Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century

Another singular modification of the girder principle occurs in the bridge built by Brunel across a tidal river at Saltash, Fig. 145. Here only a single line of rails is carried...

“With a view of testing practically this theory, I constructed a cylindrical vessel of 3 ft. in diameter and 5 ft. in height, somewhat like an ordinary cupola furnace (see Fig....

Probably no one mechanical contrivance is so much and so variously applied as the _Screw_. The common screw-nail, which is so often used by carpenters for fastening pieces of me...

The solution of the problem was announced in 1879. Some years before, G. J. Snelus had come to the conclusion that with a siliceous lining it would be impossible to eliminate ph...

The water constantly evaporating in the boiler of a steam engine is usually renewed by forcing water into the boiler against the pressure of the steam by means of a small pump w...

The subject of fire-arms embraces a very wide ground, as will appear if we consider the many different forms in which these weapons are constructed in order best to serve partic...

The Burleigh perforator acts by repeated blows, like Bartlett and Sommeiller’s, but its construction is more simple, and the machine is lighter and not half the size, while its...

The hydraulic main, as already mentioned, being kept half full of tar into which the lower ends of the dip-pipes descend, prevents the gas from escaping through the stand-pipes...

It may be stated at once, that this velocity has the amazing magnitude of 185,000 miles in one second of time, and that the fact of light requiring time to travel was first disc...

The descriptions we have given of only two lines of railway may suffice to show that the modern engineer is deterred by no obstacles, but boldly drives his lines through places...

Among other crystals which possess the property of doubly refracting, and therefore of polarizing, is the mineral called _tourmaline_, which is a semi-transparent substance, dif...

The compartment immediately behind the “steering chamber” contains the engines which are of the Brotherhood type, provided with _three_ single acting cylinders. The three-fold t...

An ingenious plan was devised by Jablochkoff for dispensing with all mechanism for regulating the distance of the carbons. This invention is known as the _electric candle_, and...

The power of a locomotive, of course, depends on the pressure of the steam and the size of the cylinder, &c.; but a very much lower limit than is imposed by these conditions is...

The announcement of some diamonds having been found in America had no effect on the prices in the Indian market, but the exports that soon after came from Brazil in great abunda...

An extremely ingenious system of signalling, by which the speed could be greatly increased, has been devised by Sir Charles Wheatstone, and is largely adopted by the British pos...

The form of the human eye and the general arrangement of its parts may be understood by referring to Fig. 234, which is a section of the eyeball. It has a form nearly globular,...

It is the statement as to the futility of assigning limits to scientific discovery that has been justified by facts. The preceding edition of this work was not long in the hands...

When the use of the electric telegraph became general, it was found necessary to establish in all large towns branch stations, from which messages were conveyed to the central s...

The indulgent reader who may have followed the course of the foregoing pages, will perhaps peruse the title of this article with some little bewilderment. His attention has been...

But it is the recently discovered and extremely copious springs and wells in Pennsylvania and Canada which have given a vastly extended importance to the trade in mineral oil. R...

An extremely effective plan for the defence of coasts and harbours was originated by Colonel Moncrieff, when about 1863 he contrived a method of mounting large guns on the disap...

The Walter Machine is not fed with separate sheets of paper, but takes its supply from a huge roll, and itself cuts the paper into sheets after it has impressed it on both sides...

Shells are also used with the Woolwich rifled guns. The shells are of the same shape as the solid shots, from which they differ in being cast hollow, and having their interior f...

A rival scheme for carrying a ship canal across the isthmus that divides the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is that known as the Nicaragua Canal, as the proposed route is to cross...

The arrangement of metals and acid which we have described is termed a _voltaic couple_, _element_, or _cell_; and a great controversy has long been carried on among men of scie...

The electro-motor may, therefore, be considered simply as a dynamo worked backward, and almost any form of dynamo may in this way be used as an electro-motor, that is, a current...

But it is perhaps in the optical apparatus of lighthouses that the greatest improvements and most admirable inventions are to be found. When only the blaze of an open fire furni...

The undulatory theory gives also an easy explanation of colours; they being, according to the theory, only the effects, as already stated, of the different rates of vibrations o...

Modes of making phenomena record the time and duration of their own occurrence are now much used in all scientific investigations; and in connection with the electric _chronogra...

It would be impossible within our limits to even briefly describe the great number of improvements and modifications of Bell’s system that were devised by various persons soon a...

Sir D. Brewster first noticed in 1832 that certain coloured gases have the power of absorbing some of the sun’s rays, so that the spectrum, when the rays are made to pass throug...

By means of an instrument to be presently described, the ophthalmoscope, it is possible to view directly the whole surface of the retina, and to observe the inverted images of t...

It will be seen that the early diamond-seekers at the Cape followed very primitive methods, by simply washing in sieves the gravel and sand shovelled out of the river banks; and...

The nature of the chemical changes which may be set up in an explosive substance, and the rapidity with which these changes proceed throughout a mass of the material, are greatl...

The landscape painter is always gratified if he can introduce into his picture some piece of water, and it can hardly be doubted that much of the charm of lakes and rivers is du...

When the traffic in the streets of London became so great that the ordinary thoroughfares were unable to meet public requirements, the bold project was conceived of making a rai...

These are only a few of the instances in which actions of this kind have been observed. It is remarkable that the order of the first two columns in this table may be inverted wi...

The distance between the rails in Great Britain is 4 ft. 8½ in., that width having been adopted by George Stephenson in the construction of the earlier lines. Brunel, the engine...

The gases leaving the throat of the furnace consist mainly of nitrogen and a little carbonic acid, together with about one-third of their volume of the combustible gases, carbon...

After a severe competition it appeared that the best weapon would be produced by combining Henry’s system of rifling with Martini’s mechanism for breech-loading. The parts const...

These effects are much more powerful when, instead of lengths of straight wire, or single circles of wires, we use two coils of wire, one of which, namely, that which conveys th...

On the outbreak of the Crimean War (1854) the minds of many inventors were occupied by the problem of ordnance construction, and this also engaged the attention among others of...

It should be mentioned that at this aquarium the water is never filtered, but its clearness is obtained merely by the perfect system of circulation. The unused food and excremen...

A little more than four years after the opening of the Forth Bridge, in June 1894, another great enterprise which had been commenced eight years before, was inaugurated by the P...

The first step in the conversion of the pig iron usually taken has been, and to a certain extent even is still, to remelt the metal in what is termed a _finery furnace_, a kind...

This machine affords a striking example of the application of the copying principle which is the fundamental feature of modern manufacturing processes. It would hardly be suppos...

This shows that we have only to adjust suitably the tension, length, and weight of a string in order to make it vibrate at any rate we please. Now in the oscillation of currents...

When the torpedo has been launched over the vessel’s side, the latter being in motion, the torpedo immediately diverges clear of the ship; and when the buoys have also reached t...

When the signals are being rapidly transmitted through a long submarine line, the currents at the receiving station are much enfeebled and retarded, and the result is that the m...

The instruments we have mentioned, except the miniature spectroscope, show only a portion of the spectra at once, a movement of the telescope being requisite to bring each part...

Aluminium is a white malleable metal, in colour and hardness not unlike zinc. Its colour is not so white as that of silver, as it has a marked bluish tint. It can be rolled into...

Fig. 319_e_ shows the form of the phonograph as designed by Mr. Edison in 1877. It had a brass cylinder (A) upon which a narrow helical groove was cut, and was mounted upon an a...

The methods of carrying on the gold-seeking operations vary according to the nature of the deposit which is worked and the resources of the miner. The simplest, which was that m...

The transfer process is also applied to place on the stone characters which have been written with a pen in the ordinary manner on prepared paper. In this way a person’s handwri...

Up to 1820, as already mentioned, Indian-rubber was used only for effacing pencil-marks, and about that time a piece half an inch square sold for two shillings and sixpence. But...

Brewster’s stereoscope—which is far more widely known than Wheatstone’s—has two acute prisms, or, more usually, two portions of a convex lens are cut out, and placed with their...

In the Gatling the barrels, ten in number, are distinct and separate, being screwed into a solid revolving piece towards the breech end, and passing near their muzzles through a...

Iron has also been called “the mainspring of civilization,” and the significance of the phrase is obvious enough when we consider the enormous number and infinite variety of the...

In our own day this fancy of Strada’s has been literally and completely realized in all save the convenient portability of the sympathetic dials; but this and the other forms of...

Before proceeding farther, it will perhaps be well to make the unscientific reader acquainted with the chemistry of nitrous oxide. We may presume that he knows that atmospheric...

The “blue ground” was at first supposed to be the original home of the diamond, within which it had somehow taken its shape. But no satisfactory explanation was forthcoming as t...

The operation is effected in the apparatus represented in Fig. 355. It consists of a large iron cylinder, within which works a paddle on a vertical revolving spindle, which, bei...

No. VI. in the foregoing table requires some explanation. To heel a ship over to a certain angle a certain amount of _work_ must be done, and in the scientific sense _work_ is d...

Without any rivalry from the electric-light, gas, as a domestic luminant, has now met with a competitor on the ground of cheapness in the mineral oils mentioned in the preceding...

Air has also been made the medium for conveying intelligence in another manner than by shooting written messages through tubes, for its property of transmitting pressure has bee...

One of the finest of the large ironclads is the _Hercules_, of which a section amidships is presented on the next page. This ship is 325 ft. in length, and 59 ft. in breadth, an...

The misfortunes of the _Great Eastern_, and its failure as a commercial speculation in the hands of its first proprietors, have been quoted as an illustration of the ill luck, i...

The great tunnel of the St. Gothard passes from Gœschenen, on the Reuss, beneath the col of the pass, and emerges close to the village of Airolo, on the banks of the Ticino. The...

This brief account of the spectroscope and its revelations, which is all that our space permits us to give, will not fail to awaken new thoughts in the mind of a reader who has...

Having obtained the time, it will be easy to work out the lengths _b_ and _a_ as 26,648 ft. and 9114·1 ft. respectively; and as _c_/_b_ = _cosine_ 20°, we have _c_ = 26,648 × ·9...

In the American Civil War the stationary torpedoes at first laid down were self-acting, that is, they were so arranged as to explode when touched by a passing vessel. Such arran...

The notion of connecting England and France by a submarine line of railways is not of the latest novelty, but has been from time to time mooted by the engineers of both countrie...

At the end of the article on the phonograph in a subsequent page, the reader will find a remark as to the effect that might be produced by a combination of that instrument with...

If we try to electrify a piece of metal by holding it in the hand and rubbing it against woollen cloth, silk, or other substance, we shall fail in the attempt: no signs of elect...

This fact remained without explanation from 1814 to 1859, when Kirchhoff accidentally found, to his surprise, that the dark D line could be produced artificially. He says: “In o...

But so much have these things become in the present day matters of course, that it is difficult for one who has not witnessed the revolution produced by such applications of sci...

The greatest discovery of the age has, as already indicated, immediate and important practical bearings. The amount of thought which, even in the present day, is devoted by unsc...

Excellent photographs of the planets have also been taken by Mr. Common and others; but they are of course small, and have contributed so far, much less to our astronomical know...

That water or any other liquid would behave in the manner just described might be deduced from a property of liquids which is sufficiently obvious, namely, the freedom with whic...

There is reason to hope that the time is not far distant when all our tedious mechanical methods of reproducing drawings by wood or steel engravings will be superseded by proces...

On board of some modern war-ships where speed is essential, and where the engines are driven at a very great number of revolutions per minute, as in the case of torpedo-boat cat...

Another interesting application of hydraulic power is to the raising of ships vertically out of the water, in order to examine the bottoms of their hulls, and effect any necessa...

The Suez Canal is not so much a triumph of engineering as a monument of successful enterprise and determination on the part of its great promoter, M. Lesseps, in the face of gre...

The Eiffel Tower having proved one of the most striking features of the great Paris Exhibition, and of itself a novelty sufficient to attract visitors to the spot, and having, l...

We begin with _carbon_, which forms the chief constituent of all our combustibles. Some specimens of graphite, plumbago, or “blacklead” consist of almost pure carbon (98 per cen...

When the electric telegraph came into use and it was found possible to use it for communication of intelligence to great distances, it is not surprising that the further problem...

The minimum width of the canal at the bottom is 120 feet, its depth 26 feet. But for several miles below Manchester this width will be increased, so that ships may be moored alo...

The expediency of the regulation appointing three men to be always at the lighthouse may be illustrated by an incident which occurred about the beginning of the present century...

Soon after the introduction of ether the use of nitrous oxide was discontinued by the dentists, on account of the apparent uncertainty of its action. Within the last few years,...

The first important step towards the possibility of a printing machine was made, when for these inking balls was substituted a cylindrical roller, mounted on handles, Fig. 150....

Naphthaline—another of the colour-yielding substances of coal-tar—is, like benzol, a hydro-carbon, but one belonging to quite another chemical series. Its formula is C_{10}H_{8}...

“Pursuant to the instructions received from the Deputy Master to furnish you with my opinion on the relative merits of the electric and gas lights under trial at the Clock Tower...

Below the dial of the instrument, in Fig. 282, may be seen two handles. Each of these is connected with an arrangement constituting the transmitting apparatus, by which the meta...

The reader can hardly fail to perceive that powerful aid to the investigation of the laws of nature must be afforded by such instruments as we have described. And we have but ta...

It may be thought impossible that vegetable matter should have so changed as to become a dense, black, glistening, brittle mass, showing no obvious forms of leaves or texture of...

The “wet collodion” process, that has been described on the preceding page, maintained an almost undisputed hold for more than twenty years in the practice of photography in all...

The Forth Bridge spans the estuary at Queensferry nine miles north-west from Edinburgh, and its purpose is to afford uninterrupted railway communication along the eastern side o...

Who saw what ferns and palms were pressed Under the tumbling mountain’s breast, In the safe herbal of the coal? But when the quarried means were piled, All is waste and worthles...

Only by knowledge of Nature’s laws can man subjugate her powers and appropriate her materials for his own purposes. The whole history of arts and inventions is a continued comme...

Gun, 32–pounder, 191. 68–pounder, 192. 35–ton, 201. 81–ton, 201. 100–ton, 201. 110–ton, 202. Elswick 4·7–in., 206. Maxim, 225. Moncrieff, 208. Nordenfelt, 223.