James Carpenter

Name: Once a Week
Author: James Carpenter

Once a Week (1863)

Summary

“Once a Week”, published in 1864, is a work by James Carpenter. It explores elements such as spectrum, spectra and prism.

Quotes from Once a Week (James Carpenter)

James Carpenter, Once a Week (1863)

“ It is the most subtle, but most potent of them all, for to its pervading influence we owe most of the benefits and enjoyments we receive, directly or indirectly, from the solar light: the verdure of spring and the sereness of autumn, the odour of the violet, the blush on the rose, the golden glory of the ripening corn, and the copious juices of the luscious fruit, are all developed by its latent power: it is its silent and unseen agency that vivifies the vegetable, and invigorates the animal world ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Carpenter, Once a Week (1863)

“ Every metal yields its own spectrum, completely different from all others, and, however it may be combined or confused with other matters, its presence can be infallibly detected by analysis of the light emitted during its combustion; this peculiar property of the prism, of sifting out a particular element, has led to the discovery of two new metals by Bunsen, who, while engaged in an analysis of the contents of the mineral waters of Baden and Durkheim, detected one by two bright blue lines unknown in any other spectrum, and the other by two equally strange red lines ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Carpenter, Once a Week (1863)

“ Our present ignorance as to the nature of this and the less diffused components of the stellar suns detracts nothing from the importance and little from the interest of these investigations; for in these days of insatiable research, to establish the existence of one element in one star—as has been done in the case of sodium in Betelgeux—is to tread the lowest step of a ladder whose topmost round will not be left unattained till the constitution of every spectrum-yielding star is more or less certainly known. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Carpenter, Once a Week (1863)

“ We do not see the spectrum of the solar atmosphere, but a negative image of it. This can, however, with an equal degree of certainty, serve to detect the metals present in the sun’s atmosphere; all that we require for the purpose is a very accurate knowledge of the solar spectrum, and the spectra of the individual metals. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Carpenter, Once a Week (1863)

“ Much as we have already seen accomplished, the work is yet far from complete; for a vast number of solar lines remain unmatched and unclaimed by terrestrial partners. For a time, however, we must rest content, at least so far as the German philosophers are concerned; for Kirchoff tells us his eyes have become so weakened by continual observation, that he is compelled to suspend his labours till they shall have repaired their exhausted power. Meanwhile, stimulated by the results of these researches, astronomers are actively engaged in mapping the spectra of the heavenly bodies. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Carpenter, Once a Week (1863)

“ If a ray of sunlight be made to pass through a small hole (A) in a window-shutter, and a screen (B C) be placed at a short distance beyond it; there will be formed upon that screen a small spot of light (D) , of the same size and shape as the hole, and in a perfectly straight line with it and the sun ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Carpenter, Once a Week (1863)

“ The relation between the two sections of this line in the different spectra is absolutely identical; the higher the power employed to observe them, the more perfect is their coincidence. If potassium, with its absorbing vapour, be substituted for the sodium, we shall obtain a dark line, corresponding exactly with Fraunhofer’s line A; while, if iron with its vapour be employed, about sixty lines will be seen, all in perfect coincidence with some of the more or less distinct of the solar lines. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Carpenter, Once a Week (1863)

“ Since the discovery of the planet Neptune—that glorious achievement of the human intellect that called forth this panegyric—there has been no subject of scientific investigation more interesting in its nature, or fruitful in result, than the researches that have recently been made into the physical constitution of the sun by Messrs. ”

James Carpenter

Summary

Quotes from Once a Week (James Carpenter)

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