Various

“ When the sky is occupied by light cirro-cumulus cloud, an optical phenomenon of the most delicate beauty sometimes presents itself, in which the borders of the clouds and their lighter portions are suffused with soft shades of color like those of mother-of-pearl, among which lovely pinks and greens are the most conspicuous. ”

“ At the elevation in our atmosphere at which these delicate clouds are formed the temperature is too low, even in midsummer, for water to exist in the liquid state; and accordingly, the attenuated vapor from which they were condensed passed at once into a solid form. They consist, in fact, of tiny crystals of ice, not of little drops of water. If the precipitation has been hasty, the crystals will, though all small, be of many sizes jumbled together, and in that case the beautiful optical phenomenon with which we are now dealing will not occur. ”

“ On this occasion, it is necessary to say that, between affinity, heat, and electricity there is such a correlation, such a dependency, that physicists have endeavored to reduce to one single principle all the causes that are now distinct. ”

“ If, therefore, in the less complicated problems with which other portions of our science have to deal, we found ourselves often far from possessing satisfactory solutions, we could not be surprised to learn that with regard to the chemistry of the living body—whether vegetable or animal—in health or disease, we were still farther from a complete knowledge of phenomena, even those of fundamental importance. ”

“ Is spontaneous crystallization accompanied with an appreciable manifestation of electricity? If we consult the annals of science and works treating on electricity in regard to this subject, we find very few examples and experiments proper to elucidate the question.
Mr. Mascart is content to say: "Some experiments seem to indicate that the solidification of a body produces electricity." Mr. Becquerel does more than doubt—he denies: "As regards the disengagement of electricity in the changing of the state of bodies, we find none." ”

“ Now, the study of certain electrical phenomena furnishes a unit of time which is absolutely invariable, as this magnitude is a specific constant. Let us consider a conductive substance which may always be found identical with itself, and to fix our ideas let us choose mercury, taken at the temperature of 0° C., which completely fulfills this condition. We may determine by several methods the specific electric resistance, ρ, of mercury in absolute electrostatic units; ρ is a specific property of mercury, and is consequently a magnitude absolutely invariable. ”

“ Although the phenomenon of crystallization does not essentially depend upon temperature, but rather upon the relative quantity of liquid that holds the substance in solution, it will be conceived that a moment will arrive when, the liquid having evaporated, the atmospheres will be close enough to each other to attract each other and become polarized and symmetrically juxtaposed, and, in a word, to crystallize. ”

“ Lavoisier left unexplained the dynamics of combustion; but in 1843, before the chemical section of the association meeting at Cork, Dr. Joule announced the discovery which was to revolutionize modern science, namely, the determination of the mechanical equivalent of heat. Every change in the arrangement of the particles he found was accompanied by a definite evolution or an absorption of heat. Heat was evolved by the clashing of the atoms, and this amount was fixed and definite. Thus to Joule we owe the foundation of chemical dynamics and the basis of thermal chemistry. ”

“ Oil and fat.—A machine in most respects like a whizzer is used for the "extraction of oil and fat and oily and fatty matters from woolen yarns and fabrics, and such other fibrous material or mixtures of materials as are from their nature affected in color or quality when hydrocarbons are used for the purpose of extracting such oily or fatty matters, and are subsequently removed from the material under treatment by the slow process of admitting steam, or using other means of raising the temperature to the respective boiling points of such hydrocarbons, and so driving them off by evaporation." ”

“ For forty-four successive years that field had grown wheat without the addition of any carbonized manure, so that the only possible source from which the plant could obtain the carbon for its growth was the atmospheric carbonic acid. The quantity of carbon which on an average was removed in the form of wheat and straw from a plot manured only with mineral matter was 1,000 lb., while on another plot, for which a nitrogenous manure was employed, 1,500 lb. more carbon was annually removed, or 2,500 lb. of carbon were removed by this crop annually without the addition of any carbonaceous manure. ”

“ The physical and chemical composition of cork bark is peculiarly favorable to the special use to which it is applied; but the champagne wine industry requires of it an exaggerated degree of resistance, inalterability, and elasticity. A 11⁄4 inch cork must, under the action of a powerful machine, enter a 3⁄4 inch neck, support the dissolving action of a liquid containing 12 per cent. of alcohol compressed to at least five atmospheres, and, in a few years, shoot out of the bottle and assume its pristine form and color. ”

“ So long as the atmospheres of the molecules do not touch each other, no trace of cohesion manifests itself; but as soon as they come together force is born. We understand why the temperatures of fusion and solidification are fixed for the same body. Such effects occur at the precise moment at which these atmospheres, which are variable with the temperature, have reached the desired diameter. ”

“ As many as 3000 or 4000 pickers are sometimes employed on a single marsh when there is a heavy crop, and an army of such ragamuffins as get together for this purpose, scattered over a bog in confusion and disorder, presents a strange and picturesque appearance.
Indians are not usually as good pickers as white people, but in the sparsely settled districts, where many of the berry farms are situated, it is impossible to get white help enough to take care of the crop in the short time available for the work, and owners are compelled to employ the aborigines. ”

“ We must confine ourselves for the present to a study of the relations that exist between the principal natural forces—affinity, molecular forces, heat, electricity, and light. But from the mutual dependence of such forces, it is admitted that, in every natural phenomenon, there is a more or less apparent simultaneous concurrence of these causes. ”

“ Since the discovery of the multiplying galvanometer, we know for an absolute certainty that in every chemical action there is a production of electricity in a more or less notable quantity, according to the nature of the bodies in presence. Though, in the play of affinity, there is a manifestation of electricity, is it the same with cohesion, which also is a chemical force? ”

“ The employment of paraffin oil for gas making has advantages in its favor, in the readiness of charging the retorts, as the oil can be run in continuously for days at a time, and may be discontinued and commenced again without opening, clearing out residual products, recharging and reclosing the retorts. There is necessarily, therefore, less labor and cost in working, and as the gas is cleaner or freer from impurities, purifying plant and material will be correspondingly less. ”

“ The nitrogenous constituents of the food did doubtless go to repair the waste of muscle, which, like every other portion of the body, needed renewal, while the function of the non-nitrogenous food was not only to supply the animal heat, but also to furnish, by its oxidation, the muscular energy of the body. ”

“ We now assumed on good grounds that the atom of each element possessed distinct capabilities of combination. The knowledge of the mode in which the atoms in the molecule are arranged had given to organic chemistry an impetus which had overcome many experimental obstacles, and organic chemistry had now become synthetic.
Liebig and Wohler, in 1837, foresaw the artificial production in the laboratories of all organic substances so far as they did not constitute a living organism. ”

“ Let us suppose this condition of equilibrium realized and the needle remaining motionless at zero; it is easy to write the conditions of equilibrium. During the time, τ, the continuous current yields a quantity of electricity = (E / R) τ; on the other hand, each charge of the condenser = CE, and during the time, τ, the number of discharges = τ/t, t being the fixed time between two discharges; τ and t are here supposed to be expressed by the aid of an arbitrary unit of time; the second circuit yields, therefore, a quantity of electricity equal to CE × (τ / t) . ”

“ Among the steels, those that are softer are more serviceable and reliable than the harder ones, especially whereever shocks and concussions or rapidly alternating strains are to be endured. In other words, the more nearly steel resembles good wrought iron, the more certain it is to render lasting service when used within appropriate limits of strain. Indeed, a wrought iron of fine quality is better calculated to endure fatigue than any steel. This is particularly noticeable in steam hammer pistons, propeller shafts, and railroad axles. ”

“ Let us then consider the crystals in any one neighborhood in the sky, where the conditions that prevail are such as to produce lamellar crystals of nearly the same thickness. The tabular plates are subsiding through the atmosphere—in fact, falling toward the earth. And although their descent is very slow, owing to their minute size, the resistance of the air will act upon them as it does upon a falling feather. It will cause them, if disturbed, to oscillate before they settle into that horizontal position which flat plates finally assume when falling through quiescent air. ”

“ A tube with a cutting edge enters the compacted mass so deeply as to peel off the gluten and part of the starch, which is carried through the tube to another compartment of the basket, just above, where the same operation is performed, and so on. There may be only one compartment, the tube carrying the gluten directly out of the machine. These machines are continuous working, and hence some way must be devised to carry the water off. The inner surface of the water is, as we have seen, a cylinder. When the diameter of this cylinder becomes too small, overflow must be allowed. ”

“ Notwithstanding the wonderful development of our steel industries in the last decade, the improvements in the modes of manufacture, and the undoubted strength of the metal under certain circumstances, nevertheless we find that steel has not altogether met the requirements of engineers as a structural material. ”

“ Like heat, it is the natural agent par excellence; it is the invisible and ever present force which, in the ultimate particles of matter, causes those motions, vibrations, and rotations that have the effect of changing the properties of bodies. ”

“ If we consider a circuit having a resistance equal to that of a cube of mercury, the side of which = the unit of length, the circuit being submitted to an electromotive force equal to unity, this circuit will take a given time to be traversed by the unit quantity of electricity, and this time is precisely ρ. ”

“ As regards spinning and weaving, in the first of these branches of cotton manufacture the Japanese have largely had recourse to the aid of foreign machinery, but it is still to a much greater extent a domestic industry, or at best carried on like weaving in the establishments of cotton traders, in which a number of workers, varying from 20 to 100 or more, each with his own spinning wheel, are collected together. ”

“ The reasons for the suspicion with which steel is regarded are well understood. Not only is there a lack of uniformity in the product, but apparently the same steel will manifest very different results under slight provocation. Steel is very sensitive, not only to slight changes in chemical composition, but also to mechanical treatment, such as straightening, bending, punching, planing, heating, etc. Initial strains may be developed by any of these processes that would seriously affect the efficiency of the metal in service. ”

“ Conversely, it is logical to suppose that a modification in the molecular state of a body must bring electricity into play. If, in the phenomena of solidification, and particularly of crystallization, we collect but small quantities of electricity, that may be due to the fact that, under the experimental conditions involved, the electricity is more or less completely absorbed by the work of crystal building.
On another hand, the behavior of electricity shows in advance the multiple role that this agent may play in the various physical, chemical, and mechanical phenomena. ”

“ Engineers will hail with delight the accession to the list of available building materials of a wrought iron at once fine, fibrous, homogeneous, ductile, easily weldable, not subject to injury by the ordinary processes of shaping, punching, etc., and having a tensile strength and elastic limit nearly equal to any steel that could safely be used in the same situation. ”

“ There are two main applications in this class—to separate cream from milk and fusel oil from alcoholic liquors. When a liquid is to be separated from a liquid, the receptacle must be imperforate. The components of different specific gravity become arranged in distinct concentric cylindrical strata in the basket, and must be conducted away separately. In creamers the particles of cream must not be broken or subjected to any concussion, as partial churning is caused and the cream will, in consequence, sour more rapidly. ”

“ The worth of man lies not in the truth which he possesses, or believes that he possesses, but in the honest endeavor which he puts forth to secure that truth; for not by the possession of truth, but by the search after it, are the faculties of man enlarged, and in this alone consists his ever-growing perfection. ”

“ Centrifugal force, as applied in extractors, has opened up new industries and enlarged old ones, has lowered prices and added to our comforts, and centrifugal extractors may well command, as they do, the admiration of all as wonderful examples of the way in which this busy age economizes time. ”

“ Yet the cranberry culture is an industry in which millions of dollars are invested in this country, and it gives employment, for at least a portion of each year, to many thousands of people. In the East, where the value of an acre of even swamp land may run up into the thousands of dollars, a cranberry marsh of five or ten acres is considered a large one, and, cultivated in the careful, frugal style in vogue there, may yield its owner a handsome yearly income. ”

“ In welcoming the unprecedentedly large number of foreign men of science who had on this occasion honored the British Association by their presence, he hoped that that meeting might be the commencement of an international scientific organization, the only means nowadays existing of establishing that fraternity among nations from which politics appeared to remove them further and further, by absorbing human powers and human work, and directing them to purposes of destruction. ”