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Q-n illcL QTLti Li i ' ' " ' 1 1 I ' " '

ANNUAL

o P

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY

O R

YEAR-BOOK OF PACTS IN SCIENCE AND ART

FOR 1859.

EXHIBITING THE

MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS

IN

MECHANICS, USEFUL ARTS, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY,

ASTRONOMY, GEOLOGY, ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, MINERALOGY,

METEOROLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, ETC.

TOGETHER WITH

NOTES ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE DURING THE YEAR 1858; A LIST

OF RECENT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS; OBITUARIES OF

EMINENT SCIENTIFIC MEN, ETC.

EDITED BY

DAVID A. WELLS, A.M.,

AUTHOR 6F PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY,

SCIENCE OF COMMON THINGS, ETC-

BOSTON:

O O II L. T> AND LINCOLN,

59 \VASHINGTON STREET.

NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY.

CINCINNATI: GEORGE S. BLANCHARD.

LONDON: TRUBNER & CO.

1859.

"V

vft- .V

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

GOULD AND LINCOLN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ELECT KOTYPED A X D PRINTED
BY W . F. DRAPER, ANDOVER, MASS,

NOTES BY THE EDITOR

ON THE

PROGRESS OF SCIENCE FOR THE YEAR 1859.

THE Twelfth Meeting of the American Association for the Promo-
tion of Science was held at Baltimore, Md., April 28th to May 5th,
1858. In the absence of both President and Vice-President elect,
the chair was taken by Professor Caswell. The attendance of members
was somewhat smaller than usual, and the whole number of papers
presented was ninety-five ; of these thirty-three pertained to the sec-
tion of Astronomy, Physics, and Mathematics ; nine to Meteorology ;
fourteen to Geology and Geography ; eighteen to Chemistry, Mineral-
ogy, and Geology ; and twenty-one to Philology and Miscellaneous.

The meeting adjourned to meet at Springfield, Massachusetts, on
the first Wednesday of August, 1859. Professor Stephen Alexander,
of Princeton, was chosen President for the ensuing year, and Professor
Edward Hitchcock, of Amherst, Vice-President.

The Association was addressed at length by Dr. Hayes, the Sur-
geon of the Kane Arctic Expedition, in behalf of a renewed effort to
reach the open Polar Sea, described by Dr. Kane. He proposes to or-
ganize and lead an expedition, starting in the spring of 1860, and fol-
lowing the route pursued by Dr. Kane. The details of the plan, as
given by Dr. H., were as follows :

The expedition would require two years for its operations, and in
view of the rich and valuable experience of the last, he could not but
deem it probable that the next attempt would prove successful. There
was needed for the expedition one vessel of one hundred tons, equipped
for two and a half years, and twelve men. It would greatly add to the
convenience of the party to be provided with a small steam-tender of
thirty tons, with a shifting screw ; except for the necessity of conveying
provisions, even so large a vessel as one of one hundred tons would not
be necessary. The party should leave the States early in April, giving
time to lay in additional fresh provisions on the Greenland coast, and

IV NOTES BY THE EDITOR

so materially to reduce the cost of outfit. Before the last of August it
should push up Smith's Sound to the ice-belt, with the intention of win-
tering as u igh as the 80th parallel, if possible. Smith's Sound, fortunately
for this route, runs diagonally to the course of the general current
thus operating to keep Grinnell's Land free of floating ice. Under this
western shore it might be possible to work the steam-tender through
the leads left by the southward drifting ice, even into the heart of the
Polar Sea. But this was a doubtful reliance on which they would not
too much depend. It would be necessary by three or four journeys
with the dog-sledges to make depots of provision as high in Grinnel's
Land as on the 82d parallel. This was perfectly feasible ; each dog
could be depended on to carry seventy pounds weight, thirty-two miles
a day, on a ration of thirteen ounces of pemmican. In April, the party
should leave the vessel, the men conveying the boats upon sledges until
(and the inference was that it would be by the middle of May) the ice-
belt had been crossed and the open sea reached. Dogs could not drag the
boats they were not competent to the conveyance of any such dead
weight. But experience had shown that over the smooth ice, as this
was likely to be, men could easily walk sixteen miles a day, dragging
on sledges a weight of one hundred and ten pounds for each. To avoid
the incumbrance of so much canvas, they would take no tents, but rely
for shelter upon the snow-house, which could be constructed in an hour,
and which was better than the tent for protection. Furs and carbo-
naceous food must be their reliance for warmth. While travelling, the
pemmican (dried meat and tallow, of which four pounds is equal to
fourteen pounds of green meat) must be the sole reliance as food. The
Doctor believed that the climate was eminently a wholesome one. The
danger from cold and scurvy had been greatly lessened by the experi-
ence of the last few years. Dr. Kane sailed too early to avail himself
of the wonderful advantages now furnished in the concentrated fresh
meats and vegetables, for protecting from and curing scurvy.

At the conclusion of Dr. Hayes's address, a resolution was adopted,
referring the matter to a committee of seven, with instructions to report
on the expediency of uniting with Dr. Hayes in his efforts to fit out an
expedition.

The Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, was held at Leeds, September 22 26,
Professor Owen in the chair. The attendance was good, and the papers
of more than ordinary interest.

The meeting for 1859 was appointed to be held in Aberdeen, Prince
Albert being the President elect.

The annual report of the Council stated, that since the discussion at
the last meeting at Dublin, relative to the formation of a " Catalogue
of the philosophical papers contained in the various scientific transac-
tions and journals of all countries," this important work has been
commenced under the auspices and at the expense of the Royal

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. V

Society. It is purposed that it should include the titles (in the original
languages) of all memoirs published in such works, in the mathemat-
ical, physical, and natural sciences, from the foundation of the Royal
Society to the present time, the titles to be so arranged as to form
ultimately three catalogues one chronological, or in the order of the
memoirs in the several series; one alphabetical, according to authors'
names, and, lastly, a third, classified according to subjects.

The Council, moreover, lament that their application to the Gov-
ernment for an expedition to the vicinity of Mackenzie's river, for the
purpose of observations in terrestrial magnetism, was not successful ;
but they anticipate an important accession to scientific knowledge from
the expedition to the Zambesi river, which was sanctioned by the
Government, and sent out under Dr. Livingstone.

The following resolutions were adopted: Resolved, that represen-
tations be made to the Meteorological department of the Board of
Trade, of desirableness of connecting with its arrangements a system
for the observation and record of Oceanic and Littoral Earthquakes,
and of the occasional occurrence upon the coasts of Great Sea Waves,
and, if practicable, of bringing such into immediate operation.

That it is highly desirable that a series of Magnetical and Meteoro-
logical Observations, on the same plan as those which have been
already carried on in the Colonial Observatories for that purpose
under the direction of Her Majesty's Board of Ordnance, be obtained
to extend over a period of not more than five years, at the following
stations: 1. Vancouver's Island; 2. Newfoundland; 3. The Falkland
Isles ; 4. Pekin, or some near adjacent station.

That an application be made to Her Majesty's Government to obtain
the establishment of Observatories at these stations for the above-
mentioned term, on a personal and material footing, and under the
same superintendence as in the Observatories (now discontinued) at
Toronto, St. Helena, and Van Diemen's Land.

That provision be also requested at the hands of Her Majesty's
Government, for the execution, within the period embraced by the ob-
servations, of magnetic surveys in the districts immediately adjacent to
those sattions, viz., of the whole of Vancouver's Island and the shores
of the Strait separating it from the main land, of the Falkland Isl-
ands, and of the immediate neighborhood of the Chinese Observa-
tory (if practicable), where situated, on the plan of the surveys
already executed in the British possessions in North America and in
the Indian Archipelago.

An interesting map has been prepared, under the auspices of the
Association, by Robert Mallet, of Dublin, with a view of illustrating
the surface distribution of earthquakes, the position and situation of all
volcanoes, fumaroles, and solfataras, now active, or presumed to have
been so, within historic or recent geologic periods, as well as the seismic
(from the Greek word signifying earthquakes) bands in position and

1*

VI NOTES BY THE EDITOR

relative intensity. The area of supposed land and sub-oceanic sub-
sidences are also indicated. The map conveys at a glance the portions
of the globe in which volcanic eruptions are most prevalent. These
appear by contrast to be the islands and oceans surrounding Borneo,
where alone are given upwards of one hundred indications, the Gulf
of Mexico, and the Andes of South America. In the northern regions,
Iceland alone stands out in marked prominence ; whilst the whole of
Africa, with the exception of the Cape and its northern boundary, and
the continent of South America east of the Andes, appear to be totally
unaffected by the laws of earthquakes. The greatest area of subsidence
appears to be in the Pacific Ocean, extending in a direction southeast
from the Philippine Islands to Pitcairn's Island.

The National Association (Great Britain) for the Advancement of
Social Science, held its second anniversary meeting in Liverpool, in
October, with distinguished success, about three thousand persons being
in attendance. The special object of the association, as stated in the
constitution of the Society, is " to form a point of union among social
reformers, so as to afford those engaged in all the various efforts now
happily begun for the improvement of the people, an opportunity
of considering social economics as a whole." At the Liverpool meet-
ing, Lord John Russell presided, and delivered the introductory ad-
dress. During the continuance of the session, an address of great
interest was also delivered by Lord Brougham, on " Popular Education
and Popular Literature." From this address we make the following
extract, in which the author illustrates the benefit accruing from the
labors of the Society for diffusing useful knowledge, and defends the
publications issued by it from the charge of encouraging superficial
acquirements : " When it is said, or sung, by such objectors, that ' a
little learning is a dangerous thing/ we can see no harm in adding, that
there is another thing somewhat more dangerous great ignorance ;
not to mention that the one cures itself, while the other perpet-
uates itself ay, and spreads and propagates, too; for it is almost
as true in point of fact that they who have learned a little have their
half-satisfied curiosity excited to obtain more full gratification, as it
is false in point of fact that sobriety results from excess of drinking.
We object, therefore, to this hackneyed maxim, not because it is hack-
neyed, but because it is unfounded ; as illogical when delivered in
plain prose as inapposite when clothed in humorous verse the false-
hood of the position in the one case being equal to that of the
metaphor in the other. ' Better half a loaf than no bread/ is the old
English saying. ' All wrong/ say the objectors, ' a little food is a
dangerous thing ; rather starve than not have your fill.' ' Better be
purblind than stone blind/ is the French saying. ' No/ cry the ob-
jectors ; ' if you can't see quite clearly, what use is there in seeing
at all ? ' ' In the country of the blind/ says the proverb, ' the one-
eyed man is king.' Our objectors belonging to the people there

OX THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. VII

would dethrone the monarch by putting out his eye. But they had
better couch their blind brethren to restore their sight, and then
his reign would cease at once without any act of violence, any coup
d 1 etat. Here is a well of precious water, and we have got a little of
it in a tankard. ' What signifies,' say the objectors, ' such a paltry
supply ? It would not wet the lips of half a dozen of the hundreds
who are athirst/ True, but it enables us to wet the sucker of the pump,
instead of following their advice to leave it dry ; and, having the han-
dle, we use it to empty the well and satisfy all. A person gains some
information, it may be only a little. Say the objectors, ' He is super-
ficial.' Would he be more profound if he knew nothing ? The twi-
light is unsafe for his steps. Would he be more secure from slipping
in the dark ? But he may be self-sufficient, may think he knows
much, and look down upon others as knowing little. Is this very likely
to happen if the knowledge he has acquired is within reach of all and
by the greater number possessed ? The distinction is the ground of
the supposed influence upon his demeanor towards others ; when that
difference no longer exists, the risk of his manners being spoiled is at
an end. The most trifling instruction which can be given is sure
to teach the vast majority of those who receive it the lesson of their
own deficiency, and to inspire the wish for further knowledge. But
suppose, as must happen in many cases, that no great progress shall be
afterwards made, at least it is certain that the proportion is most incon-
siderable of those who are not the better for what they have learned,
and of those who are the worse for it the number cannot really be said
to have any existence at all. It must always be kept in mind that
there are two descriptions of persons to whom popular literature is ad-
dressed, and who may in different ways profit by it those who from
their natural capacity and natural inclination, as well as from possess-
ing a certain leisure, can so far improve themselves as to become really
accomplished in the branches of knowledge which they study, and
the great bulk of the community who can never go beyond giving
a very moderate attention to books, can in fact read but very little.
Let us first consider the former class, which, though small compared
with the mass, is yet again divided into two, those of ordinary talents,
but anxious to learn, and those whose thirst for knowledge is not only
very great, but accompanied with capacity to excel, possibly even with
original genius. Both classes benefit incalculably by the helps which
popular literature extends to them. Their love of knowledge is both
excited and gratified, and let us observe their progress. The different
works which are prepared encourage and enable them to proceed. At
first they are attracted by some tale or anecdote, or biographical
account. Soon after they find in the same paper a popular exposition
of a subject in science or literature. This inclines them to go further,
and the treatises furnished by the Useful Knowledge Society are with-
in their reach on different subjects, suiting the line they desire to

VIII NOTES BY THE EDITOR

follow, and in various kinds in point of difficulty, and thus adapted to
the progress they may have made, from Mr. Marcet's plain and
elementary explanations, up to the treatises of learned professors like
those of the Astronomer Royal, Sir D. Brewster, and Professor de
Morgan. So great and varied are the helps afforded to students in
humble life that it has been said that there can be no such thing
now as a self-taught person. Let us only reflect how mighty would
have been the comfort to such students in former times could they
have enjoyed such facilities. What would Franklin have given
for them, who, living on a vegetable diet on purpose to save a few
pence from his day's wages for the purchase of books, was fain to
learn a little geometry from a treatise on navigation he had been
happy enough to pick up at a bookstall, something of arithmetic by
having fallen upon a copy of Cocker, and from an odd volume of
the Spectator gained a notion of the style he afterwards so powerfully
used? What would Simpson have given for access to books, who
could only get, from the accident of a peddler passing the place where
he was kept by his father working at his trade of a weaver, the copy
of Cocker containing a little Algebra, and even when grown up could
only, by borrowing Stone's translation of L' Hopital from a friend, ob-
tain an insight into the science of infinitesimals, on which two years
after, he published an admirable work, while continuing to divide his
time between his toil as a weaver and as a teacher ? Brindley, the
great engineer, was through life an uneducated man ; Rannequin is
said never to have learnt the alphabet ; and both executed great works,
but with difficulties and delays which reading would have spared them.
Harrison, too, though he had received an ordinary education, yet only
while working in his trade of a carpenter, became acquainted with
science by some manuscript lectures of Sanderson falling in his way ;
and so hard did he find it to obtain adequate knowledge on the subjects
connected with his mechanical pursuits, that forty years were spent in
perfecting his admirable improvements on the construction of time-
keepers, and bringing them into use. It would be going too far to hold
that Franklin's genius, both in physical and political science, could have
done greater things had his original difficulties in self-education been
removed ; but we may safely affirm that both Brindley, Rannequin,
and Harrison, would have effected far more with the helps which their
successors have had ; and of Simpson no doubt can be entertained that,
even amid the distractions of his trade, his short life would have been
illustrated by far greater steps in mathematical science. For it is an
entire mistake to suppose, with some of his biographers, that his
genius was not original, and fitted to make great advances in his
favorite study. The late proceedings respecting Sir Isaac Newton's
monument, have led to ascertaining that Simpson had made the same
approaches towards the modern improvement of the calculus which its
illustrious inventor himself had done, but kept concealed ; and no

ON Tin: PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. IX

doubt can be entertained that the germ of the great discovery of La-
grange and Laplace on the stability of the solar system, is to be found
in the last and most remarkable work of Simpson. It is truly delight-
ful to contemplate such feats of genius, so scantily aided, in a hard-
working mechanic, patronized by none."

The Thirty-fourth meeting of the German Association of Science
and Medicine, was held at Carlsruhe, September 17th, 1858, under
the presidency of Prof. Eisenlohr. Nearly twelve hundred members,
representing all the states of Europe, were present, and many papers
of great interest were offered.

The " Societe Zoologique d' Acclamation," of France, still continues
in the full tide of successful experiment. A foreign correspondent
of Sillimans Journal enumerates the following as a part of the ser-
vices it has already rendered :

In 1854, it purchased half of the only herd of yaks which had
come to Europe ; and now the yak, through its care, has become ac-
climated without difficulty, and has prospered. In 1855, it distrib-
uted nearly a million of bulbs of the yam (Dioscorea Batatas) now
the yam is cultivated at large over Europe, and it promises to rival
the potatoe, when through successive sowings it shall have lost its long
form. The Society has spread everywhere the Sorghum sugar cane,
(Holcus saccharatus), which already furnishes to the departments of
middle and southern France abundant forage of good quality, while
at the same time, through its saccharine juices, it promises to be as
valuable to the southern provinces of France as the beet to the north-
ern. It has procured young plants of the Loza, a species of Rham-
nus, from which the Chinese extract the fine green color called the
Kao. It has imported two herds of Angora goats, which reproduce
perfectly in Europe without manifesting any symptoms of degenerat-
ing. It has not only acclimated the silk worm of the Ricinus (Bom-
byx Cynthia, or Palma Christi silkworm, a native of India), which is
already in France to its twenty-fifth generation, but it has done more,
in succeeding in varying its nourishment, by substituting the leaf of
the very common Fuller's Teasel (Dipsacus Fullonum) for the Ricinus
(R. Europczus}, which is rare, and does not grow in our climate with-
out great care ; and it has almost succeeded in regulating the time of
hatching, so as to make the birth of the worms correspond with the
development of the leaves on which they are nourished. It has al-
ready nearly accomplished the propagation in the open air of a silk-
worm living on the oak. In has raised, in the Jardin des Plantes,
two new kinds of Chinese oaks. It has undertaken to grow the white
nettle of China, with which fabrics may be made more firm than those
of linen or the indigenous hemp. It has promoted the culture of the
oleaginous pea, excellent as food, and affording an abundant oil. It has
received in portable greenhouses the wax-tree and varnish-tree in
good condition, with the insects which frequent them. Finally, through

X NOTES BY THE EDITOR

M. D. de L'Huys, its Vice-President, it has succeded in procuring
from the slopes of the Cordilleras numerous tubercles of potatoe, in
order to renew in Europe this so valuable species, which, through
exaggerated culture and long-continued disease, has lost a part of its
qualities.

The report of the Meteorological Department of the English Board
of Trade, published June, 1858, states that much information relative
to winds and currents has been recently collected from various seas,
from many foreign stations on land, and from the Pacific and Atlantic
oceans. By very numerous trials, the specific gravity of nearly all the
oceanic surface has been ascertained ; and it is believed that these re-
sults will render further observations of the kind unnecessary, except
in peculiar and limited localities, for some special object. Distilled
water being taken as 1-000, the specific gravity of oceanic water is
found to be nearly 1-027. The lowest temperature hitherto recorded
(between 2-300 and 2-500 fathoms below the surface) has been 35
deg. in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Indian oceans, and 86
deg. the highest temperature anywhere at sea on the surface. The
total pressure of the barometer varies so little throughout the year
within certain limits of latitude near the equator, or rather at about
5 deg. of north latitude in the Atlantic, that (allowing for the six-
hourly change) any ship crossing that part of the sea may actually
compare her barometer with a natural standard, invariable within
those small limits of 2-100ths to 3-100ths of an inch. Hygrometric in-
quiries are steadily, though slowly, proceeding. Magnetism has not
occupied much thought, because it is zealously attended to in other
departments of the Government. The report rather gives a general
idea of what is being done, than the actual results of the labors of the
department.

The managers of the Royal Institution, London, intrusted with the
award of the Actonian prize for the best essay "On the wisdom and
goodness of the Creator as displayed in the Radiation of Heat," have
reported that, in their judgment, no essay had been received by them
within the period of seven years since the last award in 1851, of suf-
ficient merit to entitle the author thereof to the prize of 105 ; that,
consequently, no prize was awarded this year; and that the 105
intended to have been awarded, would, pursuant to the trust-deed, be
retained, and awarded, with another sum of 105, in 1865, of which
due notice would be given.

The present Emperor of the French, in 1852, decreed that a prize
of 2,000 should be awarded to the person who, in the course of the
ensuing five years, should make the most useful application of the
Voltaic pile, and he charged a commission, consisting of M. Dumas,
M. Becquerel, M. Pelouze, and M. Despretz, of the Institute, and of
other eminent scientific men, to select the recipient of the prize. This
commission has recently reported to his Majesty, that, after carefully

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XI

examining all the improvements in the application of the Voltaic pile
made during the last five years in all the countries of Europe, it does
not think any of them of sufficient importance to merit the prize ;
and accordingly, the Emperor, in compliance with its recommendation,
has decreed that the prize shall remain open for a second period of
five years.

A French gentleman, named Breant, who died some years back,
bequeathed the sum of 4,000 to the Academy of Sciences of Paris,
to be given to the author of a sovereign cure for the cholera. In
1854, the Academy reported that, though numerous persons had com-
peted for the prize, none of them had obtained it ; and during the
last year it again reported that though, since 1854, as many as fifty-
three memoirs or communications on the subject had been sent in, not
one was deserving of the promised reward. The field, consequently,
is still open to competitors.

An imperial ukase has been issued at St. Petersburg suppressing
the teaching of Latin in all the colleges of the empire. The time
hitherto devoted to this study is to be added to that of the positive
sciences.

The London Geographical Society has awarded the Victoria Gold
Medal for 1858, to Prof. A. D. Bache, Superintendent of the United
States Coast Survey, for his extensive and most accurate surveys of
America, and for the additions made by him to our knowledge of
geography and hydrography. Another gold medal has been also pre-
sented to Capt. R. Collinson, R. N., for his successful discoveries in
the Arctic Regions, and for having, in Her Majesty's ship Enterprise,
penetrated further to the eastward, through Behring Strait, than had
been reached by any other vessel.

At a recent meeting of this society, also Sir R. I. Murchison read
an account of a highly interesting journey through the Elboorz Chain
of Central Asia, and of the ascent of the lofty volcanic mountain of
Demavend, by Mr. R. F. Thomson and Lord Schomberg Kerr, both
attached to the Persian mission. Having succeeded in reaching the

o o

summit of Demavend with instruments, the adventurous diplomatists
have determined its height to be 21,500 feet, and have thus deprived
Mount Ararat of the reputation, so long enjoyed, of being the high-
est point in Central Asia.

The directors of the Geological Survey of Great Britian, have re-
cently presented to the State Cabinet of New York, and the Museum
of the Geological Survey of Canada, at Montreal, a complete set of
the duplicate fossils collected during the survey of the United King-
dom. These collections are carefully labelled, and, in their future
locations at Albany and Montreal, will constitute an important ad-
dition to the resources of American geologists.

Some discussions of interest have taken place during the past year
in reference to the existence of an ethereal medium in the inter-

XII NOTES BY THE EDITOR

planetary spaces ; and M. Babinet, before the French Academy, has
asserted that we have no evidence whatever upon the subject. Encke,
however, has taken occasion of the reappearance of the comet bearing
his name to again promulgate his belief in the existence of the ether,
and claims that its resisting influence on the above-named comet is
more manifest than ever ; while M. Faye, following Babinet, has re-
plied that he is unable to see how Encke's views can be maintained.

Mr. Hind, the English astronomer, in a recent publication, offers a
protest against the names given to the young members of our plane-
tary family He says :

" A few months since, my attention was directed, by Sir John Her-
schel, to the inconvenience and confusion which are being gradually
introduced into the nomenclature of the minor planets by the accept-
ance of names easily mistaken, either in speaking or writing, for others
belonging to planets previously discovered. I have been fully sensible
of the liability to error or misapprehension thereby induced, and am
desirous of recording a protest against any further continuance of
what must eventually become a positive nuisance to those who are
more particularly occupied with the observations and calculations
bearing upon this numerous group of planets. Thus, we have al-
ready : Thetis, Themis ; Lutetia, Lsetitia ; Iris, Isis ; Vesta, Hestia ;
Pallas, Pales. It will naturally be the wish of every discoverer of a
planet that his enfant trouve should be known to posterity by the name
which it has borne during his lifetime ; but if the practice to which
allusion is here made, be suffered to continue much longer, there is
certainly a probability that a day will arrive when, for the sake of
their general convenience, astronomers will consign these troublesome
names to oblivion, and substitute others less liable to engender confu-
sion. This consideration alone, we might suppose, would prove suffi-
ciently powerful to induce hesitation on the part of the discoverer
before accepting any name likely to be objected to on the score of
similarity with that of a planet previously found."

The following is a list of the comets now known or supposed to be
periodical, or which belong to our solar system. The periodicity of
the last twelve, or of those whose computed times or revolution exceeds
fourteen years, with the exception of that of Halley, can, however, only
be rendered certain by their actual return at the expiration of the
predicted time. It will be seen that, in all but seven instances,
the comets bear the names of the astronomers by whom they were
first observed. In these seven exceptions, titles have been selected by
the discoverers, principally from the names of individuals whom, they
have desired to honor :

Comet of Period in years. Discovered by

Encke 3.3

Blanpain ------- 4.8

De Yico - - 5.5

Pons 1818

Blanpain 1819

De Vico 1844

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

XIII

Comet of

Brorsen Bruhns
Lexell - - -
Pons Winnecke

Period in years.

- - - 5.6
- - 5.6

- - 5.6

Discovered by

( Brorsen ....

1846

( Bruhns ........

1857

Messier

1770

( Pons

1819

( Winnecke

1848

D'Arrest

1851

Montaigne

1772

Faye

1843

Peters .......

1846

( Mechain

1790

JTuttle

1858

Westphal

1852

Pons - -

1812

Jesuits .......

1846

Olbers

1815

Brorsen

1847

Apien

1531

Flarnsteed

1683

Peters

1857

Fabricius

1556

Bremiker

1840

Brorsen

1846

Perry

1793

D'Arrest 6.4

Biela 6.6

Faye 7.4

Peters 12.8

Mechain Turtle - - - 13.6

Westphal 69.0

Pons 70.7

DeVico 72.8

Olbers 74.0

Brorsen 75.0

Halley 76.1

Flamsteed 190.0

Oh-ott 241.0

Charles V. 292

Bremiker 344.0

Brorsen ------ 401.0

Perry 4220.

An able article in the July (1858) number of the Westminster Re-
view, on " Recent Astronomy, and the Nebular Hypothesis," takes de-
cided ground against the results of what it terms " the rash speculations
of late years," as embraced in the belief that all nebulae are galaxies of
stars. The writer defends the nebular hypothesis with much force
of argument, and asserts that " the various appearances these nebulas
present are clearly explicable as different stages in the precipitation
and aggregation of diffused matter." He asserts that, on the one hand,
all the leading phenomena of the solar system, and the heavens in
general, are explicable " by the nebular hypothesis," and, on the other
hand, that " the common cosmogony is not only without a single fact
to stand upon, but is at variance with all our positive knowledge
of nature.

M. Wolf, of Zurich, in a letter addressed to General Sabine, states
that further researches into the phenomena of the relation between
the spots on the sun and terrestrial magnetism have led to the
discovery that there is even a greater correspondence between the
solar spots and terrestrial magnetism than he had originally imagined,
and that sufficient data now exist to satisfy even the most skeptical of
the actual correspondence between these phenomena.

The European Statistics of Suicide, recently published in France
by Mr Lisle, show that England is no longer at the head of the dreary
list. The French author proves that France is the highest in the
scale, and Russia lowest. In London, we have _>ne suicide in 8,250
people. Paris gives one in 2,221. For the whole English population,

XIV NOTES BY THE EDITOK

the suicides reckon one in 15,900; France, one in 12,489. The
north of France is the most prolific in suicides, that district yielding
nearly half of the whole number in the entire empire.

The following is an abstract of a paper recently presented to the
Berlin Academy by M. Dieterici on the population of the earth : The
author estimates the actual population of the earth at 1,283 millions,
viz., Europe, 272 ; Asia, 750 ; America, 59 ; Africa, 200 ; and Aus-
tralia, 2. The average of the valuations made by geographers gave,
he says, the number of the inhabitants of Europe at 258 millions; but
as most of them, owing to the period when their works were published,
had not the advantage of the several census taken within the last
fifteen years, the number of 272,000,000 was that which came nearest
to the truth. The progressive increase in the population of Europe
was, moreover, enormous. In 1787, according to a calculation made by
order of Louis XVI., it amounted to 150 millions ; and in 1805, it had
reached 200 millions. It was more difficult to estimate the population of
Asia, for geographers who had written during the last twenty-five years
on the subject, had shown extraordinary differences of opinion. Some
had given to that part of the world only 390 millions of inhabitants,
whereas China alone contained a greater number. The figure of 750
millions might be considered as near as possible to the truth, when the
difficulties of getting at any exact estimate was looked to. As far as
regards Africa, still greater uncertainty prevailed. The author, how-
ever, has carefully availed himself of the works of the last explorers
of the central portion of that country, as well as of the official returns
from Algeria, Senegal, and the Cape of Good Hope. The estimate
made by him may be, perhaps, about one-quarter or one-fifth too high.

At the last meeting of the British Association (Leeds, 1858), Mr-
William Fairbairn, in an address, thus briefly reviewed the prospects
and recent progress of Mechanical Science in Great Britain : Malleable
iron, now applied to the construction of bridges, was capable of great
development, and there was no span between the limit of one thousand
feet which might not be compassed by the hollow girder bridge. With
respect to steam navigation much remained to be done, with the object
of giving uniformity of strength and security of construction. The
Leviathan , with all her misfortunes, was a magnificent specimen of
naval architecture, the cellular system, so judiciously introduced by Mr.
Brunei, being her great source of strength. He was so persuaded of
the security of the principle upon which she had been constructed, that
he had no doubt she would stand the test of being suspended upon the
two extreme points of stem and stern, with all her machinery on board ;
or she might be poised upon a point in the middle, like a scale-beam,
without fracture or injury to the material of which she is composed.
He expressed the hope that the necessary funds would be forthcoming
to complete her equipment, and that we should then see her dash-
ing aside the surge of the Atlantic at a speed of eighteen to twenty

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XV

knots an hour. In Great Britain there are now 9,500 miles of rail-
way ; and taking, at a rough calculation, one locomotive engine with a
force of 200 horses power to every three miles of railway, and assum-
ing each to run 120 miles per day, we might thence calculate the dis-
tance travelled over by trains to be equal to 380,000 miles per day, or
138,000,000 miles per annum. To transport these trains required
a force equivalent to 200,000 horses in constant operation thoughout
the year. In the locomotive engine there has been no improve-
ment of consequence during the last two years, excepting only its
adaptation to burning coal instead of coke ; but in the formation of the
permanent way, considerable improvements had been effected, especi-
ally in the jointing of the rails by the process known as fish-jointing.

Admiral Moorson in alluding to the lack of progress in some
departments of Naval Architecture, and especially as regards the ca-
pabilities of marine steamers, expressed his opinion that if experiments
were conducted at sea under a vast variety of conditions as to form,
size, and circumstances, rules might be established which would serve
to determine much of what was now the subject of controversy, and go
far to remove the reproach on the great maritime nations of the world,
which was contained in the following passage of a work by Mr. Scott
Russell : " It is admitted that out of every three steam-vessels that are
built, two fall very far short of fulfilling the intention with which they
were constructed."

During the past year the publication of an American Mathematical
Journal, edited by Mr. J. D. Runkle, of Cambridge, has been com-
menced, under the endorsement of the American Association for the
Promotion of Science, and the best mathematical talent of the country.
It proposes to include in its pages solutions, demonstrations, and
discussions, in all branches of the science, as well as in all its various
applications ; also notes and queries, with notices and reviews of all the
principal mathematical works issued in this country or in Europe.

A gallery of portraits of distinguished scientific men is now in the
course of publication at Vienna, and will consist, when complete, of a
folio volume of one hundred lithographic plates, executed in the highes
style of art, each portrait being accompanied with a 'leaf of text.
The gallery commences with Hurnboldt, and following him there are three
or more in each of the departments, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Astronomy, Meteorology, Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, Bctany,
Zoology, Anatomy, and Physiology. The physicists included are :
Amici, Baumgartner, Biot, Brewster, Ettingshausen, Faraday, Han-
steen, Herschel, Jacobi, Magnus, Miiller, Neumann, Plucker, Pog-
gendorff, Pouillett, Weber, and Zantedeschi.

A portion of the report of the Canadian Geological Survey on the
organic remains of Canada, has been recently published by Mr. Bil-
lings, Palaeontologist of the survey, and treats of the Cystideas, Star-
fishes, and bivalve Crustaceans. It is a work of great merit, enlarging

XVI NOTES BY THE EDITOR

our knowledge of one of the obscurest departments of Palaeontology.
Besides Cystideas and Star-fishes, a new genus called Cyclocystoides,
containing discoid species of Echinoderms, is described by E. Billings
and J. W. Salter. It is remarkable that the Canadian Lower Silurian
rocks have furnished twenty-one species of Cystideae, while in New
York only one has been found in the rocks of that age.

During the past year, the remarkable work of De la Rive, on Elec-
tricity, has been completed by the publication of the third volume, and
the entire work may now be regarded as the most complete treatise on
the subject of electricity extant. As to the cause of terrestrial mag-
netism, the author inclines to the theory, that it resides in the sun,
which. acts upon the earth as in the ordinary experiment by rotation a
magnet acts upon a body having a rotating movement. But whence
the magnetism of the sun ?

Within a very recent period a newspaper in the Maori, or native
New Zealand language, has been started at Wellington, N. Z. It is
called the " Messenger of Port Nicholson."

The London Athenceum for March 13, 1858, contains a letter from
Capt. Freeling, Surveyor-General at Adelaide, in respect to the
explorations undertaken in the central part of Australia to determine
whether a navigable inland sea existed there, as has been supposed.
No water was found on which a boat would float. " I was away," says
Capt. Freeling, " more than two months, and during that time must
have travelled a thousand miles, and I verily believe that there is
no other country in the world where so much barren land exists in a
similar space. It is really wonderful to see the masses of stone which
lie on the hills and plains as on a newly Macadamized road, as well as
the absence of grass in places where the stones are not so thickly
spread ; but all this barrenness may easily be accounted for by
the fact that but little rain falls to promote fertility. Occasionally, as
in March of this year, an extraordinary rain-fall occurs ; then the
creeks, which are for years together dry, pour down an amazing
volume of water, flooding the lands in their neighborhood, and
eventually discharging themselves over a vast, slightly hollowed plain,
which then has all the appearance of a large inland sea. Test it,
* however, as I did, by walking three miles into it, and you then see its
true character, and are able to state positively that the summer heats
will not have continued long before the whole is evaporated."

During the past year another European expedition into Central
Africa has been organized. Its projector is Baron von Kraflft, whose
intention is to visit the interor of Soudan. He has embarked for
Tripoli, and will probably take the route from Ouargla to Djebel Hog-
gar, a route which has never been followed by Europeans.

A letter from Baron Krafft to Humboldt, dated April 10, 1858,
from Algiers, expresses the desire of the author to continue the dis-
coveries of Dr. Barth, so far as limited resources will allow. Pie will

OX THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XVII

travel in the incognito of a Turkish physician, provided with allopathic
and homoeopathic medicines, and attended by an Algerian Moor, who
is acquainted with the native method of practice. An aneroid baro-
meter, several thermometers, two compasses, a chronometer, a sextant,
and a telescope, are the instruments which he carries. He intends,
however, to devote himself chiefly to such observations as can be made
without his instruments; to collect minerals and plants; to inquire into
the trade, language, history, and literature of the people whom he visits ;
and to determine with the greatest possible accuracy the various routes
of caravans, and their various stopping-places. The route of travel
which Baron Krafft has marked out for himself is from Tripoli to
Ghadames, and thence to Ain Salah and Timbuctoo. Then he pro-
poses to visit Lake Tsad, and afterwards to go, according to his strength
and means, either east to Wara and Dar Fur, or north to Bilnia, Seg-
gadem and Murzuk.

Robert Stephenson, the eminent English engineer, in a letter ad-
dressed to the London Times, thus expresses his views in reference to
the feasibility of the proposed ship-canal across the Isthmus of Suez :
" I should be delighted," he says, " to see a channel like the Dar-
danelles or the Bosphorus penetrating the isthmus that divides the Red
Sea from the Mediterranean ; but I know that such a channel is
impracticable, that nothing can be effected, even by the most unlim-
ited expenditure of time, and life, and money, beyond the formation
of a stagnant ditch between two almost tideless seas, unapproachable
by large ships under any circumstances, and only capable of being
used by small vessels when the prevalent winds permit their exit^and
their entrance. I believe that the project will prove abortive in itself
and ruinous to its constructors ; and entertaining this view, I will
no longer permit it to be said that by abstaining from expressing my-
self fully on the subject, I am tacitly allowing capitalists to throw away
their money on what my knowledge assures me to be an unwise
and unremunerative speculation."

At a recent show of the Roval Agricultural Societv, held at Ches-

J O / i

ter, England, five steam ploughs contested for the handsome prize of
.300 ($2,425). Four of the ploughs were operated by steam-engines
fixed on the field, and moving the " shares " back and forth by ropes
and windlasses. The fifth plough (Boydells') had a traction engine
which moved over the field. Each of these turned over four furrows
at once, and the work was well done by them, all but one, which
broke down. The soil was a hard, dry, stiff clay. Furrows of nine
inches depth were turned over, and the competition was very spirited.
The successful plough was Fowler's ; it executed one and three-quarters
of an acre in two hours.

At the present time, the Sorgho, or Chinese sugar cane, is ex-
tensively cultivated in the South of France, and its products have
constituted a prominent feature in recent agricultural exhibitions of

2*

XVIII NOTES BY THE EDITOR

France. At an exhibition at Avignon, M. Prieur exhibited a group of
samples illustrative of the metamorphoses to which he has subjected it
Nothing could be more curious than the succession of transformations
there shown. In one corner could be seen the sorgho in stalk, such as
it is when cut ; a little further, were its fibres converted into thread, in
skein ; then a piece of linen woven with the thread ; then a handsome
cloak, bordered with furs, which M. Prieur designs for the Prince
Imperial.

The most curious and complete array of the products of the sorgho,
however, at the same exhibition, was that of Dr. Sicard, of Marseilles.
From the pith, he has obtained sugar ; from the seeds, flour and fecula,
which have been worked up into a great variety of palatable products.
He extracts also from the plant alcohol, and a variety of wine, and a
variety of dyes, well adapted to wool and cotton ; and finally, from the
refuse stalks he has manufactured a fair article of paper.

THE

AOUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS.

ADDRESS OF PROF. OWEN BEFORE THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION, 1858.

THE following is an abstract of an address delivered by Professor Owen,
on assuming the chair as President of the Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of
the British Association for the advancement of Science, September 22, 1858 :

GENTLEMEN OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION : "We are here met, in this our
Twenty -eighth Annual Assembly, to continue the aim of the Association, which
is the promotion of Science, or the knowledge of the Laws of Nature; where-
by we acquire a dominion over nature, and are thereby able so to apply her
powers as to advance the well-being of society and exalt the condition of
mankind. It is no light matter, therefore, the work that we are here assem-
bled to do. God has given to man a capacity to discover and comprehend the
laws by which His universe is governed ; and man is impelled by a healthy
and natural impulse to exercise the faculties by which that knowledge can be
acquired. Agreeably with the relations which have been instituted between
our finite faculties and the phenomena that affect them, we arrive at demon-
strations and convictions which are the most certain that our present state of
being can have or act upon. Nor let any one, against whose prepossessions a
scientific truth may jar, confound such demonstrations with the speculative
philosophies condemned by the Apostle; or ascribe to arrogant intellect, soar-
ing to regions of forbidden mysteries, the acquisition of such truths as have
been or may be established by patient and inductive research. For the most
part, the discoverer has been so placed by circumstances, rather than by
predetermined selection, as to have his work of investigation allotted to
him as his daily duty; in the fulfilment of which he is brought face to face
with phenomena into which he must inquire, and the result of which inquiry
he must faithfully impart. The advance of natural as of moral truth has
been and is progressive ; but it has pleased the Author of all truth to vary
the fashion of the imparting of such parcels thereof as He has allotted, from
time to time, for the behoof and guidance of mankind. Those who are

20 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

privileged with the faculties of discovery are, therefore, to be regarded as
preordained instruments in making known the power of God, without a
knowledge of which, as well as of Scripture, we are told that we shall err.
Great and marvellous have been the manifestations of this power imparted
to us of late times, not only in respect of the shape, motions, and solar rela-
tions of the earth, but also of its age and inhabitants. In regard to the
period during which the globe allotted to man has revolved in its orbit, pres-
ent evidence strains the mind to grasp such sum of past time with an effort
like that by which it tries to realize the space dividing that orbit from the
fixed stars and remoter nebulas. Yet, during all those eras that have passed
since the Cambrian rocks were deposited, which bear the impressed record
of creative power, as it was then manifested, we know, through the interpreters
of these "writings on stone," that the earth was vivified by the sun's light
and heat, was fertilized by refreshing showers and washed by tidal waves.
No stagnation has been permitted to air or ocean. The vast body of waters
not only moved, as a whole, in orderly oscillations, regulated, as now, by
sun and moon, but were rippled and agitated here and there successively by
\vinds and storms. The atmosphere was healthily influenced by its horizon-
tal currents, and by ever-varying clouds and vapors rising, condensing, dis-
solving, and falling in endless vertical circulation. With these conditions of
life, we know that life itself has been enjoyed throughout the same countless
thousands of years ; and that with life, from the beginning, there has been
death. The earliest testimony of the living thing, \vhether shell, crust, or
coral, in the oldest fossiliferous rock, is at the same time proof that it died.
It has further been given us to know, that not only the individual but the
species perishes; that as death is balanced by generation, so extinction has
been concomitant with creative power, which has continued to provide a
succession of species; and furthermore, that as regards the vaiying forms
of life which this planet has witnessed, there has been "an advance and prog-
ress in the main." Geology demonstrates that the creative force has not
deserted this earth during any of her epochs of time ; and that in respect to
no one class of animals has the manifestation of that force been limited to
one epoch. Not a species of fish that now lives, but has come into being
c*uring a comparatively recent period : the existing species were preceded by
other species, and these again by others still more different from the present.
No existing genus of fishes can be traced back beyond a moiety of known
creative time. Two entire orders (Cycloids and Ctenoids) have come into
being, and have almost superseded two other orders (Ganoids and Placoids),
since the newest or latest of the secondary formations of the earth's crust.
Species after species of land animals, order after order of air-breathing rep-
tiles, have succeeded each other; creation ever compensating for extinction.
The successive passing away of air-breathing species may have been as little
due to exceptional violence, and as much to natural law, as in the case of
marine plants and animals. It is true, indeed, that every part of the earth's
surface has been submerged; but successively, and for long periods. Of the
present dry land, different natural continents have different Fauna? and
Floras ; and the fossil remains of the plants and animals of these continents
respectively show that they possessed the same peculiar characters, or char-
acteristic fades, during periods extending far beyond the utmost limits of
human history. Such, gentlemen, is a brief summary of facts most nearly
interesting us, which have been demonstratively made known respecting our
earth and its inhabitants. And when we reflect at how late and in how

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 21

brief a period of historical time the acquisition of such knowledge has been
permitted, we must feel that, vast as it seems, it may be but a very small part
of the patrimony of truth destined for the possession of future generations.

In reviewing the nature and results of our proceedings during the last
twenty-seven years, and the aims and objects of our Association, it seems as
if we are realizing the grand Philosophical Dream or Prefigurative Vision of
Francis Bacon, which he has recounted in his " New Atlantis." In this noble
parable the father of Modern Science imagines an Institution which he calls
" Solomon's House," and informs us by the mouth of one of its members,
that " The end of its Foundation is the Knowledge of Causes and Secret
Motions of Things; and enlarging of the bounds of Human Empire to the
effecting of all things possible." As one important means of effecting the
great aims of Bacon's "six days' college," certain of its members were
deputed, as "merchants of light," to make "circuits or visits of divers
principal cities of the kingdom." This latter feature of the Baconian organ-
ization is the chief characteristic of the " British Association." But we have
striven to carry out other aims of the " New Atlantis," such as the systematic
summaries of the results of different branches of science, of which our pub-
lished volumes of "Reports" are evidence; and we have likewise realized, in
some measure, the idea of the " Mathematical House " in our establishment
at Kew. The national and private observatories, the Royal and other scien-
tific Societies, the British Museum, the Zoological, Botanical, and Horticul-
tural Gardens, combine in our day to realize that which Bacon foresaw in
distant perspective. Great, beyond all anticipation, have been the results of
this organization, and of the application of the inductive methods of interro-
gating nature. The universal law of gravitation, the circulation of the
blood, the analogous course of the magnetic influence, which may be said to
vivify the earth, permitting no atom of its most solid constituents to stag-
nate in total rest; the development and progress of Chemistry, Geology,
Palaeontology ; the inventions and practical applications of Gas, the Steam-
engine, Photography, Telegraphy, such, in the few centuries since Bacon
wrote, have been the rewards of the followers of his rules of research.
Prof. O. then dwelt on the importance of direct observation, as illustrated in
the history of Astronomy referred to the discovery of Galileo, the appli-
cation of his discovery by Kepler and Horrocks, and continued : Without
stopping to trace the concurrent progress of the science of motion, of which
the true foundations were laid, in Bacon's time, by Galileo, it will serve here
to state that the foundations were laid and the materials gathered for the
establishment by a master-mind, supreme in vigor of thought and mathe-
matical resource, of the grandest generalization ever promulgated by science
that of the universal gravitation of matter according to the law of the
inverse square of the distance. The same century in which the "Thema
Coeli " of Lord Verulam and the " Nuncius Sidereus " of Galileo saw the
light, was glorified by the publication of the " Philosophic Naturalis Prin-
cipia Mathematica" of Newton. Has time, it may be asked, in any way
affected the great result of that masterpiece of human intellect? There are
signs that even Newton's axiom is not exempt from the restless law of
progress. The mode of expressing the law of gravitation as being " in tfie
inverse proportion of the square of the distances " involves the idea that the
force emanating from or exercised by the sun must become more feeble in
proportion to the increased spherical surface over which it is diffused. So
indeed it was expressly understood by Halley. Professor Whewell, the ablest

22 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

historian of Natural Science, has remarked, that " future discoveries may
make gravitation a case of some wider law, and may disclose something of
the mode in which it operates." The difficulty, indeed, of conceiving a
force acting through nothing from body to body, has of late made itself felt ;
and more especially since Meyer of Heilbronn first clearly expressed the
principle of the " conservation of force." Newton, though apprehending
the necessity of a medium by which the force of gravitation should be con-
veyed from one body to another, yet appears not to have possessed such an
idea of the uncreateability and indestructibility of force as that which, now
possessed by minds of the highest order, seems to some of them to be in-
compatible with the terms in which Newton enunciated his great law, viz.,
of matter attracting- matter with a force which varies inversely as the
square of the distance. The progress of knowledge of another form of all-
pervading force, which we call, from its most notable effect on one of the
senses, " Light," has not been less remarkable than that of gravitation.
Galileo's disco very of Jupiter's satellites supplied Romerwith the phenomena
whence he was able to measure, in 1676, the velocity of light. Descartes, in
his theory of the rainbow, referred the different colors to the different amount
of refraction, and made a near approximation to Newton's capital discovery
of the different colors entering into the composition of the luminous ray,
and of their different refrangibility. Hook and Huyghens, about the same
period, had entered upon explanations of the phenomena of light conceived
as due to the undulations of an ether, propagated from the luminous point
spherically, like those of sound. Newton, whilst admitting that such undula-
tions or vibrations of an ether would explain certain phenomena, adopted
the hypothesis of emission as most convenient for the mathematical propo-
sitions relative to light. The discoveries of achromatism, of the laws of
double refraction, of polarization circular and elliptical, and of dipolariza-
tion, rapidly followed: the latter advances of optics, realizing more than
Bacon conceived might flow from the labors of the " Perspective House,"
are associated with and have shed lustre on the names of Dollond, Young,
Mains, Fresnel, Biot, Arago, Brewster, Stokes, Jamin, and others. Some
of the natural sciences, as we now comprehend them, had not germinated
in Bacon's time. Chemistry was then alchemy : Geology and Palaeontology
were undreamt of: but Magnetism and Electricity had begun to be observed,
and their phenomena compared and defined, by a contemporary of Bacon,
in a way that claims to be regarded as the first step towards a scientific
knowledge of those powers. It is true that, before Gilbert (" De Magnate,"
1600), the magnet was known to attract iron, and the great practical appli-
cation of magnetized iron the mariner's compass had been invented, and
for many years before Bacon's time had guided the barks of navigators
through trackless seas. Gilbert, to whom the name " electricity " is due,
observed that that force attracted light bodies, whereas the magnetic force
attracted iron only. About a century later the phenomena of repulsion as
well as of attraction of light bodies bj r electric substances were noticed ; and
Dufay, in 1733, enunciated the principle, that "electric bodies attract all
those that are not so, and repel them as soon as they are become electric by
the vicinit} r of the electric body." The conduction of electric force, and the
different behavior of bodies in contact with the electric, leading to their
division, by Desaguliers, into conductors and non-conductors, next followed.
The two kinds of electricity, at first by Dufay, their definer, called "vitre-
ous " and " resinous," afterwards, by Franklin, " positive " and " negative/'

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 23

formed an important step, which led to a brilliant series of experiments
and discoveries, with inventions, such as the Leyden jar, for intensifying
the electric shock. The discovery of the instantaneous transmission of
electricity through an extent of not less than 12,000 feet, by Bishop "Watson,
together with that of the electric state of the clouds, and of the power of
drawing off such electricity by pointed bodies, as shown by Franklin,
were a brilliant beginning of the application of the science to the well-
being and needs of mankind. Magnetism has been studied with two
aims : the one, to note the numerical relations of its activity to time and
space, both in respect of its direction and intensity; the other, to penetrate
the mystery of the nature of the magnetic force. In reference to the first
aim, my predecessor adverted, last year, to the fact, that it was in the com-
mittee-rooms of the British Association that the first step was taken towai-ds
that great magnetic organization which has since borne so much fruit.
Thereby it has been determined that there are periodical changes of the
magnetic elements depending on the hour of the day, the season of the
year, and on what seemed strange intervals of about eleven years. Also,
that, besides these regular changes, there were others of a more abrupt and
seemingly irregular character Humboldt's "magnetic storms" which
occur simultaneously at distant parts of the earth's surface. Major-General
Sabine, than whom no individual has done more in this field of research
since Halley first attempted " to explain the change in the variation of the
magnetic needle," has proved that the magnetic storms observed diurnal,
annual, and undecennial periods. But with what phase or phenomenon of
earthly or heavenly bodies, it may be asked, has the magnetic period of
eleven years to do ? The coincidence which points to, if it does not give,
the answer, is one of the most remarkable, unexpected, and encouraging, to
patient observers. For thirty years a German astronomer, Schwabe, had set
himself the task of daily observing and recording the appearance of the
sun's disc, in which time he found the spots passed through periodic phases
of increase and decrease, the length of the period being about eleven years.
A comparison of the independent evidence of the astronomer and magnetic
observer has shown that the undecennial magnetic period coincides, both in
its duration and in its epochs of maximum and minimum, with the same
period observed in the solar spots.

A few weeks ago, during a visit of inspection to our establishment at Kew,
I observed the successful operation of the photo-heliographic apparatus in
depicting the solar spots as they then appeared. The continued regular
record of the macular state of the sun's surface, with the concurrent mag-
netic observations now established over many distant points of the earth's
surface, will, ere long, establish the full significance and value of the re-
markable, and, in reference to the observers, undesigned coincidence above
mentioned. Not to trespass on your patience by tracing the progress of
Magnetism from Gilbert to Oersted, I cannot but advert to the time, 1807,
when the latter tried to discover whether electricity in its most latent state
had any effect on the magnet, and to his great result, in 1820, that the con-
ducting wire of a voltaic circuit acts upon a magnetic needle, so that the
latter tends to place itself at right angles to the wire. Ampere, moreover,
succeeded, by means of a delicate apparatus, in demonstrating that the vol-
taic wire was affected by the action of the earth itself as a magnet. In short,
the generalization was established, and with a rapidity unexampled, regard
being had to its greatness, that magnetism and electricity are but different

21 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of one common cause. This has proved the first step to still grander
abstractions, to that which conceives the induction of all the species of
imponderable fluids of the chemistry of our student days, together with
gravitation, chemicity, and neuricity, to interchangeable modes of action of
one and the same all-pervading life-essence. Galvani arranged the parts of
a recently-mutilated frog, so as to bring a nerve in contact with the external
surface of a muscle, when a contraction of the muscle ensued. In this sug-
gestive experiment, the Italian philosopher, who thereby initiated the induct-
ive inquiry into the relation of nerve force to electric force, concluded that
the contraction was a necessary consequence of the passage of electricity
from one surface to the other by means of the nerve. He supposed that the
electricity was secreted by the brain, and transmitted by the nerves to differ-
ent parts of the body, the muscles serving as reservoirs of the electricity.
Volta made a further step by showing that, under the conditions or arrange-
ments of Galvani's experiments, the muscle would contract, whether the
electric current had its origin in the animal body, or from a source external
to that body. Galvani erred in too exclusive a reference of the electric force
producing the contraction to the brain of the animal; Yolta, in excluding
the origin of the electric force from the animal body altogether. The deter-
mination of " the true " and "the constant" in these recondite phenomena,
has been mainly helped on by the persevering and ingenious experimental
researches of Mateucci and Du Bois Rcymond. The latter has shown that
any point of the surface of a muscle is positive in relation to any point of
the divided or transverse section of the same muscle; and that any point of
the surface of a nerve is positive in relation to any point of the divided or
transverse section of the same nerve. Mr. Baxter, in still more recent re-
searches, has deduced important conclusions on the origin of the muscular
and nerve currents, as being due to the polarized condition of the nerve or
muscular fibre, and the relation of that condition to changes which occur
during nutrition. From the present state of neuro-electricity, it may be
concluded that nerve force is not identical with electric force, but that it
may be another mode of motion of the same common force. It is certainly
a polar force, and perhaps the highest form of polar force:

" A motion which may change, but cannot die;
An image of some bright eternity/'

The present tendency of the higher generalizations of Chemistry seems to
be towards a reduction of the number of those bodies which are called
"elementary;" it begins to be suspected that certain groups of so-called
chemical elements are but modified forms of one another; that such groups
as chlorine, iodine, bromine, fluorine, and as sulphur, selenium, phosphorus,
boron, may be but allotropic forms of some one element. Organic Chemis-
try becomes simplified as it expands; and its growth has of late proceeded,
through the labors of Hoffmann, Berthelot, and others, with unexampled
rapidity. An important series of alcohols and their derivatives, from amylic
alcohol downwards ; as extensive a series of ethers, including those which
give their peculiar flavor to our choicest fruits ; the formic, butyric, succinic,
lactic, and other acids, together with other important organic bodies, are
now capable of artificial formation from their elements, and the old barrier
dividing organic from inorganic bodies is broken down. To the power
which mankind may ultimately exercise through the light of synthesis, who

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 25

may presume to set limits? Already natural processes can be more econom-
ically replaced by artificial ones in the formation of a few organic com-
pounds, the " valerianic acid," for example. It is impossible to foresee the
extent to which Chemistry may not ultimately, in the production of things
needful, supersede the present vital agencies of nature, "by laying under
contribution the accumulated forces of past ages, which would thus enable
us to obtain in a small manufactory, and in a few days, effects which can be
realized from present natural agencies only when they are exerted upon vast
areas of land, and through considerable periods of time." Since Niepcc,
Herschel, Fox Talbot, and Daguerre, laid the foundations of Photography,
year by year some improvement is made, some advance achieved, in this
most subtle application of combined discoveries in Photicity, Electricity,
Chemistry, and Magnetism. Last year M. Poitevin's production of plates
in relief, for the purpose of engraving by the action of light alone, was
cited as the latest marvel of Photography. This year has Avitncssed photo-
graphic printing in carbon by M. Pretsch. Prof. Owen continued by allud-
ing to the application of Photography for obtaining views of the moon, of
the planets, of scientific and other phenomena. After referring to the dis-
coveries in Electro-magnetism, the lecturer continued : Remote as such pro-
found conceptions and subtle trains of thought seem to be from the needs
of everyday life, the most astounding of the practical augmentation of man's
power has sprung out of them. Xothing might seem less promising of
profit than Oersted's painfully-pursued experiments, with his little magnets,
voltaic pile, and bits of copper wire. Yet out of these has sprung the elec-
tric telegraph ! Oersted himself saw such an application of his convertibility
of electricity into magnetism, and made arrangements for testing that appli-
cation to the instantaneous communication of signs through distances of a
few miles. The resources of inventive genius have made it practicable for
all distances; as we have lately seen in the submergence and working of the
electro-magnetic cord connecting the Old and the ISTew World. More re-
mains to be done before the far-stretching engine can be got into working
order; but the capital fact, viz., the practicability of bringing America into
electrical communication with Europe has been demonstrated ; consequently,
a like power of instantaneous interchange of thought between the civilized
inhabitants of every part of the globe becomes only a question of time.
The powers and benefits thence to ensue for the human race can be but
dimly and inadequately foreseen. After referring to the labors of Kay, Lin-
na'iis, .Tussieu, BitfFon, and Cuvier, he said: To perfect the natural system
of plants has been the great aim of botanists since Jussieu. To obtain the
same true insight into the relations of animals has stimulated the labors of
zoologists since the writings of Cuvier. To that great man appertains the
merit of having systematically pursued and applied anatomical researches
to the discovery of the true system of distribution o the animal kingdom;
nor, until the Cuvierian amount of zootomical science had been gained,
could the value and importance of Aristotle's " History of Animals " be ap-
preciated. There is no similar instance, in the history of Science, of the
well-lit torch gradually growing dimmer and smouldering through so many
generations and centuries before it was again fanned into brightness, and a
clear view regained, both of the extent of ancient discovery, and of the
true course to be pursued by modern research. Rapid and right has been
the progiv.-s of Zoology si-ir-e that resumption. X<>t only has the structure,
of the aiiiuial been in \ebiigated, even to the minute characteristic., of

3

26 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

tissue, but the mode of formation of such constituents of organs, and of
the organs themselves, has been pursued from the germ, bud, or egg, on-
ward to maturity and decay. To the observation of outward characters is
now added that of inward organization and developmental change, and
Zootomy, Histology, and Embryology, combine their results in forming an
adequate and lasting basis for the higher axioms and generalizations of
Zoology, properly so called. Three principles, of the common ground of
which we may ultimately obtain a clearer insight, are now recognized to
have governed the construction of animals, unity of plan, vegetative repe-
tition, and fitness for purpose. The independent series of researches by
which students of the articulate animals have seen, in the organs performing
the functions of jaws and limbs of varied powers, the same or homotypal
elements of a scries of like segments constituting the entire body, and by
which students of the vertebrate animals have been led to the conclusion,
that the maxillary, mandibular, hyoid, scapular, costal, and pelvic arches,
and their appendages sometimes forming limbs of varied powers, are also
modified elements of a series of essentially similar vertebral segments,
mutually corroborate their respective conclusions. It is not probable that a
principle which is true for Articulata should be false for Vertebrata : the less
probable since the determination of homologous parts becomes the more
possible and sure in the ratio of the perfection of the organization.

After pointing out the distinction between Affinity, which indicates an
intimate resemblance, and Analogy, which indicates a remote one, he con-
tinued : The study of homologous parts in a single system of organs the
bones has mainly led to the recognition of the plan or archetype of the
highest primary group of animals, the Vertebrata. The next step of impor-
tance will be to determine the homologous parts of the nervous system, of
the muscular system, of the respiratory and vascular system, and of the
digestive, secretory, and generative organs, in the same primary group or
province. I think it of more importance to settle the homologics of the
parts of a group or animals constructed on the same general plan, than to
speculate on such relations of parts of animals constructed on demonstra-
tively distinct plans of organization. What has been effected and recom-
mended, in regard to homologous parts in the Vertebrata, should be followed
out in the Articulata and Mollusca. In regard to the constituents of the
crust or outer skeleton and its appendages in the Articulata, homological
relations have been studied and determined to a praiseworthy extent,
throughout that province. The same study is making progress in the Mol-
lusca; but the grounds for determining special homologies are less sure in
this sub-kingdom. The present state of homology in regard to the Articu-
lata has sufficed to demonstrate that the segment of the crust is not a hollow
expanded homologue of the segment of the endo-skcleton of a vertebrate.
There is as little homology between the parts and appendages of the seg-
ments of the Vertebrate and Articulate skeletons respectively. The parts
called mandibles, maxilla}, arms, legs, wings, fins, in Insects and Crusta-
ceans, are only " analogous " to the parts so called in Vertebrates. A most
extensive field of reform is becoming open to the homologist in that which
is essential to the exactitude of his science, a nomenclature equivalent to
express his conviction of the different relations of similitude. Most difficult
and recondite arc the questions in face of which the march of Homology is
now irresistibly conducting the philosophic observer; such, for instance, as
the following: Are the nervous, muscular, digestive, circulating, and geuer-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 27

ative systems of organs more than functionally similar in any two primary
provinces of the animal kingdom? Are the homologies of entire systems to
be judged of by their functional and structural connections, rather than by
the plan and course of their formation in the embryo? It may be doubted
if embryology alone is decisive of the question, whether homology can be
predicated of the alimentary canal in animals of different primary groups or
provinces. It is significant, however, of the lower value of embryological
characters, to note that the great leading divisions of the animal kingdom,
based by Cuvier on Comparative Anatomy, have nearly been confirmed by
Von Baer's later developmental researches. And so, likewise, with regard
to some of the minor modifications of Cuvier's provinces, the true position
of the Cirripeda was discerned by Straus Durkhehn and Macleay, by the
lightanatomy, before the discovery of their metamorphoses by Thomson.
If, However, embryology has been over-valued as a test of homology, the
study of the development of animals has brought to light most singular and
interesting facts, and I now allude more especially to those that have been
summed up under the term "Alternate-generation," "Parthenogenesis,"
" Metagenesis/' etc. John Hunter first enunciated the general proposition,
that " the propagation of plants depended on two principles, the one that
every part of a vegetable is ' a whole/ so that it is capable of being multi-
plied as far as it can be divided into distinct parts ; the other, that certain of
those parts become reproductive organs, and produce fertile seeds." Hunter
also remarked, that " the first principle operated in many animals which
propagate their species by buds or cuttings ; " but that, whilst in animals, it
prevailed only in "the more imperfect orders," it operated in vegetables
"of every degree of perfection." The experiments of Trembly on the
freshwater polype, those of Spakinzani on the Naiads, and those of Bonnet
on the Aphides, had brought ta light the phenomena of propagation by fis-
sion, and by gemmation or buds, external and internal, in animals to which
Hunter refers. Subsequent research has shown the unexpected extent to
which Hunter's first principle of propagation in organic being prevails in
the animal division. But the earliest formal supercession of Harvey's
axiom, " omne vinim ab oro," appears to be Hunter's proposition of the dual
principle above quoted. The experiments of Redi, Malpighi, and others, had
progressively contracted the field to which the " generatio cequivoca,' could
with any plausibility be applied. The stronghold of the remaining advo-
cates of that old Egyptian doctrine was the fact of the development of para-
sitic animals in the flesh, brain, and glands of higher animals. But the
hypothesis never obtained currency in this country; it was publicly opposed
in my " Hunterian Lectures," by the fact of the prodigious preparation of
fertile eggs in many of the supposed spontaneously developed species ; and
in then suggesting that the Trichina spiralis of the human muscular tissue
might be the embryo of a larger worm in course of migration, I urged that
a particular investigation was needed for each particular species.

Among the most brilliant of recent acquisitions to this part of Physiology,
have been the discoveries which have resulted from such special investiga-
tions. Kuchenmcister and Von Siebold have been the chief laborers in this
field. After noticing some of the results of those labors, he said: Since
the time when it was first discovered that plants and animals could propa-
gate in two ways, and that the individual developed from the bud might
produce a seed or egg, from which also an individual might spring capable
of again budding, since this alternating mode of generation was observed,

28 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

as by Cliamisso and Sars, in cases where the budding individual differed
much in form from the egg-laying one, the subject has been systematized,
generalized, with an attempt to explain its principle, and greatly advanced,
especially, and in a highly interesting manner, in Von Siebold's late treatise,
entitled " Wahre Parthenogenesis bei Schmeterlingen und Bienen," in which
the virgin production of the male or drone-bee is demonstrated. Von Sie-
bold, having subjected to the closest microscopic scrutiny and experiment
the conclusion to which the practical Bee-master, Dzierson, had arrived, rel-
ative to the cause of queen-bees with crippled wings producing a swarm ex-
clusively of drones, has demonstrated that the male bee is produced from
a,n egg which has been subjected to no influence save that of the maternal
parent; whilst such egg, if impregnated, would have produced a female or
worker bee. The now well-investigated phenomena of parthenogenesis in
Hydrozoa, have resulted in showing, as in the analogous case of Entozoa,
that animals differing so much in form as to have constituted two distinct
orders or classes, are really but two terms of a cycle of metagenetic trans-
formations, the acalephan Medusa being the sexual locomotive form of
the agamic rooted budding polype, just as the cestoid trenia is of the cystic
hydatid. In Hydrozoa (hydroid polypes, or sertularians) the young are pro-
pagated, as in plants, by " buds," and also, as in most plants, by " germs "
or " seeds : " these latter are contained in " germ-sacs " projecting from the
outer surface, which is another analogy to the flowering parts of plants.
The first acquaintance with these marvels excited the hope that we were
about to penetrate the mystery of the origin of different species of animals;
but as far as observation has yet extended, the cycle of changes is definitely
closed. And, since one essential step in the series is the fertilized seeds or
egg, the Harveian axiom, " omne vivum ab ovo" if metagenetic phases be
ascribed to one individual, may be still predicated of all organisms which
bear unmistakable characters of plants or of animals. The closest obser-
vations of the subjects of these two kingdoms most favorable to clear in-
sight into the nature of their beginning, accumulate evidence in proof of
the essential first step being due to the protoplasmic matter of a germ-cell
and sperm-cell ; the former preexisting in the form of a nucleus or protoplast,
the latter as a granulous fluid. In flowering plants it is conveyed by the
pollen-tube, in animals and many flowerless plants, by locomotive spermato-
zoids. The changes of form which the representative of a species undergoes
in successive agamically propagating individuals are termed the " metagen-
esis " of such species. The changes of form which the representative of a
species undergoes in a single individual, is called the "metamorphosis."
But this term has practically been restricted to the instances in which the
individual, during certain phases of the change, is free and active, as in the
grub of the chaffer, or the tadpole of the frog, for example. In reference
to some supposed essential differences in the metamorphoses of insects, it
had been suggested that stages answering to those represented by the apodal
and acephalous maggot of the Diptera, by the hexapod larva of the Carabi,
and by the hexapod antennifcrous larva of the Meloe, were really passed
through by the orthopterous insect, before it quitted the egg. Mr. Andrew
Murray has recently made known some facts in confirmation of this view.
He had received a wooden idol from Africa, behind the ears of which a
Blatta had fixed its egg-cases, after which the whole figure had been rudely
painted by the natives, and these egg-cases were covered by the paint. Xo
insect could have emerged without breaking through the case and the paint;

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 29

but both were uninjured. In the egg-cases were discovered, 1st, a grub-
like larva in the egg; 2d, a cocoon in the egg containing the un winged,
imperfectly-developed insect; 3d, the unwinged, imperfectly-developed in-
sect in the egg, free from the cocoon, and ready to emerge.

The microscope is an indispensable instrument in embryological and
histological researches, as also in reference to that vast swarm of animal-
cules which are too minute for ordinary vision. I can here do little more
than allude to the systematic direction now given to the application of the
microscope to particular tissues and particular classes, chiefly due, in tins
country, to the counsels and example of the Microscopical Society of Lon-
don. A very interesting application of the microscope has been made to
the particles of matter suspended in the atmosphere; and a systematic
continuation of such observations by means of glass slides prepared to catch
and retain atmospheric atoms, promises to be productive of important
results. We now know that the so-called red-snow of Arctic and Alpine
regions is a microscopic single-celled organism which vegetates on the
surface of snow. Cloudy or misty extents of dust-like matter pervading
the atmosphere, such as have attracted the attention of travellers in the vast
coniferous forests of North America, and have been borne out to sea, have
been found to consist of the " pollen" or fertilizing particles of plants, and
have been called " pollen showers." M. Daneste, submitting to microscopic
examination similar dust which fell from a cloud at Shanghai, found that it
consisted of spores of a confervoid plant, probably Trichodesmium erythneum,
which vegetates in, and imparts its peculiar color to, the Chinese Sea.
Decks of ships, near the Cape de Verde Islands, have been covered by such
so-called " showers" of impalpable dust, which, by the microscope of Ehren-
berg, has been shown to consist of minute organisms, chiefly " Diatomaccoi."
One sample collected on a ship's deck 500 miles off the coast of Africa,
exhibited numerous species of fresh water and marine diatoms, bearing a
close resemblance to South American forms of those organisms. Ehrenbcrg
lias recorded numerous other instances in his paper printed in the " Berlin
Transactions " ; but here, as in other exemplary series of observations of
the indefatigable microscopist, the conclusions are perhaps not so satisfac-
tory as the well-observed data. He speculates upon the self-developing
power of organisms in the atmosphere, affirms that dust-showers are not to
be traced to mineral material from the earth's surface, nor to revolving
masses of dust material in space, nor to atmospheric currents simply ; but to
some general law connected with the atmosphere of our planet, according
to which there is a "self-development" within it of living organisms,
which organisms he suspects may have some relation to the periodical
meteorolites or aerolites. The advocates of progressive development may
see and hail in this the first step in the series of ascending transmutations.
The unbiased observer will be stimulated by the startling hypothesis of the
celebrated Berlin professor to more frequent and regular examinations of
atmospheric organisms. Some late examinations of dust-showers clearly
show them to have a source which Ehrenberg has denied. Some of my
hearers may remember the graphic description by Her Majesty's Envoy to
Persia, the Hon. C. A. Murray, of the cloud of impalpable red dust which
darkened the air of Bagdad, and filled the city with a panic. The specimen
he collected was examined by my successor, at the Royal College of
Surgeons, ^Professor Quckett, and that experienced microscopist could
detect only inorganic particles, such as fine quartz sand, without any trace

3*

30 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of Diatomacese or other organic matter. Dr. Lawson has obtained a similar
result from the examination of the material of a shower of moist dust or
mud which fell at Corfu, in March, 18^7 ; it consisted for the most part of
minute angular particles of a quartzose sand. Here, therefore, is a field of
observation for the microscopist, which has doubtless most interesting
results as the reward of persevering research.

Observations of the characters of plants have led to the recognition of the
natural groups or families of the vegetable kingdom, and to a clear scientific
comprehension of that great kingdom of nature. This phase of botanical
science gives the power of further and more profitable generalizations, such
as those teaching the relations between the particular plants and particular
localities. The sum of these relations, forming the geographical distributions
of plants, rests, perhaps at present necessarily, on an assumption, viz., that
each species has been created, or come into being, but once in time and space ;
and that its present diffusion is the result of its own law of reproduction,
under the diffusive or restrictive influence of external circumstances. These
circumstances are chiefly temperature and moisture, dependent on the dis-
tance from the source of heat and the obliquity of the sun's rays, modified
Ly altitude above the sea-level, or the degree of rarefaction of the atmosphere
and of the power of the surface to wastefully radiate heat. Both latitude
and altitude are further modified by currents of air and ocean, which influ-
ence the distribution of the heat they have absorbed. Thus large tracts of
dry land produce dry and extreme climates, while large expanses of sea pro-
duce humid and equable climates. Agriculture affects the geographical dis-
tribution of plants, both directly and indirectly. It diffuses plants over a
wider area of equal climate, augments their productiveness, and enlarges the
limits of their capacity to support different climatal conditions. Agriculture
also effects local modifications of climate. Certain species of plants require
more special physical conditions for health ; others more general conditions ;
and their extent of diffusion varies accordingly. Thus the plants of temperate
climates are more widely diffused over the surface of the globe, because they
are suited to elevated tracts in tropical latitudes. There is, however, another
law which relates to the original appearance, or creation, of plants, and which
has produced different species flourishing under similar physical conditions,
in different regions of the globe. Thus the plants of the mountains of South
America are of distinct species, and for the most part of distinct genera, from
those of Asia. The plants of the temperate latitudes of North America are
of distinct species, and some of distinct genera, from those of Europe. The
Cactere of the hot regions of Mexico are represented by the Euphorbiacere in
parts of Africa having a similar climate. The surface of the earth has been
divided into twenty-five regions, of which I may cite as examples that of New
Zealand, in which Ferns predominate, together with generic forms, half of
which are European, and the rest approximating to Australian, South African,
and Antarctic forms ; and that of Australia, characterized by its Eucalypti
and Epacrides, chiefly known to us by the researches of the great botanist,
Robert Brown, the founder of the Geography of Plants.

Organic Life, in its animal form, is much more developed, and more
variously, in the sea, than in its vegetable form. Observations of marine
animals and their localities have led to attempts at generalizing the results;
and the modes of enunciating these generalizations or laws of geographical
distribution arc very analogous to those which have been applied to the veg-
etable kingdom, which is as diversely developed on land as in the animal

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 31

kingdom in the sea. The most interesting form of expression of the distri-
bution of marine life is that which parallels the perpendicular distribution of
plants. Edward Forbes has expressed this by defining five batnymetrical
zones, or belts of depth, which he calls, 1, Littoral ; 2, Circumlittoral ; 3,
Median; 4, Infra-median; 5, Abyssal. The life-forms of these zones vary,
of course, according to the nature of th-e sea-bottom ; and are modified by
those primitive or creative laws that have caused representative species in
distant localities under like physical conditions, species related by analogy.
Very much remains to be observed and studied by naturalists in different
parts of the globe, under the guidance of the generalizations thus sketched
out, to the completion of a perfect theory. But in the progress to this, the
results cannot fail to be practically most valuable. A shell or a sea-weed,
whose relations to depth are thus understood, may afford important informa-
tion or warning to the navigator. To the geologist the distribution of marine
life according to the zones of depth, has given the clue to the determination
of the depth of the seas in which certain formations have been deposited.
Had all the terrestrial animals that now exist diverged from one common
centre within the limited period of a few thousand years, it might have been
expected that the remoteness of their actual localities from such ideal centre
would bear a certain ratio with their respective powers of locomotion. With
regard to the class of Birds, one might have expected to find that those which
were deprived of the power of flight, and were adapted to subsist on the
vegetation of a warm or temperate latitude, would still be met with more or
less associated together, and least distant from the original centre of disper-
sion, situated in such a latitude. This, however, is not only not the case with
birds, but is not so with any other classes of animals. The Quadrumana, or
order of apes, monkeys, and lemur, consists of three chief divisions Catar-
hines, Platyrhines, and Strcpsirhines. The first family is peculiar to the
" Old World " ; the second to South America; the third has the majority of
its species and its chief genus (Lemur), exclusively in Madagascar. Out of
twenty-six known species of Lemuridre, only six arc Asiatic, and three are
African. Whilst adverting to the geographical distribution of Quadrumana,
I would contrast the peculiarly limited range of the orangs and chimpanzees
with the cosmopolitan powers of mankind. The two species of orang (Pith-
ecus) are confined to Borneo and Sumatra; the two species of chimpanzee
(Troglodytes) are limited to an intertropical tract of the western part of Africa.
They appear to be inexorably bound by climatal influences regulating the
assemblage of certain trees and the production of certain fruits. Climate
rigidly limits the range of the Quadrumana latitudinally ; creational and
geographical causes limit their range in longitude. Distinct genera represent
each other in the same latitudes of the New and Old Worlds; and also, in a
great degree, in Africa and Asia. But the development of an orang out of a
chimpanzee, or reciprocally, is physiologically inconceivable. The order of
Ruminantia is principally represented by Old World species, of which
one hundred and sixty-two have been defined; w r hilst only twenty-four
species have been discovered in the Xew World, and none in Australia, New
Guinea, New Zealand, or the Polynesian Isles. The camelopard is now
peculiar to Africa; the musk-deer to Africa and Asia; out of about fifty
defined species of antelope, only one is known in America, and none in the
central and southern divisions of the Xew World. Palaeontology has
expanded our knowledge of the range of the giraffe; during Miocene or old
Pliocene periods, species of Carnelopardalis roamed in Asia and Europe.

32 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Geology gives a wider range to the horse and elephant kinds than was cog-
nizant to the student of living species only. The existing Equidae and Ele-
phantidse properly belong, or are limited to, the Old World; and the
elephants to Asia and Africa, the species of the two continents being quite
distinct. The horse, as Btiffon remarked, carried terror to the eye of the
indigenous Americans, viewing the animal for the first time, as it proudly
bore their Spanish conqueror. But a species of Equus, coexisted with the
Megatherium and Megalonyx, in both South and North America, and per-
ished apparently with them, before the human period. Elephants are
dependent chiefly upon trees for food. One species now finds conditions of
existence in the rich forests of tropical Asia; and a second species in those
of tropical Africa. Why, we may ask, should not a third be living at the
expense of the still more luxuriant vegetation watered by the Oronooko, the
Essequibo, the Amazon, and the La Plata, in tropical America? Geology tells
us that at least two kinds of elephant (Mastodon Andium and M. Humboldtii)
formerly did derive their subsistence, along with the great Megathcrioid
beasts, from that abundant source. We may infer that the general growth
of large forests, and the absence of deadly enemies, were the main conditions
of the former existence of elephantine animals over every part of the globe.
We have the most pregnant proof of the importance of Palaeontology in
rectifying and expanding ideas deduced from recent Zoology of the geograph-
ical limits of particular forms of animals, by the results of its application to
the proboscidian or elephantine family. But such retrospective views of life
in remote periods, in many important instances, confirm the Zoologist's
deductions of the originally restricted range of particular forms of mamma-
lian life. The sum of all the evidence from the fossil world in Australia
proves its mammalian population to have been essentially the same in pleis-
tocene, if not pliocene times, as now; only represented, as the Edentate
mammals in South America were then represented, l>y more numerous gen-
era, and much more gigantic species, than now exist. But Geology has
revealed more important and unexpected facts relative to the marsupial type
of quadrupeds. In the miocene and eocene tertiary deposits, marsupial fos-
sils of the American genus Didelphys have been found, both in France and
England ; and they are associated with Tapirs like that of America. In a
more ancient geological period remains of marsupials, some insectivorous, as
Spalacotherium and Triconodon, others with teeth like the peculiar premo-
lars in the Australian genus Hypsipromnus, have been found in the upper
oolite of the Isle of Purbeck. In the lower oolite at Stonesfield, Oxfordshire,
marsupial remains have been found having their nearest living representa-
tives in the Australian genera Myrmecobius and Dasyurus. Thus it would
seem, that the deeper we penetrate the earth, or, in other words, the further
we recede in time, the more completely are we absolved from the present
l:nvs of geographical distribution. In comparing the mammalian fossils
found in British pleistocene and pliocene beds, we have often to travel to Asia
or Africa for their homologues. In the miocene and eocene strata some
fossils occur which compel us to go to America for the nearest representa-
tives. To match the mammalian remains from the English oolitic formations,
we must bring species from the Antipodes. These are truly most suggestive
facts. If the present laAvs of geographical distribution depend, in an impor-
tant degree, upon the present configuration and position of continents and
islands, what a total change in the geographical character of the earth's sur-
face must have taken place since the " Stonesfield slate " was deposited in

MECHANICS AND USEFUL AUTS. 33

what now forms the county of Oxfordshire! These and the like considera-
tions from the modifications of geographical distribution of particular forms
or groups of animals, warn us how inadequate must be the phenomena con-
nected with the present distribution of land and sea to guide to the deter-
mination of the primary ontological divisions of the earth's surface. Some
of the latest contributions to this most interesting branch of natural history
have been the result of endeavors to determine whether, and how many, dis-
tinct creations of plants and animals have taken place. But I would submit,
that the discovery of two portions of the globe, of which the respective
Faunas and Floras are different, by no means affords the requisite basis for
concluding as to distinct acts of creation. Such conclusion is associated,
perhaps, unconsciously, with the idea of the historical date of creative acts :
it presupposes that the portion of the globe so investigated by the botanist
and zoologist has been a separate and primitive creation, that its geograph-
ical limits and features are still in the main what they were when the creative
fiat went forth. But Geology has demonstrated that such is by no means the
case Avith respect to the portions of dry land now termed continents and
islands. The incalculable vistas of time past into w r hich the same science
has thrown light, are also shown to have periods during which the relative
position of land and sea have been ever changing.

Already the directions, and to a certain extent the forms, of the submerged
tracts that once joined what now are islands to continents, and which once
united now separate or nearly disjoined continents by broad tracts of
continuity, begin to be laid down in geological maps, addressing to the eye
such successive and gradually progressive alterations of the earth's surface.
These phenomena shake our confidence in the conclusion that the Apteryx
of New Zealand and the Red-grouse of England were distinct creations in
and for those islands respectively. Always, also, it may be well to bear in
mind that by the word " creation " the zoologist means " a process, he knows
not what." Science has not yet ascertained the secondary causes that
operated when " the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after
his kind," and -when " the waters brought forth abundantly the moving
creature that hath life." And supposing both the fact and the whole process
of the so-called " spontaneous generation " of a fruit-bearing tree, or of a
fish, were scientifically demonstrated, we should still retain as strongly the
idea which is the chief of the "mode" or "group of ideas" we call
*' creation," viz., that the process was ordained by and had originated from
an all-wise and powerful First Cause of all things. When, therefore, the
present peculiar relation of the Red-grouse ( Tttrao scoticus) to Britain and
Ireland and I cite it as one of a large class of instances in Geographical
Zoulogy is enumerated by the zoologist as evidence of a distinct creation
of the bird in and for such islands, he chiefly expresses that he knows not
how the Red-grouse came to be there and there exclusively ; signifying also
by this mode of expressing such ignorance, his belief that both the bird and
the islands owed their origin to a great first Creative Cause. And this
analysis of the real meaning of the phrase " distinct creation," has led me to
suggest whether, in aiming to define the primary zoological provinces of the
globe, we may not be trenching upon a province of knowledge beyond our
present capacities; at least, in the judgment of Lord Bacon, commenting
upon man's efforts to pierce into the " dead beginnings of things."

On the few occasions in which I have been led to offer observations on
the probable cause of the extinction of species, the chief weight has been

34 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

given to those gradual changes in the conditions of a country affecting the
due supply of sustenance to animals in a state of nature. I have also
pointed out the characters in the animals themselves calculated to render
them most obnoxious to such extirpating influences : and on one occasion I
have applied the remarks to the explanation of so many of the larger species
of particular groups of animals having become extinct, whilst smaller
species of equal antiquity have remained. In proportion to its bulk is the
difficulty of the contest, which, as a living organized whole, the individual
of such species has to maintain against the surrounding agencies that arc
ever tending to dissolve the vital bond and subjugate the living matter to
the ordinary chemical and physical forces. Any changes, therefore, in such
external agencies as a species may have been originally adapted to exist in,
will militate against that existence in a degree proportionate, perhaps in a
geometrical ratio, to the bulk of the species. If a dry season be gradually
prolonged, the large mammal will suffer from the drought sooner than the
small one ; if such alteration of climate affect the quantity of vegetable
food, the bulky herbivore will first feel the effects of stinted nourishment ;
if new enemies are introduced, the large and conspicuous quadruped or bird
will fall a prey, while the smaller species conceal themselves and escape.
Smaller animals are usually also more prolific than larger ones. " The
actual presence, therefore, of small species of animals in countries where
larger species of the same natural families formerly existed, is not the con-
sequence of any gradual diminution of the size of such species, but is the
result of circumstances which may be illustrated by the fable of the ' Oak
and the Reed ; ' the smaller and feebler animals have bent and accommo-
dated themselves to changes which have destroyed the larger species."
No doubt the type-form of any species is that which is best adapted to the
conditions under which such species at the time exists ; and as long as those
conditions remain unchanged, so long will the type remain; all varieties
departing therefrom being in the same ratio less adapted to the environing
conditions of existence. But, if those conditions change, then the variety
of the species at an antecedent date and state of things will become the
type-form of the species at a later date, and in an altered state of things.
Observation of animals in a state of nature is required to show their degree
of plasticity, or the extent to which varieties do arise, whereby grounds may
be had for judging of the probability of the elastic ligaments and joint-
structures of a feline foot, for example, being superinduced upon the more
simple structure of the toe with the non-retractile claw, according to the
principle of a succession of varieties in time. Observation of fossil remains
is also still needed to make known the antetypes, in which varieties, analo-
gous to the observed ones in existing species, might have occurred, so as to
give rise ultimately to such extreme forms as the Giraffe, for example.
The aboriginal laws of the geographical distribution of plants and animals
have been modified from of old by geological and the concomitant climatnl
changes ; but they have been much more disturbed by man since his intro-
duction upon the globe. The serviceable plants and animals which he has
carried with him in his migrations have flourished and multiplied in lands
the most remote from the habitats of the aboriginal species. Man has, also,
been the most potent and intelligible cause of the extirpation of species
within historic times. He alone, with one of the beasts which he has
domesticated the dog is cosmopolitan. The human species is repre-
sented by a few well-marked varieties; and there is a certain amount of cor-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 35

respondcnce between their localities and general zoological provinces. But,-
with regard to the alleged conformity between the geographical distribution
of man and animals, which has of late been systematically enunciated, and
made by Agassis, in Gliddon & Nott's " Varieties of Mankind," the basis of
deductions as to the origin and distinction of the human varieties, many
facts might be cited, affecting the conformity of the distribution of man
with that of the lower animals and plants, as absolutely enunciated in some
recent works. Nor can we be surprised to find that the migratory instincts
of the human species, with the peculiar endowment of adaptiveness to all
climates, should have produced modifications in geographical distribution
to which the lower forms of living nature have not been subject. Ethnology
is a wide and fertile subject, and I should be led far beyond the limits of an.
inaugural discourse were I to indulge in an historical sketch of its progress.
But I may advert to the testimony of different witnesses to the concurrence
of distinct species of evidence as to the much higher antiquity of the
human race, than has been assigned to it in historical and genealogical
records.

Mr. Leonard Horner discerned the value of the phenomena of the annual
sedimentary deposits of the Nile in Egypt as a test of the lapse of time dur-
ing which that most recent and still operating geological dynamid had been
in progress. In two Memoirs communicated to the Royal Society in 1855
and 1858, the result of ninety-five vertical borings through the alluvium thus
formed are recorded. In the excavations near the colossus of Rameses II.,
at Memphis, there were nine feet four inches of Nile sediment between eight
inches below the present surface of the ground and the lowest part of the
platform on which the statue had stood. Supposing the platform to have
been laid in the middle of the reign of that king, viz., 1361 B. c., such date
added to A. D. 1854, gives 3,215 years during which the above sediment was
accumulated ; or a mean rate of increase of three and a half inches in a cen-
tury. Below the platform there were thirty-two feet of the total depth pene-
trated; but the lowest two feet consisted of sand, below which it is possible
there may be no true Nile sediment in this locality, thus leaving thirty feet
of the latter. If that amount has been deposited at the same rate of three
and a half inches in a century, it gives for the lowest part deposited an age
of 10,285 years before the middle of the reign of Rameses II., and 13,500
years before A. D. 1854. The Nile sediment at the lowest depth reached is
very similar in composition to that of the present day. In the lowest part
of the boring of the sediment at the colossal statue in Memphis, at a depth
of thirty-nine feet from the surface of the ground, the instrument is reported
to have brought up a piece of pottery. This, therefore, Mr. Horner infers
to be a record of the existence of man 13,371 years before A. D. 1854 : " Of
man moreover, in a state of civilization, so far, at least, as to be able to fash-
ion clay into vessels, and to know how to harden them by the action of a
strong heat." Professor Max Miiller has opened out a similar vista into the
remote past of the history of the human race by the perception and applica-
tion of analogies in the formation of modern and ancient, of living and dead,
languages. From the relations traceable between the six Romance dialects,
Italian, Wallachian, Khsetian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, an antece-
dent common " mother-tongue " might be inferred, and, consequently the
existence of a race anterior to the modern Italians, Spanish, French, etc.,
with conclusions as to the lapse of time requisite for such divisions and mi-
grations of the primitive stock, and for the modifications which the mother-

36 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

language had undergone. History and preserved writings show that such
common mother-race and language have existed in the Roman people and
the Latin tongue. But Latin, like the equally " dead " language Greek, with
Sanscrit, Lithuanian, Zend, and the Gothic, Sclavonic, and Celtic tongues,
can be similarly shown to be modifications of one antecedent common lan-
guage ; whence is to be inferred an antecedent race of men, and a lapse of
time sufficient for their migration over a tract extending from Iceland in the
north-west to India in the south-east, and for all the above named modi-
fications to have been established in the common mother " Arian " tongue.

Agriculture has of late years made unusual progress, and much of that
progress is due to the application of scientific principles; chiefly of those
supplied by Chemistry; in a less degree of Zoology and Physiology. Ge-
ology now teaches the precise nature and relations of soils : a knowledge of
great practical importance in guiding the drainer of land, in the modifica-
tions of his general rules of practice. Palaeontology has brought to light un-
expected sources of valuable manures, in phosphatic relics of ancient animal
life, accumulated in astounding masses in certain localities of England. But
quantities of azotic, ammoniacal, and phosphatic matters are still suffered
to run to waste; and, as if to bring the wastefulness more home to the con-
viction, those products, so valuable when rightly administered, become a
source of annoyance, unremunerative outlay and disease, when, as at present
in most towns, imperfectly and irrationally disposed of.

In the operations of Nature, there is generally a succession of processes
coordinated for a given result; a peach is not directly developed as such
from its elements ; the seed would, a priori, give no idea of the tree, nor the
tree of the flower, nor the fertilized germ of that flower of the pulpy fruit
in which the seed was buried. It is eminently characteristic of the Creative
Wisdom, this far-seeing and prevision of an ultimate result, through the
successive operations of a coordinate series of seemingly very different con-
ditions. The further a man discerns, in a series of conditions, their co-
ordination to produce a given result, the nearer does his wisdom approach
though the distance be still immeasurable to the Divine wisdom. One
philanthropist builds a fever hospital, another drains a town. One crime-
preventer trains the boy, another hangs the man. One statesman would
raise money by augmenting a duty, or by a direct tax, and finds the revenue
not increased in the expected ratio. Another diminishes a tax, or abolishes
a duty, and through foreseen consequences the revenue is improved. Water
is the cheapest and most efficient transporter of excreta ; but it should be
remembered that the application of the water-supply as a transporting power
is to be limited to all that comes from the interior of the abodes; this alone
can be practically and successfully applied to agriculture. Whatever flows
from the outside of houses, together with the general rainfall of the town
area, should go to the nearest river by channels wholly distinct from the
hydraulic excretory system. Agriculture, let me repeat, has made, and is
making, great and encouraging progress ; but much yet remains to be done.
Were agriculture adequately advanced, the great problem of the London
sewage would be speedily solved. Can it be supposed, if the rural districts
about the metropolis were in a condition to avail themselves of a daily sup-
ply of the pipe-water not more than equivalent to that which a heavy shower
of rain throws down on 2,000 acres of land, but a supply charged with thirty
tons of nitrogenous ammoniacal principles, that such supply would not be
forthcoming, and made capable of being distributed ^hen called for within

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. o7

a radius of one hundred miles ? To send ships for foreign ammoniacal or
phosphatic excreta to the coast of Peru, and to pollute by the waste of sim-
ilar home products the noble river bisecting the metropolis, are flagrant
signs of the desert and uncultivated state of a field where science and prac-
tice have still to cooperate for the public benefit.

Some of our sciences are deeply concerned in one progressive step the
uniformity of standard in measure and weight throughout the civilized
world ; in urging on which step, energetic and unwearied efforts are now be-
ing made by a committee of our fellow-laborers of the Royal Society of Arts,
amongst whom the name of the prime promoter of this and kindred reforms,
Mr. James Yates, deserves special and honorable mention. Chemistry is
more concerned in the uniform expression of the results of her delicate bal-
ances amongst her cultivators of different countries ; Natural History is no
less interested in the use, by all observers, of one and the same scale for
measuring, and of one set 01 terms for expressing the superficial dimensions
of her subjects.

But not by words only would, or does, science make return to govern-
ments fostering and aiding her endeavors for the public weal. Every prac-
tical application of her discoveries tends to the same end as that which the
enlightened statesman has in view. The steam-engine in its manifold ap-
plications, the crime-decreasing gas-lamp, the lightning conductor, the elec-
tric telegraph, the law of storms, and rules for the mariner's guidance in
them, the power of rendering surgical operations painless, the measures for
preserving public health, and for preventing or mitigating epidemics, such
are among the more important practical results of pure scientific research
with which mankind have been blessed and States enriched. They are evi-
dence unmistakable of the close affinity between the aims and tendencies
of science and those of true State policy. In proportion to the activity, pro-
ductivity, and prosperity of a community is its power of responding to the
calls of the Finance Minister. By a far-seeing one, the man of science will
be regarded with a favorable eye, not less for the unlooked-for streams of
wealth that have already flowed, but for those that may in future arise, out
of the applications of the abstract truths to the discovery of which he devotes
himself. This may, indeed, demand some measure of faith on the part of
the practical statesman. For who that watched the philosophic Black ex-
perimenting on the abstract nature of Caloric could have foreseen that his
discovery of latent heat would be the stand-point of Watt's invention of a
practically operative steam-engine! How little could the observer of Oer-
sted's subtle arrangements for converting electric into magnetic force have
dreamt of the application of such discovery to the rapid interchange of ideas
now daily practised between individuals in distant cities, countries, and con-
tinents ! Some medical contemporaries of John Hunter, when they saw
him, as they thought, wasting as much time in studying the growth of a
deer's horn as they would have bestowed upon the symptoms of their best
patient, compassionated, it is said, the singularity of his pursuits. But, by
the insight so gained into the rapid enlargement of arteries, Hunter learned
a property of those vessels which emboldened him to experiment on a man
with aneurism, and so to introduce a new operation which has rescued from
a lingering and painful death thousands of his fellow-creatures. Our great
inductive physiologist, in his dissections and experiments on the lower ani-
mals, was " taking light what may be wrought upon the body of man."
The production of Chloroform, is amongst the more subtle experimental results

4

38 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of modern Chemistry. The blessed effects of its proper exhibition in tho
diminution of the sum of human agony are indescribable. But that divine-
like application was not present to the mind of the scientific chemist who
discovered the anaesthetic product, any more than was the gas-lit town to
the mind of Priestley, or the condensing engine to that of Black.

ADDRESS OF LORD BROUGHAM AT THE INAUGURATION OF A
STATUE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

The following eloquent and suggestive address was delivered by Lord
Brougham, September 21, 1858, on the occasion of inaugurating a statue to
Sir Isaac Newton, at Grantham, the great philosopher's birthplace. Al-
though somewhat foreign to the general subject-matter of the Annual, we
think its publication will be most acceptable to our readers. Rising from a
venerable arm-chair, in which Newton sat when he composed the Principia,
the learned Ex-Chancellor spoke as follows :

To record the names and preserve the memory of those whose great
achievements in science, in arts, or in arms, have conferred benefits and
lustre upon our kind, has, in all ages, been regarded as a duty, and felt as a
gratification, by wise and reflecting men. The desire of inspiring an ambi-
tion to emulate such examples, generally mingles itself with these senti-
ments; but they cease not to operate, even in the rare instances of transcend-
ent merit, where matchless genius excludes all possibility of imitation, and
nothing remains but wonder in those who contemplate its triumphs at a dis-
tance that forbids all attempts to approach. We are this day assembled to
commemorate him of whom the consent of nations has declared that he is
chargeable with nothing like a follower's exaggeration or local partiality;
who pronounce the name of Newton as that of the greatest genius ever
bestowed by the bounty of Providence for instructing mankind on the frame
of the universe, and the laws by Avhich it is governed :

" In genius who surpassed mankind as far
As does the midday sun the midnight star." DRYDEN.

But, though scaling these lofty heights be hopeless, yet is there some use
and much gratification in contemplating by what steps he ascended. Trac-
ing his course of action may help others to gain the lower eminences lying
within their reach, while admiration excited and curiosity satisfied are frames
of mind both wholesome and pleasing. Nothing new, it is true, can be given
in narrative, hardly anything in reflection, less still, perhaps, in comment or
illustration; but it is well to assemble in one view various parts of the vast
subject, with the surrounding circumstances, whether accidental or intrinsic,
and to mark in passing the misconceptions raised by individual ignorance or
national prejudice which the historian of science occasionally finds crossing
his path. The remark is common and is obvious, that the genius of Newton
did not manifest itself at a very early age. His faculties were not, like those
of some great and many ordinary individuals, precociously developed.
Among the former, Clairaut -stands preeminent, who at nineteen years of
age presented to the Royal Academy a memoir of great originality upon a
difficult subject in the higher geometry, and at eighteen published his great
work on curves of double curvature, composed during the two preceding
years. Pascal, too, at sixteen, wrote an excellent treatise on conic sections.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. CO

That Newton cannot be ranked in this respect with those extraordinary per-
sons is owing to the accidents which prevented him from entering upon
mathematical study before his eighteenth year; and then a much greater
marvel was wrought than even the Clairants and the Pascals displayed.
His earliest history is involved in some obscurity, and the most celebrated
of men has, in this particular, been compared to the most celebrated of
rivers (the Nile), as if the course of both in its feebler state had been con-
cealed from mortal eyes. We have it, however, well ascertained, that within
four years, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two, he had begun to
study mathematical science, and had taken his place among its greatest mas-
ters; learnt for the first time the elements of geometry and analysis, and
discovered a calculus which entirely changed the face of the science, effect-
ing a complete revolution in that and in every branch of philosophy con-
nected with it. Before 1661, he had not read "Euclid;" in 1665, he had
committed to writing the method of fluxions. At twenty -five years of age,
he had discovered the law of gravitation, and laid the foundation of celestial
dynamics, the science created by him. Before ten years had elapsed, he
added to his discoveries that of the fundamental properties of light. So
brilliant a course of discovery in so short a time, changing and reconstruct-
ing analytical, astronomical, and optical science, almost defies belief. The
statement could only be deemed possible by an appeal to the incontestable
evidence that proves it strictly true. By a rare felicity these doctrines gained
the universal assent of mankind as soon as they were clearly understood ;
and their originality has never been seriously called in question. Some
doubts having been raised respecting his inventing the calculus doubts
raised in consequence of his so long withholding the publication of his
method no sooner was the inquiry instituted than the evidence produced
proved so decisive that all men in all countries acknowledged him to have
been, by several years, the earliest inventor, and Leibnitz, at the utmost, the
first publisher; the only questions raised being, first, whether or not he had
borrowed from Newton ; and next, whether, as second inventor, he could
have any merit at all, both which questions have long since been decided
in favor of Leibnitz. But undeniable though it be that Newton made the
great steps of this progress, and made them without any anticipation or
participation by others, it is equally certain that there had been approaches
in former times by preceding philosophers to the same discoveries. Caval-
Icri, by his Geometry of Indivisibles (1635), Roberval, by his method of
Tangents (1367), had both given solutions which Descartes could not
attempt ; and it is remarkable that Cavalleri regarded curves as polygons,
surfaces as composed of lines, while Roberval viewed geometrical quantities
as generated by motion ; so that the one approached to the differential calcu-
lus, the other to fluxions ; and Format, in the interval between them, comes
still nearer the great discovery by his determination of maxima and minima,
and his drawing of tangents. More recently Hudden had made public simi-
lar methods invented by Schoetin; and what is material, treating the sub-
ject algebraically, while those just now mentioned had rather dealt with it
geometrically. It is thus easy to perceive how near an approach had been
made to the calculus before the great event of its final discovery. There
had in like manner been approaches made to the law of gravitation, and the
dynamical system of the universe. Galileo's important propositions on
motion, especially on curvilinear motion, and Kepler's laws upon the ellipti-
cal form of the planetary orbits, the proportion of the areas to the times,

40 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

and of the periodic times to the mean distances ; and Huygens's theorems
on centrifugal forces, had been followed by still nearer approaches to the
doctrine of attraction. Borelli had distinctly ascribed the motion of satel-
lites to then* being drawn towards the principal planets, and thus prevented
from flying off by the centrifugal force. Even the composition of white
light, and the different action of bodies upon its component parts, had been
vaguely conjectured by Ant. de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, at the
beginning, and more precisely in the middle of the seventeenth century by
Marcus (Kronland of Prague), unknown to Newton, who only refers to the
Archbishop's work; while the treatise of Huygens on light, Grimaldi's
observations on colors by inflexion, as well as on the elongation of the
image in the prismatic spectrum, had been brought to his attention, although
much less near to his own great discovery than Marcus's experiment. But
all this only shows that the discoveries of Newton, great and rapid as were
the steps by which they advanced our knowledge, yet obeyed the law of
continuity, or rather of gradual progress, which governs ah 1 human ap-
proaches towards perfection. The limited nature of man's faculties pre-
cludes the possibility of his ever reaching at once the utmost excellence of
which they are capable. Survey the whole circle of the sciences, and trace
the history of our progress in each, you find this to be the universal rule.
In chymical philosophy, the dreams of the Alchymists prepared the way
for the more rational, though erroneous, theory of Stahl; and it was by
repeated improvements that his errors, so long prevalent, were at length
exploded, giving place to the sound doctrine which is now established.
The great discoveries of Black and Priestly on heat and aeriform fluids, had
been preceded by the happy conjectures of Newton and the experiments of
others. Nay, Voltaire had w r ell-nigh discovered both the absorption of heat,
the constitution of the atmosphere, and the oxydation of metals ; and by a
few more trials might have ascertained it. Cuvier had been preceded by
inquirers who took sound views of fossil osteology, among whom, the truly
original genius of Hunter fills the foremost place. The inductive system of
Bacon had been, at least in its practice, known to his predecessors. Obser-
vations, and even experiments, were not unknown to the ancient philoso-
phers, though mingled with gross errors; in early times, almost in the dark
ages, experimental inquiries had been carried on with success by Friar
Bacon, and that method actually recommended in a treatise, as it was two
centuries later by Leonardo da Vinci, and at the latter end of the next century
Gilbert examined the whole subject of magnetic action entirely by experi-
ments . So that Lord Bacon's claim to be regarded as the father of modern
philosophy rests upon the important, the invaluable step of reducing to a
system the method of investigation adopted by those eminent men, general-
izing it, and extending its application to all matters of contingent truth,
exploding the errors, the absurd dogmas, and fantastic subtleties of the
ancient schools; above all, confining the subject of our inquiry, and the
manner of conducting it, within the limits which our faculties prescribe.
Nor is this great law of gradual progress confined to the physical sciences;
in the moral it equally governs. Before the foundations of political economy
were laid by Hume and Smith, a great step had been made by the French
philosophers, disciples of Quesnai ; but a nearer approach to sound princi-
ples had signalized the labors of Gournay, and those labors had been shared,
and his doctrines patronized, by Turgot, when Chief Minister. Again, in
constitutional policy, see by what slow degrees, from its first rude elements,

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 41

the attendance of feudal tenants at their lord's court, and the summons of
burghers to grant supplies of money, the great discovery of modern times
in the science of practical politics has been effected, the representative
scheme which enables states of any extent to enjoy popular government,
and allows mixed monarchy to be established, combining freedom with
order, a plan pronounced by the statesmen and writers of antiquity to be of
hardly possible formation, and wholly impossible continuance. The globe
itself, as well as the science of its inhabitants, has been explored according
to the law which forbids a sudden and rapid leaping forward, and decrees
that each successive step, prepared by the last, shall facilitate the next.
Even Columbus followed several successful discoverers on a smaller scale,
and is, by some, believed to have had, unknown to him, a predecessor in
the great exploit by which he pierced the night of ages, and unfolded a new
world to the eyes of the old.

The arts atford no exception to the general law. Demosthenes had emi-
nent forerunners, Pericles the last of them. Homer must have had prede-
cessors of great merit, though doubtless as far surpassed by him as Fra Bar-
tolomeo and Pietro Perugino were by Michael Angelo and Raphael. Dante
owed much to Virgil; he may be allowed to have owed, through his Latin
mentor, not a little to the old Grecian ; and Milton had both the orators and
the poets of the ancient world for his predecessors and his masters. The
art of war itself is no exception to the rule. The plan of bringing an over-
powering force to bear on a given point had been tried occasionally before
Frederick II. reduced it to a system; and the Wellingtons and Napoleons of
our own day made it the foundation of their strategy, as it had also been
previously the mainspring of our naval tactics. It has oftentimes been held
that the invention of logarithms stands alone in the history of science, as
having been preceded by no step leading towards the discovery. There is,
however, great inaccuracy in this statement; for not only was the doctrine of
infinitesimals familiar to its illustrious author, and the relation of geometri-
cal to arithmetical series well known, but he had himself struck out several
methods of great ingenuity and utility (as that known by the name of
Napier's Bones ) methods that are now forgotten, eclipsed as they were by
the consummation which has immortalized his name. So the inventive pow-
ers of Watt, preceded as he was by Worcester and Newcomen, but far more
materially by Gauss and Papin, had been exercised on some admirable con-
trivances, now forgotten, before he made the step which created the steam-
engine anew not only the parallel motion, possibly a corollary to the prop-
osition on circular motion in the " Principia," but the separate condensation,
and above all, the governor, perhaps the most exquisite of mechanical inven-
tions ; and now we have those here present who apply the like principle to
the diffusion of knoAvledge, aware, as they must be, that its expansion has
the same happy effect naturally of preventing mischief from its excess which
the skill of the great mechanist gave artificially to steam, thus rendering his
engine as safe as it is powerful. The grand difference, then, between one
discovery or invention and another, is in degree rather than in kind; the
degree in which a person, while he outstrips those whom he comes after, also
lives, as it were, before his age. Nor can any doubt exist that, in this re-
spect, Newton stands at the head of all who have extended the bounds of
knowledge. The sciences of dj'namics and of optics are especially to be
regarded in this point of view; but the former in particular; and the com-
pleteness of the system which he unfolded its having been at the first elab-

4*

42 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

orated and given in perfection its having, however new, stood the test of
time, and survived, nay gained by, the most rigorous scrutiny can be predi-
cated of this system alone, at least in the same degree. That the calculus,
and those parts of dynamics which are purely mathematical, should thus
endure forever is a matter of course. But his system of the universe rests
partly upon contingent truths, and might have yielded to new experiments
and more extended observation. Nay, at times it has been thought to fail,
and further investigation was deemed requisite to ascertain if any error had
been introduced if any circumstance had escaped the notice of the great
founder. The most memorable instance of this kind is the discrepancy sup-
posed to have been found between the theory and the fact in the motion of
the lunar apsides, which about the middle of the last century occupied the
three first analysts of the age. The error was discovered by themselves to
have been their own in the process of their investigation ; and this, like all
the other doubts that were ever momentarily entertained, only led in each
instance to new and more brilliant triumphs of the system. The prodigious
superiority in this cardinal point of the Newtonian to other discoveries
appears manifest upon examining almost any of the chapters in the history
of science. Successive improvements have, by extending our views, con-
stantly displaced the system that appeared firmly established. To take a
familiar instance how little remains of Lavoisier's doctrine of combustion
and acidification, except the negative positions, the subversion of the system
of Stahl ! The substance having most eminently the properties of an acid
(chlorine) is found to have no oxygen at all, while many substances abound-
ing in oxygen, including alkalis themselves, have no acid property whatever;
and without the access of oxygenous or of any other gas, heat and flame are
produced in excess. The docrines of free trade had not long been promul-
gated by Smith before Bentham demonstrated that his exception of usury
was groundless ; and his theory has been repeatedly proved erroneous on
colonial establishments, as well as his exception to it on the navigation laws ;
and the imperfection of his views on the nature of rent is undeniable, as well
as on the principle of population. In these and such instances as these it
would not be easy to find in the original doctrines the means of correcting
subsequent errors, or the germs of extended discovery. But even if philoso-
phers finally, adopt the undulatory theory of light instead of the atomic, it
must be borne in mind that Newton gave the first elements of it by the well-
known proposition in the eighth section of the Second Book of the " Prin-
cipia," the scholium to that section also indicating his expectation that it
* would be applied to optical science; while M. Biot has shown how the doc-
trine of fits of reflection and transmission tallies with polarization, if not
with undulation also. But the most marvellous attribute of Newton's dis-
coveries is that in which they stand out prominent among all the other feats
of scientific research, stamped with the peculiarity of his intellectual charac-
ter; they were (their great author lived before his age) anticipating in part
what was long after wholly accomplished, and thus unfolding some things
which at the time could be but imperfectly, others not at all comprehended,
and not rarely pointing out the path and affording the means of treading it,
to the ascertainment of truths then veiled in darkness. He not only enlarged
the actual dominion of knowledge, penetrating to regions never before ex-
plored, and taking with a firm hand undisputed possession ; but he showed
how the bounds of the visible horizon might be yet further extended, and
enabled his successors to occupy what he could only descry; as the illustrious

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 43

discoverer of the new world made the inhabitants of the old cast their eyes
over lands and seas far distant from those he had traversed; lands and seas
of which they could form to themselves no conception, any more than they
had been able to comprehend the course by which he led them on his grand
enterprise. In this achievement, and in the qualities which alone made it
possible, inexhaustible fertility of resources, patience unsubdued, close med-
itation that would suffer no distraction, steady determination to pursue paths
that seemed all but hopeless, and unflinching courage to declare the truths
they led to, how far soever removed from ordinary apprehension, in these
characteristics of high and original genius, we may be permitted to compare
the career of those great men. But Columbus did not invent the mariner's
compass, as .Newton did the instrument which guided his course, and enabled
him to make his discoveries, and his successors to extend them by closely
following his directions in using it. Nor did the compass suffice to the great
navigator without making any observations, though he dared to steer with-
out a chart; while it is certain that by the philosopher's instrument, his dis-
coveries were extended over the whole system of the universe, determining
the masses, the forms, and the motions of all its parts by the mere inspection
of abstract calculations, and formulas analytically deduced. The two great
improvements in this instrument which have been made the calculus of
variations by Euler and La Grange, the method of partial differences by D'-
Alembert we have every reason to believe were known, at least in part, to
Newton himself. His having solved an isoperimetrical problem (finding the
line whose revolution forms the solid of least resistance), shows clearly that
he must have made the coordinates of the generating curve vary, and his
construction agrees exactly with the equation given by that calculus. That
he must have tried the process of integrating by parts in attempting to gen-
eralize the inverse problem of central forces before he had recourse to the
geometrical approximation which he has given, and also when he sought the
means of ascertaining the comet's path, which he has termed by far the most
difficult of problems, is eminently probable, when we consider how naturally
that method flows from the ordinary process for differentiating compound
quantities, by supposing each variable in succession constant; in short, dif-
ferentiating by parts. As to the calculus of variations having substantially
been known to him, no doubt can be entertained. Again, in estimating the
ellipticity of the earth, he proceeded upon the assumption of a proposition
of which he gave no demonstration (any more than he had done of the iso-
perimetrical problem) that the ratio of the centrifugal force to gravitation
determines the ellipticit} 7 . Half a century later, that which no one before
knew to be true, which many probably considered to be erroneous, was exam-
ined by one of his most distinguished followers, Maclaurin, and demonstrated
most satisfactorily to be true. Newton had not failed to perceive the neces-
sary effects of gravitation in producing other phenomena beside the regular
motion of the planets and their satellites in their course round their several
centres of attraction. One of these phenomena, wholly unsuspected before
the discovery of the general law, is the alternate movement to and fro of the
earth's axis, in consequence of the solar (and also of the lunar) attraction
combined with the earth's motion. This libration, or nutation, distinctly
announced by him as the result of the theory, was not found by actual obser-
vation to exist till sixty years and upwards had elapsed, when Bradley proved
the fact The great discoveries which have been made by La Grange and La
Place upon the results of disturbing forces have established the law of peri-

44 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

odical variation of orbits, which secures the stability of the system by pre-
scribing a maximum and & minimum amount of deviation ; and this is not a
contingent, but a necessary truth, by rigorous demonstration, the inevitable
rcsiilt of undoubted data in point of fact, the eccentricities of the orbits, the
directions of the motions, and the movement in one plane of a certain posi-
tion. That wonderful proposition of Newton, which, with his corollaries,
may be said to give the whole doctrine of disturbing forces, has been little
more than applied and extended by the labors of succeeding geometricians.
Indeed, La Place, struck with wonder at one of his comprehensive general
statements on disturbing forces in another proposition, has not hesitated to
assert that it contains the germ of La Grange's celebrated inquiry exactly a
century after the " Principia " was given to the world. The wonderful pow-
ers of generalization, combined with the boldness of never shrinking from a
conclusion that seemed the legitimate result of his investigations, how new
and even startling soever it might appear, was strikingly shown in that
memorable inference which he drew from optical phenomena, that the dia-
mond is " an unctuous substance coagulated; " subsequent discoveries having
proved both that such substances are carbonaceous, and that the diamond is
crystallized carbon ; and the foundations of mechanical chemistry were laid
by him with the boldest induction and most felicitous anticipations of what
lias since been effected. The solution of the inverse problem of disturbing
forces has led Le Terrier and Adams to the discovery of a new planet, merely
by deductions from the manner in which the notions of an old one are
affected, and its orbit has been so calculated that observers could find it
nay, its disc, as measured by them, only varies 1-1,200 of a degree from the
amount given by the theory. Moreover, when Newton gave his estimate of
the earth's density, he wrote a century before Maskelyne, and by measuring
the force of gravitation in the Scotch mountains, gave the proportion to water
as 4'71G to 1 ; and, many years after, by experiments with mechanical appa-
ratus, Cavendish (1798) corrected this to 5'48, and Baily, more recently (1842),
to 5*66, Newton having given the proportion as between five and six times.
In these instances he only showed the way, and anticipated the result of
future inquiry by his followers. But the oblate figure of the earth affoi'ds an
example of the same kind, with this difference, that here he has himself per-
fected the discovery, and nearly completed the demonstration. From the
mutual gravitation of the particles which form its mass, combined with their
motion round its axis, he deduced the proposition that it must be flattened at
the poles ; and he calculated the proportion of its polar to its equatorial diam-
eter. By a most refined process he gave this proportion upon the supposition
of the mass being homogeneous. That the proportion is different in conse-
quence of the mass being heterogeneous does not in the least affect the sound-
ness of his conclusion. Accurate measurements of a degree of latitude in
the equatorial and polar regions, with experiments on the force of gravitation
in those regions, by the different lengths of a pendulum vibrating seconds,
have shown that the excess of the equatorial diameter is about eleven miles
less than he had deduced it from the theory; and thus that the globe is not
homogeneous. But on the assumption of a fluid mass, the ground of his
hydrostatical investigation, his proportion of 229 to 230 remains unshaken,
and is precisely the one adopted and reasoned from by La Place, after all the
improvements and all the discoveries of later times. Surely at this we may
well stand amazed, if not awe-struck. A century of study, of improvement,
of discovery has passed away, and we find La Place, master of all the new

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 45

resources of the calculus, and occupying the heights to which the labors of
Kuler, Clairant D'Alembert, and La Grange have enabled us to ascend, adopt-
ing the Newtonian fraction of 1-230 as the accurate solution of this specula-
tive problem. New admeasurements have been undertaken upon a vast scale,
patronized by the munificence of rival Governments, new experiments have
been performed with approved apparatus of exceeding delicacy, new obser-
vations have been accumulated with glasses far exceeding any powers pos-
sessed by the resources of optics in the days of him to whom the science of
optics, as well as dynamics, owes its origin, the theory and fact have thus
been compared and reconciled together in more perfect harmony; but that
theory has remained unimproved, and the great principle of gravitation, with
most sublime results, now stands in the attitude, and of the dimensions, and
with the symmetry, which both the law and its application receive at once
from the mighty hand of its immortal author. But the contemplation of
Newton's discoveries raised other feelings than wonder at his matchless ge-
nius. The light with which it shines is not more dazzling than useful. The
difficulties of his course, and his expedients alike copious and refined for
surmounting them, exercise the faculties of the wise, while commanding
then; admiration ; but the results of investigations, often abstruse, are truths
so grand and comprehensive, yet so plain, that they both captivate and
instruct the simple. The gratitude, too, which they inspire, and the venera-
tion with which they encircle his name, far from tending to obstruct future
improvement, only proclaim his disciples the zealous because rational follow-
ers of one whose example both encouraged and enabled his successors to
make further progress. How unlike the blind devotion to a master which
for so many ages of the modern world paralyzed the energies of the human
mind !

" Had we still paid that homage to a name

AVhich only God and nature justly claim,

The Western seas had been our utmost bound,

And poets still might dream the sun was drowned,

And all the stars that shine in Southern skies

Had been admired by none but savage eyes."

Nor let it be imagined that the feelings excited contemplating the achieve-
ments of this great man are in any degree whatever the result of national
partiality, and confined to the country which glories in having given him
birth. The language which expresses her veneration is equalled, perhaps
exceeded, by that in which other nations give utterance to theirs ; not merely
by the general voice, but by the well-considered and well-informed judgment
of the masters of science. Leibnitz, when asked at the Royal table in Berlin
his opinion of Newton, said that, " Taking mathematicians from the begin-
ning of the world to the time when Newton lived, what he had done was
much the better half." " The Prindpia will ever remain a monument of
the profound genius which revealed to us the greatest law of the universe,"
are the words of La Place. " That work stands preeminent above all other
productions of the human mind." " The discovery of that simple and
general law, by the greatness and variety of the objects Avhich it embraces,
confers honor upon, the -intellect of man." La Grange, we are told by
Delambre, was wont to describe Newton as the greatest genius that ever
existed, but to add how fortunate he was also, " because there can only once
be found a system of the universe to establish." " Never," says the father

46 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of the Institute of France, one filling a huge place among the most eminent
of members "Never," said M. Biot, "was the supremacy of intellect so
justly established and so fully confessed; in mathematical and in experi-
mental science without an equal, and without an example, combining the
genius for both in its highest degree." The Principia he terms "the great-
est work ever produced by the mind of man;" adding, in the words of
Halley, that a nearer approach to the Divine nature has not been permitted
to mortals. " In first giving to the world Newton's ' Method of Fluxions/ '
says Fontenelle, " Leibnitz did like Prometheus : he stole fire from Heaven
to bestow it upon men." "Does Newton," L'Hopital asked, "sleep and
wake like other men? I figure him to myself as a celestial genius, entirely
disengaged from matter." To so renowned a benefactor of the world, thus
exalted to the loftiest place by the common consent of all men, one whose
life, without the intermission of an hour, was passed in the search after
truths the most important, and at whose hands the human race had only
received good, never evil, no memorial has been raised by those nations
which erected statues to tyrants and conquerors, the scourges of mankind,
whose lives were passed, not in the pursuit of truth, but the practice of
falsehood, across whose lips, if truth ever chanced to stray towards some
selfish end, it surely failed to obtain belief, who, to slake their insane thirst
of power or of preeminence, trampled on all the rights, and squandered the
blood of their fellow-creatures, whose course, like lightning, blasted while
it dazzled, and who, reversing the Roman Emperor's noble regret, deemed
the day lost that saw the sun go down upon their forbearance, no victim
deceived, or betrayed, or oppressed. That the worshippers of such pestilent
genius should consecrate no outward symbol of the admiration they freely
confessed to the memory of the most illustrious of men, is not matter of
wonder; but that his own countrymen, justly proud of having lived in his
time, should have left this duty to their successors, after a century and a
half of professed veneration and lip-homage, may well be deemed strange.
The inscription upon the cathedral, the masterpiece of his celebrated friend's
architecture, may possibly be applied in defence of this neglect : " If you
seek for a monument, look around." If you seek for a monument, lift up
your eyes to the heavens, which show forth his fame. Nor, when we recol-
lect the Greek orator's exclamation, that the whole earth is the monument
of illustrious men, can we stop short of declaring that the Universe itself is
Newton's. Yet, in raising the statue which preserves his likeness, near the
place of his birth, and on the spot where his prodigious faculties were un-
folded and trained, we at once gratify our honest pride as citizens of the
same state, and humbly testify our grateful sense of the Divine goodness
which deigned to bestow upon our race one so marvellously gifted to com-
prehend the works of infinite wisdom, and to make all his study of them the
source of religious contemplation, both philosophical and sublime.

CAMP'S IMPROVED LIFE-BOAT.

The boat is thirty feet long, eight feet beam, and four feet hold, and
decked over, so that it can be entirely inclosed, and the occupants protected
from the washing of the sea, when required during a storm or heavy blow,
by means of a water-tight hatch. It is propelled by means of a propeller
wheel, worked with a crank by the inmates of the hold, and can be driven
at a speed of six to eight miles per hour with less effort than would bo

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 47

required to move it at the same rate with oars. Its capacity is such that
fifty persons can be seated in the hold, while thirty more may be lashed to
and sustained upon the deck, giving it a greater capacity for saving life in
case of shipwreck than any other improvement yet brought before the
public. It is provided with water-tanks and bread-lockers of sufficient size
to meet the wants of a full load of persons under any ordinary circum-
stances. The air-chambers in the stern and stem would keep it buoyant,
even if it were stove in, and cause it to right itself in case it should lie over-
turned. Buoyancy is further promoted by a bag of cork attached to the
sides below the gunwale, which also serves as a fender to prevent injury to
the boat should it be thrown against the side of a vessel in a heavy sea.

The hold of the boat is divided into two compartments by a bulkhead,
through which an aperture is made for entrance to the rear compartment
from the front, should it be necessary to keep the main hatch closed during
a heavy sea. By this means the boat is prevented from being filled with
water while loading in a storm.

The boat may be lowered into the water from the vessel with perfect secu-
rity, even during the running of the heaviest sea, and instantly released
from the davit-hooks by means of a novel eye-bolt, invented by Mr. Camp.
The peculiarity of this eye-bolt consists in having the upper part, against
which the fall-hook bears, made movable upon a pivot and sustained by a
catch, which can be removed, even under a heavy load, so as to allow the
hook to be freed by a slight effort on the part of a person operating both
bolts at the same time, thus setting the boat adrift upon the water with per-
fect safety. The advantages of having a boat entirely inclosed, so as to
protect its omipants from the wash of the sea, and provided with means of
propulsion to enable it to be navigated to the shore from the wreck, are
apparent. In heavy weather it may be steered from below deck, there being
a small raised hatch, with a window in front, for observation ; and a binna-
cle, compass, and all the requisites for navigating the craft in any direction.
In addition to the propeller, a mast and sails are lashed to the deck, ready
for use in favorable weather.

NOVEL STEAMSHIP.

A steamship of most remarkable form and construction is now in the pro-
cess of completion at Baltimore, by Messrs. Ross & Thomas Winans, the
well-known engineers. The form of this vessel is so different from any hith-
erto constructed, that it is not an easy matter to describe its peculiarities.
Premising, however, that its shape is like that of a cigar, sharp at both ends,
and one hundred and eighty feet long, and sixteen feet in diameter in the
centre, unbroken in its continuity, except by the wheel-house, which passes
around about six feet of its entire centre, above and below the water-line, and
over the top as well as under the bottom of the vessel, the following simple
description may be understandable :

Take two elongated and sharp-pointed sugar loaves, and place them but-
ends together ; put a stick through the centre of the two but-ends, which
imagine to be the shaft of the water-wheel, which passes into the two sugar
loaves, and is driven by engines at each end of the shaft. Thus it will be
seen that it is two entirely separate vessels, united only by the shaft of the
water-wheel, and by the wheel-house, which is built completely around the
vessel, extending about three feet on each side of the wheel, and raised about

48 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

three feet, with open sides below the water-line for the water to pass through,
and connected with the vessel by upright plates of boiler iron. Having got
thus far, imagine the hub of the wheel which is to be placed on the shaft
between the two sugar loaves to be exactly the size of the but-ends of the
loaves, with twelve iron flanges, or screws, fastened at equal distances on the
outer edge of it. It will thus be seen that the wheel forms the centre of the
body of the vessel, and revolves transversely ; the twelve flanges on the edge
of it being the propelling power. When in the water, with her engines, coal,
and freight, one-half of the flanges on the wheel will be all the time in the
water, and with ninety revolutions per minute some idea of its propelling power
may be imagined. The vessel has no deck ; but on the upper segment of the
tubular surface there are gangways, to pass downward into the two sections,
surrounded by iron railings, which extend on either side about thirty feet from
the centre. With the exception of the two smoke-pipes and ventilators,
these are all the outer works that will be visible. Baltimore American.

STEEL SHIPS.

In 1850, Mr. Ewald Riepe obtained a patent in England for certain im-
provements in refining steel, which consisted, mainly, in subjecting bars or
lumps of raw or crude steel to the action of heat for about four hours, in a
furnace closed to the external atmosphere, the temperature being kept a little
below the melting-point of the steel. By this method of operation, car-
buretted hydrogen and oxide of carbon are developed in the furnace in
abundance, while the oxygen of the air is entirely prevented from acting
upon the steel, the working door of the furnace, etc., being carefully luted
for this purpose.

This patent, says the London Mechanics' Magazine, which was permitted
to remain in abe} T ance for some time, has lately been worked with very
beneficial results by Mr. William Clay, of the Mersey Iron Works; the steel
produced by means of it having been found to possess a very fine uniform
grain, and to be peculiarly suitable for the plating of ships. A new steamer
of 170 tons, named the Rainbow, intended for the Niger expedition, has been
recently constructed of plates of this steel, of the following dimensions:
Length, 130 feet; beam, 16 feet. Her engine is high pressure, and of 60 horse
power, woi'king up to 200 horse power, indicated; and the boilers, which
have also been made of Mr. Clay's steel plates, have been proved up to 200
pounds on the square inch, though they will only require to be worked at 50
pounds to 60 pounds. The advantage of employing this material over the
ordinary iron plates is, that, with about half the thickness, they are said to
give equal strength with the best iron boiler-plates, so that vessels are able
to be constructed of considerably lighter draft of water than formerly, a
result which is likely to be of incalculable benefit in the navigation of the
shallow rivers of Africa and India. It will be remembered that Dr. Living-
stone took out a small steam yacht, the plates for which were formed of the
patent homogeneous metal manufactured by Messrs. Shortridge and Jessop,
of Sheffield. The advantage claimed for the Riepc steel is, that, while pos-
sessing equal strength and adaptability for the purposes of ship-building, it
can be more economically produced. Indeed, it is said that the process of
manufacture is so simple, and the cost so little in excess of that of ordinary
iron, that, by the saving of weight in the material, as compared with iron of
equal strength, it will become absolutely cheaper. Apropos, of the strength of

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 49

the steel, we may state that recent experiments, made by Mr. Clay in testing,
at the Liverpool Corporation chain-proving machine, some samples of steel
bars manufactured at the Mersey Works, showed that their average tensile
strength was 1(30,832 per square inch, while the strength of Russian iron is
only 02,044; of English rolled iron, 56,532; Lowmoor, 50,103; American
hammered, 53,913 ; of tempered cast steel, 150,000, etc.

I3IPROYEMEXTS IN STEAM-GAUGES.

The only steam-gauges known ten years ago, were the mercury-gauge, the
air-gauge, and the piston-gauge for locomotives. The first is costly and
cumbersome, its length for measuring 150 pounds pressure being 27 feet. The
second breaks easily, the divisions are small, and ascertaining the pressure by
looking at the instrument is a work that ordinary firemen carefully dispense
with. A piston pressed by steam against a spring is unreliable, on account
of friction. In June, 1849, Eugene Bourdon took out a patent in France for
a spring-gauge, in which the pressure of steam is indicated by a hand on a
graduated dial. Inside the case is an elastic metallic vessel, so shaped as to
change its form when steam is let in, and it is united by a proper mechanism
to the hand which points out the result. The great superiority of this gauge
over former ones is obvious. No liquids are used; there are no joints, con-
sequently no leakage. The gauge is cheap and compact, and its indications
are read at a glance from any part of the engine-room. This instrument
earned the highest award at the great London exhibition of 18-31, and in the
subsequent year was patented in the United States, and the patent bought
by Ashcroft, under whose name it is generally known. The claim read thus :

" I claim the application of curved or twisted tubes, whose transverse sec-
tion differs from a circular form, for the construction of instruments for
measuring, indicating, and regulating the pressure and temperature of
fluids."

Since 1852 about twelve patents have been granted for dial-gauges, in
which the elastic vessel was different from Bourdon's. Corrugated Disks,
made of steel, or diaphrams made of India rubber, are the main feature in
most of them. The first substance is destroyed by rusting, especially where
sea water is used. India rubber in a still shorter time undergoes internal
chemical changes, and requires to be renewed. In a steam-gauge patented by
Victor Beaumont in 1854, and recently perfected, the aim has been to embody
all the qualities of Bourdon's by using an elastic vessel of brass closed on all
sides except that of the boiler, and to avoid the vibrations of the hand or
pointer resulting from the momentum of the tube, held by one end, for each
jerk of the locomotive to which the gauge is attached. To obtain this
result, the elastic vessel is formed of flattened hollow spheres, communicating
together; one side of each sphere is turned inside, so that, under the pressure
of steam, one part is extended and the other is compressed. The regularly
diminishing motion of the extended parts is thus compensated by the regu-
larly increasing motion of the compressed portions, and the graduation is
perfectly uniform for the range of the gauge. Large surfaces are thus
exposed to the action of steam, which acts in consequence with a great deal
of power; beside which the effect of momentum is so insignificant, that the
gauge may be struck with great force on the table without the pointer
vibrating in the least.

V

. 5

50 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

x

IMPROVED STEAM - BOILER.

A patent for an improved steam-boiler has recently been issued to Win.
G. Norris, of Philadelphia, the essential feature of which is a closed chamber
between the fire-box and tube-sheet, for the purpose not only of preventing:
any combustion going on in actual contact with the tubes of the boiler, but
also for the purpose of equalizing the heat before it reaches the tubes.

The advantages claimed for this form of boiler arc : lightness, simplicity,
and the economical consumption of anthracite and bituminous coal, without
emitting smoke, sparks, or gas ; a greater amount of heating surface than is
obtained in a boiler of the ordinary construction; the fire-box, being placed
over the axles, may be much longer than usual, to insure sufficient grate sur-
face, while the distance from the centre of the backdriver to the centre of
the front trunk-wheel remains shorter than in the ordinary locomotive a
good arrangement, it is said, for short ctirves. There is no overhanging
weight, as the adhesion is all upon the drivers; and, as the centre of gravity
is no higher than common, the engine will pull more in consequence, we are
informed. In ten-wheel engines the arrangement of the machinery is the
same as in those of eight wheels, having a full stroke-pump fastened to the
main frame, between front driver and cylinder, while the main rod connects
directly to the front driver, thereby dispensing with the superfluous friction
of " spade handles " or combination stub-ends.

FITTS'S AUTOMATIC BOILER - FEEDER.

The want of a machine which will supply water to boilers, working inde-
pendently of any other power, and regulating the supply by the amount
evapoi-atcd, has long been felt. It is, moreover, often desirable to use steam
for various purposes, without the necessity of running an engine solely as a
means of working a pump for supplying the boilers. To attain this result
much labor and skill has been expended, but, thus far, with apparently little
success, inasmuch as the pump substantially as arranged by Watt is uni-
versally in use.

An arrangement, however, recently put in operation by B. Fitts, of Wor-
cester, Mass., merits attention. The principle involved is, to draw water
from the well or reservoir, by means of a vacuum produced by the condensa-
tion of steam, which water is subsequently forced into the boilers by the
pressure of steam on its surface thus dispensing with the pump and all the
apparatus necessary to drive it.

The machine consists simply of two chambers, each holding six or eight
gallons, two valves, an apparatus to change the valves, and the pipes neces-
sary for connecting the boiler, reservoir, etc. The arrangement is double
acting one chamber filling with water while the other is discharging into
the boiler. The steam, also, which is used to force the water contained in one
chamber into the boiler, is afterwards discharged into the other chamber,
and there condenses and heats the water contained in the chamber; the
valve is then changed, and the heated water is forced into the boiler. The
other chamber, at the same time, being in connection with the water reser-
voir, is filled with water, by reason of the vacuum produced by the conden-
sation of the steam previously contained in it. There is also an indicator
attached, which ingeniously registers the \vhole amount of water supplied.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 51

SILVER'S MARINE GOVERNOR.

The ordinary ball-governor was invented by James Watt as a part of the
steam-engine. In this instrument two heavy balls attached to the extremities
of two rods, articulated at their other end with a vertical shaft, arc made to
rotate with it, receiving motion from the engine. Centrifugal force is thus
produced, which overcomes gravity and forces the balls to separate and go
up in a circle to a distance proportional to the velocity of the machine. The
balls and rods are properly connected with a throttle-valve in the steam-pipe,
so that this is wide open when the velocity is small, and entirely closed the
moment a velocity is reached beyond which it is not desirable to go. This
instrument, depending on gravity for its accurate action, cannot be used on
board a ship, where the rolling and pitching would throw it in an inclined
position, in which the weight of the balls would make it act at the wrong
time. Mr. Thomas Silver, of Philadelphia, obviates this fault by adding two
more balls to equilibrate the two first, and by substituting the action of a
spring to that of gravity. The four balls of equal size are attached to two
rods working on a pin through the centre and through a small shaft. A
movable sleeve on this shaft is connected with the two rods half way between
the balls and the centre pin, and an adjustable steel spring pushes or pulls
constantly on the movable sleeve, in the proper direction to bring the four
balls close to the shaft. The movable sleeve is connected with the valve.
This instrument is of great service to paddle-wheel steamers, as in a heavy
sea it frequently happens that one wheel is entirely out of water, when the en-
gine acquires an undue velocity, technically called " racing," which, suddenly
checked by the reimmersiou of the wheel, may result in the breaking of the
shaft. But it is of a much greater import for propellers. In these ships the
screw is as often brought out of water by a heavy pitch, and as there is no
other wheel in the water to resist the power in a measure, the increase of
velocity is enormous. Two causes, then, combine for breaking the shaft
the first is, the sudden blow of the sea against the screw when reentering the
water; the other is, the side force exerted against the shaft when the plane
of rotation of a rapidly rotating body is suddenly changed.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROPELLER ENGINES.

The several direct-acting screw-propeller engines hitherto constructed are
objectionable in the following particulars, viz.: The horizontal engines
occupy too much space transversely in the vessel to admit of being placed in
the run. The vertical engines pass through the decks, and project so far
above the Avater-line as to be useless for war purposes ; and all approved
double engines operate on cranks placed at right angles to each other, which
involves as eries of bearings, much friction, and liability to derangement from
the shafts getting out of line. In addition to these imperfections, the extreme
shortness of the cranks, with the attendant great friction on the crank-pins
and journals, to say nothing of the heavy diagonal thrust of the connectini 1 ;-
rods, are serious defects in the direct-acting screw-propeller engines now in
common use.

To obviate these difficulties, that well-known able, and veteran inventor,
John Ericsson, of hot air celebrity, has invented a useful improvement in
steam-engines for working propellers, which consists in the arrangement of

52 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the two cylinders of a double engine in such a manner that their base or bot-
tom ranges with a plane passing through the axis of the propeller shaft, or
nearly so, in combination with a certain arrangement of rock-shafts, crank-
pins, and connecting-rods, for imparting motion from the pistons to the shaft,
whereby the inventor is enabled, firstly, to bring the cylinders nearer to the
propeller shaft, and hence to economize space, and construct the frame of the
engine of great strength and compactness. Secondly, to avoid the diagonal
thrust and friction of the slides, unavoidable when the connecting-rod is
attached directly to the cross-head. Thirdly, to operate the two connecting-
rods nearly at right angles to each other, which enables the inventor to pro-
duce a continuous motion with a single crank on the propeller shaft and a
single crank-pin in common. Fourthly, to employ a crank on the propeller
shaft much longer than half the length of the stroke of the piston, thereby
diminishing the heavy pressure on crank-pins and journals which has here-
tofore caused so much trouble by the overheating of the bearings, and at the
same time diminishing the strain on the engine frame. Scientific American.

HYDROSTATIC SCREW-PROPELLER.

The Southampton (Eng.) Star, daily paper, describes the successful work-
ing of a hydrostatic screw-propeller, or steamer driven without a shaft, and
says : " All that would be required for the largest ship afloat (by the adop-
tion of this invention) would be one horizontal steam cylinder, placed close
to the bottom of the vessel, connected to one pump, also laid on the bottom
of the vessel, close to the kelson, working fore and aft the ship without shaft
or crank ; and by forcing water through the hollow screw-propeller, produc-
ing a powerful rotary motion, where only it is required, namely, in the screw,
which can by this invention be driven continuously five hundred or more
revolutions per minute; and as the whole is immersed in a constant stream
of cold water, there is no possible chance of heated bearings. The water
surrounding it on all sides becomes a constant lubricator. The pOAver of
manoeuvring the propeller from the deck, no matter at what rate the vessel
may be sailing, is another peculiarity.

ON BOILER INCRUSTATIONS.

A series of papers on boiler incrustations have recently been published in
the London Engineer, by Mr. James Napier, a practical chemist of Glasgow.
The following is his analysis of scale taken from a boiler in which river
water had been used :

Carbonate of lime 79.0

Sulphate of lime 6.3

Peroxyd of iron 35

Silica 2.2

Carbonaceous matter 4.0

Water , 5.0

100.

The next analysis is that of scale taken from the boiler of a steamer run-
ning between Glasgow and Liverpool, in which no attention was paid to
"blowing off." The scale was composed of two layers; the one (that next
the metal) was hard and crystalline, the other (or outer coat) was softer and

MECHANICS AND USEFUL AKTS. 53

granular. The thickness of the whole crust was about three-eighth of an
inch :

Sulphate of lime SI. 6

Magnesia 4.2

Silica 2.8

Peroxyd of iron 2.4

Salt 0.7

"\Vater of crystallization 7.7

Carbonic acid 0.6

100.

The next analysis was that of scale taken from the same boiler, which was
worked for the same length of time, as in the former experiment, but care
was taken to " blow off " regularly. The scale in this case was only one-
sixteenth of an inch thick only one-sixth the thickness of that formed
when " blowing off" was neglected:

Sulphate of lime 94.5

Magnesia 1.5

Peroxyd of iron 0.5

Salt.." 1.1

Water . . 2.4

100.

These analyses show that the sulphate of lime is the main ingredient of
the scale deposited by sea water. They also afford very satisfactory evidence
regarding the way to prevent incrustations by care in blowing off the satu-
rated water regularly.

The following is the method proposed by Mr. Xapier for the prevention of
incrustations in all boilers. He analyzes the water to be used, and if found
to contain only the bi-carbonate of lime in suspension, there is no difficulty
in preventing it from forming scale. The carbonate of lirne separates from
the water at a high heat, and is kept suspended in the boiler while the water
is hot; but when the boiler is stopped, it falls to the bottom in cooling, and
and when cold it hardens, adheres to the metal, and forms a crust. A boiler
using hard fresh water containing carbonate of lime has thus a thin layer of
scale formed every night, and at last it accumulates to a thick stony crust,
which almost prevents the passage of the heat from the fire to the water. To
prevent such scale, the plan to be adopted is simple. In about an hour after
the engine is stopped every evening, and when the fire is cooled down, the
engineer should blow off the water freely. This will discharge all the sedi-
ment which has been precipitated, and prevent it hardening and adhering to
the metal.

Although this method of working boilers will prevent scale, if the water
only contains carbonate of lime, it Avill not entirely suffice to prevent incrus-
tations when the sulphate of lime is the principal ingredient in the water,
because it does not precipitate like the carbonate. Having by analysis dis-
covered the quantity of the sulphate of lime in each gallon of the water to
be used as feed, a sufficient quantity of the carbonate of soda is to be em-
ployed to neutralize the sulphate and convert it into the carbonate. The car-
bonate of soda dissolved is to be fed regularly into the boiler by a pipe con-
nected with the water feed-pipe. On land boilers, the carbonate of lime thus

o*

54 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

formed should be blown off every evening when the water has cooled down;
in marine boilers, the carbonate will float near the surface when the boiler is
working, and it can be blown off by the surface water-cock. Any alkali will
neutralize the sulphate of lime in a steam boiler, but the common carbonate
of soda is the cheapest which can be used. Care, however, must be exercised
not to employ it or any other alkali in excess for such a purpose, as it has a
tendency to volatilize with the steam.

CONSUMPTION OF COALS AND RATE OF EVAPORATION FROM ENGINE

BOILERS.

At a recent meeting of the Manchester Philosophical Society, Mr. Graham
read a paper, in which he described the results of experiments which he had
made with a series of small vessels of equal size, the fire being under the
first, and the flame-bed alone passing under the others. The evaporative
power of the first was found equal to 100, the second to 27, the third to 13,
and the fourth to 8. A second set of experiments with larger vessels, in the
shape of boilers, corroborates these results. The third scries of experiments
were made with the view of determining the value of a supplementary boiler
as a heating surface, placed under the most favorable circumstances ; the
result showed an advantage of 15 per cent.

Mr. Graham then detailed the results of a numerous set of experiments on
evaporation, on the large scale, with reference to engine boilers. These ex-
periments have extended over a period of several years, observations being
made daily, and the results deduced from several hundred recorded observa-
tions. Before beginning to register his results, the boilers were in each case
reset, and by careful and continuous experiments were put into what was
found to be then their best condition for giving the best working result, as
regards the admission of air, the draft of the chimney, the size of the fire-
place, the distance of the bars from the boiler, the thickness of the fire-bars,
and of the fire itself, the form of the flame-bed, flues, and bridges. Mr. Gra-
ham stated that in the case of one boiler, the alterations had been repeated
at least 30 times for this purpose. The experiments with the boilers were. of
12 hours duration each, and number from 30 to 40 for each boiler. A perfect
command was maintained of the draft, which varied from 0'5 to 0'7 in. pres-
sure of water, and the temperature of the draft at the bottom of the chim-
ney was generally sufficient to melt lead (612 J F.), but never zinc (773 F.)
The conclusions which Mr. Graham arrived at by means of these experiments
were the following:

1. That the boiler usually called the " Butterfly, or Fishmouth boiler," 25
feet long and 7 feet diameter, will, under favorable, but what may be called
ordinary circumstances, give with the Worsley coal, for each pound of coal
burnt, 8'29 Ibs. of steam; or, not including the heating of the feed- water, from
60 to 212 F., 9'67 Ibs.

2. The boiler usually known as James Watt's " wagon-shaped boiler," 25
ft. 6 ins. long, and G ft. G ins. diameter, will, under similar circumstances,
give 8'SO Ibs. of steam; or, not including the heating of the feed-water, from
60 F. to 212 F., 10*26 Ibs. of steam for each pound of coal burnt.

3. The plain cylindrical boiler, with fire-place underneath, 42 feet long and
G feet diameter, will, under similar circumstances, give G'20 Ibs. of steam ; or,
not including the heating of the feed-water, from GO F. to 212 F., 7'23 Ibs.
of steam for each pound of coal burnt.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 55

4. The boiler with two internal fire-places joined into one internal flue,
known in the neighborhood of Manchester as the "breeches boiler," 23 ft.
long and 8 ft. diameter, will, under similar circumstances, give 5'90 Ibs. of
steam; or, not including the heating of the feed-water, from 60 J F. 2l2' J F.,
6'5S Ibs. of steam for each pound of coal burnt.

5. That a supplementary boiler, under very favorable circumstances, gives
a saving of 15 per cent.

6. That flues round a boiler, when cleaned out, and the sides of the boiler
scraped once a week, will give a saving of about 2 per cent.

7. That a difference in the setting alone of the same boiler may produce a
difference in the result amounting to 21 per cent.

8. That the difference between a good-shaped boiler, properly set, and a
bad-shaped boiler, improperly set, but both clean and in good order, may
amount to as much as 42 per cent.

9. That a difference in firing only will produce a difference in the result
of 13 per cent.

10. That the smallest loss by smoke burning, or by the admission of cold
air, either over the furnace door or in front of the bridge, or at the back of
the bridge, has been 1*7 per cent.

11. That the loss arising from a scale of sulphate of lime, of not more
than one-sixteenth of an inch, amounted to 14*7 per cent.

12. That neither wet coal, nor coal which had been out of the pit three
years, nor wet weather, nor a variation of temperature in the atmosphere
from 40 F. to 70 3 F., produced any appreciable difference of result.

13. That windy weather gave a good result.

14. That a comparatively thick and hot fire, with a good draft, uniformly
gave the best results.

15. That the difference in the results obtained with different coals, all
from the immediate neighborhood, amounted to a loss of 11 per cent.

16. That the same coals, reported to be from the same pits, will vary in
their results to the extent of 6 per cent.

17. That when a boiler is worked solely for the purpose of heating by
means of its steam, dye-vessels, soap-cisterns, etc., if its available power,
with the steam at a pressure of 2 1-2 Ibs., be taken as equal to 100, then at 7
Ibs. pressure its available power will be 120, and at 10 Ibs. pressure it will be
130; the same quantity of coal being consumed in each case. This surpris-
ing result, at present unaccounted for, may be thus stated : That the same
weight of coal consumed in the same number of hours will work ten cisterns
at 2 1-2 Ibs. pressure, twelve cisterns at 7 Ibs. pressure, and thirteen cisterns
at 10 Ibs. pressure.

18. That while we may reasonably look for improvements in the construc-
tion of the fire-place, in the form of boiler, in the addition of separate sup-
plementary heating surface, and in cleanliness, and may thereby effect a great
saving in the consumption of coal, we cannot, at the same time, expect much
saving from extension of flue space, when coated with soot, or for greater
length of boiler than four times the length of the fire-place.

Mr. Graham stated in addition, that in consequence of the uniform low
results obtained by evaporation from boilers and flues open to the atmos-
phere, which, according to his experience, never rise higher than from 5'5
to 6'0 Ibs. of steam for each pound of coal burnt, also from the increased
results obtained with increase of pressure, and apparently due to that con-

5G ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

dition, lie is disposed to suggest that the rate of evaporation of water per
pound of coal increases with, and bears some ratio to, increase of pressure.

With regard to the deposition of sulphate and carbonate of lime and mud
in boilers, Mr. Graham stated that he had experimented, with more of less
success, Avith caustic soda, quick-lime, muriatic acid, soap liquor, sawdust,
spent madder, and logwood chips. Two facts in particular were noticed as
regards the tendency of hard water to "scale": 1. That the sulphate of
lime separates from the water when in contact with the bottom of the boiler,
or with other substances, such as sawdust or other materials floating in the
water; but that no precipitation takes place until the water has been concen-
trated, by continued evaporation, down to the state of a saturated solution,
or to that point which maybe termed the "salting point." 2. That carbon-
ate of lime and mud are principally liberated in the body of the water, and
have but little disposition to adhere to the boiler, unless cemented by the
sulphate of lime.

Practically, therefore, it has been found that no scale of any consequence
will be produced on engine boilers, even Avith such hard water and hard tiring
as Mr. Graham has been accustomed to, if 100 gallons of the concentrated
liquor of the boiler, equal to 4 per cent, of the amount of feed-water used
daily, and 300 gallons, or 12 per cent., be run away on Saturday through the
usual mud machine, and if the boiler be run empty every sixth Satur-
day and brushed out. The water used w r as so hard as to require from 35 to
40 measures of Clark's test liquid to soften it. There is little loss incurred by
this mode of working, since the chief discharge may take place at the close
of each day's work ; and there is an incredible advantage gained by the sav-
ing of coal, the reduced wear and tear of the boiler, and the greater safety
of all persons concerned with it.

OX THE RESISTANCE OF TUBES TO COLLAPSE.

It has long been a desideratum in the strength of boilers to determine
some definite law by which the engineer could calculate the proportionate
strength of internal flues. Ever since boilers became a necessary appendage
to the steam-engine, we have acted upon the principle that the internal
cylindrical flues subjected to compression were absolutely stronger than the
outer shell opposed to tension. These opinions have, in reality, had no
foundation in practice, excepting from deductions drawn from occasional
explosions, and the failure of vessels under severe pressure. Hitherto, there
has been nothing definite, or any known principle by which we could calcu-
late the diameter, thickness of plates, or length of flues corresponding with
the strength of the boiler; and even in cases where explosions have taken
place in collapse, we have, too frequently, mistaken the original cause from
the debris surrounding the rupture, and the force which has torn to pieces
the scattered remnants of the outer shell. Numerous accidents of this kind
have occurred, accompanied by serious loss of life; these haA r e too frequently
been caused by the collapse and the rupture of the internal flues, which,
acting upon the interior of the boiler with an irresistible force, carries havoc
and destruction before it. The relative position and comparative value of
these resisting forces have never as yet been clearly ascertained, in so far as
respects the cause of rupture, and the anomalous condition in which many
of these constructions are affected, have greatly retarded the application of

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 57

science to improvements in the manufacture. There appears, in fact, to be
no rule in existence calculated to attain uniformity of strength in all the
parts of a steam boiler, where some of the parts are exposed to internal and
some others to external pressure.

The resistance of cylinders, spheres, etc., to internal pressure, have been
ascertained from experimental data, such as the form and dimensions of the
vessel united to the resisting powers of the material; but we have yet to
learn what proportion cylindrical and elliptical tubes bear to each other in
their resistance to external and internal pressure.

To supply this want, a series of experiments have recently been instituted,
at the joint request of the British Association and the Royal Society, by Mr.
Fuirbairn, the eminent English engineer, and the law of resistance, under
various forms and conditions, ascertained.

The law of resistance for cylindrical tubes, as regards their length, appears
to be this : a tube having the same strength of material, and being of the
same diameter, will resist double the pressure to one of double the length ;
or the collapsing pressure, other things being the same, varies inversely as
the length, and inversely as their diameters. Experiments made with
elliptical tubes showed that in every construction where tubes have to sustain
an uniform external pressure, the cylindrical is the only form to be relied
upon, and that any departure from the true circle is attended with danger.

The experiments also tended to confirm the conclusions arrived at some
years since, that the strengths of riveted joints of malleable iron plates are
nearly as the numbers

100 for the plate,
70 for double riveted joints,
50 for single riveted joints.

In conclusion, Mr. Fairbairn remarks : It is interesting to observe how
closely nature approximates in her productions to the strongest and best
forms. If we look at the tubular forms of grasses, bamboos, and other
vegetable constructions of this kind, and taking to account the uses for
which they were intended, we shall see that the form contributes greatly to
their strength ; and we shall, moreover, find that the shoots are telescopic,
forming a series of concentric rings, arising from the formation of new and
smaller tubes as they emerge in succession from those previously formed.
As these again protrude and advance in growth, they leave behind enlarged
hoops, or disks, of sufficient rigidity to support and sustain the form of the
tubular structure. The same law which pervades natural productions should
not be overlooked in art. We have ever before us the lessons of this first
great natural teacher; and did we but consult her laws, and in all our appli-
cations endeavor to conform to the rules of a philosophy which never errs, and
by which nothing is ever made in vain, we should find, to use the words of
our aspirations after truth, that Nature's laws, and the constructions derived
therefrom, constitute the only true system of philosophy by which we can
attain the maximum of strength with the minimum of material.

The sphere is probably the only true form by which we can obtain uni-
formity of resistance to an uniform pressure, whether external or internal ;
and to approximate to this, probably, was the reason why our predecessors,
from the days of the Marquis of Worcester to those of Watt, adopted the
haycock or circular boiler with a hemispherical top and hemispherical bot-
tom, as shown.

58 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

This was selected as the strongest form of boiler in the time of Xcwcomen
and Leigh ton; and it was, probably, for a similar reason that the glass-
blower forms the bottom of bottles with an elevated cone penetrating for
some distance into the interior of the cylindrical part. This gives great
strength to the bottle in resisting internal pressure, and at the same time
reduces the quantity of liquid contained in the bottle; a consideration inde-
pendent of strength, and probably a matter of no small importance to the
retail dealers in wine and ardent spirits.

The result of these experiments upon metal tubes subsequently suggested
to Mr. Fairbairn the propriety of similarly testing the resisting powers of a
perfectly homogeneous, crystalline, and rigid material; in order that our
knowledge of the laws that govern the resistance of vessels to collapse might
be confirmed and extended. Glass was selected, not only because of its ful-
filling better almost than any other material the conditions sought for, and
from the ease with which it could be manufactured into the forms required,
but also because it was hoped that the results would be of practical value in
those cases in the arts and in experimental science, in which it is so exten-
sively employed. The experiments were conducted in a similar manner to
those upon iron. Some cylinders and globes, blown out of good flint-glass,
were procured direct from the maker. The open ends were hermetically
sealed by means of the blowpipe; and the globes, etc., were placed in a strong
wrought-iron vessel capable of sustaining a pressure of 2,000 Ibs. to the square
inch. Water was pumped in by means of a force-pump; the pressure was
recorded by a Schaffer's gauge; and the point of rupture was indicated by an
explosion within the vessel, and by a sudden decrease of pressure. The first
experiments were upon glass globes, intended to be perfectly spherical, but
in most instances somewhat flattened upon the side opposite to that from
which they were blown. Notwithstanding this ellipticity, some of the globes
bore enormously high pressures, especially when the extreme tenuity of the
glass was considered, amounting, as it did, from only _1 ._ to y^ of an inch

in thickness. In one instance seven globes of glass were submitted to test,
three of which were intended to be 5 in. diameter, one 5 1-2 in. and three 8 in.,
but varying as before mentioned. The bursting pressure of the first four was
292 Ibs., 410 Ibs., 470 Ibs. and 475 Ibs. to the square inch, equivalent in the last
case to twenty tons upon a 5 1-2 in. globe, 1 in. thick, before it was frac-
tured. The 8 in. globes burst respectively at 35 Ibs., 42 Ibs. and CO Ibs. to an
inch ; but they were unfortunately all elliptical to a serious extent, the diam-
eters of that which burst at 42 Ibs. being respectively 8'20 in. and 7'30 in.

In experimenting with homogeneous glass cylinders, blown with hemis-
pherical ends, it was found that the law deduced from the experiments upon
iron tubes, applied equally well to the glass, viz., that the strength of cylin-
drical vessels, exposed to a uniform external pressure, varies inversely as to
length. Thus a glass cylinder 4'06 in, diameter, 13 3-4 in. long and '045 in.
thick, collapsed under a pressure of 180 Ibs. to the square inch ; while another,
4'05 in. diameter, 7 in. long, and '040 in. thick, yielded only under a pres-
sure of 380 Ibs. to the inch.

EVAPORATIVE POWER OF BRASS, COPPER, AND IRON BOILER-TUBES.

A late number of the London Mechanics' Magazine contains an article on
the above important question, by W. G. Tosh, from a paper read by him

MECHAXIQS AND USEFUL ARTS. 59

before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Manchester, England.
'He constructed small vertical boilers of equal dimensions, and placed in the
centre of each a single tube, two inches in diameter, and of No. 14 wire
gage thickness. A gas flame was applied to each tube iron, brass, and
copper successively, during a certain period of time, which was equivalent
to the same quantity of fuel consumed in each case. The experiments were
first conducted during the day, then at night, at times when there was little
probability of a change of pressure in gas pipes. Eight of these were made
with the boilers, and the quantity of water evaporated was measured by the
number of inches it was lowered in a boiler by each experiment. The result
was in favor of the greater evaporating power of the brass over the iron
tubes, in the proportion of 125 to 100 ; that is, two pounds or two tons of
coal, or other fuel, will, with the use of brass tubes in a boiler, evaporate
twenty-five per cent, more Avater than iron tubes with the same quantity of
fuel, under precisely the same circumstances. In the same proportion that
brass surpassed iron in evaporative power, copper was found to surpass
brass. The evaporative powers, relatively, of the three metals in tubes for
steam boilers, he found were as follows: Iron, 100; brass, 125; copper, 156.
The experiments of Mr. Tosh were subjected to a searching criticism by
the engineers of the Institution, and strong doubts were expressed as to their
correctness.

PROSSER'S SURFACE CONDENSER.

The principle of this condenser is to use much less condensing water than
is usual, by raising its temperature to the boiling point, and to condense the
steam arising from this water to supply the loss of water in the boiler. The
apparatus is divided into three portions. The condenser proper consists of a
number of iron pipes, inside of which runs the escape steam, and outside
of which is the condensing water. The condenser for the steam arising from
the condensing water is built on the same plan. The heater through which
the condensed water is forced to pass on its way back to the boiler, and where
it is heated by the escape steam on its way to the condenser, is also of a sim-
ilar construction. There are merits in this condenser. It is so constructed
as to be lasting, and it leaves the boiler clean, even when the most dirty
water is used.

ON A NEW SOUNDING APPARATUS.

The following device, proposed by Lieut. E. B. Hunt, U. S. A., has for its
chief object to run sounding lines in harbors and water of moderate depth.
The principle is that of measuring barometrically the pressure due to the
depth, this pressure being transmitted to the barometric basin by a column
of atmospheric air.

The method is as follows : Arrange a weighted india-rubber vessel for drag-
ging on the bottom; connect this with a boat or surveying vessel by an air-
tight tube of small bore; let this tube open into a cistern of mercury made
air-tight; from this cistern arrange a vertical glass column, open at the top,
in which the mercury can freely rise to any required height by the pressure
due to depth.

The mode of use would be thus : " Throw the weighted air-vessel overboard
and let it sink to the bottom, it being connected with the vessel by the air-

GO ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

tube, in turn duly joined to the barometric cistern. Let the boat or vessel be
propelled on a course. The air-vessel will be dragged along the bottom, and
as the water must have free access to the bag enclosing the air, its pressure
will compress the air to a density due to the depth. This pressure will be
communicated along the tube to the vessel or boat, and being received on
the mercurial surface, Avill raise a column to such a height that its weight will
equal the weight of an equal column of the water, whose height is the depth
to which the air-vessel is sunk, or rather that of the lowest part on which the
pressure acts. As this depth varies, the height of the column will also vary.
The relation of these heights is expressed by the specific gravity of mercury
divided by the specific gravity of the particular sea or other water of which the
soundings are being made. It would be necessary to make occasional obser-
vations with the hydrometer, and in the case of tidal streams these should be
quite frequent." The detailed construction of such an apparatus is given by
Lieut. Hunt, in Silliinan's Journal, No. 76, July, 18-53.

GAS-LIGHTS ON RAILROAD CARS.

The following plan for lighting cars with gas has been adopted with great
success on the New Jersey railroad. Each car is provided with a wrought-
iron cylinder, of a capacity of four and a half cubic feet. The cylinder is
of a strength capable of sustaining 500 pounds pressure. The heads, for
greater security, are made concave. The gas is compressed under a pressure
of twenty atmospheres (300 pounds to the square inch), 90 cubic feet of gas
being forced into each cylinder. Each car is provided with a cylinder, which
is placed upon a shelf under the car floor, and coupled in the usual manner
with a pipe leading to the burner within. An improved regulating contri-
vance controls the delivery of the gas to the burner under all pressures, and
is interposed between the cylinder and burners, so that the light is always
steady. The pressure of the gas ensures the continuity of light, no matter
what the concussions or roughness of the road.

The method of charging the cylinders with gas, adopted on the New Jersey
road, is simple and expeditious. Near the Company's machine shop, at
Jersey City, a stack of the cylinders are arranged, into which the gas is forced
by the rapid movements of a steam-pump, to a pressure of about 450 pounds.
The cylinders are connected together by small pipes, and thus form a strong
and capacious reservoir. A conducting-pipe leads from the stack to the large
depot on the Hudson river, where all the passenger cars arrive and depart, a
distance of a quarter of a mile. The conductor terminates in a horizontal
pipe running beneath the depot platforms, with stop-cock openings at suita-
ble intervals. When the car cylinders are to be charged, an attendant
simply couples them to the conducting-pipe, and opens a stop-cock. The
gas then instantly rushes into the cylinders and fills them, under the pressure
of the reservoir, and they are read} 7 for use. The filling of the cylinders for
a whole train occupies only a few minutes, and the work of supplying all the
trains with gas is, we are told, easily performed, from beginning to end, by
one man. Scientific American.

TUNNEL UNDER THE ALPS.

It is generally known that the immense work of boring a tunnel under the
Alps, between Modane arid Bardoueche, had commenced ; but we have now

MECHAXH S AND USEFUL ARTS. Gl

to recoi'd some interesting facts which might, perhaps, never have been dis-
covered but for the peculiar methods employed in this colossal operation.
Modane and Bardoneche are situated on opposite sides of the Alpine chain
which divides Piedmont from France, and precisely at a point where the val-
leys of the Arc and the Dora, which lie nearly on the same level, run paral-
lel to each other, and the mountain is narrowest. The thickness of the
intervening mountain is 13 kilometres in a straight line ; the actual tunnel
will be 12 1-2 kilometres. It is designed in the same vertical plane, but, to
facilitate drainage, is somewhat higher in the middle than at the orifices, so as
to form gentle slopes on both sides, one not exceeding an inclination of five
per thousand, and the other being twenty-three per thousand, in consequence
of a difference of level between the two extremities, the numbers being,
Bardoneche (southern orifice), 1,324 meters; culminating point, 1,335 meters;
Modane (northern orifice), 1,190 meters above the level of the sea. The crest
of the mountain being 1,600 meters higher than the culminating point, the
sinking of shafts which is the method generally employed in order to
begin boring tunnels at several points at once was out of the question;
hence the tunnel could only be worked at its extremities, so that the labor,
by the ordinary processes, could not be accomplished in less than thirty -six
years. Then, how was a depth of gallery of three or four kilometres, and
having but one orifice, to be aired? These were all serious obstacles. MM.
Elie de Beaumont and Angelo Sismonda having examined the mountain
geologically, found it to contain micaceous sandstone, micaceous schists,
quartzite, gypsum, and limestone, all easy to blast, the quart/ite alone ex-
cepted; but the stratum of this is not likely to be very thick. The other dif-
ficulties alone, therefore, remained; and these were at length overcome b) r
three Sardinian engineers, MM. Sommeiller, Grattone, andGrandis, who
proposed to turn the abundance of Avater for which the locality was remark-
able to account, by applying it to a peculiar system of perforation and venti-
lation, which we will now endeavor to explain. The first apparatus imagined
by these gentlemen consists in a hydraulic air-condenser, which is a syphon
turned with its orifices upward, and' communicating by one of them with a
stream of water, by the other with a reservoir of air. The water, descend-
ing into the first branch, enters the second, and by the pressure it exercises
condenses the air, which is then forced into the reservoir. This done, a valve
is opened, by which the water contained in the syphon is let out, and the
operation recommences. The emission and introduction valves are regulated
by a small machine operating by means of a column of water; and the air
in the reservoir is maintained at a constant degree of pressure by a column
of water communicating with another reservoir above. Thus, with a water-
fall twenty meters in height, the air is condensed to six atmospheres, equiv-
alent to the pi'essure of sixty-two meters of water. This condensed air is
used for two purposes; first, as a motive power, and then for ventilation.
Two kinds of perforators, worked by condensed air instead of steam, are em-
ployed, one invented by Mr. Bartlett, the other by M. Sommeiller, and the
manner in which these machines perform their duty affords the first practical
demonstration of the possibility of employing compressed air as a motive
power with advantage. By means of these perforators holes for blasting
may be bored through the hardest sienite in one-twelfth of the time which
would be required if ordinary means were employed. In order to understand
the importance of this result, it may be stated that, in tunneling, three-fourths

6

62 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of the time is employed in boring holes, and the remainder in charging and
blasting; hence, accelerating the former operation is an immense advantage.
The perforators have another advantage : in a place where three couples of
miners would hardly find room, eighteen perforators may be set to work ; so
that, by these ingenious contrivances, as well as by others for clearing away
the rubbish, the perforation of the tunnel may be effected in six years instead
of thirty-six. The air that has been employed as a motive pOAver is used to
feed the gallery; but when the latter shall have reached a considerable depth,
it will require 85,924 cubic meters of air per twenty -four hours to replace that
which has been vitiated by respiration, torches, and gunpowder; and this
quantity, in the form of 14,320 cubic meters of air condensed to six atmos-
pheres, the reservoir can furnish. A new and curious fact has been observed
during these works, viz., that when the air, condensed to the degree above
mentioned, is shot into the gallery from the machine, any water happening to
be near the latter suddenly congeals, although the ambient temperature be
about eighteen degrees, centigrade (seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit). Hence,
when a large mass of compressed air is driven into a gallery situated at 1,600
meters below the outer surface of the earth, and where, consequently, the
temperature must be about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the dilation of the com-
pressed air produces a diminution of temperature sufficient to counterbalance
the excess alluded to. The progress now making per day in boring is three
meters on each side of the mountain, or six meters per day in all.

ELASTIC BALL-VALVE PUMP.

This pump, patented in 1857, by Mr. A. Tower of New York, was devised
for the purpose of being, at the same time, a lift and force-pump, and a fire-
engine. It consists of two cylinders, standing vertically on a bed-plate,
between which is an air reservoir, and on the top of which are cast two pro-
jections, used as bearing for the working-beam or brake. There is a hollow
plunger in each cylinder, connected from its bottom with the brake, and mov-
ing through an ordinary stuffing-box, which is so placed that, by turning a
few screws, it may be made tighter without stopping the pump. There is
one valve-seat directly under each cylinder, and two in the air reservoir, all
of which are raised a few inches above the flat surface around. Over each
seat stands an India-rubber ball, about two inches in diameter, which is
prevented from falling sideways, or rising too high, by being inclosed in a
wire cage. Every solid particle which is earned through the valve falls by
its own weight by the side of the elevated seat, and cannot, henceforward,
choke the pump ; and the few particles Avhich may be arrested in their pas-
sage, when the ball comes suddenly down, get imbedded in the India-rubber
which closes around them, and do not interfere with the action of the valve.
This pump is capable of pumping a mixture of grain and water made in
the ratio of three quarts of corn to each gallon of water. The working
beam is properly moulded for the insertion of levers at each end. When it is
advisable to work the pump by steam power, one of the levers is taken
away, and a connecting-rod, with one end turned at right angles and shaped
like that of the lever, is substituted for it. The pump, mounted on four
wheels, and provided with proper hose, is turned into a small fire-engine.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. G3

OX THE PROTECTION OF WOOD FROM FIRE.

The attention of practical men has been for some years past directed, from .
time to time, to the importance of affording to wooden erections some degree
of protection from the effects of fire; and numerous plans have been pro-
posed, and to some extent tested, for lessening the combustibility of wood,
and for covering its surface with a protective coating more or less unalterable
by fire.

The simple application of lime or clay wash, for example, has been found
to afford some slight protection to wood, although the tendency of such
materials to peel off the surface of the wood (into which they do not in any
way penetrate), by exposure to heat, and the rapidity with which the
coating is destroyed by atmospheric influence, render them very ineffective
agents.

The successful results obtained by the application of alkaline silicates, as
protective materials, has recently induced the English War Department to
institute an examination, with a view of testing the comparative value of
the cheapest of these, the soluble silicate of soda, as an agent for decreasing
the combustibility of wood.

The property possessed by the soluble alkaline silicates, of being readily
softened by hot water, and thus converted into a state of solution, while
they are but slightly affected by cold water, renders their application to
wood, either in the form of a bath, or as a wash, very simple. Their dilute
solutions being readily absorbed by wood, the surfaces of the latter, as it
dries, assume the form of a hard coating.

From the official report, we dei'ive the following extracts, descriptive of
the results arrived at, by employing silicate of soda.

" Various specimens of dry wood were prepared with silicate of soda, by
being soaked for a few hours in a weak solution. Upon examining the
interior of these, after removal from the bath, and subsequent desiccation,
the silica was found to have penetrated about a quarter of an inch on all
sides. On piling the above over a fire, together with specimens of unpre-
pared wood, and others that had been prepared by different processes, the
superiority of the silicate of soda, as a protective agent, was fully demon-
strated. Some specimens were then simply painted with a moderately
strong solution of silicate; and afterwards placed, together with unprepared
wood, in a pool of coal-tar naphtha, and the naphtha ignited. The result
was, that while the unprepared Avood was speedily consumed, the wood
coated with silicate was only scorched, but not burned."

Shortly after the experiments above described were made, the possibility
suggested itself of rendering the coating of silicate less destructible by
exposure to wet, of increasing its efficiency as a protective, and of rendering
its application more economical by combining with its use that of ordinary
lime wash.

Some pieces of plank were prepared in the following manner: a dilute
solution of the silicate of soda was first applied with a brush ; when this
had thoroughly soaked into the wood and dried, a thick lime wash (made
by slaking some lime, and reducing the hydrate to a smooth wash of the
consistence of thick cream) was applied; and, lastly, after the planks had
been exposed to the air for two or three hours, they were painted with a
second solution of silicate of soda, somewhat stronger than that first used.

64 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

The results of trials, similar to those above recorded, proved most satis-
factorily that the protective coating resisted to a remarkable degree the
action of heat, evinced no symptom of peeling off the highly heated surface
of the wood, and protected the fibre to a great degree from the influence of
flame playing upon its surface. The durability of the coating was tested by
exposing prepared surfaces of wood to a continuous stream of water and to
heavy rains for a considerable period. It was found that the rain had no
effect upon the coating ; in the other more severe test, the material Avas only
to some extent removed, after a time, on that spot where the jet of water
first impinged upon the wood. A trial was made of the firmness of the
coating, by applying heavy blows to the surface of the wood. The covering
was only disturbed in one or two places, where the lime had been laid on
rather too thickly.

The above report was accompanied by a communication relating to the
cost of the application of the silicate coating, in which it was stated that,
provided the silicate of soda employed has been prepared with especial
reference to this application (that is, so as to be readily and completely
mixable with water), one pound of the material is sufficient to prepare a
surface of wood of ten square feet; while the wholesale price of the silicate,
in the form of a syrup, of a certain degree of concentration, is 20 per ton;
so that the cost of the silicate required to prepare the wood is at the rate of
about two pence for a surface of about ten square feet.

The following are the directions adopted for general guidance in preparing
wood with the coating of silicate of soda and lime.

The silicate of soda must be in the form of a thick syrup, and the lime
wash should be made by slacking some good fat lime, rubbing it down with
water until perfectly smooth, and then diluting it to the consistency of thick
cream.

The protective coating is produced by painting the wood firstly with a
dilute solution of silicate of soda; secondly, with the lime wash; and lastly,
with a somewhat stronger solution of the silicate. The surface of the wood
should be moderately smooth; and any covering of paper, paint, or other
material, should be first removed entirely, by planing or scraping. A solu-
tion of the silicate, in the proportion of one part by measure of the syrup to
three parts of water, is prepared in a tub, pail, or earthen vessel, by simply
stirring the measured proportion of the silicate with the water, until com-
plete mixture is effected. The wood is then Avashed over with this liquid, by
means of an ordinary white-wash brush, the latter being passed two or three
times over the surface, so that the wood may absorb as much of the solution
as possible. When this first coating is nearly dry, the wood is painted with
the lime wash in the usual manner. A solution of the silicate, in the pro-
portion of two parts by measure of the syrup to three parts of water, is then
made ; and a sufficient time having been allowed to elapse for the Avood to
become moderately dry, this liquid is applied upon the lime in the manner
directed for the first coating. The preparation of the Avood is then complete.
If the lime coating has been applied rather too thickly, the surface of the
wood may be found, when quite dry, after the third coating, to give off a
little lime when rubbed Avith the hand. In that case it should be once more
coated over Avith a solution of the silicate, of the strength prescribed for the
second liquid.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. G5

THE AMERICAN MANUFACTURE OF WATCH MOVEMENTS.

A correspondent of the New York Times furnishes the following interest-
ing description of the works of the American Watch Company, at "VValtham,
Mass., in which, for the first time, the adaptation of machinery to the con-
struction of uniformly perfect watch movements, in their minutest and most
delicate details, has been successfully attempted.

The better to understand the magnitude of the interests affected by this
enterprise, it should be remembered that the value of watches and watch
movements imported into the United States is about $5,000,000 per annum,
exclusive of many more which evade the Custom-house. It is estimated
that an equal sum is expended in this country alone in repairing defective
watches, and in vain attempts to coax them to run regularly. European
watches are made chiefly by hand. The rough parts of the movement are
collected usually from several distinct work-shops, all meeting at last upon
the bench of the finisher, perhaps in a distant city or some foreign country,
where the mechanism is fitted by measui'ement, and put in motion. Neces-
sarily very much must depend upon the accuracy of eye and steadiness of
hand of the workman; for the slightest deviation in size, length, or form of
any part of the intricate mechanism, must impair its value, if not render it
utterly useless. The variation of the ten thousandth part of an inch in the
size of a socket, or the measurements to determine its proper position, may
make all the difference between a perfect time-keeper and one which shall be
little else than a source of vexation and expense.

In "jewelling," especially, is the highest accuracy of human workmanship
required. Jewelling, in watch-making, is the setting of precious stones
usually rubies, sapphires or chrysolites in positions subjected to friction,
in order to avoid the least change of form or size by long wear. Thus holes
to receive metal pinions must be made in substances inferior only to the
diamond in hardness ; and in planing, turning, and drilling the jewels, micro-
scopic exactness is indispensable ; for the pinions must move in their holes
with perfect ease, and yet without spare room to admit the minutest division
of a hair. The mode of piercing jewels, discovered in the year 1700 by M.
Facio, of Geneva, was for a long time a distinct art of itself. "With this
understanding of the delicate mechanical conditions requisite to a true time-
keeper, the reader will no longer wonder that there are so few perfect
watches, or that none but the best works of the best European finishers
heretofore, have approached perfection, nor that there is such absence of
correspondence in the practical working of watch movements, which to the
eye appear to be precisely alike.

By the employment of ingenious machinery for the construction of each
and every part of the movement, the American "Watch Company have over-
come all the difficulties inseparable from the manufacture by hand. Each
of these machines has its peculiar office to perform, doing its special work
to a gauge or pattern, with an exactness which handicraft cannot equal.
By this means each watch movement, in every part with the exception of
the jewelled holes and the pivots that run in them is exactly like every
other of the same size and style. The holes are drilled in the jewels with a
diamond, and then opened with diamond dust on a soft, hair-like wire. The
steel pivots designed to run in these jewels, must be exquisitely polished,
by which operation their size is reduced almost inappreciably. After being

6*

G6 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

thus finished, the jewels and pivots ai-e classified by means of a gauge
graduated so as to mark the difference of a ten-thousandth part of an inch.
The size of the pivots and jewelled holes are recorded at the factory, with the
number of each watch; so that if any one of cither should ever fail, in any
part of the world, its exact duplicate may be obtained at trilling cost by
sending the number of the watch to Waltham. All the other parts are made
faithfully alike, any given piece fitting one watch exactly as it does in
every other. Nothing is left to the eye or the touch of the workman, for
the machinery impresses its own unerring precision upon the whole.

The mechanical principle of true time-keeping is the division of a constant
force in a given time, by means of perfectly adjusted mechanism, so arranged
as to change the rotary motion of the wheels into the vibratory motion of
the balance or pendulum ; the only mechanical difference between a clock
and a watch being, that the one is so arranged that it will move in one posi-
tion only, while the other will move in any, the pendulum setting the clock
in motion, and the balance performing the same service for the watch. The
escapement is that part of the time-piece which converts the rotary into
vibratory motion, as above, and is made by one tooth of the fastest running
wheel in the train escaping at each vibration, which wheel is known as the
" scape-wheel." The detached lever escapement, now used in the best
English watches, is the one adopted in the Waltham factory, with some
valuable modifications in the general construction of the movements. The
escapement varies indefinitely in movements of European manufacture, each
being fitted by hand to its particular watch, and useless in every other; while
in the American factory any one of a thousand escapements will accurately
fulfil its office wherever placed. All the ingenious tools by which these
remarkable results are obtained, were invented in this establishment, and
constructed within its walls.

Having now a general idea of the skill and perfection requisite to success-
ful watch-making, and of the chief points of novelty in the Waltham estab-
lishment, let us proceed to a methodical examination of its varied operations.

The factory building is of bride, two stories in height, surrounding a
quadrangle court, and covering about half an acre of ground. It accommo-
dates nearly a hundred and fifty operatives, many of them women- We
enter, first, the room devoted to the heavier and more massive machinery.
Here we find stamps arid dies, over a hundred in number, with which the
various pieces of the watch are first rudely stamped out of sheets of brass,
just as they come from the Connecticut rolling mills. We follow these
rough pieces (or " blanks," as they are technically named) to another
room, where they are reduced to proper size and form.

Let us follow, for example, the fortunes of this barrel blank, a simple
wheel, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, stamped out from a sheet
of brass three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, and then hardened by
hammering. The blank is placed upon a lathe, on Avhich it revolves with
great velocity, and is brought in contact with a series of tools all fastened
immovably upon a frame. These speedily reduce it to the required size and
form, turn out the chamber to accommodate the main-spring, drill a hole in
the centre to receive the barrel arbor to which the main-spring is fastened
and around which it is coiled, and turn a flange on the outer edge, on the
periphery of which are to be cut the teeth to gear into the " train " of wheels
and set it in motion. All this is accomplished in less time than I take to
describe it, the machine setting itself, and invariably executing its work

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 67

with unfailing precision. A hole is also drilled in one side of the barrel, in
which to fasten the opposite end of the spring.

The barrel is now taken from the lathe and placed upon another machine
to have its teeth cut. This operation is performed by a minute chisel revolv-
ing upon a cylinder at high speed, the machine automatically moving the
piece in a circle so as successfully to present every part of its edge to the
cutter, until the entire number of sixty teeth are formed. The teeth of the
wheels are cut upon the same principle, although of the smaller sizes from
forty to sixty wheels are placed upon the machine at once, and operated
upon by the same motion. In another part of this room all the pivots of
steel and the shoulders of pinions are cut to their proper size by machinery.
Pinions are the axles of wheels, and pivots the bearing ends on which they
run. Some of these are very small, and parts of them so slender that they
can hardly be manipulated without injury from accidental pressure; never-
theless, machinery strong enough to gouge out metal chips without apparent
effort, grasps these diminutive pieces with equal delicacy and firmness, re-
leasing them at last in perfect form and safety. The teeth of these wheels,
located at and near the centre of the pinions, are drawn out from the wire by
one machine, and are then passed under another which opens them to the
precise angle required, and polishes away all superfluous metal, reducing
them instantaneously, almost to the exact proportion desired.

The escape-wheels are cut by a machine somewhat similar to that perform-
ing the dental operation already described. In no part of the mechanism is
the perfection of the machinery put to a severer test than here, for the escape
must be shaped by it with absolute perfection, as no tool can be applied
thereto subsequently. Sixteen of the blanks are put upon the lathe at the
same time, and then by three distinct motions all accomplished in less than
one minute the eccentrically-shaped teeth are cut, and the wheels come out
the most exquisitely-delicate little affairs imaginable. Another machine
rapidly turns out pillars of brass each with several minute flanges used
in fastening the large plates of the watch to each other. Others make the
various screws required for putting the movement together. Some of these
are so minute, that ninety-five thousand of them weigh only a single pound !
The steel wire of which this number is made costs originally on^v a do!l ir,
worth, when thus manufactured, nine hundred and fifty dollars ; the labor there-
upon multiplying the value of the raw material nine hundred and fifty ti/iK.s!
A piece of the wire being placed in the machine, is seized firmly and carried
forward to a position where a tool meets and points it. This done, another
tool advances, cuts it down to a required size, at the same time forming
the shoulder, and retires. A third tool promptly follows up the work by
cutting the thread upon the screw, and a fourth nearly severs it from the
wire. The operative now picks up from his bench a sort of rack of steel,
perforated with holes, in which the screw fits easily, and, inserting the
screw-point into one of these, breaks it off above the head, repeating the
operation until the rack is full. The rack now presents to view a long
straight row of screw-heads still needing the groove into which the screw-
driver is to be inserted when forcing them home. This is promptly supplied
by passing the rack horizontally under another instrument which cuts the
groove, and, when " case screws " are wanted, saws off a segment of the
head at the same time.

A little further on we find machinery for turning the brass plates both
large and small. Each, piece is perfected in an instant. By similar means

68 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the twenty or thirty holes of different sizes are drilled in the larger plates all
at once. As the tools are held in their allotted places by iron " muscles/'
they cannot fail to do this work just where it is wanted, nor can there be
the slightest deviation from the perpendicular in the sides or walls of the
holes.

The various parts of the mechanism, leaving the rooms in which they
received their shape and size, are carried to the finishing-room. Here each
piece is carefully examined with a glass, to see if it is perfect, before it is
passed to be hardened, cleaned, and polished. The polishing is all effected
by machinery. In the finishing-room, the jewels, also, are set in the pallet
which works in the escapement. This pallet is a sort of miniature beam,
swinging on a pivot in the centre, and having an angular hook at each end,
which works upon the tooth of the escape-wheel. The points of these hooks
are opened by machinery, and jewels are inserted in the slits, and then
worked down even with the face of the metal. In polishing these pallets,
they are placed upon an index to which they are set, so that the angles may
be brought down to the microscopic exactitude of shape preeminently indis-
pensable in this part of the mechanism. All the brass pieces, when found
perfect, are gilded by electro-metallurgy.

It only remains to describe the dial-rooms, and the system of "putting
up" the movements. The dial-rooms are devoted to the production of
enamelled dials of all colors. These are made from a species of porcelain
manufactured in London, and imported in plates resembling fine China ware.
At Waltham, the porcelain is reduced to a paste, and then fused upon thin
copper plates the basis of all dials at nearly white heat. When cooled,
the dial is ground off smoothly, and then subjected again to the furnace, to
perfect its surface and give it a smooth glaze. The dial being now ready
for painting, the spaces upon its edge are marked off by an index, the
figures are put on roughly with a coarse brush, and, after the ink is dried by
slow heat, the superfluous edges are removed with a little wooden point.
The minute and second points, and the diminutive letters forming the name
of the manufacturing firm, are all put on with a fine hair pencil, the artist's
eye being assisted by the glass. The hands of the watch are stamped out
from thin sheets of steel.

The various pieces of the watch movement, when entirely finished, are
collected in sets, and carried to the "putting-up" room, where from thirty-
five to forty hands are engaged in putting them together, adjusting and
preparing them for market, subjecting each to the most thorough tests, and
regulating it perfectly as is possible before its adjustment in the pocket of
the wearer. Here, as everywhere else in this establishment, the labor is
divided and sub-divided, so as to secure the greatest economy and highest
skill. The whole number of pieces in an old-fashioned English lever is
between eight and nine hundred, including the chain. In the American
movement there are only about a hundred and twenty distinct parts, each of
ivhich passes through the hands of from Jive to seventy-five operatives, in the
process of manufacture and adjustment!

No one who examines the operations of this Company can doubt that a
revolution impends in the watch-manufacturing of the world; for, by the
American machinery, watch movements without cases are already produced
at just about one-half the cost of imported movements of similar grade,
while the former necessarily have the advantage of uniform reliability. A
poor time keeper, of machine make, should and doubtless will be as rare in

.MECHANICS AND tSKFt'J, ARTS. 69

the future as a perfect one made by hand has been in the past ; and the only
difference to be made in the scale of prices must result from the style of
finishing the cases and from the number of jewels; for it is as easy to arrange
tlic machinery so as to secure perfect work as to turn out imperfect, and
once set, it cannot fail to serve every movement alike.

REMINISCENCES OF THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF STEAM NAVIGA-
TION.

The following paper, on the above subject, was recently read before the
Xew York Historical Society, by Professor Remvick, of Xew York City.

1. The earliest attempt to navigate the ocean by steam was made, and
made successfully, by Robert L. Stevens. The circumstances of the case
were as follows : He, with his father, who had the misfortune to live half a
century too soon, not only for fortune but for fame, had constructed a steam-
boat propelled by paddle-wheels, which was in motion on the Hudson only
a few days later than Fulton's first successful voyage. Being prevented by
the exclusive grant from the State of New York to Livingston and Fulton,
from plying upon the Hudson, he conceived the bold idea of carrying the
vessel, under steam, around Cape May to the Delaware. The vessel reached
Philadelphia in safety, and was immediately employed in conveying passen-
gers between that city and Trenton. This passage was made, as I infer from
a comparison of other dates, in the spring of 1809. The steamship Savan-
nah, built in Xew York, made a voyage from Xew York to Liverpool, and
from Liverpool up the Baltic to St. Petersburg, in the year 1818. The
voyage from Xew York to Liverpool was performed partly by sails and
partly by steam, and occupied twenty-six days. The same vessel returned
via Arendal in Xorway, and was twenty-five days in making the voyage
home from the latter port. This enterprise, however, was, so to speak, no.
more than a continuation of one of much earlier date and better promise.
A steamer of stronger scantling, larger size, and, I believe, more powerful
engine, than the Savannah, had been built by a company headed by Cad-
wallader D. Golden. It was generally understood that this enterprise was
undertaken in virtue of a contract with Russia To this vessel, when
launched, the name of the " Emperor Alexander " was given. When nearly
ready for sea, her departure was prevented by the declaration of war in
June, 1S12. Under the name of the " Connecticut," this vessel was long
known upon the Sound.

England was, however, before us in forming lines of steamers to navigate
stormy seas. The earliest of these was established by the aid of the Gov-
ernment for the transportation of the Irish mail between Holyhead and
Dublin, in 1819 or 1820.

2. The first time that I ever heard of an attempt to use steam for propel-
ling vessels was from a classmate of mine, Avho resided during the summer
months at Belleville in Xew Jersey. He had, in the summer of 1803, seen
an experiment on the Passaic River, \vhich he stated to have been directed
by John Stevens of Hoboken. According to his account, the propulsion
was attempted by forcing water by means of a pump from an aperture in
the stern of the vessel. From some vague indications, it would appear that
the elder Brunei, afterwards so distinguished in Europe, was in the employ-
ment of Mr. Stevens on this occasion. In the month of May, 1804, in com-
pany with the same gentleman, I went to walk in the Battery. As we entered

70 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the gate from Broadway, we saw what we in those days considered a crowd,
running towards the river. On inquiring the cause, we were informed that
" Jack Stevens was going over to Hoboken in a queer sort of a boat." On
reaching the bulkhead by which the Battery was then bounded, we saw
lying against it a vessel about the size of a Whitehall row-boat, in which
was a small engine, but there was no visible means of propulsion. The
vessel was speedily under way, my late much-valued friend, Commodore
Stevens, acting as cockswain; and I pi-esume that the smutty-looking per-
sonage who fulfilled the duties of engineer, fireman, and crew, was his more
practical brother, Robert L. Stevens.

A few years since, at the last fair of the American Institute, held at Niblo's,
I was asked to serve on a committee to report upon a boat and engine ex-
hibited by the Messrs. Stevens, for the purpose of sustaining the claim of
their father to the honor of being the first inventor of the propeller. The
circumstances I have just recounted had taken so strong a hold on my
memory, that I at once recognized the engine exhibited as that which I had
seen at the Battery nearly fifty years before.

In respect to the propeller I could say nothing. One of my colleagues on
the committee, however, Mr. Curtis, at that time United States Inspector of
steamboats for the port of New York, recognized, as distinctly as I had done
the engine, the propeller, which he had seen in the hands of workmen by
whom it was manufactured. The dates corresponded, the apparatus was
avowedly making for Stevens of Hoboken. Thus it happened that an acci-
dental choice had placed upon the committee two persons who were, by the
union of their testimony, capable of establishing the fact into the truth of
which they were directed to inquire.

In the spring of the j r ear 1807, 1 had the pleasure to hear from David
Gordon, at that time a merchant in this city, afterwards much distinguished
in England as a civil engineer, an account of Fulton's trial-trip, and to learn
from him that there was every reasonable hope of his success.

In the summer of the same year, while about to sit down to dinner at
Gregory's Hotel in Albany, in company with my predecessor in Columbia
College, Dr. Kemp, Mr. Selah Strong entered the room, stating that he had
just arrived from New York in Fulton's steamboat, after a passage of about
thirty -six hours. He went on to say, that, being anxious to reach Albany
to transact some business of importance, he had solicited permission to
make the voyage in the steamer, which was, after some hesitation, granted.
Five other persons followed him, occupying with him the six spare berths
which happened to be on board. Mr. Strong, then, was the first passenger
who ever paid his fare in a steamer, and his urgency had probably a great
influence on the fortunes of the invention ; for, up to that time, Fulton's own
views were chiefly devoted to the Mississippi and 1 its branches. An opening
for a successful traffic seemed to exist on the Hudson; and from that date to
the close of navigation the original boat continued to run occasionally, and
to convey passengers.

You may readily believe that I did not fail to visit the vessel; and that I
could not avoid hearing the imprecations, not loud but deep, with which the
Albany skippers saluted what they thought would be the ruin of their occu-
pation. Even the more quiet burghers could not refrain from lamenting
that in Fulton's success was involved the ruin of their trade, and the trans-
fer of their business to New York. The vessel was very unlike any of its
successors, and even very dissimilar from the shape in which it appeared a

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 71

few months afterwards. With a model resembling that of a skiff, it was
decked for a short distance at stem and stern. The engine was open to
view, and from the engine aft a house like that on a canal boat was raised
to cover the boiler, and the apartments for the officers. In these, by the
addition of a few berths, the passengers were accommodated. There were
no wheel-guards. The rudder \vas of the shape used in sailing vessels, and
moved by a tiller. The boiler was of the form then usual in Watt's engines,
and was set in masonry. The condenser was of the size habitually used in
land engines, and stood, as was and still is the practice in them, in a large
cold-water cistern. The weight of the masonry, and the great capacity of
the cold-water cistern, diminished most materially the buoyancy of the
vessel.

At this point Fulton's ingenuity and fertility of invention were called into
play. The experiment was to the eye of the world successful, yet was
withal so imperfect as to be liable to continual accident and annoyance.
The rudder had so little power that the vessel could hardly be managed, and
could not be made to veer around even in the whole breadth of the Hudson
at New York. The spray from the wheels dashed over the passengers, and
the skippers of the river craft, taking advantage of the unwieldiness of the
vessel, did not fail to run foul of her as often as they thought they had the
law on their side. Thus, in several instances, the steamboat reached one or
the other of the termini of its route with but a single wheel.

Before the season closed, the wheel was surrounded by a frame of strong
beams, and the paddles were covered in ; the rudder had taken the shape of
a rectangle, of large iron horizontal dimensions, such as is now seen in all
American river-boats; this rudder was worked by a wheel, the ropes from
which were attached to the end most distant from the pintles. The vessel,
by the last mentioned arrangement, became so manageable as to be capable
of veering at Albany; and by the first was more likely to inflict than to
receive injury in an encounter with a sailing vessel. I was even at that time
of opinion and a careful attention to the working of the patent laws has
confirmed me in it that, had Fulton been less sanguine in relation to his first
patent, and had added to it by a new instrument the improvements which
circumstances led him to make during the summer of 1807, but which he
allowed to become public property, he might have maintained his exclusive
privileges as patentee in all parts of the Union. To put a pair of paddle-
wheels on the axle of the crank of one of Boulton and Watt's engines is a
step almost too simple to admit of specification, and had been in some de-
gree indicated by Watt himself; but the practical difficulties which lay in
the way, and could not have been foreseen, required the application of reme-
dies, all of which were original. Among them, unqtiestionably, was the
substitution of a condenser, enlarged fourfold in its capacity, for the old
condenser and the cold-water cistern, together with the use of standing pipes
instead of the cold-water pump. These made their appearance the ensuing
season.

During the winter of 1807-8, the " Clermont" for by this name the vessel
was now known was almost wholly rebuilt. The hull was considerably
lengthened, and covered from stem to stern with a flush deck. Beneath this,
two cabins were formed, and surrounded by double ranges of berths, fitted
up in a manner then unexampled for comfort. The vessel was then adver-
tised to run at stated periods between New York and Albany, as a packet,
the first time of departure being the first Wednesday (I think) of May. On

72 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

that day I embarked in her; the officer in command was named Jenkins;
and Fulton himself, accompanied by the lady whom he had recently mar-
ried, was on board. The first marked incident was the leaving of several
passengers who had ventured to trust to the want of punctuality then usual
in the departure of vessels. The rule of starting at an exact hour was then
enforced for the first time, and from that rule there was for the future no
deviation. One or two of the dilatory parties jumped into a boat that was
towing astern, the others were left behind.

Leaving Cortlandt-street at five o'clock, we were at the base of Butler Hill
about daybreak the next morning. A delay of a couple of hours took place
at Chancellor Livingston's seat, Clermont, and the whole passage was made
in less than forty hours. Symptoms of difficulty were manifest, however,
even on the upward passage. Mr. Fulton appeared anxious and abstracted.
Finally, steam began to make its appearance in very minute jets through the
joints of a wooden trunk, that was first considered by the passengers as the
case of the boiler. It was at last found to be the boiler itself, and it was
whispered that Fulton had been overruled by his associates, and that a cylin-
der of wooden staves, containing fire-place and flues of copper, had been
substituted for the boiler of Watt, instead of replacing it by a new boiler of
copper. This form of boiler had been proposed, but as far as I can learn,
had never been used by Watt. On the return voyage the leaks in the boiler
continued to increase; the speed of the vessel, although aided by a flood in
the river, became less and less; and after fifty-seven hours of struggling, the
engine ceased to work. We were then at the foot of Christopher street.
The flood-tide made itself felt in opposition to our progress, and the pas-
sengers considered it better to make a landing, and find their way on foot to
the peopled parts of the city.

It took some weeks to obtain a new boiler, after the expiration of which
the Clermont resumed her proposed trips.

In the month of September, 1809, I was a partaker in the exciting scene,
then first enacted, of a steamboat race. A company at Albany had been
formed for the purpose of competing with Fulton. The first vessel of this
rival line was advertised to leave Albany at the same time with Fulton's.
Parties ran high in the hotels at Albany. The partisans of Fulton Avere
enrolled under Professor Kemp of Columbia College, those of the opposition
under Jacob Stout. The victory was long in suspense ; and it was not until
after the thirtieth hour of a hard struggle that the result was proclaimed by
Dr. Kemp, standing on the taffrail of Fulton's vessel, and holding out, in
derision, a coil of rope to Captain Stout, for the purpose, as he informed
him, of towing him into port. When the age, high standing, and sedate
character of these two gentlemen arc considered, it did not surprise me, Avho
witnessed their excitement, when I afterwards heard of Western w r omen
having devoted their bacon to feed the fires of a steamboat furnace.

Although I became intimately acquainted with Fulton about the year 1810,
I have nothing of interest to mention to you, except that this intimacy pro-
cured me the privilege of accompanying him on the trial-trips of two of his
vessels I think the Paragon and the Fulton. The latter was intended for
the navigation of fhe Sound, but was prevented from plying on that route
by the presence of British cruisers. On one of these occasions we had the
opportunity of seeing the respect in which Fulton's genius was held by ene-
mies of the country. On issuing from the Narrows, we saw, close in with
the Point of Sandy Hook, a large English vessel, the Razee Saturn, by

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 73

which the port was then blockaded. Our direct course for the anchorage at
the Hook, whither we were bound, lay across the cast bank, and we thus
had the appearance of bearing down on the cruiser. As soon as we were
fairly in sight, and as our smoke could well be seen by the Saturn, that ves-
sel was put about, a press of sail was spread, and every effort was evidently
made on board to obtain an offing, by standing away close hauled with a
strong wind from S.W. After we got quietly anchored under the Hook, the
Saturn resumed her station just outside of the bar.

Although it has been said, on English authority, that Sir Thomas Hardy,
while occupying the Sound with a powerful squadron, and carrying his flag
in a seventy-four, never remained at anchor during the night, and rarely left
the deck except by day, in order to insure safety from Fulton's torpedoes, a
more certain if not more terrific mode of attack was, at the date of which I
speak, afloat, and nearly ready for service in the waters of New York. This
was the steam Battery, miscalled Frigate, Fulton. This vessel, formidable
enough in reality, had been represented by correspondents of English news-
papers as a monster of prodigious powers. An hundred guns of enormous
calibre were said to be enclosed in fire and bomb-proof shelters ; the upper
deck was reported to be defended by thousands of boarding-pikes and cut-
lasses wielded by steam, while showers of boiling water were ready to be
poured over those that might escape death from the rapidly whirling steel.
In reality, the vessel presented above the surface of the water the figure of
an oval, whose greatest length was about the same as that of an English
seventy-four. This was covered by a continuous spar-deck, at either extrem-
ity of which was mounted, on a revolving carriage, a chambered gun, capa-
ble of throwing a solid ball of 100 pounds, but intended, as is well known,
to throw shells. Beneath the spar-deck was the gun-deck, also continuous,
except in the middle, where space was left for the working of a large paddle-
wheel ; and on this gun-deck was mounted a battery of thirty-two 32-pound-
ers. The sides of the vessel were thickened by cork and wood, not only
between the guns, but as low as the water's edge, until incapable of being
penetrated by a 32-pound ball. Beneath the gun-deck the hull was formed
as if of a vessel cut in two, leaving a passage from stem to stem for water
to reach and to be thrown backwards from the wheel. Two rudders were
placed in this passage, moving on their centres. The boilers and the greater
part of the machinery were below the reach of shot, and even the wheels
could only be reached by a stray shot, passing unimpeded and in a proper
direction through the port-holes, until the sides of the vessel had been
destroyed by a long-continued battering. The central wheel, and the pecu-
liar rudders, had already been successfully used by Fulton in a ferry-boat.
This seems to have been placed on the Brooklyn ferry about the year 1811.

My scene must -now be changed to the opposite side of the Atlantic. The
war with England being at an end, I took an early opportunity to visit
Europe, and reached England in the month of May, 1815. In July of the
same year, in company with some other Americans, I made a pedestrian
excursion to. the neighborhood of Runcorn, in Cheshire. On our return
through the beautiful grounds of what once was a park belonging to Lord
Sefton, was then laid out in sites for villas, and has since been included in
the town of Liverpool, we saw beneath us in the Mersey an object which
puzzled our English friend, but which the rest of the party knew to be a
steamboat. On reaching Liverpool, AVC learned that Bell, who had been put
forward by a Committee of Parliament, as the rival, indeed as the instructor,

r*

74 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of Fulton, had brought his vessel, the Comet, round from Greenock. It
seems that he had been driven from the Clyde by the competition of larger
and more perfect vessels. In passing between the two towns he had made
the first English voyage on the ocean by steam. This date, you will per-
ceive, is six years later than the similar voyage of Robert L. Stevens from
New York to Philadelphia. The length of the Comet's keel was no more
than forty feet, her engine was of but three-horse power.

On the 21st of March, 1816, I left Southampton for Havre, in a cutter
packet of about forty tons. The following night was very stormy, and our
captain thought it prudent to return for some hours to Cowes, until the
violence of the gale had abated. On entering the basin at Havre, we were
moored alongside of a steam vessel of about the same size and similar
model, which had, during the gale we had feared to encounter, crossed the
channel from Brighton. This vessel ascended the Seine to Rouen, and, if I
am not mistaken, to Paris. I do not recollect her name, nor am I aware of
her fate; but she was unquestionably the first steam vessel specially built in
Great Britain for sea navigation.

From this date onwards, the attempts at the navigation of the narrow seas
which surround England were frequent and partially successful. Private
enterprise and patronage were, however, insufficient to insure any important
results, and these were not attained until the Government, in 1820, stepped
in and established a line of mail steamers between Holyhead and Dublin.
The sound principle of aiding individual exertion by government funds and
government patronage was first exhibited in this line, and the method has
been copied in other English lines, and in the messageries of France.

The navigation of the narrow seas by steam, as practised by England,
afforded but little hope of success hi the navigation of great distances upon
the ocean. So small was the expectation of its practicability, that a cele-
brated, if not a distinguished writer and lecturer of that country concluded,
that the result of English experience authorized him to prophesy that no
vessels could be built that could carry coal enough to make the passage
under steam from Europe to America. Yet at the time of this prophecy the
problem had been solved years before by American hands in 1820. With
funds chiefly furnished by David Dunham, under the inspection and partly
at the cost of Jaspar Lynch, with engines planned by Fulton himself and a
hull moulded by Eckford, a steamer was built in New York to run, via
Havana, from New York to New Orleans. This vessel attained what Fulton,
from an imperfect theory, had concluded to be the maximum speed of
steamboats nine nautical miles per hour. And this speed was not ex-
ceeded by steamers specially built for sea service before the brilliant opening
of the Collins line. The vessel of which I speak had sufficient capacity for
the stowage of fuel for each passage; sustained, under skilful management,
hurricanes of the utmost violence, and had room for many passengers. No
experiment could possibly have been more successful. But the enterprise
was a failure, because the cost of maintaining it was not defrayed by the
number of passengers who presented themselves. The enterprising Lynch
was ruined; the vast fortune of Dunham materially diminished; the vessel,
stripped of her machinery, was sold for a cruiser to a South American
government, in whose service her speed and sea-worthy qualities well sus-
tained the reputation of Eckford. Thus a triumph well deserved by New
York remained to be earned, after an interval of many years, by Bristol, in
the repeated voyages of the Great Western.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 75

NEW ALLOY FOR SHEATHING SHIPS.

A patent has recently been taken out in England by Mr. Arthur "Wall, of
London, for a combination of metals possessing different electric characters
for the sheathing- of ships. The alloy is made by melting two and a half
parts of copper in one crucible ; in another nine parts of zinc, eighty-seven
of lead, one part of mercury, and a half a part of bismuth; then mixing the
contents of both crucibles, covering the surface with charcoal dust, and stir-
ring well until all are incorpoi-ated. It is stated that the mercury in this alloy
protects both the zinc and copper from the action of sea-water. The con-
tents of the crucible are run into ingots, and rolled into sheets.

The same inventor luis also obtained a patent for protecting the bottoms
of iron ships from the action of sea-water, by the use of a composition of
litharge, made into a smooth, thin paste with turpentine, to which is added an
equal weight of resin. The whole is then put into a close iron vessel, placed
over a fire, naphtha added through an aperture in the lid from time to time,
and the boiling kept up slowly for about two days, until the whole has as-
sumed a tenacious, adhesive character, and a creamy consistency. It is then
fit to be applied to the iron of the vessel as a primary coating. A second
coating is given to the iron with a composition of resin, combined with one-
fifth of its weight of an oxyd of mercury and powdered charcoal mixed in
turpentine. This outer coating fills up all cracks or gaps left in the first
application, and the nature of the composition is stated to be such that it
prevents barnacles adhering to the iron, and resists the corroding action of
salt water.

ON THE STRENGTH OF S03IE ALLOYS OF NICKEL AND IRON.

At a recent meeting of the Manchester (Eng.) Society of Engineers, Mr.
Fairbairn, presented the result of some experiments made to ascertain
whether an infusion of nickel, in a given proportion, would increase the
tenacity of cast-iron, as originally imagined from the analysis of meteoric
iron, which generally contains 2 1-2 per cent, of nickel. Contrary to ex-
pectation, however, the cast-iron, when mixed with the precise quantity of
nickel indicated by the analysis of meteoric iron, lost considerably in point
of strength, instead of gaining by it. Mr. Fairbairn also stated in the course
of his paper, that during the last ten years, innumerable tests and experi-
ments had been made for the purpose of obtaining a metal of extraordinary
tenacity for the casting of mortars and heavy ordnance; but the ultimate
result appeared to be, in the opinion of the author and others, that for the
casting, or rather the construction, of heavy artillery, there is no metal so
well calculated to resist the action of gunpowder as a perfectly homogeneous
mass of the best and purest cast-iron when freed from sulphur and phosphorus

In the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, Mr. Calvert said
that it was highly probable that nickel caused the increased brittleness of
cast-iron, just as carbon, phosphorus, and sulphur, but that the result with
malleable iron might probably be very different; and, as meteoric iron is
malleable, the trial could only be complete when soft iron and nickel were
united; nevertheless, these experiments, as far as cast-iron is concerned, were
decidedly new and of great value.

76 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

RUSSIA SHEET-IRON.

It is a popular notion that the process of manufacturing the tenacious and
glossy "Russia sheet-iron " is a profound secret, and that the vigilance exer-
cised by the Eussian Government, and the Russian manufacturers, have
hitherto successfully prevented all foreigners from obtaining the slightest in-
formation on the subject. The present Commissioner of Patents, in his last
report, also alludes to the manufacture of this article, as one of the great,
unsolved problems in science, which the industrial interests of the country
require should be explained.

Mr. Wells, in his recent work, " Principles and Applications of Chemistry,"
states that this current belief has no foundation in fact, and that the method
of preparing the iron in question is perfectly well known. According to the
authority quoted, " Russia sheet-iron is, in the first instance, a very pure arti-
cle, rendered exceedingly tough and flexible by refining and annealing. Its
bright, glossy surface is partially a silicate, and partially an oxyde of iron,
and is produced by passing the hot sheet, moistened with a solution of wood-
ashes, through polished steel rollers."

Another mythical bubble is thus punctured, and the wonderful story of
guarded founderies and ever-watchful officials, as connected with Russia
sheet-iron, will take rank with the account of " Symmes's Hole," and the
barnacles which turn to Solan geese. Scientific American.

COMPOSITE IRON RAILING.

The process by which this light, elegant, and cheap fabric is manufactured
is as follows : Rods and bars of wrought-iron are cut to the lengths required
for the pattern, and subjected to a process called crimping, by which they
are bent to the desired shape. These rods are then laid in the form of the
design, and cast-iron moulds are affixed at those points where a connection
is desired ; the moulds are then filled with melted metal and immediately you
have a complete railing of beautiful design. The entire process is so system-
atized, that what was once the work of days is effected in an hour. Casting
in iron moulds has this great advantage over the old sand moulding, it does
not require any time for cooling, as the metal is no sooner run than the moulds
may be removed, and used again immediately upon another section of the
work; and besides, it is so much more readily effected. By the combination
of wrought and cast-iron in this process, the most curious and complex
designs may be produced almost at will. This simplicity of production is
attended with a corresponding diminution of cost.

METALLIC ALLOY FOR THE FORMATION OF MEDALS, SMALL FIG-
URES, ETC. BY M. YON BIBRA.

Six parts of bismuth, three parts of tin, and thirteen parts of lead, are fused
together first of all, in a crucible or iron ladle : the mixture is poured out and
fused again, if it is to be employed in casting. It is almost as readily fusible
as the well-known Rose's metal; but, besides possessing considerable hardness,
it has the particular advantage of not being brittle, because it possesses no crys-
talline structure upon the fracture. If the cast objects bo bitten with dilute
nitric acid, washed with water, and rubbed with a woollen rag, the elevated

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 77

spots become bright, whilst the sunken portions arc dull, and the casting
acquires a dark, gray appearance, with an antique lustre. "\Yithout biting, the
color is light-gray. Some casts of medals taken with this alloy in plaster of
Paris were so successful, that the finest contours and the legend, which in the
original was only legible with the lens, were completely reproduced. Calcu-
lated for 100 parts, this alloy consists of 27'27 bismuth, 59 '00 lead, and 13'61
tin. As bismuth is expensive in comparison both with lead and tin, the
quantity of lead might be increased, and that of the bismuth diminished,
without injury to the valuable properties of the alloy. It is probable this
mixture may be adapted for typographical purposes. Polytcchn. Cent mill.,
1S-37, p. SS8.

NEW MATERIAL FOR MOULDS, ETC.

It is proposed to introduce a vast improvement in the casting of metals, by
substituting compressed carbon for the sand or clay usually employed. The
advantage to be derived is, that the same mould may be used over and over
again without injuring the smooth surface of the cast material. The carbon
to be employed, which is manufactured under a patent recently granted to
Mr. Buhring, of England, is comparatively pare, and can be moulded into
any shape and form required. The same material has been sucessfully ap-
plied to the manufacture of crucibles, and these crucibles are by many con-
sidered superior to any others. Another purpose to which the compressed
carbon is applicable is the manufacture of battery plates; and it is antici-
pated that electric telegraph companies would effect a vast saving in the cost
of their batteries, by employing carbon in connection with iron, instead of
the zinc and copper plates now used.

ON THE SHAPE OF BRICKS.

Mr. George Gilbert Scott, an eminent English architect, in a recently pub-
lished work, makes the following observations on the form or shape of
bricks. He says : " The shape of a brick has a great influence on the effect
in work. Our bricks are too short for their thickness they should either
be thinner or longer. I should say thinner for small buildings, and longer
for large ones. If, for instance, we had for large buildings facing-bricks of
the usual thickness, but nearly a foot long, they would look well, and would
work in with a backing of common bricks, if necessary; but for small build-
ings, bricks of the usual length and breadth, but only two and a half inches
in thickness, would look best. In the north of German}', bricks were used in
the middle ages, for large buildings, of much greater size than we now use
them; this would have been good had the thickness been kept moderate;
but that being increased in proportion, the bricks Avere often insufficiently
burnt; and, except in buildings of gigantic size, they looked clumsy. The
Roman brick, which was twice the length of ours, and little more than half
its thickness, Avas in the other extreme but it is the better side to err on.
Their length ensures good bonding, AA'hile their thinness causes them to be
thoroughly burnt."

DUTY OF STEAM ENGINES.

The folloAving interesting practical examples of the difference between the
actual and theoretic duty in different descriptions of steam-engine , is ex-

7*

78 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT

tracted from the published researches of Prof. Thompson, of England, on the
dynamic theory of steam :

" 1. The engine of the Fowey Consols mine was reported, in 18i5, to have
given 125,089,000 foot-pounds of effect for the consumption of one bushel, or
ninety-four pounds, of coal. Now, the average amount evaporated from Cor-
ftjsh boilers, by one pound of coal, is eight and a half pounds of steam ; and
hence, for each pound of steam evaporated, 150,556 foot-pounds of pressure
are produced.

" The pressure of the saturated steam in the boiler may be taken as three
and a half atmospheres, and consequently the temperature of water will be
150. Now, by Regnault (end of Memoire x), the latent heat of a pound of
saturated steam, at 140 Cent., is 508, and since, to compensate for each
pound of steam removed from the boiler in the working of an engine, a
pound of water at the temperature of the condenser (which may be estimated
at 30) is introduced from the hot well, it follows that 618 units of heat
Cent, are introduced to the boiler for each pound of water evaporated. But
the work produced for each pound of water evaporated was found above to be
156,556 foot-pounds; hence, --^f^--, or 25'3 foot-pounds, is the amount of
work produced for each unit of heat transmitted through the Fowey Consols
engine.

" 2. The best duty on record, as performed by an engine at work (not for
merely experimental purposes), is that of Taylor's engine, at the United
Mines, which, in 1840, worked regularly for several months at the rate of
98,000,000 foot-pounds for each bushel of coal burned; this is T 9 ^- or '784 of
the experimental duty reported in the Fowey Consols engine.

" Hence, the best useful work on record is at the rate of 198'3 foot-pounds
for each unit of heat transmitted, and is l jf fj 3 -, or forty-five per cent, of the
theoretical duty, on the supposition that the boiler is at 140 and the con-
denser at 30.

"3. French engineers contract (in Lille, in 1847, for example,) to make
engines for mill power which will produce 30,000 metre-pounds, or 98,427
foot-pounds, of work for each pound of steam used. If we divide this by 618,
we find 159 foot-pounds for the work produced by each unit of heat. This is
36' 1 per cent, of 440, the theoretical duty.

" 4. English engineers have contracted to make engines and boilers which
will require only three and a half pounds of the best coal per horse power per
hour. Hence, in such engines, each pound of coal ought to produce 565,700
foot-pounds of work; and if seven pounds of water be evaporated by
each pound of coal, there would result 80,814 foot-pounds of work for each
pound of water evaporated. If the pressure in the boiler be three and a half
atmospheres (temperature 140), the amount of work for each unit of heat
will be found, by dividing this by 618, to be 130'7 foot-pounds, which is
-L3-jp^, or 29'7 per cent, of the theoretical duty.

" 5. The actual average of work performed by good Cornish engines and
boilers is 55,000,000 foot-pounds for each bushel of coal, or less than half the
experimental performance of the Fowey Consols engine, and scarcely more
than half the actual duty performed by the United Mines engine in 1840; in
fact, about twenty -five per cent, of the theoretical duty.

" 6. The average performance of a number of Lancashire engines and
boilers have been recently found to be such as to require twelve pounds of
Lancashire coal per horse power per hour (i. e., for performing 60 >< 33,000
foot-pounds), and a number of Glasgow engines such as to require fifteen

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS.

79

pounds (of a somewhat inferior coal) for the same effect. There are, how-
ever, more than twenty large engines in Glasgow at present, which work
with a consumption of six and a half pounds of dross, equivalent to five
pounds of the best Scotch, or four pounds of the best Welsh coal, per horse
power per hour. The economy must be estimated from these data, as in the
other cases, on the assumption, which, with reference to these, is the most
probable we can make, that the evaporation produced by a pound of best
coal is seven pounds of steam.

A cubic foot of water weighs 62*32 pounds ; allowing five pounds of coal to
evaporate this quantity ( =12'464 pounds per pound of coal and 12'9 has
been done), we get, as the theoretical duty of one pound of coal:

Ibs.

Ibs. of coal
per H. P.
per hour.

Per

centage
of duty.

In the engine with initial pressure of)
150 Ibs., and cutting off at l-10th, J

1,394,065 raised

one foot = -62

100-00

In engine with initial pressure of 90 ) 9 7Q7 ,.-,-,
Ibs., and cutting off at l-6th, j ^< y <> 011

" -70

87-58

Utmost duty known to have been ) -, ooq 1-07
performed by a Cornish engine, j *i

" 1-48

41-63

Common amount of duty for a supe- ) -. ^/^ AAA
rior Cornish engine, $ 1,000,OU

" 1-98

31-30

Average duty of Cornish engines,

750,000

" 2-64

23-48

" best marine "

450,000

" 4-4

1409

It has been already said that the best expansive engines have never real-
ized in practice more than sixty per cent, of their theoretical duty. As re-
gards the composition of such loss of forty per cent., Mr. Pole found, that if
an engine of that kind, expanding three and a half times, were absolutely
perfect, each unit of heat given out by the combustion of the fuel ought to
develop about 134 units of work; but the amount actually produced in the
shape of water raised was only about eighty units, or sixty per cent, less than
the theoretical result. He has endeavored to discover at what parts of the
engine this loss occurred, and has found it might be distributed about as fol-
lows :

Imperfect combustion, and other causes of waste of heat in the boiler,
Heat expended in raising the temperature of the feed-water to a
boiling-point,

12}

Friction, imperfect vacuum, air, pump, etc., or power wasted in

working the engine, 15

Useful effect realized,

Total calorific power of the engine,

40
60

100

The friction of the machinery of a locomotive engine has been experimen-
tally determined by De Pambour at -fa of the tractive force it exerts, and
this exactly coincides with the results of Mr. Pole's analytical investigation
of the friction of the direct-acting marine engine with slides. This is, of
course, exclusive of the resistance of the air-pump, and of the friction caused
by the pressure (when unbalanced) of the steam on the back of the slide-
Valve. Engineer and Arch. Journal.

80

ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

EXPERIMENTS ON THE STRENGTH OF SEVERAL KINDS OF

BUILDING STONES.

The following paper, showing the results of experiments on the strength
of various kinds of building stones in common use, was recently read before
the American Institute of Architects, 1ST. Y., by Mr. R. G. Hatfield. The pres-
sure applied was by means of a hydraulic press. The press was constructed
for me by Messrs. R. Hoe & Co., in their best style of workmanship; oil, in-
stead of water, is used to avoid corrosion, and consequent friction. The pres-
sure is indicated at all stages of the experiment by an index moving over a
scale on a circular arc the index being operated by levers on knife-edge
bearings ; one of these levers is pressed by a piston playing in a small cylin-
der, the piston being operated by the oil under pressure. The press has a
capacity of 60,000 pounds.

The Resistance to Crushing. The specimens submitted to this test were
two-inch cubes of freestone. They were dressed to the shape about as accu-
rately as cut-stone used in the erection of buildings. To prevent any unequal
pressure on the parts, they were bedded above and below in a thin layer of
fine white sand. The results given below are the pounds per square inch of
the surface pressed, required to produce the first fracture.

Kind.

Number of
Specimens.

Average resistance
per square inch.

Specific Gravity.

Belleville, N. J.,

4

3522

2-328

Connecticut,

3

3319

2-452

Dorchester,

2

3059

2-381

Little Falls,

5

2991

2-326

Caen,

4

1088

2-218

Resistance to Cross Strain. The specimens submitted to this test were
about 4 X5 inches, and sixteen inches long; laid on chairs, with a clear bear-
ing of one foot in length. The figures given below are the reduced results,
and exhibit for each kind the constant, s, in the formula l ~ = s, or the
weight required to break a piece of the material one inch square, and one
foot long, clear bearing, the weight concentrated at the middle of the length.

Kind.

Number of
Specimens.

Average valve
of s=&

bd2

Specific Gravity.

Blue stone flagging,

3

125 Ibs.

2-707

Quincy granite,

2

104

2-658

Little Falls freestone,

3

96

2-326

Belleville,

3

82

2-328

Granite (blue),

1

72

2-604

(Another quarry)

Belleville freestone,

3

71

2-273

Connecticut "

3

52

2-462

Dorchester "

3

43

2-289

Aubigne "

2

37

2-472

Caen

3

25

2-218

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 81

The one specimen of granite giving a result so much below that of the
other two specimens, was of a coarse texture, showing in the fracture the
crystals of its ingredients, large and distinct in form and color.

THE WELLINGTON SARCOPHAGUS.

In one of the chambers into which the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral is
divided by the massive pillars which help to support that vast structure, and
under the very centre of the dome, is a sarcophagus, of black marble, in
which are inclosed the remains of England's greatest naval hero. No more
worthy resting-place could have been found for the glorious dead; and no
more fitting spot could possibly have been chosen than the adjacent chamber
for the tomb of the hero who, next to Nelson, holds the highest place in the
estimation of his countrymen. They rest there side by side the great ad-
miral and the great general examples alike of England's glory and of
England's gratitude.

When the country had provided so munificently for the burial of her favor-
ite commander, it was felt that the tomb no less than the monument should
testify to the national feeling. The chamber immediately to the east of that
in which Nelson lies was appropriated to Wellington, and it was decided
to place the coffin in a sarcophagus bearing a general correspondence to
Nelson's.

Some difficulty was found in obtaining a suitable block of stone for the
sarcophagus, either on the continent or in Great Britain. At length one was
discovered in a huge boulder of porphyry one of several lying in the
parish of Luxulion, on the southern coast of Cornwall. So excessively hard
was this stone, that tools had to be constructed specially for the purpose of
working it ; and as only one man could work there at the same time, the
carving of the inside took nearly two years to complete. The sarcophagus
was hewn into form, as a geologist would say, in situ : it being found far
easier to cany workmen and tools to the field, than to carry the stone to the
workshop. The cutting was done by hand; the polishing, for the sake of
expedition, by steam-power. The boulder was sawn in two to form the sar-
cophagus, the larger portion being hollowed out to provide a receptacle for
the coffin, the smaller forming the lid. Its massiveness will be understood
when Ave state that the sarcophagus as completed weighs upwards of twelve
tons : the rude block was some five times that weight. Whilst the sarcopha-
gus was in progress, the chamber was being adapted to receive it; and the
whole has, nearly five years after the death of the Great Duke, been at length
finished.

The chamber has a very impressive effect. In the centre, the massive sar-
cophagus, reared on a more massive base, reaches nearly to the low vaulted
roof; and no object interferes to lessen its majestic proportions. The porphyry,
of which it is composed, is of a deep chocolate color nearly black, in fact
feldspar crystals vaiying its surface with splashes of a light but dusky red.
In form, it is, of course, oblong, the angles not being rounded; but the mas-
siveness is not destroyed, as in the Nelson sarcophagus, by the lower part
being cut away : the full width of the base is preserved, very much to the
advantage of the general effect. On one side of the sarcophagus is inscribed,
in gold letters, "ARTHUR, DUKE OF WELLINGTON; " on the other, the dates
of his birth and death. At each end, on a plain circular boss, is a Greek
cross, its shape being indicated by a gilt outline. No other inscription or

82 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ornament is perceptible. The pedestal on which the sarcophagus rests is of
white granite, from the Cheesewring quarry, Cornwall; extremely solid in
form, about the height of the sarcophagus, and having at each of its angles
the head of a sleeping lion. The lower part of the walls of the chamber are
also lined with rough white granite ; and a moulding of polished red granite,
which is carried along the sides of the chamber, serves to diffuse the color of
the sarcophagus, and of the four large polished granite candelabra which
stand at the four corners of the apartment. From a sphere which surmounts
each of these candelabra, rise four small jets of gas, which shed a dim, relig-
ious light, subdued, but sufficient to allow the tomb to be distinctly seen.
The floor is paved with encaustic tiles.

The sarcophagus, to our thinking, is finer in form than the finest of the
Egyptian sarcophagi in the British Museum (of course it admits of no com-
parison in its workmanship with the elaborate hieroglyphic sculpture on
some of them), finer, in fact, than any we know. Lon. Lit. Gazelle.

CHURCH OF ST. ISAAC, AT ST. PETERSBURG

This church, which has been thirty-nine years building, was consecrated,
with great pomp and military parade, on the 10th of June, 18-58. " Visitors to
this gorgeous temple," says a correspondent of the London Athenaeum, "are
dazzled with the profusion of barbaric pearl and gold they meet at every
glance. We see no wood, except in the doors; all the rest is granite, Carrara
marble, iron, porphyry, malachite, alabaster, lapis lazuli, bronze, silver, and
gold. Even the lightning-conductors are of platinum. The five crosses, as
well as the cupola of the building, are gilt with a mass of 274 pounds of
gold, and are seen glittering at a distance of forty wersts from St. Petersburg.
One of the bells weighs 75,000 pounds. Eleven hundred and twelve granite
columns, with Corinthian capitals, surround the building. They are each
fifty-six feet high, and seven feet in diameter at the base. Each is considered
to be of a value of ,1800 English money. The cost of the whole magnifi-
cent building is reckoned though this is probably a gross exaggeration
at 13,500,000. The interior, comprising a space of 60,000 square feet, and
taken up neither by seats nor by organs (in the place of the organ there is a
choir of 1000 men's voices), is very imposing."

STEAM: HAMMERS.

These tools have gone on increasing in quick gradations, until the climax
of a six and a half tons, dead hammering weight, with a fall of seven feet
six inches, has been reached. A hammer of this weight has been lately
erected, and is now in operation at Glasgow. London Builder.

METHOD OF DETECTING DECAY IN TIMBER.

The French Journal " Cosmos " states that a simple method has been
adopted in the shipyards of Venice, from time immemorial, for testing the
soundness of the timber. A pei-son applies his ear to the middle of one of
the ends of the timber, while another strikes upon the opposite end. If the
wood is sound and of good quality, the blow is very distinctly heard, how-
ever long the beam may be. If the wood is disaggregated by decay or
otherwise, the sound will be for the most part destroyed.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 83

ON TUE ESTIMATION OF WEIGHTS OF VERY SMAXL PORTIONS OF

MATTER : BY PROF. McMAYER.

The chemist, in the course of his analytical investigations, often meets
with what are called traces of substances ; by which is generally understood*
quantities of matter too minute to have any appreciable weight in the analyt-
ical balance. Now it sometimes happens that these traces are of as much
importance, considered scientifically and commercially, as the ingredients
present in appreciable quantities ; and in order to estimate these small por-
tions of matter, he is often obliged to go over his work, using very consider-
able weights of substances, whereby his time and care are nearly doubled.
It was this inconvenience that first induced me to try to determine in one
operation the components present in large and in very minute quantities;
and although I have succeeded beyond my expectations, I am confident that
the process is susceptible of improvement, both as regards sensibility and
accuracy.

After making many investigations on the sensibility of the most delicate
levers as to small weights, this method was found far too rough. It then
occurred to me that if instead of using the opposing force of gravity through
the intervention of a lever, we could oppose to the gravitating effect of the
matter the force of perfect elasticity as manifested in filaments of glass, we
might succeed in obtaining the weights of extremely small parts of matter.
For that purpose I tried the elasticities both of torsion and flexure, and
found the latter only to answer the purpose.

The following is a description of the construction of my apparatus, with
which I have succeeded in estimating portions of matter equal in weight to
the thousandth part of a milligram. Heating a rod of soft glass in one
spot to bright redness, I drew it out quickly, and thereby obtained a filament
uniformly cylindrical, of about the diameter of fine human hair. Taking
from the middle of this fine glass thread a piece of such a length (about
three inches) that its weight would barely reduce it from the horizontal, one
end of it was fastened, by means of good sealing-wax, to the edge of a ma-
hogany block, and the other end slightly hooked by approaching quickly a
small spirit flame. In order to obtain a pan in which to place the substance
whose weight I would estimate, I cut with the common microscopic section-
cutter some discs of elder pith from '001 to '002 inch in thickness; and
drawing out a still finer filament, the end was likewise hooked, and the other
extremity being passed through a pith disc, a small knob of glass was made
on this end by the spirit flame, just of sufficient size to prevent this disc
slipping off the suspcnding-rod. The filament with attached disc was now
hooked on the end of the rod fixed to the block, and was then ready for
graduation.

Not being able at the time to procure silver wire of sufficient fineness, I
substituted some very fine and long hair, taken from the head of a child ;
and having brought the centre of gravity and centre of motion of a very
sensitive analytical balance almost to coincide, I obtained a piece of the
middle of a hair weighing exactly one-half milligram. This being divided
into five equal parts (each about one inch long) gave us tenths of a milli-
gram. One of these tenths being placed on the pith-pan, the glass filament
was deflected a certain quantity, which was marked on an arc formed of
bristol board, and so as to be almost touched by the deflected rod in its

84 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

revolution about the edge of the block. Another tenth was added, and
another division obtained : and so on, until all five divisions were marked.
The length of the divisions being about one-fourth of an inch, they were
very readily subdivided into ten equal parts, which gave me immediately

i _ths of a milligram. The weight of any quantity of matter less than
one-half milligram may be now estimated to T ^th of a milligram by
placing it on the pan and observing the deflection.

For the thousandths, still more care and patience is required, the filament
being much finer and somewhat shorter, and the pith disc smaller and as
thin as possible. In order to obtain the primary graduations of hundredths,
one of the above pieces of hair, equal to ^fh. milligram, is divided into ten
equal parts, which gives us weights of y^th milligram. The deflections

caused by these weights, divided into ten equal parts, give j^Vu tn of> a
milligram.

As the least breath of air interferes with the graduations and weighing,
the whole instrument is protected by a glass case, the end of the case next
the graduated arc being on a hinge.

In elastic rods of square section, the deflection is proportional to the
weight; in those of circular section this law is slightly departed from; but
by the above method of ascertaining directly the value of each division, the
error is avoided. Silliman's Journal.

IMPROVEMENTS IN MILITARY IMPLEMENTS.

Novel Field Artillery. General Sir Charles Shaw, of England, has recently
perfected a novel piece of field artillery, from which he anticipates extra-
ordinary results in the percentage of destructiveness and economy of
expenditure. Napoleon's axiom was that to bring a continuous concen-
trated fire upon a given point of the enemy's position was the secret of
victory. Animated by this idea, the general has turned his attention to the
construction of a machine which shall accomplish this object with the least
amount of risk to the party using it. The invention may be briefly described
as an ambulatory infernal machine, based upon the Fieschi model. It con-
sists of a row of twenty-four rifle barrels, bound together, fitted to an axle, and
mounted upon a pair of strong, light wheels. The axle is capable of depres-
sion or elevation to any angle within a radius of fifty-five degrees, so that
the necessary elevation according to the distance of the enemy may be
insured. The barrels may be either breach-loading, upon the revolver prin-
ciple, or they may, as in the model exhibited, be charged in the ordinary
way, at the mouth, and rammed down, and all may be discharged at a single
fire, or in four divisions of six each. The whole machine is but 200 pounds
weight, and is sufficiently portable to be moved about, turned to the right or
to the left, and its fire directed with certainty by a single soldier while with
its ammunition-cart, containing a relay of barrels and an ample supply of
cartridges, it may be moved from one part of the field to another by a
single horse at a handgallop. The general affirms that one of these field-
pieces, which may be served effectually by eight men, alloAving for casual-
tics, will throw in a more deadly fire than a body of 200 infantry armed with
the best description of rifles in existence, and that the ratio of its destruc-
tiveuess, as compared with ordinary infantry firing in line, is as seventy-five

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 85

per cent, against four. In addition to their use in ordinary field service,
these machines, mounted upon a pivot instead of the wheels, may be em-
ployed with great effect in boat service, as an armament for ships' tops,
martello towers, or other works of defence.

IMPROVEMENTS IN RIFLES.

Mr. Whitworth, of England, in pursuing a course of experiments with a
view of improving the rifle, has adopted a polygonal spiral bore of a uniform
pitch, but more rapid than could be attained by grooves. This bore has
enabled him to surpass the range and penetration of the Enfield rifle ; and
the strain of the projectile being distributed evenly over every side of the
polygon, iron can be substituted for lead in the projectile. Moreover, Mr.
Whitworth has discovered, in the course of his experiments, that according
to the quickness of the turn in the polygon is the length of the projectile
that may be fired, so that twenty-four pound and forty-eight pound shot
have been sent to extraordinary ranges with half the usual charge of powder
from an ordinary twelve pounder howitzer.

MALLET'S THIRTY-SIX INCH MORTARS, AND SHELLS.

At a meeting of the British Association for 1857, Mr. Robert Mallet pre-
sented an abstract of a plan he had proposed to the British Government for
the employment of shells of a magnitude never before imagined by any
one, viz., of a yard in diameter, and weighing, when in flight, about a ton
and a quarter, and for the construction of mortars capable of projecting
these enormous globes. (See Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1858, page 87.)
Since the above-mentioned date, a colossal mortar, constructed on Mr. Mal-
let's plan, has been practically tested by the English Board of Ordnance, on
Woolwich Marshes, with charges (of projection) gradually increasing up to
seventy pounds. With this amount of powder, a shell weighing 2550 pounds
was thrown a horizontal range of upwards of a mile and a half to the height
of probably three-quarters of a mile, and, falling, penetrated the compact
and then hard, dry earth of the Woolwich range to a depth of more than
eighteen feet, throwing about cartloads of earth and stones by the mere
splash of the fall of the empty shell.

The explosive power, it is obvious, is approximately proportionate to the
weight of powder; but, by calculations, of which the result only can here
be given, Mr. Mallet has shown that the total power of demolition, that is to
say, the absolute amount of damage done in throwing down buildings,
walls, etc., by one 36-inch shell, is sixteen hundred times that possible to be
done by one 13-inch shell; and that an object which a 13-inch shell could
just overturn at one yard from its centre, will be overthrown by the 36-inch
shell at forty yards' distance.

No bomb-proof arch (so-called) now exists in Europe capable of resisting
the fall of one of those huge shells upon it, whose energy of descent may
be represented as equal to about eight hundred tons. No means or precau-
tions are possible in a fortress against the tremendous fall of such masses,
still more against the terrible powers of their explosion, when 480 pounds of
powder, fired to the very best advantage, puts in motion the fragments of
more than a ton of iron, no splinter proof, no ordinary vaulting, perhaps no
casemate exists capable of resisting their fall and explosion, either of which

8

86 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

would sink the largest ship (even the Leviathan) or floating battery.

as no precaution could save either garrison or town from such shells, so their

moral effect would be paralyzing.

A single 36-inch shell in flight costs 25, and a single 13-inch 2 2s.,
yet the former is immeasurably the cheaper projectile; for to transfer to the
point of effect the same weight of bursting powder we must give

55 shells of 13 inches, at 2 2s., - .115 10

Against 1 shell of 36 inches, - 25

Showing a saving in favor of the large shell of .90 10

and this assumes that fifty -five small shells, or any number of them, could
do the work of the single great one.

The mortars are, with the exception of one part (the base), and the elm
timber ends, formed wholly of wrought iron, in concentric rings, and each
entire mortar is separable at pleasure into thirteen separate pieces, the
heaviest of which weighs about eleven tons ; so that the immense weight,
when all put together (about fifty-two tons), is susceptible of easy transport,
on ordinary artillery carriages, over rough country, or can be conveniently
shipped, stowed, or landed.

NEW METHOD OF PRINTING.

A description of a new method of printing, invented by a journeyman
printer, and called by him NeograpJiy, has recently been published in Paris.
The object sought to be attained is to obtain printing surfaces of a better
quality than stone, zinc, or any other substance hitherto used; and, more-
over, to get impressions of different colors by a single operation, instead of
bringing the sheet under the press several times. The modus operandi is as
follows : The figures or characters to be produced are drawn upon a woven
stuff, or any other which may be penetrated by a liquid ; the ink used for the
purpose is composed of lampblack, Indian ink, gum, sugar, and common
salt. This done, the side on which the figures have been drawn receives a
slight coating of gutta-percha, and when this is dry the surface is washed.
Now, since the ink is composed of soluble matter, this will wash off, and the
gutta-percha which covered the characters, and which therefore does not ad-
here to the stuff, washes off too, by which means the stuff becomes a surface
which is only penetrable by liquids in those places where the characters were
drawn, and is perfectly impenetrable everywhere else. This done, the wrong
side of the stuff receives the inks and colors which are to serve for printing,
while the sheet is laid on the right side. Under the action of the press, the
ink and colors penetrate through the unprotected places, and a clear impres-
sion is obtained. Instead of applying the ink and colors as stated, a perma-
nent kind of cushion, made much like the balls formerly used for inking
type, and properly charged with ink or colors, may be placed under the
stuff, and thus many sheets may be worked off before it is necessary to
renew the ink.

BULLOCK'S MECHANICAL FEEDER FOR PRINTING PRESSES.

This machine, now in successful use in New York, operates as follows : A
pile of sheets is placed upon the feeding-board in the manner usual for hand-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 87

feeding. Above it and a few inches back of the front edge of the top sheet,
a number of small vertical cylinders stand in a row parallel to the printing
cylinder. Each of these cylinders is a small engine, closed at top and open
at the bottom, inside of which is a piston, provided with a piston-rod suffi-
ciently long to reach the paper when the piston is down. All the rods are
articulated, an elongated hole is cut in each for a crank-pin to pass through,
and by means of a cranked shaft they are made to move constantly back-
ward and forward. The ends of the piston-rods are so arranged as to slide
on the paper when moving backward, and as to carry it forward during the
forward stroke. Each piston is pressed down by a coiled spring placed in
the cylinder between the piston and the top cover. From each cylinder a
pipe extends to the edge of the feeding-board nearest the roller, where it is
flattened, and its lower portion resting on the feeding-board, is pierced with
a small hole. All the cylinders are also connected with an exhaust air-pump,
constantly at work. The machinery operates as follows: The piston-rods
working backward and forward in contact with the top sheet, brings it for-
ward to the edge of the feeding-board. The moment it arrives there, the
suction of the exhaust pump makes the sheet close hermetically the small
holes in the pipes. A vacuum in the cylinders, and the rising of the piston
against the coil springs, are the immediate results of this closing. The
piston-rods recede from the paper, which is left at rest, till the iron fingers
of the roller seize it and carry it to the form. The moment the sheet is car-
ried off, the holes in the pipes are left open, air rushes through them into tho
cylinders, fills the vacuum, the pistons are pushed down by the coil springs,
and the ends of the piston-rods carry the next sheet forward. Several of the
cylinders work at right angles with the first, to insure a proper register side-
wise. There are also a few incidental arrangements, such as the raising of
all the pipes from the paper at the moment the last is clenched. There are
several good patented plans for making a mechanical feeder for separate
sheets, but none better than the one described. The nature of the work re-
quires an attendant, and as feeding does not require a long apprenticeship,
there is little difference between the wages of a feeder and those of a boy.
The advantage of the apparatus seems then to consist in the possibility of
running presses faster. Book printers cannot avail themselves of it, as, for
the purpose of making neater copies, the presses are actually run slower than
they could be fed by hand. The apparatus would be advantageous for news-
paper rotary presses, in which rapidity is everything; but in this case feed-
ing with endless paper is still a better plan, which, sooner or later, will
supersede all others. New York Tribune.

CLAY RETORTS FOR GAS-MAKING.

A paper has been read to the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, " On
the Results of the Use of Clay Retorts for Gas-making," by Mr. Jabez
Church. The substitution of fire-clay for metal, in the construction of
retorts, was attributed to Mr. Grafton, and dated back as far as the year 1820.
Originally they were square in transverse section ; but that form was soon
changed for the Q, or oven-shape, which had been since adhered to, both in
this country and abroad; this latter form of retort admitting of a stratum of
coal being distributed of an equal thickness throughout.

The comparative quantities of gas made by iron and clay retorts, of the Q

88 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

form, of 15 inches by 13 inches in section, and 7 feet 6 inches in length, had
been found by the author to be as follows :

The iron retorts lasting 365 days, and working off li cwt. of coal for each
charge, effected the carbonization of 2190 cwt. of coal, which, at 9000 cubic
feet of gas per ton, gave a total quantity of 985,500 cubic feet of gas per
retort; whilst the clay retorts lasted 912 days, carbonized 5472 cwt. of coal,
which, at 9000 cubic feet of gas per ton, gave 2,462,000 cubic feet of gas per
retort. It would thus be seen that the clay retorts yielded a greater quantity
of gas, from the same weight of coal, than the iron retorts ; but the specific
gravity of the gas so made was less, and its illuminating power was dimin-
ished, in consequence of the increased temperature of the clay retorts, which
caused the last portion of the gas to be decomposed.

The most practical method of working clay retorts in large works was
with the addition of an exhauster. This reduced the pressure on the retort,
and prevented the escape of gas through the pores and fissures ; and by that
system the quantity made was increased about 200 cubic feet per ton of coal.
In small works, the expense of an exhausting apparatus, and steam ma-
chinery to work it, would not be compensated by the gas saved.

HEATING BY GAS AND SAND.

Some interesting experiments have recently been made in Albany, by Mr.
Calvin Pepper and others, to test the value of sand as a heating medium,
especially for railroad cars. The heat is obtained in the first instance by dif-
fusing the gas through sand. If the gas be directed into the body of the
sand, it will instantly diffuse itself through the entire mass, and rising to the
surface, may, with perfect safety, be instantly set on fire with a match, the
flame covering the whole surface of the sand with a pure flame without
smoke, no matter how large the extent of the flame, and with perfect and
complete combustion. The heat is almost instantaneously diffused through
the entire mass of sand, heating it equally throughout, and requiring but one
minute of time to heat the sand to such intense temperature that it will
retain its heat for hours after the gas is shut off and the light extinguished.

INFLUENCE OF WALL-PAPERS ON THE TEMPERATURE OF

APARTMENTS.

Paper-hangings in themselves (says the Builder), as materials, maintain a
higher temperature than the walls or partitions on which they may be
placed; then less condensation of vapor takes place, and the dampness is
removed from the room as the progress of ventilation goes on. To a great
extent paper is an absorbent ; but then the moisture is given off in the same
form, or may escape by other means. The reason why dark papers are dryer
than light ones, is still due to the same action. All dark materials imbibe
more light and heat, and will thus maintain a higher temperature; besides
which, many of the very light-colored papers (particularly the better ones)
have a glazed or satin face, which is produced by the use of a large quantity
of China clay, a material that, from its coldness, at once causes condensation
of moisture, and thus facilitates its own decay.

SUBSTITUTE FOR LEATHER.

Samuel Whitmarsh, of Northampton, Mass., has invented a new fabric
which is intended to supply the place of leather in many of its applications.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 80

The fabric is composed of cotton or other fibrous substances, either woven
into cloth or in an unwoven state, and saturated or coated with a compound
of linseed oil and burnt umber, pi'eparcd by boiling in every gallon of oil
about three pounds of umber in a powdered state, for such a length of time
that the composition, when cool, will roll in the hands without sticking.
The fabric may be made in forms suitable for the soles of boots and shoes,
coverings for trunks, travelling bags, cap-fronts, or as a substitute for car-
riage or harness leather, or for machine-belting or hose-pipe. The mode of
producing the fabric differs, to some extent, according to the use for which
it is designed; but the general principles are in all cases the same. The um-
ber is stirred into the boiled oil until it reaches the point desired, when it is
ready to be applied, in the manner best calculated to produce special articles.

A NE\Y CEMENT.

Mr. Edmund Davy prepares a neAv cement, which is well spoken of, by
melting in an iron vessel equal parts of common pitch and gutta-percha. It
is kept either liquid under water, or solid, to be melted when wanted. It is
not attacked by water, and adheres firmly to wood, stone, glass, porcelain,
ivory, leather, parchment paper, feathers, wool, cotton, hemp, and linen fab-
rics, and even to varnish. Cosmos, vol. xii., p. 41.

LIQUID GLUE.

Take glue of good quality and dissolve it in as small a quantity of hot wa-
ter as possible ; then, while yet hot, remove it from the fire and dilute it to
the proper degree of thinness by adding alcohol, after which it should be
bottled, and the mouth of the bottle kept covered with a piece of India-rub-
ber, or anything else that will exclude the air. Alcohol will preserve glue
made in this way for many years, keeping it from putrefaction in summer
and from freezing in winter. In cold weather it requires only a little warm-
ing to make it ready for use. This convenient article has been in use in Eng-
land for many years, but has never been extensively known in this country.

ARTIFICIAL IVORY.

A patent has recently been granted, in England, to Charles "Westendarp,
jr., for manufacturing a material intended to imitate ivory, bone, horn, coral,
or other similar substances, natural or artificial, and which may be used in
preference to ivory, on account of cheapness and adaptability, as the same
materials may be moulded or turned to the various forms or patterns they
may be desired to take, and may be applied to all the purposes in which
natural ivory becomes useful, such, for instance, as billiard-balls, door and
other knobs, piano-forte keys, rulers, paper-knives, whip, stick, and other
mounts, and in imitation, or as a substitute for carved wood, enamelled
china, precious stone works, and a variety of fancy, ornamental, and dgcor-
ative figures.

The process being as follows : Five ounces (or more or less according to
the size of the article to be made,) of ivory dust is soaked with a white color,
say white lead or zinc white, three ounces, in a solution of white shellac or
copal, in sixteen ounces of spirit of wine. After the whole is well mixed,
which is best done at a temperature of 212 Fahrenheit, the alcohol is par-

8*

90 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

tially evaporated, and the stiff paste or dry powder pressed into a solid
mass in the dies or mould, which have been previously heated to about 230
or 280 3 Fahrenheit; after being so solidified they are polished in the ordi-
nary manner of polishing ivory. Instead of using ivory dust, steamed and
finely powdered bones, porcelain, cotton, and various finely powdered mate-
rials may be employed, and the colors may be varied according to the tint or
shade required; the ivory or other dust may be dyed similar to cotton cloth.
Gum dammar, copal, mastic (and if great elasticity is required, bleached In-
dia-rubber or gutta-percha), answer the purpose very well, either with or
without shellac ; bees-wax, camphor, and turpentine, are good for some of the
purposes, and, according to the ingredients used, it will be perceived that the
preparation must undergo various modifications during the process of man-
ufacture.

MACHINE FOR BURKING WOOL.

Thomas Musgrave, of Northampton, Mass., has invented a machine for
removing burrs and dirt from wool, which promises to accomplish the same
results with that staple that the gin has with cotton. The machine is very
simple, and is in the form of an attachment to the ordinary carding machine.
It adds only fifteen or seventeen dollars extra expense to the carder. The
value of it will be obvious to all who know how foul the South Ameri-
ican wools are with burrs, and how great is the expense of cleaning it by
any process hitherto known. After being washed, the wool is placed
upon the apron of Mr. Musgrave's machine, and carried by it to two roll-
ers, covered with coarse cards, lying parallel and revolving inwards. As
the wool passes these it meets the " burrer," a cylinder of about six inches
in diameter, composed of steel rings slid upon a shaft. The circumfer-
ence of each ring is cut into teeth something like those of a cross-cut saw;
between each of the rings is a circular wire to separate them. The whole are
then driven together, forming a cylinder, of which the surface is composed
of these steel teeth, of which there are eleven to the inch. As the wool
passes the feeding rollers it is caught by the teeth ; the wool itself is drawn
into the space between the teeth, leaving the burr on the surface. Above
this cylinder is another of wood, into which are fixed longitudinally spiral
blades. This revolves so as nearly to touch the under cylinder, but in a con-
trary direction. Thus it is obvious that the burrs on the under cylinder
coming in contact with the blades of the upper one, are cut off. They are
received upon an apron, which removes them. In the ordinary manner the
wool freed from the burrs is then delivered to the carding machine. Were
the burrs large and hard, like cotton seed, no more would be required; but
the small, brittle burrs of the South American wool are apt to be broken, and
the fragments get ultimately into the yarn and injure the cloth. To obviate
this, Mr. Musgrave has introduced a carding cylinder to take the wool from
the first " burrer " and deliver it, better distributed, to a finer one, where the
teeth are fourteen to the inch instead of eleven. By this means the wool
passes to the carder entirely free from burrs. The thorough mode of its ac-
tion may be illustrated by the fact that Mestiza wool Avas passed through,
and in a few moments freed from forty per cent, weight of burrs without any
apparent injury to the fibre, adding at least fifteen cents per pound to the
value of the wool.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 91

IMPROVED KNITTING-MACHINE.

A very ingenious knitting-machine, or loom, has recently been invented
by J. B. & W. Aiken, of Franklin, N. H. It resembles a large ring, having a
revolving top plate, and a number of under hooks, moving back and forth
towards and from the central opening, to receive the thread or yarn from a
rotary ring-traveller, to form the loops, interlace them, and then throw them
off in the form of a long knit tube hanging down in the centre. To produce
a ribbed knit fabric, two sets of needles are required, the one set working
vertically through, and transverse to the loops formed by the other set ; one
set of needles only are required for plain work. A large machine for knitting
shirts has five feed bobbins, and a stop motion for each, so that the break
of a thread at once stops it. It is a most ingenious loom, and will knit fifty
yards in one day.

A stocking-loom occupies no more space than a common sewing-machine ;
but one is required for knitting the legs, and another the feet. The work of
the former is taken off in the form of a long tube; this is cut in proper
lengths, put on the footing-machine, which weaves a single square piece to
the leg, and this is closed by crotchet work, by hand, to form the foot. One
girl can attend eight looms, and produce 100 dozen pairs of stockings in a
factory every day. They are the most perfect machines for this purpose we
have yet examined, and no less than five patents are embraced in their opera-
tion and construction. The cost of a machine to knit ribbed stocking-legs,
is S200; one for feet, $100; a family machine, for plain work, $50.

BOOTHE'S IMPROVED GRAIN-CLEANER.

Ordinary smut-machines are built of wood, and are open ; the necessary
consequence is that they have to be confined in a close room on account of
the dust thrown out, and that they catch fire very easily from over-heated
journals. Several large mills have been lost from this cause, and the rate of
insurance is, on this account, often extremely high. This new grain-cleaner
has been devised to avoid dust and danger of fire; it is entirely metallic, and
is all encased. On a vertical shaft, a cylinder, or drum, about two feet in
diameter and four feet long, is keyed, and made to revolve at a velocity of
550 revolutions per minute. On the periphery of the drum projecting flat
arms, denominated "beaters," are screwed in parallel circular rows. They
extend a few inches outside, forming an angle of forty degrees with a tan-
gent to the drum, and their external surface, measuring three inches by four
inches, is deeply corrugated by vertical grooves a quarter of an inch deep
and wide. Around this drum is a stationary cylindrical envelop of such a
diameter as to leave scarcely an inch of free space between itself and the
ends of the beaters. This envelop is corrugated circularly; the hollow of
each corrugation is opposite one row of beaters. This circular envelop is
closed below by a curved bottom terminating in a pipe at the centre, and is
closed at the top by the case of a horizontal fan blower, which is placed
above it ; the fans of the blower revolve with the shaft of the machine.
There is also a suction-pipe leading from the pipe at the bottom of the ma-
chine to the fan blower. To operate, the grain is introduced at the top,
between the drum and the cylindrical casing. Before it has had time to fall
an inch, it is caught on the inclined face of a beater, and thrown out by cen-

92 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

trifugal force; but the beater is inclined, so as to follow the grain and exert
upon it a hard friction. The grain is thus thrown into a corrugation of the
outside envelop, and in falling down along the lower portion of this corru-
gation, which acts as an inclined plane, it is brought back toward the centre
of the machine, and is caught by the second row of beaters, and by all in
succession. The dust which is detached from the grain is carried up by a
strong current of air blowing upward between the drum and its envelop.
After reaching the bottom of the machine, the grain enters the central pipe,
and falls on an inverted cone placed in it, and the last particles of dust
remaining are carried away through the outside pipe already mentioned.
Machines of this kind are built of different sizes. A two-horse power ma-
chine can clean fifty bushels of wheat per hour, and is sold for $150. Those
of a larger size cost proportionately less, and do more work for the same
power. After a time, the surface of the beaters wears out, and they become
perfectly flat ; but they are easily replaced by others, at a cost of $3 for the
whole set. This machine does its work cheaply and effectually, and, slightly
modified, may eventually serve for cleaning cocoa and coffee in Equatorial
America and elsewhere. The cleaning of cocoa is at present actually done
by hand, in the most primitive manner, at a cost equal to forty per cent,
of the price of the grain ready for shipping. N. Y. Tribune.

SELF-INDICATOR BEE-HIVES.

The careful bee-fancier has long desired to possess some method of meas-
uring the daily increase or decrease in the weight of his hive. A recent
German authority states that a bee-grower there took the trouble to weigh
one of his hives twice a day before the bees left in the morning and after
their return at night and thus he determined the nightly loss by consump-
tion and evaporation. These observations were continued from May 5 to
August 2, a period of ninety -one days, and the results are very interesting.
On the 5th of May the hive weighed sixty-four pounds ; it lost two s wanna
weighing twelve pounds; yet on August 2, it weighed 120* pounds. There
was no increase in weight from June 28 to July 21 , except of one-quarter
pound on one day, and three-quarters on another; and from July 17 to
August 2, the whole increase was only three pounds. The work of each
day is minutely recorded, and the results go to prove that the bee-keeper
should have some means of ascertaining the weight of his hives daily through-
out the season. A method of doing this has been invented by Mr. Shirley
Hibbard, of Tottenham, England. It consists of a turned pillar, made after
the fashion of a telescope, working like a piston in a brass or iron cylinder.
Beneath the pillar is a spiral spring, on which the pillar rests. Two slots
run down the side or front of the cylinder, and between them an index is
marked. A finger is attached to the base of the pillar, and the hive adjusted
on top of the latter, so that as it presses down on the spring the finger marks
the gross weight of the whole. A thumb-screw passes through the cylinder,
and, by pressing against the pillar, holds it in a fixed position whenever it
may be desirable. The whole affair is exceedingly simple, and must be
readily understood. To the intelligent bee-keeper it will be a very acceptable
acquisition.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 93

RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Stenton's Improved Land-side Cutter, patented 18-58, consists of a horizontal
knife or cutter, which is attached near the end of the land-side to an ordinary
plough. The width of the cutter is one-third that of the plough, and it cuts its
own breadth under the land, so that the plough on its succeeding rounds will
turn the breadth of the cutter in addition to its usual work. It is affirmed
that the saving of power usually lost in friction on the land-side is trans-
ferred to the edge of the cutter, and that thus one-third more work is per-
formed by the same team when the cutter is used. Another important
advantage is, that the plough thus provided is much more steady, and much
more easily kept in the ground. When it is desired to pulverize the ground,
two cutters are used, at different heights, the second in advance of the first.

A new form of steam-plough recently patented in England operates as fol-
lows : A series of spades is made to enter the land in succession, and cut it
into the arc of a circle, when the cut slices are suddenly thrown up against
a shield plate, at once reversing and breaking them almost into powder.

A new form of cart-body has also been patented for the purpose of deliver-
ing manure over a field without requiring it to be thrown out by hand. The
bottom of the cart-body is supplied with longitudinal openings, in which
revolve drags or blades attached to an axis under the body. As the cart
moves, these drags pull down the manure in a condition of complete pul-
verization.

PROTECTIVE MATTING FOR HORTICULTURAL AND AGRICULTURAL

PRODUCE.

Doctor Guyot, of Paris, the proprietor of extensive vineyards, in Sillery,
Champagne, has introduced in France, and is now introducing in England, a
simple, but improved, description of straw matting for the protection of hor-
ticultural and agricultural produce, together with a loom or apparatus for
manufacturing the same.

The fabric is composed of a weft of straw, cane, bass, rush, reed, or other
similar material, woven into or combined with a warp, consisting of two sets
of warp threads, each set composed of two wires, or stout cords, twisted to-
gether; and it is manufactured as follows: The straw, bass, or other mate-
rial, is cut into even lengths, and spread on a table with a central slot or
channel from end to end, where, by means of a comb or reed with conical
teeth, the mass is divided into clusters (the thickness of each cluster being
according to tho space between every two adjoining teeth). The comb is
driven into the straw just over the channel. The table is then brought to
tho weaver, who takes a cluster at a time, and feeds it in a loom or frame, in
which the warp, cords or wires, are delivered off in twos from four reels set
in the same spindle mounted in the standards of the frame, and are passed
through eyes and grooves in plates which act as heddles, being connected by
a double escapement or otherwise to treadles, by which they are depressed and
brought up again by springs at the top, whereby tho warp threads ai'e crossed,
two by two, alternately, each set being opened to form a shed, through which
the weft is introduced. The fabric, as it is woven, is wound off on a beam
made to revolve by a weighted lever; the weight also effects the draft
and tension of the warp threads, being brought back from the end of its

94 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

stroke by hand or otherwise; or the beam may be turned, and the warp
threads delivered oft' and opened to form the shed by steam or other power
which may be employed to work the frame. Pins may be let in the fabric to
fix it in place, or it may be mounted on stakes with cross-pieces, or on swiv-
eled rods, or on adjustable frames, so that the position of the matting may
be varied when used for sheltering a plant; or it may be mounted in rollers
like a blind, to cover conservatories, etc.

The breadth of the fabric varies from one foot three inches to two feet.
The lesser breadth is the better for protecting plants placed in rows or beds,
or in hot-houses and other like places, and the greater breadth for protecting
wall fruits, such as peaches, apricots, etc. The matting is made of any de-
sired length, being rolled up into rolls, like carpeting, as it leaves the loom
or apparatus in which it is woven, and which has been designed especially
for its manufacture. It weighs but little, and may consequently be trans-
ported with ease, and at a small expense. It may be handled roughly with-
out risk of injury, arranged in any desired form or manner, cut into any
required lengths, and, if desired, be reunited again without difficulty. It is
so easily applied in the garden or orchard, that ten men will, in a single day,
fix it over thirty thousand feet of plants, and that so firmly and surely that
it will resist the most violent storms to which it may be exposed.

IMPROVEMENT IN PAPER -MAKING MACHINERY.

An improvement, invented by Stephen Rossman, of Stuyvesant, New York,
has for its object the prevention of the breaking or tearing of the paper, as it
passes from the upper one of the second press-rolls to the dryer. This is
attained by the use of a small roll arranged parallel with the press-rolls,
between the highest part of the upper press-roll and doctor, about opposite
the line where the paper should leave the upper press-roll, on its way to the
dryer, so that the web of paper will pass between it and the upper press-roll.
The slight cohesion of the web to this small roll eases it off the upper press-roll,
and prevents its breaking; and if a slight break should occur in the web, it
prevents the edge of the break being carried under the doctor, and thereby
increased.

MARSTON'S IMPROVED DOOR LOCK.

A few years ago a talented burglar discovered that, by taking with a pin-
cer a firm hold of the end of a key, it could be made to turn, and that thus
the door of the sleeping apartments could be opened from the outside. This
knowledge having spread rapidly, and led to numerous practical applications,
some inventors set to work and devised a number of instruments, called burg-
lar alarms. In some of these a bell is made to ring; in others, powder to
explode, or a gas-burner is lighted, with a cracking noise, either by means
of electricity, or of a wound-up spring, acting by friction on a match. Mr.
Marston accomplishes the same result, by placing the inside key-hole of
locks out of line with the outside one. This arrangement renders it impos-
sible to turn tho key from the outside; but it leaves the outside key-hole
empty, and the lock might be picked through it. To obviato this, the lock
is provided with a sliding piece, which receives its motion from the key in
exactly the same manner as the bolt, and which moA r es over the outside key-
hole, and closes it hermetically, each time the door is locked from the inside.
The key is shaped so as to have no action on this slide when used from tho
outside.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 95

NEW MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

The successful efforts of art-mechanics in music have for a long time been
exclusively shown in improving the old instruments of past centuries, but
not in .adding new instruments of high value and rank to the list. We have
at last recently examined an instrument, made by Messrs. Hill, of New York,
which is essentially novel, and, making every allowance for the inevitable
deficiencies of a first out-worked attempt of the principle involved, the result
is promising and brilliant. The inventors call it a keyed harp ; whereas,
its qualities are precisely those which the harp has not, namely: a sus-
tained sound. It is played upon like the piano-forte, and, while the tone-
stroke has not the readiness, or crispness, or vitality of that instrument, the
sustained vibration is much greater, when not arrested by mechanical means.
The note cannot be shaded after once sounded; but the continuation of the
vibration, we are assured by the inventors, can, under the extended applica-
tion of a second and improved manufacture, be secured for a whole min-
ute. The instrument, we heard, wants power, which the inventors say
can be more than doubled by doubling the size of the constituents of its
sonority; but it has great sweetness in fact, too saccharine, if anything
and not characterized by vigor.

The principle is that of a vibrator, or fork, with the prongs applied to an
aperture in a box or cell. The vibrators have prongs, from one inch to ten
inches long, the handles of which are gently, but firmly, held to their places
over the hammers and to the cells, which cells are of as many sizes as are
the forks. To the prongs of the longer vibrators are wires to receive the
hammers, and wings to enable the prongs of the vibrators to take efficient
hold on, and thoroughly cause to sound, the air in the cells. The damper-
frames and damper-levers are at the back ends of the keys ; and the sound is
stopped by the fall of the damper against, or near, the ends of the prongs. The
damping is perfect, as is also the pedal movement. The covering of the
hammers differs much from, and is simpler than that of the piano. The
strength of the ordinary piano action is all that can be desired in this; and
the inventors would have had much more tone and better adjustment of
parts had they used vibrators of double the size of the present ones. A very
great difficulty has been so to arrange the parts as to bring them into a con-
venient compass, as regards the size of the case, and to get sufficient sound-
distance, and the best forms and sizes of cells to fit the case and keys, and to
produce the right quality and quantity of tone all of which the inventors
aver they can now master to perfection. N. Y. Tribune.

ORGAN BLOWN BY WATER POWER.

The following is a description of the means employed in the Cathedral of
Carlisle (England) for blowing the organ by the application of water power:

The water is collected in two cisterns or tanks, placed in the roof over the
south aisle, and is drawn from the reservoir supplying the town. From
these cisterns the water passes down a pipe, into two cylinders, like those of
a steam-engine, standing in a hole, apparently dug to obtain a greater fall
of the water. Exactly over these cylinders are two feeders, made like the
reservoirs of the organ bellows, each having a diaphragm, or middle leaf,
which is moved up and clown by means of the pistons. Attached to these
leaves are two rods, which pass down to two beautifully- made and very

96 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

large cocks. The reciprocating motion is attained by one cylinder operating
upon the cock of the other; and the blast of air obtained by these feeders is
continuous, but varied by a steam equilibrium throttle-valve, which the res-
ervoir of the bellows closes as it becomes thoroughly inflated. The engine
is under the immediate control of the organist by suitable gearing leading to
valves in the cistern.

RESTORATION OF TARNISHED SILVER.

Sometimes silver instruments become so completely tarnished and discol-
ored, that by no ordinary means can they be cleansed. Professor Bottger
states that by electrolysis their color can be restored in an incredibly short
period. To effect this a saturated solution of borax in water, or a moderately
strong solution of caustic potassa, is brought into a state of active ebullition ;
and with this the discolored object, laid in a zinc sieve-like vessel, is moist-
ened. If a zinc sieve be not at hand, we may attain the same end by touch-
ing the object, when it has been dipped in the boiling fluid, with a zinc rod.

ON THE DURABILITY OF ZINC WHITE.

A curious lawsuit has been tried in Paris during the past year. M. Gudin,
the well-known French marine painter, demanded 8001. damages from a
tradesman, for having sold his canvasses prepared with white of zinc, which
is a substance so injurious to oil colors, that several of his paintings became,
in a comparatively short time, cracked and spoiled. In support of his de-
mand, he stated that one of his paintings, a View on the Coast of Asia, had been
returned to him, and he had had to restore 3201. , the amount received for it;
and that after painting three others, for which he was to have received 700?.,
he had not been able to deliver them. The court awarded M. Gudin an in-
demnity of 480Z.

RAZOR PAPER.

This article supersedes the use of the ordinary strop; by merely wiping the
razor on the paper, to remove the lather after shaving, a keen edge is always
maintained without further trouble; only one caution is necessary, that is,
to begin with a sharp razor, and then the paper will keep it in that state for
years. It may be prepared thus :

First procure oxyd of iron (by the addition of carbonate of soda to a solu-
tion of persulphate of iron), well wash the precipitate, and finally leave it of
the consistency of cream. Secondly, procure some good paper, soft, and a
little thinner than ordinary printing paper; then, with a soft brush, spread
over the paper (on one side only), very thinly, the moist oxyd of iron; dry it,
and cut into pieces two inches square. It is then fit for use.

ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION.

Sir Henry Rawlinson, the eminent oriental scholar, in a recently published
communication, thus concludes a sketch of the range of Assyrian civilization :

"Among them (the ornaments) are some which anticipate inventions be-
lieved till lately to have been modern. Transparent glass (which, however,
was known also in ancient Egypt) is one of these; but the most remarkable
of all is the lens discovered at Nhnrud, of the use of which as a magnifying

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 97

agent there is abundant proof. If it be added to this, that the buildings of
the Assyrians show them to have been well acquainted with the principle of
the arch, that they constructed aqueducts and drains, that they knew the use
of the lever and roller, that they understood the arts of inlaying, enamelling,
and overlaying with metals, and that they cut gems with the greatest skill
and finish, it will be apparent that their civilization equalled that of almost
any ancient country, and that it did not fall immeasurably behind the
boasted achievements of the moderns. With much that was barbaric still
attaching to them, with a rude and inartificial government, savage passions,
a debasing religion, and a general tendency to materialism, they were, to-
wards the close of their empire, in all the arts and appliances of life, very
nearly on a par with ourselves ; and thus their history furnishes a warning
which the records of nations constantly repeat that the greatest mate-
rial prosperity may coexist with the decline, and herald the downfall, of a
kingdom."

ON SCIENCE AS A BRANCH OF EDUCATION.

The folloAving is an abstract of a lecture on the above subject, recently
delivered before the Royal Institution, London, by Professor Faraday. The
high position of this gentleman always secures attention for his opinions;
but upon this topic especially, his views will be examined with great interest.

The development of the applications of physical science in modern times
has become so large, and so essential to the well-being of man, that it may
justly be used, as illustrating the true character of pure science, as a depart-
ment of knowledge, and the claims it may have for consideration by govern-
ments, universities, and all bodies to whom is confided the fostering care and
direction of learning. As a branch of learning, men are beginning to recog-
nize the claim of science to its own particular place; for, though flowing
in channels utterly different in then* course and end to those of literature, it
conduces not less, as a means of instruction, to the discipline of the mind ;
whilst it ministers, more or less, to the wants, comforts, and proper pleasure,
both mental and bodily, of every individual of every class in life. Until of
late years the education for, and recognition of it, by the bodies which may
be considered as giving the general course of all education, have been chiefly
directed to it only as it could serve professional services, namely, those
which are remunerated by society ; but now the fitness of university degrees
in science is under consideration, and many are taking a high view of it, as
distinguished from literature, and think that it may well be studied for its own
sake, i. e., as a proper exercise of the human intelligence, able to bring
into action and development all the powers of the mind. As a branch of
learning, it has, without reference to its applications, become as extensive
and varied as literature; and it has this privilege, that it must ever go on
increasing. Thus it becomes a duty to foster, direct, and honor it, as litera-
ture is so guided and recognized; and the duty is the more imperative, as we
find by the unguided progress of science and the experience it supplies, that
of those men who devote themselves to studious education, there are as
many whose minds are constitutionally disposed to the studies supplied by
it, as there are of others more fitted by inclination and power to pursue
literature. The value of the public recognition of science as a leading branch
of education may be estimated in a very considerable degree by observation
of the results of the education which it has obtained incidentally from those

9

98 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

who, pursuing it, have educated themselves. Though men may be specially
fitted by the nature of their minds for the attainment and advance of litera-
ture, science, or the fine arts, all these men, and all others, require first to be
educated in that which is known in these respective mental paths; and when
they go beyond this preliminary teaching, they require a self-education
directed (at least in science) to the highest reasoning power of the mind.
Any part of pure science may be selected to show how much this private
self-teaching has done, and by that to aid the present movement in favor of
the recognition generally of scientific education in an equal degree with that
which is literary ; but perhaps electricity, as being the portion which has
been left most to its own development, and has produced as its results the
most enduring marks on the face of the globe, may be referred to. In 1800
Volta discovered the voltaic pile giving a source and form of electricity
before unknown. It was not an accident, but resulted from his ov,n mental
self-education. It was, at first, a feeble instrument, giving feeble results ; but,
by the united mental exertions of other men, who educated themselves
through the force of thought and experiment, it has been raised up to such
a degree of power as to give us light, and heat, and magnetic and chemical
action, in states more exalted than those supplied by any other means. In
1819 Oersted discovered the magnetism of the electric current, and its rela-
tion to the magnetic needle ; and as an immediate consequence, other men,
as Arairo and Davy, instructing themselves by the partial laws and action
of the bodies concerned, magnetized iron by the current. The results were
so feeble at first as to be scarcely visible; but, by the exertion of self-taught
men since then, they have been exalted so highly as to give us magnets of a
force unimaginable "in former times. In 1831 the induction of electrical cur-
rents one by another, and the evolution of electricity from magnets, was
observed, at first in results so small and feeble that it required one much
instructed in the pursuit to perceive and lay hold of them ; but these feeble
results, taken into the minds of men already partially educated and ever pro-
ceeding onwards in their self-education, have been so developed as to supply
sources of electricity independent of the voltaic battery or the electric ma-
chine, yet having the power of both combined in a manner and degree which
they, neither separate nor together, could ever have given it, and applicable
to all the practical electrical purposes of life.. To consider all the depart-
ments of electricity fully, would be to lose the argument for its fitness in sub-
serving education in the vastness of its extent; and it will be better to con-
fine the attention to one application, as the electric telegraph, and even to
one small part of that application, in the present case. Thoughts of an
electric telegraph came over the minds of those who had been instructed in
the nature of electricity as soon as the conduction of that power with extreme
swiftness through metals was known, and grew as the knowledge of that
branch of science increased. The thought, as realized at the present day,
includes a wonderful amount of study and development. As the end in view
presented itself more and more distinctly, points, at first apparently of no
consequence to the knowledge of the science, generally rose into an impor-
tance which obtained for them the most careful culture and examination, and
the almost exclusive exercise of minds whose powers of judgment and rea-
sonino- had been raised first by general education, and who, in addition, had
acquired the special kind of education which the science in its previous state
could give. Numerous and important as the points are, which have been
already recognized, .others are continually coming into sight as the great

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 99

development proceeds, and with a rapidity such as to make us believe that,
much as there is known to us, the unknown far exceeds it; and that, exten-
sive as is the teaching of method, facts, and law, which can bo established
at present, an education looking for far greater results should be favored and
preserved. The results already obtained are so large as even in money value
to be of very great importance; as regards their higher influence upon the
human mind, especially when that is considered in respect of cultivation,
I trust they are, and ever will be, far greater.

Xo intention exists here of comparing one telegraph with another, or of
assigning their respective dates, merits, or special uses. Those of Mr.
Wheatstone are selected for the visible illustration of a brief argument in
favor of a large public recognition of scientific education, because he is a
man both of science and practice, and was one of the very earliest in the
field, and because certain large steps in the course of his telegraphic life will
tell upon the general argument. Without referring to what he had clone
previously, it may be observed that, in 1840, he took out patents for electric
telegraphs, which included, amongst other things, the use of electricity from
magnets at the communicator, the dial face, the step-by-step motion,
and the electro-magnet at the indicator. At the present time, 18-38, he has
taken out patents for instruments containing all these points; but these
instruments are so altered and varied in character above the former that
an untaught person could not recognize them. The changes may be consid-
ered as the result of education upon the one mind which has been con-
cerned with them, and are to me strong illustrations of the effects which
general scientific education may be expected to produce. In the first instru-
ments powerful magnets were used, and keepers, with heavy coils, asso-
ciated with them. When magnetic electricity was first discovered, the signs
were feeble, and the mind of the student was led to increase the results by
increasing the force and size of the instruments. When the object was to
obtain a current sufficient to give signals through long circuits, large appa-
ratus were employed, but these involved the inconveniences of inertia and
momentum; the keeper was not set in motion at once, nor instantly stopped;
and, if connected directly with the reading indexes, these circumstances
caused an occasional uncertainty of action. Prepared by its previous edu-
cation, the mind could perceive the disadvantages of these influences, and
could proceed to their removal ; and now a small magnet is used to send suf-
ficient currents through 12, 20, 50, 100, or several hundred miles; a keeper
and helix is associated with it, which the hand can easily put in motion ;
and the currents are not sent out of the indicating instrument to tell their
story, until a key is depressed, and thus irregularity contingent upon first
action is removed. A small magnet, ever ready for action and never wast-
ing, can replace the voltaic battery; if powerful agencies be required, the
electro-magnet can be employed without any change in principle or tele-
graphic practice; and as magneto-electric currents have special advantages
over voltaic currents, these are in every case retained. These advantages I
consider as the result of scientific education, much of it not tutorial, but of
self: but there is a special privilege about the science branch of education,
namely, that what is personal in the first instance immediately becomes an
addition to the stock of scientific learning, and passes into the hands of the
tutor, to be used by him in the education of others, and enable them, in
turn, to educate themselves. How well may the young man, entering upon
his duties in electricity, be taught, by Avhat is past, to watch for the smallest

100 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

signs of action, new or old ; to nurse them up by any means until they have
gained strength ; then to study their laws, to eliminate the essential condi-
tions from the non-essential, and, at last, to refine again, until the encum-
bering matter is as much as possible dismissed, and the power left in its
highly developed and most exalted state. The alterations or successions of
currents, produced by the movement of the keeper at the communicator,
pass along the wire to the indicator at a distance; there each one for itself
confers a magnetic condition on a piece of soft iron, and renders it attractive
or repulsive of small, permanent magnets ; and these, acting in turn on a
propelment, cause the index to pass at will from one letter to another on the
dial face. The first electro-magnets, i. e., those made by the circulation of
an electric current round a piece of soft iron, were weak ; they were quickly
strengthened, and it was only when they were strong that their laws and
actions could be successively investigated. But now they were required
small, yet potential. Then came the teaching of Ohm's law; and it was
only by patient study, under such teaching, that Wheatstone was able so to
refine the little electro-magnets at the indicator as that they should be small
enough to consist with the fine work there employed, able to do their
appointed work when excited in contrary directions by the brief currents
flowing from the original common magnet, and unobjectionable in respect
of any resistance they might offer in the transit of these tell-tale currents.
These small transitory electro-magnets attract and repel certain permanent
magnetic needles, and the to-and-fro motion of the latter is communicated
by a propelment to the index, being there converted into a step-by-step mo-
tion. Here everything is of the finest workmanship; the propelment itself
requires to be watched by a lens, if its action is to be observed ; the parts
never leave hold of each other; the vibratory or rotary ratchet-wheel and
the fixed pallets are always touching, and thus allow of no detachment, or
loose shake; the holes of the axes are jewelled; the moving parts are most
carefully balanced, a consequence of which is, that agitation of the whole
does not disturb the parts, and the telegraph works just as well Avhen it is
twisted about in the hands, or placed on board a ship, or in a railway car-
riage, as when fixed immovably.

Now there was no accident in the course of these developments ; if there
were experiments, they were directed by the previously acquired knowledge;
every part of the investigations was made and guided by the instructed
mind. The results being such (and like illustrations might be drawn from
other men's telegraphs, or from other departments of electrical science),
then, if the term education may be understood in so large a sense as to
include all that belongs to the improvement of the mind, either by the acqui-
sition of the knowledge of others, or by increase of it through its own exer-
tions, we learn by them what is the kind of education science offers to man.
It teaches us to be neglectful of nothing; not to despise the small begin-
nings, for they precede, of necessity, all great things in the knowledge of
science, either pure or applied. It teaches a continual comparison of the
small and great, and that under differences almost approaching the infinite:
for the small as often contains the great in principle as the great does the
small; and thus the mind becomes comprehensive. It teaches to deduce
principles carefully, to hold them firmly, or to suspend the judgment to
discover and obey law, and by it to be bold in applying to the greatest what
we know of the smallest. It teaches us first by tutors and books to learn
what is known to others, and then, by the lights and methods which belong

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 101

to science, to learn for ourselves and for others ; so making a fruitful
return to man in the future for that which we have obtained from the men
of the past. Bacon, in his instruction, tells us that the scientific student
ought not to be as the ant, who gathers, merely ; nor as the spider, who spins
from her own bowels; but rather as the bee, who both gathers and produces.
All this is true of the teaching afforded by any part of the physical science.
Electricity is often called wonderful beautiful; but it is so only in com-
mon with the other forces of nature. The beauty of electricity, or of any
other force, is not that the power is mysterious and unexpected, touching
every sense at unawares in turn, but that it is under law, and that the taught
intellect can even now govern it largely. The human mind is placed above,
not beneath it ; and it is in such a point of view that the mental education
afforded by science is rendered supereminent in dignity, in practical appli-
cation, and utility : for, by enabling the mind to apply the natural power
through law, it conveys the gifts of God to man.

9*

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

ROTATION PRODUCED BY ELECTRICITY.

AT a recent meeting of the Royal Societ}', England, an ingenious and curi-
ous apparatus was exhibited, displaying the rotation of a metallic sphere by
electricity. The apparatus was contrived by Mr. Gore, of Birmingham, who
states that his experiments had their origin in a phenomenon observed by
Mr. Fearn, of Birmingham, in his electro-gilding establishment. When a
tube of brass, half an inch in diameter and four feet long, was placed upon
two horizontal and parallel brass tubes, one inch in diameter and nine feet
long, and at right angles to them, and the latter connected with a long voltaic
battery consisting of from two to twelve pairs of large zinc and carbon ele-
ments, this transverse tube immediately began to vibrate, and finally to roll
upon the others. Acting upon this, Mr. Gore constructed a disk of wood,
provided with two brass rails, level, uniform, and equi-distant; on these rails
a hollow and very thin copper ball was placed, and the brass rails being con-
nected with a zinc and carbon battery, the ball began to vibrate, and pres-
ently to revolve. In all cases yet observed, Mr. Gore states, that the motion
of the ball is attended by a peculiar crackling sound at the points of contact,
and by heating of the rolling metal. When the apparatus was exhibited be-
fore the Royal Society, electric sparks were seen as the ball rolled from the
spectator.

ELECTRICITY OF NERVES AND MUSCLES.

M. de la Rive, in the third volume of his Treatise on Electricity, just pub-
lished, reviews the whole science of electro-physiology; and reminds practi-
tioners that, as the difference between the electricity of the muscles and of
the nerves is now clearly established, so must they be careful in applying
their remedies, not to waste on the muscles, which are the best conductors,
the electric currents intended solely for the nerves.

ACCIDENTS BY LIGHTNING.

From a recent foreign work, " Boudin on Medical Geography," we derive
the following memoranda respecting accidents from lightning. As compared
with the country, towns, and especially the larger and more populous ones,
appear to possess an immunity from accident to life by lightning. Thus,
between 1800 and 1851, not a single death by lightning was recorded in Paris ;
and in 1786 it was calculated that out of 750,000 deaths in London, during

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 103

thirty years, two only had been produced by this agency. During a century,
only three persons were killed by lightning in Gottingen, and two in Halle.
Comparing these numbers with the total deaths from this cause, and with the
fact that twenty-five per cent, of all happen under trees, he holds it reason-
able to conclude " that lightning finds more victims in open country than in
cities." Another " most curious phenomenon, beyond contradiction, is the
tendency it has to strike the same places and the same edifices at different
epochs." Of this, Dr. Boudin produces several illustrations, and quotes M.
Poullet in support and explanation.

With regard to the frequency of accidents by lightning, fatal to human life
in France, he tells us that from 1835 to 1832, inclusive, 1308 persons were
killed.

M. Boudin thinks that the persons injured are at least twice as numerous
as those killed. Some United States statistics show the injured to be to the
killed as five to one. Many more men than women are killed, and not in
France only, but also, though not in so marked a proportion, in Sweden
(1815 to 1840), and in England (1838 and 1839). He seems to think that this is
not explained by the greater exposure of men in the fields ; but still he does
not think we are warranted in concluding "that, all things being equal,
woman runs less danger than man; " but he considers the question as
" worthy of being submitted to the test of observation." And he quotes the
following peculiar passage from Arago, declining, however, to " maintain its
rigorous exactitude " :

" In two conditions altogether alike," says Arago, " one man, by the nature
of his constitution, runs more danger than another. There exist persons
who arrest abruptly the communication of electricity, and do not feel the
shock, even when they occupy the second place in the file. These persons,
by exception, are not conductors of the electric fluid. Exceptionally, then,
we must rank them amongst non-conducting bodies, which lightning respects,
or which, at least, it strikes rarely. Differences so marked cannot exist, with-
out there being also shades of difference; but every degree of conductibility
corresponds, during the storm, to a certain measure of danger. The man
who is as conducting as metal will be as often struck as metal; the man who
interrupts the communication to the chain will scarce have more to fear than
if he were glass or resin. Between these limits there will be found individuals
whom the lightning will strike as readily as wood or stone. Thus, in the
phenomena of thunder, all does not depend on the place which a man occu-
pies; the physical constitution of the man plays also a certain part."

As one would expect, " the configuration of the soil, and its mountainous
character," exercise an influence on the frequency of accidents, which, for
instance, In proportion to the population, are much rarer in the departments
of the Eure and Seine than in those of the Dordogne, Lozere, High Loire,
and Low and High Alps. Less danger is run in the house than in the fields,
and in towns than in the country.

The effects of lightning on man he makes either curative of preexisting
affections, productive of wounds or injuries, or productive of death. The
injuries it may produce seem to be very varied.

To the peculiar images, said to have been observed on the bodies of some
persons killed by lightning, he gives the name of Keraunographic images,
and he relates some of the most singular instances of it on record, giving the
sources, which are not always the most reliable.

104 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING.

Statements of impressions of trees, etc., made on the human person by
lightning, are not uncommon, and Mr. Poey, of Havana, has published a
paper of some length on the subject. (See Annual of Scientific Discovery,
18-38, page 226.) In a case of a person struck by lightning, at Salem, Mass.,
during the past summer, it was currently reported, " that upon his back there
was left an impression of a larch tree, situated just outside the window at
which he was sitting." The attendant physician has, however, published the
following observations on the phenomenon in question :

" There was no laceration, or abrasion of the skin. The appearance was
something like what is often seen, of a frosty morning, on the window glass,
resembling branches of trees, and was produced by the peculiar action of the
lightning on the capillary vessels of the skin, causing them to become en-
larged and reddened, in consequence of admitting more blood than usual,
and to assume an arborescent character. This appearance Avas not the fac
simile of any tree or bush. The whole surface affected was about ten inches
square."

This explanation appears to satisfactorily meet the facts of this particular
case; but, as instances are cited by Mr. Poey in which objects other than
trees have been delineated on the skin through the agency of lightning, the
photographic effects of this agent cannot, therefore, be entirely disputed.

LIGHTING GAS BY ELECTRICITY.

Samuel Gardner, jr., of New York, patented in 1857 an electric apparatus,
by means of which a person acting on two keys could light or shut off at
will, and at the same moment, all the gas-burners of a building, or any
designated number of them. It was applied to the lights of the Broadway
Theatre, and was made to work several times every evening, to the great
amusement of the audience. The stop-cock of every chandelier, and of every
isolated burner, is provided with a rachet-wheel, which is acted upon by a
catch connected with an ordinary electro-magnet, and each magnet is con-
nected by a wire with a battery, and with a circuit-breaking key, placed in
the operator's room. Over every burner is a coil of fine platina wire ; and all
these coils, connected together by copper wires, are in the circuit of another
electric current, which may be closed or opened by means of another circuit-
breaking key. To light the gas, the operator closes the circuit of the coils
of platina; these become red hot. He then closes and opens the stop-cocks'
circuit as many times as is necessary to make the rachet-wheels describe a
quarter of a circle. The stop-cocks are then opened, and the gas, rushing
on the burning coils, is lighted. The burners are turned off by playing
again on the key till the rachet-wheels have moved another quarter of a cir-
cle ; then the stop-cocks are closed. By having as many keys as there are
burners, or groups of burners, each burner or each group may be operated
separately from the others. By throwing all in one circuit, they may be
operated with a single key. The use of this invention does away with the
causes of fire consequent upon the use of matches ; it saves the labor of
lighting, and an unnecessary expense of gas in large establishments, where
the lighting has to be begun one hour before light is wanted. In the streets

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 105

it is peculiarly advantageous, as a burner accidentally put out by a puff of
wind, is instantly lighted again. An improvement on this invention has
been patented, March, 1858, by the original inventor. It consists in placing
the platina coil by the side of the burner, instead of above it, and in the
flame. The use of platina, though very costly, is necessary, as it is the
cheapest metal which does neither melt nor burn under the circumstances
described. The apparatus, thus improved, has been lately applied to the
1,500 burners of the Senate Chamber in Washington, and is said to give
complete satisfaction.

GATCHELL'S LIGHTNING RODS AND POINTS.

A committee of the Franklin Institute recommend the following improve-
ments in the construction of lightning rods, introduced by Mr. J. L. Gatchell,
of Maryland. These improvements consist, first, in the use of a rope of
twisted copper wire (containing eighteen strands of wire, about J^. inch in
diameter), by which are gained greater conducting power, freedom from
breaks or joints in the conductor, and a flexibility which allows it to be
adapted to any irregularities of form over which it may be carried.

The second modification is the substitution of a copper for a platina
point, and the increasing the angle of the point, so as to approach that
recommended by the Committee of the French Academy of Sciences. The
advantages here gained are, greater conducting power by the substitution of
copper for platina, and secondly, a counteraction of the liability to fusion by
rendering the point much less acute. The preservation from, oxidation is
entrusted to a zinc ball attached below the point.

ON THE ELECTRICAL LIGHT. BY H. W. DOVE.

The experiments, in connection with the results of the prismatic investi-
gation of the spark, appear to me to lead to the following conclusion :

A wire, becoming red-hot by heat, is first red, then orange, and lastly
white; so that it behaves like the combination of light which is obtained
when a screen is drawn away from the spectrum concealed by it, in such a
way that the red end first becomes visible, and to this the violet is finally
added. The increase of brilliancy, from the slightly luminous brush to the
bright spark, behaves quite otherwise. In this case, it is as if the screen re-
moved first set free the violet end, and then the other colors. This distinc-
tion of itself renders it improbable that the phenomena of electrical light, in
the state of less brilliancy, can be ascribed to a gradually increasing ignition
of solid particles. They rather resemble the weakly luminous flame of hy-
drogen, which becomes white by solid ignited carbon in the so-called gas-
flames, or by other solid matters, as in the Drummond light. The true
electrical light is produced at great distances in the surrounding, isolating,
aeriform medium, when the latter is attenuated. With this colored light be-
longing to the strongly refrangible part of the spectrum, phenomena of
ignition may be combined, by particles torn away from the positive and neg-
ative bodies. If these particles be only at a red heat, the impression of a
violet light is produced by their mixture with the electric light. To this class
belong the column of light in the electrical egg, and the basal point of the
brush, and, lastly, the indented reddish sparks of an electrical machine, at
distances to which a white spark does not pass. If particles at a white heat
come together, the whole is white, as in the sparks of Leyden jars; in oppo-

106 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

sition to the bright light of incandescence, the less strongly luminous electric
light disappears in the same way as the weak, bluish, lower part in a gas-
flame appears black in opposition to the bright mass of light, whilst with the
small brilliancy of a wax-light, the latter betrays its color even without optical
aids of absorption. Only prismatic analysis, and the action upon uranium
glass, indicate the presence of the electric light also. If the particles at a
white heat do not reach each other, the spark acquires a spot of interruption,
which, however, still shows red light besides the true electric light, when the
particles previously at a white heat have become cooled to redness. The
basal point of the brush, which retrogrades in proportion to the larger field
in which the electric light becomes visible, is to be compared with the spot
of interruption of the spark ; the particles of the solid body which are here
still red-hot may, on reaching a greater distance, be completely extinguished,
so that then the electric light alone prevails. The brush could not be colored
by a spirit-flame colored yellow with chloride of sodium held under it, as it
then becomes converted into a spark. The phenomena of the exhausted
tube with mercury, indicate the modification which the electric light under-
goes in media other than atmospheric air. Phil. Mag .

ELECTRO-MOTIVE FORCE OF VARIOUS BATTERIES.

M. Petruscheski, a Russian experimenter, gives the following as the
results of his investigations on the power of different voltaic combinations :

Grove, with amalgamated zinc, 1.78

Battery of cast iron and amalgamated zinc, 1.72

Bunseii, 1 69

Eisenlohr (Daniell's, with tartrate of potassa in place of sulphuric acid), 1.05

Darnell, with chloride of sodium, 1.05

" chloride of sodium and amalgamated zinc, 1.01

" with dilute sulphuric acid, 1.00

Eisenlohr, with zinc not amalgamated, 0.99

Daniell, dilute sulphuric acid and amalgamated zinc, 0.93

Wollastou, with amalgamated zinc, 0.93

Cosmos, vol. xli., p. 4.

COST OF ELECTRIC LIGHT.

M. Edmond Becquerel has been recently engaged in some experiments
with a view to determine the comparative cost of electricity as an illuminat-
ing agent. He used a battery of zinc and platinum, made with strict atten-
tion to economy, and the results were as follows :

The standard is the light of 350 candles of the best quality, and the com-
parative cost of

Coal gas at SI 60 per 1000 c. feet, was $0 35

Oil (Rape Seed), at 17 cents per pound, 60

Stearine candles, at 32 cents per pound, 252

Wax candles, at 52 cents per pound, 3 12

Electric light, 58

Thus showing that, although the electric light is cheaper than candles, it
will not at present compete with coal gas, at least until some cheaper battery
power be found.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 107

EXPERIMENTS OF ANDREW CROSSE.

The very curious experiments of Andrew Crosse (made famous by repub-
lication in the "Vestiges of Creation"), by which animal life seemed to be
produced by the action of any continued electrical currents, have recently
been repeated by Professor Schulze of Germany. No insects or animal
germs, however, made their appearance, a result which strengthens the
probability of the supposition which Mr. Crosse himself never disputed,
that the ova of the insects however the electric current may have operated
to stimulate their development were derived from the atmosphere, or had
been conveyed into the apparatus by some natural means which had escaped
the attention of the experimenters.

Mr. Crosse, after a life spent in electrical experiments, died July 6, 183/3, at
the age of 71, and his "Memoi-ials, Scientific and Literary," lately published
in London, contain some curious details as to his investigations above referred
to, and the way in which they were received by the public.

Being engaged at the time in experiments for the production of mineral
crystals by the agency of the voltaic current, in which he had remarkable
success, he contrived a little apparatus for the deposition of crystals of silica
on a lump of stone, through the agency of a voltaic trough. After this
experiment had been going on for a fortnight, he observed a few small
whitish specks on the surface of the electrified stone. By the eighteenth
day, these specks had expanded, and seven or eight filaments were thrown
out from the surface of each; but as embryo minerals exhibited similar
phenomena in the process of crystallization, there was nothing so far to
excite any surprise. Before long, however, these growing specks assumed
the appearance of insects standing erect on the bristles which formed their
tails, and by the twenty-eighth day they were distinctly seen to move their
legs. By this time the experimenter was greatly astonished. Instead of a
mineral for which he had looked as the result of his experiment, he had
found an animal, alive and kicking. It was plain they were no mere appear-
ances, for in a few days they detached themselves from the stone and began
to move about. They were, to be sure, not creatures of a very inviting and
attractive character, for they belonged apparently to the genus acarus, which
includes some of the most disgusting parasites with which the animal body
is annoyed. But they continued to increase, and in the course of a few
weeks, at least a hundred made their appearance. Whence did they come?
and what was their origin? To these questions, Mr. Crosse, with all his faith
in the power of electricity, did not then venture and has not since ventured
a decided answer. Many years after, for the experiment was first tried in
1807, he professed himself still unable to form an opinion. He expresses
himself thus : " The simplest solution of the problem which occurred to
me was that they rose from ova deposited by insects floating in the atmos-
phere and hatched by electric action. Still I could not imagine that an
ovum could shoot out filaments, or that those filaments could become
bristles ; and moreover, I could not detect, on the closest examination, the
remains of a shell. Again, we have no right to assume that electric action
is necessary to vitality until such fact shall have been most distinctly proved.
I next imagined, as others have done, that they might have originated from
the water, and consequently made a close examination of numbers of vessels
filled with the same fluid. In none of these could I perceive a trace of an
insect, nor could I see any in any other part of the room."

108 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

The experiments were repeated in various ways, and with every precaution
that could be thought of, 3 T et the insects still appeared, and that, too, under
circumstances apparently highly adverse to the development of animal life.
They made their appearance under the surface of liquids in which they
could not afterward live, even in fluids that were caustic or absolutely
poisonous. Though the solid materials employed had been subjected to a
heat greater than that of molten iron, and the solutions used had been
poured while boiling into the apparatus, still these strange insects made
their appearance; nor did an atmosphere impregnated with chlorine or
loaded with muriatic acid gas prove any bar to their production. Similar
experiments were afterwards undertaken by Mr. Weeks, of Sandwich, with
still greater precaution, if possible, to exclude every exterior element of
animal life, but still in the end though a period of twelve or eighteen
months sometimes elapsed the insects appeared.

The publication of these experiments caused a great deal of talk, much
of which took the shape of a direct personal attack upon the unlucky phi-
losopher. In the true spirit of the middle ages, which long confounded
experimental philosophy with impiety, Mr. Crosse was arraigned as an
impious man. If he began by creating animals by electrical power no
matter of how inferior a sort who could tell where he might stop ? It was
a plain usurpation of the functions of Deity. Mr. Crosse must certainly be
an atheist. Letters were addressed to him in which he was denounced as
"a disturber of the peace of families," and a " reviler of our holy religion."
" I have met," says Mr. Crosse, " with so much virulence and abuse, so
much calumny and misrepresentation, in consequence of these experiments,
that it seems in this nineteenth century as if it was a crime to have made
them." In fact, he found himself obliged to come out with a public decla-
ration that he was neither an atheist nor a materialist, nor a self-imagined
creator, but a humble and lowly reverencer of that great Being, of whose
laws those who accused him seemed to have lost sight.

ON THE USE OF ELECTRICITY FOR PRODUCING LOCAL ANAESTHESIA.

The application of electricity for producing local anaesthesia, as in tooth-
pulling, has been recently made with marked success. The arrangement for
using or applying this agent is simple, and consists of the common electro-
magnetic machine used in medical electricity, a single cell and pair of plates
constituting a Smee's battery, and a small electro-magnetic coil with a bun-
dle of wires for graduating the strength of the cm-rent. One end of the
thin wire conveying the secondary current is attached to the handle of the
forceps, and the other end of it to a metallic handle to be placed in the hand
of the patient. The instrument touching the tooth completes the circuit, and
the current passes instantaneously. The wire attached to the forceps should
be made to pass through an interrupting footboard, so that the continuity
of the wire may be made or broken in an instant by a movement of the
right foot of the operator. The advantage of this arrangement is, that it
allows the instrument to be placed in the mouth without risk of producing a
shock in coming in contact with the lips, cheeks, or the tongue, which would
interfere with the quiet of the patient. A hole drilled in the end of the left
handle of the forceps, and the end of the wire tapered to fit rather tightly,
allows the substitution of one pair of forceps for another with scarcely a
moment's delay.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 109

IMPROVEMENT IN ELECTROTYPING.

The National Intelligencer says an improvement in the process of electro-
typing has been made, by which electrotypes can be produced with great
rapidity and accuracy. The improvement consists in covering the face of the
wax, or other material of which the matrix is made, with fine metallic leaf
before the impression is taken. In this way a perfect conducting metallic
surface is obtained ; that is, over the entire face of the letters, as well as over
the spaces between the lines.

The sides of the letters do not, as a general thing, have a metallic conduct-
ing surface, inasmuch as the types, when the impression is taken, cut the leaf,
and force a part of it down into the matrix, thus leaving the wax exposed
on the sides of the letters. This cutting of the leaf, however, is rather an ad-
vantage, since such exposed parts of the wax are the very parts where a slow
deposit is preferred, and which is effected by touching such parts over with
plumbago. The advantages are these:" The moment that the mould or
matrix is placed in the bath and the battery applied, the deposit of metal
commences at once on the entire surface, the deposit being more rapid,
however, on the face of the letters, and on the spaces between the lines than
on the sides of the letters; and this is just what is wanted, since it prevents,
especially when the letters are small and deep, what is termed "bridging
over" (hollow letters). By the use of silver leaf an electrotype may be pro-
duced with a bright silvered face, a feature of considerable importance in
all cases where the plates are to be laid aside for future use, inasmuch as the
face of the letters will not be so easily injured by long and continued expo-
sure to air and moisture, as when of the usual copper face.

ELECTRIC DISCHARGES IN AIR HIGHLY RAREFIED.

On making a current of static electricity to pass through a tube of rarefied
air, a luminous arc is obtained, which experiences modifications, when sub-
jected to the action of the poles of a powerful magnet. This fact, which
calls to mind the corresponding effect experienced by a luminous arc pro-
duced by a powerful galvanic battery, was discovered by De la Rive in 184U.
He first used as the source of the electricity the hydro-electric machine of
Armstrong, afterwards a common electric machine, and quite recently Kulnn-
korff 's apparatus. M. Pliicker, of Bonn, has tried the same, and his results
are published in a recent number of Poggendorff 's Annalen.

According to De la Rive, it is necessary for success that the tube or globe
should contain some vapor, equivalent in tension to six millimeters of mer-
cury, and the vapors answering best are those of alcohol, sulphuret of car-
bon, and camphine. De la Rive has applied the experiments to the illustra-
tion of the Aurora Borealis, so frequent in the Polar regions.

ON A MODIFICATION OF RUHMKORFF'S INDUCTION COIL.

At the last meeting of the British Association, Mr. W. Ladd, presented the
results of a very extensive course of experimenting with Ruhmkorff 's in-
duction coils, with a description of the machine, as it is now constructed.
His object,. he said, was not to make very large machines, but to obtain the
greatest results from a three-mile coil, that being sufficiently large for all ordi-
nary purposes. I find the best length for the iron core to be thirteen inches

10

110 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

and about l- r >-S diameter, composed of fine iron wire not larger than No. 22,
very carefully annealed. The primary wire should be of sufficient size to
carry freely the whole of the battery current, and of sufficient quantity to
thoroughly saturate the iron core with magnetism. For this purpose I use
three layers of one continuous No. 12 copper wire carefully annealed; if more
layers are used I find that the secondary wire is removed too far from the
magnetic influence. The secondaiy wire ought not to be larger than No. 35,
covered with silk, which must be laid on perfectly even and insulated from
the primary wire, and also from the layers of the secondary next to it. I
find the best insulating medium to be the thinnest gutta-percha made, and
which, I believe, to be the only gutta-percha sold which cannot be adulter-
ated; it is true that it has many minute preTorations, but by laying on, at
least, six thicknesses between each layer of wire, perfect insulation is secured.
The greatest care must be taken in protecting the ends of the layers so as to
prevent the sparks passing from one to the other. The condenser should
be, at least, fifty sheets of tin-foil of about one square foot in size. These
sheets must be separated from each other by three sheets of varnished paper
or gutta-percha tissue. Every alternate sheet of foil is connected together,
thus forming two poles, to be attached one to each side of the break. It may
l)e placed at the bottom of the stand or in a separate box ; the latter I prefer.
In developing the power of the machine, everything depends upon the con-
tact breaker, which should be capable of retaining contact until the whole of
the magnetism is obtained, and capable also of breaking contact as soon as
the smallest quantity is induced. These results are obtained in the break at-
tached to this instrument. The hammer is made to vibrate freely between the
core and the coil, and the brass screw terminating with the platina plate at the
back of the hammer, a very small amount of magnetism will be sufficient to
attract the hammer and so break the contact. If now I bring this screw
(placed half-way up the spring carrying the hammer) to bear upon the spring,
it will have the effect of pressing the tAvo platina plates together, so that it
takes a greater amount of magnetism to separate them. By this means I
can regulate the power of the instrument to the purposes for which it is
required. The batten' I employ is a five cells of " Grove's," with immersed
platina plates 5 * 3, having an exposed surface of 140 square inches. With
such a battery and a coil thus constructed, I can always insure sparks from
half an inch to four inches in air. The machine now exhibited contains six
miles of wire, and worked with the same battery, gives six and a quarter
inch sparks. The position which the induction coil is now taking in this elec-
trical age is one of considerable importance. It has awakened new philo-
sophical ideas, and is being successfully applied to practical purposes of the
highest advantage to mankind. For blasting purposes, a three-mile coil is
capable of firing fifty charges simultaneously. But, important as its present
position is, and successful as its past application has been, it is yet in its in-
fancy, and there can be little doubt that by patient perseverance machines
can be constructed that will obviate the necessity of employing such ponder-
ous machines, and still more ponderous batteries, as are now at work on the
Atlantic Cable.

JAX'S IMPROVEMENT. In using Ruhmkorff's coils, damage is not unfre-
quently sustained by the electric spark forcing its way through the apparatus
itself, in place of passing between the poles. To avoid this, M. Jan has
devised a plan of plunging the apparatus in a non-conducting liquid, such as
the spirits of turpentine. The liquid filling the interstices of the coil, coil-

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. Ill

stituting the immediate instrument of the induction, assures the perfect iso-
lation of the several convolutions, and if a spark too violent passes through
the instrument, the presence of a non-conductinir fluid stops its passage and
insures safety. M. Quet. thus using the Ruhmkorff machine, has produced
results which have hitherto defied the Voltaic battery, and, of course, the
ordinary electrical machine.

STUDY OF THE THERMO-MULTIPLIER.

This instrument, valuable to the experimentalist for its extreme delicacy,
and for its extensive scale, has been the object of careful theoretic and prac-
tical study, by M. de la Provostaye, whose results as reported to the Acad-
emy of Sciences, at Paris, may be summed up as follows :

First, as to the galvanometer.

1. "Whatever may be the position of the needles, the forces which act upon
each half are reducible practically to one, perpendicular to the plane of the
meridian.

2. That the amount of deviation makes but a slight change in the amount
of this resultant : hence, the apparatus may be regarded as a tangent-needle
of a very considerable degree of perfection.

Secondly, as to the thermo-electric pile.

1. The progress of heating the thermometer takes place by the same
degrees, and in the same time, as if it were placed in a space at the constant
temperature which the pile attains under the influence of the source of heat.

2. When the rise of the temperature is sufficiently small, if we withdraw
the caloi-ific action, it cools again, in the same time, and by the same degrees,
as if heated.

Thirdly. He terminates the integral expression for the movement of the
needle ; shows that its position of rest under the action of the current is pro-
portioned to the constant quantity of the current when the anterior face of
the pile has assumed a stationary excess of temperature, and to the intensity
of the incident heat : and then derives expressions for the times correspond-
ing to the maximum and minimum excursions of the needle, and the extent
of these excursions ; and terminates with the following observation : " If,
after making an observation with the thermo-pile in the common way, and
awaiting the fixed deviation of the needle, the screen is replaced, the energy
of the current diminishes, and the needle returns to zero. I have found that
the retrograde motion of the needle, counted from the fixed deviation, takes
place by oscillations of the same extent and times as the primitive motion
counted from zero."

HUGHES'S TELEGRAPH.

The following is a full description of this somewhat famous instrument,
with its latest improvements, as it has been employed during the past year
on one of the lines between New York and Philadelphia. By it, messages
are transmitted simultaneously to and fro at the rate of two hundred letters
a minute each way. With all other telegraphs, the current runs through the
magnet of the instrument, and a sign is transmitted by breaking the current
for an instant; with this one, the line is connected with the ground, and the
current is made to pass through the machine only for an instant, when a sign
is to be transmitted. This arrangement constitutes one of its most important
advantages, namely : Any surplus of electricity produced by an overcharged

112 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

atmosphere lias full time to flow into the ground, and Hughes's machine
may be operated without danger to the attendants, during a storm which
stops all the others. To accomplish this, the magnet is made of a natural
horse-shoe magnet capable of sustaining five pounds, in contact with the
poles of which are placed two pieces of soft iron, surrounded by coils of
wire. The armature is provided with a spring nearly as strong as the mag-
net, the tendency of which is to pull them apart. When the machine is at rest
the armature is in contact with the pieces of soft iron where it is kept. As
these have become magnetic from their contact with the natural magnet,
when a key is pressed down the current is made to pass through the coil in
such a direction as to destroy the natural magnet by creating an artificial
one with poles reversed. The armature is thus instantaneously let free, and
is thrown up by the spring; this motion acts upon a detent, and the other
parts of the instrument do their office in transmitting a letter, and also of
cutting off the current from the magnet and of forcing back the armature
against it. In this manner the natural magnet is not required to attract tho
armature from a distance, but acts only, when in contact, to hold it in its
place; that is, in the position of its greatest power. The parts of the
machine which are in constant motion consist of a horizontal main shaft
under which is a vertical shaft, connected with the first by beveled wheels-
of a train of cog-wheels, of a drum, weight, spring and treadle. The main
shaft of the instruments at both extremities of the line move with exactly
the same speed. The velocity of each is regulated, like that of a common
clock, by an anchor escapement, with this difference, that the vibrations of
a slender bar of steel, held by one extremity, are substituted for the beats
of a pendulum. A clock is made to go slow or fast by lengthening or short-
ening the pendulum, and the velocity is regulated here by doing the same
with the bar of steel. This escapement acts about sixty times in a second,
or tAventy times faster that that of a clock; and this result could not be
obtained from a pendulum, as this would have to be only 1-80 part of an
inch long from the point of suspension to the centre of the ball, to beat
sixty times. The upper portion of the vertical shaft is isolated from the
lower portion by an intermediate piece made of ivory. Tho upper part
is provided with an articulated horizontal ami which rests on a shorter
arm extending from the lower part, and this contact connects together
the two portions of the shaft. This arm describes circles a quarter of
an inch above the table. Under its extremity a circular row of twenty-
ei^ht slats is cut in the table, and as many metal slides are placed
vertically in them. Twenty-eight keys are connected with these slides,
in such a manner that, when a key is pressed down, the corresponding
slide is raised in the slat sufficiently high to reach the arm, which, in
revolving, slides up the inclined end of the slide. This operation makes
the current pass through the coils of the other instrument, as will be shown
hereafter. The main shaft carries by friction a type-wheel, the types of
which are inked by a small tangential inking roller. A second horizontal
shaft moving with the first, but faster, is provided with a chuck, by means
of which it carries the printing shaft once round each time a letter is tele-
graphed. This printing shaft, by means of a projecting cam, brings at each
turn the roller which carries the paper in contact with the type-wheel, and
the letter actually there is printed. The slip of paper is carried onward tho
distance of a letter by a dog acting on a ratchet, when the roller recedes from
the type-wheel,

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 113

All the parts having been described separately, we will now explain their
connection, together with the manner of using the machine. The instru-
ments at both stations are first started, and made to revolve at the same
rate, the type-wheels lying in such positions that each time the arm of the
vertical shaft of one instrument passes over the slide of key A, the letter A
engraved on the type-wheel of the other instrument is opposite the paper
roller. To print a letter at the other end of the line, the operator presses
down the key on which the letter is engraved; the key raises the correspond-
ing metal slide which raises the revolving arm before one half of a second lias
elapsed, since the arm makes two revolutions per second. This makes the
current pass through the magnet of the instrument at the other station and
release its armature, which springs up. The detent acts instantly, makes
the chuck catch the printing shaft, and this last raises the printing roller
against the type-wheel, the letter is printed, and the armature coming down,
the printing shaft is unconnected, and every part returns to its original posi-
tion except the paper, which has proceeded the distance of one letter
forward.

The closing of the current at one station acts only on the magnet of the
other station. This allows of the writing both ways at the same time.
Generally the despatches travelling in opposite directions are interwoven; and
also two different letters may appear to be, the one received and the other
sent at the same moment ; one, in fact, starts only after the other is arrived
and the way is clear; but, each time the same letter is transmitted by both
operators, the two machines act at the same mathematical instant. Two
batteries are erected, one at each station, and none at intermediate points of
the road, and they are connected with the instruments in a peculiar manner,
which will be best understood by making a diagram. One pole of each
battery is connected with the slides of the instrument, the other with the
ground. The wire of the line is connected at each end, through coil Xo. 1
of the instrument, with the upper portion of the shaft ; the lower portion is
connected, through coil No. 2, with the ground. When the keys of both
machines are at rest the current of both batteries is broken all the con-
necting wires and the line are free from electricity. "When a key is acted
upon in New York, the corresponding slide raises the arm; this disconnects
one coil in New York and makes the current of one battery pass through
one coil in New York and through both coils in Philadelphia. The power
of the springs acting against the armatures is so calculated as to overcome
the magnet diminished by the current of one battery through two coils, but
to be smaller than the magnet diminished only by one battery through one
coil. Consequently the armature in Philadelphia is released, and a letter is
printed there, and that in New York is held in place. The explanation for
telegraphing the other way is the same. When the sides of the same letter
are raised at the same time in both instruments, one coil of each is discon-
nected; but there is the power of two batteries in the other coil of each ; and,
as a power of two batteries through one coil is equivalent to that of one
through two coils, the result described occurs at both stations, and the letter
is printed at both places in the same identical instant.

A second manner of using the instrument is to place the batteries on the
line as is usual, and to arrange the arms so that they clear the currents
when the slides come in contact with them. With this plan, it is not possible
to telegraph both ways at the same time.

A third manner, which is favorite with the inventor, and which it is pro-

10*

114 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

posed to apply to the Submarine Atlantic Telegraph, consists in having only
local currents, which at the moment they are closed develop an induction
current of great intensity that shoots through the entire line. For this pur-
pose a coil of coarse wire is wound in three thicknesses around a piece of
soft iron of less than an inch in diameter, and about ten inches in length.
The local current is made to pass through it. Another coil of fine wire
is wound around the first, and is connected with the cable and with the
ground.

The manner of making the type-wheels start right is very simple. The
operator stops the type-wheel by depressing a small lever, which catches a
pin so placed on the wheel that when stopped blank is opposite the printing
roller. This lever is thrown up by the printing roller, so that all the care
the operator of the other station has to take is to begin by a blank.

Teeth of a slanting shape are cut on the side of the type-wheel, and each
time the lever which carries the printing roller is raised, a projection on its
side enters between two teeth of the type-wheel, and makes it slide back-
ward or forward as the case may be. The faster letters are telegraphed the
more often this correction is made, and it proves so effective that the vibra-
ting springs doing the office of pendulums require to be set with only a very
small degree of accuracy ; in fact, one may beat fifty and the other fifty-one
without any inconvenience resulting from the difference.

The number of cups per hundred miles requisite for working House's
Telegraph is two hundred ; Morse's requires fifty, and Hughes's only four to
work both ways. A good operator can transmit two hundred letters a
minute; but this is the limit of human skill, and not that of the power of
the instrument. An average writer can pen one hundred and fifty letters
per minute. Consequently, one may play on a key-board or telegraph thirty-
three per cent, faster than he can write.

Hughes's instrument is moved by a weight of seventy-five pounds, de-
scending two and a half feet in fifteen. This Aveight is raised now and then
by pressing down a treadle. This winding up does not require the stopping
of the machine an intermediate spring being so arranged as to act during
the time the weight is raising.

BONELLPS AUTOGRAPHIC TELEGRAPH.

The autographic telegraph of M. Bonelli, the Sardinian director of tele-
graphs, is attracting considerable attention on the continent, and bids fair
to supersede many of the existing systems of telegraphic communication.
Indeed, the action of this telegraph is sufficiently wonderful, and its advan-
tages sufficiently obvious, to give it a claim to public interest. It reproduces
with the utmost exactitude any inscription or design which may be traced
upon the strip of metal ized or conducting paper, which is given to the
sender of a message ; and this it does with such rapidity, that four times the
number of words that can in any given time be transmitted by the usual sys-
tem, can, it is confidently asserted, be sent by this method. Many advan-
tages beside that of rapidity are, moreover, to be derived from an unerring
process of autographic reproduction. It is well known that the various sym-
bols or ciphers, by means of which secrecy is ensured in confidential and
important communications, are a constant source of error, owing to the
necessary ignorance of the clerk who transmits the message with regard to
the value and significance of the signs employed. In a copying telegraph,

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

115

where the process is purely mechanical, no such inconvenience can occur, and
all errors of manipulation are easily avoided. The method employed by M.
Bonelli, is to write the despatch, or draw the sketch to be transmitted, on a
metalizcd or conducting paper in non-conducting ink. It is then placed on
the transmitting machine, and passed by clock-work under a number of fine
conducting wires, arranged in line like the teeth of a comb. These conduct-
ing wires (there are sixty in Bonelli 's machine) are insulated separately in a
gutta-percha cable, which is stretched between the two places in communica-
tion. At the other end, they are spread out in the same comb form. Under
this receiving comb is passed, by means of similar clock-work, a chemically
prepared paper, the yellow color of which is changed to green by the action
of the magnetic currents which pass over the wires. When the wires at the
transmitting end are passing over the insulating ink, they of course convey
no fluid, and make no change in the color of the receiving paper. The mes-
sage appears, therefore, in yellow letters on a green ground, the letters being
composed of lines, the nearness of which depends on the distance between
the wires. To accomplish the same thing with one wire, it is necessary to
have the two machines move in exact time with each other, and the point of
the wire must pass necessarily over every portion of the written despatch,
transmitting it point by point. By Bonelli's method, this exactness of time
would not be requisite.

THE ATLANTIC CABLE.

The great scientific event of the year 1858 was the successful submergence
of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable, and the temporary transmission of messages
between the Old World and the New. The main facts pertaining to the his-
tory of this important enterprise are as follows :

The telegraphic fleet, comprising the Niagara and the Agamemnon carry-
ing the cable, with two attendant steam-frigates, sailed from Queenstown,
Ireland, on the 17th of July, 1858, and united at the rendezvous, lat. 52 5'
long. 32 40' W., on the 28th. On the succeeding day, July 29th, at 1 p. M.,
lat. 52 59', long. 32 27 / W. the "splice" between the two ends of the cable
was successfully made, and electrical signals passed perfectly through the
whole length on board both ships. Depth of water 1550 fathoms. The dis-
tance from the entrance of Valentia harbor was eight hundred and thirteen
nautical miles; to the entrance of Trinity Bay. N. F., eight hundred and
twenty -two nautical miles, and from there sixty miles to the telegraph house
at the head of the Bay of Bulls, equal in all to eight hundred and eighty -two
nautical miles. The Niagara had sixty-nine miles farther to run than the
Agamemnon. Each ship had on board about eleven hundred nautical miles
of cable. The following table presents a condensed view of the Niagara's
voyage :

Date.

Lat. N.

Long. W.

Dist. sailed
in last 24
hours.

Miles and
fathoms of ca-
ble paid out.

Excess
per cent.

Depth of water
in fathoms.

July 30, Fridav,
" 31, Saturday,
Aug. 1, Sunday,
2, Monday,
" 3, Tuesday,
4, Wedn'y,
5, Thursday,

51 50'
51 50'
50 32'
49 52'
49 17'
48 17'
Niagara

34 49'
3S 3 28'
41 55'
45 37'
49 23'
52 43'
anchored

89
137
145
154
147
146
. 64

131m.
159m. 353/~.
164m. QS3f.
Him. 150/:
161m. 7G3/-.
154m. 360/;
G6m. 3S2/;

48
13
14
15
10
6
4

1550 1985

1950 2424
1600 2385
1742(?) 1827
200

11G ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

It will be observed that the distances run during the five full days were re-
markably uniform, 149 miles per day, and the excess of cable paid out was
about 15 per cent, more than the ship's record. Twice during the progress of
the ship, from some unexplained cause, signals failed to pass between them,
viz., at 7 1-2 P. M. July 29, for an hour, and August 2, from 12 h 38 m A. M. to
5.40 A. M. But during all the remainder of the time signals were constantly
received; and at the last, the Agamemnon, August 5, signalized the Niagara
that they had paid out 1010 miles of cable. The cable was landed at Valen-
tia Bay on Thursday, August 5, and at 6 A. M. the shore end was carried into
the telegraph house, and a strong current of electricity received through the
whole cable from the other side of the Atlantic.

On the 6th of August, a message of thirty -one words was transmitted from
Ireland to Newfoundland in thirty-five minutes, and on the 17th of August,
the Queen of Great Britain transmitted a congratulatory message to the Pres-
ident of the United States, expressing her joy at the completion of this
great international bond, to which President Buchanan responded in the
same spirit.

After this the electrical condition of the wire became daily more faulty, and
it was only with the greatest difficulty, and by constant repetition, that mes-
sages were transmitted to Newfoundland, although return messages to Val-
cntia were, in almost every case, clear and distinct. The last intelligible sig-
nal received at either end of the line was on the 4th of September; since which
date the cable has remained practically inoperative. We are, however, in-
formed, that the electric current is still unbroken, but that its indications are
too feeble to admit of any application to telegraphic purposes. The electri-
cian-in-chief has arrived at the conclusion that there are at least two serious
faults in the cable, one of them dating from before the submergence, and
between 500 and 600 miles from Yalentia; the other about 270 miles distant,
and at the place where, owing to the sudden change in the depth of the sea,
danger had always been apprehended; that one or both of these faults have
been aggravated, if not made fatal, by the intense currents used to overcome
the difficulty, and that electrical tests indicated, what was otherwise too prob-
able, that at least the Agamemnon's portion of the cable was in a very dam-
aged state before it was submerged.

c5

In the present condition of the line, the great natural currents of electricity,
which are continually traversing the surface of the earth in various directions,
act by their inductive effects upon the great length of cable submerged, and
disturb the needles and galvanometers at both ends of the line to a consider-
able degree. This nature and action, if properly observed and studied by
means of the Atlantic Cable, would, no doubt, throw considerable light upon
the phenomena of diurnal magnetic variations, to account for which no sat-
isfactory law has been proposed. On the night of Monday, the 6th of Sep-
tember, one of those extraordinary phenomena called magnetic storms must
have passed over the track of the cable; for from half-past eleven to half-past
twelve, the reflecting galvanometer in connection with the line was most vio-
lently disturbed. The reflections were so rapid and violent that it was only
occasionally that the reflected ray of light could be distinguished upon the
reading scale.

The London Times, in commenting on the present condition of the Atlan-
tic Telegraph enterprise, uses the following language :

For the present, and as regards this particular cable, we feel as people do
about a tree languishing from some inscrutable disease, or a child that pines

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 117

away, it cannot tell why. What is the matter with it? Where is the pain?
What part is hurt? Answer, there is none. In a small room on the Irish
coast a bit of copper wire is fixed on the table or the wall, and knowing men
are coaxing it to tell them what has happened a thousand miles off in the mid
abyss of the ocean. Its vitality expires, its pulsation grows weaker; it
responds more and more feebly to the tortures of science, and the very means
used to rouse it from its stupor, draw on its constitution. In their urgency,
the operators cut off their own hopes, and it is now suspected that they have
done themselves no small part of the mischief that they deplore. What is
this but the old story of the genius, maliciously true, keeping the very letter
of his bond, doing superhuman service, but gone forever if a word or a
movement be omitted ? There is too much reason to fear that the affair is
reduced to a post mortem examination. There is a length of wire, but how
long no man can say. It is, indeed, almost the greatest wonder of the aire,
and, fairly considered, beats even the Atlantic Telegraph itself, should that
ever be an existent fact, that our men of science can stand at one end of a
fine copper wire and ask it how long it is. " Answer, wire, are you 10
miles long, or 270, or 560, or 1,000, or even 2,000? What is the nature of
your fracture or injury? " Witchcraft itself cannot beat such divination. It
is even some comfort to reflect, that, though for the present science docs us
no good, yet it gains by our failure, and though we do not yet obtain what
we want, we know more.

Since the deposition of the cable, says the London News, a great variety of
interesting experiments have been performed to show the kind of electricity
best suited for working through the line, both in a perfect and imperfect con-
dition ; and the results which have been arrived at are both useful and inter-
esting. The high tension electricity from the induced coils was found to
bum up and destroy a wire where a fault in the gutta-percha w r as made. The
second experiment was made with discharges from Henley's magneto-elec-
tric machine. This was found to suffer a slight loss through the fault, but
not to injure the wire at the point of egress in any way as long as negative
discharges only were sent through. The direct battery current, of great
quantity, but low tension electricity, was found to answer best, and to cause
less injury to the cable, and to suffer less loss through the fault; but some
copious currents of this low tension electricity are now unable to make the
cable show signs of activity even with the most delicate arrangement of Pro-
fessor Thomson's reflecting galvanometer. Much has been said about this
beautifully sensitive little instrument, yet but few know its nature or the advan-
tages it possesses over other galvanometers in observing very minute currents
of electricity. It consists of a coil of very fine insulated wire, in the interior
of which is suspended a very small mirror of the finest microscopic glass, to
the back of which are fastened two magnetic needles not more than a quar-
ter of an inch in length. The two needles, with the reflecting mirror they
bear, not weighing more than two grains, are suspended by a single fibre of
silk. When the instrument is in use a ray of light is thrown upon the mir-
ror, and is reflected upon an index board. The very faintest currents of elec-
tricity are measured by these means ; for the very faintest deflection of the
needles, caused by an almost imperceptible current of electricity passing
through the coil, of course, is very perceptible upon the index board by the
motion of the reflected spot of light.

The supposed difficulty of working through the cable, after it was sub-
merged, which was so much talked about, has turned out to be altogether a

118 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

mistake, and therefore the high tension induction coils, which were made by
Mr. Whitehouse, were not only unnecessary, but absolutely hurtful and dan-
gerous unless the whole length of the line was perfectly insulated in every
inch of its vast length, which, of course, it is impossible to expect that any-
thing made by human hands could be. The retarding influences of induction
which where so much spoken of while the cable was lying at Keyham, were
probably due to the inductive influence of one layer of the cable lying over
another in the coil ; for so little has it been experienced since the cable has
been laid, that Professor Thomson thinks if the line was in fair condition it
could be worked through with ease with a few battery cells of Daniel's con-
stant battery.

That the wire is exposed to a considerable extent, in at least two places, is
well ascertained, and where a metallic surface through w r hich currents of
electricity are passing, is exposed to water, oxidation takes place by the
electrolytic decomposition of the water, and thus the wire must soon be
eaten away. This may be in a great measure avoided by transmitting all
signals with negative currents, which would .prevent the direct oxidation of
the wire by electrolysis ; but at the same time, according to the experiments
which have been made, both by Professor Thomson and Mr. Henley, an
exposed wire is not entirely free from a species of decomposition, even
when negative currents alone are transmitted through it. It soon became
encrusted with a light-colored substance, the precise nature of which is not
quite ascertained as yet, but it is supposed to be a combination of chloride of
copper with some of the organic compounds contained in the gutta-percha.
So, no matter what may be the result of the preconcerted experiments at
both termini of the wire, one thing cannot be doubted, viz., that, before per-
manent, certain, and rapid telegraphic communication can be secured
between Europe and America, another cable must be laid.

Thus, for the present, the cable must be considered a failure, at least as
regards its paying and working properties. Nevertheless, in spite of all obsta-
cles, the attempt has demonstrated the ease, and, indeed, almost certainty,
with which, under ordinarily favorable circumstances, a submarine cable
across the Atlantic can always be laid; and ah 1 the theories of the cross cur-
rents which were to break the cable, the floats which were necessary to buoy
it up, and, above all, the idea that it could never sink to the bottom, are set
at rest forever. The cable has been laid, and has been worked through ; and
really, when we look for one moment at what that coil has had to undergo,
from the day the first mile of it Avas made up to the present time, it seems
nothing less than marvellous how it has been submerged, and still more
astounding that any signals ever came through it. On the very place where
the splice was made, in the centre of the Atlantic, an air-bubble, almost the
size of a coffee-bean, had to be cut out. How many hundreds of similar
places might there have been that were never seen ! The defective centring
of the copper conductor in its gutta-percha covering was also, no doubt, a
source of many serious faults ; for the reason that the gutta-percha, being
very thin in some parts, allows the powerful electric currents from the induc-
tion coils to pierce it and touch the outside wires. Once this fault, which
is technically termed " blowing a hole " in a cable, takes place, such a loss
of the signaling current ensues that the cable is rendered useless, or a great
augmentation of battery power is rendered necessary ; and when this last
remedy is resorted to, the hole becomes larger and larger, until the water,
getting freely to the wire, oxidates it away in a very short time. Such acci-

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 119

dents have frequently occurred in the cables between England and the
Haggle, and there is not the least doubt that there are many scores of such
faults along the Atlantic wire. A good deal of attention has lately been
turned to the question of rope-covered wire, and there is now no doubt but
that all future attempts to connect Europe with America will be made with
cables so constructed. At the same time it will not be strands of hemp
loosely thrown around the gutta-percha covered wires that will make a ser-
viceable cable; but rope-yarns, bound in with the same fineness as the wires
are now twisted by the " closing machine." In fact, rope-covered wire
would have to be made by Glass and Elliot, or Newall, just in the same
manner, and on the same plan, as the wire-covered cables are now made by
those firms.

There is one difficulty which many suppose will influence the success of
the deep sea cables in no slight degree namely, the pressure to which all
cables must be subjected at great depths. Some people are sufficiently ill-
informed to deny that there is any pressure exerted by the water of the
ocean at the bottom at all. Such absurd blunders only arise from ignorance
of the difference between density and weight. It does not follow that,
because water is almost incompressible, it weighs nothing, no more than
it follows that, because a block of granite is not elastic, it does not press
upon the spot on which it rests. The pressure of the water at the bottom of
the Atlantic averages about two tons and a half to a square inch. It is a
simple matter of calculation to ascertain the fact. At such a pressure as this,
wrought brass can be saturated with water like a sponge, and a block of it
so saturated requires days for it to ooze out again.

ON THE SUBMERGENCE AND CONSTRUCTION OF SUBMARINE TELE-
GRAPH CABLES.

At a recent meeting of the London Society of Civil Engineers, it was men-
tioned as a practical illustration of the facility with which light cables could
be laid, that, although the submarine telegraph between Varna and the Cri-
mea was submerged under considerable difficulties, and during a storm, yet
the actual length payed out was only 3 3-4 miles in excess of the distance
between those places, which was nearly 350 miles. The depth of the Black
Sea, where this cable was laid, was about 70 fathoms. The cable consisted,
throughout the greater portion of its length, simply of No. 16 copper wire,
covered with gutta-percha, and wholly unprotected. The shore ends had an
iron sheathing, extending to a distance of ten miles from Varna, and of six
miles from the Crimea. Its insulation was perfect; and it remained unin-
jured for twelve months, during the time of the Russian war, notwithstand-
ing the many violent storms to which it was exposed in the Black Sea, until,
during a storm of more than usual severity, it was broken on the 5th of De-
cember, 1855.

With reference to the best form for a submarine cable, it had been proved
that, when great depths had to be traversed, one of light specific gravity was
to be preferred. The conductor, which constituted the weight to be carried,
should, therefore, be as light as possible ; and, to insure its continuity, it
should be relieved from strain by the external coating. The conductor,
when of copper, had a specific gravity of 11, the gutta-percha insulator was
nearly equal in weight to sea-water, and the iron external covering had a
specific gravity of 7. Probably, aluminium might be substituted for copper

120 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

in deep sea cables, with advantage, as it was nearly equal in conducting
power, and was only one-third of the weight. The outer covering should be
of hard material, so as to resist the longitudinal strain during the process of
submerging; but it should add as little as possible to the weight. It was
considered that no material fulfilled these conditions as well as soft steel.

It had been found that the light and heat of the sun, the mycellium of a fun-
gus, and other substances and conditions, had the power of rendering gutta-
percha unfit for the insulation required for the transmission of messages by
means of electricity. Several specimens of gutta-percha, in a decayed state,
were exhibited; and also a piece of copper wire, five feet in length, covered
with gutta-percha, which was strained until it broke ; when the gutta-percha,
owing to its partial elasticity, contracted, and left seven inches of copper wire
uncovei-ed. A newly-made tube of gutta-percha, under a strain of 276 Ibs.,
stretched from 14 inches to 24 inches before breaking; but a similar tube,
which had been exposed for about five years to the atmosphere, light, and
heat of the sun, was so brittle as to be easily broken by the hand.

The London Builder publishes the following curious item of information
bearing on the subject of the duration of submarine telegraph cables :

" On examining a piece of submarine cable cut from the end of the La
Manche line, long in use, there were noticed an indefinite series of ruptures
or subdivisions, as if the wire had been chopped into morsels, or had been
disintegrated, under the influence of the electrical vibrations. Since, in the
case of the transatlantic cable, currents positive and negative alternately are
launched through it, such a disintegration of the wire must be expected to
come about even more rapidly. The fact itself is too mysterious to be dis-
cussed at present."

ON THE PRESENT STATE OF OUR KNOWLEDGE RESPECTING TER-
RESTRIAL MAGNETISM.

From the report of a joint committee appointed on the part of the Royal
Society and the British Association to consider the expediency of memorial-
izing Government to reneAv the system of magnetic observations formerly
carried on at various colonial and foreign stations, but now suspended, we
derive the following information respecting the results thus far obtained
from the accumulated observations made at the several observatories at St.
Helena, Toronto, Hobarton, and the Cape of Good Hope. In the first place,
the committee report, that the mean state of the several elements for each
of the stations, as reduced to a fixed epoch, has been obtained with a precis-
ion of which nothing previously done has afforded any example emulat-
ing, in this respect, the exactness of astronomical determinations, and com-
petent to serve as a fixed point of departure, to the latest ages ; and this for
each of the elements in question the dip, the declination, and the intensity
of the magnetic force.

Secondly, that at each station the rate of regular progressive secular
change, in all three of the elements above mentioned, has been ascertained,
with a degree of precision which contrasts strongly with the loose and inac-
curate determinations of former times.

Thirdly, that the laws of the diurnal, annual, and other periodic fluctua-
tions in the value of these elements, as exhibited at each station, have been
established in a manner and with a decision to which nothing hitherto exe-
cuted in any branch of science, astronomy excepted, is comparable; and
that the results embodied in the examination of these laws have laid open

AL PHILOSOPHY. 321

a view of magnetic action so singular, and so utterly unexpected, as to
amount to the creation of a new department of science, and a detection of a
completely novel system of physical relations ; for that, in the first place,
the systems of diurnal and annual magnetic changes have each been sepa-
rated into two perfectly distinct and physically independent systems, the
one, at any particular station, holding its course according to laws depend-
ing solely on the sun's hour-angle at the moment of observation, and his
meridian altitude at different seasons, the other, comprehending all those
movements which, under the name of magnetic storms, or " irregular dis-
turbances," have hitherto presented the perplexing aspect of phenomena
purely casual, capricious in amount and in the particular occasions of their
occurrence when regarded singly, has been shown, by these discussions, to
be subject in its totality to laws equally definite with the others, though
more dependent for their application on peculiarities of local situation. As
regards the first of these fluctuations, they find it demonstrated:

That the sun's regular action on the magnetism of the globe is determined
by a law of no small complexity and intricacy, but which, nevertheless, has
been traced with precision and certainty, and shown to be referable, in the
first place, and for one of its arbitrary coefficients, to the geographical situ-
ation of the place of observation with respect to a certain line or equator on
the earth's surface, which cannot yet be precisely traced for want of suffi-
ciently numerous stations (but which seems to approach to the line of least
intensity, and is very far from coinciding with the geographical equator), -
and in the next, and for its other influential cause, to the fact of the sun's
having north or south declination; so that the wnole diurnal change in any
one of the elements, and at any station, is made up of two portions, one of
which retains the same sign and a constant coefficient all the year round;
the other changes sign, and varies in the value of its coefficient with the
annual movement of the sun from one side of the equator to the other.

That, consequently, for a station on the magnetic equator (so defined), the
mean amount of diurnal change is nil, when taken over the whole year, but
that on any particular day of the year it has a determinate magnitude, which
passes through an annual periodicity, with opposite characters in opposite
seasons. And that for a station in middle latitudes the mean diurnal fluctu-
ation is not nil, but such as, during every part of the year, to exhibit an east-
erly deviation in the morning hours, and a westerly in the evening hours,
for stations north of the equator, and vice versa for those south of it ; but that
the amount of this deviation, or the amplitude of the diurnal fluctuation,
varies with the seasons, being exaggerated or partially counteracted by the
alternate conspiring and opposing influence of the sun's declination during
the summer and winter seasons.

As regards the irregular disturbances, though arbitrary and capricious in
extent, and in the moments when they may be expected, individually, this
does not pi-event their obeying, with great fidelity, the law of averages, when
grouped in masses, and treated separately from those of the former class.
So handled they are found to conform, in their average effect, at each of the
twenty-four hours of the day, and on each day of the year, to the very same
rules, as regards the sun's daily and annual movement, with one remarkable
point of difference, viz., that their hours of maxima and minima are not
identical with those of the regular class, but that each particular station has,
in this respect, its own peculiar hours, analogous to what is called the "estab-
lishment " of a port in the theory of the tides. And that, in consequence, the

1!

122 ANNUA... OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

suj . n of these two systems of diurnal fluctuation gives rise to a

series of compound variations analogous to the superposition of two undula-
tions having the same period, but different amplitudes, and different epochal
times. And that, by attending to this principle, many of the most complex
phenomena, such as that of a double maximum and minimum, with the
occurrence of a nightly as well as a daily movement, are explained in a sat-
isfactory manner.

The discussion of the observations already accumulated has further
brought into view, and, in the opinion of your committee fully established,
the existence of a very extraordinary periodicity in the extent of fluctuation
of all the magnetic elements, and in the amplitude and frequency of their
irregular movements especially, which connects them directly with the phys-
ical constitution of the sun, and with the periodical greater or less prevalence
of spots on its surface the maxima of the amount of fluctuation corres-
ponding to the maxima of the spots, and these again with those of the exhi-
bitions of the Aurora Borealis, which appears also to be subject to the same
law of periodicity ; a law which, as it does not agree with any of the other-
wise known solar, lunar, or planetary periods, may be considered as, so to
speak, personal to the sun itself. And thus we find ourselves landed in a
system of cosmical relations, in which both the sun and the earth, and prob-
ably the whole planetary system, are implicated.

That the sun acts in influencing the earth's magnetism, in some other
manner than by its heat, seems to be rendered very probable by several fea-
tures of this inquiry; and the idea of a direct magnetic influence exterior to
the earth, is corroborated by the discovery of a minute fluctuation in the
magnetic elements, having for its period not the solar but the lunar day,
and, therefore, directly traceable to the action of the moon. The detection
of this fluctuation by Mr. Kreil, from a discussion of the Prague observa-
tions, has been confirmed by the evidence afforded by those of our colonial
observatories, and appears to be placed beyond all question by the recent
deductions from the horizontal force and the declination extending over
three years of observation at the Cape of Good Hope, which General Sabine
has submitted for your committee's inspection, and in both which the fluc-
tuations in question emerge in a very satisfactory manner, and one calcu-
lated to give a high idea of the precision of which such determinations are
susceptible, when it is considered that the total amplitude of oscillation due
to this cause in the direction of the Cape needle is only about 16" of angle.

The committee also quote the following extract from a communication
addressed to them by Gen. Sabine, on the importance of continuing the sys-
tem of observations at the present time :

" Recent observations in North America, discussed in the proceedings of
the Royal Society for January the 7th, 1858, have made known that the gen-
eral movement of translation of the isoclinal and isogonic lines, which from
the earliest observations have been progressing from west to east, has within
a few years reached its extreme eastern oscillation, and that the movement
in the reverse direction has already commenced; we live, therefore, at an
epoch in the history of terrestrial magnetism, which, we have reason to
believe, will be regarded hereafter when theory shall have more advanced
as a highly important and critical epoch. The geographical position of
the maximum force in the northern hemisphere appears to have reached its
extreme easterly elongation, and from this time forth may be expected to
move for many years to come towards the meridian which it occupied in

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 123

Halley's time, accompanied by a corresponding change in the positions and
forms of the isodynamic, isoclinal, and isogonic lines in North America; a
careful determination of the absolute values and present secular change of
the three elements at this critical theoretical epoch, at stations situated on
either side of the American continent, and nearly in the geographical
latitude of the maximum of the force, would furnish, therefore, data for
posterity, of the value of which we may have a very inadequate appreciation
at present.

ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PHYSICAL THEORY OF TERRESTRIAL

MAGNETISM.

At the last meeting of the British Association, Mr. J. Drummond presented
a new theory of terrestrial magnetism, an outline of which he submitted to
the meeting for '57. (See Annual Scientific Discovery 1858, page 370. ) The
fundamental principles of this theory are as follows : Assuming the prevail-
ing idea regarding the early condition and present state of the globe, viz.,
that it has cooled down from a state of fluidity, and now consists of a solid
crust inclosing a molten nucleus the author assumed also that the sun,
moon, and other planetary bodies, must exert the same influence upon the
inclosed fluid which they exert upon the surface ocean in producing the
tides, that, consequently, a system of internal tides must be occasioned
simultaneously with the external tides. Further, accepting the theory of
Gauss, that the entire matter of the globe is magnetic, he concluded that
the passage of these internal waves must occasion corresponding changes
in the position of the needle; and, reasoning from these premises, he arrived
at the following conclusions in regard to the changes in position which the
needle ought to undergo, decimation needle at any station, resting on
the line of the magnetic meridian, ought, upon one of the internal waves
coming from the eastward, to make an excursion to meetjt ; as the crest of the
wave approaches the station of observation, the needle ought to return with
; t; and when it comes immediately beneath .he point of observation, the
needle ought to coincide - ain with the meridian. As the wave proceeds
westward, the needle ought to follow it, making a westerly excursion equal
o the easterly ; and as the wave passes further west, and its influence over
he needle thereby declines, the latter ought slowly to return again to the
meredian. Again, an inclination needle ought to begin slowly to dip as the
crest of the wave approaches the station of observation, reaching its maxi-
mum when the wave is immediately beneath it, and slowly rising to its
former position as the wave passes easterly; and the intensity, as indicated
by the oscillating needle, ought to increase as the crest of the wave ap-
proaches the station, reaching its maximum when it is immediately beneath
it, and decreasing gradually as the wave proceeds to the westward, the max-
imum of intensity thus coinciding with the maximum of inclination. The
results of observation, Mr. Drummond stated, harmonize completely Avith
the conditions of the theory.

INFLUENCE OF MAGNETISM OVER CHEMICAL ACTION.

The following inquiry, by Mr. H. F. Baxter, originated in an endeavor to
ascertain whether Magnetism possessed any influence over Organic Forces ;
and the kind of experiments that were undertaken for the purpose of solving
this question, was that of submitting seeds during vegetation to the influence
of magnetism. These experiments, however, having failed to give anv

J~* ANNUAL OI? SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

definite or decided result, Mr. Baxter was ultimately, and perhaps naturally,
led to ask the question Dots magnetism possess any influence over chemical
action ? The solution of this question appeared to be almost a necessary
preliminary step to the continuation of Mr. Baxter's original inquiry.

The author's investigations will be found detailed in the Edinburgh New
Philosophical Journal, No. 10. The following are the general conclusions
deduced from his investigations :

1. Thai Magnetism (in its static or quiescent condition), does not excite or
originate chemical action.

2. That when substances undergoing chemical action are submitted to the
'influence of magnetism (in its static or quiescent condition) no increase in the
chemical action is observed; but that,

3. Under certain conditions during chemical action, the influence of mag-
netism is such as to indicate a directive influence over chemical action; this
influence being shown by a rotatory motion of the fluid around the pole of the
magnet.

4. That it is not necessary for the production of this rotatory motion that the
solution should act chemically upon the iron bar forming the pole; for, if the
pole be surrounded by a metal ring, the rotation occurs, provided the solution
is capable of acting chemically upon this metal ring.

5. That the influence of the magnet, as well as the existence of the chemical
action, and its continuation, are essential for the production of this rotation;
and,

6. That the direction of the rotation is dependent upon thepo/es of the mag-
net, being contrary for each pole,

DOES MAGNETISM INFLUENCE VEGETATION?

Mr. H. F. Baxter states that the results of his inquiry into this subject are
negative : that is, no positive evidence has been obtained to show that Magne-
tism either docs or does not influence vegetation. After noticing the opinions
of Bccquerel, Dutrochct, and Wartmann, the author says: "As it may be
considered a law in vegetable physiology that all plants have a tendency,
during the germination of their seeds, to develop in two diametrically oppo-
site directions (the root and the stem), the question arose Might not this
direction be influenced or counteracted by submitting the seeds whilst germi-
nating to the influence of magnetic force? " Accordingly, a series of exper-
iments were undertaken by the author, which are classed under two principal
heads : 1st, Those in which the line of magnetic force was directed perpen-
dicularly to the plants; and 2d, In which the line of force was directed
transversely to the plants. The author gave details of the experiments,
which were varied and multiplied. Xo definite conclusions, however, could
be drawn from them relative to the effects of magnetism. Proceedings of the
Botanical Society of Edinburgh.

MAGNETIC DISCREPANCIES.

At Point Barrow, the ultima thule or north cape of the American continent,
between Mackenzie's River and Behring's Straits, the British relief ship
Plover waited for Sir John Franklin waited and hoped for two long years,
from the summer of 18-32 to the summer of 18-31, Avhen hope failed, and
her crew came home. During those two long, dreary, solid winter nights,

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 125

Capt. Maguire and his officers amused themselves with observing and
recording for seventeen months unremittingly the hourly variations of the
needle and the shifting scenery of the Aurora. Their observatory was the
sand of the shore with a dome of ice slabs lined with seal-skin fur. Their
instruments had come from Woolwich; their observations were as skilful
and exact as those of their fellow officers at Toronto, and their results have
been reduced, under the eye of the same master-mind in London, Major-
General Sabine, the highest authority living in this particular branch of
science. To the astonishment of all, these observations at Point Barrow
have turned out to be in some respects the direct reverse of those at Toronto.
While the regular solar declination of the needle follows the same law, the
needle bending furthest to the east and west at the same hours of the day at
both places, the disturbance diurnal variation at the one is just the opposite
of what it is at the other the west of one agrees with the east of the other,
and the east of the one with the west of the other, a difference the more
remarkable, since, at both places, there can be no doubt that the sun's heat is
the cause of the disturbance of the needle. At the same time the auroral
exhibitions keep time with the magnetic disturbances. Out of one thousand
seven hundred and eighty-eight hourly observations in three months of
1 8-3:2-53, four hundred and sixty-one showed an aurora; and out of one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven in the corresponding quarter of
the following year, six hundred and sixteen exhibitions of the aurora took
place. Six days out of seven, during these six months of night, the auroral
light replaced the sun light. For the first time, then, in the annals of me-
teorological science, the apparitions of this polar spectre have been studied
steadily and long enough to fix them to the different hours of the solar day,
and it is found that not a single record of their appearance was made
between eleven o'clock in the morning and three in the afternoon, whereas
one hundred and two are recorded at one o'clock at night. From this, their
favorite hour, their visits regularly decrease in number until midday, and
increase as regularly through all the evening hours up to midnight. But
this beautiful cycle of illumination for those polar wastes leaves us in total
darkness as to its hidden cause. And, to make perplexing conjectures more
perplexed, there seems to be a law of agreement between the frequency of
the auroras and the disturbances of the needle toward the west, but not
toward the east.

ON THE INTENSITY OF THE TERRESTRIAL MAGNETIC FORCE.

Mr. J. Drummond, in a communication to the British Association, 18;3S,
stated that, in comparing the observations of dip with those of intensity h-
had found some anomalous results, of which the following is an example
In the diurnal variation the dip is at a minimum about 8 A. M., at a maximum
about 11 A. M., after which it decreases to a minimum again about 2 p. M.
Turning now to the intensity, the maximum is found to occur about 8 A. M.,
and the minimum about 11 A. M., after which it again increases, reaching a
maximum in the afternoon. From these facts, then, it would appear that,
while the earth exerts a greater attracting power over the needle about 11 A. M.,
than either before that hour or after it, the intensity of the force by which
this is accomplished is then at its minimum. In other words, we are driven
to the conclusion, that the earth exerts a greater attracting power by a mini-
mum of force than by a maximum, a conclusion entirely at variance with

11*

126 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

all our knowledge of the magnetic force. This anomalous result the author
traced to the assumption laying at the foundation of the present theory of
the intensity, viz., that the terrestrial force is exerted in the direction of the
dip; and from an analysis of the phenomena of the dip he arrived at the
following la\vs : 1. That the true direction in which the earth's force is ex-
erted is in the radial line of its centre, at least so within certain limits, the
earth being a spheroid and not a sphere. 2. That the force being at all
points upon the earth's surface exerted in the radial line of its centre, and
the vibrations of a horizontal needle being therefore, at all stations, made at
right angles to the direction of the force, their number at an}* two or more
stations in similar times, or at different periods in similar times, indicates
exactly the ratio of the force at each station and at each period.

ON FLUORESCENCE PRODUCED BY THE AURORA.

Mr. T. R. Robinson, of Armagh, in a letter to the Phil. Magazine, writes as
follows : On the occasion of an aurora of more than average brightness, on
the 14th of March, 18-38, I availed myself of the opportunity to try whether
this light was rich in those highly refrangible rays which produce fluorescence,
and which are so abundant in the light of the electric discharges ; and I
found it to be so. A drop of desulphate of quinine on a porcelain tablet
seemed like a luminous patch on a faint ground; and crystals of platino-
cyanide of potassium were so bright, that the label on the tube which con-
tained them (and which by lamplight could not be distinguished from the
salt at a little distance) seemed almost black by contrast. These effects were
so strong, in relation to the actual intensity of the light, that they appear to
afford an additional evidence of the electric origin of the phenomenon.

RELATIONS OF MATTER AND FORCE.

The late Dr. Samuel Brown, of Edinburgh, whose scientific essays have
recently been published, was one of the boldest and most original thinkers
among the scientists of the present century. His speculations concerning
ultimate connection of matter and force, as embodied in the following para-
graph, are especially worthy of notice.

" A particle," he says, " is a molecular nucleus, surrounded by five polar
spheres of force; the first, that of repulsion, which is never overpassed in the
chemical, any more than the first repulsive sphere of the sun is in the astro-
nomical, operations of nature ; the second, that of proper chemical affinity ;
the third, that of repulsion, which hinders the compression of a solid body
by surrounding forces; the fourth, the attractive sphere . of solidiformity; and
the fifth, the repulsive sphere of gasiformity. It is called a molecular nucleus
to distinguish from both the point of infinite repulsion defined by Boscovich,
and the solid nucleus of Newton, and to indicate that the chemist has no more
to do with what is within his ultimate atoms than the astronomer with what
is within his stars. Nor is it meant that there are no more than five spheres of
force ; but only that the chemical atomician, contemplating matter under the
conditions of gasiformity, liquidity, solidity, and chemical combination, has
to consider these five alone. A particle of hydrogen, revolving like a planet
round oxygen on their outermost spheres of repulsion, produces the smallest
mass of these gases diffused by Dalton's law in the ratio of particle to par-
ticle; revolving round oxygen on the second outermost spheres of repulsion,
they should produce the smallest mass of an analogous solidiform substance,

-AL PHILOSOPHY. 127

which, however, cannot exist, inasmuch as if the mutual repulsion of oxygen
to oxygen, and hydrogen to hydrogen, in contiguous molecules, couM be so
far constrained as to admit of such composition, there were no opponent
force to hinder their compression into the more intimate union of chemical
combination. And, lastly, a particle of hydrogen revolving round an oxy-
gen on their third outermost (i. e. innermost) spheres of repulsion, produces a
particle of the compound water."

Speaking of Sir Isaac Newton's theory of chemistry, founded on some
fact > in astronomy, Dr. Brown says :

" The master of astronomy and the creator of optics, he does not appear to
have done anything for concrete chemistry, his laboratory notwithstanding;
always saving and excepting his conjecture that the diamond was combusti-
ble because it is a strong refractor a prosperous guess which it is customary
to extol as sagacious, in spite of the notorious fact that there are stronger
refractors than that crystalline carbon, which are not combustible a whit. Irs
combustibility has no connection with its refractive power, in fact; and,
though the hypothesis was not atrociously inconsequent when it was made,
it is as ridiculous as illogical to admire it now. It was just one of those
countless little strokes of fortune which are constantly befalling the man of
genius and industry. In the game of discover}^, long and difficult though it
is, Nature always gives her darling loaded dice, because she will have him
win the day. But Isaac Newton has almost become the mythical man or
demigod of British science, owing partly to the assault of Voltaire, partly
to the lofty rhymes of Thomson, partly to the clangorous eloquence of Chal-
mers, yet chiefly, and all but entirely, to the overwhelming conceptions with
which his very name amazes the mind; and one of the consequences is, that
all sorts of trumpery stories about falling apples, as well as every kind of
encomium, may be heaped with impunity on the Atlantean shoulders of ' the
incomparable Mr. Newton,' now that the shade is divinized. If nil nisi bomnn
is to be "written on the tomb of the vulgar dead, after all, what shall men
not say or sing, if so please their uncrowned majesties, at the shrines of the
immortals ! "

LIGHT AXD ELECTRICITY.

The evidences connecting electricity and magnetism, as forces, with the
sun, and other bodies of our system, are, of course, different and inferior to
those which establish the relations of light. Yet they are now continually
becoming more numerous and significant. Whoever has seen the star of pure
and intense light which bursts forth on the approach of the charcoal points
completing the circuit of a voltaic battery, or the flood of light thence poured
by reflection over wide and distant spaces, cannot but suspect that the new
"fountain" thus opened to the eyes of men (and certainly not destined to
remain an idle and valueless gift of science) may be the same in source and
qualities as that higher fountain which diffuses light and heat over the whole
planetary system. Sir J. Herschel, who ever makes his highest speculations
subordinate to cautious induction, has assigned strong reasons for believing
the sun to be in a permanently excited electrical state. Meanwhile the moon
also has been found, by delicate observations and averages carefully collected^
to exercise a magnetic influence on the earth, the needle expressing to hu-
man eye certain small variations which strictly correspond with the lunar
hour angle. The fact has its peculiar interest in indicating, and this not

128 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

vaguely, a similar influence throughout the whole planetary system, and
possibly far beyond. The magnetic conditions and changes of the earth
itself come into direct testimony here; so general and strictly coincident over
its surface, as to give us assurance that the total globe is in a definite mag-
netic state; and capable, through this state, of affecting other worlds, as
well as the little needle which man makes his index here of this mysterious
force. Edinburgh Review.

ON THE NATURE OF FLAME AND THE CONDITION OF THE SUN'S

SURFACE.

The following paper, on the above subject, by Professor John W. Draper,
is published in the L. E. & D. Phil. Magazine, Vol. XV., page 90:

Among the recent publications on photo-chemistry, there is one by Pro-
fessor Dove, on the Electric Light (Phil. Mag., Nov., 1857), which will doubt-
less attract the attention of those interested in that branch of science. Ex-
amination by the prism, and by absorbing and reflecting colored bodies,
leads him to the conclusion that it is necessary to consider the luminous ap-
pearance as having twodistict sources: First, the ignition or incandescence
of the material particles bodily passing in the course of the discharge ; sec-
ondly, the proper electrical light itself. As respects the first, he illustrates
its method of increase from low to high temperatures by supposing a
screen to be withdrawn from the red end of the spectrum through the col-
ored spaces successively towards the violet; and that of the latter from the
bluish brush to the bright Leyden sparks, by a like screen drawn from the
violet towards the red.

The true electric light exhibits properties resembling those observed in
actual combustions, as though there was an oxidation of a portion of the
translated matter when the spark is taken in air. The order of evolution of
rays in this instance happens to be the same as in the second illustration of
Professor Dove, that is, from the violet to the red. There are certain facts
connected with these appearances of color which are not generally known,
and deserve to be pointed out,

In the Philosophical Magazine (February, 1848), I showed, experimentally,
that there is a relation between the color of a flame and the energy with
which the combustion giving rise to it is going on. The more vigorous and
complete the combustion, the higher the refrangibility of the light. A flame
burning in its most tardy and restricted way emits rays that are red; but
burning in its most complete and effective manner, rays that are violet. In
intermediate states of combustion, the intermediate colors are evolved in
their proper order of refrangibility.

The flame of a candle or lamp consists of a series of concentric luminous
shells, surrounding a central dark core. These shells shine with different
colors, the innermost one immediately in contact with the dark core being
red, and having a temperature of 977 F. Upon this, in their proper order
of refrangibility, are shells, the light of which is orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo, violet. When we look upon such a flame, the rays issuing from all
the colored strata are received by the eye at once, and impress us with the
sensation of white light.

The differently colored shells, of which a flame thus consists, may be
easily parted out from one another, and demonstrated by a prism. Their
cause is the slower rate at which combustion occurs at points more and more

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 129

towards the interior. On the outside, which we may say is in contact with
the air, the combustion is most vigorous and complete, and hence the light
there emitted is violet; but in the most interior portion of the shining shell,
resting upon the dark combustible matter, the atmospheric air can hardly
penetrate, or, rather, its oxygen is exhausted and consumed. Between the
exterior and interior surface, the burning is going on with an activity con-
stantly declining, because the interpenetration or supply of oxygen is gradu-
ally less and less.

But, besides this collection of colored shells, constituting what may be
termed the actual flame, there is another region exterior thereto, and to be
distinguished both in its chemical nature and in its optical relations. Chem-
ically, it consists of the products of combustion and of the unburnt residue
of the air, that is to say, carbonic acid, steam, and nitrogen. These are all
the time escaping out of the true flame, and envelop it as an exterior cone
or cloak. Optically, this portion diifers from the true flame in the circum-
stance, that it is shining as an incandescent, ignited, but not a burning body.
For physiological reasons, into the detail of which it is not necessary here
to go, the tint of this exterior cloak seems to be a monochromatic 3~ellow.
That, however, is, to a considerable degree, a deception; prismatic examina-
tion proving that all the other colors are present, and that the yellow merely
exceeds the rest in force and intensity.

A flame thus far may be considered as offering three regions : First, a
central nucleus which is not luminous, and consists of combustible vapor;
secondly, an intermediate portion, the true flame, arising from the reaction
of the air and the combustible vapor, and being composed of a succession of
superposed shells, the interior being red, the exterior violet, and the inter-
vening ones colored in the proper order of refrangibility; the cause of this
difference of color being the declining activity with which the combustion
goes on deeper and deeper in the flame. As to temperature, the inner
red shell cannot be less than 977 F., and the exterior violet one probably
more than 2300 3 F. Thirdly, an envelop consisting of the products of com-
bustion, exterior to the true flame, shining simply as an incandescent body,
and its light for the most part overpowered by the brighter portion within.

By the aid of the facts thus presented, we can easily explain the nature
of the other regional divisions, distinguishable in such a flame. There must
be a blue portion below; blue, because it consists of the most refrangible
rays, which issue forth in abundance, for there the exterior air is most copi-
ously and perfectly applied. At the upper end of the flame, particularly if
the wick be long and the supply of combustible matter abundant, the light
emitted is red ; for the products of combustion ascending past that part, make
it difficult for the exterior air to get access.

Upon these principles we may also predict what color a flame will have
when we vary the circumstances of its burning. Tallow or wax, at temper-
atures greatly beneath their usually understood point of combustion, oxidize
with a pale violet phosphorescent light, quite perceptible, nevertheless, i-n a
dark room; and here the light is violet, for the supply of combustible mat-
ter is small, and that of the air abundant. The oxidation is therefore thoi'-
ough and prompt. For a like reason, sulphur, as we commonly see, burns
blue; but if a piece of it is thrown into nitrate of potash ignited in a cruci-
ble, the light yielded is of intolerable brilliancy, and absolutely white. Its
Avhiteness does not depend upon the physiological fact, that any color, if
it be intensely brilliant, will seem white to the eye; but it is optically white,

130 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

as is proved by prismatic examination, when all the colors are perceptible.
And the reason of this is, that at the high temperature to which the sulphur
is exposed, it volatilizes faster than the nitrate of potash and air together can
oxidize it, and offers every intermediate rate of combustion, and emits rays
of every refrangibility.

In like manner it may be shown that carbonic oxide must burn with a blue
flame, and cyanogen with a red. "We can also foresee what must be the
optical result of resorting to unusual methods of combustion, as when we
throw into the interior of a flame a jet of air from a blowpipe. In this case
we destroy the red and orange strata, replacing them by bluer colors. Ex-
amining such a blowpipe cone by the prism, we have a beautiful demonstra-
tion that such has actually taken place.

There is one of these special cases which deserves attentive consideration
in connection with the appearance of the electric light ; it is the production
of Fraunhoferian lines, when things have been arranged in such a way that
an incombustible material is present in the substance to be burnt. This
state is perfectly represented in the case of cyanogen, which contains more
than half its weight of incombustible nitrogen. When the peach-colored
nucleus of the cyanogen flame is properly examined, it yields a series of
dark lines and spaces exceeding in number and strength those of the sun-
light itself. These fixed lines are the representatives of dark shells, super-
posed among the shining ones with definite periodicity. In such a cyanogen
flame they bear no relation to the burning of the carbon, but must be attrib-
uted to the disengagement of the nitrogen.

In other cases dark lines are replaced by bright ones, as in the well-known
instance of the electric spark between metallic surfaces. The occurrence of
lines, whether bright or dark, is hence connected with the chemical nature
of the substance producing the flame. For this reason they merit a much
more critical examination than has yet been given them; for by their aid we
may be able to ascertain points of great interest in other departments of
science. Thus, if we are ever able to acquire certain knowledge respecting
the physical state of the sun and other stars, it will be by an examination
of the light they emit. Even at present, by the aid of the few facts before
us, we can see our way pretty clearly to certain conclusions respecting the
sun. For, since substances which are incandescent, or in the ignited state
through the accumulation of heat in them, show no fixed lines, their pris-
matic spectrum being uninterrupted from end to end, it would appear to
follow that the luminous condition of our sun, whose light contains fixed
lines, cannot be referred to such incandescence or ignition. At various times
those who have studied this subject have offered different hypotheses; one
regarding the sun as a solid or perhaps liquid mass in a condition of igni-
tion; another considering the light to be electrical; a third supposing it to be
the seat of a fierce combustion. Of such hypotheses we have given reason
for declining the first. Prismatic analysis, which demonstrates no resem-
blance between the light of the sun and that of any form of electric dis-
charges with which we are familiar, enables us in like manner to reject the
second ; and upon the whole, facts seem most strongly to prepossess us in
favor of the third, in artificial combustions similar fixed lines being observed.
If such is to be regarded as the physical condition of the sun, we can no
longer contemplate it as an immense mass, slowly and tranquilly cooling in
the lapse of countless centuries by radiation into space, as so many consider-
ations drawn from other branches of science have hitherto led us to suppose;

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 131

but it must be regarded as the seat of chemical changes going on upon a,
prodigious scale, and with inconceivable energy. If the law designated
above, that the more enei'getically the chemical action in combustion the
more refrangible the emitted light, be translated into the conceptions of the
nndulatory theory, it not only puts us in possession of a distinct idea of the
manner in which the combustive union of bodies is accomplished, the quick-
ness of vibration increasing with the chemical energy, but it also enables us
to transfer for the use of chemistry some of the most interesting numerical
determinations of optics.

OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF PHOSPHORUS.

At the last meeting of the British Association, Dr. Gladstone read a com-
munication from himself and Rev. T. Dale, on some optical properties of
phosphorus. He said that phosphorus was known to be highly refractive and
disfusive. Its refractive index had been determined at 2' 12-5 or 2*224, a num-
ber scarcely exceeded by that of diamond or chromate of lead. This determi-
nation was made without reference to temperature, and was that part of the
spectrum measured indicated. Then* own experiments produced numbers
which showed not merely a very high refractive power, but an amount of dis-
fusion unknown in any other substance. The disfusive power was nearly twice
that of bi-sulphide of carbon, and largely exceeded that of even oil of cas-
sia; its only rival was that assigned to chromate of lead, but some doubt
seemed to rest on that determination. The determinations of the disfusion
of phosphorus, made by persons experimenting, had indicated an amount
scarcely exceeding that of bi-sulphate of carbon ; but a difficulty attending
the examination of phosphorus would sufficiently explain this. Phosphorus
in a liquid condition had apparently never been examined, as difficulties had
arisen from its inflammability, and from the action on cement. An exami-
nation of the properties of liquid phosphorus showed a considerable dimi-
nution of both the refractive and the disfusive power, it not being in direct
ratio with the diminution of density. Liquid phosphorus exhibits a greater
amount of sensitiveness than had been observed in any other substance,
and it was evidently greater at the high than at the low temperatures. The
effect of temperature on disfusion could not be accurately determined. A
saturated solution of phosphorus in bi-sulphide of carbon was almost as
refractive and disfusive as melted phosphorus itself. There was a certain
want of clearness in phosphorus which prevented the lines being distin-
guished without great difficulty, which did not arise from any opacity, or
from the crystalline character of solid phosphorus, or from unmelted pieces
floating about; for it occurred in a solution of bi-sulphide of carbon. The
addition of phosphorus to bi-sulphide of carbon rendered the spectrum seen
through it misty, according to the amount of phosphorus. This was not
due to the great refraction, or the great disfusion, or the great sensitiveness,
though this had undoubtedly something to do with it. To what was this
due? Different specimens of phosphorus differ widely in respect to this
property, and it was perhaps connected with some want of homogeneity in
the substance. The phosphorus experimented on was generally colorless.
It was a curious circumstance that yellow phosphorus cuts off the extreme
red ray this being the opposite of what yellow bodies usually did, and was
remarkable also in connection with the red modification of phosphorus.

132 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

RESEARCHES ON THE INDICES OF REFRACTION.

Jamin has undertaken to determine the refracting power of water when
compressed or when reduced to vapor. The experiments were executed by
means of the author's very beautiful apparatus for interferences, described in
the 42d volume of the Comptes Rendus. The water examined was enclosed
in two parallel tubes, one of which was open, while the other was subject to
variable pressure. At every change of pressure the fringes underwent a dis-
placement, which was measured, and from which the variations in the refract-
ing power of the liquid could be calculated. To avoid the error arising from
the increase in the length of the compressed column, the two tubes were
plunged into a trough full of water, so that the interfering rays traversed
the length of the tubes and the spaces separating their extremities from the
sides of the trough. If one of the tubes changes its length by a small quan-
tity, the external space diminishes by the same quantity, and thus the effect
of the dilatation is sensibly destroyed. The author finds that with this
apparatus one millimetre of pressure, more or less, produces an interval of
Y* - y- of a fringe, which is easily observed : for an entire atmosphere there
is a displacement of 28 fringes. The sensibility of the apparatus could be
still more increased by giving the tubes a greater length than that of one
metre which was employed. The author found that, in all his experiments,
the difference of path produced by pressure was sensibly proportional to the
pressure; so that if we calculate the compressibility of water from the opti-
cal experiments, we find the coefficient to be 0*0000500 for common distilled
water, and O'OOOOoll for water deprived of air. According to the direct
measures of Grassi, this coefficient is O'OOOOoOl. Jamin has also measured
with the same instrument the index of refraction for the vapor of water.
Two tubes Avere employed 4 metres in length: one of these was filled with
perfectly dry air; the other with air charged with a known proportion of the
vapor of water. The difference in the refractive powers could then be ob-
served by the change produced in the fringes. There was generally a differ-
ence of 8 fringes between dry and saturated air. More than fifty measure-
ments made under very different circumstances of temperature, pressure,
and hygrometric condition, agreed in assigning to the refractive power of
vapor at and 7HO mi " the value 0' 000-321. The author finds farther that
the diminution in the index of refraction of air by saturation with vapor

would only affect the seventh decimal of the number 1 '000202 found

for that index, and that, consequently, in astronomical refractions, it is useless
to trouble oneself about the vapor of Avater. Comptes Rendus, xlv. 892.

NOTES ON THE SCINTILLATION OF STARS.

The following is an abstract from a paper recently read before the Royal
Astronomical Society, England, by Prof. Dufour:

Down to the year 18-32 no person, as far as I am aware, had undertaken
a serious of regular observations on the scintillation of the stars. Struck
with the difference Avhich the phenomenon presented from night to night, I
commenced in that year to observe it assiduously. At first it occurred to
me merely to make it a subject of meteorological inquiry; but I soon found
that the question was more complicated than I originally supposed it to be,
and that in any case, before entering upon its discussion, it would be ncces-
sarv to collect together a mass of observations extending over a considerable

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 133

period of time. This object I have actually accomplished. I have now
more than 20,000 observations, and the number is daily increasing. I have
commenced the calculations and reductions, relative to meteorological re-
searches, but much yet remains to be done before bringing them to a close.
However, as Arago has well remarked, in scientific inquiries, what had not
been foreseen has most frequently the lion's share. Although at first I had
not the remotest idea of studying the phenomenon of scintillation for its own
sake, still I have been led, by the force of circumstances, to consider the
subject; and in the course of last year I succeeded in establishing the follow-
ing propositions, which I have developed in a memoir published in the
" Bulletin de la Societe Vaudois des Sciences Naturelles:" 1. The scintilla-
tion of one star differs from the scintillation of another star, and in general
red stars scintillate less than white stars. 2. Except in the case of stars near
the horizon, the scintillation is very nearly proportional to the product ob-
tained by multiplying the astronomical refraction of the star by the thick-
ness of the aerial stratum traversed by the rays of light emanating from the
star. By adopting the theory of scintillation proposed by M. Arago, who
was of opinion that the phenomenon depends entirely upon the principle
of the interference of light, I have assigned an explanation of the first of
these facts, namely, that red stars scintillate less than white stars. Professor
Montigny, of Antwerp, who has devoted much attention to the theory of
scintillation, has adduced another explanation of the fact, which he conceiA'es
to be established by my observations. He supposes that a ray of homoge-
neous light like redlight, for example is less dispersed by astronomical
refraction, so that the pencil of light from a red star reaches the eye in a
less expanded state, so to speak, than a pencil of white light, and is, conse-
quently, liable to be partially turned aside or modified by atmospheric dis-
turbances. Hence, according to the theory of M. Montigny, the scintillation
of stars, whose light is homogeneous, ought to be more feeble than that of
white stars. I do not wish to pronounce an opinion here between the theory
of M. Montigny and that which I have proposed. However, it is not difficult
to see that the study of the scintillation of the stars may give rise to ques-
tions of great importance in regard both to optical and meteorological
science. Now, witli a view to this object, it would be interesting to study
the phenomenon in different climates and at different altitudes. Accord-
ingly, in the year 1856, 1 spent some time at the Hospice of Great St. Ber-
nard, at an altitude of 2475 metres, in order to make observations on the
phenomenon of scintillation, and I found it to be much less intense than on
the plains. Since that time Mahmoud Effendi, Director of the Observatory
of Cairo, has also resolved to undertake the study of this phenomenon at the
Observatory confined to his charge. He has announced to me that he will
shortly visit me at Morges, France, to confer with me on the subject, and
that he will then return to Egypt and commence his observations.

The following are some of the points upon which I conceive it would be
important to call the attention of observers: 1. The observation on each
evening of the progress of scintillation, according as the stars are ascending
or descending with respect to the horizon. Do the stars scintillate at all
altitudes ? Is there any altitude at which it ceases to manifest itself ? At
Morges the stars in general scintillate at all altitudes, although feebly near
the zenith; but on the nights when the scintillation is very faint, it ceases
completely at a zenith distance of 45. Is it so also on the peak of Teneriffe ?
2 Is there a very marked difference between the scintillation of one evening

12

134 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

and that of another? 3. Do the stars scintillate less feebly on the peak of
Teneriffe than when observed from the plains below, as in the case of Mount
St. Bernard? 4. It would be interesting to observe, upon ascending the
peak of Teneriffe, whether the stars Achernard and Canopus, which arc
invisible in our latitudes, scintillate more or less intensely than certain other
stars of comparable magnitude. I hope that you will be able to continue
the prosecution of the interesting observations which you have commenced;
and since for this expedition it is necessary to obtain the authorization of
the government, which must possess adequate materials for forming an
opinion beforehand of the importance of the expedition, you might suggest
the scintillation of the stars as an additional phenomenon to be observed at
that exceptional station. I was glad to learn that on the peak of Teneriffe
the stars appeared to scintillate faintly. This was exactly conformable to
the observations I made during my residence at St. Bernard, notwithstand-
ing that the altitude was much less considerable (only 2480 metres). It coin-
cides in every respect with the results at which I have arrived. I continue
to pursue my observations as formerly, and labor at their reduction ; but
when there are more than 20,000 observations to compute in various ways,
to combine by the hour, by the day, and according to certain meteorological
conditions, the labor is immense, and cannot certainly be accomplished in
less than several years. The explanation of the phenomenon of scintillation
proposed by M. Montigny appears to me admissible, and equally probable
with that offered by myself, according to which I attribute the faint scintilla-
tion of red stars in the circumstance that the red wave being the greatest
wave, it would less readily interfere, and, consequently, would with greater
difficulty be destroyed, or increase in intensity. Perhaps the only mode of
deciding between these two explanations would consist in observing the
scintillation of violet stars. If the theory of M. Montigny is correct, a violet
star, like a red star, ought to scintillate less feebly, because it is composed of
homogeneous light. If, on the other hand, my explanation of the phenome-
non is Avell founded, the violet star ought to scintillate more intensely than a
white star, because the violet wave is the smallest wave. Unfortunately,
there is no violet star sufficiently bright for such comparative observations.
Accordingly, at present, I do not wish to pronounce between the two expla-
nations, each of which appears to me to be possible. But precisely this
question and others suggested by the scintillation of the stars prove that
the study of the subject may possess a high degree of interest in several
respects.

INFLUENCE OF LIGHT ON THE RESPIRATION OF THE LOWER

ANIMALS.

M. Beclard, of France has recently made some curious experiments on
the Influence of Light on Animals and finds that those creatures which
breathe from the skin, and have neither lungs nor branchiae, undergo remark-
able modifications under different colored rays. He exposed the eggs of flics
(^fl<sca carnarvi] under bell-glasses of six different colors: little maggots
were hatched from all ; but those under the blue and violet rays were more
than a third larger than those under the green. Frogs, which by reason of
their naked skin, are very sensitive to light, give off half as much more car-
bonic acid in a given time under the green ray as under the red; but if the
frogs are skinned, and the experiment is repeated, the excess is then with

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 135

those under the red ray. Frogs placed in a dark chamber lose one-half less
of moisture by evaporation, than when placed in common daylight.

OX MOLECULAR IMPRESSIONS BY LIGHT AND ELECTRICITY.

The following is an abstract of a paper on the above subject recently read
before the Royal Institution, London, by Mr. Grove :

The term molecular is used in different senses by different authors. It is
used in the present connection to signify the particles of bodies smaller than
those having a sensible magnitude, or as a term of contradistinction from
masses. If there be any distinctive characteristic of the science of the pres-
ent century, as contrasted with that of former times, it is the progress made
in molecular physics, or the successive discoveries which have shown that
when ordinary ponderable matter is subjected to the action of what were
formerly called the imponderables, the matter is molecularly changed. The
remarkable relations existing between the physical structure of matter, and
its effect upon heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc., seem, until the present
century, to have attracted little attention: thus, to take the two agents
selected for this evening's discourse, Light and Electricity, how manifestly
their effects depend upon the molecular organization of the bodies subjected
to their influence. Carbon in the form of diamond transmits light but stops
electricity. Carbon in the form of coke or graphite, into which the diamond
may be transformed by heat, transmits electricity but stops light. Leonard
Euler alone conceived that light may be regarded as a movement or undula-
tion of ordinary matter; and Dr. Young, in answer, stated as a most formid-
able objection, that if this view were correct all bodies should possess the
properties of solar phosphorus, or should be thrown into a state of molecular
vibration by the impact of light, just as a resonant body is thrown into
vibration by the impact of sound, and thus give back to the sentient organ
an effect similar to that of the original impulse. In the last edition of his
"Essay on the Correlation of Physical Forces " (1855), Mr. Grove has made
the following remarks on this question: "To the main objection of Dr.
Young that all bodies would have the properties of solar phosphorus if light
consisted in the undulations of ordinary matter, it may be answered that so
many bodies have this property, and with so great variety in its duration,
that non constat all may not have it, though for a time so short that the eye
cannot detect its duration." The above conjecture has been substantially
verified by the recent experiments .of M. Xiepce de St. Victor, of which the
following is a short resume: An engraving which has been for some time
in the dark is exposed to sunlight as to one half, the other half being covered
by an opaque screen : it is then taken into a dark room, the screen removed,
and the whole surface placed in close proximity to a sheet of highly sensitive
photographic paper, the portion upon which the light has impinged is repro-
duced on the photographic paper, while no effect is produced by the portion
which had been screened from light : white bodies produce the greatest effect,
black little or none, and colors intermediate effects. Mr. Grove had little
doubt that had the discourse been given in the summer instead of mid-winter,
he could have literally realized in this theatre the Laputa problem of extract-
ing sunbeams from cucumbers ! While fishing in the grounds of M. Seguin,
at Fontenay, Mr. Grove observed some white patches on the skin of a trout,
which he was satisfied had not been there when the fish was taken out of the
water. The fish having been rolling about in some leaves at the foot of a

136 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT.

tree, gave him the notion that the effect might be photographic, arising from
the sunlight having darkened the uncovered, but not the covered portions of
the skin. With a fresh fish a serrated leaf was placed on each side, and the
fish laid down so that the one side should be exposed, the other sheltered
from light: after an hour or so the fish was examined, and a well-defined
image of the leaf was apparent on the upper or exposed side, but none on
the under or sheltered side. The number of substances proved to be molc-
cularly affected by light is so rapidly increasing, that it is by no means un-
reasonable to suppose that all bodies are in a greater or less degree changed
by its impact. Passing now to the molecular effects of electricity, every day
brings us fresh evidence of the molecular changes effected by this agent.
The electric discharge alters the constitution of many gases across which it is
passed; and it was shown that by passing it through an attenuated atmos-
phere of the vapors of phosphorus, this element is changed by the electric
discharge into its allotropic variety, which is deposited in notable quantity on
the sides of the receiver. In this experiment, the transverse bands or striae
discovered by Mr. Grove, in 1832, are very strikingly shown. The glow which
is seen on excited electrics, such as glass, was also shown by Mr. Grove to be
accompanied with molecular change. Letters cut in paper, and placed be-
tween two well-cleaned sheets of glass, then formed into a Leyden apparatus,
by sheets of tin-foil on their outer surfaces, and then electrified, by connec-
tion for a few seconds with a Ruhmkorf coil, had invisible images of the let-
ters impressed upon the interior surface, which were rendered visible by breath-
ing on them, and rendered visible, and at the same time permanently etched
by exposure, after electrization, to the vapor of hydrofluoric acid. So, again,
if iodized collodion be poured over the surface of glass having the invisible
image, and then treated as for a photograph, and exposed to uniform day-
light, the invisible image is developed in the collodion film, the invisible
molecular change being conveyed to the molecular film, and rendering it,
when nitrated, more sensitive to light in the parts where it has been in pi-ox-
imity to the electrical impression, than in the residual parts. Here we have
a molecular change, produced first by electricity on the glass, then commu-
nicated by the glass to the collodion, then changed in character by light, and
all this time invisible, and then rendered visible by the developing chemical
agent. Mr. Babbage had observed that some plates of glass which had
formed the ornamented margin of an old looking-glass, and were backed by
a design in gold-leaf covered with plaster of Paris, showed, when this back-
ing was removed by soft soap, an impression of the gold-leaf device, which
was rendered visible by the breath on the glass. Some of the plates had
been kindly lent by him for this evening; and in one, Mr. Grove had removed
a portion of the backing, and the continuation of the gilded design came
beautifully out by breathing on the glass while in the frame of the electric
lamp, and was projected (as were the previous electrical images) on a white
screen. Of the practical results to science of the molecular changes form-
ing the subject of this evening's lecture, a beautiful illustration was afforded
by the photographs of the moon by Mr. De la Rue, which afforded, by the
aid of the electric lamp, images of the moon, of six feet diameter, in which
the details of the moon's surface were well defined, the cone in Tycho, the
double cone in Copernicus, and even the ridge of Aristarchus, could be
detected. The bright lines, radiating from the mountains, were clear and
distinct. A photograph of the planet Jupiter was also shown, in which the
belts wei^e very well marked, and the satellites visible. The following question

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 137

was suggested by Mr. Grove. As telescopic power is known to be limited by
the area of the speculum or object-glass, even assuming perfect definition, as
the light decreases inversely as the square of the magnifying power, a limit
must be reached at which the minute details of an object become lost for want
of light. Now, assuming a high degree of perfection in astronomic photo-
graphs, these may be illuminated to an indefinite degree of brilliancy by ad-
ventitious light. With a given telescope, could a better effect be obtained, by
illuminating the photographic image, and applying microscopic power to
that, than by magnifying the luminous image in the usual way by the eye-
glass of the telescope ? Can the addition of extraneous light to the photo-
graph permit a higher magnifying power to be used with effect than that
which can be used to look at the image which makes the photographic im-
pression ? In other words, is the photographic eye more sensitive than the
living eye; or can a photographic recipient be found which will register im-
pressions which the living eye does not detect, but which, by increased light
or by developing agents, may be rendered visible to the living eye? The
phenomena treated of, which are a mere selection from a crowd of analogous
effects, shoAV that light and electricity, in numerous cases, produce a molec-
ular change in ponderable matter affected by them. The modifications of
the supposed imponderables themselves have long been the subjects of inves-
tigation ; the recent progress of science teaches us to look for the reciprocal
effects on the matter affected by them. Few, indeed, if any, electrical effects
have not been proved to be accompanied with molecular changes ; and AVC
are daily receiving additions to those produced by light. Mr. Grove feels
deeply convinced that a dynamic theory, one which regards the imponder-
ables as forces acting upon ordinary matters in different states of density,
and not as fluids or entities, is the truest conception which the mind can
form of these agents ; but to those who are not willing to go so far, the
ever-increasing number of instances of such molecular changes affords a
boundless field of promise for future investigation, for new physical discov-
eries, and new practical applications.

NIEPCE DE ST. VICTOR'S DISCOVERIES IN REGARD TO THE ACTION

OF LIGHT.

The following is a resume of the highly important discoveries recently
made by M. Xiepce de St. Victor, in regard to the action of light, as com-
municated by M. Chevreul to the French Academy.

The conditions now determined are that any body, after having been ex-
posed to light, retains in darkness some impression of this light. M. Nie'pce
remarks "The phosphorescence and the fluorescence of bodies are well
known, but I am not aware that any experiments have ever been made on
the subject which I am about to describe."

Expose to the direct rays of the sun, during a quarter of an hour at least,
an engraving which has been kept many days in obscurity, and of which
one-half has been covered by an opaque screen; then apply this engraving
upon a very sensitive photograph paper, and, after twenty-four hours' contact
in darkness, we shall obtain, in black, a reproduction of the white parts of
the engraving, which, in the process of insulation, has not been sheltered by
the screen.

If the engraving has been kept for many days in profound darkness, and
we then apply it upon sensitive paper, without having previously exposed it

12*

138 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

t

to light, it is not reproduced. Certain engravings which have been exposed
to light are reproduced better than others, according to the nature of the
paper; but all kinds of paper, even the filtering paper of Berzelius and the
papier de sole, with or without a photographic design, and others, are repro-
duced more or less perfectly after exposure to light. Wood, ivory, parch-
ment, and the living skin, are reproduced perfectly under the same circum-
stances ; but metals, glass, and enamels, are not reproduced. If an engraving
is exposed to the rays of the sun for a very long time, it is saturated with
light ; and the intensity of the impressions obtained by contact in darkness
is so great, that M. Niepce hopes to arrive at a process by which, operating
upon very sensitive papers as paper prepared with the iodide of silver, for
example, or upon the dry collodion or albumen tablets, and developing the
image with gallic or the pyrogallic acid to obtain proofs sufficiently vigor-
ous to form an original, from which impressions may be taken. A new
means for reproducing engravings will thus be secured.

Further results of M. Niepce's experiments are described by M. Chevreul
as follows :

If we interpose a plate of glass between the engraving and the sensitive
paper, the whites of the engraving are no longer impressed upon it. The
same interruption of the radiations takes place if we interpose a plate of
mica, or a plate of rock-crystal, or of yellow glass stained with the oxide of
uranium. We discover, further, that these substances arrest equally the
impression of the phosphorescent rays when placed directly in front of the
sensitive paper.

An engraving covered with a film of collodion or of gelatine, is reproduced ;
but an engraving covered with a layer of varnish or of gum, is not repro-
duced. An engraving placed at three millimetres' distance from the sensitive
paper, is very well reproduced ; and if the design is of a bold character, it
will be reproduced at the distance of a centimetre.* The impression is
not, then, the result of action of contact, or of chemical action. A colored
engraving of many colors is reproduced very unequally ; that is to say, the
colors imprint their image with different intensities, varying with their
chemical nature some producing an impression which is very visible,
whilst others scarcely tint the sensitive paper.

It is similar with characters printed with different inks. Printers' ink,
whether it be such as is used with type or for copper-plate printing, and the
ordinary writing ink, formed of a solution of nutgalls and sulphate of iron,
do not give images ; while certain " English inks give impressions sufficiently
sti-ong." Vitrified characters, traced upon a plate of varnished porcelain,
or covered with enamel, are imprinted upon the sensitive paper without the
porcelain itself leaving any trace of its presence ; but a porcelain not covered
with varnish or enamel, such as biscuit china or " la pate, de, kaolin," produces
a slight impression.

If, after having exposed an engraving to the light during one hour, we
apply it upon a white card which has remained in darkness during some
days, and if, after having left the engraving in contact with the card during
twenty-four hours at least, we put the card in, its turn in contact with a leaf of
sensitive paper, we shall have, after twenty-four hours of this new contact,
a reproduction of the engraving, a little less visible, it is true, than if the

*The millimetre is 0-03937 of an English inch. The centimetre is 0-39371 of an
English iiich.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 139

engraving had been applied direct!}' upon the sensitive paper, but yet
distinct.

When a tablet of black marble, lightly stre\vn with white spots, after
having been exposed to the light, is applied at once to a sensitive paper, the
white parts of the marble only are imprinted upon the paper. Under the
same conditions, a tablet of white chalk will produce a sensible impression,
while a tablet of charcoal Avill produce no such effect. When a black and
white feather has been exposed to the sun, and applied in darkness to a
sensitive surface, the white parts alone imprint their image. The feather
of a parrot red, green, blue, and black has gi\'en scarcely any impres-
sion, acting as if the feather had been black. Certain colors, however, have
left traces of a very feeble action.

Experiments have been made with textile fabrics of different natures and
of various colors. The following are a feAV of the results :

Cotton White impressed the sensitive paper.

" Brown (by madder and alumina). Nothing given.

Violet (by madder, alumina, and iron). Scarcely anything.

Red (by cochineal). Nothing.

Turkey Red (by madder and alum). Nothing.

Prussian Blue, upon white ground, is the blue which produces
the best impression.

Blue (by indigo). Nothing.

Chamois (by peroxide of iron). No impression.

Linen, silk, and woollen cloths giA'e equally different impressions, accord-
ing to the chemical nature of the colors.

M. Nie'pce calls particular attention to the following experiment, which is,
as he says, curious and important :

We take a tube of metal of tin-plate, for example, or of any other
opaque substance closed at one of its extremities, and cover the interior
with paper or AA'hite card ; the open end of the tube is exposed for about an
hour to the direct rays of the sun. Then apply this open end to a sheet of
sensitive paper, and preserA r e it in this state for twenty-four hours, when the
circumference of the tube will have designed its image. More than this. If
an engraving upon china paper is interposed between the tube and the sensitive
paper, we Jind the same reproduced. Reproduced, be it remembered, by the
radiations which have been absorbed and redeveloped from the interior of
the tube. " If we close the tube hermetically as soon as AVC cease to .expose
it to the light, we shall preserve, during an indefinite time, the faculty of
radiation, which the insulation has communicated, and we shall see that this
is manifested by the impression produced Avhen we apply the tube upon a
sensitive paper, after having removed the cover by which the tube AA'as
closed."

Xiepce then informs us that he has repeated upon images formed in the
camera-obscura similar experiments to those Avhich he has made with the
direct light. A piece of card which had been kept in darkness was placed
in the camera-obscura for about three hours, and on it was projected an
image brilliantly illuminated by the sun. Then the card was applied to sensitive
jjaper, and after twenty-four hours there was obtained a reproduction of the
primitive image of the camera-obscura. There must be a long exposure to
obtain an appreciable result.

It will be remembered that, some few years since, Professor Stokes drew

140 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

attention to some peculiar conditions of light, to which he gave the name of
fluorescence. M. Nie'pce has made several experiments with substances
which possess this peculiar property. A design was traced upon a sheet of
white paper with a solution of sulphate of quinine, one of the most fluores-
cent bodies; the paper was then exposed to the sun, and subsequently applied
to the sensitive paper. The fluorescent parts were reproduced in black,
much more intense than that of the paper upon which the design was
formed. A plate of glass interposed between the design and the sensitive
paper prevented any impression. A plate of glass, colored yellow by the
oxide of uranium, produced the same effect. If the design in sulphate of
quinine has not been exposed to light, nothing is produced upon the sensitive
paper. M. Niepce then tells us that a design traced with phosphorus upon
paper, will, without being exposed to light, impress very rapidly the sensitive
paper. This impression is, beyond all doubt, due to the formation of phos-
phide of silver it is a chemical change quite independent of the luminous
effect, and has nothing in common with the other phenomena. He says,
however, that the same effects are produced by fluate of lime, rendered
phosphorescent by heat.

Such arc the principal matters to which M. Niepce now directs attention;
and if his results are confirmed by further experiments, they must materially
change our views of luminous variations.

Addenda. The details of the method of reproducing engravings by means
of the vapor of phosphorus, alluded to above, are given as follows in the
Cosmos (Paris) :

The engraving to be copied is exposed to the vapors of phosphorus burn-
ing slowly in the air, the shadows only absorb the vapors ; a sheet of sensi-
tive paper prepared with chloride of silver is applied ; after a contact for a
quarter of an hour, the engraving is imprinted upon the paper with phos-
phuret of silver, which, when strong enough, resists the action of dilute
chemical agents. The best mode of operating, consists in placing the
engraving in a box in front of a sheet of pasteboard, covering one side of
the box, whose surface has been sufficiently rubbed with a stick of phos-
phorus. The pasteboard must be rerubbed for each operation; for if the
phosphorus is red, it produces no effect. A sheet of water of a centimetre
(0 - 4 inch) or more in thickness, does not stop the deposition or action of
the vapors of phosphorus. The action is exerted on the sensitive paper
even through india-paper; that is to say, that if an engraving on india-papcr
is laid upon a sheet of sensitive paper, and these placed together in the box
in face of the phosphorescent wall, a negative image of the engraving will
be obtained, as if the shadows had behaved like a screen, and the lights had
allowed the vapors to pass through and impress the sensitive paper. Only
if the exposure be too long prolonged, the shadows will also impress their
image, and this will even prevail over the ground. The vapor of sulphur
pi-oduces analogous effects, and gives an image or reproduction of the
engraving drawn in sulphuret of silver; but this image is not stable.

LUNAR AND STELLAR PHOTOGRAPHS.

At a recent meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mr. De la Rue
exhibited a great variety of beautiful photographs of the moon and Jupiter,
which, through the aid of a magnifying glass of moderate power, exhibited
a considerable amount of detail, not visible to the unassisted eye.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 141

While on the subject of lunar photography, Mr. De la Rue begged to direct
the attention of the Society to one or two points of physical interest, which
may be thus stated : points on the lunar surface having optically equal inten-
sity of light, do not produce equally brilliant positive and equally obscure
negative impressions ; the actinic rays are evidently not always in propor-
tion to the illuminating rays. Another curious fact, which he thought he
had well made out, is, that those portions of the lunar surface which are
illuminated by a very oblique ray from the sun, do not produce an equal
effect on the sensitive plate, though they are equally bright to the eye. Such
a phenomenon obtains during the afternoon in terrestrial photography, when
the sun's rays reach us obliquely through the atmosphere. The moon has
no visible atmosphere; nevertheless, from whatever cause it may arise, that
portion of the moon which is illuminated by an oblique ray, does not pro-
duce a corresponding effect on the sensitive plate which it does to the eye.

By paying particular attention to the state of the collodion film, he had
been very successful in reducing the time of exposure, and had produced
pictures, not only of the lunar surface, but also of Jupiter, in from three to
seven seconds. The photographs of Jupiter show his belts remarkably well.
The beauty of the photographs exhibited of the moon, he thought it would
be admitted, gave great promise that at a future period photography will be
considered as the only correct means of mapping down the lunar surface.
When we shall be able to obtain collodion finer in grain and still more sen-
sitive, it will supersede hand-drawing altogether; and even now the results
obtained are much more accurate than anything hitherto done by mapping
or hand-drawing. It is nearly impossible, by micrometrical measurement,
to lay down all the details of the moon, and much, after a sort of triangula-
tion, has to be filled up by the eye. The work is too laborious ; and the
famous map of Beer and Madlcr, wonderfully accurate as it is, does not
fulfil the conditions of absolute accuracy in all the minute points of detail.

The light proceeding from Jupiter possessed considerably more actinic
power than that of the moon, in proportion to its luminosity ; or, in other
words, although the light of the moon is at least twice as bright as that of
Jupiter, its actinic power would appear to be not greater than as from 6 to
5, or 6 to 4. It is not improbable that the blue tint of Jupiter may have
something to do with its photogenic power. It may also be stated, that the
darkest parts of Jupiter's surface came fully out by an exposure which did
not suffice to bring out those portions of the moon situated near the dark
limb, and consequently illuminated by a very oblique ray.

Mr. De la Rue also stated that he had compared the pBHogenic power of
Jupiter and Saturn, and that, on a recent occasion, he had turned the teles-
cope alternately on each of these two planets, and found that to produce
pictures of equal intensity, the sensitized plate had, on the average, to be
exposed five seconds to Jupiter and sixty seconds to Saturn. Hence the
chemical rays from Jupiter are twelve times more energetic than those from
Saturn an effect undoubtedly, in a great measure, attributable to the
greater brilliancy of the former planet.

OX THE ACTION OF LIGHT UPOX OXALATE OF THE PEROXIDE OF

IRON.

Professor J. W. Draper, in a paper on the measurement of the chemical
action of light, communicated to the London Philosophical Magazine,

142 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

notices particularly the action of light upon the oxalate of peroxide of iron.
The golden yellow solution of this salt undergoes no change when kept in
total darkness, but on exposure to a lamp or to daylight is decomposed with
evolution of carbonic acid and pecipitation of oxalate of the protoxide as a
lemon-yellow powder. In sunlight it effervesces violently. The indigo ray
is especially active in producing this effect, and undergoes absorption in
doing so, since a sunbeam which has passed through one layer of solution is
incapable of affecting another. The author points out several methods of
employing this salt in photometry, the most advantageous of which is to col-
lect and measure the quantity of carbonic acid absorbed in a given time.
The solution is sufficiently sensitive for all ordinary purposes. When great
sensitiveness is required the author recommends the use of the tithonometer
invented by him in 1843, and since employed, in a modified form, by Bunsen
and Roscoe.

IMPROVEMENTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY.

Sensitiveness of Photographic Reagents. The sensitiveness of the reagents
used in photography is well known. But there are others more sensitive still,
which often interfere with photographic results. Photographers are aware
that they do not succeed well in the vicinity of a perfumery, and that even
the effluvia from the hand that has been wet with an essence, will prevent
success when it was thought to be sure. It has even been supposed that in
clear weather, when the atmosphere was full of vegetable emanations and
vapors drawn from the soil by heat, photographs do not succeed as well,
and that these influences must be avoided for the finest results. Evidently
the emanations from the soil and plants arc themselves sensitive to the
chemical rays, and more so than the photographic reagents, especially chlo-
ride of silver; and hence, as far as they are not destroyed, may monopolize
the chemical action.

These thoughts are suggested by a fact recently made known by Mr.
Ford. He had always had perfect success ; but afterwards, in spite of all
precaution, failed of good pictures. After long seeking the cause, he finally
found that it was owing to his room being near a storehouse of " noir ani-
mal," for economical uses, the effluvia was injurious to the photoraphic
liquids, the principal of which were nitrate of silver, pyrogallic acid, and
hyposulphite of soda. He moved to another place, and had no more diffi-
culty.

Novel application of Photography. M. Persoz, Professor of Chemistry at the
Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers of Paris, has just published a most inter-
esting discovery of his, by which photography may be applied to the orna-
menting of silk stuffs. The bichromate of potash is a substance commonly
used in photography, being extremely sensitive to light. If a piece of silk
stuff, impregnated with this salt, be exposed to the rays of light penetrating
through the fissures of the window-blinds in a closed room, the points where
the stuff has received these rays of light will assume a peculiar reddish tint.
Now, suppose a piece of metal or of strong paper to be cut out after a given
pattern, and to be laid upon a piece of silk prepared as before ; if exposed to
the sun, or, better still, to simple daylight, the pattern will be reproduced in
a few instants. The pale red, which the parts acted upon by the light assume,
is so permanent that nothing can destroy it; nay, it will fix other colors,
such as madder, campeachy, etc., just like a mordant, and in that case it

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 143

will modify the color of those substances in absorbing it. The experiment
may be varied as follows : Let a fern leaf be laid upon a piece of prepared
silk and kept flat upon it by a pane of glass ; then that part of the silk which
is protected by the leaf will retain its original color, while all the rest will
receive the impression of light, as above described, forming the ground on
which the figure of the leaf will appear in white, gray, or whatever other
color the silk may have had before the operation. The richest patterns may
thus be obtained on plain silks, and at a comparatively small expense.

Photographic Enamels. MM. Armengaud, in the Genie Industrie!, an-
nounce that "the MM. Bruder, of Neufchatel (Switzerland), have discovered
a process by which photographs may be developed on white enamel, incor-
porated by vitrification, and covered with a glaze of glass also melted and
incorporated with the enamel. They apply the same process also upon
metals and wood."

Practical Applications of Photography. During the Paris exhibition of
1855, some of the non-commissioned officers of the Royal Engineers who
were employed there received instruction in photography, and on their
return to England their knowledge thus obtained was turned to a practical
use by Colonel James, the director of the Ordnance Survey, in making
reductions of the various maps and plans required in that Avork. This is the
first instance of the scientific use of photography on a large scale, and some
idea may be formed of its importance from the fact that the saving in this
item only has been not less than 20,000.

Since then, a systematic course of instruction in photography has been
given to non-commissioned officers in the English engineer corps, and
this constant supply of men practiced in the art is maintained. These are
distributed in all parts of the world, where a detachment of engineers is
maintained, and the orders to officers commanding companies to which pho-
tographers are attached, are, to send home, periodically, photographs of all
works in progress, and to photograph and transmit to the war department
drawings of all objects, either valuable in a professional point of view, or
interesting as illustrative of history, ethnology, natural history, antiquities,
etc., etc.

New Photographic process for the Printing of Positive Proofs. A piece of
sulphur is dissolved in sulphuret of carbon, in the proportions of twenty-five
paits of the former to seventy-five of the latter, and the solution is then fil-
tered. The solution in sufficient quantity is poured on the paper, which is
shaken quickly in every direction, in order that it may spread equally, and
crystals of opaque sulphur may not form. The paper thus prepared is kept
in the dark. At the required moment, the paper is put under an ordinary
negative, and exposed to the light for twenty -five seconds to a minute, or
five minutes on a dark day. When taken out, nothing is seen on the paper.

Nothing appears upon the surface of the paper when it is removed from
the slide. It is then put over a mercury bath, at the bottom of which are
placed some grams of this metal. The sulphurized paper from the camera
is then exposed at the distance of eight centimetres above the mercury
(which is heated meantime), sustained on a frame of paper forming a cover
to the bath, on the under side of which, with its face to the mercury, is the
prepared paper. The vapor of mercury combines with the portions of sul-
phur which have received the influence of the sun's rays, forming a yellow-
ish brown sulphuret of mercury, which perfectly reproduces the details of

144 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the impression. The picture is then protected by a film of varnish-gum, or
albumen, to preserve it.

This is the process of M. Salmon, of Chartrcs.

Me Craw's new, cheap, and permanent process in Photography. The following
account of a HCAV process for producing cheap and permanent photographs
without employing either silver or gold salts, or the noxious hyposulphite
of soda, was presented to the British Association, 1858, by Mr. W. McCraw:

" The labors of the committee appointed by the Photographic Society of
London to inquire into the cause of the fading of photographs, after a
elapse of two years, have only amounted to this : that photographs of a cer-
tain kind have all faded; and that some of those of the kind that have stood
best, have unaccountably faded the sad presumption being, that in time all
photographs produced in the usual way, by the means of chloride of silver,
and fixed (as it is called) by hyposulphite of soda, will perish. These con-
siderations, and the fact of a prize being offered by a French nobleman for
the discovery of a process for printing photographs in carbon, set me to ex-
periment in that direction. But my experiments with carbon and various
pigments led me to think that no material applied mechanically, or that
could not be made to take the shape of a dye or chemical solution, would
ever give results with the exquisite half-tints of the present beautiful but
perishable process. The photographic properties of bichromate of potass
were pointed out by Mungo Poutou twenty years ago, giving photographs of
a pale, tawny color. A piece of paper is washed over with the saturated solu-
tion of the bichromate, and when dried in the dark is of a light yellow color,
and very sensitive to light. If a negative photograph, or a piece of lace or
a leaf, be placed over the prepared paper, and put in sunshine, in a few min-
utes a perfect impression of the object is obtained. The light darkens the
color of the bichromate, and renders it insoluble in water, while the yellow
color washes out from the parts protected from the light by the lace or leaf,
or negative photograph, as the case may be. But pictures of this kind have
little or no practical value; for although the lights are good enough, the deep
black shadows are only represented by a tawny shade. Some eighteen
months ago a process was patented for deepening these photographs by
treating them with gallic acid and a salt of iron, which went by the name of
* Sella's process.' I tried this process at the time according to the specifi-
cation of the patent, but failed to make one satisfactory specimen. They
wanted everything that a good photograph should have, pure lights, clear
half-tints, and deep shadoAvs, and as I found that others had not been more
successful, I abandoned my experiments. But in the course of further exper-
iments, a year afterwards, with carbon, I was struck with the fact, that a
drop of a solution of bichromate of potass allowed to fall on a piece of white
paper and afterwards dried and exposed to the sun, when washed with a solu-
tion of proto-sulphate of iron, and then with gallic acid, while the spot
became perfectly black, the surrounding white paper was unaffected by the
liquids. Knowing the photographic properties of the bichromate already
described, I believed that this might be the foundation of a good photo-
graphic process; and that if the bichromate could be kept from penetrating
the pores of the paper, by being kept on its surface, the defects of Sella's
process might be avoided. With this view, I began by filling the pores of
the paper with albumen, and then, to render it insoluble, immersing the paper
in ether. This, however, did not answer. But as it would be tedious to

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 115

detail all the pains I took to discover what would not do, and to find in what
proportions and in what order the right materials could be best applied, I will
briefly give the formula which I have adopted, and by which the specimens
alluded to were produced : First, take the white of eggs, and add 25 per
cent, of a saturated solution of common salt (to be well beat up and allowed
to subside); float the paper on the albumen for thirty seconds, and hang up
to dry. Secondly, make a saturated solution of bichromate of potass, to
Avhich has been added 25 per cent, of Beaufoy's acetic acid. Float the paper
on this solution for an instant, and when dry it is fit for use. This must be
done in the dark room. Thirdly, expose under a negative, in a pressure
frame, in the ordinary manner, until the picture is sufficiently printed in all
its details, but not over-printed, as is usual with the old process. This re-
quires not more than half the ordinary time. Fourthly, immerse the pictures
in a vessel of water in the darkened room, the undecomposed bichromate
and albumen then readily leaves the lights and half-tints of the picture.
Change the water frequently, until it comes from the prints pure and clear.
Fifthly, immerse the picture now in a saturated solution of protosulphate of
iron in cold water for five minutes, and again rinse well in water. Sixthly,
immerse the pictures again in a saturated solution of gallic acid in cold water,
and the color will immediately begin to change to a fine purple black. Allow
the pictures to remain in this until the deep shadows show no appearance of
the yellow bichromate; repeat the rinsing. Seventhly, immerse, finally, in
the following mixture : Pyrogallic acid, two grains ; water, one ounce ; Beau-
foy's acetic acid, one ounce; saturated solution of acetate of lead, two
drams. This mixture brightens up the pictures marvellously, restoring the
lights that may have been partially lost in the previous parts of the process,
deepening the shadows, and bringing out the detail; rinse, finally, in water,
and the pictures are complete, when dried and mounted. The advantages
of this process may be briefly stated as follows : First, as to its economy.
Bichromate of potass, at 2d. per ounce, is substituted for nitrate of silver at
5s. per ounce. Secondly, photographs in this way can be produced with
greater rapidity than by the old mode. Thirdly, the pictures being composed
of the same materials which form the constituent parts of writing-ink, it may
be fairly inferred that they will last as long as the paper upon which they are
printed."

Gaudinet's mode of preserving Photographs on paper. I dissolve a certain
quantity of the gutta-percha of commerce in the Colas benzine. I decant in
a lew days, so as to have only the clear portion. I plunge my paper, sheet
by sheet, in this solution, and withdraw it almost immediately; then, hang-
ing it by a corner, I let it dry. I then present these sheets which contain the
gutta-percha as a powder, but not as a varnish, to a good fire. The grains of
gutta-percha unite, and cover the fibres, forming an interior varnish which
is nearly impermeable.

I albuminize this paper which has lost none of its transparence (albumen,
100; rain-water, 25; chloride of sodium, G). I dry it, and render it sensitive
by a solution of 15 per cent, of nitrate of silver. I allow it to drip, and dry
it by a gentle fire; I produce a positive in the usual way, and fix it by
hyposulphite of soda at 10 or 15 per cent.; but this operation is so much
abridged, that in a few minutes the proof is fixed like one on glass, and of a
beautiful sepia tint. Nothing prevents the use of chloride of gold, if that is
The washing may be done in a quarter of an hour, in place of last-
ly

146 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ing from twelve to twenty-four hours, and the proof is of admirable trans-
parence, the paper also keeping all its whiteness. Comptes Rendus.

Photo-Lithoyraphy. This name lias been applied by the discoverers,
Messrs. Cutting & Bradford, of Boston, to a new and beautiful application of
the photographic art, which is evidently destined to revolutionize, in a great
measure, the ordinary processes of lithography. The requisites for the pro-
duction of the effect are, in the first instance, a well-ground lithographic stone,
and a glass negative photograph. The stone, by a peculiar treatment, which
is really the discovery itself, and is yet a secret, is prepared in a few minutes
to receive the photographic impression, through the glass negative, by expo-
sure to sun-light. The stone-picture can then be washed, inked, and any
number of photo-lithographs printed from it upon paper, by means of the
usual lithographic press. Images magnified by the microscope, and thrown by
means of the camera upon a prepared stone surface, are depicted with wonder-
ful accuracy. The value of this discovery, as applied merely to the illustra-
tion of books, especially scientific treatises, is obvious.

The French Academy have recently received some interesting memoirs on
subjects connected with photography. In the camera obscura, which is
usually employed in photographic operations, the objects daguerrcotyped are
traced by the sun on a plane surface, whose extent (being necessarily re-
strained) corresponds to a field of vision which cannot well cover more than
thirty or thirty-five degrees of angular space. So, too, in the art of draw-
ing, when the draughtsman Avould represent a scene on the plane, he takes
care to restrict it to the same limits, as they include all the objects our eye is
able to take in at the same time, without changing its direction. But if he
desires to depict a larger portion, or rather all the objects which may be seen
in every different direction from a given station, it is evident that instead of
taking a plane surface, he must take the interior surface of a cylinder; for the
observer, being placed upon the axis, will discover a suitable clement, on
whatever side he may look, for tracing the object supposed to be placed in
the same direction. This sort of cylindrical picture, developed in a circular
manner around the spectator, is called a panorama. In 1845, a photographer
named Martens, published a method for obtaining, upon the daguerreotype
plate, and in one single operation, a demi-panorama of exterior views. The
plate was curved in a demi-cylindrical form around the optical centre of the
objective, which being placed on a vertical pivot, was directed in succession
to the different points of the horizon, carrying along with it a diaphragm,
having an aperture with vertical edges ; in this wqy the different portions of
the plate were affected in succession, so that when once the proof Avas com-
pleted, it represented all objects visible within an angular field of 180 degrees.
The scenes obtained in this way by M. Martens, were beautiful little pano-
ramas; but the objects were represented in it in an inverse order to that they
occupied in nature, and, unfortunately, the geometrical combination on which
the method was founded, prevented the operator from restoring the objects
to their original position. Had the operator attempted to place a reversing
mirror before the objective, he would instantly have discovered that, during
the evolution of the optical system, the clouds would have assumed a relative
motion on the plate, which would have rendered it impossible to take a
daguerreotype. Besides, as more daguerreotypes are taken on glass than on
metal at the present day, and as it is inconvenient to bend a plate of glass,
M. Martens' ingenious method gradually fell out of use. We now have a

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 147

new method, devised by M. Garella, an engineer of the mining school, which
completely solves the problem.

AVlien the operator takes a view on paper, the view is reversed naturally,
by the simple transfer to another sheet. Therefore, imagine an apparatus
constructed so as to turn on the horizontal plane which supports it, and be
directed at pleasure towards any point of the horizon. While this motion is
taking place, the exterior objects represented on the ground glass change
places in the same direction with the head of the objective, and if the screen
is suitably arranged, the operator will be able to move it in such a manner as
that these points remain at the same points of the image during the whole
time they take to cross the field of vision. As this movement is indefinite,
the operator may in this way sweep the whole horizon. To step from this
simple observation to the practical realization of a panoramic apparatus, it
is necessary to find the mechanical contrivance which coordinates in the re-
quired ratio the motion of the apparatus which sustains the glass plate on
which the view is to be secured, and the motion of the whole apparatus on
its plane. Now, it is easily demonstrated that the motion of the screen must
be such that its plane moves without slipping on the ideal cylinder which
describes the mean vertical line of the focal plane by its motion round the
optical centre of the objective. If this motion of the screen could be effected,
each of its points would describe in space an evolvent circle; if, therefore, the
evolvent is materially contracted, and secured on the base of the apparatus,
and the apparatus which contains the glass plate is fastened to its edges, so
as to follow its contour, it would necessarily constantly occupy a position
which would assure its relative steadiness to the image. Such is the elegant
solution proposed and practised by M. Garella to obtain, on a rigid plate, as
extensive panoramic views as the operator may desire. If the operator does
not reverse the view obtained directly in the camera obscura, the image is
engendered progressively, band by band, on the inner surface of a supposed
cylinder, Avhich corresponds exactly with M. Marten's real cylinder. But if
he desires to reverse the objects at once, the image must be traced on the ex-
terior surface of a cylinder of the same radius. He Avill then see that the
centre of rotation of the apparatus must be moved back of the screen, and
to a distance equal to the principal focal length of the objective. This
change (which is the geometrical translation of a change of sign) enables
the evolvent of circle to continue to guide the apparatus which supports the
plate and secures the clearness of the images. M. Garella' s plates exhibit by
their clearness the perfection of this mechanical process. They cover a sur-
face of great length, and when they are seen lying flat it is easy to detect that
they represent impossible scenes. Each part maybe examined by itself; but
when the spectator attempts to take in the whole, he at once perceives very
great deformities in the horizontal lines, which are caused by the difference
existing between the position in which it is seen and that in which it was
formed, part by part. As soon, however, as the curve of the ideal cylinder
is reestablished where it was formed, and the observer places his eye at the
point occupied by the objective of the camera obscura, all the objects appear
at their real angles.

THE "ELLIOTYFE" PROCESS.

A new application of photograph}' is now a matter of such frequent an-
nouncement, that the reader's patience is sorely tried by an invitation to

148 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

examine anything which promises novelty in this direction. And yet we
believe a thought has at length been struck out, at once so simple and so
practicable, that it cannot fail to produce a great extension of the art, both
in the number and style of its products. In distinguishing the method we
a^e about to describe, it may be premised at once, that this operation does
not, as in the case of the great majority of other photographic processes,
profess to give an immediate transcript of some scene or figure existing in na-
ture. In ordinary cases the sun transfers to the photographic paper a picture
of some object or group which has already a complete and independent exis-
tence, whether it be a human figure, a building, a piece of sculpture, an
engraving, or a landscape. It records established facts, or repeats works
which were designed Avithont reference to it. But the Elliotype photographs
are always the results of paintings made expressly for the purpose. This
im^olves, of course, a principle, namely, that the peculiar skill of the living
painter, with all its powers and resources, is transferred at once, fresh from
his hand, to the very sheet of paper Avhich is to spread through the Avorlcl
the example of his style and composition. The other important point is the
simplicity of the operation, Avhich encourages attempts, obviates failures,
and insures an unusual freedom, etc., in the result. A simple idea may gen-
erally be simply expressed; and to the reader familiar Avith these subjects,
the Avhole process Avill be rendered clear at once by the explanation, that the
artist Avho Avishes to produce an Elliotype picture, paints the subject himself
in AA r hite body colors upon one side of a piece of glass. It is evident Avhen a
sheet of sensitive paper, stretched on the other side of the glass, is exposed
to the light that Avhcre the glass is transparent the paper Avill come out
black, and Avhere the light is blocked out by a layer of paint, it Avill remain
white. But the paint itself is slightly translucent, and thus every variety of
shade may be produced by duly graduating the thickness of the layers.
This is in substance the Avhole of the invention for such it is believed to
be, notwithstanding its simplicity. But there are seA'eral other points Avhich
desciwe attention. As the oil painting is on one side of the glass, and the
photographic paper on the other, the rays of light have to pass, not only
around and partially through the paint, but also through the glass, before
they reach the paper. The consequence of the light passing through the
glass is, from refraction, or some other cause, to give a soft, melting outline
on the paper, even Avhere there is a sharp line drawn on the glass. The
effect of this, in many instances, is A-ery AA^clcome and desirable, as in the
case of clouds, feathers, or the rounded outlines of the face, limbs, etc.
Where, however, sharpness in the photograph is absolutely required, this
property becomes objectionable; and a remedy Avas long sought for by the
inventor in vain. It Avas discoA r ercd at length by accident. A fragment of
cotton thread, or some small foreign substance, had, much to the operator's
annoyance, lodged between the glass and the paper, i. c., on the opposite side
to the painting. The effect Avas a blur on the photograph ; but it had such
remarkably clear, sharp edges, that the idea instantly occurred Why not
paint the sharp lines of the picture on the other side of the glass, next to the
iodized paper? The result turned out exactly such as Avas expected and
required ; and sharpness of outline can thus be secured, as Avell as round-
ness.

The painter's part of the proceeding is an extremely simple one; he has
only to lay a piece of black paper under the glass upon Avhich ho paints;
everything then is as it Avill finally appear in the picture. His ground is

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1-!'J

dark, and he paints in the lights, heightening his color where the}* arc high-
est, and leaving it blank where they are low. The first and most obvious
application of this method is to the copying of paintings and engravings. A
sheet of glass can be laid over the work to be copied, and thus every line
and boundary of shadow can be accurately traced, and the very handling
and manner of the original imitated, until the copyist's work begins to con-
ceal what is beneath. The glass can then be removed, the black paper laid
behind the glass, and the work proceeded with in the ordinary way. When
it is complete, or, if desired, at any stage of the proceedings, an endless
number of photographic proofs can be taken. Engravings and lithographic
stones wear out, but there is literally no end to the fac-similts that may be
taken of an oil painting on glass. When the number of good copyists who
can be found of works in oil is considered, and that their work is so much
more rapid than that of an engraver, the cost of production being conse-
quently less, it really seems as though the engraver's art, except in its
very highest efforts, must be to a great extent superseded by this method.
Another application of the Elliotype process is the painting of subjects from
nature. The artist who paints upon glass instead of canvas, not only pre-
pares a work which may be multiplied indefinitely in the way we have
described, but which also remains a finished work of art, distinguishable
only, as we are told, by practised eyes from an ordinary drawing or painting
on paper or canvas. It will be remarked at once that no colors can be em-
ployed except black and white. This is undoubtedly the case, so far as
painting for the copying sake is concerned; but, after that is done with, it
appears to be quite possible to paint in colors upon the reverse or back of
the glass, so as to give the effect of a finished painting when hung in a room.
It remains only to add, that the inventor and patentee of this ingenious
process, from whom it takes its name, is Mr. Robinson Elliott, an artist
who has himself practised the method to a considerable extent, and with a
su< cess that is very remarkable,