A Compendium of Natural Philosophy ...Clark, Austin & Smith, 1857 - 456 pages |
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aberration angle apparatus applied atmosphere axis ball beam body camera obscura center of gravity chromatic aberration colors column concave concave lens condensed convex lens cylinder Describe diameter diminished direction diverging earth effect elasticity electricity electrified employed equal exhibited experiments eye-glass fall feet figure fluid focal distance focus force friction glass greater Hence horizontal inches inclined plane increased instrument lenses less lever Leyden Jar machine magnet magnifying power means mechanical metallic microscope mirror motion move Natural Philosophy needle object object-glass opposite orifice parallel rays pass pendulum perpendicular piston plate pole portion pressure prime conductor principle prism pump quantity quicksilver rays of light reflexion refracting Refracting Telescope resistance rest retina screw sewing needle side sound space specific gravity spherical spherical aberration steam surface telescope tion tube valve velocity vessel vibrations weight wheel window shutter wire
Popular passages
Page 192 - In the present perfect state of the engine it appears a thing almost endowed with intelligence. It regulates with perfect accuracy and uniformity the number of its strokes in a given time, counting or recording them, moreover, to tell how much work it has done, as a clock records the beats of its pendulum ; it regulates the quantity of steam admitted to work; the briskness of the fire; the supply of water to the boiler ; the supply of coals to the fire ; it opens and shuts its valves with absolute...
Page 193 - ... when originally well made, and only refuses to work when worn out with age ; it is equally active in all climates, and will do work of any kind ; it is a water-pumper, a miner, a sailor, a cottonspinner, a weaver, a blacksmith, a miller, &c.
Page 83 - As the diameter of. the axle is to the diameter of the wheel, so is the power applied to the wheel, to the weight suspended on the axle.
Page 350 - Reggio, sees upon the water numberless series of pilasters, arches, castles well delineated, regular columns, lofty towers, superb palaces with balconies and windows, villages and trees, plains with herds and flocks, armies of men on foot and on horseback, all passing rapidly in succession on the surface of the sea.
Page 300 - That the best mode of communicating magnetism to a needle, appears to be by placing it in the magnetic meridian, joining the opposite poles of a pair of bar magnets (the magnets being in the same line) and laying the magnets so joined flat upon the needle with their poles upon its centre ; then having elevated the distant extremities of the magnets, so that they may form an angle of about two or three degrees with the needle, they...
Page 142 - When the pipe AD is filled with water, the pressure upon the surface of the bellows, and consequently the force with which it raises the weights laid on it, will be equal to the weight of a cylinder of water, whose base is the surface of the bellows, and height that of the column AD. Therefore, by making the tube small, and the bellows large, the power of a given quantity of water, however small, may be increased indefinitely. The pressure of the column of water in this case corresponds to the force...
Page 193 - ... may be seen dragging after it, on a railroad, a hundred tons of merchandise, or a regiment of soldiers, with greater speed than that of our fleetest coaches. It is the king of machines, and a permanent realization of the Genii of eastern fable, whose supernatural powers were occasionally at the command of man.
Page 152 - A very slight declivity suffices to give the running motion to water. Three inches per mile, in a smooth straight channel, gives a velocity of about three miles per hour. The Ganges, which gathers the waters of the Himalaya mountains, the loftiest in the world, is, at eighteen hundred miles from its mouth, only eight hundred feet above the level of the sea — that is, above twice the height of St.
Page 68 - ... the arc of a circle, of which the point of suspension is the centre. On reaching the vertical position, it will have acquired a velocity equal to that which it would have acquired by falling vertically through the versed sine of the arc...
Page 70 - Powers, are certain simple instruments, commonly employed for raising greater weights, or overcoming greater resistances, than could be effected by the natural strength without them. These are usually accounted six in number, viz. the Lever, the Wheel and Axle, the Pulley, the Inclined Plane, the Wedge, and the Screw.