Apparatus

“ It is impossible to describe the different pieces of apparatus in any special or logical order. It is taken for granted that you have some book of simple experiments and explanations to serve as a guide for the order, and to give you an idea of just the apparatus needed for the special experiments. ”

“ It will be seen that my apparatus for experiments on air is, in fact, nothing more than the apparatus of Dr. Hales, Dr. Brownrigg, and Mr. Cavendish, diversified, and made a little more simple. ”

“ The apparatus devised for such experiments has been made very delicate; so delicate, indeed, that the rising of the individual in the box from his chair is immediately seen in a rise in temperature of the apparatus. But even with this delicacy the apparatus is comparatively coarse, and can measure only the most apparent forms of energy. The more subtle types of energy, such as nervous force, if this is to be regarded as energy, do not make any impression on the apparatus. ”

“ It is frequently taken notice of, in attending to the apparatus for observing the electricity of the clouds, that tho' the sky is much darkened, and there have been several claps of thunder at no great distance, yet the apparatus will be scarce affected by it; but as soon as the rain begins, and falls upon so much of the apparatus, as is placed in the open air, the bells of the apparatus in the house ring, and the electrical snaps succeed each other in a very extraordinary manner. ”

“ The only way the apparatus can be carried is by means of pack horses, and as each horse can’t carry more than a hundred and fifty pounds you see it takes quite a few of the animals to lug even an ordinary amount of apparatus. ”

“ Your Memorialist’s
apparatus is so constructed that one complete impression, and no more, is produced by one revolution of the machine, since the types necessary to the printing of a complete impression are arranged around a cylinder, whose surface is by the said types, with the addition of proper marginal spaces, wholly covered, so that each revolution of this cylinder gives exactly one impression. ”

“ Such an apparatus is operated, of course, by a motive power located beyond the limit of travel, and while the operation is at every stage subject to the control of an operator, a large proportion of the important functions are automatic, the positive movements of the parts through such operations being derived entirely from the bodily movement of the apparatus itself, while actuated by momentum, gravity or the direct action of the hoist rope. ”

“ Now, the first part of my invention consists of an apparatus so constructed as to offer a very extended surface or plane of a light yet strong construction, which will have the same relation to the general machine which the extended wings of a bird have to the body when a bird is skimming in the air ”

“ The objects of our invention are to provide means for maintaining or restoring the equilibrium, or lateral balance of the apparatus, to provide means for guiding the machine both vertically and horizontally, and to provide a structure combining lightness, strength, convenience of construction, and certain other advantages which will hereinafter appear. ”

“ Teacher and student are alike urged to magnify the observational side of the subject and to strive to obtain in their work the maximum degree of precision of which their apparatus is capable. The instruments required are few and easily obtained. With exception of a watch and a protractor, all of the apparatus needed may be built by any one of fair mechanical talent who will follow the illustrations and descriptions of the text. ”

“ The models shown cover every variety of apparatus that is dear to the heart of a boy, and yet, along the whole line from push-buttons to motors, one is struck by the extreme simplicity of design and the ingenious uses made of old tin tomato cans, cracker boxes, bolts, screws, wire, and the wood that a boy can get from a soap box. ”

“ It clearly shows that good, practical apparatus can be made from cheap materials by an average boy. The whole exhibit is wired and in working order, and it attracts the attention of a large number of parents and boys who hover around to see, in operation, the telegraph instruments, buzzers, shocking coils, current detectors, motors, etc. ”

“ The author of this Fun with Science series has spent a great deal of time and money in experimenting to devise apparatus that will do the proper work and be, at the same time, simple and cheap, and in no outfit has he succeeded better than in Fun with Electricity. ”

“ Marey has devised an apparatus which, applied to the extremities of a moving animal, enables each limb to write out a description, or make a picture of its own actions, so that the duration and phases of its movements, its periods of rest, and the relations of these to the corresponding features in the motions of the other limbs, may be seen at a glance. A description of this apparatus, and its mode of operation, with the results that it gives when applied to man, will first engage our attention. ”

“ They are fortunate who get as far as a sympathetic appreciation of the methods which give pattern to the complicated apparatus: methods of analytic, experimental observation, mathematical formulation and deduction, constant and elaborate check and test. For most persons, the reality of the apparatus is found only in its embodiments in practical affairs, in mechanical devices and in techniques which touch life as it is lived. ”

“ To take our illustration again from mechanics, we may say that if a man is inventing a particular machine,—a sewing machine, a reaper,—nothing is more important than that he should have a precise idea of the operation which his machine is to perform, yet when he is treating the general principles of mechanics he may discuss the lever, or the form of the teeth of wheels which will transmit uniform motion, without inquiring the purpose to which the apparatus is to be applied ”

“ And since throughout the whole range of physics the measurements are rarely direct, so that the interpretation of the reading of any apparatus is of more importance than making the reading, the first introduction to physical apparatus may often better be given on the lecture table than in the laboratory. ”

“ It is a very easy matter for a skilled mechanic to make, with proper tools, very fine-looking pieces of apparatus. It is not easy to make good apparatus with few tools and a limited amount of skill, unless you follow simple methods. ”

“ Boxes, pins, dark-lanterns, in fact an array of implements too numerous to mention, are there displayed, and, whether we go a-hunting for game or for moths, the ingenuity of man has invented a large quantity of apparatus, by which the result may be obtained with the least exertion and the greatest certainty. ”

“ Besides the ordinary furnishings for comfortable living, we saw air-condensing machines for use in lofty flights, a good-sized telescope, instruments for measuring speed and height, and other scientific apparatus of much of which we were obliged to ask the use. ”

“ He had, on the occasion under reference, been using some mechanical illustrations to show that if the spring of a machine be wound up too tight, the whole apparatus will go too fast, unless a counterbalancing force be brought into play. ”

“ The photograph shown in Fig. 3 illustrates, as its title explains, an actual transmission of this kind effected with apparatus used in other experiments here described. To what a degree the appliances have been perfected since my first demonstrations early in 1891 before a scientific society, when my apparatus was barely capable of lighting one lamp (which result was considered wonderful) , will appear when I state that I have now no difficulty in lighting in this manner four or five hundred lamps, and could light many more. ”

“ In this and the preceding classification, machines are understood to be such works as are composed of various pieces, with the object of putting into play mechanical power; and apparatus such works as are composed of various pieces adapted for experiments in physics, and the chemical affinities of bodies solid liquid, gaseous, or imponderable ”

“ The two hundred experiments given can be performed with simple apparatus; in fact, the student should make at least a part of his own apparatus, and for the benefit of those who wish to do this, the author has given, throughout the work, explanations that will aid in the construction of certain pieces especially adapted to these experiments. ”

“ In this discussion of physical activity I have had in mind for the most part that of the organs of the body, especially the hands, as employed directly with simple materials, or at most such simple appliances as a pencil, a brush, etc. A higher form of activity involving the sensori-motor apparatus of the body is found when the control over external objects is achieved by means of tools of some sort, or by the application of one material to another. ”

“ The philosophical apparatus consists of miniature machinery: the spring, the simple and compound lever, the wheel, the cog, the cam, etc., even to the miniature engine are brought into use, and the pupils examine them by themselves, and in their various applications and relations to each other. In teaching those who never could see great difficulty is experienced in conveying the nature and properties of gases, vapors, etc., but with those who have any recollection of what they have seen the task is comparatively easy. ”

“ While the apparatus and the circuits are seemingly very intricate, the principles are really quite simple, and the difficulty of comprehension is more apparent than real if the underlying phenomena are studied attentively. ”

“ Not too much mechanical apparatus—let the imagination have some play; a cube may be shown by a model, but let the drawing upon the blackboard represent the cube; and if possible let Nature be the blackboard; spread your triangles upon land and sky.
"One of my pupils always threw her triangles on the celestial vault above her head....
"A small apparatus well used will do wonders. A celebrated chemist ordered his servant to bring in the laboratory—on a tray! Newton rolled up the cover of a book ”

“ All the women knitted. They knitted worthless things; but, the mechanical work was a mechanical substitute for eating and drinking; the hands moved for the jaws and the digestive apparatus: if the bony fingers had been still, the stomachs would have been more famine-pinched. ”

“ The more ingenious our apparatus, the coarser and more unskilful are our senses. ”

“ The educational value of such experiments is often inversely proportional to the complexity of the apparatus. ”

“ When we speak of a structure, or a machine, or a system, we simply mean a number of individual particles associated together in producing some definite result. Thus, the solar system, a timepiece, a rifle, are examples of inanimate machines; while an animal, a human being, an army, are examples of animated structures or machines. Now, such machines or structures are of two kinds, which differ from one another not only in the object sought, but also in the means of attaining that object. ”

“ Choose, if possible, some machine which makes little whirr, bustle, or dust; which causes no vicious tremor to eyes or nerves; and in which the large amount of work got through in proportion to the amount of force exerted by the operator is due not to any piece of the machine moving quickly, but to the fact that every touch of the operator's finger sets a great variety of parts moving, each one at a moderate pace but exactly in harmony with all the rest. ”

“ Baker, 4 Fisher's Patent Cases, 409: "When, in mechanics, one device does a particular thing, or accomplishes a particular result, every other device known and used in mechanics, which skillful and experienced workmen know will produce the same result, or do the same particular thing, is a known mechanical substitute for the first device mentioned for doing the same thing, or accomplishing the same result. ”

“ How to Experiment with Machines.—Any one who possesses the slightest bent for mechanics can work out improvements on devices like egg-beaters and monkey-wrenches and feel their way as they go along.
But when it comes to designing and building real machines where numerous levers, gears, and springs are combined to make a working unit you should by all means read up on the subjects of work, energy and power, learn about the six mechanical powers—and the action of machines in general. ”

“ The direction of a force may be changed thus enabling work to be done that could not be readily accomplished otherwise. As, e.g., the use of a pulley in raising a flag to the top of a flag pole, or in raising a bucket of ore from a mine by using a horse attached to a rope passing over two or more pulleys. (See Fig. 84.)
(d) Other agents than man or animals can be used such as electricity, water power, the wind, steam, etc. Fig. 85 represents a windmill often used in pumping water.
[Pg 130]
A machine is a device for transferring or transforming energy. ”

“ MACHINE, in general, whatever hath force sufficient to raise or stop the motion of a heavy body.
Machines are either simple or compound: the simple ones are the seven mechanical powers, viz. lever, balance, pully, axis, and wheel, screw, and inclined plane. ”

“ Every instrument, however simple and insignificant, and every machine, however large or complicated, is an example of some one of the six Mechanical Powers, or of a combination of them. I will proceed to consider each of these separately. ”

“ Our sense and motor organs, he says, are essentially instruments and tools, and so is the brain; and most if not all of the three hundred or more mechanical movements known in the arts are found exemplified in the human body. Our sense organs are thus indefinitely multiplied and extended by such extra-organic sense organs as the microscope, telescope, resonator, telephone, telegraph, thermometer, etc. Our motor organs are multiplied by such agencies as steam and electrical machines, etc., in the same manner. ”

“ The motions, therefore, which are in actual existence must be modified to suit our purposes: the means whereby these modifications are produced, are called machines. A machine, therefore, is an instrument interposed between some natural force or motion, and the object to which force or motion is desired to be transmitted. ”