“ He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. ”
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (1726). copy citation
| Author | Jonathan Swift |
|---|---|
| Source | Gulliver's Travels |
| Topic | invention sun heat |
| Date | 1726 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/829/829-h/829-h.htm |
Context
“Every room has in it one or more projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five hundred rooms.
The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same colour. He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate: but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me «to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers.»” source
The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same colour. He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate: but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me «to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers.»” source
Meaning and analysis
