Anonymous

“ MYTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE. M. Arago, in his brilliant eloge on Fourier, observes:—"The ancients had a taste, or rather a passion, for the marvellous, which made them forget the sacred ties of gratitude. Look at them, for instance, collecting into one single group the high deeds of a great number of heroes, whose names they have not even deigned to preserve, and attributing them all to Hercules. The lapse of centuries has not made us wiser. The public in our time also delight in mingling fiction with history. ”

“ Such is its power, that if a star of the first magnitude were removed to such a distance, that its light would be three millions of years in reaching us, this telescope would, nevertheless, show it to the human eye. Is it to be wondered at, then, that, with such an instrument, grand discoveries should be made? It has been pointed to the heavens; and, although in the beginning of its career, it has already accomplished mighty things. There are nebulous spots in the heavens which have baffled all the instruments hitherto constructed, but this telescope resolves their true character completely. ”

“ Having carried this singular machine on board of a Dutch vessel, the captain, who sometimes heard it move, had the curiosity to open the box. Astonished to see a little human form uncommonly animated, yet when touched appearing to be nothing but wood—and being little versed in science, but very superstitious—he took the ingenious labour of the philosopher for a little devil, and terminated the experiment of Descartes, by throwing his "wooden daughter" into the sea. ”

“ But the rewards given to poor Bethnal-green and Spitalfields weavers, for useful inventions in their calling, illustrate, perhaps even better than any of the foregoing instances, the object of the Society which so honourably distinguishes it from other associations—its readiness to receive, examine, and reward every kind of useful invention that may be brought forward by those who have neither friends nor money to aid them in making their inventions known. ”

“ VELOCITY OF ELECTRICITY. 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 transit of the electric current along the lines of the telegraph wire, that, supposing it were possible to carry the wires eight times round the earth, it would but occupy one second of time. The immense velocity of electricity makes it impossible to calculate it by direct observation ”

“ In this little volume are brought together a number of sketches and memoranda, illustrating the history of discovery, and the lives and labours of inventors and explorers, not of our own country alone, but of others—for knowledge is of no country, but of all. ”

“ Notwithstanding the enormous amount already carried away, the stores of fossil ivory do not appear to diminish; in many places near the mouths of the great rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean, the bones and tusks of these antediluvian pachyderms lie scattered about like the relics of a ploughed-up battlefield, while in other parts these creatures of a former world seem to have huddled together in herds for protection against the sudden destruction that befell them, since their remains are found lying together in heaps. ”

“ The telescope is not turned to any part of the sky, but limited to the range of half an hour on each side of the meridian, through which its motion is given by powerful clockwork, independent of the observer. For this purpose it stands between two pieces of masonry, of gothic design, which harmonize with Lord Rosse's castle; one of these piers sustaining the galleries for the observer, and the second the clockwork and other apparatus. There is an elegant arrangement of counterpoises to balance the enormous mass, so that a comparatively slight force only is required to elevate or depress it. ”

“ COMBINATIONS OF THE KALEIDOSCOPE. The system of endless changes is one of the most astonishing properties of the Kaleidoscope. With a number of loose objects—pieces of glass, for example,—it is possible to reproduce any figure we have admired, when it is once lost. Centuries may elapse before the same combination returns; if the objects, however, are placed in the cell so as to have very little motion, the same figure may be recalled, and if actually fixed, the same pattern will return in every evolution of the object-plate. ”

“ FARADAY, AS A LECTURER. Von Raumer acutely observes:—"Mr. Faraday is not only a man of profound chemical and physical science, (which all Europe knows) , but a very remarkable lecturer. He speaks with ease and freedom, but not with a gossiping unequal tone, alternately inaudible and bawling, as some very learned professors do; he delivers himself with clearness, precision, and [pg 89] ability. ”

“ It is most solemn to contemplate a human spirit, whose course of thought throughout life was unsurpassed for power of speculation, and daring range of mind among the higher objects of knowledge, and which, at the period of its departure, was in the depths of a controversy about the mysteries of a supersensible world—thus summoned into that world, to become conversant in its final relations with that Being who had entrusted it with such mental power, and whose nature and attributes had so often tasked its speculative energies."—North British Review. ”

“ CONSTRUCTION OF THE THAMES TUNNEL. When the ingenious Miss Pardoe visited Constantinople in 1836, she was not less surprised than gratified by the inquiry of an Albanian chief, as to the probable completion of the Thames tunnel. This, however, is but one of the many instances of the anxiety with which the great work was watched throughout continental Europe. In Egypt, too, where a new country is rising, phœnix-like, upon the ashes of the old world, the progress of the tunnel was regarded with like curiosity; participated, indeed, throughout the civilised world. ”

“ Lawson stated that the conductors of the metropolitan newspapers could never have presented to the world such an immense mass of news and advertisements as was now contained in them, had not this invention enabled them to make use of any size required. By the revolution of the great cylinder employed in the process, an extraordinary degree both of rapidity and convenience in the production is secured. One of its chief advantages is the prevention of all risk of combination among the workmen, the machine being so easily managed that the least skilful person can attend to it. ”

“ At Isfahan, all were delighted with the electric machine, except one renowned doctor and lecturer of the college, who, envious of the popularity gained by this display of superior science, contended publicly that the effects produced were moral, not physical; that it was the mummery the Europeans practised, and the state of the nervous agitation they excited, which produced an ideal shock; but he expressed his conviction that a man of true firmness of mind would stand unmoved by all that could be produced out of the glass bottle, as he scoffingly termed the machine. ”

“ ORIGIN OF REFLECTING LIGHTHOUSES. In the last century, at a meeting of a society of mathematicians at Liverpool, one of the members proposed to lay a wager, that he would read a paragraph of a newspaper, at ten yards' distance, with the light of a farthing candle. The wager was laid, and the proposer, having covered the inside of a wooden dish with pieces of looking-glass, fastened in with glaziers' putty, placed his reflector behind the candle, and won his wager. One of the company marked this experiment with a philosophic eye. ”

“ Four persons, one at each leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him—the person 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 person 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 ”

“ The object of the collector has been rather to present the popular than the strictly scientific side of his subject—to furnish materials of interest and amusement, as well as instruction; and if now and then he has been tempted to stray into bye-paths of anecdote and gossip, excuse may readily be found in the fact that the private life of our men of science, often singularly noble and full of character, is apt to be altogether obscured by the brilliancy of the results of their secret and silent toil. ”

“ MECHANICAL TRIUMPHS. The direct and almost instant benefits of Mechanical Inventions to their originators have been thus eloquently illustrated in the Edinburgh Review:—"Contributing, as they do, to our most immediate and pressing wants—appealing to the eye by their magnitude, and often by their grandeur, and associated, in many cases, with the warmer impulses of humanity and personal safety—the labours of the mechanist and engineer acquire a contemporary celebrity, which is not vouchsafed to the results of scientific research, or to the productions of literature and the fine arts. ”

“ But the directive property of the magnet was not known to the ancients. To the simple application of this property, which was either discovered or introduced into Europe about 500 years ago, mankind is indebted principally for the discovery of a new continent nearly equal to the old one, for an extensive commerce between the most distant nations, and for an accurate knowledge of the shape and size of the world we inhabit. The use of the magnetic needle was not known in Europe before the thirteenth century. The honour of its discovery has been much contested ”

“ MONOCHROMATIC PAINTING. A very delicate experiment, yet a very natural one, which Buffon appears to have first noticed, led in all probability to the invention of the monochromatic mode of painting, or painting with a single colour. If, at the moment which precedes sunset, at the close of a cloudless day, a body is placed near a wall, or against another polished body, or on a smooth chalky soil, the shadow carried by this body is blue, instead of being black or colourless. ”

“ WONDERS OF AUSTRALIA. Sydney Smith has thus sketched a few of the natural wonders of this new world:—"In this remote part of the earth, Nature (having made horses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular and useful productions, for the rest of the world) seems determined to have a bit of play, and to amuse herself as she pleases. ”

“ High mass was celebrated at St. Peter's, and the architect and workmen received the benediction of the Pope. The blast of a trumpet was the given signal, when engines were set in motion by an incredible number of horses; but not until after fifty-two unsuccessful attempts had been made, was the huge block lifted from the earth. As the ropes which held it had somewhat stretched, the base of the obelisk could not reach the summit of the pedestal, when a man in the crowd cried out, "Wet the ropes!" ”

“ THE DISCOVERY OF LITHOGRAPHY. The invention, or more properly the discovery, of lithography, claims a high rank among those of the present age, on account of its extensive usefulness. The honour of the invention belongs to Alois Sennefelder, originally a performer at the Theatre Royal of Munich. He had conceived the idea of etching on stone instead of on copper, and was proceeding to make the experiment, when an accidental discovery gave a more beneficial turn to his speculations. ”

“ In all careers, particularly in that of the sciences, there is a design to create Herculeses. According to the vulgar opinion, every astronomical discovery is attributable to Herschel. The theory of the motions of the planets is identified with the name of Laplace, and scarcely any credit is allowed to the important labours of D'Alembert, Clairaut, Euler, and Lagrange. Watt is the sole inventor of the steam-engine, whilst Chaptal has enriched the chemical arts with all those ingenious and productive processes which secure their prosperity. ”

“ INVENTION OF THE HAND GEAR. It has been said that we are indebted for the important invention in the steam-engine, termed hand gear, by which its valves or cocks are worked by the machine itself, to an idle boy named Humphrey Potter, who, being employed to stop and open a valve, saw that he could save himself the trouble of attending and watching it, by fixing a plug upon a part of the machine which came to the place at the proper times, in consequence of the general movement. If this anecdote be true, what does it prove? ”

“ Mars, German in that of Tieck, and English in that of Faraday, seems a totally different language? Because they articulate what other people swallow or chew. It is a shame that the power and harmony of simple speech (I am not talking of eloquence, but of vowels and consonants) , that the tones and inflexions which God has given to the human voice, should be so neglected and abused. And those who think they do them full justice—preachers—generally give us only the long straw of pretended connoisseurs, instead of the chopped straw of the dilettanti. ”

“ In 1807, Sir William Ross, at the age of twelve, received the Society's silver palette for a drawing of the death of Wat Tyler; Mr. Edwin Landseer gained a similar mark of approbation in 1810, for an etching; and to Mr. Wyon was adjudged the gold medal, in 1818, for a medal die. But to artists there is a feature of still greater interest in the Society's history: it was in its rooms that the first exhibition of paintings in England took place in 1760, which was continued with great success for some years. ”