Various

“ But we have merely to consider the position which the dynamo-electric machine already occupies in the industrial world, and the far higher position, which, as almost all admit, it is destined to occupy in the future, in order to see how much we owe to Faraday's establishment of the connection between magnetism and electricity. That is one side of the question--the debt which art owes to science. But let us look at the other side also. Does science owe nothing to art? ”

“ Reliable records extending over hundreds of years show clearly with what energy and perseverance scientific men in every civilized part of the world have endeavored to wrest from nature the secret of what is termed her "phenomena of magnetism," and, as is invariably the case under similar circumstances, the results of the experiments and reasoning of some have far surpassed those of others in advancing our knowledge. For instance, the experimental philosophers in many branches of science were groping as it were in darkness until the brilliant light of Newton's genius illumined their path. ”

“ The lines of force of light, heat, and sound can be artificially produced and intensified, and the more intense--they are the more we perceive their effects on our eyes, ears, or bodies. But it is not so with the lines of magnetic force, for it matters not how much their power is increased--they appear in no way to affect us. Their presence can, however, be made manifest to our eyes or ears by mechanical appliances. I have already shown you how this can be done by means of either a galvanometer or a telephone in circuit with a spiral wire. ”

“ This is the practical use of the researches to which the art of surgery is so much indebted; and not surgery alone, but all mankind in greater or less degree. Professor Tyndall has gone further than this, and has shown us that on the tops of lofty mountains the air is so pure, so free from organisms, that decomposition is impossible. ”

“ There is need on the other hand that the fact itself should be fairly recognized and accepted, namely, that science may be looked upon as at once the handmaid and the guide of art, art as at once the pupil and the supporter of science. ”

“ Can we so diffuse the vapor of an antiseptic like carbolic acid through the air as to destroy the germs which are floating in it, and thus purify it, making it like air which has been filtered through wool, or like that on the top of a lofty mountain? If the smoke of a wood fire seems to act as an antiseptic, and putrefaction is prevented, it seems reasonable to conclude that air could be purified and made antiseptic by some proper and convenient arrangement. Let us endeavor to test this by a few experiments. ”

“ Probably the time is not far distant when it will be possible to demonstrate clearly that heat and electricity are as closely allied; then, knowing the great analogies existing between heat and light, may we not find that heat, light, and electricity are modifications of the same force or property, susceptible under varying conditions of producing the phenomena now designated by those terms? ”

“ The efficiency of such machines is doubtless low, chiefly owing to the physical fact that the air is heated by compression, and that much of this heat is lost while it traverses the long line of pipes leading to the scene of action. But here we have a great advantage from the point of view of ventilation; for as the air gained heat while being compressed, so it loses heat while expanding; and the result is that a current of cold and fresh air is continually issuing from the machines at the face of the heading, just where it is most wanted. ”

“ Of course, every man tries to shear as many as he can, and, owing to haste, frequently the animals are severely cut by the sharp shears. If the wound is serious, the sheep immediately has its throat cut and is turned into mutton and disposed of to the butchers, and the shearer, if in the habit of frequently inflicting such wounds, is discharged. In the shearing of these 80,000 sheep, a hundred or more are injured to such an extent as to necessitate their being killed, but the wool and meat are of course turned into profit. ”

“ The object the inventor has in view is not only the better but the more rapid manufacture of carbons, candles, or electrodes for electric lighting or for the manufacture of rods or blocks of carbon or other compressible substances for other purposes, and his invention consists in automatic machinery whereby a regular and uniform pressure and compression of the carbon is obtained, and the rods or blocks are delivered through the formers, in a state of greater density and better quality then hitherto. ”

“ One ampere of current passing through an ordinary incandescent lamp will produce a light equal to ten candles, and I have shown that by simply moving this small flat spiral a current is induced in it from the earth's magnetic field equal to 0.0007 ampere. With these facts before us, surely it would not be boldness to predict that a time may arrive when the energy of the wind or tide will be employed to produce from the magnetic lines of force given out by the earth's magnetism electrical currents far surpassing anything we have yet seen or of which we have heard. ”

“ We recently gave our readers an insight into the establishment of Uber Land und Meer, and to-day we show them the machine which each week starts our paper on its journey around the world--a machine which embodies the latest and greatest progress in the art of printing. ”

“ One thinks of a powerful piston, which, through, human, steam, or water power, is set in a moving up-and-down motion. Through the ascent of the piston, is by means of a drawing pipe, ending into a sieve, the water absorbed out of a reservoir, and by the lowering of the piston water is driven out of a cylinder by means of a narrow pipe (communication pipe) into a second cylinder, which raises a larger piston, the so-called press piston. ”

“ Of course, the steam engine of 1820 was a much more wasteful machine, as well as more costly to build than the steam engine of to-day; but the difference cannot have been so great as to create an advantage in favor of an appliance which required even greater nicety of construction. The best gas-engine at present made would have been an expensive thing to supply with gas at the prices current in 1820, even if the resources of mechanical science at that date had been equal to its construction ”

“ The above are instances where science has come to the aid of engineering. Here is one in which the obligation is reversed. The rapid stopping of railroad trains, when necessary, by means of brakes, is a problem which has long occupied the attention of many engineers; and the mechanical solutions offered have been correspondingly numerous. Some of these depend on the action of steam, some of a vacuum, some of compressed air, some of pressure-water; others again ingeniously utilize the momentum of the wheels themselves. ”

“ The change in the distribution of the load would allow us to adopt a cheap, light form of load. The wide distribution of weight, entails many small trains in substitution for a single heavy train; these small trains could not be economically run if a separate driver were required for each. But, as I have already pointed out, electricity not only facilitates the distribution of power, but gives a ready means of controlling that power. ”

“ I have here a boiler of copper into which we can put a mixture, and can get from it a small jet of steam for some hours. A simple experiment will show that no bacteria will exist in that vapor. If I take a test tube containing meat, and boil it while holding the mouth of it in this vapor, after it has cooled we close the mouth with cotton wool, and set it aside in a warm place; after some days we shall find no trace of decomposition, but if the experiment is repeated with water, decomposition will soon show itself. ”

“ If the galvanometer be replaced by a telephone, no matter how the spiral be moved, no sound will be heard, simply because the induced currents produced consist of comparatively slow undulations, and not of sharp variations suitable for a telephone. But by placing in circuit this mechanical make and break arrangement the interruptions of the current are at once audible, and by regulating the movement of the spiral I can send signals, which, if they had been prearranged, might have enabled us to communicate intelligence to each other by means of the earth's magnetism. ”

“ Cecil's invention from the obscurity into which it has fallen--obscurity which the ingenuity of the ideas embodied in this machine does not merit. It is probable that in addition to the imperfections of his machinery, Mr. Cecil suffered from the difficulty of obtaining hydrogen at a sufficiently low price for use in large quantities. It does not transpire that the inventor ever seriously turned his attention to the advantages of coal gas, which even at that time, although very dear, must have been much cheaper than hydrogen. ”

“ Bessemer conceived the idea that the injurious constituents of raw iron--such as silicon, sulphur, etc.--might be got rid of by simple oxidation. The mass of crude metal was heated to a very high temperature; atmospheric air was forced through it at a considerable pressure; and the oxygen uniting with these metalloids carried them off in the form of acid gases. The very act of union generated a vast quantity of heat, which itself assisted the continuance of the process; and the gas therefore passed off in a highly luminous condition. ”

“ Every boy knows that if he takes a weight hanging from a string and twirls it round, the weight will rise higher and revolve in a larger circle as he increases the speed. Watt saw that if he attached such an apparatus to his steam engine, the balls or weights would tend to rise higher whenever the engine begun to run faster, that this action might be made partly to draw over the valve which admitted the steam, and that in this way the supply of steam would be lessened, and the speed would fall. Few ideas in science have received so wide and so successful an application as this. ”

“ Oersted demonstrated from inductive reasoning that every conductor of electricity possessed all the known properties of a magnet while a current of electricity was passing through it. If you earnestly contemplate the important adjuncts to applied science which have sprung from that apparently simple fact, you will not fail to see the importance of the discovery; for it was while working in this new field of electro-magnetism that Sturgeon made the first electro-magnet, and Faraday many of his discoveries relating to induction. ”

“ Now, supposing we make another experiment with the test tube, and instead of boiling we add to its contents a few drops of carbolic acid; we find that decomposition is prevented almost as effectually as by the use of the cotton wool. There are many other substances which act like carbolic acid, and they are known by the common name of antiseptics or antiseptic agents. They all act in the same way; and in such cases as the dressing of wounds it is more easy to use this method of excluding bacteria than by the exclusion of the air or by the use of cotton wool. ”

“ Of all detonating mixtures, or explosive materials, the most dangerous for equal expansions, and the least fitted for use as motive power, are those which inflame the most rapidly. Thus, a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, in which the inflammation is produced instantaneously, is less convenient for this particular usage than a mixture of air and hydrogen, which inflames more slowly. ”

“ With the help of an electric current as the transmitter of power, we can draw off, as it were, one, two, or three horse-power from a hundred different points of a conductor many miles long, with as much ease as we can obtain 100 or 200 horse-power at any one point. We can cut off the power from any single motor by the mere break of contact between two pieces of metal; we can restore the power by merely letting the two pieces of metal touch ”

“ For instance, by connecting the small flat spiral of copper wire in direct circuit with the galvanometer, you will perceive that the slightest movement of the spiral generates a current of sufficient strength to very sensibly affect the galvanometer; and as you observe, the amplitude of the deflection depends upon the speed and direction in which the spiral is moved. We know that by moving a conductor of electricity in a magnetic field we are able to produce an electric current of sufficient intensity to produce light resembling in all its phases that of solar light ”

“ At the same time he does not profess that the battery can compete in the matter of cost with mechanically generated currents on a large scale, but he offers it as a convenient means of obtaining the electric light in places where a steam engine or a gas engine is inadmissible, as in a private house, and where the cost of driving a dynamo machine is raised abnormally high by reason of a special attendant having to be paid to look after it. ”

“ Soon after the discovery by Oersted just referred to, Faraday, with the care and ability manifest in all his experiments, showed that when an intermittent current of electricity is passing along a wire it induces a current in any wire forming a complete circuit and placed parallel to it, and that if the two wires were made into two helices and placed parallel to each other the effect was more marked. ”

“ George Stephenson said that the railway and locomotive were two parts of one machine, and the inference seemed to follow that when electric motors were to be employed a new form of road and a new type of train would be desirable.
When using steam, we can produce the power most economically in large engines, and we can control the power most effectually and most cheaply when so produced. A separate steam engine to each carriage, with its own stoker and driver, could not compete with the large locomotive and heavy train ”

“ Cecil pointed out that while a small steam engine could not be started in work in less than half an hour, or probably more, a gas engine such as he proposed would have the advantage of being always ready for immediate use. Cecil's engine was the first in which the explosive mixture was ignited by a simple flame of gas drawn into the cylinder at the right moment. In the first model, which was that of a vertical beam engine with a long cylinder of comparatively small diameter, the motive power was simply derived from the descent of the piston by atmospheric pressure ”

“ I will therefore turn to what may appear the most concrete, practical, and unscientific of all arts--that, namely, of the mechanical engineer; and we shall find that even here examples will not fail us of the boons which pure science has conferred upon the art of construction, nor even perhaps of the reciprocal advantages which she has derived from the connection. ”

“ Thus have I given you some of the thoughts and experiments which have occupied my attention during my leisure. I have been long under the impression that there is a feeling in the minds of many that we are already in a position to give an answer to almost every question relating to electricity or magnetism. ”