black colour is only an external
covering.
Sir Humphry Davy, from facts contained in his researches
on flame, in 1817, conceives that the light of meteors depends,
not upon the ignition of inflammable gases, but upon that of
solid bodies ; that such is their velocity of motion, as to excite
sufficient heat for their ignition by the compression even of
rare air ; and that the phenomena of falling stars may be ex-
plained by regarding them as small incombustible bodies mov-
ing round the earth in very eccentric orbits, and becoming
ignited only when they pass with immense rapidity through
the upper regions of the atmosphere ; whilst those meteors
which throw down stony bodies are, similarly circumstanced,
combustible masses.
Masses of iron and nickel, having all the appearance of
aerolites or meteoric stones, have been discovered in Siberia,
at a depth of ten metres below the surface of the earth. From
the fact, however, that no meteoric stones are found in the
secondary and tertiary formations, it would seem to follow that
the phenomena of falling stones did not take place till the earth
assumed its present conditions.
VAST SHOWER OF METEORS.
The most magnificent Shower of Meteors that has ever been
known was that which fell during the night of November 12th,
1833, commencing at nine o'clock in the evening, and continu-
ing till the morning sun concealed the meteors from view. This
shower extended from Canada to the northern boundary of South
America, and over a tract of nearly 3000 miles in width.
IMMENSE METEORITE.
Mrs. Somerville mentions a Meteorite which passed within
twenty-five miles of our planet, and was estimated to weigh
600,000 tons, and to move with a velocity of twenty miles in a
second. Only a small fragment of this immense mass reached
the earth. Four instances are recorded of persons being killed
by their fall. A block of stone fell at Mgos Potamos, B.C. 465,
as large as two millstones; another at Narni, in 921, projected
like a rock four feet above the surface of the river, in which it
was seen to fall. The Emperor Jehangire had a sword forged
from a mass of meteoric iron, which fell in 1620 at Jahlinder
in the Punjab. Sixteen instances of the fall of stones in the
British Isles are well authenticated to have occurred since 1620,
one of them in London. It is very remarkable that no new
chemical element has been detected in any of the numerous
meteorites which have been analysed.
92 Things not generally Known.
NO FOSSIL METEORIC STONES.
It is (says Olbers) a remarkable but hitherto unregarded
fact, that while shells are found in secondary and tertiary for-
mations, no Fossil Meteoric Stones have as yet been discovered.
May we conclude from this circumstance, that previous to the
present and last modification of the earth's surface no meteoric
stones fell on it, though at the present time it appears probable,
from the researches of Schreibers, that 700 fall annually?*
THE END OF OUR SYSTEM.
While all the phenomena in the heavens indicate a law of
progressive creation, in which revolving matter is distributed
into suns and planets, there are indications in our own system
that a period has been assigned for its duration, which, sooner
or later, it must reach. The medium which nils universal
space, whether it be a luminiferous ether, or arise from the
indefinite expansion of planetary atmospheres, must retard the
bodies which move in it, even were it 360,000 millions of times
more rare than atmospheric air ; and, with its time of revo-
lution gradually shortening, the satellite must return to its
planet, the planet to its sun, and the sun to its primeval nebula.
The fate of our system, thus deduced from mechanical laws,
must be the fate of all others. Motion cannot be perpetuated
in a resisting medium ; and where there exist disturbing forces,
there must be primarily derangement, and ultimately ruin.
From the great central mass, heat may again be summoned to
exhale nebulous matter ; chemical forces may again produce
motion, and motion may again generate systems ; but, as in
the recurring catastrophes which have desolated our earth, the
great First Cause must preside at the dawn of each cosrnical
cycle ; and, as in the animal races which were successively re-
produced, new celestial creations of a nobler form of beauty
and of a higher form of permanence nitty yet appear in the
sidereal universe. " Behold, I create new heavens and a new
earth, and the former shall not be remembered." "The new
heavens and the new earth shall remain before me." "Let us
look, then, according to this promise, for the new heavens and
the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." North-British
Review, No. 3.
BENEFITS OF GLASS TO MAN.
Cuvier eloquently says : " It could not be expected that
those Phoenician sailors who saw the sand of the shores of
Bactica transformed by fire into a transparent Glass, should have
at once foreseen that this new substance would prolong the
* Several specimens of Meteoric Iron are to be seen in the Mineral ogical
Collection in the British Museum.
Curiosities of Science. 93
pleasures of sight to the old ; that it would one day assist the
astronomer in penetrating the depths of the heavens, and in
numbering the stars of the Milky Way ; that it would lay open
to the naturalist a miniature world, as populous, as rich in
wonders as that which alone seemed to have been granted to
his senses and his contemplation : in fine, that the most simple
and direct use of it would enable the inhabitants of the coast
of the Baltic Sea to build palaces more magnificent than those
of Tyre and Memphis, and to cultivate, almost under the polar
circle, the most delicious fruit of the torrid zone."
THE GALILEAN TELESCOPE.
Galileo appears to be justly entitled to the honour of hav-
ing invented that form of Telescope which still bears his name ;
while we must accord to John Lippershey, the spectacle-maker
of Middleburg, the honour of having previously invented the
astronomical telescope. The interest excited at Venice by
Galileo's invention amounted almost to frenzy. On ascending
the tower of St. Mark, that he might use one of his telescopes
without molestation, Galileo was recognised by a crowd in the
street, who took possession of the wondrous tube, and detained
the impatient philosopher for several hours, till they had suc-
cessively witnessed its effects. These instruments were soon
manufactured in great numbers ; but were purchased merely as
philosophical toys, and were carried by travellers into every
corner of Europe.
WHAT GALILEO FIRST SAW WITH HIS TELESCOPE.
The moon displayed to him her mountain-ranges and her
glens, her continents and her highlands, now lying in dark-
ness, now brilliant with sunshine, and undergoing all those
variations of light and shadow which the surface of our own
globe presents to the alpine traveller or to the aeronaut. The
four satellites of Jupiter illuminating their planet, and suffer-
ing eclipses in his shadow, like our own moon ; the spots on
the sun's disc, proving his rotation round his axis in twenty-
five days ; the crescent phases of Venus, and the triple form
or the imperfectly developed ring of Saturn, were the other
discoveries in the solar system which rewarded the diligence of
Galileo. In the starry heavens, too, thousands of new worlds
were discovered by his telescope ; and the Pleiades alone, which
to the unassisted eye exhibit only seven stars, displayed to Gali-
leo no fewer than/o;t?/. North-British Review, No. 3.
The first telescope " the starry Galileo" constructed with a leaden
tube a few inches long, with a spectacle-glass, one convex and one con-
cave, at each of its extremities. It magnified three times. Telescopes
were made in London in February 1610, a year after Galileo had com-
94 Things not generally Known.
pleted his own (Rigaud, On Harriot's Papers, 1833). They were at first
called cylinders. The telescopes which Galileo constructed, and others
of which he made use for observing Jupiter's satellites, the phases of
Venus, and the solar spots, possessed the gradually-increasing powers
of magnifying four, seven, and thirty-two linear diameters ; but they
never had a higher power. Arago, in the Annuaire for 1842.
Clock-work is now applied to the equatorial telescope, so as to allow
the observer to follow the course of any star, comet, or planet he may
wish to observe continuously, without using his hands for the mechani-
cal motion of the instrument.
ANTIQUITY OF TELESCOPES.
Long tubes were certainly employed by Arabian astrono-
mers, and very probably also by the Greeks and Romans ; the
exactness of their observations being in some degree attribut-
able to their causing the object to be seen through diopters or
slits. Abul Hassan speaks very distinctly of tubes, to the ex-
tremities of which ocular and object diopters were attached ;
and instruments so constructed were used in the observatory
founded by Hulagu at Meragha. If stars be more easily dis-
covered during twilight by means of tubes, and if a star be
sooner revealed to the naked eye through a tube than without
it, the reason lies, as Arago has truly observed, in the circum-
stance that the tube conceals a great portion of the disturbing
light diffused in the atmospheric strata between the star and
the eye applied to,,the tube. In like manner, the tube pre-
vents the lateral impression of the faint light which the par-
ticles of air receive at night from all the other stars in the
firmament. The intensity of the image and the size of the
star are apparently augmented. Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. iii.
p. 53.
NEWTON'S FIRST REFLECTING TELESCOPE.
The year 1668 may be regarded as the date of the invention
of Newton's Reflecting Telescope. Five years previously, James
Gregory had described the manner of constructing a reflecting
telescope with two concave specula ; but Newton perceived the
disadvantages to be so great, that, according to his statement,
he "found it necessary, before attempting any thing in the
practice, to alter the design, and place the eye-glass at the side
of the tube rather than at the middle." On this improved
principle Newton constructed his telescope, which was exa-
mined by Charles II. ; it was presented to the Royal Society
near the end of 1671, and is carefully preserved by that distin-
guished body, with the inscription :
"THE FIRST REFLECTING TELESCOPE ; INVENTED BY SIR ISAAC NEWTON,
AND MADE WITH HIS OWN HANDS."
Sir David Brewster describes this telescope as consisting of
a concave metallic speculum, the radius of curvature of which
Curiosities of Science. 95
was 12f or 13 inches, so that " it collected the sun's rays at
the distance of 6 inches." The rays reflected by the specu-
lum were received upon a plane metallic speculum inclined 45
to the axis of the tube, so as to reflect them to the side of the
tube in which there was an aperture to receive a small tube
with a plano-convex eye-glass whose radius was one-twelfth
of an inch, by means of which the image formed by the specu-
lum was magnified 38 times. Such was the first reflecting
telescope applied to the heavens ; but Sir David Brewster de-
scribes this instrument as small and ill-made ; and fifty years
elapsed before telescopes of the Newtonian form became useful
in astronomy.
SIR WILLIAM HEESCHEL'S GREAT TELESCOPE AT SLOUGH.
The plan of this Telescope was intimated by Herschel,
through Sir Joseph Banks, to George III., who offered to de-
fray the whole expense of it ; a noble act of liberality, which
has never been imitated by any other British sovereign. Towards
the close of 1785, accordingly, Herschel began to construct his
reflecting telescope, forty feet in length, and having a speculum
fully four feet in diameter. The thickness of the speculum,
which was uniform in every part, was 3 2 inches, and its weight
nearly 2118 pounds ; the metal being composed of 32 copper,
and 1O7 of tin : it was the third speculum cast, the two pre-
vious attempts having failed. The speculum, when not in use,
was preserved from damp by a tin cover, fitted upon a rim of
close-grained cloth. The tube of the telescope was 39 ft. 4 in.
long, and its width 4 ft. 10 in. ; it was made of iron, and was
3000 Ibs. lighter than if it had been made of wood. The ob-
server was seated in a suspended movable seat at the mouth
of the tube, and viewed the image of the object with a magni-
fying lens or eye-piece. The focus of the speculum, or place
of the image, was within four inches of the lower side of the
mouth of the tube, and came forward into the air, so that there
was space for part of the head above the eye, to prevent it
from intercepting many of the rays going from the object to
the mirror. The eye-piece moved in a tube carried by a slider
directed to the centre of the speculum, and fixed on an ad-
justible foundation at the mouth of the tube. It was com-
pleted on the 27th August 1789; and the very first moment it
was directed to the heavens, a new body was added to the
solar system, namely, Saturn and six of its satellites ; and in
less than a month after, the seventh satellite of Saturn, " an
object," says Sir John Herschel, "of a far higher order of
difficulty." Abridged from the North-British Itevieu;No. 3.
This magnificent instrument stood on the lawn in the rear of Sir
William Herschel' a house at Slough ; and some of our readers, like our-
96 Things not generally Known.
selves, may remember its extraordinary aspect when seen from the
Bath coach-road, and the road to Windsor. The difficulty of managing
so large an instrument requiring as it did two assistants in addition
to the observer himself and the person employed to note the time
prevented its being much used. Sir John Herschel, in a letter to Mr.
Weld, states the entire cost of its construction, 400CM., was defrayed by
George III. In 1839, the woodwork of the telescope being decayed,
Sir John Herschel had it cleared away ; and piers were erected, on
which the tube was placed, that being of iron, and so well preserved
that, although not more than one-twentieth of an inch thick, when in
the horizontal position it contained within all Sir John's family ; and
next the two reflectors, the polishing apparatus, and portions" of the
machinery, to the amount of a great many tons. Sir John attributes
this great strength and resistance to the internal structure of the tube,
very similar to that patented under the name of corrugated iron-roping.
Sir John Herschel also thinks that system of triangular arrangement
of the woodwork was upon the principle to which " diagonal bracing"
owes its strength.
THE EARL OF ROSSE's GREAT REFLECTING TELESCOPE.
Sir David Brewster has remarked, that " the long interval
of half a century seems to be the period of hibernation during
which the telescopic mind rests from its labours in order to ac-
quire strength for some great achievement. Fifty years elapsed
between the dwarf telescope of Newton and the large instru-
ments of Hadley ; other fifty years rolled on before Sir William
Herschel constructed his magnificent telescope ; and fifty years
more passed away before the Earl of Rosse produced that colos-
sal instrument which has already achieved such brilliant disco-
veries." *
In the improvement of the Reflecting Telescope, the first
object has always been to increase the magnifying power and
light by the construction of as large a mirror as possible ; and
to this point Lord Rosse's attention was directed as early as
1828, the field of operation being at his lordship's seat, Birr
Castle at Parsonstown, about fifty miles west of Dublin. For
this high branch of scientific inquiry Lord Rosse was well fitted
by a rare combination of " talent to devise, patience to bear
disappointment, perseverance, profound mathematical know-
ledge, mechanical skill, and uninterrupted leisure from other
pursuits ;"f all these, however, would not have been sufficient,
had not a great command of money been added ; the gigantic
telescope we are about to describe having cost certainly not
less than twelve thousand pounds.
Lord Rosse ground and polished specula fifteen inches, two feet, and
three feet in diameter before he commenced the colossal instrument. It
is impossible here to detail the admirable contrivances and processes by
which he prepared himself for this great work. He first ascertained
* Life of Sir Isaac Nfwton, vol. i. p. 62.
| Description of the Monster Telescope,, by Thomas Woods. M.D. 4th edit. 1851.
Curiosities of Science. 97
the most useful combination of metals for specula, both in whiteness,
porosity, and hardness, to be copper and tin. Of this compound the re-
flector was cast in pieces, which were fixed on a bed of zinc and copper,
a species of brass which expanded in the same degree by heat as the
pieces of the speculum themselves. They were ground as one body to
a true surface, and then polished by machinery moved by a steam-
engine. The peculiarities of this mechanism were entirely Lord Rosse's
invention, and the result of close calculation and observation : they were
chiefly, placing the speculum with the face upward, regulating the tem-
perature by having it immersed in water, usually at 55 Fahr,, and re-
gulating the pressure and velocity. This was found to work a perfect
spherical figure in large surfaces with a degree of precision unattainable
by the hand ; the polisher, by working above and upon the face of the
speculum, being enabled to examine the operation as it proceeded with-
out removing the speculum, which, when a ton weight, is no easy matter.
The contrivance for doing this is very beautiful. The machine is
placed in a room at the bottom of a high tower, in the successive floors
of which trap-doors can be opened. A mast is elevated on the top of the
tower, so that its summit is about ninety feet above the speculum. A
dial-plate is attached to the top of the mast, and a small plane speculum
and eye-piece, with proper adjustments, are so placed that the combin-
ation becomes a Newtonian telescope, and the dial-plate the object.
The last and most important part of the process of working the specu-
lum, is to give it a true parabolic figure, that is, such a figure that each
portion of it should reflect the incident ray to the same focus. Lord
Eosse's operations for this purpose consist 1st, of a stroke of the first
eccentric, which carries the polisher along one-third of the diameter of
the speculum ; 2d, a transverse stroke twenty-one times slower, and
equal to 0'27 of the same diameter, measured on the edge of the tank,
or 1'7 beyond the centre of the polisher ; 3d, a rotation of the speculum
performed in the same time as thirty-seven of the first strokes ; and
4th, a rotation of the polisher in the same direction about sixteen times
slower. If these rules are attended to, the machine will give the true
parabolic figure to the speculum, whether it be six inches or three feet
in diameter In the three-feet speculum, the figure is so true with the
whole aperture, that it is thrown out of focus by a motion of less than
the thirti-.th of an inch, "and even with a single lens of one-eighth of
an inch focus, giving a power of 2592, the dots on a watch-dial are still
in some degree defined."
Thus was executed the three-feet speculum for the twenty-
six-feet telescope placed upon the lawn at Parsonstown, which,
in 1840, showed with powers up to 1000 and even 1600 ; and
which resolved nebulae into stars, and destroyed that symmetry
of form in globular nebulae upon which was founded the hypo-
thesis of the gradual condensation of nebulous matter into suns
and planets.*
Scarcely was this instrument out of Lord Rosse's hands,
when he resolved to attempt by the same processes to construct
* This instrument also discovered a multitude of new objects in the moon;
as a mountainous tract near Ptolemy, every rid^e of which is dotted with ex-
tremely minute craters, and two black parallel stripes in the bottom of Ar>star-
chus. Dr. Robinson, in his address to the British Association in 1843, stated that
in this telescope a building the size of the Court-house at Cork would be easily
visible on the lunar surface.
98 Things not qenerally Known,
y u y
another reflector, with a speculum six feet in diameter
feet long ! and this magnificent instrument was completed early
in 1845. The focal length of the speculum is fifty-four feet. It
weighs four tons, and, with its supports, is seven times as heavy
as the four-feet speculum of Sir William Herschel. The specu-
lum is placed in one of the sides of a cubical wooden box, about
eight feet wide, and to the opposite end of this box is fastened
the tube, which is made of deal staves an inch thick, hooped
with iron clamp-rings, like a huge cask. It carries at its upper
end, and in the axis of the tube, a small oval speculum, six
inches in its lesser diameter.
The tube is about 50 feet long and 8 feet in diameter in
the middle, and furnished with diaphragms 6 feet in aperture.
The late Dean of Ely walked through the tube with an umbrella
up.
The telescope is established between two lofty castellated
piers 60 feet high, and is raised to different altitudes by a
strong chain-cable attached to the top of the tube. This cable
passes over a pulley on a frame down to a windlass on the
ground, which is wrought by two assistants. To the frame are
attached chain-guys fastened to the counterweights ; and the
telescope is balanced by these counterweights suspended by
chains, which are fixed to the sides of the tube and pass over
large iron pulleys. The immense mass of matter weighs about
twelve tons.
On the eastern pier is a strong semicircle of cast-iron, with
which the telescope is connected by a racked bar, with fric-
tion-rollers attached to the tube by wheel work, so that by
means of a handle near the eye-piece, the observer can move
the telescope along the bar on either side of the meridian, to
the distance of an hour for an equatorial star.
On the western pier are stairs and galleries. The observ-
ing gallery is moved along a railway by means of wheels and a
winch ; and the mechanism for raising the galleries to various
altitudes is very ingenious. Sometimes the galleries, filled with
observers, are suspended midway between the two piers, over
a chasm sixty feet deep.
An excellent description of this immense Telescope at
Birr Castle will be found in Mr. Weld's volume of Vacation
Rambles,
Sir David Brewster thus eloquently sketches the powers of
the telescope at the close of his able description of the instru-
ment, which we have in part quoted from his Life of Sir Isaac
Newton.
We have, in the mornings, walked again and again, and ever with
new delight, along its mystic tube, and at midnight, with its distin-
guished architect, pondered over the marvellous sights which it dis-
Curiosities of Science. 99
closes, the satellites and belts and rings of Saturn, the old and new
ring, which is advancing with its crest of waters to the body of the
planet, the rocks, and mountains, and valleys, and extinct volcanoes
of the moon, the crescent of Venus, with its mountainous outline,
the systems of double and triple stars, the nebulae and starry clusters
of every variety of shape, and those spiral nebular formations which
baffle human compi-ehension, and constitute the greatest achievement
in modern discovery.
The Astronomer Royal, Mr. Airy, alludes to the impression
made by the enormous light of the telescope, partly by the
modifications produced in the appearance of nebulae already
figured, partly by the great number of stars seen at a distance
from the Milky Way, and partly from the prodigious brilliancy
of Saturn. The account given by another astronomer of the
appearance of Jupiter was that it resembled a coach-lamp in
the telescope ; and this well expresses the blaze of light which
is seen in the instrument.
The Rev. Dr. Scoresby thus records the results of his visits :
The range opened to us by the great telescope at Birr Castle is best,
perhaps, apprehended by the now usual measurement not of distances
in miles, or millions of miles, or diameters of the earth's orbit, but
of the progress of light in free space. The determination within, no
doubt, a small proportion of error of the parallax of a considerable
number of the fixed stars yields, according to Mr. Peters, a space be-
twixt us and the fixed stars of the smallest magnitude, the sixth, ordi-
narily visible to the naked eye, of 130 years in the flight of light. This
information enables us, on the principles of sounding the heavens, sug-
gested by Sir W. Herschel, with the photometrical researches on the
stars of Dr. Wollaston and others, to carry the estimation of distances,
and that by no means on vague assumption, to the limits of space
opened out by the most effective telescopes. And from the guidance
thus afforded us as to the comparative power of the six feet speculum
in the penetration of space as already elucidated, we might fairly as-
sume the fact, that if any other telescope now in use could follow the
sun if removed to the remotest visible position, or till its light would
require 10,000 years to reach us, the grand instrument at Parsonstown
would follow it so far that from 20,000 to 25,000 years would be spent in
the transmission of its light to the earth. But in the cases of clusters
of stars, and of nebulae exhibiting a mere speck of misty luminosity,
from the combined light of perhaps hundreds of thousands of suns, the
penetration into space, compared with the results of ordinary vision,
must be enormous ; so that it would not be difficult to show the proba-
bility that a million of years, in flight of light, would be requisite, in
regard to the most distant, to trace the enormous interval.
GIGANTIC TELESCOPES PROPOSED.
Hooke is said to have proposed the use of Telescopes having
a length of upwards of 10,000 feet (or nearly two miles), in
order to see animals in the moon ! an extravagant expectation
which Auzout considered it necessary to refute. The Capuchin
monk Schyrle von Rheita, who was well versed in optics, had
already spoken of the speedy practicability of constructing te-
100 Things not generally Known.
lescopes that should magnify 4000 times, by means of which
the lunar mountains might be accurately laid down.
Optical instruments of such enormous focal lengths remind
us of the Arabian contrivances of measurement : quadrants with
a radius of about 190 feet, upon whose graduated limb the
image of the sun was received as in the gnomon, through a
small round aperture. Such a quadrant was erected at Sa-
marcand, probably constructed after the model of the older
sextants of Alchokandi, which were about sixty feet in height.
LATE INVENTION OF OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS.
A writer in the North-British Review, No. 50, considers it
strange that a variety of facts which must have presented
themselves to the most careless observer should not have led
to the earlier construction of Optical Instruments. The an-
cients, doubtless, must have formed metallic articles with con-
cave surfaces, in which the observer could not fail to see him-
self magnified ; and if the radius of the concavity exceeded
twelve inches, twice the focal distance of his eye, he had in
his hands an extempore reflecting telescope of the Newtonian
form, in which the concave metal was the speculum, and his
eye the eye-glass, and which would magnify and bring near him
the image of objects nearly behind him. Through the spheri-
cal drops of water suspended before his eye, an attentive ob-
server might have seen magnified, some minute body placed
accidentally in its anterior focus ; and in the eyes of fishes and
quadrupeds which he used for his food, he might have seen,
and might have extracted, the beautiful lenses which they
contain, and which he could not fail to regard as the principal
agents in the vision of the animals to which they belonged.
Curiosity might have prompted him to look through these re-
markable lenses or spheres ; and had he placed the lens of the
smallest minnow, or that of the bird, the sheep, or the ox, in
or before a circular aperture, he would have produced a micro-
scope or microscopes of excellent quality and different magni-
fying powers. No such observations seem, however, to have
been made ; and even after the invention of glass, and its con-
version into globular vessels, through which, when filled with
any fluid, objects are magnified, the microscope remained un-
discovered.
A TRIAD OF CONTEMPORARY ASTRONOMERS.
It is a remarkable fact in the history of astronomy (says
Sir David Brewster), that three of its most distinguished pro-
fessors were contemporaries. Galileo was the contemporary
of Tycho during thirty-seven years, and of Kepler during the
fifty-nine years of his life. Galileo was born seven years before
Curiosities of Science. 101
Kepler, and survived him nearly the same time. We have not
learned that the intellectual triumvirate of the age enjoyed
any opportunity for mutual congratulation. What a privilege
would it have been to have contrasted the aristocratic dignity
of Tycho with the reckless ease of Kepler, and the manly and
impetuous mien of the Italian sage ! Brewster's Life of Newton.
A PEASANT ASTRONOMER.
At about the same time that Goodricke discovered the
variation of the remarkable periodical star Algol, or ft Persei,
one Palitzch, a farmer of Prolitz, near Dresden, a peasant by
station, an astronomer by nature, from his familiar acquaint-
ance with the aspect of the heavens, was led to notice, among
so many thousand stars, Algol, as distinguished from the rest
by its variation, and ascertained its period. The same Palitzch
was also the first to re-discover the predicted comet of Halley
in 1759, which he saw nearly a month before any of the as-
tronomers, who, armed with their telescopes, were anxiously
watching its return. These anecdotes carry us back to the era
of the Chaldean shepherds. Sir John HerscheVs Outlines.
SHIRBURN-CASTLE OBSERVATORY.
Lord Macclesfield, the eminent mathematician, who was
twelve years President of the Royal Society, built at his seat,
Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, an Observatory, about 1739.
It stood 100 ya.rds south from the castle-gate, and consisted of
a bed-chamber, a room for the transit, and the third for a mural
quadrant. In the possession of the Royal Astronomical So-
ciety is a curious print representing two of Lord Macclesfield's
servants taking observations in the Shirburn observatory ; they
are Thomas Phelps, aged 82, who, from being a stable-boy to
Lord-Chancellor Macclesfield, rose by his merit and genius to
be appointed observer. His companion is John Bartlett, ori-
ginally a shepherd, in which station he, by books and observa-
tion, acquired such a knowledge in computation, and of the
heavenly bodies, as to induce Lord Macclesfield to appoint
him assistant-observer in his observatory. Phelps was the
person who, on December 23d, 1743, discovered the great
comet, and made the first observation of it; an account of
which is entered in the Philosophical Transactions, but not the
name of the observer.
LACAILLE'S OBSERVATORY.
Lacaille, who made more observations than all his contem-
poraries put together, and whose researches will have the
highest value as long as astronomy is cultivated, had an ob-
servatory at the College Mazarin, part of which is now the
Palace of the Institute, at Paris.
102 Things not generally Know?i.
For a long time it had been without observer or instruments ; under
Napoleon's reign it was demolished. Lacaille never used to illuminate
the wires of his instruments. The inner part of his observatory was
painted black ; he admitted only the faintest light, to enable him to
see his pendulum and his paper : his left eye was devoted to the service
of looking to the pendulum, whilst his right eye was kept shut. The
latter was only employed to look to the telescope, and during the time
of observation never opened but for this purpose. Thus the faintest
light made him distinguish the wires, and he very seldom felt the ne-
cessity of illuminating them. Part of these blackened walls were visible
long after the demolition of the observatory, which took place some-
what about 1811. Professor Mohl.
NICETY REQUIRED IN ASTRONOMICAL CALCULATIONS.
In the Edinburgh Review, 1850, we find the following illus-
trations of the enormous propagation of minute errors :
The rod used in measuring a base-line is commonly about ten feet
long ; and the astronomer may be said truly to apply that very rod to
mete the distance of the stars. An error in placing a tine dot which
fixes the length of the rod, amounting to one-five-thousandth of an inch
(the thickness of a single silken fibre), will amount to an error of 70
feet in the earth's diameter, of 316 miles in the sun's distance, and to
65,200,000 miles in that of the nearest fixed star. Secondly, as the
astronomer in his observatory has nothing further to do with ascertain-
ing lengths or distances, except by calculation, his whole skill and arti-
fice are exhausted in the measurement of angles ; for by these alone
spaces inaccessible can be compared. Happily, a ray of light is straight :
were it not so (in celestial spaces at least), there would be an end of
our astronomy. Now an angle of a second (3600 to a degree) is a subtle
thing. It has an apparent breadth utterly invisible to the unassisted
eye, unless accompanied with so intense a splendour (e. g. in the case of
a fixed star) as actually to raise by its effect on the nerve of sight a
spurious image having a sensible breadth. A silkworm's fibre, such as
we have mentioned above, subtends an angle of a second at 3.^ feet
distance ; a cricket-ball, 2 inches diameter, must be removed, in order
to subtend a second, to 43,000 feet, or about 8 miles, where it would
be utterly invisible to the sharpest sight aided even by a telescope of
some power. Yet it is on the measure of one single second that the
ascertainment of a sensible parallax in any fixed star depends ; and an
error of one-thousandth of that amount (a quantity still unmeasurable
by the most perfect of our instruments) would place the star too far or
too near by 200,000,000,000 miles ; a space which light requires 118 days
to travel.
CAN STARS BE SEEN BY DAYLIGHT ?
Aristotle maintains that Stars may occasionally be seen in
the Daylight, from caverns and cisterns, as through tubes.
Pliny alludes to the same circumstance, and mentions that
stars have been most distinctly recognised during solar eclipses.
Sir John Hersohel has heard it stated by a celebrated optician,
that his attention was first drawn to astronomy by the regular
appearance, at a certain hour, for several successive days, of a
considerable star through the shaft of a chimney. The chim-
ney-sweepers who have been questioned upon this subject agree
Curiosities of Science. 103
tolerably well in stating that " they have never seen stars by
day, but that when observed at night through deep shafts, the
sky appeared quite near, and the stars larger." Saussure states
that stars have been seen with the naked eye in broad day-
light, on the declivity of Mont Blanc, at an elevation of 12,757
feet, as he was assured by several of the alpine guides. The
observer must be placed entirely in the shade, and have a thick
and massive shade above his head, else the stronger light of
the air will disperse the faint image of the stars ; these condi-
tions resembling those presented by the cisterns of the ancients,
and the chimneys above referred to. Humboldt, however,
questions the accuracy of these evidences, adding that in the
Cordilleras of Mexico, Quito, and Peru, at elevations of 15,000
or 16,000 feet above the sea-level, he never could distinguish
stars by daylight. Yet, under the ethereally pure sky of Cu-
maua, in the plains near the sea-shore, Humboldt has fre-
quently been able, after observing an eclipse of Jupiter's sa-
tellites, to find the planet again with the naked eye, and has
most distinctly seen it when the sun's disc was from 18 to 20
above the horizon.
LOST HEAT OF THE SUN.
By the nature of our atmosphere, we are protected from
the influence of the full flood of solar heat. The absorption
of caloric by the air has been calculated at about one-fifth of
the whole in passing through a column of 6000 feet, estimated
near the earth's surface. And we are enabled, knowing the
increasing rarity of the upper regions of our gaseous envelope,
in which the absorption is constantly diminishing, to prove
that about one-third of the solar heat is lost by vertical trans-
mission through the whole extent of our atmosphere. J. D.
Forbes, F.R.S. ; Bakerian Lecture, 1842.
THE LONDON MONUMENT USED AS AN OBSERVATORY.
Soon after the completion of the Monument on Fish Street
Hill, by Wren, in 1677, it was used by Hooke and other mem-
bers of the Royal Society for astronomical purposes, but aban-
doned on account of the vibrations being too great for the
nicety required in their observations. Hence arose the report
that the Monument was unsafe, which has been revived in our
time ; " but," says Elmes, " its scientific construction may bid
defiance to the attacks of all but earthquakes for centuries to
come." This vibration in lofty columns is not uncommon.
Captain Smythe, in his Cycle of Celestial^ Objects, tells us, that
when taking observations on the summit of Pompey's Pillar,
near Alexandria, the mercury was sensibly affected by tremor,
although the pillar is a solid.
104 Things not generally Known.
ffieologg antr
IDENTITY OF ASTKONOMY AND GEOLOGY.
WHILE the Astronomer is studying the form and condition and
structure of the planets, in so far as the eye and the telescope
can aid him, the Geologist is investigating the form and con-
dition and structure of the planet to which he belongs ; and it
is from the analogy of the earth's structure, as thus ascertained,
that the astronomer is enabled to form any rational conjecture
respecting the nature and constitution of the other planetary bo-
dies. Astronomy and Geology, therefore, constitute the same
science the science of material or inorganic nature.
When the astronomer first surveys the concavity of the ce-
lestial vault, he finds it studded with luminous bodies differing
in magnitude and lustre, some moving to the east and others
to the west ; while by far the greater number seem fixed in
space ; and it is the business of astronomers to assign to each
of them its proper place and sphere, to determine their true
distance from the earth, and to arrange them in systems
throughout the regions of sidereal space.
In like manner, when the geologist surveys the convexity of
his own globe, he finds its solid covering composed of rocks
and beds of all shapes and kinds, lying at every possible angle,
occupying every possible position, and all of them, generally
speaking, at the same distance from the earth's centre. Every
where we see what was deep brought into visible relation with
what was superficial what is old with what is new what
preceded life with what followed it.
Thus displayed on the surface of his globe, it becomes the
business of the geologist to ascertain how these rocks came
into their present places, to determine their different ages,
and to fix the positions which they originally occupied, and
consequently their different distances from the centre or the
circumference of the earth. Raised from their original bed,
the geologist must study the internal forces by which they
were upheaved, and the agencies by which they were indurated;
and when he finds that strata of every kind, from the primitive
granite to the recent tertiary marine mud, have been thus
brought within his reach, and prepared for his analysis, he
reads their respective ages in the organic remains which they
entomb ; he studies the Banner iu which they have perished,
Curiosities of Science. 105
and he counts the cycles of time and of life which they disclose.
Abridged from the North-British Review, No. 9.
THE GEOLOGY OF ENGLAND
is more interesting than that of other countries, because our
island is in a great measure an epitome of the globe ; and the
observer who is familiar with our strata, and the fossil remains
which they include, has not only prepared himself for similar
inquiries in other countries, but is already, as it were, by an-
ticipation, acquainted with what he is to find there. Trans-
actions of the Geological Society.
PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.
The proposed construction of a submarine tunnel across the
Straits of Dover has led M. Boue. For. Mem, Geol. Soc., to
point out the probability that the English Channel has not
been excavated by water-action only ; but owes its origin to
one of the lines of disturbance which have fissured this portion
of the earth's crust : and taking this view of the case, the fis-
sure probably still exists, being merely filled with compara-
tively loose material, so as to prove a serious obstacle to any
attempt made to drive through it a submarine tunnel. Pro-
ceedings of the Geological Society.
HOW BOULDERS ARE TRANSPORTED TO GREAT HEIGHTS.
Sir Roderick Murchison has shown that in Russia, when
the Dwina is at its maximum height, and penetrates into the
chinks of its limestone banks, when frozen and expanded
it causes disruptions of the rock, the entanglement of stony
fragments in the ice. In remarkable spring floods, the stream
so expands that in bursting it throws up its icy fragments to
15 or 20 feet above the stream ; and the waters subsiding,
these lateral ice-heaps melt away, and leave upon the bank the
rifled and angular blocks as evidence of the highest ice-mark.
In Lapland, M. Bohtlingk assures us that he has found large
granitic boulders weighing several tons actually entangled and
suspended, like birds'-nests, in the branches of pine-trees, at heights
of 30 or 40 feet above the summer level of the stream !*
* Mr. Hopkins supports his Glacial Theory by regarding the Waves of Trans-
lation, investigated by Mr. Scott Kussell, as furnishing a sufficient moving power
for the transportation of large rounded boulders, and the formation of drifted
gravel. When these waves of translation are produced by the sudden elevation
of the sin-face of the sea, the whole mass of water from the surface to the bottom
of the ocean moves onward, and becomes a mechanical agent of enormous power.
Following up this view. Mr. Hopkins has shown that " elevations of continental
masses of only 50 feet each, and from beneath an ocean having a depth of be-
tween 300 and 400 feet, would cause the most powerful divergent waves, which
could transport large boulders to great distances."
106 Things not generally Known.
WHY SEA-SHELLS ABE FOUND AT GREAT HEIGHTS.
The action of subterranean forces in breaking through and
elevating strata of sedimentary rocks, of which the coast of
Chili, in consequence of a great earthquake, furnishes an ex-
ample, leads to the assumption that the pelagic shells found
by MM. Bonpland and Humboldt on the ridge of the Andes, at
an elevation of more than 15,000 English feet, may have been
conveyed to so extraordinary a position, not by a rising of the
ocean, but by the agency of volcanic forces capable of elevating
into ridges the softened crust of the earth.
SAND OF THE SEA AND DESERT.
That sand is an assemblage of small stones may be seen
with the eye unarmed with art ; yet how few are equally aware
of the synonymous nature of the sand of the sea and of the
land ! Quartz, in the form of sand, covers almost entirely the
bottom of the sea. It is spread over the banks of rivers, and
forms vast plains, even at a very considerable elevation above
the level of the sea, as the desert of Sahara in Africa, of Kobi
in Asia, and many others. This quartz is produced, at least
in part, from the disintegration of the primitive granite rocks.
The currents of water carry it along, and when it is in very
small, light, and rounded grains, even the wind transports it
from one place to another. The hills are thus made to move
like waves, and a deluge of sand frequently inundates the
neighbouring countries :
" So where o'er wide Numidian wastes extend,
Sudden the impetuous hurricanes descend." Addisoris C'ato.
To illustrate the trite axiom, that nothing is lost, let us
glance at the most important use of sand :
"Quartz in the form of sand," observes Maltebrun, "furnishes, by
fusion, one of the most useful substances we have, namely glass, which,
being less hard than the crystals of quartz, can be made equally trans-
parent, and is equally serviceable to our wants and to our pleasures.
There it shines in walls of crystal in the palaces of the great, reflecting
the charms of a hundred assembled beauties ; there, in the hand of the
philosopher, it discovers to us the worlds that revolve above us in the
immensity of space, and the no less astonishing wonders that we tread
beneath our feet."
PEBBLES.
The various heights and situations at which Pebbles are
found have led to many erroneous conclusions as to the period
of changes of the earth's surface. All the banks of rivers and
lakes, and the shores of the sea, are covered with pebbles,
rounded by the waves which have rolled them against each
Curiosities of Science. 107
other, and which frequently seem to have brought them from
a distance. There are also similar masses of pebbles found
at very great elevations, to which the sea appears never to
have been able to reach. We find them in the Alps at Valor-
sina, more than 6000 feet above the level of the sea ; and on
the mountain of Bon Homme, which is more than 1000 feet
higher. There are some places little elevated above the level
of the sea, which, like the famous plain of Crau, in Provence,
are entirely paved with pebbles ; while in Norway, near Qued-
lia, some mountains of considerable magnitude seem to be
completely formed of them, and in such a manner that the
largest pebbles occupy the summit, and their thickness and
size diminish as you approach the base. We may include in
the number of these confused and irregular heaps most of the
depositions of matter brought by the river or sea, and left on
the banks, and perhaps even those immense beds of sand which
cover the centre of Asia and Africa. It is this circumstance
which renders so uncertain the distinction, which it is never-
theless necessary to establish, between alluvial masses created
before the commencement of history, and those which we see
still forming under our own eyes.
A charming monograph, entitled " Thoughts on a Pebble,"
full of playful sentiment and graceful fancy, has been written
by the amiable .Dr. Mautell, the geologist.
ELEVATION OF MOUNTAIN-CHAINS.
Professor Ansted, in his Ancient World, thus characterises
this phenomenon :
These movements, described in a few words, were doubtless going
on for many thousands and tens of thousands of revolutions of our
planet. They were accompanied also by vast but slow changes of other
kinds. The expansive force employed in lifting up, by mighty move-
ments, the northern portion of the continent of Asia, found partial vent;
and from partial subaqueous fissures there were poured out the tabular
masses of basalt occurring in Central India ; while un extensive area of
depi'ession in the Indian Ocean, marked by the coral islands of the
Laccadives, the Maldives, the great Chagos bank, and some others, were
in the course of depression by a counteracting movement.
Hitherto the processes of denudation and of elevation have
been so far balanced as to preserve a pretty steady proportion
of sea and dry laud during geological ages ; but if the internal
temperature should be so far reduced as to be no longer ca-
pable of generating forces of expansion sufficient for this ele-
vatory action, while the denuding forces should continue to
act with unabated energy, the inevitable result would be, that
every mountain-top would be in time brought low. No earthly
barrier could declare to the ocean that there its proud waves
should be stayed. Nothing would stop its ravages till all dry
108 Things not generally Known.
land should be laid prostrate, to form the bed over which it
would continue to roll an uninterrupted sea.
THE CHALK FORMATION.
Mr. Horner, F.R.S.. among other things in his researches
in the Delta, considers it extremely probable that every par-
ticle of Chalk in the world has at some period been circulating
in the system of a living animal.
WEAR OF BUILDING- STONES.
Professor Henry, in an account of testing the marbles used
in building the Capitol at Washington, states that evrey flash
of lightning produces an appreciable amount of nitric acid,
which, diffused in rain-water, acts on the carbonate of lime ;
and from specimens subjected to actual freezing, it was found
that in ten thousand years one inch would be worn from the
blocks by the action of frost.
In 1839, a report of the examination of Sandstones, Limestones,
and Oolites of Britain was made to the Government, with a view
to the selection of the best material for building the new Houses of
Parliament. For this purpose, 103 quarries were described, 96 build-
ings in England referred to, many chemical analyses of the stones were
given, and a great number of experiments related, showing, among
other points, the cohesive power of each stone, and the amount of dis-
integration apparent, when subjected to Brard's process. The magne-
sian limestone, or dolomite of Bolsover Moor, was recommended, and
finally adopted far the Bouses ; but the selection does not appear to
have been so successful as might have been expected from the skill and
labour of the investigation. It may be interesting to add, that the
publication of the above Report (for which see Year-Book of Facts, 1840,
pp. 78-80) occasioned Mr John Mallcott to remark in the Times journal,
" that all stone made use of in the immediate neighbourhood of its own
quarries is more likely to endure that atmosphere than if it be removed
therefrom, though only thirty or forty miles :" and the lapse of com-
paratively few years has proved the soundness of this observation.*
PHENOMENA OF GLACIERS ILLUSTRATED.
Professor Tyndall, being desirous of investigating some of
the phenomena presented by the large masses of mountain-ice,
those frozen rivers called Glaciers, devised the plan of send-
ing a destructive agent into the midst of a mass of ice, so as
to break down its structure in the interior, in order to see if
this method would reveal any thing of its internal constitu-
tion. Taking advantage of the bright weather of 1857, he con-
centrated a beam of sunlight by a condensing lens, so as to
It is scarcely too much to say, that from the collection of specimens of
building-stones made upon this occasion, and first deposited in a house in Craig's
Court, Charing Cross, originated, upon the suggestion of sir Henry Delabeche,
the magnificent Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street; one of the most
eminently practical institutions of this scientific age.
Curiosities of Science. 109
form the focus of the sun's rays in the midst of a mass of ice.
A portion of the ice was melted, but the surrounding parts
shone out as brilliant stars, produced by the reflection of the
faces of the crystalline structure. On examining these bril-
liant portions with a lens, Professor Tyndall discovered that
the structure of the ice had been broken down in symmetrical
forms of great beauty, presenting minute stars, surrounded by
six petals, forming a beautiful flower, the plane being always
parallel to the plane of congelation of the ice. He then pre-
pared a piece of ice, by making both its surfaces smooth and
parallel to each other. He concentrated in the centre of the
ice the rays of heat from the electric light ; and then, placing
the piece of ice in the electric microscope, the disc revealed
these beautiful ice-flowers.
A mass of ice was crushed into fragments ; the small frag-
ments were then placed in a cup of wood ; a hollow wooden
die, somewhat smaller than the cup, was then pressed into the
cup of ice-fragments by the pressure of a hydraulic press, and
the ice-fragments were immediately united into a compact cup
of nearly transparent ice. This pressure of fragments of ice
into a solid mass explains the formation of the glaciers and
their origin. They are composed of particles of ice or snow ;
as they descend the sides of the mountain, the pressure of
the snow becomes sufficiently great to compress the mass into
solid ice, until it becomes so great as to form the beautiful
blue ice of the glaciers. This compression, however, will not
form the solid mass unless the temperature of the ice be
near that of freezing water. To prove this, the lecturer cooled
a mass of ice, by wrapping it in a piece of tinfoil and ex-
posing it for some time to a bath of the ethereal solution of
solidified carbonic-acid gas, the coldest freezing mixture known.
This cooled mass of ice was crushed to fragments, and sub-
mitted to the same pressure which the other fragments had
been exposed to without cohering in the slightest degree.
Lecture at the Royal Institution^ 1858.
ANTIQUITY OF GLACIEES.
The importance of glacier agency in the past as well as
the present condition of the earth, is undoubtedly very great.
One of our most accomplished and ingenious geologists has.
indeed, carried back the existence of Glaciers to an epoch of
dim antiquity, even in the reckoning of that science whose
chronology is counted in millions of years. Professor Ramsay
has shown ground for believing that in the fragments of rock
that go to make up the conglomerates of the Permian strata,
intermediate between the Old and the New Red Sandstone,
there is still preserved a record of the action of ice, either in
110 Things not generally Known.
glaciers or floating icebergs, before those strata were consoli-
dated. Saturday Review, No. 142.
FLOW OF THE HER DE GLACE.
Michel Devouasson of Ghamouni fell into a crevasse on the
Glacier of Talefre, a feeder of the Mer de Glace, on the 29th
of July 1836, and after a severe struggle extricated himself,
leaving his knapsack below. The identical knapsack reap-
peared in July 1846, at a spot on the surface of the glacier
four thousand three hundred feet from the place where it was
lost, as ascertained by Professor Forbes, who himself collected
the fragments ; thus indicating the rate of flow of the icy river
in the intervening ten years. Quarterly Review,, No. 202.
THE ALLUVIAL LAND OF EGYPT : ANCIENT POTTERY.
Mr. L. Horner, in his recent researches near Cairo, with the
view of throwing light upon the geological history of the allu-
vial land of Egypt, obtained from the lowest part of the boring
of the sediment at the colossal statue of Rameses, at a depth of
thirty-nine feet, this curious relic of the ancient world ; the
boring instrument bringing up a fragment of pottery about an
inch square and a quarter of an inch in thickness the two
surfaces being of a brick-red colour, the interior dark gray.
According to Mr. Homer's deductions, this fragment, having
been found at a depth of 39 feet (if there be no fallacy in his
reasoning), must be held to be a record of the existence of man
13,375 years before A.D. 1858, reckoning by the calculated rate
of increase of three inches and a half of alluvium in a century
11,517 years before the Christian era, and 7625 before the
beginning assigned by Lepsius to the reign of Menos, the
founder of Memphis. Moreover it proves in his opinion, that
man had already reached a state of civilisation, so far at least
as to be able to fashion clay into vessels, and to know how
to harden it by the action of strong heat. This calculation is
supported by the Chevalier Bunsen, who is of opinion that the
first epochs of the history of the human race demand at the
least a period of 20,000 years before our era as a fair starting-
point in the earth's history. Proceedings of Royal Soc., 1858.
Upon this theory, a Correspondent, "An Old Indigo -Planter," writes
to the Atkenoeum, No. 1509, the following suggestive note : " Having lived
many years on the banks of the Ganges, I have seen the stream encroach
on a' village, undermining the bank where it stood, and deposit, as a
natural result, bricks, pottery, &c. in the bottom of the stream. On
one occasion, I am certain that the depth of the stream where the bank
was breaking was above 40 feet ; yet in three years the current of the
river drifted so much, that a fresh deposit of soil took place over the
debris of the village, and the earth was raised to a level with the old
bank. Now had our traveller then obtained a bit of pottery from where
it had lain for only three years, could he reasonably draw the inference
that it had been made 13,000 years before ?"
Curiosities of Science. Ill
SUCCESSIVE CHANGES OF THE TEMPLE OF SEEAPIS.
The Temple of Serapis at Puzzuoli, near Naples, is per-
haps, of all the structures raised by the hands of man, the one
which affords most instruction to a geologist. It has not only
undergone a wonderful succession of changes in past time, but
is still undergoing changes of condition. This edifice was ex-
humed in 1750 from the eastern shore of the Bay of Baise, con-
sisting partly of strata containing marine shells with frag-
ments of pottery and sculpture, and partly of volcanic matter
of sub-aerial origin. Various theories were proposed in the last
century to explain the perforations and attached animals ob-
served on the middle zone of the three erect marble columns
until recently standing ; Goethe, among the rest, suggesting
that a lagoon had once existed in the vestibule of the temple,
filled during a temporary incursion of the sea with salt water,
and that marine mollusca and annelids flourished for years in
this lagoon at twelve feet or more above the sea-level.
This hypothesis was advanced at a time when almost any
amount of fluctuation in the level of the sea was thought more
probable than the slightest alteration in the level of the solid
land. In 1807 the architect Niccolini observed that the pave-
ment of the temple was dry, except when a violent south wind
was blowing ; whereas, on revisiting the temple fifteen years
later, he found the pavement covered by salt water twice every-
day at high tide. From measurements made from 1822 to
1838, and thence to 1845, he inferred that the sea was gaining
annually upon the floor of the temple at the rate of about one-
third of an inch during the first period, and about three-fourths
of an inch during the second. Mr. Smith of Jordan Hill, from
his visits in 1819 and 1845, found an average rise of about an
inch annually, which was in accordance with visits made by
Mr. Babbage in 1828, and Professor James Forbes in 1826 and
1843. In 1852 Signor Scaecchi, at the request of Sir Charles
Lyell, compared the depth of water on the pavement with its
level taken by him in 1839, and found that it had gained only
4\ inches in thirteen years, and was not so deep as when MM.
Niccolini and Smith measured it in 1845 ; from which he in-
ferred that after 1845 the downward movement of the land
had ceased, and before 1852 had been converted into an up-
ward movement.
Arago and others maintained that the surface on which the
temple stands has been depressed, has remained under the sea,
and has again been elevated. Russager, however, contends that
there is nothing in the vicinity of the temple, or in the temple
itself, to justify this bold hypothesis. Every thing leads to the
belief that the temple has remained unchanged in the position
Things not generally Known.
in which it was originally built ; but that the sea rose, sur-
rounded it to a height of at least twelve feet, and again re-
tired ; but the elevated position of the sea continued sufficiently
long to admit of the animals boring the pillars. This view can
even be proved historically; for Niccolini, in a memoir pub-
lished in 1840, gives the heights of the level of the sea in the
Bay of Naples for a period of 1900 years, and has with much
acuteness proved his assertions historically. The correctness
of Russager's opinion, he states, can be demonstrated and re-
duced to figures by means of the dates collected by Niccolini.
See Jameson s Journal, No. 58.
At the present time the floor is always covered with sea- water.
On the whole, there is little doubt that the ground has sunk
upwards of two feet during the last half -century. This gradual
subsidence confirms in a remarkable manner Mr. Babbage's
conclusions drawn from the calcareous incrustations formed
by the hot springs on the walls of the building and from the
ancient lines of the water-level at the base of the three columns
that the original subsidence was not sudden, but slow and
by successive movements.
Sir Charles Lyell (who, in his Principles of Geology, has
given a detailed account of the several upfillings of the temple)
considers that when the mosaic pavement was re-constructed,
the floor of the building must have stood about twelve feet
above the level of 1838 (or about 11 5 feet above the level of the
sea), and that it had sunk about nineteen feet below that level
before it was elevated by the eruption of Monte Nuovo.
We regret to add, that the columns of the temple are no
longer in the position in which they served so many years as a
species of self-registering hydrometer : the materials have been
newly arranged, and thus has been torn as it were from history
a page which can never be replaced.
THE GROTTO DEL CANE.
This " Dog Grotto" has been so much cited for its stratum
of carbonic-acid gas covering the floor, that all geological tra-
vellers who visit Naples feel an interest in seeing the wonder.
This cavern was known to Pliny. It is continually exhaling
from its sides and floor volumes of steam mixed with carbonic-
acid gas ; but the latter, from its greater specific gravity, accu-
mulates at the bottom, and flows over the step of the door.
The upper part of the cave, therefore, is free from the gas,
while the floor is completely covered by it. Addison, on his
visit, made some interesting experiments. He found that a
pistol could not be fired at the bottom ; and that on laying a
train of gunpowder and igniting it on the outside of the ca-
vern, the carbonic-acid gas " could not intercept the train of
Curiosities of Science. 113
fire when it once began flashing, nor hinder it from running to
the very end." He found that a viper was nine minutes in
dying on the first trial, and ten minutes on the second ; this
increased vitality being, in his opinion, attributable to the
stock of air which it had inhaled after the first trial. Dr.
Daubeny found that phosphorus would continue lighted at
about two feet above the bottom ; that a sulphur-match went
out in a few minutes above it, and a wax-taper at a still higher
level. The keeper of the cavern has a dog, upon which he
shows the effects of the gas, which, however, are quite as well,
if not better, seen in a torch, a lighted candle, or a pistol.
" Unfortunately," says Professor Silliman, "like some other
grottoes, the enchantment of the ' Dog Grotto' disappears on
a near view." It is a little hole dug artificially in the side of a
hill facing Lake Agnano : it is scarcely high enough for a per-
son to stand upright in, and the aperture is closed by a door.
Into this narrow cell a poor little dog is very unwillingly dragged
and placed in a depression of the floor, where he is soon nar-
cotised by the carbonic acid. The earth is warm to the hand,
and the gas given out is very constant.
THE WATERS OF THE GLOBE GRADUALLY DECREASING.
This was maintained by M. Bory Saint Vincent, because
the vast deserts of sand, mixed up with the salt and remains of
marine animals, of which the surface of the globe is partly com-
posed, were formerly inland seas, which have insensibly become
dry. The Caspian, the Dead Sea, the Lake Baikal, &c. will
become dry in their turn also, when their beds will be sandy
deserts. The inland seas, whether they have only one outlet,
as the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Baltic, &c., or whether
they have several, as the Gulf of Mexico, the seas of O'Kotsk,
of Japan, China, &c., will at some future time cease to com-
municate with the great basins of the ocean ; they will become
inland seas, true Caspians, and in due time will become like-
wise dry. On all sides the waters of rivers are seen to carry
forward in their course the soil of the continent. Alluvial
lands, deltas, banks of sand, form themselves near the coasts,
and in the directions of the currents ; madreporic animals lay
the foundations of new lands ; and while the straits become
closed, while the depths of the sea fill up, the level of the sea,
which it would seem natural should become higher, is sensibly
lower. There is, therefore, an actual diminution of liquid
matter.
THE SALT LAKE OF UTAH.
Lieutenant Gunnison, who has surveyed the great basin of
the Salt Lake, states the water to be about one-third salt,
i
114 Things not generally Known.
which it yields on boiling. Its density is considerably greater
than that of the Red Sea. One can hardly get the whole body
below the surface : in a sitting position the head and shoulders
will remain above the water, such is the strength of the brine ;
and on coming to the shore the body is covered with an incrus-
tation of salt in tine crystals. During summer the lake throws
on shore abundance of salt, while in winter it throws up Glau-
ber salt plentifully. " The reason of this," says Lieutenant
Gunnison, " is left for the scientific to judge, and also what
becomes of the enormous amount of fresh water poured into it
by three or four large rivers, Jordan, Bear, and Weber, as
there is no visible effect."
FOECE OF RUNNING WATER.
It has been proved by experiment that the rapidity at the
bottom of a stream is every where less than in any other part of
it, and is greatest at the surface. Also, that in the middle of
the stream the particles at the top move swifter than those at
the sides. This slowness of the lowest and side currents is pro-
duced by friction ; and when the rapidity is sufficiently great,
the soil composing the sides and bottom gives way. If the water
flows at the rate of three inches per second, it will tear up fine
clay ; six inches per second, fine sand ; twelve inches per second,
fine gravel; and three feet per second, stones the size of an
egg. Sir Charles Lyell.
THE ARTESIAN WELL OF GRENELLE AT PARIS.
M. Peligot has ascertained that the Water of the Artesian
Well of Grenelle contains not the least trace of air. Subterra-
nean waters ought therefore to be aerated before being used as
aliment Accordingly, at Grenelle, has been constructed a
tower, from the top of which the water descends in innumer-
able threads, so as to present as much surface as possible to
the air.
The boring of this Well by the Messrs. Mulct occupied seven
years, one month, twenty-six days, to the depth of 1794| Eng-
lish feet, or 194 feet below the depth at which M. Elie de
Beaumont foretold that water would be found. The sound, or
borer, weighed 20,000 lb., and was treble the height of that of
the dome of the Hdpital des Invalids at Paris. In May 1837,
when the bore had reached 1246 feet 8 inches, the great chisel
and 262 feet of rods fell to the bottom ; and although these
weighed five tons, M. Mulot tapped a screw on the head of the
rods, and thus, connecting another length to them, after fifteen
months' labour, drew up the chisel. On another occasion, this
chisel having been raised with great force, sank at one stroke
35 feet 3 inches into the chalk !
Curiosities of Science. 115
The depth of the Grenelle Well is nearly four times the height of
Strasburg Cathedral ; more than six times the height of the H6pital
des Invalides at Paris ; more than four times the height of St. Peter's
at Rome; nearly four times and a half the height of St. Paul's, and nine
times the height of the Monument, London. Lastly, suppose all the
above edifices to be piled one upon each other, from the base-line of the
Well of Grenelle, and they would but reach within 11 feet of its surface.
MM. Elie de Beaumont and Arago never for a moment doubted the
final success of the work ; their confidence being based on analogy, and
on a complete acquaintance with the geological structure of the Paris
basin, which is identical with that of the London basin beneath the
London clay.
In the duchy of Luxembourg is a well the depth of which surpasses
all others of the kind. It is upwards of 1000 feet more than that of
Grenelle near Paris.
HOW THE GULF- STREAM REGULATES THE TEMPERATURE OF
LONDON.
Great Britain is almost exactly under the same latitude as
Labrador, a region of ice and snow. Apparently, the chief
cause of the remarkable difference between the two climates
arises from the action of the great oceanic Gulf-Stream, whereby
this country is kept constantly encircled with waters warmed
by a West- Indian sun.
Were it not for this unceasing current from tropical seas, London,
instead of its present moderate average winter temperature of 6 above
the freezing-point, might for many months annually be ice-bound by a
settled cold of 10 to 30 J below that point, and have its pleasant summer
months replaced by a season so short as not to allow corn to ripen, or
only an alpine vegetation to flourish.
Nor are we without evidence afforded by animal life of a greater
cold having prevailed in this country at a late geological period. One
case in particular occurs within eighty miles of London, at the village
of Chillesford, near Woodbridge, where, in a bed of clayey sand of an
age but little (geologically speaking) anterior to the London gravel, Mr.
Prestwich has found a group of fossil shells in greater part identical
with species now living in the seas of Greenland and of similar latitudes,
and which must evidently, from their perfect condition and natural
position, have existed in the place where they are now met with. Lec-
tures on the Geology of Ctapham, &c. by Joseph Prestwich, A.R.S., F.G,S.
SOLVENT ACTION OF COMMON SALT AT HIGH TEMPERATURES.
Forchhammer, after a long series of experiments, has come
to the conclusion that Common Salt at high temperatures, such
as prevailed at earlier periods of the earth's history, acted as
a general solvent, similarly to water at common temperatures.
The amount of common salt in the earth would suffice to cover
its whole surface with a crust ten feet in thickness.
FREEZING CAVERN IN RUSSIA.
This famous Cavern, at Ithetz Kaya-Zastchita, in the Steppes
116 Things not generally Known.
of the Kirghis, is employed by the inhabitants as a cellar. It
has the very remarkable property of being so intensely cold
during the hottest summers as to be then filled with ice, which
disappearing with cold weather, is entirely gone in winter, when
all the country is clad in snow. The roof is hung with ever-
dripping solid icicles, and the floor may be called a stalagmite
of ice and frozen earth. " If," says Sir R. Murchison, " as we
were assured, the cold is greatest when the external air is hottest
and driest, that the fall of rain and a moist atmosphere produce
some diminution of the cold in the cave, and that upon the set-
ting-in of winter the ice disappears entirely, then indeed the
problem is very curious." The peasants assert that in winter
they could sleep in the cave without their sheepskins.
INTERIOR TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH : CENTRAL HEAT.
By the observed temperature of mines, and that at the bot-
tom of artesian wells, it has been established that the rate at
which such temperature increases as we descend varies consi-
derably in different localities, where the depths are compara-
tively small ; Hbut where the depths are great, we find a much
nearer approximation to a common rate of increase, which, as
determined by the best observation in the deepest mines, shafts,
and artesian wells in Western Europe, is very nearly 1 F. for
an increase in depth of fifty feet* W. Hopkins, M.A., F.R.S.
Humboldt states that, according to tolerably coincident
experiments in artesian wells, it has been shown that the heat
increases on an average about 1 for every 54*5 feet. If this
increase can be reduced to arithmetical relations, it will follow
that a stratum of granite would be in a state of fusion at a
depth of nearly twenty-one geographical miles, or between
four and five times the elevation of the highest summit of the
Himalaya.
The following is the opinion of Professor Silliman :
That the whole interior portion of the earth, or at least a great part
of it, is an ocean of melted rock, agitated by violent winds, though I
dare not affirm it, is still rendered highly probable by the phenomena
of volcanoes. The facts connected with their eruption have been ascer-
tained and placed beyond a doubt. How, then, are they to be accounted
for ? The theory prevalent some years since, that they are caused by
the combustion of immense coal-beds, is puerile and now entirely aban-
doned. All the coal in the world could not afford fuel enough for one
of the tremendous eruptions of Vesuvius.
This observed increase of temperature in descending be-
neath the earth's surface suggested the notion of a central
incandescent nucleus still remaining in a state of fluidity from
its elevated temperature. Hence the theory that the whole
mass of the earth was formerly a molten fluid mass, the exte-
rior portion of which, to some unknown depth, has assumed
Curiosities of Science. 117
its present solidity by the radiation of heat into surrounding
space, and its consequent refrigeration.
The mathematical solution of this problem of Central Heat,
assuming such heat to exist, tells us that though the central
portion of the earth may consist of a mass of molten matter,
the temperature of its surface is not thereby increased by more
than the small fraction of a degree, Poisson has calculated
that it would require a thousand millions of centuries to reduce
this fraction to a degree by half its present amount, supposing
always the external conditions to remain unaltered. In such
cases, the superficial temperature of the earth may, in fact, be
considered to have approximated so near to its ultimate limit
that it can be subject to no further sensible change.
DISAPPEAEANCE OF VOLCANIC ISLANDS.
Many of the Volcanic Islands thrown up above the sea-level
soon disappear, because the lavas and conglomerates of which
they are formed spread over flatter surfaces, through the weight
of the incumbent fluid ; and the constant levelling process goes
on below the sea by the action of tides and currents. Such
islands as have effectually resisted this action are found to
possess a solid framework of lava, supporting or defending the
loose fragmentary materials.
Among the most celebrated of these phenomena in our times may be
mentioned the Isle of Sabrina, which rose off the coast of St. Michael's
in 1811, attained a circumference of one mile and a height of 300 feet,
and disappeared in less than eight months ; in the following year there
were eighty fathoms of water in its place. In July 1831 appeared Gra-
ham's Island off the coast of Sicily, which, attained a mile in circum-
ference and 150 or 160 feet in height ; its formation much resembled
that of Sabrina.
The line of ancient subterranean fire which we trace on the
Mediterranean coasts has had a strange attestation in Graham's
Island, which is also described as a volcano suddenly bursting
forth in the mid sea between Sicily and Africa ; burning for
several weeks, and throwing up an isle, or crater-cone of scorise
and ashes, which had scarcely been named before it was again
lost by subsidence beneath the sea, leaving only a shoal-bank
to attest this strange submarine breach in the earth's crust,
which thus mingled fire and water in one common action.
Floating islands are not very rare : in 1827, one was seen
twenty leagues to the east of the Azores ; it was three leagues
in width, and covered with volcanic products, sugar-canes,
straw, and pieces of wood.
PERPETUAL FIRE.
Not far from the Deliktash, on the side of a mountain in
Lycia, is the Perpetual Fire described some forty years since
118 Things not generally Known.
by Captain Beaufort. It was found by Lieutenant Spratt and
Professor Forbes, thirty years later, as brilliant as ever, and
somewhat increased ; for besides the large flame in the corner
of the ruins described by Beaufort, there were small jets issuing
from crevices in the side of the crater- like cavity five or six feet
deep. At the bottom was a shallow pool of sulphureous and
turbid water, regarded by the Turks as a sovereign remedy for
all skin complaints. The soot deposited from the flames was
held to be efficacious for sore eyelids, and valued as a dye for
the eyebrows. This phenomenon is described by Pliny as the
flame of the Lycian Chimera.
AETESIAN FIRE- SPRINGS IN CHINA.
According to the statement of the missionary Imbert, the
Fire-Springs, " Ho-tsing" of the Chinese, which are sunk to
obtain a carburetted-hydrogen gas for salt-boiling, far exceed
our artesian springs in depth. These springs are very com-
monly more than 2000 feet deep ; and a spring of continued
flow was found to be 3197 feet deep. This natural gas has
been used in the Chinese province Tse-tschuan for several
thousand years ; and "portable gas" (in bamboo-canes) has for
ages been used in the city of Khiung-tscheu. More recently,
in the village of Fredonia, in the United States, such gas has
been used both for cooking and for illumination.
VOLCANIC ACTION THE GREAT AGENT OF GEOLOGICAL
CHANGE.
Mr. James Nasmyth observes, that " the floods of molten lava which
volcanoes eject are nothing less than remaining 1 portions of what was
once the condition of the entire globe when in the igneous state of its
early physical history, no one knows how many years ago !
" When we behold the glow and feel the heat of molten lava, how
vastly does it add to the interest of the sight when we consider that the
heat we feel and the light we see are the residue of the once universal
condition of our entire globe, on whose cooled surface we now live and
have our being ! But so it is ; for if there be one great fact which geo-
logical research has established beyond all doubt, it is that we reside
on the cooled surface of what was once a molten globe, and that all the
phenomena which geology has brought to light can be most satisfac-
torily traced to the successive changes incidental to its gradual cooling
and contraction.
'" That the influx of the sea into the yet hot and molten interior of
the globe may occasionally occur, and enhance and vary the violence of
the phenomenon of volcanic action, there can be little doubt ; but the
action of water in such cases is only secondary. But for the pre-existing
high temperature of the interior of the earth, the influx of water would
produce no such discharges of molten lava as generally characterise vol-
canic eruptions. Molten lava is therefore a true vestige of the Natural
History of the Creation."
Curiosities of Science. 1 1 9
THE SNOW-CAPPED VOLCANO.
It is but rarely that the elastic forces at work within the
interior of our globe have succeeded in breaking through the
spiral domes which, resplendent in the brightness of eternal
snow, crown the summits of the Cordilleras ; and even where
these subterranean forces have opened a permanent communi-
cation with the atmosphere, through circular craters or long
fissures, they rarely send forth currents of lava, but merely
eject ignited scoriae, steam, sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and
jets of carbonic acid. Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. i.
TRAVELS OF VOLCANIC DUST.
On the 2d of September 1845, a quantity of Volcanic Dust
fell in the Orkney Islands, which was supposed to have origin-
ated in an eruption of Hecla, in Iceland. It was subsequently
ascertained that an eruption of that volcano took place on the
morning of the above day (September 2), so as to leave no
doubt of the accuracy of the conclusion. The dust had thus
travelled about 600 miles !
GEEAT ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS.
In the great eruption of Vesuvius, in August 1779, which
Sir William Hamilton witnessed from his villa at Pausilippo
in the bay of Naples, the volcano sent up white sulphureous
smoke resembling bales of cotton, exceeding the height and
size of the mountain itself at least four times ; and in the midst
of this vast pile of smoke, stones, scoriae, and ashes were thrown
up not less than 2000 feet. Next day a fountain of fire shot
up with such height and brilliancy that the smallest objects
could be clearly distinguished at any place within six miles or
more of Vesuvius. But on the following day a more stupen-
dous column of fire rose three times the height of Vesuvius
(3700 feet), or more than two miles high. Among the huge
fragments of lava thrown out during this eruption was a block
108 feet in circumference and 17 feet high, another block
66 feet in circumference and 19 feet high, and another 16 feet
high and 92 feet in circumference, besides thousands of smaller
fragments. Sir William Hamilton suggests that from a scene
of the above kind the ancient poets took their ideas of the
giants waging war with Jupiter.
The eruption of June 1794, which destroyed the greater
part of the town of Torre del Greco, was, however, the most
violent that has been recorded after the two great eruptions of
79 and 1631.
EARTH-WAVES.
The waves of an earthquake have been represented in their
120 Things not generally Known.
progress, and their propagation, through rocks of different
density and elasticity ; and the causes of the rapidity of pro-
pagation, and its diminution by the refraction, reflection, and
interference of the oscillations have been mathematically in-
vestigated. Air, water, and earth waves follow the same laws
which are recognised by the theory of motion, at all events in.
space ; but the earth- waves are accompanied in their destruc-
tive action by discharges of elastic vapours, and of gases, and
mixtures of pyroxene crystals, carbon, and infusorial animal-
cules with silicious shields. The more terrific effects are, how-
ever, when the earth-waves are accompanied by cleavage ; and,
as in the earthquake of Riobamba, when fissures alternately
opened and closed again, so that men saved themselves by ex-
tending both arms, in order to prevent their sinking.
As a remarkable example of the closing of a fissure, Hum-
boldt mentions that, during the celebrated earthquake in 1851,
in the Neapolitan province of Basilicata, a hen was found caught
by both feet in the street-pavement of Barile, near Melfi.
Mr. Hopkins has very correctly shown theoretically that
the fissures produced by earthquakes are very instructive as
regards the formation of veins and the phenomenon of disloca-
tion, the more recent vein displacing the older formation.
RUMBLINGS OF EARTHQUAKES.
When the great earthquake of Coseguina, in Nicaragua,
took place, January 23, 1835, the subterranean noise the
sonorous waves in the earth was heard at the same time on
the island of Jamaica and on the plateau of Bogota, 8740 feet
above the sea, at a greater distance than from Algiers to Lon-
don. In the eruptions of the volcano on the island of St.
Vincent, April 30, 1812, at 2 A.M., a noise like the report of
cannons was heard, without any sensible concussion of the earth,
over a space of 160,000 geographical square miles. There have
also been heard subterranean thunderiugs for two years without
earthquakes.
HOW TO MEASURE AN EARTHQUAKE-SHOCK.
A new instrument (the Seismometer) invented for this pur-
pose by M. Kreil, of Vienna, consists of a pendulum oscillating
in every direction, but unable to turn round on its point of
suspension ; and bearing at its extremity a cylinder, which, by
means of mechanism within it, turns on its vertical axis once
in twenty-four hours. Next to the pendulum stands a rod bear-
ing a narrow elastic arm, which slightly presses the extremity
of a lead-pencil against the surface of the cylinder. As long as
the pendulum is quiet, the pencil traces an uninterrupted line
Curiosities of Science.
on the surface of the cylinder ; but as soon as it oscillates, this
line becomes interrupted and irregular, and these irregularities
indicate the time of the commencement of an earthquake, to-
gether with its duration and intensity.*
Elastic fluids are doubtless the cause of the slight and per-
fectly harmless trembling of the earth's surface, which has often
continued for several days. The focus of this destructive agent,
the seat of the moving force, lies far below the earth's surface ;
but we know as little of the extent of this depth as we know of
the chemical nature of these vapours that are so highly com-
pressed. At the edges of two craters, Vesuvius and the tower-
ing rock which projects beyond the great abyss of Pichincha,
near Quito, Humboldt has felt periodic and very regular shocks
of earthquakes, on each occasion from twenty to thirty seconds
before the burning scoriae or gases were erupted. The intensity
of the shocks was increased in proportion to the time interven-
ing between them, and consequently to the length of time in
which the vapours were accumulating. This simple fact, which
has been attested by the evidence of so many travellers, furnishes
us with a general solution of the phenomenon, in showing that
active volcanoes are to be considered as safety-valves for the
immediate neighbourhood. There are instances in which the
earth has been shaken for many successive days in the chain of
the Andes, in South America. In certain districts, the inha-
bitants take no more notice of the number of earthquakes than
we in Europe take of showers of rain ; yet in such a district
Bonpland and Humboldt were compelled to dismount, from the
restiveness of their mules, because the earth shook in a forest
for fifteen to eighteen minutes without intermission.
EARTHQUAKES AND THE MOON.
From a careful discussion of several thousand earthquakes
which have been recorded between 1801 and 1850, and a com-
parison of the periods at which they occurred with the position
of the moon in relation to the earth, M. Perry, of Dijon, infers
that earthquakes may possibly be the result of attraction ex-
erted by that body on the supposed fluid centre of our globe,
somewhat similar to that which she exercises on the waters of
the ocean ; and the Committee of the Institute of France have
reported favourably upon this theory.
THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF LISBON.
The eloquent Humboldt remarks, that the activity of an ig-
* Mr. R. Mallet, F.R.S., and his son Dr. Mallet, have constructed a seismo-
graphic map of the world, with seismic bands in their position and relative
intensity; and small black discs to denote volcanoes, femaroles, and soltataras,
and shades indicating the areas of subsidence.
Things not generally Known.
neous mountain, however terrific and picturesque the spectacle
may be which it presents to our contemplation, is always limited
to a very small space. It is far otherwise with earthquakes,
which, although scarcely perceptible to the eye, nevertheless
simultaneously propagate their waves to a distance of many
thousand miles. The great earthquake which destroyed the
city of Lisbon, November 1st, 1755, was felt in the Alps, on
the coast of Sweden, into the Antilles, Antigua, Barbadoes,
and Martinique ; in the great Canadian lakes, in Thuringia, in
the flat country of northern Germany, and in the small inland
lakes on the shores of the Baltic. Remote springs were inter-
rupted in their flow, a phenomenon attending earthquakes
which had been noticed among the ancients by Demetrius the
Callatian. The hot springs of Toplitz dried up and returned,
inundating every thing around, and having their waters co-
loured with iron ochre. At Cadiz, the sea rose to an elevation
of sixty-four feet ; while in the Antilles, where the tide usually
rises only from twenty-six to twenty-eight inches, it suddenly
rose about twenty feet, the water being of an inky blackness.
It has been computed that, on November 1st, 1755, a portion
of the earth's surface four times greater than that of Europe
was simultaneously shaken.* As yet there is no manifestation
of force known to us (says the vivid denunciation of the phi-
losopher), including even the murderous invention of our own
race, by which a greater number of people have been killed in
the short space of a few minutes : 60,000 were destroyed in
Sicily in 1693, from 30,000 to 40,000 in the earthquake of Rio-
bamba in 1797, and probably five times as many in Asia Minor
and Syria under Tiberius and Justinian the elder, about the
years 19 and 526.
GEOLOGICAL AGE OF THE DIAMOND.
The discovery of Diamonds in Russia, far from the tropical
zone, has excited much interest among geologists. In the de-
tritus on the banks of the Adolfskoi, no fewer than forty dia-
monds have been found in the gold alluvium, only twenty feet
above the stratum in which the remains of mammoths and rhi-
noceroses are found. Hence Humboldt has concluded that the
formation of gold-veins, and consequently of diamonds, is com-
paratively of recent date, and scarcely anterior to the destruc-
tion of the mammoths. Sir Roderick Murchison and M. Ver-
* It has been computed that the shock of this earthquake pervaded an area
of 700,000 miles, or the twelfth part of the circumference of the globe. This
dreadful shock lasted only five minutes; and nearly the whole of the population
being within the churches Con the feast of All Saints), no less than 30,COO per-
sons perished by the fall of these edifices. See Daubeny on Volcanoes; Translator's
note, Humboldfs Cosmos.
Curiosities of Science. 123
neuil have been led to the same result by different argu-
ments.*
WHAT WAS ADAMANT ?
Professor Tennant replies, that the Adamant described by
Pliny was a sapphire, as proved by its form, and by the fact
that when struck on an anvil by a hammer it would make an
indentation in the metal. A true diamond, under such circum-
stances, would fly into a thousand pieces.
WHAT IS COAL ?
The whole evidence we possess as to the nature of Coal
proves it to have been originally a mass of vegetable matter. Its
microscopical characters point to its having been formed on the
spot in which we find it, to its being composed of vegetable
tissues of various kinds, separated and changed by maceration,
pressure, and chemical action, and to the introduction of its
earthy matter, in a large number of instances, in a state of so-
lution or fine molecular subdivision. Dr. Redfern, from whose
communication to the British Association we quote, knows
nothing to countenance the supposition that our coal-beds are
mainly formed of coniferous wood, because the structures found
in mother-coal, or the charcoal layer, have not the character of
the glandular tissue of such wood, as has been asserted.
Geological research has shown that the immense forests
from which our coal is formed teemed with life. A frog as
large as an ox existed in the swamps, and the existence of in-
sects proves that the higher order of organic creation flourished
at this epoch.
It has been calculated that the available coal-beds in Lanca-
shire amount in weight to the enormous sum of 8,400,000,000
tons. The total annual consumption of this coal, it has been
estimated, amounts to 3,400,120 tons; hence it is inferred that
the coal-beds of Lancashire, at the present rate of consumption,
will last 2470 years. Making similar calculations for the coal-
fields of South Wales, the north of England, and Scotland, it
will readily be perceived how ridiculous were the forebodings
which lecturing geologists delighted to indulge in a few years
ago.
TOKBANE-HILL COAL.
The coal of Torbane Hill, Scotland, is so highly inflammable,
that it has been disputed at law whether it be true coal, or
only asphaltum, or bitumen. Dr. Redfern describes it as laini-
* Mr. Murray mentions, on the authority of the Rev. Dr. Robinson, of the
Observatory at Armagh, that a rough diamond with a red tint, and valued by
Mr. Rundell at twenty guineas, was found in Ireland, many years since, in the
bed of a brook flowing through the county of Fermanagh.
Things not generally Known.
nated, splitting with great ease horizontally, like many cannel
coals, and like them it may be lighted at a candle. In all parts
of the bed stigmaria and other fossil plants occur in greater
numbers than in most other coals ; their distinct vascular tissue
may be easily recognised by a common pocket lens, and 65 of
the mass consists of carbon.
Dr. Redfern considers that all our coals may be arranged in
a scale having the Torbane-Hill coal at the top and anthracite
at the bottom. Anthracite is almost pure carbon ; Torbane Hill
contains less fixed carbon than most other cannels : anthracite
is very difficult to ignite, and gives out scarcely any gas ; Tor-
bane-Hill burns like a candle, and yields 3000 cubic feet of gas
per ton, more than any other known coal, its gas being also of
greatly superior illuminating power to any other. The only
differences which the Torbane-Hill coal presents from others
are differences of degree, not of kind. It differs from other
coals in being the best gas-coal, and from other cannels in being
the best cannel.
HOW MALACHITE IS FORMED.
The rich copper-ore of the Ural, which occurs in veins or
masses, amid metamorphic strata associated with igneous rocks,
and even in the hollows between the eruptive rocks, is worked
in shafts. At the bottom of one of these, 280 feet deep, has
been found an enormous irregularly-shaped botryoidal mass of
Malachite (Greek malache, mountain-green), sending off strings
of green copper-ore. The upper surface of it is about 18 feet
long and 9 wide ; and it was estimated to contain 15,000 poods,
or half a million pounds, of pure and compact malachite. Sir
Roderick Murchison is of opinion that this wonderful subter-
raneous incrustation has been produced in the stalagmitic
form, during a series of ages, by copper solutions emanating
from the surrounding loose and sporous mass, and trickling
through it to the lowest cavity upon the subjacent solid rock.
Malachite is brought chiefly from one mine in Siberia ; its value
as raw material is nearly one-fourth that of the same weight of
pure silver, or in a manufactured state three guineas per pound
avoirdupois. *
LUMPS OF GOLD IN SIBERIA.
The gold mines south of Miask are chiefly remarkable for the
large lumps or pepites of gold which are found around the Za-
vod of Zarevo-Alexandroisk. Previous to 1841 were discovered
* The use of malachite in ornamental work is very extensive in Russia.
Thus, to the Great Exhibition of 1851 were sent a pair of folding-doors veneered
with malachite, 13 feet high, valued at 6000J.; malachite cases and pedestals from
1500/. to3000/. a-piece, malachite tables 400/., aud chairs 150/. each.
Curiosities of Science. 125
here lumps of native gold ; in that year a lump of twenty-four
pounds was met with ; and in 1843 a lump weighing about
seventy-eight pounds English was found, and is now deposited
with others in the Museum of the Imperial School of Mines at
St. Petersburg.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON UPON SUBNET'S THEOEY OF THE EARTH.
In 1668, Dr. Thomas Burnet printed his Theoria Telluris
Sacra, "an eloquent physico-theological romance," says Sir
David Brewster, " which was to a certain extent adopted even
by Newton, Burnet's friend. Abandoning, as some of the
fathers had done, the hexaemeron, or six days of Moses, as a
physical reality, and having no knowledge of geological pheno-
mena, he gives loose reins to his imagination, combining pass-
ages of Scripture with those of ancient authors, and presump-
tuously describing the future catastrophes to which the earth
is to be exposed." Previous to its publication, Burnet pre-
sented a copy of his book to Newton, and requested his opinion
of the theory which it propounded. Newton took "exceptions
to particular passages," and a correspondence ensued. In one
of Newton's letters he treats of the formation of the earth, and
the other planets, out of a general chaos of the figure assumed
by the earth, of the length of the primitive days, of the for-
mation of hills and seas, and of the creation of the two ruling
lights as the result of the clearing up of the atmosphere. He
considers the account of the creation in Genesis as adapted
to the judgment of the vulgar. " Had Moses," he says, " de-
scribed the processes of creation as distinctly as they were in
themselves, he would have made the narrative tedious and con-
fused amongst the vulgar, and become a philosopher more than
a prophet." After referring to several u causes of meteors, such
as the breaking out of vapours from below, before the earth
was well hardened, the settling and shrinking of the whole
globe after the upper regions or surface began to be hard,"
Newton closes his letter with an apology for being tedious,
which, he says, "he has the more reason to do, as he has not
set down any thing he has well considered, or will undertake to
defend." See the Letter in the Appendix to Sir D. Brewster's
Life of Newton, vol. ii.
The primitive condition of the earth, and its preparation for man,
was a subject of general speculation at the close of the seventeenth cen-
tury. Leibnitz, like his great rival (Newton), attempted to explain the
formation of the earth, and of the different substances which composed
jt ; and he had the advantage of possessing some knowledge of geolo-
gical phenomena : the earth he regarded as having been originally a
burning mass, whose temperature gradually diminished till the vapours
were condensed into a universal ocean, which covered the highest moun-
126 Things not generally Known.
tains, and gradually flowed into vacuities and subterranean cavities pro-
duced by the consolidation of the earth's crust. He regarded fossils as
the real remains of plants and animals which had been buried in the
strata ; and, in speculating on the formation of mineral substances, he
speaks of crystals as the geometry of inanimate nature. Breioste^s Life
of Newton, vol. ii. p. 100, note. (See also "The Age of the Globe," in
Things not generally Known, p. 13.)
" THE FATHER OF ENGLISH GEOLOGY."
In 1769 was born, the son of a yeoman of Oxfordshire, Wil-
liam Smith. When a boy he delighted to wander in the fields,
collecting "pound-stones" (Eckinites), " pundibs" (TerebratulcR),
and other stony curiosities; and receiving little education be-
yond what he taught himself, he learned nothing of classics but
the name. Grown to be a man, he became a land-surveyor and
civil engineer, and was much engaged in constructing canals.
While thus occupied, he observed that all the rocky masses
forming the substrata of the country were gently inclined to
the east and south-east, that the red sandstones and marls
above the coal-measures passed below the beds provincially
termed lias-clay and limestone that these again passed un-
derneath the sands, yellow limestone, and clays that form the
table-land of the Coteswold Hills ; while they in turn plunged
beneath the great escarpment of chalk that runs from the coast
of Dorsetshire northward to the Yorkshire shores of the German
Ocean. He further observed that each formation of clay, sand,
or limestone, held to a very great extent its own peculiar suite
of fossils. The "snake-stones" (Ammonites) of the lias were
different in form and ornament from those of the inferior oolite ;
and the shells of the latter, again, differed from those of the
Oxford clay, Cornbrash, and Kimmeridge clay. Pondering
much on these things, he came to the then unheard-of con-
clusion that each formation had been in its turn a sea-bottom,
in the sediments of which lived and died marine animals now
extinct, many specially distinctive of their own epochs in time.
Here indeed was a discovery, made, too, by a man utterly
unknown to the scientific world, and having no pretension to
scientific lore. " Strata Smith's" find was unheeded for many
a long year ; but at length the first geologists of the day
learned from the land-surveyor that superposition of strata
is inseparably connected with the succession of life in time.
Hooke's grand vision was at length realised, and it was indeed
possible " to build up a terrestrial chronology from rotten shells"
imbedded in the rocks. Meanwhile he had constructed the
first geological map of England, which has served as a basis for
geological maps of all other parts of the world. William Smith
was now presented by the Geological Society with the Wollas-
ton Medal, and hailed as "the Father of English Geology."
Curiosities of Science, 127
He died in 1840. Till the manner as well as the fact of the first
appearance of successive forms of life shall be solved, it is not
easy to surmise how any discovery can be made in geology
equal in value to that which we owe to the genius of William
Smith. Saturday Review, No. 140.
DK. BUCKLAND'S GEOLOGICAL LABOURS.
Sir Henry De la Beche, in his Anniversary Address to the
Geological Society in 1848, on presenting the Wollaston Medal
to Dr. Buckland, felicitously observed :
It may not be generally known that, while yet a child, at your
native town, Axminster in Devonshire, ammonites, obtained by your
father from the lime quarries in the neighbourhood, were presented to
your attention. As a scholar at Winchester, the chalk, with its flints,
was brought under your observation, and there it was that your collec-
tions in natural history first began. Removed to Oxford, as a scholar
of Corpus Christi College, the future teacher of geology in that Univer-
sity was fortunate in meeting with congenial tastes in our colleague
Mr. W. J. Broderip, then a student at Oriel College. It was during your
walks together to Shotover Hill, when his knowledge of conchology was
so valuable to you, enabling you to distinguish the shells of the Oxford
oolite, that you laid the foundation for those field-lectures, forming part
of your course of geology at Oxford, which no one is likely to forget who
has been so fortunate at any time as to have attended them. The fruits
of your walks with Mr. Broderip formed the nucleus of that great collec-
tion, more especially remarkable for the organic remains it contains,
which, after the labours of forty years, you have presented to the Geo-
logical Museum at Oxford, in grave recollection of the aid which the
endowments of that University, and the leisure of its vacations, had
afforded you for extensive travelling during a residence at Oxford of
nearly forty-five years.
DISCOVERIES OF M. AGASSIZ.*
This great paleontologist, in the course of his ichthyological
researches, was led to perceive that the arrangement by Cuvier
according to organs did not fulfil its purpose with regard to
fossil fishes, because in the lapse of ages the characteristics of
their structures were destroyed. He therefore adopted the only
other remaining plan, and studied the tissues, which, being
less complex than the organs, are.oftener found intact. The
result was the very remarkable discovery, that the tegumentary
membrane of fishes is so intimately connected with their orga-
nisation, that if the whole of the fish has perished except this
membrane, it is practicable, by noting its characteristics, to re-
construct the animal in its most essential parts. Of the value
of this principle of harmony, some idea may be formed from
the circumstance, that on it Agassiz has based the whole of that
* Longfellow has written some pleasing lines on " The Fiftieth Birthday of
M. Agassiz. May 28, 1857," appended to " The Courtship of Miles Standish,"
1868.
128 Things not generally Known.
celebrated classification of which he is the sole author, and by
which fossil ichthyology has for the first time assumed a precise
and definite shape. How essential its study is to the geologist
appears from the remark of Sir Roderick Murchison, that "fos-
sil fishes have every where proved the most exact chronometer
of the age of rocks."
SUCCESSION OF LIFE IN TIME.
In the Museum of Economic Geology, in Jermyn Street, may
be seen ores, metals, rocks, and whole suites of fossils strati-
graphically arranged in such a manner that, with an observant
eye for form, all may easily understand the more obvious scien-
tific meanings of the Succession of Life in Time, and its bearing
on geological economies. It is perhaps scarcely an exaggeration
to say, that the greater number of so-called educated persons
are still ignorant of the meaning of this great doctrine. They
would be ashamed not to know that there are many suns and
material worlds besides our own ; but the science, equally grand
and comprehensible, that aims at the discovery of the laws that
regulated the creation, extension, decadence, and utter extinc-
tion of many successive species, genera, and whole orders of life,
is ignored, or, if intruded on the attention, is looked on as an
uncertain and dangerous dream, and this in a country which
was almost the nursery of geology, and which for half a century
has boasted the first Geological Society in the world. Saturday
Review, No. 140.
PRIMITIVE DIVERSITY AND NUMBERS OF ANIMALS IN
GEOLOGICAL TIMES. .
Professor Agassiz considers that the very fact of certain stra-
tified rocks, even among the oldest formations, being almost
entirely made up of fragments of organised beings, should long
ago have satisfied the most sceptical that both animal and
vegetable life were as active and profusely scattered upon the whole
globe at all times, and during all geological periods, as they are
now. No coral reef in the Pacific contains a larger amount
of organic debris than some of the limestone deposits of the
tertiary, of the cretaceous, or of the oolitic, nay even of the
paleozoic period ; and the whole vegetable carpet covering the
present surface of the globe, even if we were to consider only
the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics, leaving entirely out of
consideration the entire expanse of the ocean, as well as those
tracts of land where, under less favourable circumstances, the
growth of plants is more reduced, would not form one single
seam of workable coal to be compared to the many thick beds
contained in the rocks of the carboniferous period alone.
Curiosities of Science. 129
ENGLAND IN THE EOCENE PERIOD.
Eocene is Sir Charles Lyell's term for the lowest group of
the Tertiary system in which the dawn of recent life appears ;
and any one who wishes to realise what was the aspect pre-
sented by this country during the Eocene period, need only go
to Sheerness. If, leaving that place behind him, he walks
down the Thames, keeping close to the edge of the water, he
will find whole bushels of pyritised pieces of twigs and fruits.
These fruits and twigs belong to plants nearly allied to the
screw-pine and custard-apple, and to various species of palms
and spice-trees which now flourish in the Eastern Archipelago.
At the time they were washed down from some neighbouring
land, not only crocodilian reptiles, but sharks and innumerable
turtles, inhabited a sea or estuary which now forms part of the
London district ; and huge boa-constrictors glided amongst the
trees which fringed the adjoining shores.
Countless as are the ages which intervened between the
Eocene period and the time when the little jawbones of Stones-
field were washed down to the place where they were to await
the day when science should bring them again to light, not one
mammalian genus which now lives upon our plane has been
discovered amongst Eocene strata. We have existing families,
but nothing more. Professor Owen.
FOOD OF THE IGUANODON.
Dr. Mantell, from the examination of the anterior part of
the right side of the lower jaw of an Iguanodon discovered in a
quarry in Tilgate Forest, Sussex, has detected an extraordinary
deviation from all known types of reptilian organisation, and
which could not have been predicated ; namely, that this colos-
sal reptile, which equalled in bulk the gigantic Edentata of
South America, and like them was destined to obtain support
from comminuted vegetable substances, was also furnished with a
large prehensile tongue and fleshy lips, to serve as instruments
for seizing and cropping the foliage and branches of trees ;
while the arrangement of the teeth as in the ruminants, and
their internal structure, which resembles that of the molars of
the sloth tribe in the vascularity of the dentine, indicate adap-
tations for the same purpose.
Among the physiological phenomena revealed by paleonto-
logy, there is not a more remarkable one than this modification
of the type of organisation peculiar to the class of reptiles to
meet the conditions required by the economy of a lizard placed
under similar physical relations; and destined to effect the
same general purpose in the scheme of nature as the colossal
130 Things not generally Known.
Edentata of former ages and the large herbivorous mammalia
of our own times.
THE PTEEODACTYL THE FLYING DEAGON.
The Tilgate beds of the Wealden series, just mentioned, have
yielded numerous fragments of the most remarkable reptilian
fossils yet discovered, and whose wonderful forms denote them
to have thronged the shallow seas and bays and lagoons of the
period. In the grounds of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham
the reader will find restorations of these animals sufficiently
perfect to illustrate this reptilian epoch. They include the iqua-
nodon, an herbivorous lizard exceeding in size the largest ele-
phant, and accompanied by the equally gigantic and carni-
vorous megalosaurus (great saurian), and by the two yet more
curious reptiles, the pylceosaurus (forest, or weald, saurian) and
the pterodactyl (from pteron, ( wing,' and dactylus, ' a finger'),
an enormous bat-like creature, now running upon the ground
like a bird ; its elevated body and long neck not covered with
feathers, but with skin, naked, or resplendent with glittering
scales ; its head like that of a lizard or crocodile, and of a size
almost preposterous compared with that of the body, with its
long fore extremities stretched out, and connected by a mem-
brane with the body and hind legs.
Suddenly this mailed creature rose in the air, and realised
or even surpassed in strangeness the flying dragon of fable: its
fore-arms and its elongated wing-finger furnished with claws ;
hand and fingers extended, and the interspace filled up by a
tough membrane ; and its head and neck stretched out like
that of the heron in its flight. When stationary, its wings
were probably folded back like those of a bird; though perhaps,
by the claws attached to its fingers, it might suspend itself from
the branches of trees.
MAMMALIA IN SECONDAEY EOCKS.
It was supposed till very lately that few if any Mammalia
were to be found below the Tertiary rocks, i. e. those above the
chalk ; and this supposed fact was very comfortable to those
who support the doctrine of " progressive development," and
hold, with the notorious Vestiges of Creation, that a fish by
mere length of time became a reptile, a lemur an ape, and
finally an ape a man. But here, as in a hundred other cases,
facts, when duly investigated, are against their theory. A
mammal jaw had been already discovered by Mr. Brodie on
the shore at the back of Swanage Point, in Dorsetshire, when
Mr. Beckles, F.G.S., traced the vein from which this jaw had
been procured, and found it to be a stratum about five in-.-iies
Curiosities of Science. 131
thick, at the base of the Middle Purbeck beds ; and after remov-
ing many thousand tons of rock, and laying bare an area of
nearly 7000 square feet (the largest cutting ever made for purely
scientific purposes), he found reptiles (tortoises arid lizards) in
hundreds ; but the most important discovery was that of the
jaws of at least fourteen different species of mammalia. Some
of these were herbivorous, some carnivorous, connected with
our modern shrews, moles, hedgehogs, &c. ; but all of them per-
fectly developed and highly-organised quadrupeds. Ten years
ago, no remains of quadrupeds were believed to exist in the
Secondary strata. " Even in 1854," says Sir Charles Lyell (in
a supplement to the fifth edition of his Manual of Elementary
Geology}, " only six species of mammals from rocks older than
the Tertiary were known in the whole world." We now possess
evidence of the existence of fourteen species, belonging to eight
or nine genera, from the fresh-water strata of the Middle Pur-
beck Oolite. It would be rash now to fix a limit in past time
to the existence of quadrupeds. The Rev. C. Kingsley.
FOSSIL HUMAN BONES.
In the paleontological collection in the British Museum is
preserved a considerable portion of a human skeleton imbedded
in a slab of rock, brought from Guadaloupe, and often referred
to in opposition to the statement that hitherto no fossil human
bones have been found. The presence of these bones, however,
has been explained by the circumstance of a battle and the
massacre of a tribe of Galtibis by the Caribs, which took place
near the spot in which the bones were found about 130 years
ago ; for as the bodies of the slain were interred on the sea-
shore, their skeletons may have been subsequently covered by
sand-drift, which has since consolidated into limestone.
It will be seen by reference to the Philosophical Transac-
tions, that on the reading of the paper upon this discovery to
the Royal Society, in 1814, Sir Joseph Banks, the president,
considered the "fossil" to be of very modern formation, and
that probably, from the contiguity of a volcano, the tempera-
ture of the water may have been raised at some time, and dis-
solving carbonate of lime readily, may have deposited about
the skeleton in a comparatively short period hard and 'solid
stone. Every person may be convinced of the rapidity of the
formation and of the hardness of such stone by inspecting the
inside of tea-kettles in which hard water is boiled.
Descriptions of petrifactions of human bodies appear to refer to the
conversion of bodies into adipocere, and not into stone. All the sup-
posed cases of petrifaction are probably of this nature. The change
occurs only when the coffin becomes filled with water. The body, con-
verted into adipocere, floats on the water. The supposed cases of
132 Things not generally Known.
changes of position in the grave, bursting open the coffin-lids, turning
over, crossing of limbs, &c., formerly attributed to the coming to life of
persons buried who were not dead, is now ascertained to be due to the
same cause. The chemical change into adipocere, and the evolution of
gases, produce these movements of dead bodies. Mr. Trail Green.
THE MOST ANCIENT FISHES.
Among the important results of Sir Roderick Murchison's
establishment of the Silurian system is the following :
That as the Lower Silurian group, often of vast dimensions, has
never afforded the smallest vestige of a Fish, though it abounds in nu-
merous species of the marine classes, corals, cnnoidea, mollusca, and
Crustacea ; and as in Scandinavia and Russia, where it is based on rocks
void of fossils, its lowest stratum contains facoids only, Sir R. Mur-
chison has, after fifteen years of laborious research stea iily directed to
this point, arrived at the conclusion, that a very long period elapsed
after life was breathed into the waters before the lowest order of verte-
brata was created ; the earliest fishes being those of the Upper Silurian
rocks, winch he was the first to discover, and which he described " as
the most ancient beings of their class which have yet been brought to
light." Though the Lower Silurian rocks of various parts of the world
have since been ransacked by multitudes of prying geologists, who have
exhumed from them myriads of marine fossils, not a single ichthyolite
has been found in any stratum of higher antiquity than the Upper
Silurian group of Murchison.
The most remarkable of all fossil fishes yet discovered have
been found in the Old Red Sandstone cliffs at Dorpat, where
the remains are so gigantic (one bone measuring two feet nine
inches in length) that they were at first supposed to belong to
saurians.
Sir Roderick's examination of Russia has, in short, proved
that the ichthyolites and mollusks which, in Western Europe, are
separately peculiar to smaller detached basins, were here (in the
British Isles} cohabitants of many parts of the same great sea.
EXTINCT CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS OF BRITAIN.
Professor Owen has thus forcibly illustrated the Carnivorous
Anim ils which preyed upon and restrained the undue multi-
plica ion of the vegetable feeders. First we have the bear
family, which is now represented in this country only by the
badger. We were once blest, however, with many bears. One
species seems to have been identical with the existing brown
bear of the European continent. Far larger and more formidable
was the gigantic cave-bear ((Jrsus spelceus), which surpassed in
size his grisly brother of North America. The skull of the cave-
bear differs very much in shape from that of its small brown
relative just alluded to ; the forehead, in particular, is much
higher, to be accounted for by an arrangement of air-cells simi-
lar to those which we have already remarked in the elephant.
Curiosities of Science. Io3
The cave-bear has left its remains in vast abundance in Ger-
many. In our own caves, the bones of hysenas are found in
greater quantities. The marks which the teeth of the hyaena
make upon the bones which it gnaws are quite unmistakable.
Our English hyaenas had the most undiscriminating appetite,
preying upon every creature, their own species amongst others.
Wolves, not distinguishable from those which now exist in
France and Germany, seem to have kept company with the
hyaenas ; and the Felis spelcea, a sort of lion, but larger than
any which now exists, ruled over all weaker brutes. Here,
says Professor Owen, we have the original British Lion. A
species of Machairodus has left its remains at Kent's Hole, near
Torquay. In England we had also the beaver, which still
lingers on the Danube and the Rhone, and a larger species,
which has been called Trogontherium (gnawing beast), and a
gigantic mole.
THE GREAT CAVE TIGER OR LION OF BRITAIN.
Remains of this remarkable animal of the drift or gravel
period of this country have been found at Brentford and else-
where near London. Speaking of this animal, Professor Owen
observes, that "it is commonly supposed that the Lion, the
Tiger, and the Jaguar are animals peculiarly adapted to a
tropical climate. The genus Felis (to which these animals
belong) is, however, represented by specimens in high northern
latitudes, and in all the intermediate countries to the equator."
The chief condition necessary for the presence of such animals
is an abundance of the vegetable-feeding animals. It is thus
that the Indian tiger has been known to follow the herds of
antelope and deer in the lofty mountains of the Himalaya to the
verge of perpetual snow, and far into Siberia. " It need not,
therefore," continues Professor Owen, "excite surprise that
indications should have been discovered in the fossil relics of
the ancient mammalian population of Europe of a large feline
animal, the contemporary of the mammoth, of the tichorrhine
rhinoceros, of the great gigantic cave-bear and hyaena, and the
slayer of the oxen, deer, and equine quadrupeds that so
abounded during the same epoch." The dimensions of this
extinct animal equal those of the largest African lion or Bengal
tiger ; and some bones have been found which seem to imply
that it had even more powerful limbs and larger paws.
THE MAMMOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES.
Dr. Buckland has shown that for long ages many species
of carnivorous animals now extinct inhabited the caves of the
British islands. In low tracts of Yorkshire, where tranquil
lacustrine (lake-like) deposits have occurred, bones (even thoso
134 Things not generally Known.
of the lion) have been found so perfectly unbroken and un-
worn, in fine gravel (as at Market Weigh ton), that few persons
would be disposed to deny that such feline and other animals
once roamed over the British isles, as well as other European
countries. Why, then, is it improbable that large elephants,
with a peculiarly thick integument, a close coating of wool,
and much long shaggy hair, should have been the occupants
of wide tracts of Northern Europe and Asia? This coating,
Dr. Fleming has well remarked, was probably as impenetrable
to rain and cold as that of the monster ox of the polar circle.
Such is the opinion of Sir Roderick Murchison, who thus ac-
counts for the disappearance of the mammoths from Britain :
When we turn from the great Siberian continent, which, anterior to
its elevation, was the chief abode of the mammoths, and look to the
other parts of Europe, where their remains also occur, how remarkable
is it that we find the number of these creatures to be justly proportion-
ate to the magnitude of the ancient masses of land which the labours
of geologists have denned ! Take the British isles, for example, and let
all their low, recently elevated districts be submerged ; let, in short,
England be viewed as the comparatively small island she was when the
ancient estuary of the Thames, including the plains of Hyde Park,
Chelsea, Hounslow, and Uxbridge, were under the water ; when the
Severn extended far into the heart of the kingdom, and large eastern
tracts of the island were submerged, and there will then remain but
moderately-sized feeding-grounds for the great quadrupeds whose bones
are found in the gravel of the adjacent rivers and estuaries.
This limited area of subsistence could necessarily only keep
Tip a small stock of such animals ; and, just as we might ex-
pect, the remains of British mammoths occur in very small
numbers indeed, when compared with those of the great char-
nel-houses of Siberia, into which their bones had been carried
down through countless ages from the largest mass of surface
which geological inquiries have yet shown to have been dry
land during that epoch.
The remains of the mammoth, says Professor Owen, have
been found in all, or almost all, the counties of England. Off
the coast of Norfolk they are met with in vast abundance.
The fishermen who go to catch turbot between the mouth of
the Thames and the Dutch coast constantly get their nets en-
tangled in the tusks of the mammoth. A collection of tusks
and other remains, obtained in this way, is to be seen at Rams-
gate. In North America, this gigantic extinct elephant must
have been very common ; and a large portion of the ivory
which supplies the markets of Europe is derived from the vast
mammoth graveyards of Siberia.
The mammoth ranged at least as far north as 60. There
is no doubt that, at the present day, many specimens of the
musk-ox are annually becoming imbedded in the mud and ice
of the North- American rivers.
Curiosities of Science. 135
It is curious to observe, that the mammoth teeth which are
met with in caves generally belonged to young mammoths, who
probably resorted thither for shelter before increasing age and
strength emboldened them to wander far afield.
THE RHINOCEROS AND HIPPOPOTAMUS OF ENGLAND.
The mammoth was not the only giant that inhabited Eng-
land in the Pliocene or Upper Tertiary period. We had also
here the Rhinoceros tichorrhinus, or "strongly walled about the
nose," remains of which have been discovered in enormous
quantities in the brickfields about London. Pallas describes
an entire specimen of this creature, which was found near
Yakutsk, the coldest town on the globe. Another rhinoceros,
leptorrhinus (fine nose), dwelt with the elephant of Southern
Europe. In Siberia has been discovered the Elaimotherium,
forming a link between the rhinoceros and the horse.
In the days of the mammoth, we had also in England a
Hippopotamus, rather larger than the species which now in-
habits the Nile. Of our British hippopotamus some remains
were dug up by the workmen in preparing the foundations of
the New Junior United Service Club-house, in Regent-street.
THE ELEPHANT AND TORTOISE.
The idea of an Elephant standing on the back of a Tortoise
was often laughed at as an absurdity, until Captain Cautley
and Dr. Falconer at length discovered in the hills of Asia the
remains of a tortoise in a fossil state of such a size that an
elephant could easily have performed the above feat.
COEXISTENCE OF MAN AND THE MASTODON.
Dr. C. F. Winslow has communicated to the Boston Society
of Natural History the discovery of the fragment of a human
cranium 180 feet below the surface of the Table Mountain,
California. Now the mastodon's bones being found in the
same deposits, points very clearly to the probability of the ap-
peaiance of the human race on the western portions of North
America at least before the extinction of those huge creatures.
Fragments of mastodon and Elephas primigenius have been
taken ten and twenty feet below the surface in the above lo-
cality ; where this discovery of human and mastodon remains
gives strength to the possible truth of an old Indian tradition,
the contemporary existence of the mammoth and aboriginals
in this region of the globe.
HABITS OF THE MEGATHERIUM.
Much uncertainty has been felt about the habits of the Me-
gatherium, or Great Beast. It has been asked whether it bur-
136 Things not generally Known.
rowed or climbed, or what it did ; and difficulties have pre-
sented themselves on all sides of the question. Some have
thought that it lived in trees as much larger than those which
now exist as the Megatherium itself is larger than the common
sloth. * This, however, is now known to be a mistake. It did
not climb trees it pulled them down ; and in order to do this
the hinder parts of its skeleton were made enormously strong,
and its prehensile fore-legs formed so as to give it a tremendous
power over any thing which it grasped. Dr. Buckland sug-
gested that animals which got their living in this way had
a very fair chance of having their heads broken. While Pro-
fessor Owen was still pondering over this difficulty, the skull
of a cognate animal, the Mylodon, came into his hands. Great
was his delight when he found that the mylodon not only had
his head broken, but broken in two different places, at two
different times ; and moreover so broken that the injury could
only have been inflicted by some such agent as a fallen tree.
The creature had recovered from the first blow, but had evi-
dently died of the second. This tribe had, as it turns out,
two skulls, an outer and an inner one given them, as it
would appear, expressly with a view to the very dangerous
method in which they were intended to obtain their necessary-
food.
The dentition of the megatherium is curious. The ele-
phant gets teeth as he wants them. Nature provided for the
comfort of the megatherium in another way. It did not get
new teeth, but the old ones went on for ever growing as long
as the animal lived ; so that as fast as one grinding surface be-
came useless, another supplied its place.
THE DINOTHEE1UM, OE TEEEIBLE BEAST.
The family of herbivorous Cetaceans are connected with the
Pachydermata of the land by one of the most wonderful of all
the extinct creatures with which geologists have made us ac-
quainted. This is the Dinotherium, or Terrible Beast. The re-
mains of this animal were found in Miocene sands at Eppels-
heim, about forty miles from Darmstadt. It must have been
larger than the largest extinct or living elephant. The most
remarkable peculiarity of its structure is the enormous tusks,
curving downwards and terminating its lower jaw. It appears
to have lived in the water, where the immense weight of these
formidable appendages would not be so inconvenient as on
land. What these tusks were used for is a mystery ; but perhaps
they acted as pickaxes in digging up trees and shrubs, or as
* The sloth only deserves its name when it is obliged to attempt to pioceed
along the ground ; when it has any thing which it can lay hold of it is agile
enough.
Curiosities of Science. 137
harrows in raking the bottom of the water. Dr. Buckland used
to suggest that they were perhaps employed as anchors, by
means of which the monster might fasten itself to the bank of
a stream and enjoy a comfortable nap. The extreme length of
the Dinotherium was about eighteen feet. Professor Kemp, in
his restoration of the animal, has given it a trunk like that of
the elephant, but not so long, and the general form of the tapir.
Professor Owen.
THE GLYPTODON.
There are few creatures which we should less have expected
to find represented in fossil history by a race of gigantic brethren
than the armadillo. The creature is so small, not only in size
but in all its works and ways, that we with difficulty associate
it with the idea of magnitude. Yet Sir Woodbine Parish has
discovered evidences of enormous animals of this family having
once dwelt in South America. The huge loricated (plated over)
creature whose relics were first sent has received the name of
Glyptodon, from its sculptured teeth. Unlike the small arma-
dillos, it was unable to roll itself up into a ball ; though an
enormous carnivore which lived in those days must have made
it sometimes wish it had the power to do so. When attacked,
it must have crouched down, and endeavoured to make its huge
shell as good a defence as possible. Professor Owen.
INMATES OF AN AUSTRALIAN CAVERN.
From the fossil-bone caverns in Wellington Valley, in 1830,
were sent to Professor Owen several bones which belonged, as
it turned out, to gigantic kangaroos, immensely larger than
any existing species ; to a kind of wombat, to formidable das-
yures, and several other genera. It also appeared that the
bones, which were those of herbivores, had evidently belonged
to young animals, while those of the carnivores were full-sized ;
a fact which points to the relations between the two families
having been any thing but agreeable to the herbivores.
THE POUCH-LION OF AUSTRALIA.
The Thylacoleo (Pouch-Lion) was a gigantic marsupial car-
nivore, whose character and affinities Professor Owen has, with
exquisite scientific tact, made out from very small indications.
This monster, which had kangaroos with heads three feet long
to feed on, must have been one of the most extraordinary ani-
mals of the antique world.
THE CONEY OF SCRIPTURE.
Paleontologists have pointed out the curious fact that the
138 Things not generally Known.
Hyrax, called ' coney' in our authorised version of the Bible, is
really only a diminutive and hornless rhinoceros. Remains have
been found at Eppelsheim which indicate an animal more like a
gigantic Hyrax than any of the existing rhinoceroses. To this
the name of Acerotherium (Hornless Beast) has been given.
A THREE-HOOFED HORSE.
Professor Owen describes the Hipparion, or Three-hoofed
Horse, as the first representative of a family so useful to man-
kind. This animal, in addition to its true hoof, appears to
have had two additional elementary hoofs, analogous to those
which we see in the ox. The object of these no doubt was to
enable the Hipparion to extricate his foot with greater ease
than he otherwise could when it sank through the swampy
ground on which he lived.
TWO MONSTER CARNIVORES OF FRANCE.
A huge carnivorous creature has been found in Miocene
strata in France, in which country it preyed upon the gazelle
and antelope. It must have been as large as a grisly bear, but
in general appearance and teeth more like a gigantic dog.
Hence the name of Amphicyon (Doubtful Dog) has been as-
signed to it. This animal must have derived part of its support
from vegetables. Not so the coeval monster which has been
called Machairodus (Sabre-tooth). It must have been some-
what akin to the tiger, and is by far the most formidable ani-
mal which we have met with in our ascending progress through
the extinct mammalia. Professor Owen.
GEOLOGY OF THE SHEEP.
No unequivocal fossil remains of the sheep have yet been
found in the bone-caves, the drift, or the more tranquil strati-
fied newer Pliocene deposits, so associated with the fossil bones
of oxen, wild-boars, wolves, foxes, otters, <fec., as to indicate
the coevality of the sheep with those species, or in such an
altered state as to indicate them to have been of equal anti-
quity. Professor Owen had his attention particularly directed
to this point in collecting evidence for a history of British
Fossil Mammalia. No fossil core-horns of the sheep have yet
been any where discovered ; and so far as this negative evi-
dence goes, we may infer that the sheep is not geologically
more ancient than man ; that it is not a native of Europe, but
has been introduced by the tribes who carried hither the germs
of civilisation in their migrations westward from Asia.
THE-TRILOBITE.
Among the earliest races we have those remarkable forms,
Curiosities of Science. 139
the Trilobites, inhabiting the ancient ocean. These Crustacea
remotely resemble the common wood-louse, and like that ani-
mal they had the power of rolling themselves into a ball when
attacked by an enemy. The eye of the trilobite is a most re-
markable organ ; and in that of one species, Phacops caudatus,
not less than 250 lenses have been discovered. This remark-
able optical instrument indicates that these creatures lived
under similar conditions to those which surround the.crustacea
of the present day. Hunt's Poetry of Science.
PEOFITABLE SCIENCE.
In that strip of reddish colour which runs along the cliffs
of Suffolk, and is called the Redcrag, immense quantities of
cetacean remains have been found. Four different kinds of
whales, little inferior in size to the whalebone whale, have left
their bones in this vast charnel-house. In 1840, a singularly
perplexing fossil was brought to Professor Owen from this Red-
crag. No one could say what it was. He determined it to be
the tooth of a ceta'cean, a unique specimen. Now the remains
of cetaceans in the Suffolk crag have been discovered in such
enormous quantities, that many thousands a-year are made by
converting them into manure.
EXTINCT GIGANTIC BIEDS OF NEW ZEALAND.
In the islands of New Zealand have been found the bones of
large extinct wingless Birds, belonging to the Post Tertiary or
Recent system, which have been deposited by the action of rivers.
The bird is named Moa by the natives, and Dinornis by natu-
ralists : some of the bones have been found in two caves in the
North Island, and have been sold by the natives at an extraor-
dinary price. The caves occur in limestone rocks, and the bones
are found beneath earth and a soft deposit of carbonate of lime.
The largest of the birds is stated to have stood thirteen or four-
teen feet, or twice the height of the ostrich ; and its egg large
enough to fill the hat of a man as a cup. Several statements
have appeared of these birds being still in existence, but there
is every reason to believe the Moa to be altogether extinct.
An extensive collection of remains of these great wingless
birds has been collected in New Zealand by Mr. Walter Mantel],
and deposited in the British Museum. Among these bones
Professor Owen has discovered a species which he regards as
the most remarkable of the feathered class for its prodigious
strength and massive proportions, and which he names Dinor-
nis elepkantopus, or elephant-footed, of which the Professor has
been able to construct an entire lower limb : the length of the
metatarsal bone is 9^ inches, the breadth of the lower eud
140 Things not generally Known.
being 5 finches. The extraordinary proportions of the meta-
tarsus of this wingless bird will, however, be still better under-
stood by comparison with the same bone in the ostrich, in
which the metatarsus is 19 inches in length, the breadth of its
lower end being only 2 inches. From the materials accumu-
lated by Mr. Mantell, the entire skeleton of the Dinornis ele-
phantopus has been reconstructed ; and now forms a worthy
companion of the Megatherium and Mastodon in the gallery of
fossil remains in the British Museum. This species of Dinornis
appears to have been restricted to the Middle Island of New
Zealand.*
Another specimen of the remains of the Dinornis is pre-
served in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in
Lincoln's-Inn Fields; and the means by which the college
obtained this valuable acquisition is thus graphically narrated
by Mr. Samuel Warren, F. R.S. :
In the year 1839, Professor Owen was sitting alone in his study, when
a shabbily-dressed man made his appearance, announcing that he had
got a great curiosity, which he had brought from New Zealand, and
wished to dispose of to him. It had the appearance of an old mar-
row-bone, about six inches in length, and rather more than two inches
in thickness, with both extremities broken off; and Professor Owen consi-
dered that, to whatever animal it mi^ht have belonged, the fragment
must have lain in the earth for centuries. At first he considered this
same marrow-bone to have belonged to an ox, at all events to a quad-
ruped ; for the wall or rim of the bone was six times as thick as the bone
of any bird, even of the ostrich. He compared it with the bones in the
skeleton of an ox, a horse, a camel, a tapir, and every quadruped ap-
parently possessing a bone of that size and configuration ; but it corre-
sponded with none. On this he very narrowly examined the surface of
the bony rim, and at length became satisfied that this fragment must
have belonged to a bird 1 to one at least as large as an ostrich, but of
a totally different species ; and consequently one never before heard of,
as an ostrich was by far the biggest bird known.
From the difference in the strength of the bone, the ostrich being un-
able to fly, so must have been unable this unknown bird ; and so our
anatomist came to the conclusion that this old shapeless bone indicated
the former existence in New Zealand of some huge bird, at least as
great as an ostrich, but of a far heavier and more sluggish kind. Pro-
fessor Owen was confident of the validity of his conclusions, but would
communicate that confidence to no one else ; and notwithstanding at-
tempts to dissuade him from committing his views to the public, he
Printed his deductions in the Transactions of the Zoological Society for
839, where fortunately they remain on record as conclusive evidence of
the fact of his having then made this guess, so to speak, in the dark.
He caused the bone, however, to be engraved ; and having sent a hun-
* Dr. A. Thomson has communicated to Jameson's Journal, No. 112, a De-
scription of the Caves in the North Island, with some general observations on
this genus of birds. He concludes them to have been indolent, dull, and stupid;
to have lived chiefly on vegetable food in mountain fastnesses and secluded
caverns.
In the picture-gallery at Drayton Manor, the seat of Sir Robert Peel, hangs a
portrait of Professor Owen, and in his hand is depicted the tibia of a Moa.
Curiosities of Science. 141
dred copies of the engraving to New Zealand, in the hope of their being
distributed and leading to interesting results, he patiently waited for
three years, viz. till the year 1842, when he received intelligence
from Dr. Buckland, at Oxford, that a great box, just arrived from New
Zealand, consigned to himself, was on its way, unopened, to Professor
Owen, who found it filled with bones, palpably of a bird, one of which
bones was three feet in length, and much more than double the size of
any bone in the ostrich !
And out of the contents of this box the Professor was positively en-
abled to articulate almost the entire skeleton of a huge wingless bird
between TEN and ELEVEN feet in height, its bony structure in strict con-
formity with the fragment in question ; and that skeleton may at any
time be seen at the Museum of the College of Surgeons, towering over,
and nearly twice the height of, the skeleton of an ostrich ; and at its feet
lying the old bone from which alone consummate anatomical science had
deduced such an astounding reality, the existence of an enormous ex-
tinct creature of the bird kind, in an island where previously no bird
had been known to exist larger than a pheasant or a common fowl t
Lecture on tke Moral and Intellectual Development of the present Age.*
"THE MAESTEICHT SAUKIAN FOSSIL" A FRAUD.
In 1795, there was stated to have been discovered in the
stone quarries adjoining Maestricht the remains of the gigan-
tic Mosoesaurus (Saurian of the Meuse), an aquatic reptile about
twenty-five feet long, holding an intermediate place between
the Monitors and Iguanas. It appears to have had webbed feet,
and a tail of such construction as to have served for a powerful
oar, and enabled the animal to stem the waves of the ocean, of
which Cuvier supposed it to have been an inhabitant. It is
thus referred to by Dr. Mantell, in his Medals of Creation : "A
specimen, with the jaws and bones of the palate, now in the
Museum at Paris, has long been celebrated ; and is still the most
precious relic of this extinct reptile hitherto discovered." An
admirable cast of this specimen is preserved in the British Mu-
seum, in a case near the bones of the Iguanodon. This is, how-
ever, useless, as Cuvier is proved to have been imposed upon in
the matter.
M. Schlegel has reported to the French Academy of Sciences, that
he has ascertained beyond all doubt that the famous fossil saurian of
the quarries of Maestricht, described as a wonderful curiosity by Cuvier,
is nothing more than an impudent fraud. Some bold impostor, it seems,
in order to make money, placed a quantity of bones in the quarries in
such a way as to give them the appearance of having been recently dug
up, and then passed them off as specimens of antediluvian creation.
Being successful in this, he went the length of arranging a number of
bones so as to represent an entire skeleton ; and had thus deceived the
* According to the law of correlation, so much insisted on by Cuvier, a supe-
rior character implies the existence of its inferiors, and that too in definite pro-
portions and constant connections ; so that we need only the assurance of one
character, to be able to reconstruct the whole animal. The triumph of this system
is seen in the reconstruction of extinct animals, as in the above case of the Di-
norais, accomplished by Professor Owen.
142 Things not generally Known.
learned Cuvier. In extenuation of Cuvier's credulity, it is stated that
the bones were so skilfully coloxired as to make them look of immense
antiquity, and he was not allowed to touch them lest they should crumble
to pieces. But when M. Schlegel subjected them to rude handling, he
found that they were comparatively modern, and that they were placed
one by the other without that profound knowledge of anatomy which
was to have been expected from the man bold enough to execute such
an audacious fraud.
" THE OLDEST PIECE OF WOOD UPON EARTH."
The most remarkable vegetable relic which the Lower Old
Red Sandstone has given us is a small fragment of a coniferous
tree of the Araucarian family, which formed one of the chief
ornaments of the late Hugh Miller's museum, and to which he
used to point as the oldest piece of wood upon earth. He found
it in one of the ichthyolite beds of Cromarty, and thus refers to
it in his Testimony of the Rocks :
On what perished land of the early paleozoic ages did this venerably
antique tree cast root and flourish, when the extinct genera Pterichthys
and Coccoeteus were enjoying life by millions in the surrounding seas,
long ere the flora or fauna of the coal measures had begun to be?
The same nodule which enclosed this lignite contained part of another
fossil, the well-marked scales of Diplacanthus striatus, an ichthyolite re-
stricted to the Lower Old Red Sandstone exclusively. If there be any
value in paleontological evidence, this Cromarty lignite must have been
deposited in a sea inhabited by the Coccoeteus and Diplacanthus. It
is demonstrable that, while yet in a recent state, a Diplacanthus lay down
and died beside it ; and the evidence in the case is unequivocally this,
that in the oldest portion of the oldest terrestrial flora yet known there
occurs the fragment of a tree quite as high in the scale as the stately
Norfolk-Island pine or the noble cedar of Lebanon.
NO FOSSIL HOSE.
Professor Agassiz, in a lecture upon the trees of America,
states a remarkable fact in regard to the family of the rose,
which includes among its varieties not only many of the
most beautiful flowers, but also the richest fruits, as the apple,
pear, peach, plum, apricot, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, &c.,
namely, that no fossil plants belonging to this family have ever
been discovered by geologists ! This M. Agassiz regards as con-
clusive evidence that the introduction of this family of plants
upon the earth was coeval with, or subsequent to, the creation
of man, to whose comfort and happiness they seem especially
designed by a wise Providence to contribute.
CHANGES ON THE EARTH'S SURFACE.
In the Imperial Library at Paris is preserved a manuscript
work by an Arabian writer, Mohammed Karurini, who nourished
in the seventh century of the Hegira, or at the close of the
thirteenth century of our era. Herein we find several curious
Curiosities of Science. 143
remarks on aerolites and earthquakes, and the successive
changes of position which the land and sea have undergone.
Of the latter class is the following beautiful passage from the
narrative of Khidz, an allegorical personage :
I passed one day by a very ancient and wonderfully populous city,
and asked one of its inhabitants how long it had been founded. "It is
indeed a mighty city," replied he ; " we know not how long it has ex-
isted, and our ancestors were on this subject as ignorant as cm-selves."
Five centuries afterwards, as I passed by the same place, I could not
perceive the slightest vestige of the city. I demanded of a peasant who
was gathering herbs upon its former site how long it had been destroyed.
" In sooth, a strange question," replied he ; " the ground here has never
been different from what you now behold it." " Was there not of old,"
said I, "a splendid city here ?" " Never," answered he, "so far as we
have seen ; and never did our fathers speak to us of any such." On my
return there five hundred years afterwards, I found the sea in the same
place ; and on its shores were a party of fishermen, of whom I inquired
how long the land had been covered by the waters. " Is this a question,"
say they, " for a man like you ? This spot has always been what it is
now." I again returned five hundred years afterwards; the sea had
disappeared : I inquired of a man who stood alone upon the spot how
long this change had taken place, and he gave me the same answer as
I had received before. Lastly, on coming back again after an equal
lapse of time, I found there a flourishing city, more populous and more
rich in beautiful buildings than the city I had seen the first time ;. and
when I would fain have informed myself concerning its origin, the in-
habitants answered me, "Its rise is lost in remote antiquity : we are
ignorant how long it has existed, and our fathers were on this subject
as ignorant as ourselves."
This striking passage was quoted in the Examiner ', in 1834.
Surely in this fragment of antiquity we trace the " geological
changes" of modern science.
GEOLOGICAL TIME.
Many ingenious calculations have been made to approxi-
mate the dates of certain geological events ; but these, it must
be confessed, are more amusing than instructive. For example,
so many inches of silt are yearly laid down in the delta of the
Mississippi how many centuries will it have taken to accu-
mulate a thickness of 30, 60, or 100 feet ? Again, the ledges
of Niagara are wasting at the rate of so many feet per century
how many years must the river have taken to cut its way
back from Queeustown to the present Falls ? Again, lavas
and melted basalts cool, according to the size of the mass, at
the rate of so many degrees in a given time how many mil-
lions of years must have elapsed, supposing an original igneous
condition of the earth, before its crust had attained a state of
solidity ? or further, before its surface had cooled down to the
present mean temperature ? For these and similar computa-
tions, the student will at once perceive we want the necessaiy
144 Things not generally Known.
uniformity of factor ; and until we can bring elements of cal-
culation as exact as those of astronomy to bear on geological
chronology, it will be better to regard our " eras" and " epochs"
and " systems" as so many terms, indefinite in their duration,
but sufficient for the magnitude of the operations embraced
within their limits. Advanced Textbook of Geology, by David
Page, F.G.S.
M. Rozet, in 1841, called attention to the fact, that the
causes which have produced irregularities in the structure of
the globe have not yet ceased to act, as is proved by earth-
quakes, volcanic eruptions, slow and continuous movements
of the crust of the earth in certain regions, &c. We may,
therefore, yet see repeated the great catastrophes which the
surface of the earth has undergone anteriorly to the histori-
cal period.
At the meeting of the British Association in 1855, Mr. Hop-
kins excited much controversy by his startling speculation
that 9000 years ago the site on which London now stands was
in the torrid zone ; and that, according to perpetual changes
in progress, the whole of England would in time arrive within
the Arctic circle.
CURIOUS CAUSE OF CHANGE OF LEVEL.
Professor Hennessey, in 1857, found the entire mass of rock
and hill on which the Armagh Observatory is erected to be slightly,
but to an astronomer quite perceptibly, tilted or canted, at one season
to the east, at another to the west. This he at first attributed to
the varying power of the sun's radiation to heat and expand
the rock throughout the year; but he subsequently had reason
to attribute it rather to the infiltration of water to the parts
where the clay-slate and limestone rocks met, the varying
quantity of the water exerting a powerful hydrostatic energy
by which the position of the rock is slightly varied.
Now Armagh and its observatory stand at the junction of
the mountain limestone with the clay-slate, having, as it were,
one leg on the former and the other on the latter ; and both
rocks probably reach downwards 1000 or 2000 feet. When
rain falls, the one will absorb more water than the other ; both
will gain an increase of conductive power ; but the one which
has absorbed most water will have the greatest increase, and
being thus the better conductor, will draw a greater portion of
heat from the hot nucleus below to the surface will become, in
fact, temporarily hotter, and, as a consequence, expand more
than the other. In a word, both rocks will expand at the wet
season; but the best conductor, or most absorbent rock, will expand
most, and seem to tilt the hill to one side; at the dry season it will
Curiosities of Science. 145
subside most, and the hill will seem to be tilted in the opposite di-
rection.
The fact is curious, and not less so are the results deduci-
ble from it. First, hills are higher at one season than another ;
a fact we might have supposed, but never could have ascer-
tained by measurement. Secondly, they are highest, not, as we
should have supposed, at the hottest season, but at the wettest.
Thirdly, it is from the different rates of expansion of different
rocks that this has been discovered. Fourthly, it is by converse
with the heavens that it has been made known to us. A va-
riation of probably half a second, or less, in the right ascension
of three or four stars, observed at different seasons, no doubt
revealed the fact to the sagacious astronomer of Armagh, and
even enabled him to divine its cause.
Professor Hennessey observes in connection with this phenomenon,
that a very small change of ellipticity would suffice to lay bare or sub-
merge extensive tracts of the globe. If, for example, the mean ellip-
ticity of the ocean increased from ^ to | , the level of the sea would
be raised at the equator by about 228 feet, while under the parallel of
52 it would be depressed by 196 feet. Shallow seas and banks in the
latitudes of the British isles, and between them and the pole, would
thus be converted into dry land, while low-lying plains and islands near
the equator would be submerged. If similar phenomena occurred during
early periods of geological history, they would manifestly influence the
distribution of land and water during these periods ; and with such a
direction of the forces as that referred to, they would tend to increase
the proportion of land in the polar and temperate regions of the earth,
as compared with the equatorial regions during successive geological
epochs. Such maps as those published by Sir Charles Lyell on the dis-
tribution of land and water in Europe during the Tertiary period, and
those of M. Elie de Beaumont, contained in Beaudant's Geology, would,
if sufficiently extended, assist in verifying or disproving these views.
THE OUTLINES OF CONTINENTS NOT FIXED.
Continents (says M. Agassiz) are only a patchwork formed
by the emergence and subsidence of land. These processes are
still going on in various parts of the globe. Where the shores
of the continent are abrupt and high, the effect produced may
be slight, as in Norway and Sweden, where a gradual elevation
is going on without much alteration in their outlines. But if
the continent of North America were to be depressed 1000 feet,
nothing would remain of it except a few islands, and any ele-
vation would add vast tracts to its shores.
The west of Asia, comprising Palestine and the country
about Ararat and the Caspian Sea, is below the level of the
ocean, and a rent in the mountain-chains by which it is sur-
rounded would transform it into a vast gulf.
146 Things not generally Known.
jfleteorologtcal
THE ATMOSPHERE.
A PHILOSOPHER of the East, with a richness of imagery truly
oriental, describes the Atmosphere as " a spherical shell which
surrounds our planet to a depth which is unknown to us, by
reason of its growing tenuity, as it is released from the pres-
sure of its own superincumbent mass. Its upper surface can-
not be nearer to us than 50, and can scarcely be more remote
than 500, miles. It surrounds us on all sides, yet we see it not;
it presses on us with a load of fifteen pounds on every square
inch of surface of our bodies, or from seventy to one hundred
tons on us in all, yet we do not so much as feel its weight.
Softer than the softest down, more impalpable than the finest
gossamer, it leaves the cobweb undisturbed, and scarcely stirs
the lightest flower that feeds on the dew it supplies ; yet it
bears the fleets of nations on its wings around the world, and
crushes the most refractory substances with its weight. When
in motion, its force is sufficient to level the most stately forests
and stable buildings with the earth to raise the waters of the
ocean into ridges like mountains, and dash the strongest ships
to pieces like toys. It warms and cools by turns the earth and
the living creatures that inhabit it. It draws up vapours from
the sea and land, retains them dissolved in itself or suspended
in cisterns of clouds, and throws them down again as rain or
dew when they are required. It bends the rays of the sun
from their path to give us the twilight of evening and of dawn ;
it disperses and refracts their various tints to beautify the ap-
proach and the retreat of the orb of day. But for the atmosphere
sunshine would burst on us and fail us at once, and at once
remove us from midnight darkness to the blaze of noon. We
should have no twilight to soften and beautify the landscape ;
no clouds to shade us from the searching heat ; but the bald
earth, as it revolved on its axis, would turn its tanned and
weakened front to the full and unmitigated rays of the lord of
day. It affords the gas which vivifies and warms our frames,
and receives into itself that which has been polluted by use
and is thrown off as noxious. It feeds the flames of life exactly
as it does that of the fire it is in both cases consumed and
affords the food of consumption in both cases it becomes
combined with charcoal, which requires it for combustion and
is removed by it when this is over."
Curiosities of Science. 147
UNIVEKSALITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE.
It is only the girdling, encircling air that flows above and
around all that makes the whole world kin. The carbonic acid
with which to-day our breathing fills the air, to-morrow makes
its way round the world. The date- trees that grow round the
falls of the Nile will drink it in by their leaves ; the cedars of
Lebanon will take of it to add to their stature ; the cocoa-
nuts of Tahiti will grow rapidly upon it ; and the palms and ba-
nanas of Japan will change it into flowers. The oxygen we are
breathing was distilled for us some short time ago by the mag-
nolias of the Susquehanna; the great trees that skirt the Ori-
noco and the Amazon, the giant rhododendrons of the Hima-
layas, contributed to it, and the roses and myrtles of Cashmere,
the cinnamon-tree of Ceylon, and the forest, older than the
Flood, buried deep in the heart of Africa, far behind the Moun-
tains of the Moon. The rain we see descending was thawed
for us out of the icebergs which have watched the polar star
for ages ; and the lotus-lilies have soaked up from the Nile, and
exhaled as vapour, snows that rested on the summits of the
Alps. North-British Review.
THE HEIGHT OF THE ATMOSPHF.KE.
The differences existing between that which appertains to
the air of heaven (the realms of universal space) and that which
belongs to the strata of our terrestrial atmosphere are very
striking. It is not possible, as well-attested facts prove, per-
fectly to explain the operations at work in the much-contested
upper boundaries of our atmosphere. The extraordinary light-
ness of whole nights in the year 1831, during which small print
might be read at midnight in the latitudes of Italy and the north
of Germany, is a fact directly at variance with all we know
according to the researches on the crepuscular theory and the
height of the atmosphere. The phenomena of light depend
upon conditions still less understood ; and their variability at
twilight, as well as in the zodiacal light, excite our astonish-
ment. Yet the atmosphere which surrounds the earth is not
thicker in proportion to the bulk of our globe than the line of
a circle two inches in diameter when compared with the space
which it encloses, or the down on the skin of a peach in com-
parison with the fruit inside.
COLOURS OF THE ATMOSPHERE.
Pure air is blue, because, according to Newton, the mole-
cules of the air have the thickness necessary to reflect blue rays.
When the sky is not perfectly pure, and the atmosphere is
blended with perceptible vapours, the diffused light is mixed
148 Things not generally Known.
with a large proportion of white. As the moon is yellow, the
blue of the air assumes somewhat of a greenish tinge, or, in
other words, becomes blended with yellow. Letter from Arago
toHumboldt; Cosmos, vol. iii.
BEAUTY OF TWILIGHT.
This phenomenon is caused by the refraction of solar light
enabling it to diffuse itself gradually over our hemisphere, ob-
scured by the shades of night, long before the sun appears, even
when that luminary is eighteen degrees below our horizon. It
is towards the poles that this reflected splendour of the great
luminary is longest visible, often changing the whole of the
night into a magic day, of which the inhabitants of southern
Europe can form no adequate conception.
HOW PASCAL WEIGHED THE ATMOSPHERE.
Pascal's treatise on the weight of the whole mass of air
forms the basis of the modern science of Pneumatics. In order
to prove that the mass of air presses by its weight on all the
bodies which it surrounds, and also that it is elastic and com-
pressible, he carried a balloon, half-filled with air, to the top
of the Puy de Dome, a mountain about 500 toises above Cler-
mont, in Auvergne. It gradually inflated itself as it ascended,
and when it reached the summit it was quite full, and swollen
as if fresh air had been blown into it ; or, what is the same
thing, it swelled in proportion as the weight of the column of
air which pressed upon it was diminished. When again brought
down it became more and more flaccid, and when it reached
the bottom it resumed its original condition. In the nine
chapters of which the treatise consists, Pascal shows that all
the phenomena and effects hitherto ascribed to the horror of a
vacuum arise from the weight of the mass of air ; and after ex-
plaining the variable pressure of the atmosphere in different
localities and in its different states, and the rise of water in
pumps, he calculates that the whole mass of air round our globe
weighs 8,983,889,440,000,000,000 French pounds. North-
British Review, No. 2.
It seems probable, from many indications, that the greatest
height at which visible clouds ever exint does not exceed ten
miles ; at which height the density of the air is about an eighth
part of what it is at the level of the sea. Sir John Herschel.
VARIATIONS OF CLIMATE.
History informs us that many of the countries of Europe
which now possess very mild winters, at one time experienced
severe cold during this season of the year. The Tiber, at Rome,
was often frozen over, and snow at one time lay for forty days
Curiosities of Science. 149
in that city. The Euxine Sea was frozen over every winter
during the time of Ovid, and the rivers Rhine and Rhone used
to be frozen over so deep that the ice sustained loaded wagons.
The waters of the Tiber, Rhine, and Rhone, now flow freely
every winter; ice is unknown in Rome, and the waves of the
Euxiue dash their wintry foam uncrystallised upon the rocks.
Some have ascribed these climate changes to agriculture the
cutting down of dense forests, the exposing of the unturned soil
to the summer's sun, and the draining of great marshes. We
do not believe that such great changes could be produced on
the climate of any country by agriculture ; and we are certain
that no such theory can account for the contrary change of cli-
mate from warm to cold winters which history tells us has
taken place in other countries than those named. Greenland
received its name from the emerald herbage which once clothed
its valleys and mountains ; and its east coast, which is now in-
accessible on account of perpetual ice heaped upon its shores,
was in the eleventh century the seat of flourishing Scandina-
vian colonies, all trace of which is now lost. Cold Labrador was
named Vinland by the Northmen, who visited it A.D. 1000, and
were charmed with its then mild climate. The cause of these
changes is an important inquiry. Scientific American.
AVERAGE CLIMATES.
When we consider the numerous and rapid changes which
take place in our climate, it is a remarkable fact, that the mean
temperature of a place remains nearly the same. The winter may
be unusually cold, or the summer unusually hot, while the
mean temperature has varied even less than a degree. A very
warm summer is therefore likely to be accompanied with a
cold winter ; and in general, if we have any long period of
cold weather, we may expect a similar period at a higher tem-
perature. In general, however, in the same locality the rela-
tive distribution over summer and winter undergoes compara-
tively small variations ; therefore eveiy point of the globe has
an average climate, though it is occasionally disturbed by dif-
ferent atmospheric changes. North-British Review, No. 49.
THE FINEST CLIMATE IN THE WORLD.
Humboldt regards the climate of the Caspian Sea as the
most salubrious in the world : here he found the most delicious
fruits that he saw during his travels ; and such was the purity
of the air, that polished steel would not tarnish even by night
exposure.
150 Things not generally Known.
THE PUBEST ATMOSPHEEES.
The cloudless purity and transparency of the atmosphere,
which last for eight mouths at Santiago, in Chili, are so great,
that Lieutenant Gilliss, with the first telescope ever constructed
in America, having a diameter of seven inches, was clearly able
to recognise the sixth star in the trapezium of Orion. If we
are to rely upon the statements of the Rev. Mr. Stoddart, an
American missionary, Oroouaiah, in Persia, seems to be, in so
far as regards the transparency of the atmosphere, the most
suitable place in the world for an astronomical observatory.
Writing to Sir John Herschel from that country, he mentions
that he has been enabled to distinguish with the naked eye the
satellites of Jupiter, the crescent of Venus, the rings of Saturn,
and the constituent members of several double stars.
SEA-BREEZES AND LAND-BREEZES ILLUSTRATED.
When a fire is kindled on the hearth, we may, if we will
observe the motes floating in the room, see that those nearest
the chimney are the first to feel the draught and to obey it,
they are drawn into the blaze. The circle of inflowing air is
gradually enlarged, until it is scarcely perceived in the remote
parts of the room. Now the laud is the hearth, the rays of the
sun the fire, and the sea, with its cool and calm air, the room ;
and thus we have at our firesides the sea-breeze in miniature.
When the sun goes down, the fire ceases ; then the dry laud
commences to give off its surplus heat by radiation, so that by
nine or ten o'clock it and the air above it are cooled below the
sea temperature. The atmosphere on the land thus becomes
heavier than that on the sea, and consequently there is a wind
seaward, which we call the land-breeze. Maury.
SUPERIOR SALUBRITY OF THE WEST.
All large cities and towns have their best districts in the
West ;* which choice the French savans, Pelouze, Pouillet.
Boussingault, and Elie de Beaumont, attribute to the law of
atmospheric pressure. " When," say they, " the barometric
column rises, smoke and pernicious emanations rapidly evapor-
ate in space. On the contrary, smoke aud^noxious vapours re-
* Not only at London, but at Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Turin St. Petersburg,
and almost every other capital in Europe ; at Liege. Caen, Montpellier. Toulouse,
and several other large towns. wherever, in fact, there are nut great local obsta-
cles, the tendency of the wealthier inhabitants to group themselves to the west
is as strongly marked as in the British metropolis. At Pompeii. tid other an-
cient towns, the same thing may be noticed ; and where the local configuration of
the town necessitates an increase in a different direction, the moment the obsta-
cle ceases houses spread towards the west.
Curiosities of Science. 151
main in apartments, and on the surface of the soil. Now,
of all winds, that which causes the greatest ascension of the
barometric column is the east; and that which lowers it most
is the west. When the latter blows, it carries with it to the
eastern parts of the town all the deleterious gases from the
west ; and thus the inhabitants of the east have to support
their own smoke and miasma, and those brought by western
winds. When, on the contrary, the east wind blows, it purifies
the air by causing to ascend the pernicious emanations which it
cannot drive to the west. Consequently, the inhabitants of the
west receive pure air, from whatever part of the horizon it may
arrive ; and as the west winds are most prevalent, they are the
first to receive the air pure, and as it arrives from the country.
FERTILISATION OF CLOUDS.
As the navigator cruises in the Pacific Ocean among the
islands of the trade-wmd region, he sees gorgeous piles of cu-
muli, heaped up in fleecy masses, not only capping the island
hills, but often overhanging the lowest islet of the tropics, and
even standing above coral patches and hidden reefs ; " a cloud
by day." to serve as a beacon to the lonely mariner out there at
sea, and to warn him of shoals and dangers which no lead nor
seaman's eye has ever seen or sounded. These clouds, under
favourable circumstances, may be seen gathering above the low
coral island, preparing it for vegetation and fruitfulness in a
very striking manner. As they are condensed into showers,
one fancies that they are a sponge of the most exquisite and de-
licately elaborated material, and that he can see, as they " drop
down their fatness," the invisible but bountiful hand aloft that
is pressing and squeezing it out. Maury.
BAROMETRIC MEASUREMENT.
We must not place too implicit a dependence on Barometri-
cal Measurements. Ermann in Siberia, and Ross in the Antarc-
tic Seas, have demonstrated the existence of localities on the
earth's surface where a permanent depression of the barometer
prevails to the astonishing extent of nearly an inch.
GIGANTIC BAROMETER.
In the Great Exhibition Building of 1851 was a colossal
Barometer, the tube and scale reaching from the floor of the
gallery nearly to the top of the building, and the rise and fall
of the indicating fluid being marked by feet instead of by tenths
of inches. The column of mercury, supported by the pressure
of the atmosphere, communicated with a perpendicular tube of
152 Things not generally Known.
smaller bore, which contained a coloured fluid much lighter
than mercury. When a diminution of atmospheric pressure oc-
curred, the mercury in the large tube descended, and by its fall
forced up the coloured fluid in the smaller tube ; the fall of the
one being indicated in a magnified ratio by the rise in the other.
THE ATMOSPHERE COMPARED TO A STEAM-ENGINE.
In this comparison, by Lieut. Maury, the South Seas them-
selves, in all their vast intertropical extent, are the boiler for
the engine, and the northern hemisphere is its condenser. The
mechanical power exerted by the air and the sun in lifting
water from the earth, in transporting it from one place to an-
other, and in letting it down again, is inconceivably great.
The utilitarian who compares the water-power that the Falls
of Niagara would afford if applied to machinery is astonished
at the number of figures which are required to express its equi-
valent in horse-power. Yet what is the Jiorse-power of the Nia-
gara, falling a few steps, in comparison with the horse-power
that is required to lift up as high as the clouds and let down
again all the water that is discharged into the sea, not only by
this river, but by all the other rivers in the world ? The calcu-
lation has been made by engineers ; and according to it, the
force of making and lifting vapour from each area of one acre
that is included on the surface of the earth, is equal to the
power of thirty horses ; and for the whole of the earth, it is 800
times greater than all the water-power in Europe.
HOW DOES THE RAIN-MAKING VAPOUR GET FROM THE
SOUTHERN INTO THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE ?
This comes with such regularity, that our rivers never go
dry, and our springs fail not, because of the exact compensa-
tion of the grand machine of the atmosphere. It is exquisitely
and wonderfully counterpoised. Late in the autumn of the
north, throughout its winter, and in early spring, the sun is
pouring his rays with the greatest intensity down upon the
seas of the southern hemisphere; and this powerful engine,
which we are contemplating, is pumping up the water there
with the greatest activity ; at the same time, the mean temper-
ature of the entire southern hemisphere is about 10 higher
than the northern. The heat which this heavy evaporation
absorbs becomes latent, and with the moisture is carried
through the upper regions of the atmosphere until it reaches
our climates. Here the vapour is formed into clouds, con-
densed and precipitated ; the heat which held their water in the
state of vapour is set free, and becomes sensible heat ; and it is
that which contributes so much to temper our winter climate.
Curiosities of Science. 1 53
It clouds up in winter, turns warm, and we say we are going
to have falling weather : that is because the process of con-
densation has already commenced, though no rain or snow may
have fallen. Thus we feel this southern heat, that has been col-
lected by the rays of the sun by the sea, been bottled away by
the winds in the clouds of a southern summer, and set free in
the process of condensation in our northern winter.
Thus the South Seas should supply mainly the water for
the engine just described, while the northern hemisphere con-
denses it ; we should, therefore, have more rain in the north-
ern hemisphere. The rivers tell us that we have, at least on
the land ; for the great water-courses of the globe, and half
the fresh water in the world, are found on the north side of
the equator. This fact is strongly corroborative of this hypo-
thesis. To evaporate water enough annually from the ocean
to cover the earth, on the average, five feet deep with rain ; to
transport it from one zone to another ; and to precipitate it
in the right places at suitable times and in the proportions
due, is one of the offices of the grand atmospherical machine.
This water is evaporated principally from the torrid zone. Sup-
posing it all to come thence, we shall have encircling the earth
a belt of ocean 3000 miles in breadth, from which this atmo-
sphere evaporates a layer of water annually sixteen feet in
depth. And to hoist up as high as the clouds, and lower down
again, all the water, in a lake sixteen feet deep and 3000 miles
broad and 24,000 long, is the yearly business of this invisible
machinery. What a powerful engine is the atmosphere ! and
how nicely adjusted must be all the cogs and wheels and springs
and compensations of this exquisite piece of machinery, that it
never wears out nor breaks down, nor fails to do its work at
the right time and in the right way ! Mauri/.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF EAIN.
To understand the philosophy of this beautiful and often
sublime phenomenon, a few facts derived from observation and
a long train of experiments must be remembered.
1. Were the atmosphere every where at all times at a uniform tem-
perature, we should never have rain, or hail, or snow. The water ab-
sorbed by it in evaporation from the sea and the earth's surface would
descend in an imperceptible vapour, or cease to be absorbed by the air
when it was once fully saturated.
2. The absorbing power of the atmosphere, and consequently its
capability to retain humidity, is proportionally greater in warm than in
cold air.
3. The air near the surface of the earth is warmer than it is in the
region of the clouds. The higher we ascend from the earth, the colder
do we find the atmosphere. Hence tho perpetual snow on very high
moxintains in the hottest climate.
154 Things not generally Known.
Now when, from continued evaporation, the air is highly
saturated with vapour, though it be invisible and the sky cloud-
less, if its temperature is suddenly reduced by cold currents de-
scending from above or rushing from a higher to a lower lati-
tude, its capacity to retain moisture is diminished, clouds are
formed, and the result is rain. Air condenses as it cools, and,
like a sponge filled with water and compressed, pours out the
water which its diminished capacity cannot hold. What but
Omniscience could have devised such an admirable arrange-
ment for watering the earth ?
INORDINATE RAINY CLIMATE.
The climate of the Khasia mountains, which lie north-east
from Calcutta, and are separated by the valley of the Burram-
pooter River from the Himalaya range, is remarkable lor the
inordinate fall of rain the greatest, it is said, which lias ever
been recorded. Mr. Yule, an English gentleman, established that
in the single month of August 1841 there fell 264 inches of rain,
or 22 feet, of which 12^ feet fell in the space of five consecu-
tive days. This astonishing fact is confirmed by two other
English travellers, who measured 30 inches of rain in twenty-
four hours, and during seven months above 500 inches. This
great rain-fall is attributed to the abruptness of tiie moun-
tains which face the Bay of Bengal, and the intervening flat
swamps 200 miles in extent. The district of the excessive rain
is extrem ly limited; and but a few degrees farther west, rain
is said to be almost unknown, and the winter falls of snow to
seldom exceed two inches.
HOW DOES THE NORTH WIND DRIVE AWAY RAIN ?
We may liken it to a wet sponge, and the decrease of tem-
perature to the hand that squeezes that sponge. Finally, reach-
ing the cold latitudes, all the moisture that a dew-point of
zero, and even far below, can extract, is wrung from it ; and
this air then commences " to return according to his circuits"
as dry atmosphere. And here we can quote Scripture again :
" The north wind driveth away rain." This is a meteorolo-
gical fact of hig.i authority and great importance in the study
of the circulation of the atmosphere. Mauri/.
SIZE OF RAIN-DROPS.
The Drops of Rain vary in their size, perhaps from the 25th
to the of an inch in diameter. In parting from the clouds,
they precipitate their descent till the increasing resistance op-
posed by the air becomes equal to their weight, when they
continue to fall with uniform velocity. This velocity is, there
Curiosities of Science. 155
fore, in a certain ratio to the diameter of the drops ; hence
thunder and other showers in which the drops are large pour
down faster than a drizzling rain. A drop of the 25th part of
an inch, in falling through the air, would, when it had arrived
at its uniform velocity, only acquire a celerity of 1 1^ feet per
second ; while one of of an inch would equal a velocity of
33 feet. Leslie.
RAINLESS DISTRICTS.
In several parts of the world there is no rain at all. In the
Old World there are two districts of this kind : the desert of
Sahara in Africa, and in Asia part of Arabia, Syria, and Per-
sia; the other district lies between north latitude 30 and 50,
and between 75 and 118 of east longitude, including Thibet,
Gobiar Shama, and Mongolia. In the New World the rain-
less districts are of much less magnitude, occupying two narrow
strips on the shores of Peru and Bolivia, and on the coast of
Mexico and Guatemala, with a small district between Trinidad
and Panama on the coast of Venezuela.
ALL THE RAIN IN THE WORLD.
The Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean may be considered
as one sheet of water covering an area quite equal in extent to
one half of that embraced by the whole surface of the earth ;
and the total annual fall of rain on the earth's surface is 186,240
cubic imperial miles. Not less than three-fourths of the vapour
which makes this rain comes from this waste of waters ; but,
supposing that only half of this quantity, that is 93,120 cubic
miles of rain, falls upon this sea, and that that much at least
is taken up from it again as vapour, this would give 255 cubic
miles as the quantity of water which is daily lifted up and
poured back again into this expanse. It is taken up at one
place, and rained down at another; and in this process, there-
fore, we have agencies for multitudes of partial and conflicting
currents, all, in their set strength, apparently as uncertain as
the winds.
The better to appreciate the operation of such agencies in
producing currents in the sea, imagine a district of 255 square
miles to be set apart in the midst of the Pacific Ocean as the
scene of operations for one day ; then conceive a machine cap-
able of pumping up in the twenty-four hours all the water to
the depth of one n'ile in this district. The machine must not
only pump up and bear off this immense quantity of water, but
it must dischnrgp it again into the sea on the same day, but
at some other place.
All i he great rivers of America, Europe, and Asia are lifted
156 Things not generally Known.
up by the atmosphere, and flow in invisible streams back
through the air to their sources among the hills ; and through
channels so regular, certain, and well denned, that the quan-
tity thus conveyed one year with the other is nearly the same :
for that is the quantity which we see running down to the
ocean through these rivers ; and the quantity discharged an-
nually by each river is, as far as we can judge, nearly a con-
stant. Maury.
AN INCH OF BAIN ON THE ATLANTIC.
Lieutenant Maury thus computes the effect of a single Inch
of Rain falling upon the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic includes
an area of twenty-five millions of square miles. Suppose an
inch of rain to fall upon only one-fifth of this vast expanse. It
would weigh, says our author, three hundred and sixty thou-
sand millions of tons : and the salt which, as water, it held in
solution in the sea, and which, when that water was taken up
as vapour, was left behind to disturb equilibrium, weighed six-
teen millions more of tons, or nearly twice as much as all the
ships in the world could carry at a cargo each. It might fall
in an hour, or it might fall in a day ; but, occupy what time it
might hi falling, this rain is calculated to exert so much force
which is inconceivably great in disturbing the equilibrium
of the ocean. If all the water discharged by the Mississippi
river during the year were taken up in one mighty measure,
and cast into the ocean at one effort, it would not make a
greater disturbance in the equilibrium of the sea than would
the fall of rain supposed. And yet so gentle are the opera-
tions of nature, that movements so vast are unperceived.
THE EQUATOEIAL CLOUD-RING.
In crossing the Equatorial Doldrums, the voyager passes a
ring of clouds that encircles the earth, and is stretched around
our planet to regulate the quantity of precipitation in the rain-
belt beneath it ; to preserve the due quantum of heat on the
face of the earth ; to adjust the winds ; and send out for dis-
tribution to the four corners vapours in proper quantities, to
make up to each river-basin, climate, and season, its quota of
sunshine, cloud, and moisture. Like the balance-wheel of a
well-constructed chronometer, this cloud-ring affords the grand
atmospherical machine the most exquisitely arranged self-com-
pensation. Nature herself has hung a thermometer under this
cloud-belt that is more perfect than any that man can con-
struct, and its indications are not to be mistaken. Maury.
is another of these calm places. Besides being a region of
Curiosities of Science. 157
calms and baffling winds, it is a region noted for its rains and
clouds, which make it one of the most oppressive and disagree-
able places at sea. The emigrant ships from Europe for Aus-
tralia have to cross it. They are often baffled in it for two or
three weeks ; then the children and the passengers who are of
delicate health suffer most. It is a frightful graveyard on the
wayside to that golden land.
BEAUTY OF THE DEW-DROP.
The Dew-drop is familiar to every one from earliest infancy.
Resting in luminous beads on the down of leaves, or pendent
from the finest blades of grass, or threaded upon the floating
lines of the gossamer, its " orient pearl" varies in size from
the diameter of a small pea to the most minute atom that can
be imagined to exist. Each of these, like the rain-drops, has
the properties of reflecting and refracting light ; hence, from so
many minute prisms, the unfolded rays of the sun are sent up
to the eye in colours of brilliancy similar to those of the rain-
bow. When the sunbeams traverse horizontally a very thickly-
bedewed grass-plot, these colours arrange themselves so as to
form an iris, or dew-bow ; and if we select any one of these
drops for observation, and steadily regard it while we gradually
change our position, we shall find the prismatic colours follow
each other in their regular order. Wells.
FALL OF DEW IN ONE YEAK.
The annual average quantity of Dew deposited in this coun-
try is estimated at a depth of about five inches, being about
one-seventh of the mean quantity of moisture supposed to be
received from the atmosphere all over Great Britain in the
year ; or about 22,161,337,355 tons, taking the ton at 252 im-
perial gallons. Wells.
GRADUATED SUPPLY OF DEW TO VEGETATION.
Each of the different grasses draws from the atmosphere
during the night a supply of dew to recruit its energies de-
pendent upon its form and peculiar radiating power. Every
flower has a power of radiation of its own, subject to changes
during the day and night, and the deposition of moisture on
it is regulated by the peculiar law which this radiating power
obeys ; and this power will be influenced by the aspect which
the flower presents to the sky, unfolding to the contemplative
mind the most beautiful example of creative wisdom.*
* By far the most complete set of experiments on the Radiation of Heat from
the Earth's Surface at Night which have been published since Dr. Wells's Me-
moir On Dew, are those of Mr. Glaisher, F.R.S., f kilos. Trans, for 1847.
158 Things not generally Known.
WARMTH OF SNOW IN ARCTIC LATITUDES.
The first warm Snows of August and September (says Dr.
Kane), falling on a thickly-bleached carpet of grasses, heaths,
and willows., enshrine the flowery growths which nestle round
them in a non-conducting air chamber ; and as each successive
snow increases the thickness of the cover, we have, before the
intense cold of winter sets in, a light cellular bed covered by
drift, seven, eight, or ten feet deep, in whioh the plant retains
its vitality. Dr. Kane has proved by experiments that the
conducting power of the snow is proportioned to its compres-
sion by winds, rains, drifts, and congelation. The drifts that
accumulate during nine months of the year are dispersed in
well-defined layers of different density. We have first the
warm cellular snows of fall, which surround the plant ; next
the finely-impacted snow-dust of winter ; and above these the
later humid deposits of spring. In the earlier summer, in the
inclined slopes that face the sun, as the upper snow is melted
and sinks upon the more compact layer below it is to a great
extent arrested, and runs off like rain from a slope of clay. The
plant reposes thus in its cellular bed, safe from the rush of
waters, and protected from the nightly frosts by the icy roof
above it.
IMPURITY OF SNOW.
It is believed that in ascending mountains difficult breath-
ing is sooner felt upon snow than upon rock ; and M. Bous-
singault, in his account of the ascent of Chirnborazo, attributes
this to the sensible deficiency of oxygen contained in the pores
of the snow, which is exhaled when it melts. The fact that
the air absorbed by snow is impure, was ascertained by De
Saussure, and has been confirmed by Boussingault's experi-
ments. Quarterly Review, No. 202.
SNOW PHENOMENON.
Professor Dove of Berlin relates, in illustration of the for-
mation of clouds of Snow over plains situated at a distance
from the cooling summits of mountains, that on one occasion a
large company had gathered in a ballroom in Sweden. It was
one of those icy starlight nights which in that country are
so aptly called "iron nights." The weather was clear and
cold, and the ballroom was clear and warm ; and the heat was
so great, that several ladies fainted. An officer present tried
to open a window ; but it was frozen fast to the sill. As a last
resort, he broke a pane of glass ; the cold air rushed in, and it
snowed in the room. A minute before all was clear j but the
Curiosities of S"iercr. ' 59
warm air of the room had sustained an amount of moisture in
a transparent condition which it was not able to maintain,
when mixed with the colder air from without. The vapour
was first condensed, and then frozen.
ABSENCE OF SNOW IN SIBERIA.
There is in Siberia, M. Ermann informs us, an entire district
in which during the winter the sky is constantly clear, and
where a single particle of snow never falls. Arago.
ACCURACY OF THE CHINESE AS OBSERVERS.
The beautiful forms of snow-crystals have long since at-
tracted Chinese observers ; for from a remote period there has
been met with in their conversation and books an axiomatic
expres ion, to the effect that "snow- flakes are hexagonal,"
showing the Chinese to be accurate observers of nature.
PROTECTION AGAINST HAIL AND STORMS.
Arago relates, that when, in 1847, two small agricultural
districts of Bourgoyne had lost by Hail crops to the value of
a million and a half of francs, certain of the proprietors went
to consult him on the means of protecting them from like
disasters. Resting on the hypothesis of the electric origin of
hail, Arago suggested the discharge of the electricity of the
clouds by means of balloons communicating by a metallic wire
with the soil. This project was not carried out ; but Arago
persisted in believing in the effectiveness of the method pro-
Arago, in his Meteorological Esaays, inquires whether the firing of
cannon can dissipate storms. He cites several cases in its favour, and
others which seem to oppose it ; but he concludes by recommending it
to his successors. Whilst Arago was propounding these questions, a
person not conversant with science, the poet Me'ry, was collecting facts
supporting the view, which he has published in his Paris Futur. His
attention was attracted to the firing of cannon to dissipate storms in
1828, whilst an assistant in the " Ecole de Tir" at Vincennes. Having
observed that there was never any rain in the morning of the exercise
of firing, lie waited to examine military records, and found there, as he
says, facts which justified the expressions of " Le soleil d'Austerlitz,"
" Le soleil de juillet," upon the morning of the Revolution of July-; and
he concluded by proposing to construct around Paris twelve towers of
great he ght, which he calls "tours imbrifuges," each carrying 100 can-
nons, which should be discharged into the air on the approach of a
storm. About this time an incident occurred which in nowise confirmed
the truth of M. Mery's theory The 14th of August was a fine day. On
the 15th, the fdte of the Empire, the sun shone out, the canron thun-
dered all day long, fireworks and illuminations were Mazing from nine
o'clock in the evening. Every thing conspired to verify the hypothesis
of M. Mery, and chase away storms for a long time. But towards
160 Things not generally Known.
eleven in the evening a torrent of rain burst upon Paris, in spite of- the
pretended influence of the discharge of cannon, and gave an occasion
for the mobile Gallic mind to turn its attention in other directions.
TERRIFIC HAILSTORM.
Jansen describes, from the log-book of the Rhijin, Captain
Brandligt, iii the South -Indian Ocean (25 south latitude)
a Hurricane, accompanied by Hail, by which several of the
crew were made blind, others had their faces cut open, and
those who were in the rigging had their clothes torn off them.
The master of the ship compared the sea " to a hilly landscape
in winter covered with snow." Does it not appear as if the
" treasures of the hail" were opened, which were "reserved
against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and
war" ?
HOW WATERSPOUTS ARE FORMED IN THE JAVA SEA.
Among the small groups of islands in this sea, in the day
and night thunderstorms, the combat of the clouds appears to
make them more thirsty than ever. In tunnel form, when they
can no longer quench their thirst from the surrounding atmo-
sphere, they descend near the surface of the sea, and appear to
lap the water directly up with their black mouths. They are
not always accompanied by strong winds; frequently more
than one is seen at a time, whereupon the clouds whence they
proceed disperse, and the ends of the Waterspouts bending
over finally causes them to break in the middle. They seldom
last longer than five minutes. As they are going away, the
bulbous tube, which is as palpable as that of a thermometer,
becomes broader at the base ; and little clouds, like steam from
the pipe of a locomotive, are continually thrown off from the
circumference of the spout, and gradually the water is re-
leased, and the cloud whence the spout came again closes its
mouth.
COLD IN HUDSON'S BAY.
Mr. R. M. Ballantyne, in his journal of six years' residence
in the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company, tells us, that
for part of October there is sometimes a little warm, or rather
thawy, weather ; but after that, until the following April, the
thermometer seldom rises to the freezing point. In the depth
of winter, the thermometer falls from 30 to 40, 45, and even
49 below zero of Fahrenheit. This intense cold is not, however,
so much felt as one might suppose ; for during its continuance
the air is perfectly calm. Were the slightest breath of wind
to rise when the thermometer stands so low, no man could
show his face to it for a moment. Forty degrees below zero,
Curiosities of Science. 161
and quite calm, is infinitely preferable to fifteen below, or
thereabout, with a strong breeze of wind. Spirit of wine is,
of course, the only thing that can be used in the thermometer ;
as mercury, were it exposed to such cold, would remain frozen
nearly half the winter. Spirit never froze in any cold ever
experienced at York Factory, unless when very much adulter-
ated with water ; and even then the spirit would remain liquid
in the centre of the mass. Quicksilver easily freezes in this
climate, and it has frequently been run into a bullet-mould,
exposed to the cold air till frozen, and in this state rammed
down a gun-barrel, and fired through a thick plank. The
average cold may be set down at about 15 or 16 below zero,
or 48 J of frost. The houses at the Bay are built of wood, with
double windows and doors. They are heated by large iron
stoves, fed with wood ; yet so intense is the cold, that when
a stove has been in places red-hot, a basin of water in the room
has been frozen solid.
PURITY OF WENHAM-LAKE ICE.
Professor Faraday attributes the purity of Wenham-Lake
Ice to its being free from air- bubbles and from salts. The
presence of the first makes it extremely difficult to succeed in
making a lens of English ice which will concentrate the solar
rays, and readily fire gunpowder ; whereas nothing is easier
than to perform this singular feat of igniting a combustible,
body by aid of a frozen mass if Wenham-Lake ice be employed.
The absence of salts conduces greatly to the permanence of the
ice ; for where water is so frozen that the salts expelled are
still contained in air-cavities and cracks, or form thin films
between the layers of ice, these entangled salts cause the ice to
melt at a lower temperature than 32 J , and the liquefied por-
tions give rise to streams and currents within the body of the
ice which rapidly carry heat to the interior. The mass then
goes on thawing within as well as without, and at tempera-
tures below 32 ; whereas pure, compact, Wenham-Lake ice
can only thaw at 32, and only on the outside of the mass.
Sir Charles LyeWs Second Visit to the United States.
ARCTIC TEMPERATURES.
Dr. Kane, in his Second Arctic Expedition, found the ther-
mometers beginning to show unexampled temperature : they
ranged from 60 to 70 below zero, and upon the taffrail of the
brig 65. The reduced mean of the best spirit-standards gave
67 or 99 below the freezing point of water. At these tem-
peratures chloric ether became solid, and chloroform exhibited
a granular pellicle on its surface. Spirit of naphtha froze at 54,
and the oil of turpentine was solid at 63 and 65.
M
162 Things not generally Known.
DR. EAE'S ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.
The gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society was in
1852 most rightfully awarded to this indefatigable Arctic ex-
plorer. His survey of the inlet of Boothia, in 1848, was unique
in its kind. In Repulse Bay he maintained his party on deer,
principally shot by himself; and spent ten months of an Arctic
winter in a hut of stones, with BO other fuel than a kind of hay
of the Andromeda tetragona. Thus he preserved his men to
execute surveying journeys of 1000 miles in the spring. Later
he travelled 300 miles on snow-shoes. In a spring journey over
the ice, with a pound of fat daily for fuel, accompanied by two
men only, and trusting solely for shelter to snow-houses, which
he taught his men to build, he accomplished 1060 miles in
thirty-nine days, or twenty-seven miles per day, including stop-
pages, a feat never equalled in Arctic travelling. In the
spring journey, and that which followed in the summer in
boats, 1700 miles were traversed in eighty days. Dr. Rae's
greatest sufferings, he once remarked to Sir George Back, arose
from his being obliged to sleep upon his frozen mocassins in
order to thaw them for the morning's use.
PHENOMENA OF THE ARCTIC CLIMATE.
Sir John Richardson, in his history of his Expedition to
these regions, describes the power of the sun in a cloudless sky
to have been so great, that he was glad to take shelter in the
water while the crews were engaged on the portages ; and he
has never felt the direct rays of the sun so oppressive as on
some occasions in the high latitudes. Sir John observes :
The rapid evaporation of both snow and ice in the winter and spring,
long before the action of the sun has prod viced the slightest thaw or
appearance of moisture, is evident by many facts of daily occurrence.
Thus when a shirt, after being washed, is exposed in the open air to a
temperature of from 4CP to 50 below zero, it is instantly rigidly frozen,
and may be broken if violently bent. If agitated when in this condition
by a strong wind, it makes a rustling noise like theatrical thunder,
In consequence of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere in winter,
most articles of English manufacture brought to Rupert's Land are
shrivelled, bent, and broken. The handles of razors and knives, combs,
ivory scales, &c., kept in the warm room, are changed in this way. The
human body also becomes vividly electric from the dryness of the skin.
One cold night I rose from my bed, and was going out to observe the
, 1 .1 L _1-J_T_i 1.1 a~ 1 Jl^i. J T
was elicited. Friction ot the skm at almost all times in winter pro-
duced the electric odour.
Even at midwinter we had but three hours and a half of daylight.
On December 20th I required a candle to write at the window at ten in
the morning. The sun was absent ten days, and its place in the heavens
Curiosities of Science. 163
at noon was denoted by rays of light shooting into the sky above the
woods.
The moon in the long nights was a most beautiful object, that satel-
lite being constantly above the horizon for nearly a fortnight together.
Venus also shone with a brilliancy which is never witnessed in a sky
loaded with vapours ; and, unless in snowy weather, our nights were
always enlivened by the beams of the aurora.
INTENSE HEAT AND COLD OF THE DESERT.
Among crystalline bodies, rock-crystal, or silica, is the best
conductor of heat. This fact accounts for the steadiness of
temperature iii one set district, and the extremes of Heat and
Cold presented by day and night on such sandy wastes as the
Sahara. The sand, which is for the most part silica, drinks-in
the noon-day heat, and loses it by night just as speedily.
The influence of the hot winds from the Sahara has been
observed in vessels traversing the Atlantic at a distance of up-
wards of 1100 geographical miles from the African shores, by
the coating of impalpable dust upon the sails.
TRANSPORTING POWER OF WINDS.
The greatest example of their power is the sand-food of
Africa, which, moving gradually eastward, has overwhelmed
all the land capable of tillage west of the Nile, unless sheltered
by high mountains, and threatens ultimately to obliterate the
rich plain of Egypt.
EXHILARATION IN ASCENDING MOUNTAINS.
At all elevations of from 6000 to 11,000 feet, and not unfre-
quently for even 2000 feet more, the pedestrian enjoys a plea-
surable feeling, imparted by the consciousness of existence,
similar to that which is described as so fascinating by those
who have become familiar with the desert-life of the East. The
body seems lighter, the nervous power greater, the appetite is
increased; and fatigue, though felt for a time, is removed by
the shortest repose. Some travellers have described the sensa-
tion by the impression that they do not actually press the
ground, but that the blade of a knife could be inserted between
the sole of the foot and the mountain top. Quarterly Review,
No. 202.
TO TELL THE APPROACH OF STORMS.
The proximity of Storms has been ascertained with accuracy
by various indications of the electrical state of t'he atmosphere.
Thus Professor ^Scott, of Sandhurst College, observed in Shet-
land that drinking- glasses, placed in an inverted position upon
a shelf in a cupboard on the ground-floor of Belmont House,
164- Things not generally Known.
occasionally emitted sounds as if they were tapped with a knife,
or raised a little and then let fall on the shelf. These sounds
preceded wind ; and when they occurred, boats and vessels were
immediately secured. The strength of the sound is said to be
proportioned to the tempest that follows.
REVOLVING STORMS.
By the conjoint labours of Mr. Redfield, Colonel Reid, and
Mr. Piddington, on the origin and nature of hurricanes, ty-
phoons, or revolving storms, the following important results
have been obtained. Their existence in moderate latitudes on
both sides the equator ; their absence in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the equatorial regions; and the fcict, that while
in the northern latitudes these storms revolve in a direction
contrary to the hands of a watch the face of which is placed
upwards, in the southern latitudes they rotate in the opposite
direction, are shown to be so many additions to the long chain
of evidence by which the rotation of the earth as a physical
fact is demonstrated.
IMPETUS OF A STORM.
Captain Sir S. Brown estimates, from experiments made by
him at the extremity of the Brighton-Chain Pier in a heavy
south-west gale, that the waves impinge on a cylindrical sur-
face one foot high and one foot in diameter with a force equal
to eighty pounds, to which must be added that of the wind,
which in a violent storm exerts a pressure of forty pounds. He
computed the collective impetus of the waves on the lower part
of a lighthouse proposed to be built on the Wolf Rock (exposed
to the most violent storms of the Atlantic), of the surf on the
upper part, and of the wind on the whole, to be equal to 100
tons.
HOW TO MAKE A STORM-GLASS.
This instrument consists of a glass tube, sealed at one end,
and furnished with a brass cap at the other end, through which
the air is admitted by a very small aperture. Nearly fill the
tube with the following solution : camphor, 2| drams; nitrate
of potash, 38 grains ; muriate of ammonia, 38 grains ; water, 9
drams ; rectified spirit, 9 drams. Dissolve with heat. At the
ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, plumose crystals are
formed. On the approach of stormy weather, these crystals ap-
pear compressed into a compact mass at the bottom of the tube ;
while during fine weather they assume their plumose character,
and extend a considerable way up the glass. These results de-
pend upon the condition of the air, but they are not considered
to afford any reliable indication of approaching weather.
Curiosities of Science. 165
SPLENDOUR OF THE AURORA BOREALIS.
Humboldt thus beautifully describes this phenomenon :
The intensity of this light is at times so great, that Lowenorn (on
June 29, 1786) recognised its coruscation in bright sunshine. Moticn
renders the phenomenon more visible. Round the point in the vault of
heaven which corresponds to the direction of the inclination of the
needle the beams unite together to form the so-called corona, the
crown of the Northern Light, which encircles the summit of the heavenly
canopy with a milder radiance and unflickex*ing emanations of light.
It is only iu rare instances that a perfect crown or circle is formed ; but
on its completion, the phenomenon has invariably reached its maximum,
and the radiations become less frequent, shorter, and more colourless.
The crown, and the luminous arches break up; and the whole vault of
heaven becomes covered with irregularly scattered, broad, faint, almost
ashy-gray, luminous, immovable patches, which in their turn disap-
pear, leaving nothing but a trace of a dark smoke-like segment on the
horizon. There often remains nothing of the whole spectacle but a white
delicate cloud with feathery edges, or divided at equal distances into
small roundish groups like cirro-cumuli Cosmos, vol. i.
Among many theories of this phenomenon is that of Lieu-
tenant Hooper, R.N., who has stated to the British Association
that he believes " the Aurora Borealis to be no more nor less
than the moisture in some shape (whether dew or vapour, liquid
or frozen), illuminated by the heavenly bodies, either directly, or
reflecting their rays from the frozen masses around the Pole,
or even from the immediately proximate snow-clad earth."
VARIETIES OF LIGHTNING.
According to Arago's investigations, the evolution of Light-
ning is of three kinds : zigzag, and sharply defined at the
edges; in sheets of light, illuminating a whole cloud, which
seems to open and reveal the light within it ; and in the form
of fire-balls. The duration of the first two kinds scarcely con-
tinues the thousandth part of a second ; but the globular light-
ning moves much more slowly, remaining visible for several
seconds.
WHAT IS SHEET-LIGHTNING ?
This electric phenomenon is unaccompanied by thunder, or
too distant to be heard : when it appears, the whole sky, but
particularly the horizon, is suddenly illuminated with a flicker-
ing flash. Philosophers differ much as to its cause. Mat-
teucci supposes it to be produced either during evaporation, or
evolved (according to Pouillet's theory) in the process of vege-
tation ; or generated by chemical action in the great laboratory
of nature, the earth, and accumulated in the lower strata of the
air in consequence of the ground being an imperfect conductor.
Arago and Kamtz, however, consider sheet-lightning as reflections
166 Things not generally Known.
of distant thunderstorms, Saussure observed sheet-lightning in the di-
rection of Geneva, from the Hospice du Grimsel, on the 10th and llth
of July 1783 ; while at the same time a terrific thunderstorm raged at
Geneva. Howard, from Tottenham, near London, on July 31, 1813,
saw sheet-lightning towards the south-east, while the sky was bespan-
gled with stars, not a cloud floating in the air ; at the same time a thun-
derstorm raged at Hastings, and in France from Calais to Dunkirk.
Arago supports his opinion, that the phenomenon is reflected lightning,
by the following illustration : In 1803, when observations were being
made for determining the longitude, M. de Zach, on the Brocken, used
a few ounces of gunpowder as a signal, the flash of which was visible
from the Klenlenberg, sixty leagues off, although these mountains are
invisible from each other.
PRODUCTION OF LIGHTNING BY RAIN.
A sudden gust of rain is almost sure to succeed a violent
detonation immediately overhead. Mr. Birt, the meteorologist,
asks : Is this rain a cause or consequence of the electric discharge ?
To this he replies :
In the sudden agglomeration of many minute and feebly electrified
globules into one rain-drop, the quantity of electricity is increased in a
greater proportion than the surface over which (according to the laws of
electric distribution) it is spread. By tension, therefore, it is increased,
and may attain the point when it is capable of separating from the drop
to seek the surface of the cloud, or of the newly-formed descending body
of rain, which, under such circumstances, may be regarded as a conduct-
ing medium. Arrived at this surface, the tension, for the same reason,
becomes enormous, and a flash escapes. This theory Mr. Birt has con-
firmed by observation of rain in thunderstorms.
SERVICE OF LIGHTNING-CONDUCTORS.
Sir David Brewster relates a remarkable instance of a tree
in Clandeboye Park, in a thick mass of wood, and not the tallest
of the group, being struck by lightning, which passed down the
trunk into the ground, rending the tree asunder. This shows
that an object may be struck by lightning in a locality where
there are numerous conducting points more elevated than
itself ; and at the same time proves that lightning cannot be
diverted from its course by lofty isolated conductors, but that
the protection of buildings from this species of meteor can only
be effected by conductors stretching out in all directions.
Professor Silliman states, that lightning-rods cannot be re-
lied upon unless they reach the earth where it is permanently
wet ; and that the best security is afforded by carrying the rod,
or some good metallic conductor duly connected with it, to the
water in the well, or to some other water that never fails. The
professor's house, it seems, was struck ; but his lightning-rods
were not more than two or three inches in the ground, and were
therefore virtually of no avail in protecting the building.
Curiosities of Science. 167
ANCIENT LIGHTNING-CONDUCTOR.
Humboldt informs us, that " the most important ancient
notice of the relations between lightning and conducting metals
is that of Ctesias, in his Indica, cap. iv. p. 190. He possessed
two iron swords, presents from the king Artaxerxes Mnemon
and from his mother Parasytis, which, when planted in the
earth, averted clouds, hail, and strokes of lightning. He had
himself seen the operation, for the king had twice made the
experiment before his eyes." Cosmos, vol. ii.
THE TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM PROTECTED FROM LIGHTNING.
We do not learn, either from the Bible or Josephus, that
the Temple at Jerusalem was ever struck by Lightning during
an interval of more than a thousand years, from the time of
Solomon to the year 70 ; although, from its situation, it was
completely exposed to the violent thunderstorms of Palestine.
By a fortuitous circumstance, the Temple was crowned with
lightning-conductors similar to those which we now employ,
and which we owe to Franklin's discovery. The roof, con-
structed in what we call the Italian manner, and covered with
boards of cedar, having a thick coating of gold, was garnished
from end to end with long pointed and gilt iron or steel lances,
which, Josephus says, were intended to prevent birds from roost-
ing on the roof and soiling it. The walls were overlaid through-
out with wood, thickly gilt. Lastly, there were in the courts
of the Temple cisterns, into which the rain from the roof was
conducted by metallic pipes. We have here both the lightning-
rods and a means of conduction so abundant, that Lichtenberg
is quite right in saying that many of the present apparatuses
are far from offering in their construction so satisfactory a
combination of circumstances. Abridged from Arago*s Meteoro-
logical Essays.
HOW ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL is PROTECTED FROM LIGHTNING.
In March 1769, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's ad-
dressed a letter to the Royal Society, requesting their opinion
as to the best and most effectual method of fixing electrical
conductors on the cathedral. A committee was formed for the
purpose, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the members ; their
report was made, and the conductors were fixed as follows :
The seven iron scrolls supporting the ball and ci-oss are connected
with other rods (used merely as conductors), which unite them with
Several large bars, descending obliquely to the stone-work of the lantern,
and connected by an iron ring with four other iron bars to the lead
covering of the great cupola, a distance of forty-eight feet ; thence the
168 Things not generally Known.
communication is continued by the rain-water pipes to the lead-covered
roof, and thence by lead water-pipes which pass into the earth ; thus
completing the entire communication from the cross to the ground,
partly through iron, and partly through lead. On the clock-tower a
bar of iron connects the pine-apple at the top with the iron staircase,
and thence with the lead on the roof of the church. The bell-tower is
similarly protected. By these means the metal used in the building is
made available as conductors ; the metal employed merely for that pur-
pose being exceedingly small in quantity. Curiosities of London.
VARIOUS EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING.
Dr. Hibbert tells us that upon the western coast of Scot-
land and Ireland, Lightning cooperates with the violence of
the storm in shattering solid rocks, and heaping them in piles
of enormous fragments, both on dry land and beneath the
water.
Euler informs us, in his Letters to a German Princess, that
he corresponded with a Moravian priest named Divisch, who
assured him that he had averted during a whole summer every
thunderstorm which threatened his own habitation and the
neighbourhood, by means of a machine constructed upon the
principles of electricity ; that the machinery sensibly attracted
the clouds, and constrained them to descend quietly in a dis-
tillation, without any but a very distant thunderclap. Euler
assures us that " the fact is undoubted, and confirmed by irre-
sistible proof."
About the year 1811, in the village of Phillipsthal, in East-
ern Prussia, an attempt was made to split an immense stone
into a multitude of pieces by means of lightning. A bar of
iron, in the form of a conductor, was previously fixed to the
stone ; and the experiment was attended with complete success ;
for during the very first thunderstorm the lightning burst the
stone without displacing it.
The celebrated Duhamel du Monceau says, that lightning,
unaccompanied by thunder, wind, or rain, has the property of
breaking oat-stalks. The farmers are acquainted with this
effect, and say that the lightning breaks down the oats. This
is a well-received opinion with the farmers in Devonshire.
Lightning has in some cases the property of reducing solid
bodies to ashes, or to pulverisation, even the human body,
without there being any signs of heat. The effects of lightning
on paralysis are very remarkable, in some cases curing, in others
causing, that disease.
The returning stroke of lightning is well known to be due
to the restoration of the natural electric state, after it has been
disturbed by induction.
Curiosities of Science. 169
A THUNDEESTOEM SEEN FEOM A BALLOON.
Mr. John West, the American aeronaut, in his observations
made during his numerous ascents, describes a storm viewed
from above the clouds to have the appearance of ebullition.
The bulging upper surface of the cloud resembles a vast sea of
boiling and upheaving snow ; the noise of the falling rain is
like that of a waterfall over a precipice ; the thunder above
the cloud is not loud, and the flashes of lightning appear like
streaks of intensely white fire on a surface of white vapour.
He thus describes a side view of a storm which he witnessed
June 3, 1852, in his balloon excursion from Portsmouth, Ohio :
Although the sun was shining on me, the rain and small hail were
rattling on the balloon. A rainbow, or prismatically-coloured arch or
horse-shoe, was reflected against the sun ; and as the point of observa-
tion changed laterally and perpendicularly, the perspective of this golden
grotto changed its hues and forms. Above and behind this arch was
going on the most terrific thunder ; but no zigzag lightning was per-
ceptible, only bright flashes, like explosions of " Roman candles" in
fireworks. Occasionally there was a- zigzag explosion in the cloud im-
mediately below, the thunder sounding like &feu-de-joie of a rifle-corps.
Then an orange-coloured wave of light seemed to fall from the upper to
the lower cloud; this was "still-lightning."- Meanwhile intense elec-
trical action was going on in the balloon, such as expansion, tremulous
tension, lifting papers ten feet out of the car below the balloon and
then dropping them, &c. The close view of this Ohio storm was truly
sublime ; its rushing noise almost appalling.
Ascending from the earth with a balloon, in the rear of a
storm, and mounted up a thousand feet above it, the balloon
will soon override the storm, and may descend in advance of
it. Mr. West has experienced this several times.
KEMAEKABLE AEEONAUTIC VOYAGE.
Mr. Sadler, the celebrated aeronaut, ascended on one occa-
sion in a balloon from Dublin, and was wafted across the Irish
Channel ; when, on his approach to the Welsh coast, the balloon
descended nearly to the surface of the sea. By this time the
sun was set, and the shades of evening began to close in. He
threw out nearly all his ballast, and suddenly sprang upward
to a great height ; and by so doing brought his horizon to dip
below the sun, producing the whole phenomenon of a western
sunrise. Subsequently descending in Wales, he of course
witnessed a second sunset on the same evening. Sir John
Herschel's Outlines of Astronomy.
170 Things not generally Known.
tcal ffieograpljg of tfje
CLIMATES OF THE SEA.
THE fauna and flora of the Sea are as much the creatures
of Climate, and are as dependent for their well-being upon
temperature, as are the fauna and flora of the dry land. Were
it not so, we should find the fish and the algae, the marine
insect and the coral, distributed equally and alike in all parts
of the ocean ; the polar whale would delight hi the torrid
zone ; and the habitat of the pearl oyster would be also under
the iceberg, or in frigid waters colder than the melting ice.
THE CIRCULATION OF THE SEA.
The coral islands, reefs, and beds with which the Pacific
Ocean is studded and garnished, were built up of materials
which a certain kind of insect quarried from the sea- water.
The currents of the sea ministered to this little insect ; they
were its hod- carriers. When fresh supplies of solid matter
were wanted for the coral rock upon which the foundations of
the Polynesian Islands were laid, these hod-carriers brought
them in unfailing streams of sea-water, loaded with food and
building -materials for the coralline: the obedient currents
thread the widest and the deepest sea. Now we know that
its adaptations are suited to all the wants of every one of its
inhabitants, to the wants of the coral insect as well as those
of the whale. Hence we know that the sea has its system of
circulation : for it transports materials for the coral rock from
one part of the world to another ; its currents receive them
from rivers, and hand them over to the little mason for the
structure of the most stupendous works of solid masonry that
man has ever seen the coral islands of the sea.
TEMPERATURE OF THE SEA.
Between the hottest hour of the day and the coldest hour
of the night there is frequently a change of four degrees in
the Temperature of the Sea. Taking one-fifth of the Atlantic
Ocean for the scene of operation, and the difference of four
* The author is largely indebted for the illustrations in this new field of
research to Lieutenant Maury's valuable work, The Physical Geography of the Sea.
Sixth edition. Harper, New York ; Low, Son, and Co., London.
Curiosities of Science. 171
degrees to extend only ten feet below the surface, the total and
absolute change made in such a mass of sea-water, by altering
its temperature two degrees, is equivalent to a change in its
volume of 390,000,000 cubic feet.
TEANSPAEENCY OF THE OCEAN.
Captain Glynn, U.S.N., has made some interesting obser-
vations, ranging over 200 of latitude, in different oceans, in
very high latitudes, and near the equator. His apparatus was
simple : a common white dinner-plate, slung so as to lie in
the water horizontally, and sunk by an iron pot with a line.
Numbering the fathoms at which the plate was visible below
the surface, Captain Glynn saw it on two occasions, at the
maximum, twenty-five fathoms (150 feet) deep ; the water was
extraordinarily clear, and to lie in the boat and look down was
like looking down from the mast-head ; and the objects were
clearly defined to a great depth.
THE BASIN OF THE ATLANTIC.
In its entire length, the basin of this sea is a long trough,
separating the Old World from the New, and extending pro-
bably from pole to pole.
This ocean-furrow was scored into the solid crust of our
planet by the Almighty hand, that there the waters which
" he called seas" might be gathered together so as to " let the
dry land appear," and fit the earth for the habitation of man.
From the top of Chimborazo to the bottom of the Atlan-
tic, at the deepest place yet recognised by the plummet in the
North Atlantic, the distance in a vertical line is nine miles.
Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to
expose to view this great sea-gash, which separates continents,
and extends from the Arctic to the Antarctic, it would present
a scene the most grand, rugged, and imposing. The very ribs
of the solid earth, with the foundations of the sea, would be
brought to light ; and we should have presented to us at one
view, in the empty cradle of the ocean, "a thousand fearful
wrecks," with that dreadful array of dead men's skulls, great
anchors, heaps of pearls and inestimable stones, which, in the
dreamer's eye, lie scattered on the bottom of the sea, making
it hideous with sights of ugly death.
GALES OF THE ATLANTIC.
Lieutenant Maury has, in a series of charts of the North
and South Atlantic, exhibited, by means of colours, the pre-
valence of Gales over the more stormy parts of the oceans for
each month in the year. One colour shows the region in which
172 Things not generally Known.
there is a gale every six days; another colour every six to ten
days ; another every ten to fourteen days : and there is a sepa-
rate chart for each month and each ocean.
SOLITUDE AT SEA.
Between Humboldt's Current of Peru and the great equa-
torial flow, there is " a desolate region," rarely visited by the
whale, either sperm or right. Formerly this part of the ocean
was seldom whitened by the sails of a ship, or enlivened by the
presence of man. Neither the industrial pursuits of the sea
nor the highways of commerce called him into it. Now and
then a roving cruiser or an enterprising whalesman passed that
way ; but to all else it was an unfrequented part of the ocean,
and so remained until the gold-fields of Australia and the
guano islands of Peru made it a thoroughfare. All vessels
bound from Australia to South America now pass through it ;
and in the journals of some of them it is described as a region
almost void of the signs of life jn both sea and air. In the
South-Pacific Ocean especially, where there is such a wide ex-
panse of water, sea-birds often exhibit a companionship with
a vessel, and will follow and keep company with it through
storm and calm for weeks together. Even the albatross and
Cape pigeon, that delight in the stormy regions of Cape Horn
and the inhospitable climates of the Antarctic regions, not un-
frequently accompany vessels into the perpetual summer of the
tropics. The sea-birds that join the ship as she clears Aus-
tralia will, it is said, follow her to this region, and then dis-
appear. Even the chirp of the stormy petrel ceases to be heard
here, and the sea itself is said to be singularly barren of " mov-
ing creatures that have life."
BOTTLES AND CURRENTS AT SEA.
Seafaring people often throw a bottle overboard, with a
paper stating the time and place at which it is done. In the
absence of other information as to Currents, that afforded by
these mute little navigators is of great value. They leave no
track behind them, it is true, and their routes cannot be ascer-
tained ; but knowing where they are cast, and seeing where
they are found, some idea may be formed as to their course.
Straight lines may at least be drawn, showing the shortest dis-
tance from the beginning to the end of their voyage, with the
time elapsed. Admiral Beechey has prepared a chart, repre-
senting, in this way, the tracks of more than 100 bottles.
From this it appears that the waters from every quarter of the
Atlantic tend towards the Gulf of Mexico and its stream. Bot-
tles cast into the sea midway between the Old and the New
Curiosities of Science. 173
Worlds, near the coasts of Europe, Africa, and America at the
extreme north or farthest south, have been found either in the
West Indies, or the British Isles, or within the well-known
range of Gulf-Stream waters.
" THE HOESE LATITUDES"
are the belts of calms and light airs which border the polar
edge of the north-east trade-winds. They are so called from
the circumstance that vessels formerly bound from New Eng-
land to the West Indies, with a deck-load of horses, were often
so delayed in this calm belt of Cancer, that, from the want of
water for their animals, they were compelled to throw a portion
of them overboard.
" WHITE WATER" AND LUMINOUS ANIMALS AT SEA.
Captain Kingman, of the American clipper-ship Shooting
Star, in lat. 8 46' S., long. 105 30' E., describes a patch of
white water, about twenty-three miles in length, making the
whole ocean appear like a plain covered with snow. He tilled
a 60-gallon tub with the water, and found it to contain small
luminous particles seeming to be alive with worms and in-
sects, resembling a grand display of rockets and serpents seen
at a great distance in a dark night ; some of the serpents ap-
pearing to be six inches in length, and very luminous. On
being taken up, they emitted light until brought within a few
feet of a lamp, when nothing was visible ; but by aid of a sex-
tant's magnifier they could be plainly seen a jelly-like sub-
stance, without colour. A specimen two inches long was visi-
ble to the naked eye ; it was about the size of a large hair, and
tapered at the ends. By bringing one end within about one-
fourth of an inch of a lighted lamp, the flame was attracted
towards it, and burned with a red light ; the substance crisped
in burning, something like hair, or appeared of a red heat
before being consumed. In a glass of the water there were
several small round substances (say r^th of an inch in diameter)
which had the power of expanding and contracting; when ex-
panded, the outer rim appeared like a circular saw, the teeth
turned inward.
The scene from the clipper's deck was one of awful gran-
deur : the sea having turned to phosphorus, and the heavens
being hung in blackness, and the stars going out, seemed to
indicate that all nature was preparing for that last grand con-
flagration which we are taught to believe will annihilate this
material world.
INVENTION OF THE LOG.
Long before the introduction of the Log, hour-glasses were
174 Things not generally Known.
used to tell the distance in sailing. Columbus, Juan de la
Cosa, Sebastian Cabot, and Vasco de Grama, were not acquainted
with the Log and its mode of application ; and they estimated
the ship's speed merely by the eye, while they found the dis-
tance they had made by the running-down of the sand in the
ampotellas, or hour-glasses. The Log for the measurement of
the distance traversed is stated by writers on navigation not to
have been invented until the end of the sixteenth or the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century (see Encyclopaedia BritanniGoL
7th edition, 1842). The precise date is not known ; but it is
certain that Pigafetta, the companion of Magellan, speaks, in
1521, of the Log as a well-known means of finding the course
passed over. Navarete places the use of the log-line in English
ships in 1577.
LIFE OF THE SEA-DEEPS.
The ocean teems with life, we know. Of the four elements
of the old philosophers, fire, earth, air, and water, perhaps
the sea most of all abounds with living creatures. The space
occupied on the surface of our planet by the different families
of animals and their remains is inversely as the size of the indi-
vidual ; the smaller the animal, generally speaking, the greater
the space occupied by his remains. Take the elephant and his
remains, and a microscopic animal and his, and compare them ;
the contrast as to space occupied is as striking as that of the
coral reef or island with the dimensions of the whale. The
graveyard that would hold the corallines, is larger than the
graveyard that would hold the elephants.
DEPTHS OF OCEAN AND AIR UNKNOWN.
At some few places under the tropics, no bottom has been
found with soundings of 26,000 feet, or more than four miles ;
whilst in the air, if, according to Wollaston, we may assume
that it has a limit from which waves of sound may be rever-
berated, the phenomenon of twilight would incline us to assume
a height at least nine times as great. The aerial ocean rests
partly on the solid earth, whose mountain -chains and elevated
plateaus rise like green wooded shoals, and partly on the sea,
whose surface forms a moving base, on which rest the lower,
denser, and more saturated strata of air. Humboldt's Cosmos,
vol. i.
The old Alexandrian mathematicians, on the testimony of
Plutarch, believed the depth of the sea to depend on the height
of the mountains. Mr. W. Darling has propounded to the
British Association the theory, that as the sea covers three
times the area of the land, so it is reasonable to suppose that
the depth of the ocean, and that for a large portion, is three
Curiosities of Science. 175
times as great as the height of the highest mountain. Recent
soundings show depths in the sea much greater than any ele-
vations on the surface of the earth ; for a line has been veered
to the extent of seven miles. Dr.
GKEATEST ASCERTAINED DEPTH OF THE SEA.
In the dynamical theory of the tides, the ratio of the effects
of the sun and moon depends, not only on the masses, dis-
tances, and periodic times of the two luminaries, but also on
the Depth of the Sea ; and this, accordingly, may be computed
when the other quantities are known. In this manner Pro-
fessor Haughton has deduced, from the solar and lunar co-
efficients of the diurnal tide, a mean depth of 5'12 miles; a
result which accords in a remarkable manner with that inferred
from the ratio of the semi-diurnal co-efficients as obtained by
Laplace from the Brest observations. Professor Hennessey
states, that from what is now known regarding the depth of the
ocean, the continents would appear as plateaus elevated above
the oceanic depressions to an amount which, although small
compared to the earth's radius, would be considerable when
compared to its outswelling at the equator and its flattening
towards the poles; and the surface thus presented would be
the true surface of the earth.
The greatest depths at which the bottom of the sea has been
reached with the plummet are in the North- Atlantic Ocean ;
and the places where it has been fathomed (by the United-
States deep-sea sounding apparatus) do not show it to be
deeper than 25,000 feet = 4 miles, 1293 yards, 1 foot. The
deepest place in this ocean is probably between the parallels
of 35 and 40 north latitude, and immediately to the south-
ward of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
It appeal's that, with one exception, the bottom of the North- At-
lantic Ocean, as far as examined, from the depth of about sixty fathoms
to that of more than two miles (2000 fathoms), is literally nothing but
a mass of microscopic shells. Not one of the animalcules from these
shells has been found living in the surface-waters, nor in shallow water
along the shore. Hence arises the question, Do they live on the bottom,
at the immense depths where the shells are found ; or are they borne by
submarine currents from their real habitat ?
RELATIVE LEVELS OF THE RED SEA AND MEDITERRANEAN.
The French engineers, at the beginning of the present cen-
tury, came to the conclusion that the Red Sea was about thirty
feet above the Mediterranean : but the observations of Mr.
Robert Stephenson, the English engineer, at Suez ; of M. Ne-
gretti, the Austrian, at Tineh, near the ancient Pelusium ; and
the levellings of Messrs. Talabat, Bourdaloue, and their assist-
176 Things not generally Known.
ants between the two seas ; have proved that the low-water
mark of ordinary tides at Suez and Tineh is very nearly on the
same levels, the difference being that at Suez it is rather more
than one inch lower. Leonard Homer; Proceedings of the Royal
Society, 1855.
THE DEPTH OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.
Soundings made in the Mediterranean suffice to indicate
depths equal to the average height of the mountains girding
round this great basin ; and, if one particular experiment may
be credited, reaching even to 15,000 feet an equivalent to the
elevation of the highest Alps. This sounding was made about
ninety miles east of Malta. Between Cyprus and Egypt, 6000
feet of line had been let down without reaching the bottom.
Other deep soundings have been made in other places with
similar results. In the lines of sea between Egypt and the
Archipelago, it is stated that one sounding made by the Tar-
tarus between Alexandria and Rhodes reached bottom at the
depth of 9900 feet ; another, between Alexandria and Candia,
gave a depth of 300 feet beyond this. These single soundings,
indeed, whether of ocean or sea, are always open to the cer-
tainty that greater as well as lesser depths must exist, to which
no line has ever been sunk ; a case coming under that general
law of probabilities so largely applicable in every part of physics.
In the Mediterranean especially, which has so many aspects of
a sunken basin, there may be abysses of depth here and there
which no plummet is ever destined to reach. Edinburgh Ile-
COLOUR OF THE RED SEA.
M. Ehrenberg, while navigating the Red Sea, observed that
the red colour of its waters was owing to enormous quantities
of a new animal, which has received the name of oscillatoria
rubescenSj and which seems to be the same with what Haller
has described as a purple conferva swimming in water ; yet Dr.
Bonar, in his work entitled The Desert of Sinai, records :
Blue I have called the sea ; yet not strictly so, save in the far dis-
tance. It is neither a red nor a Hue sea, but emphatically i>-reen, yes,
green, of the most brilliant kind I ever saw. This is produced by the
immense tracts of shallow water, with yellow sand beneath, which always
gives this green to the sea, even in the absence of verdure on the shore
or sea-weeds beneath. The blue of the sky and the yellow of the sands
meeting and intermingling in the water, form the green of the sea ; the
water being the medium in which the mixing or fusing of the colours
takes place.
WHAT IS SEA-MILK ?
The phenomena with this name and that of " Squid" are
occasioned by the presence of phosphorescent animalcules. They
Curiosities of Science. 177
are especially produced in the intertropical seas, and they ap-
pear to be chiefly abundant in the Gulf of Guinea and in the
Arabian Gulf. In the latter, the phenomenon was known to
the ancients more than a century before the Christian era, as
maybe seen from a curious passage from the geography of Aga-
tharcides : " Along this country (the coast of Arabia) the sea
has a white aspect like a river : the cause of this phenomenon
is a subject of astonishment to us." M. Quatrefages has dis-
covered that the Noctilucce which produce this phenomenon do
not always give out clear and brilliant sparks, but that under
certain circumstances this light is replaced by a steady clear-
ness, which gives in these animalcules a white colour. The
waters in which they have been observed do not change their
place to any sensible degree.
THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA A BUKIAL-PLACE.
Among the minute shells which have been fished up from
the great telegraphic plateau at the bottom of the sea between
Newfoundland and Ireland, the microscope has failed to detect
a single particle of sand or gravel ; and the inference is, that
there, if any where, the waters of the sea are at rest. There
is not motion enough there to abrade these very delicate or-
ganisms, nor current enough to sweep them about and mix
them up with a grain of the finest sand, nor the smallest par-
ticle of gravel from the loose beds of debris that here and there
strew the bottom of the sea. The animalcule probably do not
live or die there. They would have had no light there ; and,
if they lived there, their frail textures would be subjected in
their growth to a pressure upon them of a column of water
12,000 feet high, equal to the weight of 400 atmospheres.
They probably live and sport near the surface, where they
can feel the genial influence of both light and heat, and are
buried in the lichen caves below after death.
It is now suggested, that henceforward we should view the
surface of the sea as a nursery teeming with nascent organisms,
and its depths as the cemetery for families of living creatures
that outnumber the sands on the sea-shore for multitude.
Where there is a nursery, hard by there will be found also a
graveyard, such is the condition of the animal world. But it
never occurred to us before to consider the surface of the sea
as one wide nursery, its every ripple as a cradle, and its bottom
one vast burial-place. Lieut. Maury.
WHY IS THE SEA SALT ?
It has been replied, In order to preserve it in a state of
purity ; which is, however, untenable, mainly from the fact that
N
178 Things not generally Known.
organic impurities in a vast body of moving water, whether
fresh or salt, become rapidly lost, so as apparently to have
called forth a special agency to arrest the total organised matter
in its final oscillation between the organic and inorganic worlds.
Thus countless hosts of microscopic creatures swarm in most
waters, their principal function being, as Professor Owen sur-
mises, to feed upon and thus restore to the living chain the
almost unorganised matter of various zones. These creatures
preying upon one another, and being preyed upon by others in
their turn, the circulation of organic matter is kept up. If we
do not adopt this view, we must at least look upon the Infuso-
ria and Foramiuifera as scavenger agents to prevent an undue
accumulation of decaying matter ; and thus the salt condition
of the sea is not a necessity.
Nor is the amount of saline matter in the sea sufficient to
arrest decomposition. That the sea is salt to render it of
greater density, and by lowering its freezing point to preserve
it from congelation to within a shorter distance of the poles,
though admissible, scarcely meets the entire solution of the
question. The freezing point of sea-water, for instance, is only
877 F. lower than that of fresh water ; hence, with the present
distribution of land and sea and still less, probably, with that
which obtained in former geological epochs no very important
effects would have resulted had the ocean been fresh instead of
salt.
Now Professor Chapman, of Toronto, suggests that the salt
condition of the sea is mainly intended to regulate evaporation,
and to prevent an undue excess of that phenomenon ; saturated
solutions evaporating more slowly than weak ones, and these
latter more slowly again than pure water.
Here, then, we have a self-adjusting phenomenon and admir-
able contrivance in the balance of forces. If from any tempo-
rary cause there be an unusual amount of saline matter in the
sea, evaporation goes on the more and more slowly ; and, on
the other hand, if this proportion be reduced by the addition of
fresh water in undue excess, the evaporating power is the more
and more increased thus aiding time, in either instance, to
restore the balance. The perfect system of oceanic circulation
may be ascribed, in a great degree at least, if not wholly, to
the effect produced by the salts of the sea upon the mobility and
circulation of its waters.
Now this is an office which the sea performs in the eco-
nomy of the universe by virtue of its saltness, and which it
could not perform were its waters altogether fresh. And thus
philosophers have a clue placed in their hands which will pro-
bably guide to one of the many hidden reasons that are em-
braced in the true answer to the question, " Why is the sea salt , ? "
Curiosities of Science. 179
HOW TO ASCEKTAIN THE SALTNESS OF THE SEA.
Dry a towel in the sun, weigh it carefully, and note its
weight. Then dip it into sea-water, wring it sufficiently to
prevent its dripping, and weigh it again ; the increase of the
weight being that of the water imbibed by the cloth. It should
then be thoroughly dried, and once more weighed ; arid the ex-
cess of this weight above the original weight of the cloth shows
the quantity of the salt retained by it ; then, by comparing
the weight of this salt with that of the sea- water imbibed by
the cloth, we shall find what proportion of salt was contained
in the water.
ALL THE SALT IN THE SEA.
The amount of common Salt in all the oceans is estimated
by Schafhautl at 3,051,342 cubic geographical miles. This
would be about five times more than the mass of the Alps, and
only one- third less than that of the Himalaya. The sulphate of
soda equals 633,644*36 cubic miles, or is equal to the mass of
the Alps; the chloride of magnesium, 441, 811 '80 cubic miles;
the lime salts, 109,339*44 cubic miles. The above supposes the
mean depth to be but 300 metres, as estimated by Humboldt.
Admitting, with Laplace, that the mean depth is 1000 metres,
which is more probable, the mass of marine salt will be more
than double the mass of the Himalaya. Silliman's Journal,
No. 16.
Taking the average depth of the ocean at two miles, and
its average saltness at 3 5 per cent, it appears that there is salt
enough in the sea to cover to the thickness of one mile an area
of 7,000,000 of square miles. Admit a transfer of such a quan-
tity of matter from an average of half a mile above to one mile
below the sea level, and astronomers will show by calculation
that it would alter the length of the day.
These 7,000,000 of cubic miles of crystal salt have not made
the sea any fuller.
PROPERTIES OF SEA-WATER.
The solid constituents of sea-water amount to about 3| per
cent of its weight, or nearly half an ounce to the pound. Its
saltness is caused as follows : Rivers which are constantly flow-
ing into the ocean contain salts varying from 10 to 50, and
even 100, grains per gallon. They are chiefly common salt,
sulphate and carbonate of lime, magnesia,* soda, potash, and
iron ; and these are found to constitute the distinguishing cha-
racteristics of sea- water. The water which evaporates from the
* It is the chloride of magnesia which gives that damp sticky feeling to the
clothes of sailors that are washed or wetted with salt-water.
180 Things not generally Known.
sea is nearly pure, containing but very minute traces of salts.
Falling as rain upon the land, it washes the soil, percolates
through the rocky layers, and becomes charged with saline
substances, which are borne seaward by the returning currents.
The ocean, therefore, is the great depository of every thing that
water can dissolve and carry down from the surface of the con-
tinents ; and as there is no channel for their escape, they con-
sequently accumulate ( Youmans 1 Chemistry). They would con-
stantly accumulate, as this very shrewd author remarks, were
it not for the shells and insects of the sea and other agents.
SCENERY AND LIFE OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
The late Dr. Scoresby, from personal observations made in
the course of twenty-one voyages to the Arctic Regions, thus
describes these striking characteristics :
The coast scenes of Greenland are generally of an abrupt character,
the mountains frequently rising in triangular profile ; so much so, that
it is sometimes not possible to effect their ascent. One of the most
notable characteristics of the Arctic lands is the deception to which tra-
vellers are liable in regard to distances. The occasion of this is the
quantity of light reflected from the snow, contrasted with the dark co-
lour of the rocks. Several persons of considerable experience have been
deceived in this way, imagining, for example, that they were close to
the shore when in fact they were more than twenty miles off. The trees
of these lands are not more than three inches above ground.
Many of the icebergs are five miles in extent, and some are to be
seen running along the shore measuring as much as thirteen miles. Dr.
Scoresby has seen a cliff of ice supported on those floating masses 402
feet in 'height. There is no place in the world where animal life is to
be found in greater profusion than in Greenland, Spitzbergen, Baffin's
Bay, and other portions of the Arctic regions. This is to be accounted
for by the abundance and richness of the food supplied by the sea. The
number of birds is especially remarkable. On one occasion, no less
than a million of little hawks'came in sight of Dr. Scoresby's ship within
a single hour.
The various phenomena of the Greenland sea are very interesting.
The different colours of the sea- water olive or bottle-green, reddish-
brown, and mustard have, by the aid of the microscope, been found
to be owing to animalculse of these various colours : in a single drop of
mustard-colonred water have been counted 26,450 animals. Another
remarkable characteristic of the Greenland sea-water is its warm tem-
perature one, two, and three degrees above the freezing-point even in
the cold season. This Dr. Scoresby accounts for by supposing the flow
in that direction of warm currents from the south. The polar fields of
ice are to be found from eight or nine to thirty or forty feet in thick-
ness. By fastening a hook twelve or twenty inches in these masses of
ice, a ship could ride out in safety the heaviest gales.
ICEBERG OF THE POLAR SEAS.
The ice of this berg, although opaque and vascular, is true
glacier ice, having the fracture, lustre, and other external cha-
Curiosities of Science. 181
racters of a nearly homogeneous growth. The iceberg is true
ice, and is always dreaded by ships. Indeed, though modified
by climate, and especially by the alternation of day and night,
the polar glacier must be regarded as strictly atmospheric in
its increments, and not essentially differing from the glacier of
the Alps. The general appearance of a berg may be compared
to frosted silver ; but when its fractures are very extensive,
the exposed faces have a very brilliant lustre. Nothing can be
more exquisite than a fresh, cleanly fractured berg surface : it
reminds one of the recent cleavage of sulphate of strontian a
resemblance more striking from the slightly lazulitic tinge of
each. U. 8. Grinnel Expedition in Search of Sir J. Franklin.
IMMENSITY OF POLAR ICE.
The quantity of solid matter that is drifted out of the
Polar Seas through one opening Davis's Straits alone, and
during a part of the year only, covers to the depth of seven
feet an area of 3uO,000 square miles, and weighs not less than
18,000,000,000 tons. The quantity of water required to float
and drive out this solid matter is probably many times greater
than this. A quantity of water equal in weight to these two
masses has to go in. The basin to receive these inflowing wa-
ters, i. e. the unexplored basin about the North Pole, includes
an area of 1,500,000 square miles; and as the outflowing ice
and water are at the surface, the return current must be sub-
marine.
These two currents, therefore, it may be perceived, keep in
motion between the temperate and polar regions of the earth a
volume of water, in comparison with which the mighty Missis-
sippi in its greatest floods sinks down to a mere rill. Maury.
OPEN SEA AT THE POLE.
The following fact is striking : In 1662-3, Mr. Oldenburg,
Secretary to the Royal Society, was ordered to register a paper
entitled " Several Inquiries concerning Greenland, answered by
Mr. Gray, who had visited those parts. " The nineteenth query
was, " How near any one hath been known to approach the Pole.
Answer. I once met upon the coast of Greenland a Hollander,
that swore he had been but half a degree from the Pole, show-
ing me his journal, which was also attested by his mate; where
they had seen no ice or land, but all water." Boyle mentions
a similar account, which he received from an old Greenland
master, on April 5, 1765.
RIVER- WATER ON THE OCEAN.
Captain Sabine found discoloured water, supposed to be
that of the Amazon, 300 miles distant in the ocean from the
Things not generally Known.
embouchure of that river. It was about 126 feet deep. Its spe-
cific gravity was = 1 '0204, and the specific gravity of the sea-
water = 1-0262. This appears to be the greatest distance from
land at which river-water has been detected on the surface of
the ocean. It was estimated to be moving at the rate of three
miles an hour, and had been turned aside by an ocean- current.
" It is not a little curious to reflect," says Sir Henry de la Beche,
" that the agitation and resistance of its particles should be suf-
ficient to keep finely comminuted solid matter mechanically
suspended, so that it would not be disposed freely to part with
it except at its junction with the sea-water over which it flows,
and where, from friction, it is sufficiently retarded. "
THE THAMES AND ITS SALT-WATER BED.
The Thames below Woolwich, in place of flowing upon a
solid bottom, really flows upon the liquid bottom formed by
the water of the sea. At the flow of the tide, the fresh water
is raised, as it were, in a single mass by the salt water which
flows in, and which ascends the bed of the river, while the fresh
water continues to flow towards the sea. Mr. Stevenson, in
Jameson's Journal.
FRESH SPRINGS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN.
On the southern coast of the island of Cuba, at a few miles
from land, Springs of Fresh Water gush from the bed of the
Ocean, probably under the influence of hydrostatic pressure, and
rise through the midst of the salt water. They issue forth with
such force that boats are cautious in approaching this locality,
which has an ill repute on account of the high cross sea thus
caused. Trading vessels sometimes visit these springs to take
in a supply of fresh water, which is thus obtained in the open
sea. The greater the depth from which the water is taken,
the fresher it is found to be.
" THE BLACK WATERS."
In the upper portion of the basin of the Orinoco and its
tributaries, Nature has several times repeated the enigmatical
phenomenon of the so-called " Black Waters." The Atabapo,
whose banks are adorned with Carolinias and arborescent Me-
lastomas, is a river of a coffee-brown colour. In the shade of
the palm-groves this colour seems about to pass into ink-black.
When placed in transparent vessels, the water appears of a golden
yellow. The image of the Southern Constellation is reflected
with wonderful clearness in these black streams. When their
waters flow gently, they afford to the observer, when taking
astronomical observations with reflecting instruments, a most
excellent artificial horizon. These waters probably owe their
Curiosities of Science. 183
peculiar colour to a solution of carburetted hydrogen, to the
luxuriance of the tropical vegetation, and to the quantity of
plants and herbs on the ground over which they flow. Hurn-
ooldt's Aspects of Nature, vol. i.
GKEAT CATARACT IN INDIA.
Where the river Shirhawti, between Bombay and Cape Co-
morin, falls into the Gulf of Arabia, it is about one-fourth of a
mile in width, and in the rainy season some thirty feet in depth.
This immense body of water rushes down a rocky slope 300 feet,
at an angle of 45, at the bottom of which it makes a perpen-
dicular plunge of 850 feet into a black and dismal abyss, with
a noise like the loudest thunder. The whole descent is there-
fore 1150 feet, or several times that of Niagara; but the volume
of water in the latter is somewhat larger than in the former.
CAUSE OF WAVES.
The friction of the wind combines with the tide in agitating
the surface of the ocean, and, according to the theory of undu-
lations, each produces its effect independently of the other.
Wind, however, not only raises waves, but causes a transfer of
superficial water also. Attraction between the particles of air
and water, as well as the pressure of the atmosphere, brings its
lower stratum into adhesive contact with the surface of the sea.
If the motion of the wind be parallel to the surface, there will
still be friction, but the water will be smooth as a mirror ; but
if it be inclined, in however small a degree, a ripple will appear.
The friction raises a minute wave, whose elevation protects the
water beyond it from the wind, which consequently impinges
on the surface at a small angle : thus each impulse, combining
with the other, produces an undulation which continually ad-
vances. Mrs. Somerville's Physical Geography.
HATE AT WHICH WAVES TRAVEL.
Professor Bache states, as one of the effects of an earthquake
at Simoda, on the island of Niphon, in Japan, that the harbour
was first emptied of water, and then came in an enormous wave,
which again receded and left the harbour dry. This occurred
several times. The United-States self-acting tide-gauge at San
Francisco, which records the rise of the tide upon cylinders
turned by clocks, showed that at San Francisco, 4800 miles from
the scene of the earthquake, the first wave arrived twelve hours
and sixteen minutes after it had receded from the harbour of
Simoda. It had travelled across the broad bosom of the Pacific
Ocean at the rate of six miles and a half a minute, and arrived
on the shores of California : the first wave being seven-tenths of
184 Things not generally Known.
a foot in height, and lasting for about half an hour, followed by
seven lesser waves, at intervals of half an hour each.
The velocity with which a wave travels depends on the depth
of the ocean. The latest calculations for the Pacific Ocean give
a depth of from 14,000 to 18,000 fathoms. It is remarkable
how the estimates of the ocean's depth have grown less. La-
place assumed it at ten miles, Whewell at 3*5, while the above
estimate brings it down to two miles.
Mr. Findlay states, that the dynamic force exerted by Sea-
Waves is greatest at the crest of the wave before it breaks ; and
its power in raising itself is measured by various facts. At
Wasburg, in Norway, in 1820, it rose 400 feet; and on the
coast of Cornwall, in 1843, 300 feet. The author shows that
waves have sometimes raised a column of water equivalent to
a pressure of from three to five tons the square foot. He also
proves that the velocity of the waves depends on their length,
and that waves of from 300 to 400 feet in length from crest to
crest travel from twenty to twenty-seven and a half miles an
hour. Waves travel great distances, and are often raised by
distant hurricanes, having been felt simultaneously at St. He-
lena and Ascension, though 600 miles apart ; and it is probable
that ground-swells often originate at the Cape of Good Hope,
3000 miles distant. Dr. Scoresby found the travelling rate of
the Atlantic waves to be 32 67 English statute miles per hour.
In the winter of 1856, a heavy ground-swell, brought on by
five hours' gale, scoured away in fourteen hours 3,900,000 tons
of pebbles from the coast near Dover ; but in three days, with-
out any shift of wind, upwards of 3,000,000 tons were thrown
back again. These figures are to a certain extent conjectural;
but the quantities have been derived from careful measurement
of the profile of the beach.
OCEAN-HIGHWAYS I HOW SEA-EOUTES HAVE BEEN
SHORTENED.
When one looks seaward from the shore, and sees a ship
disappear in the horizon as she gains an offing on a voyage to
India, or the Antipodes perhaps, the common idea is that she
is bound over a trackless waste ; and the chances of another
ship sailing with the same destination the next day, or the
next week, coming up and speaking with her on the "path-
less ocean," would to most minds seem slender indeed. Yet
the truth is, the winds and the currents are now becoming so
well understood, that the navigator, like the backwoodsman
in the wilderness, is enabled literally to " blaze his way" across
the ocean ; not, indeed, upon trees, as in the wilderness, but
upon the wings of the wind. The results of scientific inquiry
Curiosities of Science. 185
have so taught him how to use these invisible couriers, that
they, with the calm belts of the air, serve as sign-boards to
indicate to him the turnings and forks and crossings by the
way.
Let a ship sail from New York to California, and the next week let
a faster one follow ; they will cross each other's path many times, and
are almost sure to see each other by the way, as in the voyage of two
fine clipper-ships from New York to California. On the ninth day after
the Archer had sailed, the Flying Cloud put to sea. Both ships were
limning against time, but without reference to each other. The Archer,
with wind and current charts in hand, went blazing her way across the
calms of Cancer, and along the new route down through the north-east
trades to the equator ; the Cloud followed, crossing the equator upon
the trail of Thomas of the Archer. Off Cape Horn she came up with him,
spoke him, and handed him the latest New York dates. The Flying
Cloud finally ranged ahead, made her adieus, and disappeared among
the clouds that lowered upon the western horizon, being destined to
reach her port a week or more in advance of her Cape Horn consort.
Though sighting no land from the time of their separation until they
gained the offing of San Francisco, some six or eight thousand miles
off, the tracks of the two vessels were so nearly the same, that being
projected upon the chart, they appear almost as one.
This is the great course of the ocean: it is 15,000 miles in length.
Some of the most glorious trials of speed and of prowess that the world
ever witnessed among ships that " walk the waters" have taken place
over it. Here the modern clipper-ship the noblest work that has ever
come from the hands of man has been sent, guided by the lights of
science, to contend with the elements, to outstrip steam, and astonish
the world. Maury.
EKROR UPON ERROR.
The great inducement to Mr. Babbage, some years since, to
attempt the construction of a machine by which astronomical
tables could be calculated and even printed by mechanical
means, and with entire accuracy, was the errors in the re-
quisite tables. Nineteen such errors, in point of fact, were dis-
covered in an edition of Taylor's Logarithms printed in 1796 ;
some of which might have led to the most dangerous results in
calculating a ship's place. These nineteen errors (of which one
only was an error of the press) were pointed out in the Nauti-
cal Almanac for 1832. In one of these errata, the seat of the
error was stated to be in cosine of 14 18' 3". Subsequent
examination showed that there was an error of one second in
this correction, and accordingly, in the Nautical Almanac of
the next year a new correction was necessary. But in making
the new correction of one second, a new error was committed
of ten degrees, making it still necessary, in some future edition
of the Nautical Almanac, to insert an erratum in an erratum of
the errata in Taylor's Logarithms. Edinburgh Review, vol. 59.
186 Things not generally Known.
of
THE LENGTH OF THE DAY AND THE HEAT OF THE EAKTH.
As we may judge of the uniformity of temperature from the
unaltered time of vibration of a pendulum, so we may also
learn from the unaltered rotatory velocity of the earth the
amount of stability in the mean temperature of our globe.
This is the result of one of the most brilliant applications of
the knowledge we had long possessed of the movement of the
heavens to the thermic condition of our planet. The rotatory
velocity of the earth depends on its volume ; and since, by the
gradual cooling of the mass by radiation, the axis of rotation
would become shorter, the rotatory velocity would necessarily
increase, and the length of the day diminish with a decrease of
the temperature. From the comparison of the secular inequa-
lities in the motions of the moon with the eclipses observed in
former ages, it follows that, since the time of Hipparchus, that
is, for full 2000 years, the length of the day has certainly not
diminished by the hundredth part of a second. The decrease
of the mean heat of the globe during a period of 2000 years has
not therefore, taking the extremest limits, diminished as much
as s^th of a degree of Fahrenheit.* Humboldtfs Cosmos, vol. i.
NICE MEASUREMENT OF HEAT.
A delicate thermometer, placed on the ground, will be af-
fected by the passage of a single cloud across a clear sky ; and
if a succession of clouds pass over, with intervals of clear sky
between them, such an instrument has been observed to fluc-
tuate accordingly, rising with each passing mass of vapour, and
falling again when the radiation becomes unrestrained.
EXPENDITURE OF HEAT BY THE SUN.
Sir John Herschel estimates the total Expenditure of Heat
by the Sun in a given time, by supposing a cylinder of ice 45
miles in diameter to be continually darted into the sun with
the velocity of light, and that the water produced by its fusion
were continually carried off : the heat now given off con-
* This fraction rests on the assumption that the dilatation of the suhstances
of which the earth is composed is equal to that of glass, that is to say, 1S * 00 for
1. Regarding this hypothesis, see Arago, in the Annuaire for 1834, pp. 177-190.
Curiosities of Science. 187
stantly by radiation would then be wholly expended in its
liquefaction, on the one hand, so as to leave no radiant surplus ;
while, on the other, the actual temperature at its surface would
undergo no diminution.
The great mystery, however, is to conceive how so enor-
mous a conflagration (if such it be) can be kept up. Every
discovery in chemical science here leaves us completely at a
loss, or rather seems to remove further the prospect of probable
explanation. If conjecture might be hazarded, we should look
rather to the known possibility of an indefinite generation of
heat by friction, or to its excitement by the electric discharge,
than to any combustion of ponderable fuel, whether solid or
gaseous, for the origin of the solar radiation. Outlines*
DISTINCTIONS OF HEAT.
Among the curious laws of modern science are those which
regulate the transmission of radiant heat through transparent
bodies. The heat of our fires is intercepted and detained by
screens of glass, and, being so detained, warms them ; while
solar heat passes freely through raid produces no such effect.
" The more recent researches of Delaroche," says Sir John Her-
schel, "however, have shown that this detention is complete
only when the temperature of the source of heat is low ; but
that as the temperature gets higher a portion of the heat ra-
diated acquires a power of penetrating glass, and that the
quantity which does so bears continually a larger and larger pro-
portion to the whole, as the heat of the radiant body is more
intense. This discovery is very important, as it establishes a
community of nature between solar and terrestrial heat ; while
at the same time it leads us to regard the actual temperature of
the sun as far exceeding that of any earthly flame."
LATENT HEAT.
This extraordinary principle exists in all bodies, and may
be pressed out of them. The blacksmith hammers a nail until
it becomes red hot, and from it he lights the match with which
he kindles the fire of his forge. The iron has by this process
become more dense, and percussion will not again produce in-
candescence until the bar has been exposed in fire to a red heat,
when it absorbs heat, the particles are restored to their former
state, and we can again by hammering develop both heat and
light. R. Hunt, F.R.S.
* Electricity, traversing excessively rarefied air or vapours, gives out light,
and doubtless also heat. May not a continual current of electric matter be con-
stantly circulating in the sun's immediate neighbourhood, or traversing the
planetary spaces, and exerting in the upper regions of its atmosphere those
phenomena of which, on however diminutive a scale, we have yet an unequi-
vocal manifestation in our Aurora Borealia?
188 Things not generally Known.
HEAT AND EVAPOKATION.
In a communication made to the French Academy, M.
Daubree calculates that the Evaporation of the Water on the
surface of the globe employs a quantity of heat about equal to
one-third of what is received from the sun ; or, in other words,
equal to the melting of a bed of ice nearly thirty-five feet in
thickness if spread over the globe.
HEAT AND MECHANICAL POWEK.
It has been found that Heat and Mechanical Power are
mutually convertible ; and that the relation between them is
definite, 772 foot-pounds of motive power being equivalent to
a unit of heat, that is, to the amount of heat requisite to raise a
pound of water through one degree of Fahrenheit.
HEAT OF MINES.
One cause of the great Heat of many of our deep Mines,
which appears to have been entirely lost sight of, is the chemi-
cal action going on upon large masses of pyritic matter in their
vicinity. The heat, which is so oppressive in the United Mines
in Cornwall that the miners work nearly naked, and bathe in
water at 80 to cool themselves, is without doubt due to the
decomposition of immense quantities of the sulphurets of iron
and copper known to be in this condition at a short distance
from these mineral works. R. Hunt, F.R.S.
VIBRATION OF HEATED METALS.
Mr. Arthur Trevelyan discovered accidentally that a bar of
iron, when heated and placed with one end on a solid block
of lead, in cooling vibrates considerably, and produces sounds
similar to those of an ^Eolian harp. The same effect is pro-
duced by bars of copper, zinc, brass, and bell-metal, when
heated and placed on blocks of lead, tin, or pewter. The bars
were four inches long, one inch and a half wide, and three-
eighths of an inch thick.
The conditions essential to these experiments are, That two
different metals must be employed the one soft and possessed
of moderate conducting powers, viz. lead or tin, the other hard ;
and it matters not whether soft metal be employed for the bar
or block, provided the soft metal be cold and the hard metal
heated.
That the surface of the block shall be uneven, for when ren-
dered quite smooth the vibration does not take place ; but the
bar cannot be too smooth.
That no matter be interposed, else it will prevent vibration,
Curiosities of Science. 189
with the exception of a burnish of gold leaf, the thickness of
which cannot amount to the two-hundred-thousandth part of
an inch. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
EXPANSION OF SPIRITS.
Spirits expand and become lighter by means of heat in a
greater proportion than water, wherefore they are heaviest in
winter. A cubic inch of brandy has been found by many ex-
periments to weigh ten grains more in winter than in summer,
the difference being between four drams thirty-two grains and
four drams forty-two grains. Liquor-merchants take advan-
tage of this circumstance, and make their purchases in winter
rather than in summer, because they get in reality rather a
larger quantity in the same bulk, buying by measure. Notes in
Various Sciences.
HEAT PASSING THROUGH GLASS.
The following experiment is by Mr. Fox Talbot: Heat a
poker bright-red hot, and having opened a window, apply the
poker quickly very near to the outside of a pane, and the hand
to the inside ; a strong heat will be felt at the instant, which
will cease as soon as the poker is withdrawn, and may be again
renewed and made to cease as quickly as before. Now it is
well known, that if a piece of glass is so much warmed as to
convey the impression of heat to the hand, it will retain some
part of that heat for a minute or more ; but in this experiment
the heat will vanish in a moment : it will not, therefore, be the
heated pane of glass that we shall feel, but heat which has come
through the glass in a free or radiant state.
HEAT FROM GAS-LIGHTING.
In the winter of 1835, Mr. W. H. White ascertained the tem-
perature in the City to be 3 higher than three miles south of
London Bridge; and after the gas had been lighted in the City
four or five hours the temperature increased full 3, thus mak-
ing 6 difference in the three miles.
HEAT BY FRICTION.
Friction as a source of Heat is well known : we rub our
hands to warm them, and we grease the axles of carriage- wheels
to prevent their setting fire to the wood. Count Rumford
has established the extraordinary fact, that an unlimited sup-
ply of heat may be derived from friction by the same materials :
he made great quantities of water boil by causing a blunt borer
to rub against a mass of metal immersed in the water. Savages
light their fires by rubbing two pieces of wood : the modus opcr-
190 Things not generally Known.
andi, as practised by the Kaffirs of South Africa, is thus de-
scribed by Captain Drayton :
Two dry sticks, one being of hard and the other of soft wood, were
the materials used. The soft stick was laid on the ground, and held
firmly down by one Kaffir, whilst another employed himself in scooping
out a little hole in the centre of it with the point of his assagy : into this
little hollow the end of the hard wood was placed, and held vertically.
These two men sat face to face, one taking the vertical stick between
the palms of his hands, and making it twist about very quickly, while
the other Kaffir held the lower stick firmly in its place ; the friction
caused by the end of one piece of wood revolving upon the other soon
made the two pieces smoke. When the Kaffir who twisted became tired,
the respective duties were exchanged. These operations having conti-
nued about a couple of minutes, sparks began to appear, and when they
became numerous, were gathered into some dry grass, which was then
swung round at arm's length until a blaze was established ; and a roar-
ing fire was gladdening the hearts of the Kaffirs with the anticipation of
a glorious feast in about ten minutes from the time that the operation
was first commenced.
HEAT BY FEICTION FEOM ICE.
When Sir Humphry Davy was studying medicine at Pen-
zance, one of his constant associates was Mr. Tom Harvey, a
druggist in the above town. They constantly experimented to-
gether ; and one severe winter's day, after a discussion on the
nature of heat, the young philosophers were induced to go to
Larigan river, where Davy succeeded in developing heat by rub-
bing two pieces of ice together so as to melt each other ;* an ex-
periment which he repeated with much eclat many years after,
in the zenith of his celebrity, at the Royal Institution. The
pieces of ice for this experiment are fastened to the ends of two
sticks, and rubbed together in air below the temperature of
32 : this Davy readily accomplished on the day of severe cold
at the Larigan river ; but when the experiment was repeated at
the Royal Institution, it was in the vacuum of an air-pump,
when the temperature of the apparatus and of the surrounding
air was below 32. It was remarked, that when the surface
of the rubbing pieces was rough, only half as much heat was
evolved as when it was smooth. When the pressure of the rub-
bing piece was increased four times, the proportion of heat
evolved was increased sevenfold.
WAEMING WITH ICE.
In common language, any thing is understood to be cooled
or warmed when the temperature thereof is made higher or
lower, whatever may have been the temperature when the
change was commenced. Thus it is said that melted iron is
* Could we by mechanical pressure force water into a solid state, an immense
nantity of he<it would be set free.
Curiosities of Science. 191
cooled down to a sub-red heat, or mercury is cooled from the
freezing point to zero, or far below. By the same rule, solid
mercury, say 50 below zero, may, in any climate or tempera-
ture of the atmosphere, be immediately warmed and melted by
being imbedded in a cake of ice. Scientific American.
REPULSION BY HEAT.
If water is poured upon an iron sieve, the wires of which
are made red-hot, it will not run through ; but on cooling, it
will pass through rapidly. M. Boutigny, pursuing this curious
inquiry, has proved that the moisture upon the skin is sufficient
to protect it from disorganisation if the arm is plunged into
baths of melted metal. The resistance of the surfaces is so great
that little elevation of temperature is experienced. Professor
Pliicker has stated, that by washing the arm with ether previ-
ously to plunging it into melted metal, the sensation produced
while in the molten mass is that of freezing coldness. R.
Hunt, F.R.S.
PKOTECTION FKOM INTENSE HEAT.
The singular power which the body possesses of resisting
great heats, and of breathing air of high temperatures, has at
various times excited popular wonder. In the last century
some curious experiments were made on this subject. Sir
Joseph Banks, Dr. Solauder, and Sir Charles Blagden, entered
a room in which the air had a temperature of 198 Fahr., and
remained ten minutes. Subsequently they entered the room
separately, when Dr. Solander found the heat 210, and Sir
Joseph 211, whilst their bodies preserved their natural degree
of heat. Whenever they breathed upon a thermometer, it sank
several degrees ; every inspiration gave coolness to their nostrils,
and their breath cooled their fingers when it reached them. Sir
Charles Blagden entered an apartment when the heat was 1
or 2 above 260, and remained eight minutes, mostly on the
coolest spot, where the heat was above 240. Though very hot,
Sir Charles felt no pain : during seven minutes his breathing
was good ; but he then felt an oppression in his lungs, and his
pulse was 144, double its ordinary quickness. To prove the
heat of the room, eggs and a beefsteak were placed upon a tin
frame near the thermometer, when in twenty minutes the eggs
were roasted hard, and in forty-seven minutes the steak was
dressed dry ; and when the air was put in motion by a pair of
bellows upon another steak, part of it was well done in thirteen
minutes. It is remarkable, that in these experiments the same
person who experienced no inconvenience from air heated to
211, could just bear rectified spirits of wine at ISO 3 , cooling oil
at 129", cooling water at 123, and cooling quicksilver at 117.
192 Things not generally Known.
Sir Francis Chantrey, the sculptor, however, exposed himself
to a temperature still higher than any yet mentioned, as de-
scribed by Sir David Brewster :
The furnace which he employs for drying his moulds is about fourteen
feet long, twelve feet high, and twelve feet broad. When it is raised to
its highest temperature, with the doors closed, the thermometer stands
at 350, and the iron floor is red-hot. The workmen often enter it at
a temperature of 340, walking over the iron floor with wooden clogs,
which are of course charred on the surface. On one occasion, Mr. Chan-
trey, accompanied by five or six of his friends, entered the furnace ; and
after remaining two minutes they brought out a thermometer which
stood at 320. Some of the party experienced sharp pains in the tips
of their ears and in the septum of the nose, while others felt a pain in
their eyes. Natural Magic, 1833.
In some cases the clothing worn by the experimenters con-
ducts away the heat. Thus, in 1828, a Spaniard entered a heated
oven, at the New Tivoli, near Paris ;. he sang a song while a
fowl was roasted by his side, he then ate the fowl and drank a
bottle of wine, and on coming out his pulse beat 176, and the
thermometer was at 110 Reaumur. He then stretched him-
self upon a plank in the oven surrounded by lighted candles,
when the mouth of the oven was closed ; he remained there
five minutes, and on being taken out, all the candles were ex-
tinguished and melted, and the Spaniard's pulse beat 200.
Now much of the surprise ceases when it is added that he
wore wide woollen pantaloons, a loose mantle of wool, and a
great quilted cap ; the several materials of this clothing being
bad conductors of heat.
In 1829 M. Chabert, the "Fire-King," exhibited similar
feats at the Argyll Rooms in Regent Street. He first swal-
lowed forty grains of phosphorus, then two spoonfuls of oil at
330, and next held his head over the fumes of sulphuric acid.
He had previously provided himself with an antidote for the
poison of the phosphorus. Dressed in a loose woollen coat, he
then entered a heated oven, and in five minutes cooked two
steaks ; he then came out of the oven, when the thermometer
stood at 380. Upon another occasion, at White Conduit House,
some of his feats were detected.
The scientific secret is as follows : Muscular tissue is an
extremely bad conductor ; and to this in a great measure the
constancy of the temperature of the human body in various
zones is to be attributed. To this fact also Sir Charles Blag-
den and Chantrey owed their safety in exposing their bodies to
a high temperature ; from the almost impervious character of
the tissues of the body, the irritation produced was confined to
the surface.
Curiosities of Science. 193
an* (Elertricita*
ill
MAGNETIC HYPOTHESES.
As an instance of the obstacles which erroneous hypotheses
throw in the way of scientific discovery, Professor Faraday ad-
duces the unsuccessful attempts that had been made in Eng-
land to educe Magnetism from Electricity until Oersted showed
the simple way. Faraday relates, that when he came to the
Royal Institution as an assistant in the laboratory, he saw
Davy, Wollaston, and Young trying, by every way that sug-
gested itself to them, to produce magnetic effects from an elec-
tric current ; but having their minds diverted from the true
course by their existing hypotheses, it did not occur to them
to try the effect of holding a wire through which an electric
current was passing over a suspended magnetic needle. Had
they done so, as Oersted afterwards did, the immediate de-
flection of the needle would have proved the magnetic property
of an electric current. Faraday has shown that the magnetism
of a steel bar is caused by the accumulated action of all the
particles of which it is composed : this he proves by first mag-
netising a small steel bar, and then breaking it successively
into smaller and smaller pieces, each one of which possesses a
separate pole ; and the same operation may be continued until
the particles become so small as not to be distinguishable with-
out a microscope.
We quote the above from a late Number of the Philosophical
Magazine, wherein also we find the following noble tribute to
the genius and public and private worth of Faraday :
The public never can know and appreciate the national value of such
a man as Faraday. He does not work to please the public, nor to win
its guineas ; and the said public, if asked its opinion as to the practical
value of his researches, can see no possible practical issue there. The
public does not know that we need prophets more than mechanics in
science, inspired men, who, by patient self-denial and the exercise of
the high intellectual gifts of the Creator, bring us intelligence of His
doings in Nature. To them their pursuits are good in themselves. Their
chief reward is the delight of being admitted into communion with Na-
ture, the pleasure of tracing out and proclaiming her laws, wholly for-
getful whether those laws will ever augment our banker's account or
improve our knowledge of cookery. Such men, though not honoured by
the title of '" practical," are they which make practical men possible. They
bring us the tamed forces of Nature, and leave it to others to contrive
the machinery to which they may be yoked. If we are rightly informed,
it was Faradaic electricity which shot the glad tidings of the fall of Se-
bastopol from Balaklava to Varna. Had this man converted his talent
194 Things not generally Known.
to commercial purposes, as so many do, we should not like to set a limit
to his professional income. The quality of his services cannot be ex-
pressed by pounds ; but that brave body, which for forty years has been
the instrument of that great soul, is a fit object for a nation's care, as
the achievements of the man are, or will one day be, the object of a
nation's pride and gratitude.
THE CHINESE AND THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE.
More than a thousand years before our era, a people living
in the extremest eastern portions of Asia had magnetic carri-
ages, on which the movable arm of the figure of a man con-
tinually pointed to the south, as a guide by which to find the
way across the boundless grass-plains of Tartary ; nay, even in
the third century of our era, therefore at least 700 years be-
fore the use of the mariner's compass in European seas, Chinese
vessels navigated the Indian Ocean under the direction of
Magnetic Needles pointing to the south.
Now the Western nations, the Greeks and the Romans, knew that
magnetism could be communicated to iron, and that that metal would
retain it for a length of time. The great discovery of the terrestrial
directive force depended, therefore, alone on this that no one in the
West had happened to observe an elongated fragment of magnetic iron-
stone, or a magnetic iron rod, floating by the aid of a piece of wood in
water, or suspended in the air by a thread, in such a position as to ad-
mit of free motion. Humboldts Cosmos, vol. i.
KIECHEE'S " MAGNETISM."
More than two centuries since, Athanasius Kircher pub-
lished his strange book on Magnetism, in which he anticipated
the supposed virtue of magnetic traction in the curative art,
and advocated the magnetism of the sun and moon, of the
divining-rod, and showed his firm belief in animal magnetism.
"In speaking of the vegetable world," says Mr. Hunt, "and
the remarkable processes by which the leaf, the flower, and the
fruit are produced, this sage brings forward the fact of the
diamagnetic (repelled by the magnet) character of the plant
which was in 1852 rediscovered; and he refers the motions of
the sunflower, the closing of the convolvulus, and the direc-
tions of the spiral formed by the twining plants, to this parti-
cular influence."* Nor were Kircher's anticipations random
guesses, but the result of deductions from experiment and ob-
servation ; and the universality of magnetism is now almost
recognised by philosophers.
MINUTE MEASUREMENT OF TIME.
By observing the magnet in the highly-convenient and deli-
cate manner introduced by Gauss and Weber, which consists
* See Mr. Hunt's popular work, The Poetry of Science; or, Studies of Physical
Phenomena of Nature. Third editiou, revised and enlarged. Bohn, 1854.
Curiosities of Science. 195
m attaching a mirror to the magnet and determining the con-
stant factor necessary to convert the differences of oscillation
into differences of time, Professor Helmholtz has been able,
with comparatively simple apparatus, to make accurate deter-
minations up to the looooth part of a second.
POWER OF A MAGNET.
The Power of a Magnet is estimated by the weight its poles
are able to carry. Each pole singly is able to support a smaller
weight than when they both act together by means of a keeper,
for which reason horse-shoe magnets are superior to bar mag-
nets of similar dimensions and character. It has further been
ascertained that small magnets have a much greater relative
force than large ones.
When magnetism is excited in a piece of steel in the ordi-
nary mode, by friction with a magnet, it would seem that its
inductive power is able to overcome the coercive power of the
steel only to a certain depth below the surface ; hence we see
why small pieces of steel, especially if not very hard, are able
to carry greater relative weights than large magnets. Sir Isaac
Newton wore in a ring a magnet weighing only 3 grains, which
would lift 760 grains, i. e. 250 times its own weight.
Bar-magnets are seldom found capable of carrying more
than their own weight; but horse-shoe magnets of similar steel
will bear considerably more. Small ones of from half an ounce
to 1 ounce in weight will carry from 30 to 40 times their own
weight ; while such as weigh from 1 to 2 Ibs. will rarely carry
more than from 10 to 15 times their weight. The writer found
a 1 Ib. horse-shoe magnet that he impregnated by means of the
feeder able to bear 26 times its own weight ; and Fischer, hav-
ing adopted the like mode of magnetising the steel, which he
also carefully heated, has made magnets of from 1 to 3 Ibs.
weight that would carry 30 times, and others of from 4 to 6 Ibs.
weight that would carry 20 times, their own weight. Professor
PescM.
HOW ARTIFICIAL MAGNETS ARE MADE.
In 1750, Mr. Canton, F.R.S., "one of the most successful
experimenters in the golden age of electricity,"* communicated
to the Royal Society his " Method of making Artificial Mag-
nets without the use of natural ones." This he effected by
using a poker and tongs to communicate magnetism to steel
bars. He derived his first hint from observing them one even-
ing, as he was sitting by the fire, to be nearly in the same di-
rection with the earth as the dipping needle. He thence con-
cluded that they must, from their position and the frequent
* Canton was the first who in England verified Dr. Franklin's idea of the
similarity of lightning and the electric fluid, July 1752.
196 Things not generally Known.
blows they receive, have acquired some magnetic virtue, which
on trial he found to be the case ; and therefore he employed
them to impregnate his bars, instead of having recourse to the
natural loadstone. Upon the reading of the above paper, Can-
ton exhibited to the Royal Society his experiments, for which
the Copley Medal was awarded to him in 1751.
Canton had, as early as 1747, turned his attention, with
complete success, to the production of powerful artificial mag-
nets, principally in consequence of the expense of procuring
those made by Dr. Gowan Knight, who kept his process secret.
Canton for several years abstained from communicating his
method even to his most intimate friends, lest it might be
injurious to Dr. Knight, who procured considerable pecuniary
advantages by touching needles for the mariner's compass.
At length Dr. Knight's method of making artificial magnets
was communicated to the world by Mr. Wilson, in a paper
published in the 69th volume of the Philosophical Transactions.
He provided himself with a large quantity of clean iron-filings,
which he put into a capacious tub about half full of clear
water ; he then agitated the tub to and fro for several hours,
until the filings were reduced by attrition to an almost im-
palpable powder. This powder was then dried, and formed
into paste by admixture with linseed-oil. The paste was then
moulded into convenient shapes, which were exposed to a mo-
derate heat until they had attained a sunicient degree of hard-
ness.
After allowing them to remain for some time in this state, Dr,
Knight gave them their magnetic virtue in any direction he pleased,
by placing them between* the extreme ends of his large magazine of
artificial magnets for a second or more, as he saw occasion. By this
method the virtue they acquired was such, that when any one of these
pieces was held between two of his best ten-guinea bars, with its poles
purposely inverted, it immediately of itself turned about to recover its
natural direction, which the force of those very powerful bars was not
sufficient to counteract.
Dr. Knight's powerful battery of magnets above mentioned
is in the possession of the Royal Society, having been presented
by Dr. John FothergiU in 1776.
POWER OF THE SUN'S BAYS IN INCREASING THE STRENGTH
OF MAGNETS.
Professor Barlocci found that an armed natural loadstone,
which would carry 1 Roman pounds, had its power nearly
doubled by twenty-four hours' exposure to the strong light of
the sun. M. Zantedeschi found that an artificial horse-shoe
loadstone, which carried 13 oz., carried 3J more by three days'
exposure, and at last arrived to 31 oz. by continuing it in the
sun's light. He found that while the strength increased in
Curiosities of Science. 197
oxidated magnets, it diminished in those which were not oxi-
dated, the diminution becoming insensible when the loadstone
was highly polished. He now concentrated the solar rays upon
the loadstone by means of a lens ; and he found that, both in
oxidated and polished magnets, they acquire strength when
their north pole is exposed to the sun's rays, and lose strength
when the south pole is exposed. /Sir David Bi
COLOUR OF A BODY AND ITS MAGNETIC PROPERTIES.
Solar rays bleach dead vegetable matter with rapidity, while
in living parts of plants their action is frequently to strengthen
the colour. Their power is perhaps best seen on the sides of
peaches, apples, &c., which, exposed to a midsummer's sun,
become highly coloured. In the open winter of 1850, Mr. Adie,
of Liverpool, found in a wallflower plant proof of a like effect :
in the dark months there was a slow succession of one or two
flowers, of uniform pale yellow hue ; in March streaks of a
darker colour appeared on the flowers, and continued to slowly
increase till in April they were variegated brown and yellow,
of rich strong colours. On the supposition that these changes
are referable to magnetic properties, may hereafter be explained
Mrs. Somerville's experiments on steel needles exposed to the
sun's rays under envelopes of silk of various colours ; the mag-
netisation of steel needles has failed in the coloured rays of the
spectrum, but Mr. Adie considers that under dyed silk the ef-
fect will hinge on the chemical change wrought in the silk and
its dye by the solar rays.
THE ONION AND MAGNETISM.
A popular notion has long been current, more especially on
the shores -of the Mediterranean, that if a magnetic rod be
rubbed with an onion, or brought in contact with the emana-
tions of the plant, the directive force will be diminished, while
a compass thus treated will mislead the steersman. It is diffi-
cult to conceive what could have given rise to so singular a
popular error.* Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. v.
DECLINATION OF THE NEEDLE THE EARTH A MAGNET.
The Inclination or Dip of the Needle was first recorded by
Robert Norman, in a scarce book published in 1576 entitled The
New Attractive; containing a short Discourse of the Magnet or
Loadstone, &c.
Columbus has not only the merit of being the first to dis-
cover a line without magnetic variation, but also of having first
* This is mentioned in Prodi Diadochi Paraphrasis Ptolem., 1635. (Delambre,
Hist, de I' Astronomie ancienne.)
198 Things not generally Known.
excited a ta^te for the study of terrestrial magnetism in Europe,
by means of his observations on the progressive increase of
western declination in receding from that line.
The first chart showing the variation of the compass,* or
the declination of the needle, based on the idea of employing
curves drawn through points of equal declination, is due to
Halley, who is justly entitled the father and founder of terres-
trial magnetism. And it is curious to find that in No. 195 of
the Philosophical Transactions, in 1683, Halley had previously
expressed his belief that he has put it past doubt that the
globe of the earth is one great magnet, having four magnetical
poles or points of attraction, near each pole of the equator two;
and that in those parts of the world which lie near adjacent to
any one of those magnetical poles, the needle is chiefly go-
verned thereby, the nearest pole being always predominant
over the more remote.
" To Halley" (says Sir John Herschel) " we owe the first ap-
preciation of the real complexity of the subject of magnetism.
It is wonderful indeed, and a striking proof of the penetration
and sagacity of this extraordinary man, that with his means of
information he should have been able to draw such conclusions,
and to take so large and comprehensive a view of the subject
as he appears to have done. "
And, in our time, " the earth is a great magnet," says
Faraday : "its power, according to Gauss, being equal to that
which would be conferred if every cubic yard of it contained
six one-pound magnets ; the sum of the force is therefore equal
to 8,464,000,000,000,000,000,000 such magnets."
THE AURORA BOREALIS.
Halley, upon his return from his voyage to verify his theory
of the variation of the compass, in 1700, hazarded the conjec-
ture that the Aurora Barealis is a magnetic phenomenon. And
Faraday's brilliant discovery of the evolution of light by mag-
netism has raised Halley's hypothesis, enounced in 1714, to
the rank of an experimental certainty.
EFFECT OF LIGHT ON THE MAGNET.
In 1854. Sir John Ross stated to the British Association, in
proof of the effect of every description of light on the magnet,
that during h ; s last voyage in the Felix, when frozen in about
one hundred miles north of the magnetic pole, he concentrated
* The fivst Vnr'aHon-Oomnnss was constructed, before 1525, by nn ingenious
apothecary of Seville. Pelisse Guillen. So earnest were the endeavours to learn
more exactly the. direction of tlie curves of magnetic declination, that in 1585
Juan Jayine sailed wirli Prune! sco Gali from Manilla to Acsipnlco, for the sole
purpose of trying in the Pacific a declination instrument which lie had invented.
Humboldt.
Curiosities of Science. 199
the rays of the full moon on the magnetic needle, when he found
it was nve degrees attracted by it.
MAGNETO-ELECTRICITY.
In 1820, the Copley Medal was adjudicated to M. Oersted
of Copenhagen, "when," says Dr. Whewell, "the philosopher
announced that the conducting-wire of a voltaic circuit acts
upon a magnetic needle ; and thus recalled into activity that
endeavour to connect magnetism with electricity which, though
apparently on many accounts so hopeful, had hitherto been at-
tended with no success. Oersted found that the needle has a
tendency to place itself at right anyles to the wire ; a kind of
action altogether different from any which had been suspected."
ELECTRO-MAGNETS OF THE HORSE-SHOE FORM
were discovered by Sturgeon in 1825. Of two Magnets made by
a process devised by M. Elias, and manufactured by M. Loge-
meur at Haerlem, one, a single horse-shoe magnet weighing
about 1 lb., lifts 28 \ Ibs. ; the other, a triple horse-shoe magnet
of about 10 Ibs. weight, is capable of lifdng about 150 Ibs. Si-
milar magnets are made by the same person capable of sup-
porting 5 cwt. In the process of making them, a helix of
copper and a galvanic battery are used. The smaller magnet
has twice the power expressed by Haecker's formula for the
best artificial steel magnet.
Subsequently Henry and Ten Eyk, in America, constructed
some electro-magnets on a large scale. One horse-shoe magnet
made by them, weighing 60 Ibs., would support more than
2000 Ibs.
In September 1858, there were constructed for the Atlan-
tic-telegraph cable at Valentia two permanent magnets, from
which the electric induction is obtained : each is composed of
30 horse-shoe magnets, 2 feet long and from 4 to 5 inches
broad ; the induction coils attached to these each contain six
miles of wire, and a shock from them, if passed through the
human body, would be sufficient to destroy life.
ROTATION-MAGNETISM.
The unexpected discovery of Rotation- Magnetism by Arago,
in 1825, has shown practically that every kind of matter is sus-
ceptible of magnetism ; and the recent investigations of Fara-
day on diamagnetic substances have, under special conditions
of meridian or equatorial direction, and of solid, fluid, or gaseous
inactive conditions of the bodies, confirmed this important re-
sult.
200 Things not generally Known.
INFLUENCE OF PENDULUMS ON EACH OTHEE.
About a century since it became known, that when two
clocks are in action upon the same shelf, they will disturb each
other : that the pendulum of the one will stop that of the other ;
and that the pendulum that was stopped will after a while re-
sume its vibrations, and in its turn stop that of the other clock.
When two clocks are placed near one another in cases .very
slightly fixed, or when they stand on the boards of a floor, they
will affect a little each other's pendulum. Mr. ElHcote observed
that two clocks resting against the same rail, which agreed to a
second for several days, varied one minute thirty-six seconds in
twenty-four hours when separated. The slower, having a longer
pendulum, set the other in motion in 16 J minutes, and stopped
itself in 36 minutes.
WEIGHT OF THE EARTH ASCERTAINED BY THE PENDULUM.
By a series of comparisons with Pendulums placed at the
surface and the interior of the Earth, the Astronomer- Royal has
ascertained the variation of gravity in descending to the bottom
of a deep mine, as the Harton coal-pit, near South Shields. By
calculations from these experiments, he has found the mean
density of the earth to be 6-566, the specific gravity of water
being represented by unity. In other words, it has been ascer-
tained by these experiments that if the earth's mass possessed
every where its average density, it would weigh, bulk for bulk,
6*566 times as much as water. It is curious to note the dif-
ferent values of the earth's mean density which have been
obtained by different methods. The Schehallien experiment
indicated a mean density equal to about 4 ; the Cavendish
apparatus, repeated by Baily and Reich, about 5^ ; and Pro-
fessor Airy's pendulum experiment furnishes a value amounting
to about 65.
The immediate result of the computations of the Astro-
nomer-Royal is : supposing a clock adjusted to go true time at
the top of the mine, it would gain 2J seconds per day at the
bottom. Or it may be stated thus : that gravity is greater at
the bottom of a mine than at the top by TST^yth part. Letter to
James Mather, Esq., South Shields. See also Professor Airy's Lec-
ture, 1854.
ORIGIN OF TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
The earliest view of Terrestrial Magnetism supposed the ex-
istence of a magnet at the earth's centre. As this does not ac-
cord with the observations on declination, inclination, and in-
tensity, Tobias Meyer gave this fictitious magnet an eccentric
position, placing it one-seventh part of the earth's radius from
the centre. Hansteen imagined that there were two such mag-
Curiosities of Science. 201
nets, different in position and intensity. Ampere set aside these
unsatisfactory hypotheses by the view, derived from his discov-
ery, that the earth itself is an electro-magnet, magnetised by an
electric current circulating about it from east to west perpen-
dicularly to the plane of the magnetic meridian, to which the
same currents give direction as well as magnetise the ores of
iron : the currents being thermo-electric currents, excited by the
action of the sun's heat successively on the different parts of the
earth's surface as it revolves towards the east.
William Gilbert,* who wrote an able work on magnetic and
electric forces in the year 1600, regarded terrestrial magnetism
and electricity as two emanations of a single fundamental source
pervading all matter, and he therefore treated of both at once.
According to Gilbert's idea, the earth itself is a magnet; whilst
he considered that the inflections of the lines of equal declina-
tion and inclination depend upon the distribution of mass, the
configuration of continents, or the form and extent of the deep
intervening oceanic basins.
Till within the last eighty years, it appears to have been the
received opinion that the intensity of terrestrial magnetism was
the same at all parts of the earth's surface. In the instructions
drawn up by the French Academy for the expedition under La
Perouse, the first intimation is given of a contrary opinion. It
is recommended that the time of vibration of a dipping-needle
should be observed at stations widely remote, as a test of the
equality or difference of the magnetic intensity; suggesting also
that such observations should particularly be made at those parts
of the earth where the dip was greatest and where it was least.
The experiments, whatever their results may have been, which,
in compliance with this recommendation, were made in the ex-
pedition of La Perouse, perished in its general catastrophe ; but
the instructions survived.
In 1811, Hansteen took up the subject, and in 1819 pub-
lished his celebrated work, clearly demonstrating the fluctua-
tions which this element has undergone during the last two
centuries ; confirming in great detail the position of Halley,
that " the whole magnetic system is in motion, that the mov-
ing force is very great as extending its effects from pole to pole,
and that its motion is not per saltum, but a gradual and regular
motion. "
THE NORTH AND SOUTH MAGNETIC POLES.
The knowledge of the geographical position of both Mag-
netic Poles is due to the scientific energy of the same naviga-
* Gilbert was surgeon to Queen Elizabeth and James I., and died in 1603.
Whewell justly assigns him an important place among tlie " practical reformers
of the physical sciences." He adopted the Copernican doctrine, which Lord Ba-
con's inferior aptitude for physical research led him to reject.
Things not generally Knoivn.
tor, Sir James Ross. His observations of the Northern Mag-
netic Pole were made during the second expedition of his uncle,
Sir John Ross (1829-1833) ; and of the Southern during the
Antarctic expedition under his own command (1839-1843). The
Northern Magnetic Pole, in 70 5' lat., 96 43' W. long., is 5 of
latitude farther from the ordinary pole of the earth than the
Southern Magnetic Pole, 75 35' lat., 154 10' E. long. ; whilst
it is also situated farther west from Greenwich than the North-
ern Magnetic Pole. The latter belongs to the great island of
Boothia Felix, which is situated very near the American conti-
nent, and is a portion of the district which Captain Parry had
previously named North Somerset. It is not far distant from
the western coast of Boothia Felix, near the promontory of Ade-
laide, which extends into King William's Sound and Victoria
Strait.
The Southern Magnetic Pole has been directly reached in
the same manner as the Northern Pole. On 17th February
1841, the Erebus penetrated as far as 76 12' S. lat., and 164
E. long. As the inclination was here only 88 40', it was assumed
that the Southern Magnetic Pole was about 160 nautical miles
distant. Many accurate observations of declination, determin-
ing the intersection of the magnetic meridian, render it very
probable that the South Magnetic Pole is situated in the inte-
rior of the great Antarctic region of South Victoria Land, west
of the Prince Albert mountains, which approach the South Pole
and are connected with the active volcano of Erebus, which is
12,400 feet in height. Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. v.
MAGNETIC STORMS.
The mysterious course of the magnetic needle is equally af-
fected by time and space, by the sun's course^ and by changes
of place on the earth's surface. Between the tropics the hour
of the day may be known by the direction of the needle as well
as by the oscillations of the barometer. It is affected instantly,
but transiently, by the northern light.
When the uniform horary motion of the needle is disturbed
by a magnetic storm, the perturbation manifests itself simulta*
neously, in the strictest sense of the word, over hundreds and
thousands of miles of sea and land, or propagates itself by de-
grees in short intervals every where over the earth's surface.
Among numerous examples of perturbations occurring simul-
taneously and extending over wide portions of the earth's sur-
face, one of the most remarkable is that of September 25th, 1841,
which was observed at Toronto in Canada, at the Cape of Good
Hope, at Prague, and partially in Van JDiemen's Land. Sa-
bine adds, "The English Sunday, on which it is deemed sin-
ful, after midnight on Saturday, to register an observation, and
Curiosities of Science. 203
to follow out the great phenomena of creation in their perfect
development, interrupted the observation in VanDiemen's Land,
where, in consequence of the difference of the longitude, the
magnetic storm fell on Sunday."
It is but justice to add. that to the direct instrumentality of the Bri-
tish Association we are indebted for this system of observation, which
would not have been possible without some such machinery for concerted
action. It being known that the magnetic needle is subject to oscilla-
tions, the nature, the periods, and the laws of which were unascertained,
under the direction of a committee of the Association magnetic observa-
tories were established in various places for investigating these strange
disturbances. As might have been anticipated, regularly recurring per-
turbations were noted, depending on the hour of the day and the season
of the year. Magnetic storms were observed to sweep simultaneously over
the whole face of the earth, and these too have now been ascertained to
follow certain periodic laws.
But the most startling result of the combined magnetic observations
is the discovery of marked perturbations recurring at intervals of ten
years ; a period which seemed to have no analogy to any thing in the
universe, but which M. Schwabe has found to correspond with the varia-
tion of the spots on the sun, both attaining their maximum and mini-
mum developments at the same time. Here, for the present, the dis-
covery stops ; but that which is now an unexplained coincidence may
hereafter supply the key to the nature and source of Terrestrial Magne-
tism : or, as Dr. Lloyd observes, this system of magnetic observation
has gone beyond our globe, and opened a new range for inquiry, by
showing us that this wondrous agent has power in other parts of the
solar system.
FAMILIAR GALVANIC EFFECTS.
By means of the galvanic agency a variety of surprising
effects have heen produced. Gunpowder, cotton, and other in-
flammable substances have been set on fire ; charcoal has been
made to burn with a brilliant white flame ; water has been de-
composed into its elementary parts ; metals have been melted
and set on fire ; fragments of diamond, charcoal, and plumbago
have been dispersed as if evaporated ; platina, the hardest and
the heaviest of the metals, has been melted as readily as wax
in the flame of a candle ; the sapphire, quartz, magnesia, lime,
and the firmest compounds in nature, have been fused. Its
effects on the animal system are no less surprising.
The agency of galvanism explains why porter has a different
and more pleasant taste when drunk out of a pewter-pot than
out of glass or earthenware ; why works of metal which are
soldered together soon tarnish in the place where the metals are
joined ; and why the copper sheathing of ships, when fastened
with iron nails, is soon corroded about the place of contact. In
all these cases a galvanic circle is formed which produces the
effects.
THE SIAMESE TWINS GALVANISED.
It will be recollected that the Siamese twins, brought to
Things not generally Known.
England in the year 1829, were united by a jointed cartilagi-
nous band. A silver tea spoon being placed on the tongue of
one of the twins and a disc of zinc on the tongue of the other,
the moment the two metals were brought into contact both
the boys exclaimed, " Sour, sour ;" thus proving that the gal-
vanic influence passed from the one to the other through the
connecting band.
MINUTE AND VAST BATTERIES.
Dr. Wollaston made a simple apparatus out of a silver thim-
ble, with its top cut off. It was then partially flattened, and
a small plate of zinc being introduced into it, the apparatus was
immersed in a weak solution of sulphuric acid. With this mi-
nute battery, Dr. Wollaston was able to fuse a wire of platinum
fto'ooth of an inch in diameter a degree of tenuity to which no
one had ever succeeded in drawing it.
Upon the same principle (that of introducing a plate of zinc
between two plates of other metals) Mr. Children constructed
his immense battery, the zinc plates of which measured six feet
by two feet eight inches ; each plate of zinc being placed be-
tween two of copper, and each triad of plates being enclosed in
a separate cell. With this powerful apparatus a wire of plati-
num, Voth of an inch in diameter and upwards of five feet long,
was raised to a red heat, visible even in the broad glare of day-
light.
The great battery at the Royal Institution, with which Sir
Humphry Davy discovered the composition of the fixed alkalies,
was of immense power. It consisted of 200 separate parts, each
composed of ten double plates, and each plate containing thirty-
two square inches ; the number of double plates being 2000, and
the whole surface 128,000 square inches.
Mr. Highton, C.E., has made a battery which exposes a sur-
face of only T-j^yth part of an inch : it consists of but one cell ; it
is less than 10 oooth part of a cubic inch, and yet it produces
electricity more than enough to overcome all the resistance in
the inventor's brother's patent Gold-leaf Telegraph, and works
the same powerfully. It is, in short, a battery which, although
it will go through the ei/e of a needle, will yet work a telegraph
well. Mr. Highton had previously constructed a battery in size
less than -^th of a cubic inch : this battery, he found, would
for a month together ring a telegraph-bell ten miles off.
ELECTRIC INCANDESCENCE OF CHARCOAL POINTS.
The most splendid phenomenon of this kind is the combus-
tion of charcoal points. Pointed pieces of the residuum ob-
tained from gas retorts will answer best, or Bunsen's composi-
tion may be used for this purpose. Put two such charcoal
Curiosities of Science. 05
points in immediate contact with the wires of your battery ;
bring the points together, and they will begin to burn with a
dazzling white light. The charcoal points of the large appara-
tus belonging to the Royal Institution became incandescent at
a distance of ^th of an inch ; when the distance was gradually
increased till they were four inches asunder, they continued to
burn with great intensity, and a permanent stream of light
played between them. Professor Bunsen obtained a similar
flame from a battery of four pairs of plates, its carbon surface
containing 29 feet. The heat of this flame is so intense, that
stout platinum wire, sapphire, quartz, talc, and lime are re-
duced by it to the liquid form. It is worthy of remark, that no
combustion, properly so called, takes place in the charcoal it-
self, which sustains only an extremely minute loss in its weight
and becomes rather denser at the points. The phenomenon is
attended with a still more vivid brightness if the charcoal points
are placed in a vacuum, or in any of those gases which are not
supporters of combustion. Instead of two charcoal points, one
only need be used if the following arrangement is adopted : lay
the piece of charcoal on some quicksilver that is connected with
one pole of the battery, and complete the circuit from the other
pole by means of a strip of platinum. When Professor Peschel
used a piece of well-burnt coke in the manner just described,
he obtained a light which was almost intolerable to the eyes.
VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY.
On January 31, 1793, Volta announced to the Royal Society
his discovery of the development of electricity in metallic bodies.
Galvani had given the name of Animal Electricity to the power
which caused spontaneous convulsions in the limbs of frogs
when the divided nerves were connected by a metallic wire.
Volta, however, saw the true cause of the phenomena described
by Galvani. Observing that the effects were far greater when
the connecting medium consisted of two different kinds of
metal, he inferred that the principle of excitation existed in
the metals, and not in the nerves of the animal ; and he as-
sumed that the exciting fluid was ordinary electricity, produced
by the contact of the two metals ; the convulsions of the frog
consequently arose from the electricity thus developed passing
along its nerves and muscles.
In 1800 Volta invented what is now called the Voltaic
Pile, or compound Galvanic circle.
The term Animal Electricity (says Dr. Whewell) has been superseded
by others, of which Galvanism is the most familiar; but I think that
V olta's office in this discovery is of a much higher and more philosophi-
cal kind than that of Galvani ; and it would on this account be more fit-
ting to employ the term Voltaic Electricity, which, indeed, is very com-
206 Things not generally Known.
monly used, especially by our most recent and comprehensive writers.
The Voltaic pile was a more important step in the history of electricity
than the Ley. I en jar had been Hist. Ind. Sciences, vol. lii.
No one who wishes to judge impartially of the scientific history of
these times and of its leaders, will consider Galvani and Volta as equals,
or deny the vast superiority of the latter over all his opponents or fellow-
workers, more especially over those of the Bologna s hool. We shall
scarcely again lind in one man gifts so rich and so calculated for research
as were combined in Volta. He possessed that " incomprehensible
talent," as Dove has called it, for separating the essential from the im-
material in complicated phenomena ; that boldness of invention which,
must precede experiment, controlled by the most strict and cautious
mode of manipulation ; that unremitting attention which allows no cir-
cumstance to pass unnoticed ; lastly, with so much acuteness, so much
simplicity, so much grandeur of conception, combined with such depth
of thought, he had a hand which was the hand of a workman. Jame-
son's Journal, No. 106.
THE VOLTAIC BATTERY AND THE GYMNOTUS.
" We boast of our Voltaic Batteries," says Mr. Smee. " I
should hardly be believed if I were to say that I did not feel
pride in having constructed my own, especially when I consider
the extensive operations which it has conducted. But when I
compare my battery with the battery which nature has given
to the electrical eel and the torpedo, how insignificant are hu-
man operations compared with those of the Architect of living
beings ! The stupendous electric eel in the Polytechnic Insti-
tution, when he seeks to kill his prey, encloses him in a circle ;
then, by volition, causes the voltaic force to be produced, and
the hapless creature is instantly killed. It would probably re-
quire ten thousand of my artificial batteries to effect the same
object, as the creature is killed instanteron receiving the shock.
As much, however, as my battery is inferior to that of the elec-
tric fish, so is man superior to the same animal. Man is en-
dowed with a power of mind competent to appreciate the force
of matter, and is thus enabled to make the battery. The eel
can but use the specific apparatus which nature has bestowed
upon it."
Some observations upon the electric current around the
gymnotus, and notes of experiments with this and other electric
fish, will be found in Things not generally Known, p. 199.
VOLTAIC CURRENTS IN MINES.
Many years ago, Mr. R. W. Fox, from theory entertaining
a belief that a connection existed between voltaic action in the
interior of the earth and the arrangement of metalliferous veins,
and also the progressive increase of temperature in the strata as
we descend from the surface, endeavoured to verify the same
from experiment in the mine of Huel Jewel, in Cornwall. His
Curiosities of Science. 207
apparatus consisted of small plates of sheet-copper, which were
fixed in contact with a plate in the veins with copper nails, or
else wedged closely against them with wooden props stretched
across the galleries. Between two of these plates, at different
stations, a communication was made by means of a copper
wire TjVth of an inch in diameter, which included a galvanometer
in its circuit. In some instances 300 fathoms of copper wire
were employed. It was then found that the intensity of the
voltaic current was generally greater in proportion to the
greater abundance of copper ore in the veins, and in some de-
gree to the depth of the stations. Hence Mr. Fox's discovery
promised to be of practical utility to the miner in discovering
the relative quantity of ore in the veins, and the directions in
which it most abounds.
The result of extended experiments, mostly made by Mr.
Robert Hunt, has not, however, confirmed Mr. Fox's views.
It has been found that the voltaic currents detected in the lodes
are due to the chemical decomposition going on there ; and the
more completely this process of decomposition is established,
the more powerful are the voltaic currents. Meanwhile these
have nothing whatever to do with the increase of temperature
with depth. Recent observations, made in the deep mines of
Cornwall under the direction of Mr. Fox, do not appear consis-
tent with the law of thermic increase as formerly established,
the shallow mines giving a higher ratio of increase than the
deeper ones.
GEKMS OF ELECTRIC KNOWLEDGE.
Two centuries and a half ago, Gilbert recognised that the
property of attracting light substances when rubbed, be their
nature what it may, is not peculiar to amber, which is a con-
densed earthy juice cast up by the waves of the sea, and in
which flying insects, ants, and worms lie entombed as in eter-
nal sepulchres. The force of attraction (Gilbert continues) be-
longs to a whole class of very different substances, as glass,
sulphur, sealing-wax, and all resinous substances rock crystal
and all precious stones, alum and rock-salt. Gilbert measured
the strength of the excited electricity by means of a small
needle not made of iron which moved freely on a pivot, and
perfectly similar to the apparatus used by Haiiy and Brewster
in testing the electricity excited in minerals by heat and fric-
tion. "Friction," says Gilbert further, "is productive of a
stronger effect in dry than in humid air ; and rubbing with
silk cloths is most advantageous."
Otto von Guerike, the inventor of the air-pump, was the
first who observed any thing more than mere phenomena of
attraction. In his experiments with a rubbed piece of sulphur
208 Things not generally Known.
he recognised the phenomena of repulsion, which subsequently
led to the establishment of the laws of the sphere of action and
of the distribution of electricity. He heard the first sound, and
saw the first light, in artificially -produced electricity. In an ex-
periment instituted by Newton in 1675, the first traces of an
electric charge in a rubbed plate of glass were seen.
TEMPERATURE AND ELECTRICITY.
Professor Tyndall has shown that all variations of tempera-
ture, in metals at least, excite electricity. When the wires of
a galvanometer are brought in contact with the two ends of a
heated poker, the prompt deflection of the galvanometer-needle
indicates that a current of electricity has been sent through
the instrument. Even the two ends of a spoon, one of which
has been dipped in hot water, serve to develop an electric
current. ; and in cutting a hot beefsteak with a steel knife and
a silver fork there is an excitement of electricity. The mere
heat of the finger is sufficient to cause the deflection of the
galvanometer ; and when ice is applied to the part that has
been previously warmed, the galvanometer-needle is deflected
in the contrary direction. A small instrument invented by
Melloni is so extremely sensitive of the action of heat, that
electricity is excited when the hand is held six inches from it.
VAST ARRANGEMENT OF ELECTRICITY.
Professor Faraday has shown that the Electricity which de-
composes, and that which is evolved in the decomposition of,
a certain quantity of matter, are alike. What an enormous
quantity of electricity, therefore, is required for the decompo-
sition of a single grain of water ! It must be in quantity suf-
ficient to sustain a platinum wire r^th of an inch in thickness
red-hot in contact with the air for three minutes and three-
quarters. It would appear that 800,000 charges of a Leyden
battery, charged by thirty turns of a very large and powerful
plate-machine in full action, are necessary to supply electricity
sufficient to decompose a single grain of water, or to equal the
quantity of electricity which is naturally associated with the
elements of that grain of water, endowing them with their mu-
tual chemical affinity. Now the above quantity of electricity,
if passed at once through the head of a rat or a cat, would kill
it as by a flash of lightning. The quantity is, indeed, equal to
that which is developed from a charged thunder- cloud.
DECOMPOSITION OF WATER BY ELECTRICITY.
Professor Andrews, by an ingenious arrangement, is enabled
to show that water is decomposed by the common machine;
Curiosities of Science. 209
and by using an electrical kite, he was able, in fine weather, to
produce decomposition, although so slowly that only rooWoth
of a grain of water was decomposed per hour. Faraday has
proved that the decomposition of one single grain of water pro-
duces more electricity than is contained in the most powerful
flash of lightning.
ELECTRICITY IN BREWING.
Mr. Black, a practical writer upon Brewing, has found that
by the practice of imbedding the fermentation- vats in the earth,
and connecting them by means of metallic pipes, an electrical
current passes through the beer and causes it to turn sour. As
a preventive, he proposed to place the vats upon wooden blocks,
or on any other non-conductors, so that they may be insulated.
It has likewise been ascertained that several brewers who had
brewed excellent ale on the south side of the street, on re-
moving to the north have failed to produce good ale.
ELECTRIC PAPER.
Professor Schonbein has prepared paper, as transparent as
glass and impermeable to water, which develops a very ener-
getic electric force. By placing some sheets on each other,
and simply rubbing them once or twice with the hand, it be-
comes difficult to separate them. If this experiment is per-
formed in the dark, a great number of distinct flashes may be
perceived between the separated surfaces. The disc of the
electrophorus, placed on a sheet that has been rubbed, pro-
duces sparks of some inches in length. A thin and very dry
sheet of paper, placed against the wall, will adhere strongly
to it for several hours if the hand be passed only once over it.
If the same sheet be passed between the thumb and fore-finger
in the dark, a luminous band will be visible. Hence with this
paper may be made powerful and cheap electrical machines.
DURATION OF THE ELECTRIC SPARK.
By means of Professor Wheatstone's apparatus, the Dura-
tion of the Electric Spark has been ascertained not to exceed
the twenty-five-thousandth part of a second. A cannon-ball,
if illumined in its flight by a flash of lightning, would, in
consequence of the momentary duration of the light, appear to
be stationary, and even the wings of an insect, that move ten
thousand times in a second, would seem at rest.
VELOCITY OF ELECTRIC LIGHT.
On comparing the velocities of solar, stellar, and terrestrial
light, which are all equally refracted in the prism, with the
p
Things not generally Known.
velocity of the light of frictional electricity, we are disposed,
in accordance with Wheatstone's ingeniously-conducted experi-
ments, to regard the lowest ratio in which the latter excels the
former as 3 : 2. According to the lowest results of Wheatstone's
apparatus, electric light traverses 288,000 miles in a second.
If we reckon 189,938 miles for stellar light, according to Struve,
we obtain the difference of 95,776 miles as the greater velocity
of electricity in one second.
From the experiment described in Wheatstone's paper (Phi-
losophical Transactions for 1834), it would appear that the hu-
man eye is capable of perceiving phenomena of light whose
duration is limited to the millionth part of a second.
In Professor Airy's experiments with the electric telegraph
to determine the difference of longitude between Greenwich
and Brussels, the time spent by the electric current in passing
from one observatory to the other (270 miles) was found to be
0-109", or rather more than the ninth part of a second; and
this determination rests on 2616 observations : a speed which
would " girdle the globe" in ten seconds.
IDENTITY OF ELECTEIC AND MAGNETIC ATTRACTION.
This vague presentiment of the ancients has been verified
in our own times. " When electrum (amber)," says Pliny, "is
animated by friction and heat, it will attract bark and dry
leaves precisely as the loadstone attracts iron." The same
words may be found in the literature of an Asiatic nation, and
occur in a eulogium on the loadstone by the Chinese physicist
Knopho, in the fourth century: "The magnet attracts iron
as amber does the smallest grain of mustard-seed. It is like a
breath of wind, which mysteriously penetrates through both,
and communicates itself with the rapidity of an arrow."
Humboldt observed with astonishment on the woody banks of the
Orinoco, in the sports of the natives, that the excitement of electricity
by friction was known to these savage races. Children may be seen to
rub the dry, flat, and shining seeds or husks of a trailing plant until
they are able to attract threads of cotton and pieces of bamboo-cane.
What a chasm divides the electric pastime of these naked copper-co-
loured Indians from the discovery of a metallic conductor discharging
its electric shocks, or a pile formed of many chemically-decomposing
substances, or a light-engendering magnetic apparatus ! In such a
ch ism lie buried thousands of years, that compose the history of the in-
tellectual development of mankind. Humbvldt's Cosmos, vol. i.
THEORY OF THE ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENGINE.
Several years ago a speculative American set the industrial
world of Europe in excitement by this proposition. The Mag-
neto-Electric Machines often made use of in the case of rheu-
matic disorders are well known. By imparting a swift rotation
Curiosities of Science.
to the magnet of such a machine, we obtain powerful currents
of electricity. If these be conducted through water, the latter
will be reduced to its two components, oxygen and hydrogen.
By the combustion of hydrogen water is again generated. _ If
this combustion takes place, not in atmospheric air, in which
oxygen only constitutes a fifth part, but in pure oxygen, and
if a bit of chalk be placed in the flame, the chalk will be raised
to a white heat, and give us the sun-like Drummond light : at
the same time the flame develops a considerable quantity of
heat. Now the American inventor proposed to utilise in this
way the gases obtained from electrolytic decomposition ; and
asserted that by the combustion a sufficient amount of heat
was generated to keep a small steam-engine in action, which
again drove his magneto-electric machine, decomposed the
water, and thus continually prepared its own fuel. This would
certainly have been the most splendid of all discoveries, a per-
petual motion which, besides the force that kept it going,
generated light like the sun, and warmed all around it. The
affair, however, failed, as was predicted by those acquainted
with the physical investigations which bear upon the subject.
Professor Helmholtz.
MAGNETIC CLOCK AND WATCH.
In the Museum of the Royal Society are two curiosities of
the seventeenth century which are objects of much interest in
association with the electric discoveries of our day. These are
a Clock, described by the Count Malagatti (who accompanied
Cosmo III., Grand Duke of Tuscany, to inspect the Museum
in 1669) as more worthy of observation than all the other ob-
jects in the cabinet. Its " movements are derived from the
vicinity of a loadstone, and it is so adjusted as to discover the
distance of countries at sea by the longitude." The analogy
between this clock and the electric clock of the present day is
very remarkable. Of kindred interest is " Hook's Magnetic
Watch," often alluded to in the Royal Society's Journal-book
of 1669 as " going slower or faster according to the greater or
less distance of the loadstone, and so moving regularly in any
posture."
WHEATSTONE'S ELECTKO-MAGNETIC CLOCK.
In this ingenious invention, the object of Professor Wheat-
stone was to enable a simple clock to indicate exactly the same
time in as many different places, distant from each other, as
may be required. A standard clock in an observatory, for ex-
ample, would thus keep in order another clock in each apart-
ment, and that too with such accuracy, that all of them, how-
ever numerous, will beat dead seconds audibly with as great pre-
Things not generally Known.
cision as the standard astronomical time-piece with which they are
connected. But, besides this, the subordinate time-pieces thus
regulated require none of the mechanism for maintaining or
regulating the power. They consist simply of a face, with its
second, minute, and hour hands, and a train of wheels which
communicate motion from the action of the second-hand to
that of the hour-hand, in the same manner as an ordinary clock-
train. Nor is this invention confined to observatories and large
establishments. The great horologe of St. Paul's might, by a
suitable network of wires, or even by the existing metallic
pipes of the metropolis, be made to command and regulate all
the other steeple-clocks in the city, and even every clock within
the precincts of its metallic bounds. As railways and tele-
graphs extend from London nearly to the remotest cities and
villages, the sensation of time may be transmitted along with
the elements of language ; and the great cerebellum of the
metropolis may thus constrain by its sympathies, and regulate
by its power, the whole nervous system of the empire.
HOW TO MAKE A COMMON CLOCK ELECTRIC.
M. Kammerer of Belgium effects this by an addition to any
clock whereby it is brought into contact with the two poles of
a galvanic battery, the wires from which communicate with a
drum moved by the clockwork ; and every fifteen seconds the
current is changed, the positive and the negative being trans-
mitted alternately. A wire is continued from the drum to the
electric clock, the movement of which, through the plate-glass
dial, is seen to be two pairs of small straight electro-magnets,
each pair having their ends opposite to the other pair, with about
half an inch space between. Within this space there hangs a
vertical steel bar, suspended from a spindle at the top. The rod
has two slight projections on each side parallel to the ends of
the wire-coiled magnets. When the electric current comes on
the wire from the positive end of the battery (through the
drum of the regulator- clock) the positive magnets attract the
bar to it, the distance being perhaps the sixteenth of an inch.
When, at the end of fifteen seconds, the negative pole operates,
repulsion takes effect, and the bar moves to the opposite side.
This oscillating bar gives motion to a wheel which turns the
minute and hour hands.
M. Kammerer states, that if the galvanic battery be at-
tached to any particular standard clock, any number of clocks,
wherever placed, in a city or kingdom, and communicating with
this by a wire, will indicate precisely the same time. Such is
the precision, that the sounds of three clocks thus beating simul-
taneously have been mistaken as proceeding from one clock.
Curiosities of Science. 213
DR. FRANKLIN'S ELECTRICAL KITE.
Several philosophers had observed that lightning and elec-
tricity possessed many common properties ; and the light which
accompanied the explosion, the crackling noise made by the
flame, and other phenomena, made them suspect that lightning
might be electricity in a highly powerful state. But this con-
nection was merely the subject of conjecture until, in the year
1750, Dr. Franklin suggested an experiment to determine the
question. While he was waiting for the building of a spire at
Philadelphia, to which he intended to attach his wire, the ex-
periment was successfully made at Marly-la- Ville, in France, in
the year 1 752 ; when lightning was actually drawn from the
clouds by means of a pointed wire, and it was proved to be
really the electric fluid.
Almost every early electrical discovery of importance was made by
Fellows of the Royal Society, and is to be found recoi'ded in the Philo-
sophical Transactions. In the forty-fifth volume occurs the first men-
tion of Dr. Franklin's name, and his theory of positive and negative
electricity. In 1756 he was elected into the Society, " without any fee
or other payment." His previous communications to the Transactions,
particularly the account of his electrical kite, had excited great intei-est.
( Welds History of the Royal Society.} It is thus described by him in a
letter dated Philadelphia, October 1, 1752 :
" As frequent mention is made in the public papers from Europe of
the success of the Marly-la- Ville experiment for drawing the electric fire
from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high buildings,
&c., it may be agreeable to the curious to be informed that the same
experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, though made in a different
and more easy manner, which any one may try, as follows :
Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as
to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief when ex-
tended. Tie the corners of the handkerchief to the extremities of the
cross ; so you have the body of a kite, which, being properly accommo-
dated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air like a kite made
of paper ; but this, being of silk, is fitter to bear the wet and wind of a
thunder-gust without tearing. To the top of the upright stick of the
cross is to be fixed a very sharp-pointed wire, rising a foot or more
above the wood. To the end of the twine, next the band, is to be tied
a silk ribbon ; and where the twine and silk join a key may be fastened.
The kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust appears to be coming
on, and the person who holds the string must stand within a door or
window, or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not be wet ;
and care must be taken that the twine does not touch the frame of the
door or window. As soon as any of the thunder-clouds come over the
kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them ; and the
kite, with all the twine, will be electrified ; and the loose filaments of
the twine will stand out every way, and be attracted by an approaching
finger.
When the rain has wet the kite and twine, so that it can conduct
the electric fire freely, you will find it stream out plentifully from the
key on the approach of your knuckle. At this key the phial may be
charged ; and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled,
Things not generally Known.
and all the other electrical experiments be performed which are usually
done by the help of a rubbed-glass globe or tube ; and thus the same-
ness of the electric matter with that of lightning is completely demon-
strated." Philosophical Transactions.
Of all this great man's (Franklin's) scientific excellencies,
the most remarkable is the smallness, the simplicity, the ap-
parent inadequacy of the means which he employed in his
experimental researches. His discoveries were all made with
hardly any apparatus at all ; and if at any time he had been
led to employ instruments of a somewhat less ordinary descrip-
tion, he never rested satisfied until he had, as it were, after-
wards translated the process by resolving the problem with
such simple machinery that you might say he had done it
wholly unaided by apparatus. The experiments by which the
identity of lightning and electricity was demonstrated were
made with a sheet of brown paper, a bit of twine or silk thread,
and an iron key ! Lord Brougham.*
FATAL EXPERIMENT WITH LIGHTNING.
These experiments are not without danger ; and a flash of
lightning has been found to be a very unmanageable instrument.
In 1753, M. Richman, at St. Petersburg, was making an ex-
periment of this kind by drawing lightning into his room, when,
incautiously bringing his head too near the wire, he was struck
dead by the flash, which issued from it like a globe of blue fire,
accompanied by a dreadful explosion.
FARADAY'S ELECTRICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.
The following are selected from the very able series of lec-
tures delivered by Professor Faraday at the Royal Institution :
The Two Electricities. After having shown by various experiments
the attractions and repulsions of light substances from excited glass and
from an excited tube of gutta-percha, Professor Faraday proceeds to
point out the difference in the character of the electricity produced by
the friction of the two substances. The opposite characters of the elec-
tricity evolved by the friction of glass and of that excited by the friction
of gutta-percha and shellac are exhibited by several experiments, in
which the attraction of the positive and negative electricities to each
other and the neutralisation of electrical action on the combination of
the two forces are distinctly observable. Though adopting the terms
" positive" and " negative" in distinguishing the electricity excited by
glass from that excited by gutta-percha and resinous bodies, Professor
Faraday is strongly opposed to the Franklinian theory from which these
terms are derived. According to Franklin's view of the nature of elec-
trical excitement, it arises from the disturbance, by friction or other
means, of the natural quantity of one electric fluid which is possessed
by all bodies ; an excited piece of glass having more than its natural
* This illustration, it will be seen, does not literally correspond with the
details which precede it.
Curiosities of Science. 215
share, which has been taken from the rubber, the latter being conse-
quently in a minus or negative state. This theory Professor Faraday
considers to be opposed to the distinct characteristic actions of the two
forces ; and, in his opinion, it is impossible to deprive any body of elec-
tricity, and reduce it to the minus state of Franklin's hypothesis.
Taking a Zamboni's pile, he applies its two ends separately to an elec-
ti-ometer, to show that each end pi-oduces opposite kinds of electricity,
and that the zero, or absence of electrical excitement, only exists in the
centre of the pile. To prove how completely the two electricities neu-
tralise each other, an excited rod of gutta-percha and the piece of flannel
with which it has been rubbed are laid on the top of the electrometer
without any sign of electricity whilst they are together ; but when either
is removed, the gold leaves diverge with positive and negative electri-
city alternately. The Professor dwells strongly on the peculiarity of the
dual force of electricity, which, in respect of its duality, is unlike any
other force in nature. He then contrasts its phenomena of instanta-
neous conduction with those of the somewhat analogous force of heat;
and he illustrates by several striking experiments the peculiar property
which static electricity possesses of being spread only over the surfaces
of bodies. A metal ice-pail is placed on an insulated stand and electri-
fied, and a metal ball suspended by a string is introduced, and touches
the bottom and sides without having any electricity imparted to it, but
on touching the outside it becomes strongly electrical. The experiment
is repeated with a wooden tub with the same result ; and Professor Fa-
raday mentions the still more remarkable manner in which he has
proved the surface distribution of electi'icity by having a small chamber
constructed and covered with tinfoil, which can be insulated ; and whilst
torrents of electricity are being evolved from the external surface, he
enters it with a galvanometer, and cannot perceive the slightest mani-
festation of electricity within.
The Two Threads. A curious experiment is made with two kinds of
thread used as the conducting force. From the electric machine on the
table a silk thread is first carried to the indicator a yard or two off, and
is shown to be a non-conductor when the glass tube is rubbed and ap-
plied to the machine (although the silk, when wetted, conducted) ; while
a metallic thread of the same thickness, when treated in the same way,
conducts the force so much as to vehemently agitate the gold leaves
within the indicator.
Non-conducting Bodies. The action that occurs in bodies which
cannot conduct is the most important part of electrical science. The
principle is illustrated by the attraction arid repulsion of an electrified
ball of gilt paper by a glass tube, between which and the ball a sheet
of shellac is suspended. The nearer a ball of another description an
tmelectrical insulated body is brought to the Leyden jar when charged,
the greater influence it is seen to possess over the gold leaf within the
indicator, by induction, not by conduction. The questions, how elec-
tricities attract each other, what kind of electricity is drawn from the
machine to the hand, how the hand was electric, are thus illustrated.
To show the divers operations of this wonderful force, a tub (a bad con-
ductor) is placed by the electric machine. When the latter is charged,
a ball, having been electrified from it, is held in the tub, and rattles
against its sides and bottom. On the application of the ball to the indi-
cator, the gold leaf is shown not to move, whereas it is agitated mani-
festly when the same process is gone through with the exception that
the ball is made to touch the outside only of the tub. Similar experi-
216 Things not generally Known.
ments with a ball in an ice-pail and a vessel of wire -gauze, into the
latter of which is introduced a mouse, which is shown to receive no
shock, and not to be frightened at all ; while from the outside of the
vessel electric sparks are rapidly produced. This latter demonstration
proves that, as the mouse, so men and women, might be safe inside a
building with proper conductors while lightning played about the ex-
terior. The wire-gauze being turned inside out, the principle is shown
to be irreversible in spite of the change what has been the un electrical
inside of the vessel being now, when made the outside portion, capable
of receiving and ti-ansmitting the power, while the original outside is
now unelectrical.
Repulsion of Bodies. A remarkable and playful experiment, by
which the repulsion of bodies similarly electrified is illustrated, consists
in placing a basket containing a heap of small pieces of paper on an in-
sulated stand, and connecting it with the prime conductor of the electri-
cal machine ; when the pieces of paper rise rapidly after each other into
the air, and descend on the lecture-tablelike a fall of snow. The effect
is greatly increased when a metal disc is substituted for the basket.
ORIGIN OF THE LEYDEN JAR.
Muschenbroek and Linnaeus had made various experiments
of a strong kind with water and wire. The former, as appears
from a letter of his to Reaumur, filled a small bottle with water,
and having corked it up, passed a wire through the cork into
the bottle. Having rubbed the vessel on the outside and sus-
pended it to the electric machine, he was surprised to find that
on trying to pull the wire out he was subjected to an awfully
severe shock in his joints and his whole body, such as he de-
clared he would not suffer again for any experiment. Hence
the Leyden jar, which owes its name to the University of Ley-
den, with which, we believe, Muschenbroek was connected.
Faraday.
DANGER TO GUNPOWDER MAGAZINES.
By the illustration of a gas globule, which is ignited from a
spark by induction, Mr. Faraday has proved in a most interest-
ing manner that the corrugated-iron roofs of some gunpowder-
magazines, on the subject of which he had often been consulted
by the builders, with a view to the greater safety of these manu-
factories, are absolutely dangerous by the laws of induction ;
as, by the return of induction, while a storm was discharging
itself a mile or two off, a secondary spark might ignite the build-
ing.
ARTIFICIAL CRYSTALS AND MINERALS. " THE CROSSE MITE."
Among the experimenters on Electricity in our time who
have largely contributed to the " Curiosities of Science," An-
drew Crosse is entitled to special notice. In his school- days he
became greatly attached to the study of electricity ; and on set-
Curiosities of Science. 217
tling on his paternal estate, Fyne Court, on the Quantock Hills
in Somersetshire, he there devoted himself to chemistry, min-
eralogy, and electricity, pursuing his experiments wholly inde-
pendently of theories, and searching only for facts. In Holwell
Cavern, near his residence, he observed the sides and the roof
covered with Arragonite crystallisations, when his observations
led him to conclude that the crystallisations were the effects,
at least to some extent, of electricity. This induced him to
make the attempt to form artificial crystals by the same means,
which he began in 1807. He took some water from the cave,
filled a tumbler, and exposed it to the action of a voltaic bat-
tery excited by water alone, letting the platinum-wires of the
battery fall on opposite sides of the tumbler from the opposite
poles of the battery. After ten days' constant action, he pro-
duced crystals of carbonate of lime ; and on repeating the ex-
periment in the dark, he produced them in six days. Thus Mr.
Crosse simulated in his laboratory one of the hitherto most mys-
terious processes of nature.
He pursued this line of research for nearly thirty years at
Fyne Court, where his electrical-room and laboratory were on
an enormous scale : the apparatus had cost some thousands of
pounds, and the house was nearly full of furnaces. He carried
an insulated wire above the tops of the trees around his house
to the length of a mile and a quarter, afterwards shortened to
1800 feet. By this wire, which was brought into connection
with the apparatus in a chamber, he was enabled to see con-
tinually the changes in the state of the atmosphere, and could
use the fluid so collected for a variety of purposes. In 1816,
at a meeting of country gentlemen, he prophesied that, " by
means of electrical agency, we shall be able to communicate our
thoughts simultaneously with the uttermost ends of the earth."
Still, though he foresaw the powers of the medium, he did not
make any experiments in that direction, but confined himself
to the endeavour to produce crystals of various kinds. He ul-
timately obtained forty-one mineral crystals, or minerals uucrys-
tallised, in the form in which they are produced by nature, in-
cluding one sub-sulphate of copper an entirely new mineral,
neither found in nature nor formed by art previously. His be-
lief was that even diamonds might be produced in this way.
Mr. Crosse worked alone in his retreat until 1836, when,
attending the meeting of the British Association at Bristol,
he was induced to explain his experiments, for which he was
highly complimented by Dr. Buckland, Dr. Dalton, Professor
Sedgwick, and others.*
* Mr. Crosse gave to the meeting a general invitation to Fyne Court; one of
the first to accept which was Sir Richard Phillips, who, on his return to Brigh-
ton, described in a very attractive manner, at the Sussex Institution, Mr. Crosse's
218 Things not generally Known.
Shortly after Mr. Crosse's return to Fyne Court, while pur-
suing his experiments for forming crystals from a highly caus-
tic solution out of contact with atmospheric air, he was greatly
surprised by the appearance of an insect. Black flint, burnt to
redness and reduced to powder, was mixed with carbonate of
potash, and exposed to a strong heat for fifteen minutes ; and the
mixture was poured into a black-lead crucible in an air furnace.
It was reduced to powder while warm, mixed with boiling
water, kept boiling for some minutes, and then hydrochloric
acid was added to supersaturation. After being exposed to vol-
taic action for twenty-six days, a perfect insect of the Acari
tribe made its appearance, and in the course of a few weeks
about a hundred more. The experiment was repeated in other
chemical fluids with the like results ; and Mr. Weeks of Sand-
wich afterwards produced the Acari inferrocyanerret of potas-
sium. The Acarus of Mr. Crosse was found to contribute a new
species of that genus, nearly approaching the Acari found in
cheese and flour, or more nearly, Hermann's Acarus dimidiatus.
This discovery occasioned great excitement. The possibility
was denied, though Mr. Faraday is said to have stated in the
same year that he had seen similar appearances in his own elec-
trical experiments. Mr. Crosse was now accused of impiety and
aiming at creation, to which attacks he thus replied :
As to the appearance of the acari under long-continued electrical
action, I have never in thought, word, or deed given any one a right
to suppose that I considered them as a creation, or even as a formation,
from inorganic matter. To create is to form a something out of a no-
thing. To annihilate is to reduce that something to a nothing. Both of
these, of course, can only be the attributes of the Almighty. In fact, I
can assure you most sacredly that I have never dreamed of any theory
sufficient to account for their appearance. I confess that I was not a
little surprised, and am so still, and quite as much as I was when the
acari made their first appearance. Again, I have never claimed any
merit as attached to these experiments. It was a matter of chance ; I
was looking for silicious formations, and animal matter appeared in-
stead.
These Acari, if removed from their birthplace, lived and pro-
pagated; but uniformly died on the first recurrence of frost, and
were entirely destroyed if they fell back into the fluid whence
they arose.
One of Mr. Crosse's visitors thus describes the vast electrical
room at Fyne Court:
Here was an immense number of jars and gallipots, containing fluids
on which electricity was operating for the production of crystals. But
you are startled in the midst of your observations by the smart crackling
sound that attends the passage of the electrical spark ; you hear also
experiments and apparatus ; a report of which being communicated to the
Brighton Herald, was quoted in the Literary Gazette, and thence copied generally
into the newspapers of the day.
Curiosities of Science. 219
the rumbling of distant thunder. The rain is already plashing in great
drops against the glass, and the sound of the passing sparks continues
to startle your ear ; you see at the window a huge brass conductor, with
a discharging rod near it passing into the floor, and from the one knob to
the other sparks are leaping with increasing rapidity and noise, every
one of which would kill twenty men at one blow, if they were linked to-
gether hand in hand and the spark sent through the circle. From this
conductor wires pass off without the window, and the electi'ic fluid is
conducted harmlessly away. Mr. Crosse approached the instrument as
boldly as if the flowing stream of fire were a harmless spark. Armed
with his insulated rod, he sent it into his batteries : having charged
them, he showed how wire was melted, dissipated in a moment, by its
passage ; how metals silver, gold, and tin were inflamed and burnt
like paper, only with most brilliant hues. He showed you a mimic au-
rora and a falling-star, and so proved to you the cause of those beauti-
ful phenomena.
Mr. Crosse appears to have produced in all "about 200 varie-
ties of minerals, exactly resembling in all respects similar ones
found in nature." He tried also a new plan of extracting gold
from its ores by an electrical process, which succeeded, but was
too expensive for common use. He was in the habit of saying
that he could, like Archimedes, move the world "if he were
able to construct a battery at once cheap, powerful, and dura-
ble." His process of extracting metals from their ores has been
patented. Among his other useful applications of electricity
are the purifying by its means of brackish or sea water, and the
improving bad wine and brandy. He agreed with Mr. Quekett
in thinking that it is by electrical action that silica and other
mineral substances are carried into and assimilated by plants.
Negative electricity Mr. Crosse found favourable to no plants
except fungi ; and positive electricity he ascertained to be in-
jurious to fungi, but favourable to every thing else.
Mr. Crosse died in 1855. His widow has published a very
interesting volume of Memorials of the ingenious experimenter,
from which we select the following :
On one occasion Mr. Crosse kept a pair of soles under the electric
action for three months ; and at the end of that time they were sent to
a friend, whose domestics knew nothing of the experiment. Before the
cook dressed them, her master asked her whether she thought they were
fresh, as he had some doubts. She replied that she was sure they were
fresh ; indeed, she said she could swear that they were alive yesterday !
When served at table they appeared like ordinary fish ; but when the
family attempted to eat them, they were found to be perfectly tasteless
the electric action had taken away all the essential oil, leaving the
fish unfit for food. However, the process is exceedingly useful for keep-
ing fish, meat, &c. fresh and good for ten days or a fortnight. I have
never heard a satisfactory explanation of the cause of the antiseptic
power communicated to water by the passage of the electric current.
Whether ozone has not something to do with it, may be a question.
The same effect is produced whichever two dissimilar metals are used.
Things not generally Known.
2Cfje Electric
ANTICIPATIONS OF THE ELECTEIC TELEGEAPH.
THE great secret of ubiquity, or at least of instantaneous trans-
mission, has ever exercised the ingenuity of mankind in various
romantic myths ; and the discovery of certain properties of the
loadstone gave a new direction to these fancies.
The earliest anticipation of the Electric Telegraph of this
purely fabulous character forms the subject of one of the Pro-
lusiones Academiccs of the learned Italian Jesuit Strada, first
published at Rome in the year 1617. Of this poem a free
translation appeared in 1750. Strada's fancy was this : " There
is," he supposes, "a species of loadstone which possesses such
virtue, that if two needles be touched with it, and then bal-
anced on separate pivots, and the one be turned in a parti-
cular direction, the other will sympathetically move parallel
to it. He then directs each of these needles to be poised and
mounted parallel on a dial having the letters of the alphabet
arranged round it. Accordingly, if one person has one of the
dials, and another the other, by a little pre-arrangement as to
details a correspondence can be maintained between them at
any distance by simply pointing the needles to the letters of
the required words. Strada, in his poetical reverie, dreamt that
some such sympathy might one day be found to hold up the
Magnesian Stone."
Strada's conceit seems to have made a profound impression
on the master-minds of the day. His poem is quoted in many
works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; and Bishop
Wilkins, in his book on Cryptology, is strangely afraid lest
his readers should mistake Strada's fancy for fact. Wilkins
writes : " This invention is altogether imaginary, having no
foundation in any real experiment. You may see it frequently
confuted in those that treat concerning rnagnetical virtues."
Again, Addison, in the 241st No. of the Spectator, 1712,
describes Strada's "Chimerical correspondence," and adds that,
" if ever this invention should be revived or put in practice,"
he " would propose that upon the lover's dial -plate there
should be written not only the four-and-twenty letters, but se-
veral entire words which have always a place in passionate epis-
tles, as flames, darts, die, language, absence, Cupid, heart, eyes,
being, drown, and the like. This would very much abridge the
lover's pains in this way of writing a letter, as it would enable
Curiosities of Science.
him to express the most useful and significant words with a
single touch of the needle."
After Strada and his commentators comes Henry Van Etten,
who shows how " Claude, being at Paris, and John at Rome,
might converse together, if each had a needle touched by a
stone of such virtue that as one moved itself at Paris the other
should be moved at Rome :" he adds, " it is a fine invention,
but I do not think there is a magnet in the world which has
such virtue ; besides, it is inexpedient, for treasons would be
too frequent and too much protected. (Recreations Mathema-
tiques: see 5th edition, Paris, 1660, p. 158.) Sir Thomas Browne
refers to this " conceit" as " excellent, and, if the effect would
follow, somewhat divine ;" but he tried the two needles touched
with the same loadstone, and placed in two circles of letters,
" one friend keeping one and another the other, and agreeing
upon an hour when they will communicate, " and found the tra-
dition a failure that, "at what distance of place soever, when
one needle shall be removed unto any letter, the other, by a
wonderful sympathy, will move unto the same." (See Vulgar
Errors, book ii. ch. iii.)
Glanvill's Vanity of Dogmatizing, a work published in 1661,
however, contains the most remarkable allusion to the prevail-
ing telegraphic fancy. Glanvill was an enthusiast, and he clearly
predicts the discovery and general adoption of the electric tele-
graph. "To confer," he says, "at the distance of the Indies
by sympathetic conveyance may be as usual to future times as
to us in a literary correspondence." By the word " sympathe-
tic" he evidently intended to convey magnetic agency ; for he
subsequently treats of "conference at a distance by impreg-
nated needles," and describes the device substantially as it is
given by Sir Thomas Browne, adding, that though it did not
then answer, " by some other such way of magnetic efficiency
it may hereafter with success be attempted, when magical his-
tory shall be enlarged by riper inspection ; and 'tis not unlikely
but that present discoveries might be improved to the perform-
ance." This may be said to close the most speculative or my-
thical period in reference to the subject of electro-telegraphy.
Electricians now began to be sedulous in their experiments
upon the new force by friction, then the only known method
of generating electricity. In 1729, Stephen Gray, a pensioner
of the Charter-house, contrived a method of making electrical
signals through a wire 765 feet long ; yet this most important
experiment did not excite much attention. Next Dr. Watson,
of the Royal Society, experimented on the possibility of trans-
mitting electricity through a large circuit from the simple fact of
Le Mourner's account of his feeling the stroke of the electrified
fires through two of the basins of the Tuileries (which occupy
Things not generally Known
nearly an acre), by means of an iron chain lying upon the ground
and stretched round half their circumference. In 1 745, Dr. Wat-
son, assisted by several members of the Royal Society, made a
series of experiments to ascertain how far electricity could be
conveyed by means of conductors. " They caused the shock to
pass across the Thames at Westminster Bridge, the circuit being
completed by making use of the river for one part of the chain
of communication. One end of the wire communicated with
the coating of a charged phial, the other being held by the ob-
server, who in his other hand held an iron rod which he dipped
into the river. On the opposite side of the river stood a gentle-
man, who likewise dipped an iron rod in the river with one
hand, and in the other held a wire the extremity of which
might be brought into contact with the wire of the phial. Upon
making the discharge, the shock was felt simultaneously by
both the observers." (Priestley's History of Electricity.} Sub-
sequently the same parties made experiments near Shooter's
Hill, when the wires formed a circuit of four miles, and con-
veyed the shock with equal facility, "a distance which without
trial," they observed, " was too great to be credited."* These
experiments in 1747 established two great principles : 1, that
the electric current is transmissible along nearly two miles and
a half of iron wire ; 2, that the electric current may be completed
by burying the poles in the earth at the above distance.
In the following year, 1748, Benjamin Franklin performed
his celebrated experiments on the banks of the Schuylkill, near
Philadelphia ; which being interrupted by the hot weather, they
were concluded by a picnic, when spirits were fired by an elec-
tric spark sent through a wire in the river, and a turkey was
killed by the electric shock, and roasted by the electric jack
before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle.
In the year 1753, there appeared in the Scots' Magazine, vol.
xv., definite proposals for the construction' of an electric tele-
graph, requiring as many conducting wires as there are letters
in the alphabet ; it was also proposed to converse by chimes,
by substituting bells for the balls. A similar system of tele-
graphing was next invented by Joseph Bozolus, a Jesuit, at
Rome ; and next by the great Italian electrician Tiberius Ca-
vallo, in his treatise on Electricity.
In 1787, Arthur Young, when travelling in France, saw a
model working telegraph by M. Lomond : " You write two or
three words on a paper," says Young; "he takes it with him
into a room, and turns a machine enclosed in a cylindrical case,
* These experiments were performed at the expense of the Royal Society, and
cost 10^. 5s. 6d. In the Paper detailing the experiments, printed in the 45th
volume of the Philosophical Transactions, occurs the first mention of Dr. Franklin's
name, and of his theory of positive and negative electricity. Weld's Hist. Eoya.1
Soc. vol. i. p. 467.
Curiosities of Science.
at the top of which is an electrometer a small fine pith-ball ;
a wire connects with a similar cylinder and electrometer in a
distant apartment; and his wife, by remarking the correspond-
ing motions of the ball, writes down the words they indicate :
from which it appears that he has formed an alphabet of mo-
tions. As the length of the wire makes no difference in the
effect, a correspondence might be carried on at any distance.
Whatever the use may be, the invention is beautiful."
We now reach a new epoch in the scientific period the dis-
covery of the Voltaic Pile. In 1794, according to Voiat's Maga-
zine, Reizen made use of the electric spark for the telegraph ;
and in 1798 Dr. Salva of Madrid constructed a similar tele-
graph, which the Prince of Peace subsequently exhibited to the
King of Spain with great success.
In 1809, Soemmering exhibited a telegraphic apparatus
worked by galvanism before the Academy of Sciences at Munich,
in which the mode of signalling consisted in the development
of gas-bubbles from the decomposition of water placed in a
series of glass tubes, each of which denoted a letter of the al-
phabet. In 1813, Mr. Sharpe, of Doe Hill near Alfreton, de-
vised a voltaic-electric telegraph, which he exhibited to the
Lords of the Admiralty, who spoke approvingly of it, but de-
clined to carry it into effect. In the following year, Soemmer-
ing exhibited a voltaic-electric telegraph of his own construction,
which, however, was open to the objection of there being as
many wires as signs or letters of the alphabet.
The next invention is of much greater importance. Upon
the suggestion of Cavallo, already referred to, Francis Ronalds
constructed a perfect electric telegraph, employing frictional
electricity notwithstanding Volta's discoveries had been known
in England for sixteen years. This telegraph was exhibited at
Hammersmith in 1816 :* it consisted of a single insulated wire,
the indication being by pith-balls in front of a dial. When the
wire was charged, the balls were divergent, but collapsed when
the wire was discharged ; at the same time were employed two
clocks, with lettered discs for the signals. " If, as Paley asserts
(and Coleridge denies), * he alone discovers who proves,' Ro-
nalds is entitled to the appellation of the first discoverer of an
efficient electric telegraph. " (Saturday Review, No. 147 t) Never-
theless the Government of the day refused to avail itself of this
admirable contrivance.
In 1819, Oersted made his great discovery of the deflection,
by a current of electricity, of a magnetic needle at right angles
* In this year Andrew Crosse said : "I prophesy that by means of the electric
agency we shall be enabled to communicate our thoughts instantaneously with
the uttermost parts of the earth."
f To which paper the writer is indebted for many of these details.
224* Things not generally Known.
to such current. Dr. Hamel of St. Petersburg states that
Baron Schilling was the first to apply Oersted's discovery to
telegraphy ; Ampere had previously suggested it, but his plan
was very complicated, and Dr. Hamel maintains that Schil-
ling first realised the idea by actually producing an electro-
magnetic telegraph simpler in construction than that which
Ampere had imagined. In 1836, Professor Muncke of Heidel-
berg, who had inspected Schilling's telegraphic apparatus, ex-
plained the same to William Fothergill Cooke, who in the
following year returned to England, and subsequently, with
Professor Wheatstone, laboured simultaneously for the intro-
duction of the electro -magnetic telegraph upon the English
railways; the first patent for which was taken out in the joint
names of these two gentlemen.
In 1844, Professor Wheatstone, with one of his telegraphs,
formed a communication between King's College and the lofty
shot-tower on the opposite bank of the Thames : the wire was
laid along the parapets of the terrace of Somerset House and
Waterloo Bridge, and thence to the top of the tower, about 150
feet high, where a telegraph was placed ; the wire then de-
scended, and a plate of zinc attached to its extremity was
plunged into the mud of the river, whilst a similar plate at-
tached to the extremity at the north side was immersed in the
water. The circuit was thus completed by the entire breadth
of the Thames, and the telegraph acted as well as if the circuit
were entirely metallic.
Shortly after this experiment, Professor Wheatstone and
Mr. Cooke laid down the first working electric telegraph on the
Great Western Railway, from Paddington to Slough.
ELECTRIC GIRDLE FOR THE EARTH.
One of our most profound electricians is reported to have
exclaimed: " Give me but an unlimited length of wire, with a
small battery, and I will girdle the universe with a sentence in
forty minutes." Yet this is no vain boast ; for so rapid is the
transition of the electric current along the line of the telegraph
wire, that, supposing it were possible to carry the wires eight
times round the earth, the transit would occupy but one second
of time !
CONSUMPTION OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
It is singular to see how this telegraphic agency is mea-
sured by the chemical consumption of zinc and acid. Mr. Jones
(who has written a work upon the Electric Telegraphs of Ame-
rica) estimates that to work 12,000 miles of telegraph about
3000 zinc cups are used to hold the acid : these weigh about
9000 Ibs. , and they undergo decomposition by the galvanic
Curiosities of Science.
action in about six months, so that 18,000 Ibs. of zinc are con-
sumed in a year. There are also about 3600 porcelain cups to
contain nitric acid ; it requires 450 Ibs. of acid to charge them
once, and the charge is renewed every fortnight, making about
12,000 Ibs. of nitric acid in a year.
TIME LOST IN ELECTKIC MESSAGES.
Although it may require an hour, or two or three hours, to
transmit a telegraphic message to a distant city, yet it is the
mechanical adjustment by the sender and receiver which really
absorbs this time ; the actual transit is practically instanta-
neous, and so it would be from here to the antipodes, so far as
the current itself is concerned.
THE ELECTKIC TELEGRAPH IN ASTEONOMY AND THE
DETERMINATION OF LONGITUDE.
The Electric Telegraph has become an instrument in the
hands of the astronomer for determining the difference of lon-
gitude between two observatories. Thus in 1854 the difference
of longitude between London and Paris was determined within
a limit of error which amounted barely to a quarter of a second.
The sudden disturbances of the magnetic needle, when freely
suspended, which seem to take place simultaneously over whole
continents, if not over the whole globe, from some unexplained
cause, are pointed out as means by which the differences of lon-
gitude between the magnetic observatories may possibly be deter-
mined with greater precision than by any yet known method.
So long ago as 1839 Professor Morse suggested some expe-
riments for the determination of Longitudes ; and in June
1844 the difference of longitude between Washington and Bal-
timore was determined by electric means under his direction.
Two persons were stationed at these two towns, with clocks
carefully adjusted to the respective spots ; and a telegraphic
signal gave the means of comparing the two clocks at a given
instant. In 1 847 the relative longitudes of New York, Phila-
delphia, and Washington were determined by means of the
electric telegraph by Messrs. Keith, Walker, and Loomis.
NON-INTERFERENCE OF GALVANIC WAVES ON THE SAME WIRE.
One of the most remarkable facts in the economy of the
telegraph is, that the line, when connected with a battery in
action, propagates the hydro-galvanic waves in either direction
without interference. As several successive syllables of sound
may set out in succession from the same place, and be on their
way at the same time, to a listener at a distance, so also, where
the telegraph-line is long enough, several waves may be on
their way from the signal station before the first one reaches
Q
226 Things not generally Known.
the receiving station ; two persons at a distance may pro-
nounce several syllables at the same time, and each hear those
emitted by the other. So, on a telegraph-line of two or three
thousand miles in length in the air, and the same in the
ground, two operators may at the same instant commence a
series of several dots and lines, and each receive the other's
writings, though the waves have crossed each other on the way.
EFFECT OF LIGHTNING UPON THE ELECTKIC TELEGRAPH.
In the storm of Sunday April 2, 1848, the lightning had a
very considerable effect on the wires of the electric telegraph,
particularly on the line of railway eastward from Manchester
to Normanton. Not only were the needles greatly deflected,
and their power of answering to the handles considerably weak-
ened, but those at the Normanton station were found to have
had their poles reversed by some action of the electric fluid in
the atmosphere. The damage, however, was soon repaired, and
the needles again put in good working order.
ELECTRO-TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGE TO THE STARS.
The electric fluid travels at the mean rate of 20,000 miles
in a second under ordinary circumstances ; therefore, if it were
possible to establish a telegraphic communication with the star
61 Cygni, it would require ninety years to send a message there.
Professor Henderson and Mr. Maclear have fully confirmed
the annual parallax of a Centauri to amount to a second of arc,
which gives about twenty billions of miles as its distance from
our system ; a ray of light would arrive from a Centauri to us in
little more than three years, and a telegraphic despatch would
arrive there in thirty years.
THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.
The telegraphic communication between England and the
United States is so grand a conception, that it would be impos-
sible to detail its scientific and mechanical relations within the
limits of the present work. All that we shall attempt, there-
fore, will be to glance at a few of the leading operations.
In the experiments made before the Atlantic Telegraph was
finally decided on, 2000 miles of subterranean and submarine
telegraphic wires, ramifying through England and Ireland and
under the waters of the Irish Sea, were specially connected for
the purpose ; and through this distance of 2000 miles 250 dis-
tinct signals were recorded and printed in one minute.
First, as to the Cable. In the ordinary wires by the side of
a railway the electric current travels on with the speed of light-
ning uninterrupted by the speed of lightning ; but when a
wire is encased in gutta-percha, or any similar covering, for sub-
Curiosities of Science.
mersion in the sea, new forces come into play. The electric ex-
citement of the wire acts by induction, through the envelope,
upon the particles of water in contact with that envelope, and
calls up an electric force of an opposite kind. There are two
forces, in fact, pulling against each other through the gutta-
percha as a neutral medium, that is, the electricity in the
wire, and the opposite electricity in the film of water imme-
diately surrounding the cable ; and to that extent the power of
the current in the enclosed wire is weakened. A submarine
cable, when in the water, is virtually a lengthened-out Leyden
jar ; it transmits signals while being charged and discharged,
instead of merely allowing a stream to flow evenly along it : it
is a bottle for holding electricity rather than a pipe for carrying
it ; and this has to be filled for every time of using. The wire
being carried underground, or through the water, the speed be-
comes quite measurable, say a thousand miles in a second, in-
stead of two hundred thousand, owing to the retardation by in-
duced or retrograde currents. The energy of the currents and
the quality of the wire also affect the speed. Until lately it
was supposed that the wire acts only as a conductor of electri-
city, and that a long wire must produce a weaker effect than a
short one, on account of the consequent attenuation of the elec-
trical influence ; but it is now known that, the cable being a re-
servoir as well as a conductor, its electrical supply is increased
in proportion to its length.
The electro-magnetic current is employed, since it possesses
a treble velocity of transmission, and realises consequently a
threefold working speed as compared with simple voltaic electri-
city. Mr. Wildraaii Whitehouse has determined by his inge-
nious apparatus that the speed of the voltaic current might be
raised under special circumstances to 1800 miles per second ;
but that of the induced current, or the electro-magnetic, might
be augmented to 6000 miles per second.
Next as to a Quantity Battery employed in these investiga-
tions. To effect a charge, and transmit a current through some
thousand miles of the Atlantic Cable, Mr. Whitehouse had a
piece of apparatus prepared consisting of twenty -five pairs of
zinc and silver plates about the 20th part of a square inch
large, and the pairs so arranged that they would hold a drop of
acidulated water or brine between them. On charging this Lil-
liputian battery by dipping the plates in salt and water, mes-
sages were sent from it through a thousand miles of cable with
the utmost ease ; and not only so, pair after pair was dropped
out from the series, the messages being still sent on with equal
facility, until at last only a single pair, charged by one single
drop of liquid, was used. Strange to say, with this single pair
and single drop distinct signals were effected through the thou-
Things not generally Known.
sand miles of the cable ! Each signal was registered at the end
of the cable in less than three seconds of time.
The entire length of wire, iron and copper, spun into the
cable amounts to 332,500 miles, a length sufficient to engirdle
the earth thirteen times. The cable weighs from 19 cwt. to a
ton per mile, and will bear a strain of 5 tons.
The Perpetual Maintenance Battery, for working the cable at
the bottom of the sea, consists of large plates of platinated sil-
ver and amalgamated zinc, mounted in cells of gutta-percha.
The zinc plates in each cell rest upon a longitudinal bar at the
bottom, and the silver plates hang upon a similar bar at the top
of the cell ; so that there is virtually but a single stretch of
silver and a single stretch of zinc in operation. Each of the
ten cells contains 2000 square inches of acting surface ; and
the combination is so powerful, that when the broad strips of
copper-plate which form the polar extensions are brought into
contact or separated, brilliant flashes are produced, accompa-
nied by a loud crackling sound. The points of large pliers are
made red-hot in five seconds when placed between them, and
even screws burn with vivid scintillation. The cost of main-
taining this magnificent ten-celled Titan battery at work does
not exceed a shilling per hour. The voltaic current generated
in this battery is not, however, the electric stream to be sent
across the Atlantic, but is only the primary power used to call
up and stimulate the energy of a more speedy traveller by a
complicated apparatus of " Double Induction Coils." Nor is
the transmission-current generated in the inner wire of the
double induction coil, and which becomes weakened when it
has passed through 1800 or 1900 miles, set to work to print or
record the signals transmitted. This weakened current merely
opens and closes the outlet of a fresh battery, which is to do
the printing labour. This relay-instrument (as it is called),
which consists of a temporary and permanent magnet, is so sen-
sitive an apparatus, that it may be put in action by a fragment
of zinc and a sixpence pressed against the tongue.
The attempts to lay the cable in August 1 857 failed through
stretching it so tightly that it snapped and went to the bottom,
at a depth of 12,000 feet, forty times the height of St. Paul's.
This great work was resumed in August 1858 ; and on the
5th the first signals were received through two thousand and
fifty miles of the Atlantic Cable. And it is worthy of remark,
that just 111 years previously, on the 5th of August 1747, Dr.
Watson astonished the scientific world by practically proving
that the electric current could be transmitted through a wire
hardly two miles and a half long*
* These illustrations have been in the main selected and abridged from papers
in the Companion to the Almanac, 1858, and the Penny Cyclopaedia, 2d supp.
Curiosities of Science.
JttteceHattea.
HOW MAKINE CHRONOMETERS ARE RATED AT THE ROYAL
OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH.
THE determination of the Longitude at Sea requires simply
accurate instruments for the measurement of the positions of
the heavenly bodies, and one or other of the two following,
either perfectly correct watches or chronometers, as they are
now called or perfectly accurate tables of the lunar motions.
So early as 1696 a report was spread among the members of
the Royal Society that Sir Isaac Newton was occupied with the
problem of finding the longitude at sea ; but the rumour having
no foundation, he requested Halley to acquaint the members
"that he was not about it."* (Sir David Brewster' s Life of
Newton. )
In 1714 the legislature of Queen Anne passed an Act offer-
ing a reward of 20,000. for the discovery of the longitude, the
problem being then very inaccurately solved for want of good
watches or lunar tables. About the year 1749, the attention
of the Royal Society was directed to the improvements effected
in the construction of watches by John Harrison, who received
for his inventions the Copley Medal. Thus encouraged, Har-
rison continued his labours with unwearied diligence, and
produced in 1758 a timekeeper which was sent for trial on a
voyage to Jamaica. After 161 days the error of the instru-
ment was only l m 5 s , and the maker received from the nation
5QOOL The Commissioners of the Board of Longitude subse-
quently required Harrison to construct under their inspection
chronometers of a similar nature, which were subjected to
trial in a voyage to Barbadoes, and performed with such accu-
racy, that, after having fully explained the principle of their
construction to the commissioners, they awarded him 10,000.
more ; at the same time Euler of Berlin and the heirs of Mayer
of Gottingen received each 30001. for their lunar tables.
* Newton was, however, much pestered with inquirers ; and a Correspondent
of the Gentleman's Magazine,, in 1784, relates that he once had a transient view of
a Ms. in Pope's handwriting, in which he read a verified anecdote relating to the
above period. Sir Isaac being often interrupted by ignorant pretenders to the
discovery of the longitude, ordered his porter to inquire of every stranger who
desired admission whether he came about the longitude, and to exclude such as
answered in the affirmative. Two lines in Pope's Ms., as the Correspondent re-
collects, ran thus :
" ' Is it about the longitude you come?'
The porter asks : ' Sir Isaac 's not at home.' "
230 Things not generally Known.
The account of the trial of Harrison's watch is very interesting. In
April 1766, by desire of the Commissioners of the Board, the Lords of
the Admiralty delivered the watch into the custody of the Astronomer-
Royal, the Rev. Dr. Nevil Maskelyne. It was then placed at the Royal
Observatoiy at Greenwich, in a box having two different locks, fixed to
the floor or wainscot, with a plate of glass in the lid of the box, so that
it might be compared as often as convenient with the regulator and the
variation set down. The form observed by Mr. Harrison in winding up
the watch was exactly followed ; and an officer of Greenwich Hospital
attended every day, at a stated hour, to see the watch wound up, and
its comparison with the regulator entered. A key to one of the locks
was kept at the Hospital for the use of the officer, and the other re-
mained at the Observatory for the use of the Astronomer-Royal or his
assistant.
The watch was then tried in various positions till the beginning of
July ; and from thence to the end of February following in a horizontal
position with its face upwards.
The variation of the watch was then noted down, and a register was
kept of the barometer and thermometer; and the time of comparing
the same with the regulator was regularly kept, and attested by the
Astronomer- Royal or his assistant and such of the officers as witnessed
the winding up and comparison of the watch.
Under these conditions Harrison's watch was received by the Astro-
nomer-Royal at the Admiralty on May 5, 1766, in the presence of Philip
Stephens, Esq., Secretary of the Admiralty ; Captain Baillie, of the Royal
Hospital, Greenwich ; and Mr. Kendal the watchmaker, who accom-
panied the Astronomer-Royal to Greenwich, and saw the watch started
and locked up in the box provided for it. The watch was then com-
pared with the transit clock daily, and wound up in the presence of the
officer of Greenwich Hospital. From May 5 to May 17 the watch was
kept in a horizontal position with its face upwards ; from May 18 to
July 6 it was tried first inclined at an angle of 20 to the horizon, with
the face upwards, and the hours 12, 6, 3, and 9, highest successively ;
then in a vertical position, with the same hours highest in order ; lastly,
in a horizontal position with the face downwards. From July 16, 1766,
to March 4, 1767, it was always kept in a horizontal position with its
face upwards, lying upon the same cushion, and in the same box in
which Mr. Harrison had kept it in the voyage to Barbadoes.
From the observed transits of the sun over the meridian, according
to the time of the regulator of the Observatory, together with the at-
tested comparisons of Mr. Harrison's watch with the transit clock, the
watch was found too fast on several days as follows :
h. m. s.
1766. May 6 too fast 16'2
,,17 03 51-8
July 6
Aug. 6
Sept. 17
Oct. 29
Dec. 10
1767. Jan. 21
March 4
14 14
2.3 58 4
32 15 6
42 20 9
54 468
1 28-6
1 11 23-0
From May 6, which was the day after the watch arrived at the Royal
Observatory, to March 4, 1767, there were six periods of six weeks each
in which the watch was tried in a horizontal position ; when the gaining
in these several periods was as follows :
Curiosities of Science.
During the first 6 weeks it gained 13m 20", answering to 3 20' of longitude.
In the 2d period of 6\
weeks (from Aug. 6 to L 8 17 24
Sept. 17)
In the 3d period (from") 10 ^ o QI
Sept. 17 to Oct. 29) ) "
In the 4th period (from ") 1 o 9 Q
Oct. 29 to Dec. 20) j " 12 26
In the 5th period (from\ K 40 1 OK
Dec. 20 to Jan. 21) J
In the 6th period (from \ in p, o 4 q
Jan. 21 to Mar. 4) / "
It was thence concluded that Mr. Harrison's watch could
not be depended upon to keep the longitude within a West-
India voyage of six weeks, nor to keep the longitude within
half a degree for more than a fortnight ; arid that it must be
kept in a place where the temperature was always some degrees
above freezing.* (However, Harrison's watch, which was made
by Mr. Kendal subsequently, succeeded so completely, that after
it had been round the world with Captain Cook, in the years
1772-1775, the second 10,000 was given to Harrison.)
In the Act of 12th Queen Anne, the comparison of chrono-
meters was not mentioned in reference to the Observatory duties ;
but after this time they became a serious charge upon the Ob-
servatory, which, it must be admitted, is by far the best place
to try chronometers : the excellence of the instruments, and the
frequent observations of the heavenly bodies over the meridian,
will always render the rate of going of the Observatory clock
better known than can be expected of the clock in most other
places.
After Mr. Harrison's watch was tried, some watches by Earn-
shaw, Mudge, and others, were rated and examined by the As-
tronomer-Royal.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, there are frequently
above 100 chronometers being rated, and there have been as
many as 170 at one time. They are rated daily by two ob-
servers, the process being as follows. At a certain time every
day two assistants in charge repair to the chronometer-room,
where is a time-piece set to true time ; one winds up each with
its own key, and the second follows after some little time and
verifies the fact that each is wound. One assistant then looks
at each watch in succession, counting the beats of the clock
whilst he compares the chronometer by the eye ; and in the
course of a few seconds he calls out the second shown by the
chronometer when the clock is at a whole minute. This num-
ber is entered in a book by the other assistant, and so on till
all the chronometers are compared. Then the assistants change
* In trying the merits of Harrison's chronometers. Dr. Maskelyne acquired
that knowledge of the wants of nautical astronomy which afterwards led to the
formation of the Nautical Almanac.
232
Things not generally Known.
places, the second comparing and the first writing down. From
these daily comparisons the daily rates are deduced, by which
the goodness of the watch is determined. The errors are of
two classes that of general bad workmanship, and that of
over or under correction for temperature. In the room is an
apparatus in which the watch may be continually kept at tem-
peratures exceeding 100 by artificial heat ; and outside the
window of the room is an iron cage, in which they are subjected
to low temperatures. The very great care taken with all chro-
nometers sent to the Royal Observatory, as well as the perfect
impartiality of the examination which each receives, afford
encouragement to their manufacture, and are of the utmost
importance to the safety and perfection of navigation.
We have before us now the Report of the Astronomer- Royal
on the Rates of Chronometers in the year 1854, in which the
following are the successive weekly sums of the daily rates of
the first there mentioned :
Week ending sees.
Jan. 21, loss in the week 2-2
40
Feb. 4
11
18
25
Mar. 4
., 11
., 18
.. 25
Apr. 1
it 8
1-1
50
49
55
60
60
1-5
4-5
4-0
1-5
Week ending sees.
Apr. 22, gain in the week 26
29, loss in the week 1-4
May 6 , 2-1
18
20
27
June 3
10
17
24
July 1
8
3-0
51
3-3
2-8
1-8
2-0
3-0
2-5
1-2
15, gain in the week 4
Till February 4 the watch was exposed to the external air
outside a north window ; from February 5 to March 4 it was
placed in the chamber of a stove heated by gas to a moderate
temperature ; and from April 29 to May 20 it was placed in the
chamber when heated to a high temperature.
The advance in making chronometers since Harrison's cele-
brated watch was tried at the Royal Observatory, more than
ninety years since, may be judged by comparing its rates with
those above.
GEOMETEY OF SHELLS.
There is a mechanical uniformity observable in the descrip-
tion of shells of the same species which at once suggests the
probability that the generating figure of each increases, and
that the spiral chamber of each expands itself, according to some
simple geometrical law common to all. To the determination
of this law the operculum lends itself, in certain classes of
shells, with remarkable facility. Continually enlarged by the
animal, as the construction of its shell advances so as to fill up
Curiosities of Science.
its mouth, the operculum measures the progressive widening of
the spiral chamber by the progressive stages of its growth.
*******
The animal, as he advances in the construction of his shell,
increases continually his operculum, so as to adjust it to his
mouth. He increases it, however, not by additions made at the
same time all round its margin, but by additions made only on
one side of it at once. One edge of the operculum thus re-
mains unaltered as it is advanced into each new position, and
placed in a newly-formed section of the chamber similar to the
last but greater than it.
That the same edge which fitted a portion of the first less
section should be capable of adjustment so as to fit a portion
of the next similar but greater section, supposes a geometri-
cal provision in the curved form of the chamber of great com-
plication and difficulty. But God hath bestowed upon this
humble architect the practical skill of the learned geometri-
cian ; and he makes this provision with admirable precision in
that curvature of the logarithmic spiral which he gives to the
section of the shell. This curvature obtaining, he has only
to turn his operculum slightly round in its own place, as he
advances it into each newly-formed portion of his chamber, to
adapt one margin of it to a new and larger surface and a dif-
ferent curvature, leaving the space to be filled up by increasing
the operculum wholly on the outer margin.
*******
Why the Mollusks, who inhabit turbinated and discoid shells,
should, in the progressive increase of their spiral dwellings, af-
fect the peculiar law of the logarithmic spiral, is easily to be
understood. Providence has subjected the instinct which
shapes out each to a rigid uniformity of operation. Professor
Mostly : Philos. Trans. 1838.
HYDRAULIC THEORY OF SHELLS.
How beautifully is the wisdom of God developed in shaping
out and moulding shells ! and especially in the particular value
of the constant angle which the spiral of each species of shell
affects, a value connected by a necessary relation with the
economy of the material of each, and with its stability and
the conditions of its buoyancy. Thus the shell of the Nautilus
PompiLius has, hydrostatically, an A-statical surface. If placed
with any portion of its surface upon the water, it will imme-
diately turn over towards its smaller end, and rest only on its
mouth. Those conversant with the theory of floating bodies
will recognise in this an interesting property. Ibid.
Things not generally Known.
SEKVICES OF SEA-SHELLS AJSD ANIMALCULES.
Dr. Maury is disposed to regard these beings as having much
to do in maintaining the harmonies of creation, and the prin-
ciples of the most admirable compensation in the system of
oceanic circulation. "We may even regard them as regula-
tors, to some extent, of climates in parts of the earth far re-
moved from their presence. There is something suggestive
both of the grand and the beautiful in the idea that while the
insects of the sea are building up their coral islands in the per-
petual summer of the tropics, they are also engaged in dispens-
ing warmth to distant parts of the earth, and in mitigating the
severe cold of the polar winter."
DEPTH OF THE PKIMEVAL SEAS.
Professor Forbes, in a communication to the Royal Society,
states that not only the colour of the shells of existing mollusks
ceases to be strongly marked at considerable depths, but also
that well-defined patterns are, with very few and slight excep-
tions, presented only by testacea inhabiting the littoral, circum-
littoral, and median zones. In the Mediterranean, only one in
eighteen of the shells taken from below 100 fathoms exhibit
any markings of colour, and even the few that do so are ques-
tionable inhabitants of those depths. Between 30 and 35 fa-
thoms, the proportion of marked to plain shells is rather less
than one in three ; and between the margin and two fathoms
the striped or mottled species exceed one-half of the total num-
ber. In our own seas, Professor Forbes observes that testacea
taken from below ] 00 fathoms, even when they are individuals
of species vividly striped or banded in shallower zones, are quite
white or colourless. At between 60 and 80 fathoms, striping
and banding are rarely presented by our shells, especially in the
northern provinces ; from 50 fathoms, shallow bands, colours,
and patterns, are well marked. The relation of these arrange-
ments of colour to the degree of light penetrating the different zones
of depth is a subject well worthy of minute inquiry.
NATURAL WATER-PURIFIERS.
Mr. Warrington kept for a whole year twelve gallons of water
in a state of admirably balanced purity by the following beauti-
ful action :
In the tank, or aquarium, were two gold fish, six water-snails, and
two or three specimens of that elegant aquatic plant Valisperia spora-
lis, which, before the introduction of the water-snails, by its decayed
leaves caused a growth of slimy mucus, and made the water turbid and
likely to destroy both plants and fish. But under the improved ar-
rangement the slime, as fast as it was engendered, was consumed by
the water- snails, which reproduced it in the shape of young snails, which
Curiosities of Science. 235
furnished a succulent food to the fish. Meanwhile the' Valisperia plants
absorbed the carbonic acid exhaled by the respiration of their compa-
nions, fixing the carbon in their growing stems and luxuriant blossoms,
and refreshing the oxygen (during sunshine in visible little streams) for
the respiration of the snails and the fish. The spectacle of perfect equi-
librium thus simply maintained between animal, vegetable, and inor-
ganic activity, was strikingly beautiful ; and such means might possibly
hereafter be made available on a large scale for keeping tanked water
sweet and clean. Quarterly Preview, 1850.
HOW TO IMITATE SEA-WATEE.
The demand for Sea-water to supply the Marine Aquarium
now to be seen in so many houses induced Mr. Gosse to at-
tempt the manufacture of Sea-water, more especially as the
constituents are well known. He accordingly took Scheveit-
zer's analysis of Sea- water for his guide. In one thousand
grains of sea-water taken off Brighton, it gave : water, 964*744;
chloride of sodium, 27*059 ; chloride of magnesium, 3*666 ;
chloride of potassium, 9*755 ; bromide of magnesium, 0'29 ;
sulphate of magnesia, 2*295 ; sulphate of lime, 1*407 ; carbon-
ate of lime, 0*033 : total, 999*998. Omitting the bromide of
magnesium, the carbonate of lime, and the sulphate of lime, as
being very small quantities, the component parts were reduced
to common salt, 3 oz. ; Epsom salts, oz. ; chloride of mag-
nesium, 200 grains troy ; chloride of potassium, 40 grains
troy ; and four quarts of water. Next day the mixture was
filtered through a sponge into a glass jar, the bottom covered
with shore-pebbles and fragments of stone and fronds of green
sea-weed. A coating of green spores was soon deposited on the
sides of the glass, and bubbles of oxygen were copiously thrown
off every day under the excitement of the sun's light. In a
week Mr. Gosse put in species of Actinia Bowerlankia, Cellu-
laria, Serpula, <fec. with some red sea-weeds; and the whole
throve well.
VELOCITY OF IMPRESSIONS TRANSMITTED TO THE BRAIN.
Professor Helmholtz of Konigsberg has, by the electro-
magnetic method,* ascertained that the intelligence of an im-
pression made upon the ends of the nerves in communication
with the skin is transmitted to the brain with a velocity of
about 195 feet per second. Arrived at the brain, about one-
tenth of a second passes before the will is able to give the com-
mand to the nerves that certain muscles shall execute a certain
motion, varying in persons and times. Finally, about
A slight electric shock is given to a man at a certain portion of the skin ;
and he is directed the moment he feels the stroke to make a certain motion, as
quickly as he possibly can, with the hands or with the teeth, by which the time-
measuring current is interrupted.
Things not generally Known.
of a second passes after the receipt of the command before the
muscle is in activity. In all, therefore, from the excitation
of the sensitive nerves till the moving of the muscle, 1^ to T %ths
of a second are consumed. Intelligence from the great toe ar-
rives about g^th of a second later than from the ear or the face.
Thus we see that the differences of time in the nervous im-
pressions, which we are accustomed to regard as simultaneous,
lie near our perception. We are taught by astronomy that, on
account of the time taken to propagate light, we now see what
has occurred in the fixed stars years ago ; and that, owing to
the time required for the transmission of sound, we hear after
we see is a matter of daily experience. Happily the distances
to be traversed by our sensuous perceptions before they reach
the brain are so short that we do not observe their influence,
and are therefore unprejudiced in our practical interest. With
an ordinary whale the case is perhaps more dubious ; for in all
probability the animal does not feel a wound near its tail until
a second after it has been inflicted, and requires another second
to send the command to the tail to defend itself.
PHOTOGRAPHS ON THE EETINA.
The late Rev. Dr. Scoresby explained with much minute-
ness and skill the varying phenomena which presented them-
selves to him after gazing intently for some time .on strongly-
illuminated objects, as the sun, the moon, a red or orange or
yellow wafer on a strongly-contrasted ground, or a dark object
seen in a bright field. The doctor explained, upon removing
the eyes from the object, the early appearance of the picture or
image which had been thus "photographed on the Retina/'
with the photochromatic changes which the picture underwent
while it still retained its general form and most strongly-marked
features ; also, how these pictures, when they had almost faded
away, could at pleasure, and for a considerable time, be renewed
by rapidly opening and shutting the eyes.
DIRECT EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR OF THE EYE.
Dr. S. Wood of Cincinnati states, that by means of a small
double convex lens of short focus held near the eye, that or-
gan looking through it at a candle twelve or fifteen feet distant,
there will be perceived a large luminous disc, covered with
dark and light spots and dark streaks, which, after a momen-
tary confusion, will settle down into an unchanging picture,
which picture is composed of the organs or internal parts of the
eye. The eye is thus enabled to view its own internal organis-
ation, to have a beautiful exhibition of the vessels of the cor-
nea, of the distribution of the lachrymas secretions in the act
Curiosities of Science. 237
of winking, and to see into the nature and cause of muscce wli-
tantes.
NATUEE OF THE CANDLE-FLAME.
M. Volger has subjected this Flame to a new analysis.
He finds that the so-called flame-bud, a globular blue flaminule, is
first produced at the summit of the wick : this is the result of the com-
bustion of carbonic oxide, hydrogen, and carbon, and is surrounded by
a reddish-violet halo, the veil. The increased heat now gives rise to
the actual flame, which shoots forth from the expanding bud, and is
then surrounded at its inferior portion only by the latter. The interior
consists of a dark gaseous cone, containing the immediate products of
the decomposition of the fatty acids, and surrounded by another dark
hollow cone, the inner cap. Here we already meet with carbon and
hydrogen, which have resulted from the process of decomposition ; and
we distinguish this cone from the inner one by its yielding soot. The
external cap constitutes the most luminous portion of the flame, in which
the hydrogen is consumed and the carbon rendered incandescent. The
surrounding portion is but slightly luminous, deposits no soot, and in it
the carbon and hydrogen are consumed. Lieliy's Annual Report.
HOW SOON A COEPSE DECAYS.
Mr. Lewis, of the General Board of Health, from his exami-
nation of the contents of nearly 100 coffins in the vaults and
catacombs of London churches, concludes that the complete
decomposition of a corpse, and its resolution into its ultimate
elements, takes place in a leaden coffin with extreme slowness.
In a wooden coffin the remains, with the exception of the bones,
vanish in from two to five years. This period depends upon the
quality of the wood, 'and the free access of air to the coffins.
But in leaden coffins, 50, 60, 80, and even 100 years are re-
quired to accomplish this. " I have opened," says Mr. Lewis,
" a coffin in which the corpse had been placed for nearly a cen-
tury ; and the ammoiiiacal gas formed dense white fumes when
Drought in contact with hydrochloric-acid gas, and was so power-
ful that the head could not remain in it for more than a few
seconds at a time." To render the human body perfectly inert
after death, it should be placed in a light wooden coffin, in a
pervious soil, from five to eight feet deep.
MUSKET-BALLS FOUND IN IVOEY.
The Ceylon sportsman, in shooting elephants, aims at a spot
just above the proboscis. If he fires a little too low, the ball
passes into the tusk-socket, causing great pain to the animal,
but not endangering its life ; and it is immediately surrounded
by osteo-dentine. It has often been a matter of wonder how
such bodies should become completely imbedded in the sub-
stance of the tusk, sometimes without any visible aperture ; or
how leaden bullets become lodged in the solid centre of a very
Things not generally Known.
large tusk without having been flattened, as they are found by
the ivory-turner.
The explanation is as follows : A musket-ball aimed at the head of
an elephant may penetrate the thin bony socket and the thinner ivory
parietes of the wide conical pulp-cavity occupying the inserted base of
the tusk ; if the projectile force be there spent, the ball will gravitate
to the opposite and lower side of the pulp-cavity. The pulp becomes
inflamed, irregular calcification ensues, and osteo-dentine is formed
around the ball. The pulp then resumes its healthy state and functions,
and coats the osteo-dentine enclosing the ball, together with the root of
the conical cavity into which the mass projects, with layers of normal
ivoiy. The hole formed by the ball is soon replaced, and filled up by
osteo-dentine, and coated with cement. Meanwhile, by the continued
progress of growth, the enclosed ball is pushed forward to the middle of
the solid tusk ; or if the elephant be young, the ball may be carried
forward by growth and wear of the tusk until its base has become the
apex, and become finally exposed and discharged by the continual abra-
sion to which the apex of the tusk is subjected. Professor Owen.
NATURE OF THE SUN.
To the article at pp. 59-60 should be added the result ob-
tained by Dr. Woods of Parsonstown, and communicated to the
Philosophical Magazine for July 1854. Dr. Woods, from photo-
graphic experiment, has no doubt that the light from the centre
of flame acts more energetically than that from the edge on a
surface capable of receiving its impression ; and that light from
a luminous solid body acts equally powerfully from its centre
or its edges : wherefore Dr. Woods concludes that, as the sun
aifects a sensitive plate similarly with flame, it is probable its
light-producing portion is of a similar nature.
Note to " Is THE HEAT OF THE SUN DECREASING ?" at page 65.
Dr. Vaughan of Cincinnati has stated to the British Association :
t( From a comparison of the relative intensity of solar, lunar, and arti-
ficial light, as determined by Euler and Wollaston, it appears that the
rays of the sun have an illuminating power equal to that ot 14,000 can-
dles at a distance of one foot, or of 3500, 000000, 000000, OuOOOO, 000000
candles at a distance of 95,000,000 miles. It follows that the amount
of light which flows from the solar orb could be scarcely produced by
the daily combustion of 200 globes of tallow, each equal to the earth in
magnitude. A sphere of combustible matter much larger than the sun
itself should be consumed every ten years in maintaining its wonderful
brilliancy; and its atmosphere, if pure oxygen, would be expended be-
fore a few days in supporting so great a conflagration. An illumination
on so vast a scale coul 1 be kept up only by the inexhaustible magazine
of ether disseminated through space, and ever ready to manifest its lu-
ciferous properties on large spheres, whose attraction renders it suffi-
ciently dense for the play of chemical affinity. Accordingly suns de-
rive the power of shedding perpetual light, not from their chemical
constitution, but from their immense mass and their superior attractive
power."
Curiosities of Science.
239
PLANETOIDS.
Name.
Date of
Discovery.
Discoverer.
Place of
Discovery.
No. disco-
vered by each
astronomer.
Mercury Mars, )
Known to the >
Earth, Saturn) J
Uranus
ancients, j
1781, March 13..
1846 Sept 23
W. Herschel
Galle
Bath
Berlin
-
1 Ceres
2 Pallas
1801, Jan. 1
1802, March 28..
Piazzi
Olbers
Palermo
Bremen
1
1
3 Juno
4 Vesta
1804, Sept. 1
1807, March 29..
Harding ....
Olbers
Lilienthal....
Bremen
1
2
1845, Dec. 8
Eucke
Driesen
1
6 Hebe
7 iris
1847, July 1
1847, August 13.
Encke
Hind
Drieseu
London
2
1
8 Flora
9 Metis
1847, Oct. 18
1848, April 25 ...
Hind
Graham....
London
Markree
2
1
10 Hygeia
11 Parthenope..
12 Victoria
13 Egeria
1849, April 12 ...
1850, May 11
1850, Sept. 13....
1850 Nov 2
Gasperis
Gasperis
Hind
Naples
Naples
London
Naples
1
2
3
3
14 Irene
1851, May 19
1851, July 29
Hind
London
Naples
4
4
16 Psyche
17 Thetis
1852, March 17..
1852, April 17 ...
Gasperis
Luther
Naples
Bilk
5
1
18 Melpomene
1852, June 24....
Hind ..
London
5
19 Fortuna
1852, August 22
Hind
Londop
6
20 Massilia
1852, Sept. 19....
185' ? Nov 15
Gasperis
Naples
Paris .
6
I
22 Calliope
1852, Nov. 16....
Hind .
London
7
23 Thalia
1852, Dec. 15. ...
Hind
London
g
24 Themis
25 Phocea
26 Proserpine...
27 Euterpe
1853, April 5
1853, April 6
1853, May 5
1853, Nov. 8...
Gasperis
Chacornac....
Luther
Hind
Naples
Marseilles ...
Bilk
7
1
2
9
28 Belkma
1854, March 1 ...
Luther
Bilk
3
29 Amphitrite
1854 March 1
Marth
1
30 Urania
1854, July 22....
Hind .
London
10
31 Euphrosyne,
32 Pomona
1854, Sept. 1
1854 Oct 26
Furguson . ...
Goldschmidt
Washington.
Paris
1
2
33 Polyhymnia
1854 Oct 28
Paris
2
34 Circe .'
35 Leucothea.
1855, April 6
1855, April 19
Chacornac....
Luther
Paris
Bilk
3
4
36 Atalante
37 Fides
1855, Oct. 5
1855, Oct. 5 ...
Goldschmidt
Paris
Bilk
3
5
38 Leda
1856 Jan 12
Paris ....
4
39 Laetitia
1856, Feb. 8 .
Paris
5
40 Harmonia....
41 Daphne
42 Isis
1856, March 31..
1856, May 22 ...
1856, May 23....
Goldschmidt
Goldschmidt
Paris
Paris
Oxford
4
5
1
43 Ariadne
1857, April 15
Pogson
Oxford
2
44 Nysa
1857, May 27
Paris
6
45 Eugenia
46 Hastia
1857, June 28....
1857, August 16
Goldschmidt
Paris
Oxford ..
7
3
47 Aglaia
1857, Sept. 15 . .
Bilk
6
48 Doris
49 Pales
1857, Sept. 19....
1857 Sept 19
Goldschmidt
Paris
Paris
8
g
50 Virginia
51 Nemausa
62 Europa
1857, Oct. 4
1858, Jan. 22
1858, Feb 6
Furguson....
Laurent
Goldschmidt
Washington.
Nismes
Paris
2
1
10
53 Calypso
1858, April 8
Luther
Bilk
7
54 Alexandra ...
1858, Sept 11
Pans.
11
55 (Not named).
1858, iSept. 11....
Searle
Albany
1
Through the calculations of M. Le Verrier.
240 Things not generally Known.
THE COMET OF DONATI.
While this sheet was passing through the press, the attention
of astronomers, and of the public generally, was drawn to the
fact of the above Comet passing (on Oct. 18) within nine mil-
lions of miles of the planet Venus, or less than yfo-ths of the
earth's distance from the Sun. " And (says Mr. Hind, the as-
tronomer), it is obvious that if the comet had reached its least
distance from the sun a few days earlier than it has done, the
planet might have passed through it ; and I am very far from
thinking that close proximity to a comet of this description
would be unattended with danger. The inhabitants of Venus
will witness a cometary spectacle far superior to that which
has recently attracted so much attention here, inasmuch as the
tail will doubtless appear twice as long from that planet as
from the earth, and the nucleus proportionally more brilliant."
This Comet was first discovered by Dr. G. B. Donati, astro-
nomer at the Museum of Florence, on the evening of the 2d of
June, in right ascension 141 18', and north declination 23 47',
corresponding to a position near the star Leonis. Previous to
this date we had no knowledge of its existence, and therefore
it was not a predicted comet ; neither is it the one last ob-
served in 1556. At the date of discovery it was distant from
the earth 228,000,000 of miles, and was an excessively faint ob-
ject in the largest telescopes.
The tail, from October 2 to 16, when the comet was most
conspicuous, appears to have maintained an average length
of at least 40,000,000 miles, subtending an angle varying from
30 to 40. The dark line or space down the centre, fre-
quently remarked in other great comets, was a striking cha-
racteristic in that of Donati. The nucleus, though small, was
intensely brilliant in powerful instruments, and for some time
bore high magnifiers to much greater advantage than is usual
with these objects. In several respects this comet resembled
the famous ones of 1744, 1680, and 1811, particularly as re-
gards the signs of violent agitation going on in the vicinity of
the nucleus, such as the appearance of luminous jets, spiral
offshoots, &c., which rapidly emanated from the planetary point
and as quickly lost themselves in the general nebulosity of the
head.
On the 5th Oct. the most casual observer had an opportu-
nity of satisfying himself as to the accuracy of the mathematical
theory of the motions of comets in the near approach of the
nucleus of Donati's to Arcturus, the principal star in the con-
stellation Bootes. The circumstance of the appulse was very
nearly as predicted by Mr. Hind.
The comet, according to the investigations by M. Loewy,
Curiosities of Science.
of the Observatory of Vienna, arrived at its least distance from
the sun a few minutes after eleven o'clock on the morning of
the 30th of September ; its longitude, as seen from the sun at
this time, being 36 13', and its distance from him 55,000,000
miles. The longer diameter of its orbit is 184 times that of
the earth's, or 35,100,000,000 miles; yet this is considerably
less than ToWth of the distance of the nearest fixed star. As
an illustration, let any one take a half-sheet of note-paper, and
marking a circle with a sixpence in one corner of it, describe
therein our solar system, drawing the orbits of the earth and
the inferior planets as small as he can by the aid of a magnify -
ing-glass. If the circumference of the sixpence stands for the
orbit of Neptune, then an oval filling the page will fairly repre-
sent the orbit of Donati's comet ; and if the paper be laid upon
the pavement under the west door of St. Paul's Cathedral, Lon-
don, the length of that edifice will inadequately represent the
distance of the nearest fixed star. The time of revolution re-
sulting from Mr. Loewy's calculations is 2495 years, which is
about 500 years less than that of the comet of 1811 during the
period it was visible from the earth.
That the comet should take more than 2000 years to travel
round the above page of note-paper is explained by its great
diminution of speed as it recedes from the sun. At its perihelion
it travelled at the rate of 127,000 miles an hour, or more than
twice as fast as the earth, whose motion is about 1000 miles a
minute. At its aphelion, however, or its greatest distance from
the sun, the comet is a very slow body, sailing at the rate of
480 miles an hour, or only eight times the speed of a railway
express. At this pace, were it to travel onward in a straight
line, the lapse of a million of years would find it still travelling
half way between our sun and the nearest fixed star.
As this comet last visited us between 2000 and 2495 years
since, we know that its appearance was at an interesting period
of the world's history. It might have terrified the Athenians
into accepting the bloody code of Draco. It might have an-
nounced the destruction of Nineveh, or of Babylon, or the
capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. It might have been
seen by the expedition which sailed round Africa in the reign
of Pharaoh Necho. It might have given interest to the found-
ation of the Pythian games. Within the probable range of its
last visitation are comprehended the whole of the great events
of the history of Greece ; and among the spectators of the comet
may have been the so-called sages of Greece and even the pro-
phets of Holy Writ : Thales might have attempted to calculate
its return, and Jeremiah might have tried to read its warning.
Abridged from a Communication from Mr. Hind to the Times, and from a Leader
in that Journal.
GENEEAL INDEX.
ABODES of the Blest, 58.
Acarus of Crosse and "Weeks, 218.
Accuracy of Chinese Observers,
159.
Adamant, What was it ? 123.
Aeronautic Voyage, Remarkable,
169.
Agassiz, Discoveries of, 127.
Air, Weight of, 14.
All the World in Motion, 11.
Alluvial Land of Egypt, 110.
Ancient World, Science of the, 1.
Animals in Geological Times, 128.
Anticipations of the Electric Tele-
graph, 220-224.
Arago on Protection from Storms,
159.
Arctic Climate, Phenomena of,
162.
Arctic Explorations, Rae's, 162.
Arctic Regions, Scenery and Life
of, 180.
Arctic Temperature, 161.
Armagh Observatory Level,
Change of, 144.
Artesian Fire-Springs, 118.
Artesian Well of Grenelle, 114.
Astronomer, Peasant, 101.
Astronomer's Dream verified, 88.
Astronomers, Triad of Contempo-
rary, 100.
Astronomical Observations, Nicety
of, 102.
Astronomy and Dates on Monu-
ments, 55.
Astronomy and Geology, Identity
of, 104.
Astronomy, Great Truths of, 54.
Atheism, Folly of, 3.
Atlantic, Basin of the, 171.
Atlantic, Gales of the, 171.
Atlantic Telegraph, the, 226-228.
Atmosphere, Colours of the, 147.
Atmosphere compared to a Steam-
engine, 152.
Atmosphere, Height of, 147.
Atmosphere, the, 146.
Atmosphere, the purest, 150.
Atmosphere, Universality of the,
147.
Atmosphere weighed by Pascal,
148.
Atoms of Elementary Bodies, 13.
Atoms, the World of, 13.
Aurora Borealis, Halley's hypo-
thesis of, 198.
Aurora Borealis, Splendour of the,
165.
Australian Cavern, Inmates of,
137.
Australian Pouch-Lion, 137.
Axis of Rotation, the, 11.
BAROMETER, Gigantic, 151.
Barometric Measurement, 151.
Batteries, Minute and Vast, 204.
Birds, Gigantic, of New Zealand,
Extinct, 139.
"Black Waters, the," 182.
Bodies, Bright, the Smallest, 31.
Bodies, Compression of, 12.
Bodies, Fall of, 16.
Bottles and Currents at Sea, 172.
Boulders, How transported to
Great Heights, 105.
Boyle on Colours, 49.
Boyle, Researches of, 6.
Brain, Impressions transmitted to,
235.
Buckland, Dr., his Geological La-
bours, 127.
Building-Stone, Wear of, 108.
Burnet's Theory of the Earth, 125.
Bust, Magic, 36.
CANDLE-FLAMK, Nature of, 237.
Canton's Artificial Magnets, 196.
Carnivora of Britain, Extinct, 132.
Carnivores, Monster, of France,
138.
INDEX.
243
Cataract, Great, in India, 183.
Cat, Can it see in the Dark ? 51.
Caves of New Zealand and its Gi-
gantic Birds, 140.
Cave Tiger or Lion of Britain, 133.
Central Heat, Theory of, 116.
Chabert, "the Fire King," 192.
Chalk Formation, the, 108.
Changes on the Earth's Surface,
142.
Chantrey, Heat-Experiments by,
192.
Children's powerful Battery, 204.
Chinese, the, and the Magnetic
Needle, 194.
Chronometers, Marine, How rated
at Greenwich Observatory, 229.
Climate, finest in the World, 149.
Climate, Variations of, 148.
Climates, Average, 149.
Clock, How to make Electric, 212.
Cloud-ring, the Equatoiial, 156.
Clouds, Fertilisation of, 151.
Coal, Torbane-Hill, 123.
Coal, What is it? 123.
Cold in Hudson's Bay, 160.
Colour of a Body, and its Magnetic
Properties, 197.
Colours and Tints, Chevreulou, 37.
Colours most frequently hit in
Battle, 36.
Comet, the, of Donati, 240, 241.
Comet, Great, of 1843, 84.
Comets, Magnitude of, 84.
Comets visible in Sunshine, 84.
Computation, Power of, 10.
Coney of Scripture, 137.
Conic Sections, 10.
Continent Outlines not fixed, 145.
Coi-pse, How soon it decays, 237.
" Cosmos, Science of the, ' 10.
Crosse, Andrew, his "Artificial
Crystals and Minerals, 216-219.
Crosse Mite, the, 218.
Crystallisation, Reproductive, 26.
Crystallisation, Theory of, 24.
Crystallisation, Visible, 25.
Crystals, Immense, 24.
"Crystal Vault of Heaven," 55.
DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY, obtains
Heat from Ice, 390.
Davy's great Battery at the Eoyal
Institution, 204.
Day, Length of, and Heat of the
Earth, 186.
Day's Length at the Poles, 65.
Declination of the Needle, 197.
Descartes' Labours in Physics, 9.
Desert, Intense Heat and Cold of
the, 163.
Dewdrop, Beauty of the, 157.
Dew-fall in one year, 157.
Dew graduated to supply Vegeta-
tion, 157.
Diamond, Geological Age of, 122.
Diamond Lenses for Microscopes,
40.
" Diamond," Newton's Dog, 8.
Dinornis elephantopus, the, 139,
Dinotherium, or Terrible Beast,
the, 136.
Diorama, Illusion of the, 37.
EARTH and Man compared, 22.
Earth, Figure of the, 21.
Earth, Mass and Density of, 21.
Earth's Annual Motion, 12.
Earth's Magnitude, to ascertain,
21.
Earth's Surface, Mean Tempera-
ture of, 23.
Earth's Temperature, Interior, 116.
Earth's Temperature Stationary,
23.
Earth, the, a Magnet, 197.
Earthquake, the Great Lisbon,
121.
Earthquakes and the Moon, 121.
Earthquakes, Eumblings of, 120.
Earthquake-Shock, How to mea-
sure, 120.
Earth-Waves, 119.
Eclipses, Cause of, 74.
Egypt, Alluvial Land of, 110.
Electric Girdle for the Earth, 224.
Electric Incandescence of Charcoal
Points, 204.
Electric Knowledge, Germs of,
207.
Electric Light, Velocity of, 209.
Electric Messages, Time lost in,
225.
Electric Paper, 209.
Electric Spark, Duration of, 209.
Electric Telegraph, Anticipations
of the, 220-224.
Electric Telegraph, Consumption
of, 224.
Electric Telegraph in Astronomy
and Longitude, 225.
244
INDEX.
Electric Telegraph and Lightning,
226.
Electric and Magnetic Attraction,
Identity of, 210.
Electrical Kite, Franklin's, 213.
Electricity and Temperature, 208.
Electricity in Brewing, 209.
Electricity, Vast Arrangement of,
208.
Electricity, Water decomposed
by, 208.
Electricities, the Two, 214.
Electro-magnetic Clock, Wheat-
stone's, 211.
Electro-magnetic Engine, Theory
of, 210.
Electro-magnets, Horse-shoe, 199.
Electro-telegraphic Message to the
Stars, 226.
Elephant and Tortoise of India,
135.
End of our System, 92.
England in the Eocene Period,
129.
English Channel, Probable Origin
of, 105.
Eocene Period, the, 129.
Equatorial Cloud-ring, 156.
" Equatorial Doldrums," 156.
Error upon Error, 1 85.
Exhilaration in ascending Moun-
tains, 163.
Eye and Brain seen through a Mi-
croscope, 41.
Eye, interior, Exploration of, 236.
FALL of Bodies, Rate of, 16.
Falls, Height of, 16.
Faraday, Genius and Character of,
193.
Faraday's Electrical Illustrations,
214.
" Father of English Geology, the,"
126.
Fertilisation of Clouds, 151.
Fire, Perpetual, 117.
Fire-balls and Shooting Stars,
89.
Fire-Springs, Artesian, 118.
Fishes, the most Ancient, 132.
Flying Dragon, the, 130.
Force neither created nor de-
stroyed, 18.
Force of Running Water, 114.
Fossil Human Bones, 131.
Fossil Meteoric Stones, none, 92.
Fossil Rose, none, 142.
Foucault'sPendulumExperiments,
22.
Franklin's Electrical Kite, 213.
Freezing Cavern in Russia, 115.
Fresh Water in Mid-Ocean, 182.
GALILEAN Telescope, the, 93.
Galileo, What he first saw with the
Telescope, 93.
Galvani and Volta, 205.
Galvanic Effects, Familiar, 203.
Galvanic Waves on the same Wire,
Non-interference of, 225.
" Gauging the Heavens," 58.
Genius, Relics of, 5.
Geology and Astronomy, Identity
of, 104.
Geology of England, 105.
Geological Time, 143.
George III., His patronage of Her-
schel, 95.
Gilbert on Magnetic and Electric
forces, 201.
Glacial Theory, by Hopkins, 105.
Glaciers, Antiquity of, 109.
Glaciers, Phenomena of, Illus-
trated, 108.
Glass, Benefits of, to Man, 92.
Glass broken by Sand, 26.
Glyptodon, the, 137.
Gold, Lumps of, in Siberia, 124.
Greenwich Observatory, Chrono-
meters rated at, 229-232.
Grotto del Cane, the, 112.
Gulf-Stream and the Temperature
of London, 115.
Gunpowder - Magazines, Danger
to, 216.
Gymnotus and the Voltaic Bat-
tery, 206.
Gyroscope, Foucault's, 22.
HAIL and Storms, Protection
against, 159.
Hail-storm, Terrific, 160.
Hair, Microscopical Examination
of, 41.
Harrison's Prize Chronometers,
229-232.
Heat and Evaporation, 188.
Heat and Mechanical Power, 188.
Heat, by Friction, 189.
Heat, Distinctions of, 187.
Heat, Expenditure of, by the Sun,
186.
INDEX.
245
Heat from Gas-lighting, 189.
Heat from Wood and Ice, 190.
Heat, Intense, Protection from,
191, 192.
Heat, Latent, 187.
Heat of Mines, 188.
Heat, Nice Measurement of, 186.
Heat, Origin of, in our System, 87.
Heat passing through Glass, 189.
Heat, Repulsion by, 191.
Heated Metals, Vibration of, 188.
Heavy Persons, Lifting, 17.
Heights and Distances, to Calcu-
late, 19.
Herschel's Telescopes at Slough,
95.
Highton's Minute Battery, 204.
Hippopotamus of Britain, 135.
" Horse Latitudes, the," 173.
Horse, Three-hoofed, 138.
Hour-glass, Sand in the, 20.
ICE, Heat from, 190.
Ice, Warming with, 190.
Icebergs of the Polar Seas, 180.
Iguanodon, Food of the, 129.
Improvement, Perpetuity of, 5.
Inertia Illustrated, 14.
JERUSALEM, Temple of, How pro-
tected from Lightning, 167.
Jew's Harp, Theory of the, 29.
Jupiter's Satellites, Discovery of,
80.
KALEIDOSCOPE, Sir David Brew-
ster's, 43.
Kaleidoscope, the, thought to be
anticipated, 43.
Kircher's " Magnetism," 194.
LEANING TOWER, Stability of, 15.
Level, Curious Change of, 144.
Leyden Jar, Origin of the, 216.
Lifting Heavy Persons, 17.
Light, Action of, on Muscular Fi-
bres, 34.
Light, Apparatus for Measuring,
32.
Light from Buttons, 36.
Light, Effect of, on the Magnet, 198.
Light from Fungus, 36.
Light from the Juice of a Plant, 35.
Light, Importance of, 34.
Light, Minuteness of, 34.
Light Nights, 35.
Light, Polarisation of, 33.
Light, Solar and Artificial Com-
pared, 29.
Light, Source of, 29.
Light, Undulatory Scale of, 30.
Light, Velocity of, 31.
Light, Velocity of, Measured by
Fizeau, 32.
Light from Quartz, 51.
Lightning-Conductor, Ancient,167.
Lightning-Conductors, Service of,
166.
Lightning Experiment, Fatal, 214.
Lightning, Photographic Effects
of, 45.
Lightning produced by Rain, 166.
Lightning, Sheet, What is it?
165.
Lightning, Varieties of, 165.
Lightning, Various Effects of, 168.
Log, Invention of the, 173.
London Monument used as an Ob-
servatory, 103.
" MAESTRICHT Saurian Fossil," the,
141.
Magnet, Power of a, 195.
Magnets, Artificial, How made,
195.
Magnetic Clock and Watch, 211.
Magnetic Electricity discovered,
199.
Magnetic Hypotheses, 193.
Magnetic Needle and the Chinese,
J94.
Magnetic Poles, North and South,
201.
Magnetic Storms, 202.
"Magnetism," Kircher's, 194.
Malachite, How formed, 124.
Mammalia in Secondary Rocks,
130.
Mammoth of the British Isles, 133.
Mammoth, Remains of the, 134.
Mars, the Planet, Is it inhabited ?
82.
Mastodon coexistent with Man,
135.
Matter, Divisibility of, 14.
Maury's Physical Geography of the
Sea, 170.
Mediterranean, Depth of, 176.
Megatherium, Habits of the, 135.
Mercury, the Planet, Temperature
of, 82.
Mer de Glace, Flow of the, 110.
246
INDEX.
Meteoric Stones, no Fossil, 92.
Meteorites, Immense, 91.
Meteorites from the Moon, 89.
Meteors, Vast Shower of, 91.
Microscope, the Eye, Brain, and
Hair seen by, 41.
Microscope, Fish -eye, How to
make, 40.
Microscope, Invention of the, 39.
Microscope for Mineralogists, 42.
Microscope and the Sea, 42.
Microscopes, Diamond Lenses for.
40.
Microscopes, Leuwenhoeck's, 40.
Microscopic Writing, 42.
Milky Way, the, Unfathomable, 85.
Mineralogy and Geometry, Union
of, 25.
Mirror, Magic, How to make, 43.
Moon's Attraction, the, 73.
Moon, Has it an Atmosphere ? 69.
Moon, Life in the, 71.
Moon, Light of the, 70.
Moon, Mountains in, 72.
Moon, Measuring the Earth by, 74.
Moon seen through the Rosse Te-
lescope, 72.
Moon, Scenery of, 71.
Moon and Weather, the, 73.
Moonlight, Heat of, 70.
"More Worlds than One," 56, 57.
Mountain-chains, Elevation of, 107.
Music of the Spheres, 55.
Musket-balls found in Ivory, 237.
NATURAL and Supernatural, the, 6.
Nautical Almanac, Errors in, 185.
Nebulae, Distances of, 85.
Nebular Hypothesis, the, 86.
Neptune, the Planet, Discovery of,
83.
Newton, Sir Isaac, his "Apple-
tree," 8.
Newton upon Burnet's Theory of
the Earth, 125.
Newton's Dog "Diamond," 8.
Newton's first Keflecting Teles-
cope, 94.
Newton's " Principia," 9.
Newton's Rooms at Cambridge, 7.
Newton's Scale of Colours, 49.
Newton's Soap - bubble Experi-
ments, 49, 50.
New Zealand, Extinct Birds of,
139.
Niagara, the Roar of, 28.
Nineveh, Rock-crystal Lens found
at, 39.
Non-conducting Bodies, 215.
Nothing Lost in the Material
World, 18.
Objects really of no Colour, 37.
Objects, Visibility of, 30.
Observation, the Art of, 3.
Observatory, Lacaille's, 101.
Observatory, the London Monu-
ment, 103.
Observatory, Shirburn Castle, 101.
Ocean and Air, Depths of unknown,
Ocean Highways, 184.
Ocean, Stability of the, 12.
Ocean, Transparency of the, 171.
" Oldest piece of Wood upon the
Earth," 142.
Optical Effects, Curious, at the
Cape, 38.
Optical Instruments, Late Inven-
tion of, 100.
Oxford arid Cambridge, Science
at, 1.
PASCAL, How he weighed the At-
mosphere, 148.
Pebbles, on, 106.
Pendulum Experiments, 16-22.
Pendulum, the Earth weighed by,
200.
Pendulums, Influence of on each
other, 200.
Perpetual Fire, 117.
Petrifaction of Human Bodies, 131.
Phenomena, Mutual Relations of, 4.
Philosophers' False Estimates, 5.
Phosphorescence of Plants, 35.
Phosphoi*escence of the Sea, 35.
Photo-galvanic Engraving, 47.
Photograph and Stereoscope, 47.
Photographic effects of Lightning,
45.
Photographic Surveying, 46.
Photographs on the Retina, 236.
Photography, Best Sky for, 45.
Photography, Magic of, 44.
Pisa, Leaning Tower of, 15.
Planetary System, Origin of our,
86.
Planets. Diversities of, 79.
Planetoids, List of the, and their
Discoverers, 239.
Plato's Survey of the Sciences, 2.
INDEX.
247
Pleiades, the, 77.
Plurality of Worlds, 57.
Polar Ice, Immensity of, 181.
Polar Iceberg, 180.
Polarisation of Light, 33.
Pole, Open Sea at the, 181.
Pole-Star of 4000 years ago, 76.
Profitable Science, 139.
Pterodactyl, the, 130.
Pyramid, Duration of the, 14.
QUARTZ, Down of, 42.
EAIN, All in the World, 155.
Eain, an Inch on the Atlantic, 156.
Bain-Drops, Size of, 154.
Rain, How the North Wind drives
it away, 154.
Rain, Philosophy of, 153.
Rainless Districts, 155.
Rain-making Vapour, from South
to North, 152.
Rainy Climate, Inordinate, 154.
Red Sea and Mediterranean Levels,
175.
Red Sea, Colour of, 176.
Repulsion of Bodies, 216.
Rhinoceros of Britain, 135.
River- water on the Ocean, 181.
Rose, no Fossil, 142.
Rosse, the Earl of, his "Telescope,"
96-99.
Rotation - Magnetism discovered,
199.
Rotation, the Axis of, 11.
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, how pro-
tected from Lightning, 167.
Salt, All in the Sea, 179.
Salt Lake of Utah, 113.
Salt, Solvent Action of, 115.
Sal tn ess of the Sea', How to tell,
179.
Sand in the Hour-glass, 20.
Sand of the Sea and Desert, 106.
Saturn's Ring, Was it known to
the Ancients? 81.
Schwabe, on Sun-Spots, 68.
Science at Oxford and Cambridge,
Science of the Ancient World, 1.
Science, Theoretical, Practical Re-
sults of, 4.
Sciences, Plato's Survey of, 2.
Scientific Treatise, the Earliest En-
glish, 5.
Scoresby, Dr., on the Rosse Tele-
scope, 99.
Scratches, Colours of, 36.
Sea, Bottles and Currents at, 172.
Sea, Bottom of, a burial-place, 177.
Sea, Circulation of the, 170.
Sea, Climates of the, 170.
Sea, Deep, Life of the, 174.
Sea, Greatest ascertained Depth
of, 175.
Sea, Solitude at, 172.
Sea, Temperature of the, 170.
Sea, Why is it Salt? 177.
Seas, Primeval, Depth of, 234.
Sea-breezes and Land-breezes il-
lustrated, 150.
Sea-milk, What is it? 176.
Sea-routes, How shortened, 184.
Sea-shells and Animalcules, Ser-
vices of, 234.
Sea-shells, Why found at Great
Heights, 106.
Sea-water, to imitate, 235.
Sea-water, Properties of, 179.
Serapis, Temple of, Successive
Changes in, 111.
Sheep, Geology of the, 138.
Shells, Geometry of, 232.
Shells, Hydraulic Theory of, 233.
Siamese Twins, the, galvanised,
203.
Skin, Dark Colour of the, 63.
Smith, William, the Geologist, 126.
Snow, Absence of in Siberia, 159.
Snow, Impurity of, 158.
Snow Phenomenon, 158.
Snow, Warmth of, in Arctic La-
titudes, 158.
Snow-capped Volcano, the, 119.
Snow - crystals observed by the
Chinese, 159.
Soap-bubble, Science of the, 48.
Solar Heat, Extreme, 63.
Solar System, Velocity of, 59.
Sound, Figures produced by, 28.
Sound in rarefied Air, 27.
Sounding Sand, 27.
Space, Infinite, 86.
Speed, Varieties of, 17.
Spheres, Music of the, 55.
Spots on the Sun, 67.
Star, Fixed, the nearest, 78.
Stars' Colour, Change in, 77.
Star's Light sixteen times that of
the Sun, 79.
Stars, Number of, 75.
248
INDEX.
Stars seen by Daylight, 102.
Stars that have disappeared, 76.
Stars, Why created, 75.
Stereoscope and Photograph, 47.
Stereoscope simplified, 47.
Storm, Impetus of, 164.
Storms, Kevolving, 164.
Storms, to tell the Approach of,
163.
Storm-glass, How to make, 164.
Succession of Life in Time, 128.
Sun, Actinic Power of, 62.
Sun and Fixed Stars' Light com-
pared, 64.
Sun and Terrestrial Magnetism. 64.
" Sun Darkened," 64.
Sun, Great Size of, on Horizon, 61.
Sun, Heating Power of, 62.
Sun, Lost Heat of, 103.
Sun, Luminous Disc of, 60.
Sun, Nature of the, 59, 238.
Sun, Spots on, 67.
Sun, Translatory Motion of, 61.
Sun's Distance by the Yard Mea-
sure, 66.
Sun's Heat, Is it decreasing ? 65.
Sun's Kays increasing the Strength
of Magnets, 196.
Sun's Light and Terrestrial Lights,
61.
Sun-dial, Universal, 65.
TELEGRAPH, the Atlantic, 226.
Telegraph, the Electric, 220.
Telescope and Microscope, the, 38.
Telescope, Galileo's, 93.
Telescope, Herschel's, 95.
Telescope, Newton's first Reflect-
Telescopes, Antiquity of, 94.
Telescopes, Gigantic, proposed, 99.
ing, 94.
Telescopes, the Earl of Rosse's, 96.
Temperature and Electricity, 208.
Terrestrial Magnetism, Origin of,
200.
Thames, the, and its Salt-water
Bed, 182.
Threads, the two Electric, 215.
Thunderstorm seen from a Bal-
loon, 169.
Tides, How produced by Sun and
Moon, 66.
Time an Element of Force, 19.
Time, Minute Measurement of.
194.
Topaz, Transmutation of, 37.
Trilobite, the, 138.
Tuning-fork a Flute-player, 28.
Twilight, Beauty of. 148.
UNIVERSE, Vast Numbers in, 75.
Utah, Salt Lake of, 113.
VELOCITY of the Solar System, 59.
Vesta and Pallas, Speculations on,
82.
Vesuvius, Great Eruptions of, 119.
Vibration of Heated Metals, 188.
Visibility of Objects, 30.
Voice, Human, Audibility of, 27.
Volcanic Action and Geological
Change, 118.
Volcanic Dust, Travels of, 119.
Volcanic Islands, Disappearance
of, 117.
Voltaic Battery and the Gymno-
tus, 206.
Voltaic Currents in Mines, 206.
Voltaic Electricity discovered, 205.
WATCHES, Harrison's Prize, 229.
Water decomposed by Electricity,
208.
Water, Running, Force of, 114.
Waters of the Globe gradually de-
creasing, 113.
Water-Purifiers, Natural, 234.
Waterspouts, How formed in the
Java Sea, 160.
Waves, Cause of, 1 83.
Waves, Force of, 184.
Waves, Rate of Travelling, 183.
Wenham-Lake Ice, Purity of,
161.
West, Superior Salubrity of, 150.
" White Water," and "Luminous
Animals at Sea, 173.
Winds, Transporting Power of,
163.
Wollaston's Minute Battery, 204.
World, All the, in Motion, 11.
World, the, in a Nutshell, 13.
Worlds, More than One, 56.
Worlds to come, 58.
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[86, FLEET STREET, AND
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DICTIONARIES,
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ng~
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COMIC WORKS,
GEORGE CRUiKSHANK'S WORKS,
My Sketch-Book; containing more than Two Hundred
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The Drunkard's Children. A Sequel to The Bottle.
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COMIC "WORKS Continued.']
Comic Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck: Wherein
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NEW BOOKS FOR OLD AND YOUNG,
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JUVENILE WORKS.
CAPTAIN REID'S BOOKS OF ADVENTURE FOR BOYS.
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MR. J. G. EDGAR'S BOOKS FOR BOYS.
The Boyhood of Great Men as an Example to Youth.
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Footprints Of Famous Men ; or, Biography for Boys.
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Boy Princes. By JOHN G. EDGAR. With Illustrations j
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History l)0r Boys ; or, Annals of the Nations of Modern
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[86, FLEET STKEET, A.NIJ
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The Boy's Own Book I A complete Encyclopaedia of all
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Grimm's Household Stories. All the most Popular
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32 W. KENT AND CO.'S CATALOGUE.
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[86, FLEET STHEET, AND
W. KENT AND CO.'S CATALOGUE. 33
CASSELL'S WORKS Continued.']
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[8G, FLEET STI:KKT, AND
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[SO, FLEET STREET, AND
W. KENT AND CO. S CATALOGUE.
G9
INDEX.
Acting Charades
Algebra (Cassell-s) ....
Architectural Works . . .
Arithmetic (Cassell's) . . .
for the Young . .
Arnold's (Edwin) Poems . .
Astronography
Balance of Beauty ....
Ball Koom Polka
Preceptor . . .
Beattie and Collins ....
Bertie's Indestructible Books
Bible Gallery
Women of the
Bingley's Tales
Biographical Dictionary ....
Boat (The) and the Caravan . . .
Book and its Story
of the Months
Boswell's Johnson
Botany, The Outlines of ....
Boyhood of Great Men
Boy Princes
Boy's Own Book
Treasury .
Brandon's Architectural Works .
British Empire, Greatness of the
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress . .
Byron Beauties
Illustrated ...;..
Capern's Poems
CasselTs Educational Works . . .
Cheever's Whaleman's Adventures .
Childs' Drawing Books
Child's First Lesson Book ....
Christian Graces in Olden Time .
Christmas with the Poets ....
Classical Library
Colling's Gothic Architecture . .
Ornament . . .
Comic Works
Almanack
Comical Creatures from Wurtenu
burg . . .
People
Story Books
Cottage Gardener's Dictionary . .
Cow per 's Poems
Cracker Bon-Bon for Christmas . .
Cropland s Memorable Women . .
Cruikshank's (Geo.) Works . . .
. Fairy Library.
Curiosities of Modern Travel . - . .
Dale's Poems
De Lplme's French Manual . . .
Dibdin's Water Colours ....
Easy Drawing Book . .
Dictionaries
10
"7
H
51
9
36
11
11
o
22
-1
4
21
33
19
yo
24
24
32
6
6
19
20
7
34
3
' 3
3
10
26
10
23
20
3
1
CO
PAGE
Domestic Architecture 8
Hints 24
Drawing Books ,23
Edgar's Boyhood of Great Men . . 18
Foot prints of Famous Men 18
Boy Princes 18
History tor Boys .... 18
Educator, The Popular .... 26
Biblical . . . .26
Historical . . .26
The Child's ..... 31
Emma de Lissau ....... 20
England, Cassell's History of . . 82
History of ...... 33
38
30
-- ('1 he) Language, its Ele-
ments and Form ...... 32
Etiquette for the Ladies .... 11
Gentlemen .... 11
of Courtship ..... 11
English without a Master .
Cassell's Lessons in .
Euclid, Symbolical ...... 24
Cassell's ....... 31
Fables of JEf
Footprints of Famous Men . .
Footprints of Travellers . . .
Ford's Easy Lessons in Landscape
French, Cassell's Lessons in . .
Dictionary, Caseell's . .
Miniature .
without a Master
France, The History of ...
Games for Christmas ....
Geography, Cassell's Elementary
German, Cassell's Lessons in
Dictionary (Cussell)
without a Master
15
G
34
23
27
27
18
31
10
31
28
28
38
Glennys Handbook to 1- lower-garden 25
Catechism of Gardening . 25
Garden Almanac ... 25
Glossary of Architecture .... 8
Goldsmith's Works 24
Graces, Gallery of the 4
Greek, Cassell's Lessons in ... 30
Orimm's Household Stories ... 19
Guizot's Young Student .... 20
Gutch's Scientific Pocket Book . . 12
Handbook of Pencil Drawing . .23
Harding's Drawing Books . . 8, 23
Portfolio 23
Harry's Ladder to Learning ... 21
Book of Poetry 21
Health for the Million 37
Heath's Keepsake ...... 3
Waverley Gallery ... 4
Heroes < f Asgarcl
of England . .
Heroines of Shakspeare
PATEKNOSTEK Row, LONDON.]
40
W. KENT AND CO.'s CATALOG UK.
TXDKX Continue/!.']
PAGE
Hervey's Meditations 24
History for Boys 6
Home Lesson Books 22
Story Books 22
How to make Home Happy
Hewitt's Library for the Young!
Humphreys' British Coins . . .
Indestructible Lesson Books . .
Pleasure Books .
22
22
Introd. to Gothic Architecture . . 8
Ireland, the History of 33
Italian, Cassell's Lessons in ... "
Without a Master ....
Julien's (Mons.) Studies of Heads .
Johnson's Lives of the Poets . . .
Human Figure
PAGE
Panoramic View of Palestine . . 24
Parlour Mastic [>o
Pellatt on Glass-making .... 4
Phillips' s Etchings of Familiar Life 23
Playmate (The) 20
Poetry of the Year 3
Political Economy 32
Prout's (Sum.) Elementary Drawing 23
Queens of Prussia, Memoirs of the . 37
Raft'aelle-s Cartoons 3
Keepsake (The)
King's Interest Tables ....
Knight's Store of Knowledge
Ladies' Drawing-Room Book
Language of Flowers ....
Latin, Cassell's Lessons in . .
Dictionary (Cassell's) . .
Without a Master . . .
Lectures on the Great Exhibition
Lionel Fitzgibbon
Little Boy's Own Book ....
Mary's Books 21
Treasury 21
Lesson Book ... 21
Longfellow's Poems ....
Hyperion . . .
Golden Legend .
O.J
! 37
. 36
4,11
, 29
Kavanagh
Prose Woi-ks . .
Song of Hiawatha .
Loves of the Poets
Mackay's (Charles) Egeria . .
Town Lyrics
.2, 9
. 2
2, 9
. 2
. 10
. 9
. 1
. 10
. 10
. 33
. 22
. 9
. 9
31,32
. 10
18
15
18
Memoirs of the Queens of Prussia . 37
Men of the Time 5
Merry Pictures
Mia and Charlie 19
Miller's Daushter 1
Miller's (T.) Poems for Children . 21
Milton's Poetical Works .... 4
L'Allegro and II Penseroso
Museum of Painting and Sculpture 4
Musgrave's Ramble in Normandy .
Ogleby's Adventures 15
Oldbuck's Adventures 15
Painters (The) of All Nations, His-
toryof 35
Man, The Natural History of
Manuals of Instruction . . .
Massey's (G.) Babe Christabel
Craigcrook Castle .
Mathematical Science . . .
Mayhew's Acting Charades .
PeasantiBoy Philosopher
Sandboys' Adventures ,
Wonders of Science .
Reid's (Capt. M.) Desert Home .
Boy Hunters . .
Young Voyageurs
Forest Exiles . .
Bush-Boys . . .
Young Yagers
17
17
17
17
17
Reynard the Fox . . ~ .". . ~ 20
Rhymes and Roundelayes ... 2
Rival (The) Kings ...... 19
Robinson Crusoe ...... 11
Romance of Modern Travel ... 7
Round Games ....... 10
Sailings over the Globe .... 34
St. Leonard ........ 35
Science Popularly Explained ... 32
Scotland, The History of .... 33
Scott's Poems ........ 5
Shadows ........ 11, 15
Shakspeare, Concordance to ... 37
Heroines ..... 3
Sharpe's Diamond Dictionary . . 13
Shilling's Worth of Sense . ... 11
Sidney Grey ........ 19
Smith's (Alex.) Poems ..... 9
--- Sonnets on the War 9
Sou they 's Life of Nelson ... 6,19
Spanish without a Master .... 38
Spelling Book (Cassell's) .... 30
Steam Engine, The History of the . 34
Store of Knowledge ..... 37
Suggestions in Design
Sutcliffe's Drawing Book of Horses
Taylor's (Jeff.) Young Islanders .
Tennyson's Miller's Daughter . .
Thomson's Seasons ......
Timbs's Curiosities of London . .
- Curiosities of England . .
- Popular Errors .....
-- School Days of Kminent Men
12
23
20
1
5
10
16
16
16
Things Not Generally Known 16
Waverley Gallery ...... 4
Weather Book, the . ..... 11
Webster (Daniel) Orations ... 36
Webster's Quarto Dictionaries . . 13
Smaller Dictionary . 13
Winkles's English Cathedrals . . 8
Women of the Bible ...... 4
Wonders of Travel ...... 7
of the Heavens .... 34
Worsley's Little Drawing Book . . 23
Year Book of Facts ...... 12
Young Lady's Oracle ..... 11
86. FLEKT STREET, AND PATERNOSTER Bow, LONDON.
RF'
14 DAY USE
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iri 1 O
REC -0 uc
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(A1724slO)476B
General Library
University of California
Berkeley