Familiar Lectures on Scientific SubjectsA. Strahan, 1867 - 507 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
action æther amount angle of incidence appear astronomers axis body bright calculation called centre circle circular coloured comet course crystal dark described diameter direction distance double refraction earth earthquake elastic elliptic equal fact feet force glass globe heat Iceland spar illumination inch incidence instance interval lava length less light luminiferous ether luminous material matter measure medium meridian metre miles molecules moon motion movement nature nearly object oblique observed optical orbit ordinary parallax parallel particles pass perihelion perpendicular phænomena phænomenon plane plate polarized portion present prism prismatic produce propagated proportion reflected reflexion refracted ray refraction refractive index result retina right angles rings round seen side space spectrum spot stars Sumbawa sun's suppose surface tail telescope theory thickness thing tints tion tourmaline undulation undulatory vapour velocity Vesuvius vibrations violent vis viva volcano wave weight whole
Popular passages
Page 37 - The bottom was covered with lava, and the south-west and northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and fro its " fiery surge
Page 47 - I HAD a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air...
Page 26 - ... at Naples. In an instant, a fountain of liquid transparent fire began to rise, and gradually increasing, arrived at so amazing a height as to strike every one who beheld It with the most awful astonishment. I shall scarcely...
Page 35 - Sang'ir appeared like a body of liquid fire, extending itself in every direction. The fire and columns of flame continued to rage with unabated fury, until the darkness, caused by the quantity of falling matter, obscured it at about 8 PM Stones at this time fell very thick at Sang'ir, some of them as large as two fists, but generally not larger than walnuts.
Page 461 - In every such change we recognize the action of Force. And in the only case in which we are admitted into any personal knowledge of the origin of force, we find it connected (possibly by intermediate links untraceable by our faculties, but yet indisputably connected] with volition, and by inevitable consequence with motive, with intellect, and with all those attributes of mind in which personality consists.
Page 83 - ... itself), — all these characters seem quite repugnant to the notion of their being of a vaporous, a cloudy, or a fluid nature.
Page 36 - Peltate" no vestige of a house is left ; twenty-six of the people, who were at Sumbawa at the time, are the whole of the population who have escaped. From the most particular inquiries I have been able to make, there were certainly not fewer than 12,000 individuals in Tomboro and Pekate' at the time of the eruption, of whom only five or six survive.
Page 490 - the principle of forced oscillations, or of forced vibrations," and thus generally announced: — If one part of any system connected either by material ties, or by the mutual attractions of its members, be continually maintained by any cause, whether inherent in the constitution of the system or external to it, in a state of regular periodic motion, that motion will be propagated throughout the whole system, and will give rise, in every member of it, and in every part of each member, to periodic...
Page 26 - Puffs of smoke, as black as can possibly be imagined, succeeded one another hastily, and accompanied the red-hot, transparent, and liquid lava, interrupting its splendid brightness here and there by patches of the darkest hue. Within these purls of smoke, at the very moment of their emission from the crater, I could perceive a bright, but pale, electrical fire, briskly playing about in zig.zag lines t.
Page 449 - And thus the change which would place our system of linear measure on a perfectly faultless basis, would at the same time rescue our weights and measures of capacity from their present utter confusion...