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PAGE Alchemists, The Last of the 110 Alpine Perils--Professor Forbes on 30 Amber an Article of International Trade 66 Amsterdam Pile, The 150 Antiquity of Lightning Conductors 67 Antiquity of Refined Sugar 87 Arkwright's Spinning Frame 128 Art of Stereotype, The 105 Artesian Well of Grenelle, The 132 Ascent of the Jungfrau Alp, by Forbes, &c. 44 Astronomical Shoemaker, An 51 Babbage's Calculating Machine 59 Balloon Travelling, Rate of 103 Balloon Voyage from London to Nassau 86 Banks', Sir Joseph, Balance 37 Benefit of a Wife to an Author 40 Black, Dr., The Death of 133 Brindley the Engineer 43 Brongniart's Early Life 33 Brougham's, Lord, Scientific Blunders 90 Buckingham Palace Gates 37 Burning Mirrors of Archimedes, The 140 Carnot when a Child 23 Catching Electric Eels 74 Character of Engineers in their Works 43 Clearness of the Sky at the Cape of Good Hope 88 Coal Gas in Balloons, Use of 21 Cocoa-Nut Crab, The 50 Coffee-Tree, Transportation of the 127 Columbus' own Ship-Journal 70 Crawshays of Merthyr Tydvil, The 15 Cuvier and Napoleon 21 Cuvier, Childhood of 25 Cuvier, Homage to 14 Cuvier in London 39 Davy, Sir Humphry, Death of 13 Davy, Sir Humphry, as an Angler 93 Deaf, The, How they may Hear 68 Decline of Science, The 52 Dee, Dr., The Necromancer 117 Descartes' "Wooden Daughter" 51 Descent in a Diving-Bell, A 92 Diamonds, Celebrated 114 Discoveries Anticipated 54 Diving-Bell, First Use of the 103 Drummond Light, The 62 Drying Wood for Violins 69 Drymaking in Holland, A 137 Early Incitements to Study of Nature 72 Earthquakes, in Chile 38 Earthquakes, How to Measure 62 Electricity, The Velocity of 155 Electrifying Machine in Persia, An 60 El Dorado of Sir Walter Raleigh 65 Elgin Marbles, The 58 Experiments with an Electric Eel 79 False Anticipations of Railway Speed 14 Faraday as a Lecturer 88 Female Mathematician, A French 56 Ferguson, The Wife of James 92 Fire-proof House on Putney Heath 109 "Fossil Rain" 104 Fourdrinier's Paper-making Machinery 48 Fourier's Independence 56 Franklin's Discoveries 22 Gold in Siberia 83 Gutta-percha, Discovery of 20 Herschel's Love of Music 59 Herschel, his First Telescope 75 Herschel, his Sister 94 Holding a "Craw's Court" 30 Hyena, A Tame 107 India Rubber 150 Years Since 85 Indian Jugglers' Secret, The 105 Invention of Gun Cotton 35 Invention of the Diving-Bell 78 Invention of the Hand Gear 130 Invisible Despatch, The 107 Jesuit's Bark, The First Use of 51 Kaleidoscope, Combinations of the 84 Kaleidoscope, Sir D. Brewster's 120 Kaleidoscope, The First 91 Leaning Tower of Pisa, The 29 Leibnitz's Last Moments 21 Lifting Heavy Persons 124 Lighthouses, Reflecting, The Origin of 123 Lion Eaten as Food, The 101 Lithography, The Discovery of 159 London as a Port 48 Longevity of the Beetle 102 Magnetic Correspondence in the 17th Century 142 Mariner's Compass, The 156 Marvels of the Alchemists 129 "Means to the End," The 84 Mechanical Triumphs 57 Monochromatic Painting 156 Moon Seen through Lord Rosse's Telescope, The 101 Mythology of Science, The 64 Navigation before the Compass 144 Necessity the Mother of Invention 136 Newton's Finger-Magnet 20 Nice Robbery, A 55 Observatory, Ancient, in Persia 47 Old St. Paul's, A Wrench to 146 Origin of Post Paid Envelopes 42 Ostrich, Enemies of the 108 Parachute Descent, A Safe 104 Pascal's Childhood 18 Pascal, How He Weighed the Atmosphere 28 Perils of Chemical Experiment 151 Philosophical Enthusiasm 31 Poetic Prophecies of Darwin and Milton 9 Poker across the Fire, The 130 Potato, Introduction of the, into France 88 Power of the Lever 59 Railway System Suggested, The 89 "Raining Trees" at the Cape 106 Raleigh, Sir Walter, a Chemist 58 Rapid Manufacture of a Coat 54 Reason for Silence, Fontaine's 44 Rosse's, Lord, Telescope 121 Rust, Protection by 100 St. Pierre's "Paul and Virginia" 62 Scientific Pilgrim, A 139 Self-taught Mechanist, A 149 Semaphore v. Electric Telegraph 146 "Shepherd to the King of England for Scotland" 32 Siberian Mammoth Remains, The 152 Smeaton's Independence, 23 Smeaton, his Reproof of Gaming 34 Snow Spectacles of the Esquimaux 148 Society of Arts, Origin of the 125 Spinning Feats 128 Steam-Gun in the 15th Century 46 Strychnine a Remedy for Paralysis 54 Sun, Total Eclipse of the, at Cuba, 102 Sun, Vast Spot on the 12 Talent and Opportunity 80 Tea, Identity of Black and Green, 99 Tea, The First Cup of, Drunk in England 40 Tebreez, Variable Climate of 52 Telegraph, Origin of the Electric 134 Telescope, Invention of the 97 Thames Tunnel, Construction of the 10 Travelling Carriage, A Novel 108 Travelling in the Himalaya Mountains 82 Travels of Volcanic Dust 33 Tropical Delights, Sydney Smith's 79 Tycho Brahe, Credulity of 97 Vast Mirrors Made in Russia 127 Vicissitudes of Mining in Mexico 79 Voyages of Manufactures 119 Waste of Human Life 123 Watch Melted by Lightning, A 105 Watt's Discovery of the Composition of Water 26 Weighing-Machine at the Bank of England 17 "Wet the Ropes!" 131 Whitebait, The Rights of 73 Who First Doubled the Cape? 91 Wonders of Australia, Sydney Smith on the 76 World in a Drop of Water, The 42

NOTE.

In the annals of INVENTION and DISCOVERY, it may be said without undue boasting, no nation of modern times can lay claim to such an eminent position as Great Britain; and her many ingenious and intrepid adventurers into what they found unknown regions of the arts, the sciences, and the earth's surface, have so largely contributed to raise her to her great place and power, that it is mere justice and self-interest to bestow on them grateful rewards in life, and renown after death. In this little volume are brought together a number of sketches and memoranda, illustrating the history of discovery, and the lives and labours of inventors and explorers, not of our own country alone, but of others--for knowledge is of no country, but of all. The object of the collector has been rather to present the popular than the strictly scientific side of his subject--to furnish materials of interest and amusement, as well as instruction; and if now and then he has been tempted to stray into bye-paths of anecdote and gossip, excuse may readily be found in the fact that the private life of our men of science, often singularly noble and full of character, is apt to be altogether obscured by the brilliancy of the results of their secret and silent toil. This volume will have served its purpose, if it excites an appetite for fuller and deeper inquisition into the sources of British greatness and of modern civilisation.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY.

POETIC PROPHECIES.

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd Steam, afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; Or, on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the fields of air, Fair crews triumphant leaning from above, Shall wave their fluttering 'kerchiefs as they move; Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd, And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud: So mighty Hercules o'er many a clime Waved his huge mace in virtue's cause sublime; Unmeasured strength with early art combined, Awed, served, protected, and amazed mankind."

A distinguished photographer imagines that he has traced the foreshadowing of his delightful science in the following passage from our great epic poet:

"With one touch virtuous Th' arch-chemic sun, so far from us remote, Produces."

Footnote 1:

Darwin projected an "a?rial steam-carriage," in which he proposed to use wings similar to those of a bird, to which motion was to be given by a gigantic power worked by high-pressure steam, though the details of his plan were not bodied forth.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE THAMES TUNNEL.

For seven years the work was suspended; but, by advances from Government, it was resumed in 1835. On April 23, 1837, there was a third irruption of the river; a fourth on Nov. 2, 1837, with the loss of one life; and, on March 6, 1838, the fifth and last irruption took place. Thus, of the tunnel there were completed--

In 1836 117 feet. -- 1837 28 " -- 1838 80 " -- 1839 194 " -- 1840 76 "

Leaving only 60 feet to complete.

VAST SPOT ON THE SUN.

Sir John Herschel, when at the Cape of Good Hope, observed, on May 25, 1837, a spot upon the sun, the black centre of which would have allowed the globe of our earth to drop through it, leaving a thousand miles clear of contact on all sides of that tremendous gulf.

DEATH OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY.

They buried him at Geneva. In truth, Geneva buried him herself, with serious and respectful ceremonial. A simple monument stands at the head of the hospitable grave. There is a tablet to his memory on the walls of Westminster Abbey. There is a monument also, at Penzance, his birth-place.

HOMAGE TO CUVIER.

FALSE ESTIMATE OF RAILWAY SPEED.

The ordinary speed of George Stephenson's Killingworth engine, in 1814, was four miles an hour. In 1825, Mr. Wood, in his work on Railways, took the standard at six miles an hour, drawing 40 tons on a level; and so confident was he that he gauged the power of the locomotive, that he asserted--"nothing could do more harm towards the adoption of railways than the promulgation of such nonsense as that we shall see locomotive engines travelling at the rate of 12, 16, 18, and 20 miles an hour." The promulgator of such nonsense was George Stephenson. In 1829, it was estimated that, at 15 miles an hour, the gross load was 9-1/2 tons, and the net load very little; and that, therefore, high speed, if attainable, was perfectly useless. Before the end of that year, George Stephenson got with "the Rocket" a speed of 29-1/2 miles an hour, carrying a net load of 9-1/2 tons. In 1831, his engines were to draw 90 tons on a level, at 20 miles an hour.

When the speed of the locomotive was set beyond question, prejudice then took the alarm about safety, and a very strong stand was from time to time made for a limitation of speed. Even after the year 1849, the London and Birmingham Directors considered that 20 miles an hour was enough; but the vigour of the broad gauge advocates has tripled the working power of the locomotive, and given us 60 miles an hour where we might have been lingering at 20.

THE CRAWSHAYS OF MERTHYR TYDVIL.

Mr. Crawshay, of the Cyfarthfa Works, at a dinner given to him in 1847, by the people of Merthyr, related the following account of the rise of his family of "Iron Kings," as they are called.

WEIGHING MACHINE AT THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

CHILDHOOD OF PASCAL.

Pascal, the celebrated French philosopher and divine, , evinced such early ardour for knowledge, that, at the age of eleven, he was ambitious of teaching as well as learning; and he then composed a little treatise on the refractions of the sounds of vibrating bodies when touched by the finger. One day he was found alone in his chamber, tracing, in lines of coal, geometrical figures on the wall; and, on another occasion, he was surprised by his father, just when he had succeeded in obtaining a demonstration of the 32nd proposition of the first book of Euclid--that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. Astonished and overjoyed, his father rushed to his friend, M. Pailleur, to announce the extraordinary fact; and the young geometer was instantly permitted to study, unrestrained, the Elements of Euclid, of which he soon made himself master, without any extrinsic aid. From the geometry of planes and solids he passed to the higher branches of the science; and, before he was sixteen years of age, he composed a treatise on the Conic Sections, which evinced the most extraordinary sagacity. When scarcely 19 years of age, too, Pascal contrived a machine to assist his father in making the numerical calculations which his official duties in Upper Normandy required.

In later life, Pascal found researches in geometry an occupation well fitted to give serenity to a heart bleeding from the wounds of his beloved associates. He had long before renounced the study of the sciences; but during a violent attack of toothache, which deprived him of sleep, the subject of the cycloid forced itself upon his thoughts. Fermat, Roberval, and others, had trodden the same ground before him; but, in less than eight days, and under severe suffering, he discovered a general method of solving this class of problems, by the summation of certain series; and as there was only one step from this discovery to that of Fluxions, Pascal might, with more leisure and better health, have won from Newton and from Leibnitz the glory of that great invention.

THE DISCOVERER OF GUTTA PERCHA.

The Gutta Percha Tree, or Gutta Tuban, as it ought more properly to be called--the Percha being a spurious article--abounds in the indigenous forests of Singapore, although it was only about the year 1840 that it was discovered by Europeans. The first notice taken of it appears to have been by Dr. W. Montgomerie, in a letter to the Bengal Medical Board, in the beginning of 1843, wherein he commends the substance as likely to prove useful for some surgical purposes; and supposes it to belong to the Fig tribe. In April, 1843, the substance was taken to Europe by Dr. D. Almeida, who presented it to the Royal Society of Arts of London; but it did not at first attract much attention, as the Society simply acknowledged the receipt of the gift. Its uses would rather appear to have been found out by the Malays, who first manufactured some of the Gutta Percha into whips, and brought them into the town at Singapore for sale, where they were seen by Europeans.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S MAGNET.

The smallest natural Magnets generally possess the greatest proportion of attractive power. Sir Isaac Newton wore in his ring a magnet which weighed only three grains; yet it was able to take up 746 grains, or nearly 250 times its own weight--whereas magnets weighing above two pounds seldom lift more than five or six times their own weight.

COAL GAS in BALLOONS.

Mr. Green has the merit of being the first person who made experiments on the buoyant properties of Coal Gas. In some of his preliminary trials, he ascertained that the ascensive force of a small balloon, three feet in diameter, was equal to eleven ounces; but, when filled in the old way, with hydrogen gas, not more than fifteen ounces.

CUVIER AND NAPOLEON.

After Cuvier had presented to Buonaparte, in a Council of State, his Report of the Progress of the Mathematical and Natural Sciences since the year 1789, the Emperor expressed, in a very happy manner, the satisfaction which he had received from the document. "He has praised me," said Napoleon, "as I like to be praised." Cuvier, however, as he himself said, had only invited the Emperor to imitate Alexander, and to employ his power in promoting the advancement of the natural sciences.

LAST MOMENTS OF LEIBNITZ.

The passing of the mighty spirit of Leibnitz from this scene of existence was a deeply impressive scene. He had suffered from occasional illness during several preceding years. These attacks, however, passed away, and the philosopher resumed his speculations with renewed energy. In November, 1716, his complaint returned with great violence.

FRANKLIN'S DISCOVERIES.

CARN?T, WHEN A CHILD.

The aptitude and taste for military affairs of Carn?t, destined afterwards to perform so important a part in the history of Europe, displayed itself in a singular manner while he was yet a child. Being taken for the first time to a theatre, where some siege or other warlike operation was represented, he astonished the audience by interrupting the piece to complain of the manner in which the general had disposed his men and his guns, crying out to him that his men were in fire, and loudly calling upon him to change his position. In fact, the men were so placed as to be commanded by a battery.

SMEATON'S INDEPENDENCE.

Smeaton, the engineer, often evinced a high feeling of independence in respect to pecuniary matters, and would never allow motives of emolument to interfere with plans laid on other considerations. The Empress Catherine of Russia was exceedingly anxious to have his services in the formation of great engineering works in her dominions, and she commissioned the Princess Dackshaw to offer him his own terms, if he would accede to her proposal. But his plans and his heart were bent upon the exercise of his skill in his own country, and he steadily refused all the offers made to him. It is reported that when the Princess found her attempts unavailing, she said to him, "Sir, you are a great man, and I honour you. You may have an equal in abilities, perhaps, but in character you stand single. The English minister, Sir Robert Walpole, was mistaken; and my sovereign, to her loss, finds one who has not his price."

After Smeaton had retired from his profession, he was often pressed to superintend certain works; when these entreaties were backed by personal offers of emolument, he used to send for an old woman who took care of his chambers in Gray's Inn, and say, "Her attendance suffices for all my wants!" a reply which conveyed the intimation that a man whose personal wants were so simple, was not likely to break through a pre-arranged line of conduct for mere pecuniary considerations.

CHILDHOOD OF CUVIER.

Cuvier, like Sir Isaac Newton, was born with such a feeble and sickly constitution, that he was scarcely expected to reach the years of manhood. His affectionate mother watched over his varying health, instilled into his mind the first lessons of religion, and had taught him to read fluently before he had completed his fourth year. She made him repeat to her his Latin lessons, though ignorant herself of the language; she conducted him every morning to school; made him practise drawing under her own superintendence, and supplied him with the best works on history and literature. His father had destined him for the army. In the library of the Gymnasium, where he stood at the head of the classes of history, geography, and mathematics, he lighted upon a copy of Gesner's History of Animals and Serpents, with coloured plates; and, about the same time, he had discovered a complete copy of Buffon among the books of one of his relatives. His taste for Natural History now became a passion. He copied the figures which these works contained, and coloured them in conformity with the descriptions; whilst he did not overlook the intellectual beauties of his author.

In the fourteenth year of his age he was appointed president of a society of his schoolfellows, which he was the means of organising, and of which he drew up the rules; and seated on the foot of his bed, which was the president's chair, he first showed his oratorical powers in the discussion of various questions, suggested by the reading of books of natural history and travels, which was the principal object of the society.

When at the age of nineteen, the casual dissection of a colmar, a species of cuttle-fish, induced Cuvier to study the anatomy of the mollusca; and the examination of some fossil terebratulae, which had been dug up near F?camp, in June, 1791, suggested to him the idea of comparing fossil with living animals; and thus, as he himself said, "the germ of his two most important labours--the comparison of fossil with living species, and the reform of the classification of the animal kingdom--had their origin at this epoch."

WATT'S DISCOVERY OF THE COMPOSITION OF WATER.

HOW PASCAL WEIGHED THE ATMOSPHERE.

Pascal's Treatise on the weight of the whole mass of air forms the basis of the modern science of Pneumatics. In order to prove that the mass of air presses by its weight on all the bodies which it surrounds, and also that it is elastic and compressible, he carried a balloon, half filled with air, to the top of the Puy de Dome, a mountain about 500 toises above Clermont, in Auvergne. It gradually inflated itself as it ascended, and when it reached the summit, it was quite full, and swollen as if fresh air had been blown into it; or, what is the same thing, it swelled in proportion as the weight of the column of air which pressed upon it was diminished. When again brought down, it became more and more flaccid, and when it reached the bottom, it resumed its original condition. In the nine chapters of which the Treatise consists, Pascal shows that all the phenomena and effects hitherto ascribed to the horror of a vacuum arise from the weight of the mass of air; and after explaining the variable pressure of the atmosphere in different localities, and in its different states, and the rise of water in pumps, he calculates that the whole mass of air round our globe weighs 8,983,889,440,000,000,000 French pounds.

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