Various

“ Grumbler, the cook is indeed a valuable friend. The cook wields a scepter that is only second in power to that of love; and even love has become soured through the evil instrumentality of the good-looking or bad-cooking cook. ”

“ The gas engine is more emphatically a "fire engine" than ever the steam engine has been. In it the fire is not tamed or diluted by indirect contact with water, but it is used direct; the fire, instead of being kept to the boiler room, is introduced direct into the motor cylinder of the engine. This at first sight looks very absurd and impracticable; difficulties at once become apparent of so overwhelming a nature that the problem seems almost an impossible one; yet this is what has been successfully accomplished in the gas engine. ”

“ In our delicate "color test" we may decrease the diameter of our black spot a thousand times and still its perception is possible by the aid of our monochromatic light, and we may diminish our line ten thousand times, yet find it just perceivable on the border land of our test by white light. Do not presume I am so foolish as to even think that the human hand, directed by the human brain, can ever work the material at his command to such a high standard of exactness. ”

“ It would also be a most pleasant task to follow the evolution of our subject in the new era of investigation ushered in by the invention of that marvelous instrument, the telescope, followed closely by the work of Kepler, Scheiner, Cassini, Huyghens, Newton, Digges, Nonius, Vernier, Hall, Dollond, Herschel, Short, Bird, Ramsden, Troughton, Smeaton, Fraunhofer, and a host of others, each of whom has contributed a noble share in the elimination of sources of error, until to-day we are satisfied only with units of measurement of the most exact and refined nature. ”

“ As director of the Geological Survey, I deeply realize that I owe allegiance to the scientific men of the country, and for this reason I desire to present to the National Academy of Sciences the organization and plan of operations of the Survey. ”

“ The modern name—steam engine—to some extent is a misleading one, distracting the mind from the source of power to the medium which conveys the power. Similarly the name "Gas Engine" masks the fact of the motors so called being really fire or heat engines. ”

“ The very best steam engines convert about 11 per cent. of the heat given them into useful work, the remaining 89 per cent. being wasted, principally in the exhaust of the engine.
Gas engines now convert 20 per cent. of the heat given to them into work, and very probably will, in a few years more, convert 60 per cent. into useful work. The conclusion, then, is irresistible that, when engineers have gained greater experience with gas engines and gas producers, they will displace steam engines entirely for every use—mills, locomotives, and ships. ”

“ If we take for example a science which has of late years made rapid strides both in Europe and America, the science of astronomy, we shall not have far to go to find convincing proof that a great portion of the best work that is being done by its votaries is effected by the aid of photography. One eminent astronomer has quite lately gone so far as to declare that we no longer require observers of the heavens, but that their place can be better supplied by the gelatine plate of the photographer ”

“ Thomas Newcomen, ironmonger and blacksmith, of Dartmouth, England, had first succeeded in getting his engine to work. The hard fight to wrest from nature a manageable motive power and to harness fire for industrial use was continued by this clever blacksmith, and he succeeded when the more profound but less constructively skillful philosophers had failed. ”

“ But in relation to the scientific operations of such a government institution, there is an unofficial authority which, though not immediately felt, ultimately steps in to approve or condemn, viz., the body of scientific men of the country; and though their authority is not exercised antecedently and at every stage of the work, yet it is so potent that no national scientific institution can grow and prosper without their approval, but must sooner or later fall and perish unless sustained by their strong influence. ”

“ THE ORGANIZATION AND PLAN OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [7] By J.W. POWELL.
A Scientific institution or bureau operating under government authority can be controlled by statute and by superior administrative authority but to a limited extent. These operations are practically carried on by specialists, and they can be controlled only in their financial operations and in the general purposes for which investigations are made. Their methods of investigation are their own—originate with themselves, and are carried out by themselves. ”

“ The bands always travel in the direction of the thickest film of air, hence on lowering the eye, if the convex edge of the bands travel in the direction of the arrow, we are absolutely certain that that part of the surface being tested is convex, while if, as in the central part of the bands, the concave edges advance, we know that part is hollow or too low. Furthermore, any small error will be rigorously detected, with astonishing clearness, and one of the grandest qualities of this test is the absence of "personal equation;" ”

“ Perfect as the gas engine now is, considered as a machine for converting heat into work, the possibility of great development is not yet exhausted. Its economy may be increased two or even three fold; in this lies the brilliant future before it. The steam engine is nearly as perfect as it can be made ”

“ When this difficulty has been overcome, and that it will be overcome there can be no manner of doubt, gas engines will rapidly displace the steam engine, because a gas engine with a gas producer, producing gas from any ordinary coal with the same ease as steam is produced from a boiler, will be much safer, and will use one-half the fuel of the very best steam engines for equal power. The first cost also will not be greater than that of steam. The engine itself will be more expensive than a steam engine of equal power, but the gas producer will be less expensive than the boiler at present. ”

“ Like the sketches of a solar eclipse, the drawings that are made of comets, and still more of nebulæ, even by the most accomplished artists, are all, to say the least, open to doubt in their delicate details. ”

“ Many inventors proposed to perform work upon a piston free from any direct connection with the crank or shaft of the engine; the explosion after attaining its maximum pressure expends its force in giving velocity to a piston; the velocity so acquired carries it on against atmospheric pressure until the energy is all absorbed, and a vacuum or deficit of pressure exists in the cylinder instead of an excess of pressure. The return stroke is accomplished by the atmospheric pressure, and the work is now done upon the engine shaft on the return only. ”

“ As I stated a moment ago, this sweet food, if taken into the stomach day after day, would soon cause that particular organ to rebel against this sameness of diet. In order the more clearly to illustrate this point, I will briefly show you how some of the every-day articles of food can be each day differently prepared, and thus be rendered more palatable, and, as a consequence, more digestible; for it is a demonstrated fact that savory foods are far more easily digested than the same foods unsavored. ”

“ It has been seen that gunpowder was the explosive used to produce a vacuum in Huyghens' engine, and that it was abandoned in favor of gas by Buren in 1823. The reason of departure is very obvious: a gunpowder explosion and a gaseous explosion differ in very important practical points.
Gunpowder being a solid substance is capable of being packed into a very small space; the gas evolved by its decomposition is so great in volume that, even in the absence of any evolution of heat, a very high pressure would result. ”

“ The object of a steam trap is for the removal of water of condensation without allowing the escape of steam from drying apparatus and steam pipes used for heating, power, or other purposes. One of the plans employed is by an expansion pipe having a valve fixed to its end, so that when the pipe shortens from being cooler, due to the presence of the water, the valve opens and allows the escape of the water until the steam comes to the trap, which, being hotter, lengthens the pipe and closes the valve. ”

“ The Otto engine must be so familiar in appearance to all of you, that I need hardly trouble you with details of its external appearance. I shall briefly describe its action. Its strong points and its weak points are alike caused by its cycle. One cylinder and piston suffices to carry out its whole action. Its cycle is: First outstroke, gas and air sucked into the cylinder; first instroke, gas and air compressed into space; second outstroke, impulse due to ignition; second instroke, discharge of exhausted gases. When working at full power, it gets one impulse for every two revolutions ”

“ The award of the highest distinction in astronomy, the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, two years in succession, to those who have been most successful in celestial photography is no doubtful sign of the great value attached to such work. ”

“ When one arrives at adult age, he should have learned by experience what articles of food do, and what articles of food do not, agree with him, and to shun the latter, no matter how daintily served or how tempting the circumstances. The man who knows that pates de foie gras, or the livers of abnormally fattened geese, disagree with him, and still eats them, is not to be pitied when all the horrors of dyspepsia overtake him. ”

“ Starting from the same point as inventors did to produce the free piston engine—namely, that the more quickly the explosive force is utilized, the less will be the loss, and the greater the power produced from a quantity of burning gas—it is evident that if any method can be discovered to increase the pressure upon the piston without increasing the temperature of the flame causing this pressure, then a great gain will result, and the engine will convert more of the heat given to it into work. ”

“ Simultaneously with the development of the steam engine, inventors continued to struggle with the direct acting combustion or gas engine, often without any definite understanding of why they should attempt such apparent impossibilities, but always by their experiments and repeated failures increasing knowledge, and forming a firm road upon which those following them traveled to success. ”

“ In the same year Robert Street obtained a patent for an engine which is not unlike some now in use. The bottom of a cylinder, containing a piston, is heated by a fire, a few drops of spirits of turpentine are introduced and evaporated by the heat, the piston is drawn up, and air entering mixes with the inflammable vapor. A light is applied at a touch hole, and the explosion drives up the piston, which, working on a lever, forces down the piston of a pump for pumping water. ”

“ Suppose that we place on the lower plate, lenses of constantly increasing curvature until that curvature becomes nil, or in other words a true plane. The rings of color will constantly increase in width as the curvature of the lens increases, until at last one color alone is seen over the whole surface, provided, however, the same angle of observation be maintained, and provided further that the film of air between the glasses is of absolutely the same relative thickness throughout. ”

“ If our surface is plane to within a short distance of the edge, and is there overcorrected, or convex, the test shows it, as in Fig. 10. If the whole surface is regularly convex, then concentric rings of a breadth determined by the approach to a perfect plane are seen. If concave, a similar phenomenon is exhibited, except in the case of the convex, the broader rings are near the center, while in the concave they are nearer the edge. In lowering the eye while observing the plates, the rings of the convex plate will advance outward, those of the concave inward. ”