Annual of Scientific Discovery: Or, Year-book of Facts in Science and Art for ...

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1852
 

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Page 278 - The plants, in all but twenty-nine in number, — but a single mineral, — quadrupeds, none, with the exception of foreign mice, — fresh water barely enough for household purposes, — no streams, nor mountains, nor hills ! How much of the poetry or literature of Europe would be intelligible to persons whose ideas had expanded only to the limits of a coral island, — who had never conceived of a surface of land...
Page 225 - Johnston, of England, describes a compound of alumina with crenic acid, occurring in caves of granite upon the coast of Cornwall. This mineral has received the name of Pigotite, and is observed in places where the surface-water trickles down over the granite rocks.
Page 19 - ... engine the caloric is constantly wasted by being passed into the condenser, or by being carried off into the atmosphere. In the improved engine the caloric is employed over and over again, enabling me to dispense with the employment of combustibles, excepting for the purpose of...
Page 112 - ... in either D or D; it would therefore manifestly set a needle in a given latitude in opposite directions as it passed by ; and as evidently set two needles in north and south latitudes in opposite directions at the same moment of time. As the night came on and a temperature lower than the mean came up from the east and passed over, the lines of force would be inflected as in P or P, and a reverse variation of the needle to that which occurred before would now take place.
Page 113 - Hobarton, and at many others near to and far from the equator, and agrees in direction with the results observed far beyond what the author anticipated. Thus the paths described by the upper ends of free needles in the north and south hemispheres should be closed curves, with the motion in opposite and certain directions, and so they are : — the curves described by needles in north or south latitudes should be larger in summer and smaller in •winter, and so they are : — a night or cold action...
Page 342 - The cactus, the lichen clinging to the rock, and the fungus in all its varieties, have their numerous representatives. Besides these forms imitating vegetation, there are gracefully modelled vases, some of which are three or four feet in diameter, made up of a network of branches and branchlets and sprigs of flowers. There are also solid coral hemispheres like domes among the vases and shrubbery, occasionally ten, or even twenty feet in diameter, whose symmetrical surface is gorgeously decked with...
Page 119 - I was led to consider whether we might not reasonably consider the true source of the latent element of light to reside, not in the solar orb, but in space itself; and that the grand function and duty of the sun was to act as an agent for the bringing forth into vivid existence its due portion of the illuminating or luciferous element, which element I suppose to be diffused throughout the boundless regions of space, and which, in that case, must be perfectly exhaustless. " Assuming, therefore, that...
Page i - Book of Facts in Science and Art, exhibiting the most important Discoveries and Improvements in Mechanics, Useful Arts, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Meteorology, Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Geology, Geography, Antiquities, etc.
Page 111 - ON a former evening (January 24, page 1) it was shown that Oxygen gas was magnetic, being attracted towards the poles of a magnet ; and that like other magnetic bodies, it lost and gained in power as its temperature was raised and lowered, and that the change occurred within the range of natural temperatures. These properties it carries into the atmosphere ; and the object, this evening, was to show how far they might be applied to explain certain of the observed variations of the terrestrial magnetic...
Page 179 - Iron coated with tin or lead may be treated in a similar manner. Another method of coating iron with copper is to place in a crucible a quantity of chloride of copper, upon which is laid the iron to be coated, and over that a quantity of charcoal. The crucible is then submitted to a red heat, and the chloride of copper fused, and a coating of copper deposited on the iron.

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