Reveler

“ This usually takes place on the evening of a very hot day—a day when pitch has boiled on deck, and the thermometer below has stood persistently above ninety degrees. When the lamps are lit in the wardroom, and the officers have gathered round the table for a quiet rubber at whist, then is heard all about and around you a noise like the rushing of many waters, or the wind among the forest-trees; and on looking up, you find the bulkheads black, or rather brown, with the rustling wretches, while dozens go whirring past you, alight on your head, or fly right in your face. ”

“ Had any other man been in my place, I should have concluded that the fellow on the fly was not favorably impressed, as he started with celerity on another trip across the Grand. Being myself a man of benignant appearance, I concluded, of course, that he had become enamored of the sound of the reel and was delighted that I had taken a hand in the revelry. Humanity, however, has not the monopoly on making mistakes, and as the reel was evidently taking a turn—this time at a dead march—I towed the gentleman round and gently drew him out on the clean gravel. ”

“ Two steps took him to the wall where the day before he had installed a peculiar box about four by six inches long connected in some way with a lens-like box of similar size above our bell and speaking tube in the hallway below. He opened it, disclosing an oblong plate of ground glass.
"I thought the seismograph arrangement was not quite enough after that spring-gun affair," he remarked, "so I have put in a sort of teleview of my own invention—so that I can see down into the vestibule downstairs. Well—just look who's here!"
"Some new fandangled periscope arrangement, I suppose?" ”

“ This is a signal to the fly man to get ready to lower the curtain, for the conductor knows the exact bar in the music at which the curtain should descend. At the proper moment the conductor rings again, and the curtain descends. When the men in the fly gallery receive the first signal—that is, the signal to get ready—they turn a switch which lights a colored electric lamp directly over the small prompt desk shown in our engraving, where the stage manager or his assistant takes up his position. ”

“ This keeper remarked that the centre of the flame should be exactly opposite the centre of the reflectors, and that accordingly, if he was not careful to turn down his wicks in the morning, the sun falling on the reflectors on the south side of the building would set fire to them, like a burning-glass, in the coldest day, and he would look up at noon and see them all lighted! When your lamp is ready to give light, it is readiest to receive it, and the sun will light it. ”

“ But since the conductors of the Revue could not have published his story because it was clever, they must have thought it valuable for its truth. As true as the last-century Englishman’s picture of Jean Crapaud! We do not ask to be sprinkled with rosewater, but may perhaps fairly protest against being drenched with the rinsings of an unclean imagination. The next time the Revue allows such ill-bred persons to throw their slops out of its first-floor windows, let it honestly preface the discharge with a gare de l’eau! that we may run from under in season. ”

“ A small motion of this short end of the lever will mean a large motion of the other end, just like a “teeter board” when one end is longer than the other; the child on the long end travels further than the child on the short end. The lever magnifies the motion of the center of the hot wire part of our meter so that we can see it easier. ”

“ III. Methods of Improving Faulty Acoustics. A. REVERBERATION AND ITS CURE.
Everyone has doubtless observed that the hollow reverberations in an empty house disappear when the house is furnished. So, in an auditorium, the reverberation is lessened when curtains, tapestries, and the like are installed in sufficient numbers. The reason for this action is found when we inquire what ultimately becomes of the sound.
Sound is a form of energy and energy can not be destroyed. When it finally dies out, the sound must be changed to some other form of energy. ”

“ I live in a show window that opens out in many worlds and many places that are hidden from me by a veil that sometimes grows thin, so I can see through it. And from the other side of that veil, even when I cannot see through it, come the voices of the watchers, as they pass by, or pause to look at me. ”

“ The adjustments of a reflector are soon familiar and easy, and there is this to be said, the adjustments can be manipulated upon to any amount without the slightest injury to the instrument; there is no danger of any sort, and the instrument can be perfected in its adjustments by daylight, and this makes it both pleasant and convenient to leisurely work at, for experience sake. ”

“ I have little doubt that the regulated observation of the vane in many different places, and the interchange of results by telegraph, would put the weather, as it were, in our power, by betraying its ambushes before it is ready to give the assault. At first sight, nothing seems more drolly trivial than the lives of those whose single achievement is to record the wind and the temperature three times a day. ”

“ It's like a washing that's been hung out to dry. From each a slender cord of silk runs to the main cable. Even a fly's kick or a stroke of his tiny wing must have gone up the tower and shaken the floor of the old lady, maybe, with a sort of thunder. ”

“ The reflection of the mirror will appear on the wall as a luminous space, oval or oblong as the case may be, and if you have placed it at the proper angle with reference to the screen, and move your cardboard shapes about cleverly between the candle and the mirror, you will forthwith see little fantastic figures projected in shadow on the screen, while the uninitiated spectator is wholly at a loss to discover how you produce them. ”

“ The flashing light is effected in the same manner as the revolving; but, owing to a different construction of the frame, the reflectors on each of the eight sides are arranged with their rims or faces in one vertical plane, and their axes in a line inclined to the perpendicular—a disposition of the mirrors which, together with the greater quickness of the revolution, showing a flash once in five seconds of time, produces an impressive effect, wholly different from that of a revolving light, and presenting the appearance of an alternating rising and sinking illumination. ”

“ Fay added to this heat the radiations from the concave mirrors. He feared, at times, that there would be indication inside the vault that work was going on above.
Saidee, on watch over the peek-hole, kept him informed of “The Black Cougar's” movements. The bucket-shop operator had not used the spool of wire for two days. He had entered the vault but twice. Each time he came out with yellow bills in his hands.
“Tomorrow's Saturday,” said Saidee. That's a half-holiday for brokers. There wont be anybody in the office during the afternoon or Sunday. ”

“ Most ignominiously thrust into a corner, in my ardour for my Moorish robes the preceding evening.
I dressed myself with the speed of lightning; but as I proceeded in my occupation-guess my annoyance to find that the toilet-table and glass, ay, and even the basin-stand, had been removed to the dressing-room of the theatre; and my servant, I suppose, following his master's example, was too tipsy to remember to bring them back; so that I was unable to procure the luxury of cold water—for now not a moment more remained—the drum had ceased, and the men had all fallen in. ”

“ He pressed an electric button, and above the dull humming sound of the ever-revolving globe rose the purr of an electric fan. The masked man moved a lever controlling the windows, and when he judged the air to be clear of whatever fumes he feared he stopped the fan, reclosed the windows, and standing up, removed his mask. ”

“ If the observer wishes to have as much power as possible in proportion to his expenditure, and is not afraid to take the risk of a small amount of trouble with the adjustments and films, the reflector is probably the instrument best suited to him. If, on the other hand, he is so situated that his telescope has to be much moved, or, which is almost as bad, has to stand unused for any considerable intervals of time, he will be well advised to prefer a refractor. ”

“ In the Oscillating Recorder the recording plate itself moves to and fro, making intermittent contact with the writer about once in a minute. The recording smoked glass plate is allowed to fall at a definite rate by the unwinding of a clock wheel. By an electromagnetic arrangement the holder of the smoked glass plate is made to oscillate to and fro, causing periodic contact with the writer. ”

“ The reaper was shrewd enough to take it up, and told me that if I would talk, he would give me a bundle heavier than I could carry. So I began and repeated the alphabet to him. All the reapers as well as the gleaners stood in vacant silence, with mouths wide open, grinning with evident delight. ”

“ Looking at the bright side of the movement, there is much that is animating. It is pleasant to bo awakened in the autumn mornings by the reveille, the sweet and thrilling bugle tones sounding through the last of one’s dreams. A young friend, the bugler of the volunteer rifle corps, comes to rouse the men of the household for their six o’clock drill, and every child in the family begins trumpeting the reveille for the day. ”

“ What I did, Walter, was merely to talk into the mouthpiece back of this little silvered mirror which reflects light. The vibrations of the voice caused a diaphragm in it to vibrate and thus the beam of reflected light was made to pulsate. In other words, this little thing is just a simple apparatus to transform the air vibrations of the voice into light vibrations.
"The parabolic reflector over there catches these light vibrations and focuses them on the cell of selenium which you perhaps noticed in the centre of the reflector. ”

“ If the reader is anxious to try an experiment, let him place an ear against even a thick wall and allow some person with a penknife handle to tap or knock ever so softly, but quickly and sharply, in imitation of a telegraph instrument's click, and you will be astonished at the distinctness with which the wall will carry the sound like a telegraph wire.
There was always about the place a lot of idle loafers—Rebel soldiers off duty, who naturally gravitated toward the railroad [141] stations, where the little stores or sutlers were usually to be found, dealing out commissary whisky and tobacco. ”

“ The duties of the lighthouse-keepers must be performed with the greatest regularity. The glasses of the light-room and the optical apparatus are carefully cleaned every morning; the lamps are supplied with oil, the wicks trimmed or renewed, the machinery oiled and adjusted, and everything prepared in readiness for the evening. At sunset the lamps are lighted, and one keeper takes his watch until midnight, when he is relieved by another, who maintains the vigil till sunrise, when the lamps are extinguished. ”

“ Reverie lifts her leaden hand from off my brow, my eyes open and gaze upon a vast multitude of people—men, women and children. Men are standing on the seats and hurling their hats in the air; women are weeping in joy and waving handkerchiefs, all, all shout in clamorous accord. ”

“ It is in fact out of proportion to the degree of refinement attained in other adjustments of the reflector, for a slight pressure of the hand on the draw-tube, or movement of the telescope to a different altitude, instantly destroys the perfection of the adjustment. ”

“ A simple and effective way to signal in the daytime when the Sun is shining is by using a mirror, that is, a looking-glass, as it is commonly called. Every boy knows how to make flashes with a mirror, so it will be enough to say here that the glass is held in the hand in such a position that the sunlight falling upon it will be reflected in the direction you wish to send the signals. Fig. ”

“ Once or twice when our carriage was stopped in some particularly narrow thoroughfare my companion showed signs of alarm, and one felt upon the whole glad that a revolver formed part of one’s equipment; but any risk that there might be was more than compensated by the strangeness and picturesqueness of the scenes that everywhere presented themselves in those winding and tortuous streets, with their quaint Moorish houses and their numberless specimens of all those races who are the followers of the Prophet.
I have varied my somewhat monotonous life by frequent visits to the bazaar. ”

“ Figure 30 shows a complete modern refractor of four inches aperture on a portable equatorial stand with slow motion in right ascension and diagonal eye piece.
Reflectors, used in this country less than they deserve, are, when properly mounted, likewise possessed of many parts. The smaller ones, such as are likely to come into the reader’s hands, are almost always in the Newtonian form, with a small oblique mirror to bring the image outside the tube. ”

“ This is the case in a small room with plenty of curtains and rugs and furniture. If, however, the volume of the room is great, as in the case of an auditorium, and the amount of absorbing materials small, a troublesome reverberation will result.
Professor Sabine determined the absorbing powers of a number of different materials. Calling an open window a perfect absorber of sound, the results obtained may be written approximately as follows:
These values, together with the formula, allow a calculation to be made in advance of construction for the time of reverberation. ”

“ For twenty minutes or more he continued his researches, measuring with the most exact care the distance between marks which were entirely invisible to me, and occasionally applying his tape to the walls in an equally incomprehensible manner. In one place he gathered up very carefully a little pile of grey dust from the floor, and packed it away in an envelope. Finally, he examined with his glass the word upon the wall, going over every letter of it with the most minute exactness. ”