Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Name: A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar
Author: Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

Summary

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer’s A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar (1840) is a catechism-style compendium addressing over 2000 inquiries on natural and everyday phenomena, ranging from heat and air to lightning and dew.

Structured to engage both children and readers with a scientific interest, it combines empirical explanations with religious themes, such as divine design, reflecting Brewer’s dual dedication to science and theology. Its accessibility and widespread appeal, demonstrated by 47 editions by 1905, solidified its position as a foundational work that later inspired his enduring Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

Quotes from A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar (Ebenezer Cobham Brewer)

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ PREFACE. Of all science, none is more generally interesting than that which explains the common phenomena of life. We see that salt and snow are both white, a rose red, leaves green, and the violet a deep purple; but how few persons ever ask the reason why! We know that a flute produces a musical sound, and a cracked bell a discordant one—that fire is hot, ice cold, and a candle luminous—that water boils when subjected to heat, and freezes from cold ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. Why does not the mist become dew?
A. Because the chill of the air is so rapid, that vapour is condensed faster than it can be deposited; and (covering the earth in a mist) prevents any further radiation of heat from the earth.
Q. When the earth can no longer radiate heat upwards, does it continue to condense the vapour of the air?
A. No; the air (in contact with the earth) becomes about equal in temperature with the surface of the earth itself; for which reason, the mist is not condensed into dew, but remains floating above the earth as a thick cloud. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. Why do persons eat more food in cold weather, than in hot?
A. In cold weather the body requires more fuel to keep up the same amount of [Pg 91] animal heat; and as we put more coals on a fire on a cold day to keep our room warm, so we eat more food on a cold day to keep our body warm.
Q. Why does cold produce hunger?
A. 1st—The air contains more oxygen in cold weather; and as fires burn fiercer, so animal combustion is more rapid: and
2ndly—We are more active in cold weather; and increased respiration acts like a pair of bellows on the capillary combustion. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. Why does wind in England generally feel cold?
A. Because a constantly changing surface comes in contact with our body, to draw off its heat.
Q. Why is a room (even without a fire) generally warmer than the open air?
A. As the air in a room is not subject to much change, it soon becomes of the same temperature as our skin, and no longer feels cold.
Q. Why do we generally feel colder out-of-doors?
A. Because the air (which surrounds us) is always changing; and as fast as one portion of air has become warmer by contact with our body, another colder portion surrounds us to absorb more heat. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. Why is the flame of a candle blown out by a puff of breath?
A. As the flame of a candle is attached to a very small wick, a puff of breath severs the flame from the wick; and it goes out for want of support.
Q. Why does the flame of a candle make a glass damp, which is held over it?
A. The hydrogen of the tallow combining with the oxygen of the air, produce a “watery vapour,” which is condensed by the cold glass held above the flame.
Q. Why does our hand, held above a candle, suffer from the heat of the flame so much more, than when it is placed below the flame, or on one side of it? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. Why is lightning more common in summer and autumn, than in spring and winter?
A. The heat of summer and autumn produces great evaporation; and the conversion of water to vapour, always develops electricity.
Q. Why does a thunder-storm generally follow very dry weather, and rarely succeeds continued wet?
A. The clouds are always charged with electricity; but dry air (being a non-conductor) , will not conduct the surplus fluid from the clouds to the earth: so it violently rends the dry air with a flash, in order to relieve the cloud, and reach the earth. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ A. Lightning causes the gases of the air (through which it passes) to combine, and thus produces a poison, called nitric acid; some small portion of which, mixing with the milk, turns it sour. [2]
(N. B. Sometimes, the mere heat of the air, during the storm, turns milk sour.)
[2] The air is composed of two gases, called oxygen and hydrogen, mixed together, but not combined. If oxygen is combined with nitrogen, it produces five deadly poisons, viz.—nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, hyponitrous acid, nitrous acid, and nitric acid, according to the proportion of each gas in the combination. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ A. If the night has been very calm, a rapid radiation of heat has taken place in the earth; in consequence of which, the air (resting on the earth) is made so cold, that its vapour is chilled, and condensed into a thick mist. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. How does a crowd vitiate the air of a room?
A. Whenever we breathe, the elements of the air are separated in the lungs, some of the oxygen is absorbed by the blood, and some of it is converted into carbonic acid gas, and exhaled with the nitrogen.
Q. Is all the nitrogen rejected by the lungs?
A. Yes; all the nitrogen of the air is always exhaled.
Q. What is carbonic acid gas?
A. As carbon has a very great affinity for oxygen, therefore, whenever they are exposed to heat, they combine, [Pg 250] and form carbonic acid gas (or what is vulgarly called fixed air) . ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. If air be a bad conductor, why does hot iron get cold, by being exposed to the air?
A. A piece of hot iron exposed to the air, is made cold—1st—By “convection;” and
2ndly—By “radiation.”
Q. How is hot iron (exposed to the air) made cold by convection?
A. The air around the iron (being intensely heated by contact) rapidly ascends, carrying some of its heat with it: [Pg 247] other air succeeds, absorbs more heat, ascends, and gives place to that which is colder; till the hot iron is cooled completely down. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ A. Hard bodily labour in the open air causes much oxygen to be conveyed into the lungs by inspiration; the combustion of the food is carried on quickly; animal heat increased; and need for nutritious food more quickly indicated by craving hunger. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. What is the difference between conducting heat, and absorbing heat?
A. To conduct heat, is to transmit it [Pg 185] from one body to another through a conducting medium: to absorb heat, is to suck it up, as a sponge sucks up water.
Q. Give me an example.
A. Black cloth absorbs, but does not conduct heat: thus, if black cloth be laid in the sun, it will absorb the rays very rapidly; but if one end of the black cloth be made hot, it would not conduct the heat to the other end. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ A. If a cold current of wind blows suddenly over any region, it condenses the invisible vapour of the air into cloud or rain: but if a warm current of wind, blows over any region, it disperses the clouds, by absorbing their vapour. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ A. Liquids expand very much by heat; if, therefore, a kettle be filled with cold water, some of it must run over as soon as it is expanded by heat.
Q. But I have seen a kettle boil over, although it has not been filled full of water; how do you account for that?
A. If a fire be very fierce, the air is expelled so rapidly, that the bubbles are very numerous; and (towering one above the other) reach the top of the kettle, and fall over.
Q. Why is a pot, which is full to overflowing (while the water is boiling hot) , nothing like full, when it has been taken off the fire for a short time? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ A. The solar rays are unable to heat the surface of the sea as they do the earth; therefore, the air resting on the earth is more heated than the air resting on the sea; and the colder sea air blows inland to restore the equilibrium. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Q. Does any thing else radiate heat, besides the sun and fire?
A. Yes; all things radiate heat in some measure, but not equally well.
Q. What things radiate heat the next best to the sun and fire?
A. All dull and dark substances are good radiators of heat; but all light and polished substances are bad radiators of heat.
Q. Why does a polished metal tea-pot make better tea than a black earthen one?
A. As polished metal is a very bad radiator of heat, it keeps the water hot much longer; and the hotter the water is, the better it “draws” the tea. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ A. The current of hot air up the chimney, striking against the oblique vanes of the smoke-jack, drives them round and round; in the same way as the sails of a wind-mill are driven round by the wind.
Q. Why are some things solid, others liquid, and others gaseous?
A. As heat enters any substance, it drives its particles further asunder; and a solid (like ice) becomes a liquid; and a liquid (like water) becomes a gas.
Q. Why does water simmer before it boils?
A. The particles of water near the bottom of the kettle (being formed into steam sooner than the rest) shoot upwards ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar

“ Blow a candle out; and while the wick is still red, hold the candle (by a piece of wire,) in the bottle of oxygen gas; the wick will instantly ignite, and burn brilliantly.
(Burning sulphur emits a blue flame, when immersed in oxygen gas.)
Q. What is nitrogen?
A. Nitrogen is another invisible gas. It will not burn, like hydrogen; and [Pg 36] an animal cannot live in it: it abounds in animal and vegetable substances, and is the chief ingredient of the common air. [9]
[9] Nitrogen gas may easily be obtained thus:—Put a piece of burning phosphorus on a little stand, in a plate of water ”

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

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Quotes from A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar (Ebenezer Cobham Brewer)

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