Annual of Scientific Discovery: Or, Year-book of Facts in Science and ArtGould and Lincoln, 1866 |
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action ammonia amount animal apparatus appear atmosphere atoms bodies boiler bones British Association carbonic acid cause chemical color comets condensation consists constructed cooling copper cylinder deposit diameter disc discovery distance earth effect electric engine equal existence experiments fact feet force geological glass graphite gun-cotton heat hight hydrogen idocrase inches increased invisible rays iron John Herschel larvæ length light lines liquid London magnetic mass matter means metal metric system miles nebula nitrogen observations obtained ordinary oxyd oxygen paper passed period phenomena photograph pipe planets plate portion potash pounds present pressure prism produced Prof proportion quantity rays recently remarkable rocks salt says shot side silicates solar solid solution specific gravity spectrum spermaceti stars steam steel substance sulphuric acid surface temperature thick tion tube vapor velocity vessel vis viva weight wire zinc
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Page 113 - ... uniform in size and weight. We shall have one substance and a common atom. With the atom at rest the uniformity of matter would be perfect. But the atom possesses always more or less motion, due, it must be assumed, to a primordial impulse. This motion gives rise to volume. The more rapid the movement the greater the space occupied by the atom, somewhat as the orbit of a planet widens with the degree of projectile velocity. Matter is thus made to differ only in being lighter or denser matter....
Page 274 - ... (which last is often present in small quantities), are powerful causes of decomposition and chemical reaction in rocks through which they percolate. If, therefore, large bodies of hot water permeate mountain-masses at great depths, they may in the course of ages superinduce in them a crystalline structure ; and in some cases strata in a lower position and of older date may be comparatively unaltered, retaining their fossil remains undefaced, while newer rocks are rendered metamorphic.
Page x - Up to this very day, there come to me persons of good education, men and women, quite fit for all that you expect from education : they come to me, and they talk to me about things that belong to natural science ; about mesmerism, table-turning, flying through the air ; about the laws of gravity : they come to me to ask me questions ; and they insist against me, who think I know a little of these laws, that I am wrong and they are right, in a manner which shows how little the ordinary course of education...
Page 205 - ... enables us to account for the difference between the distribution of heat in the solar and in the electric spectrum. The comparative height and steepness of the ultra-red peak, in the case of the electric light, are much greater than in the case of the sun, as shown by the diagram of Professor Miiller.
Page 206 - ... element can act upon the radiant heat. When permitted to do so, it was found that a layer of dissolved iodine, sufficiently opaque to cut off the light of the midday sun, was almost absolutely transparent to all invisible calorific rays.
Page 112 - Hebrew phrases, which in past years they have heard their masters utter, without, of course, comprehending them. These tones had long been forgotten ; the traces were so faint that, under ordinary conditions, they were invisible ; but these traces were there, and in the intense light of cerebral excitement they started into prominence, just as the spectre image of the key started into sight on the application of heat. It is thus with all the influences to which we are subjected.
Page 257 - ... some proof that a similar unity of operation extends through the universe as far as light enables us to have cognizance of material objects. For we may infer that the stars, while differing, the one from the other, in the kinds of matter of which they consist, are all constructed upon the same plan as our sun, and are composed of matter identical, at least in part, with the materials of our system.
Page 281 - When speculations on the long series of events which occurred in the glacial and post-glacial periods are indulged in, the imagination is apt to take alarm at the immensity of the time required to interpret the monuments of these ages, all referable to the era of existing species. In order to abridge the number of : centuries which would otherwise be indispensable, a disposition is shown by many to magnify the rate of change in prehistoric times by investing the causes which have modified the animate...
Page 140 - Kepler's celebrated statement that "there are more comets in the heavens than fish in the ocean", is founded on the fact that, of all the comets belonging to our solar system, comparatively few can be seen by the inhabitants of the earth, and therefore the not inconsiderable number of actually observed comets obliges us, according to the rules of the calculus of probabilities, to assume the existence of a great many more beyond the sphere of our vision. Besides planets, satellites, and comets, another...
Page 112 - ... spectre of the key will be visible, Let this paper be put aside for many months where nothing can disturb it, and then in darkness be laid on a plate of hot metal, — the spectre of the key will again appear. In the case of bodies more highly phosphorescent than paper, the spectres of many different objects which may have been laid on it in succession will, on warming, emerge in their proper order. This is equally true of our bodies and our minds. We are involved in the universal metamorphosis....