Part 7

FERGUSON AND HIS WIFE.

James Ferguson and his wife led a cat-and-dog life, and she is not once alluded to in the philosopher's autobiography. About the year 1750, one evening, while he was delivering to a London audience a lecture on astronomy, his wife entered the room in a passion, and maliciously overturned several pieces of the apparatus; when all the notice Ferguson took of the catastrophe was the observation to the audience--"Ladies and gentlemen, I have the misfortune to be married to this woman."

A DESCENT IN A DIVING-BELL.

Sir George Head, in his shrewdly humorous _Home Tour_, gives an amusing picture of a pair of operative divers whom he saw in the Hull docks. Sir George was passing as the workmen were raising the diving-bell, when he stepped into the lighter to observe the state of the labourers on their return from below. He had a remarkably good view of their features, at a time when they had no reason to expect any one was looking at them; for, as the bell was raised very slowly, he had an opportunity of seeing within it, by stooping, the moment its side was above the gunwale of the lighter. But, Sir George shall relate what he saw:--

"A pair of easy-going, careless fellows, each with a red nightcap on his head, sat opposite one another, by no means over-heated or exhausted, and apparently with no other want in the world than that of 'summut to drink;' they had been under water exactly two hours. I asked them what were their sensations on going down? They said that, before a man was used to it, it produced a feeling as if the ears were bursting; that, on the bell first dipping, they were in the habit of holding their noses; at the same time of breathing as gently as possible, and that thus they prevented any disagreeable effect: they added, the air below was hot, and made a man thirsty;--the latter observation, though in duty bound I received as a hint, I believe to be true; nevertheless, the service cannot be formidable, as the extra pay is only one shilling per day. Had there been any thing extraordinary to see below, I should have asked permission to go down; but the water was by no means clear, and the muddy bottom of the docks was not a sufficient recompence for the disagreeable sensation. Two men descend at a time, and four pump the air into the bell through the leathern hose; the bell is nearly a square, or rather an oblong, vessel of cast-iron, with ten bull's-eye lights at the top, which lights are fortified within by a lattice of strong iron wire, sufficient to resist an accidental blow of a crowbar, or other casualty.--Notwithstanding the great improvements made in diving-bells since their invention, after all precautions, a man in a diving-bell is, certainly, in a state of awful dependence upon human aid: in case of the slightest accident to the air-pump, or even a single stitch of the leathern hose giving way, long before the ponderous vessel could be raised to the surface, life must be extinct."

SIR HUMPHRY DAVY AN ANGLER.

Laybach, in Styria, is interesting, for having been the retreat of Sir Humphry Davy not long before his death: he resided in an hotel here, and the pretty daughter of the hostess relates several anecdotes of him. He was a most indefatigable angler: his extraordinary success in transferring the trout to his basket procured for him the title of "the English wizard;" and the scared peasants, who could never understand by what artificial means he caught the fish, shunned him as if he had been his Satanic majesty. He spent the greater part of the day in angling, or in geologizing among the mountains; he generally passed his evenings in the company of his hostess' pretty daughter, who made his tea, and was his antagonist at écarté, or some other light game; and the maid of the inn played her cards so well, that she secured a handsome legacy from the philosopher in his will.

MISS CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL.

This very interesting lady died at Hanover on the 9th of January, 1848, in the 98th year of her age. She was the sister of Sir William Herschel; and consequently, aunt to Sir John Herschel, the present representative of this truly scientific family.

Miss Herschel was the constant companion of her brother, and sole assistant of his astronomical labours, to the success of which her indefatigable zeal, diligence, and singular accuracy of calculation, not a little contributed. From the first commencement of his astronomical pursuits, her attendance on both his daily labours and nightly watches was put in requisition; and was found so useful, that on Herschel's removal from Bath to Datchet, and subsequently to Slough, he being then occupied with the review of the heavens and other researches, she performed the whole of the arduous duties of his astronomical assistant; not only reading the clocks and noting down all the observations from dictation as an amanuensis, but subsequently executing the extensive and laborious numerical calculations necessary to render them available to science. For the performance of these duties, his majesty King George the Third was pleased to place her in the receipt of a salary sufficient for her singularly moderate wants and retired habits.

Arduous, however, as these occupations must appear, especially when it is considered that her brother's observations were always carried on (circumstances permitting) till daybreak, without regard to season, and indeed chiefly in winter, they proved insufficient to exhaust her activity. In the intervals, she found time both for astronomical observations of her own, and for the execution of more than one work of great extent and utility. The observations she made with a small Newtonian sweeper, constructed for her by her brother, with which she found no less than eight comets; and on five of these occasions her claim to the _first_ discovery is admitted. These sweeps also proved productive of the detection of several remarkable nebulæ and clusters of stars, previously unobserved.

On her brother's death, in 1822, Miss Herschel returned to Hanover, which she never again quitted; passing the last twenty-six years of her life in repose--enjoying the society, and cherished by the regard of, her remaining relatives and friends; gratified by the occasional visits of eminent astronomers, and honoured with many marks of favour and distinction on the part of the King of Hanover, the Crown Prince, and his amiable and illustrious consort. To within a very short period of her death, her health continued uninterrupted, her faculties perfect, and her memory (especially of the scenes and circumstances of former days) remarkably clear and distinct. Her end was tranquil and free from suffering--a simple cessation of life.

We append the following just and eloquent tribute to the merits of Miss Herschel, from Dr. Nichol's "Views of the Architecture of the Heavens:"--

"The astronomer (Sir William Herschel), during these engrossing nights, was constantly assisted in his labours by a devoted maiden sister, who braved with him the inclemency of the weather--who heroically shared his privations that she might participate in his delights--whose pen, we are told, committed to paper his notes of observations as they issued from his lips; 'she it was,' says the best of authorities, 'who, having passed the nights near the telescope, took the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the dawn of day, and produced a fair copy of the night's work on the ensuing morning; she it was who planned the labour of each succeeding night, who reduced every observation, made every calculation, and kept everything in systematic order;' she it was--Miss Caroline Herschel--who helped our astronomer to gather an imperishable name. This venerable lady has in one respect been more fortunate than her brother; she has lived to reap the full harvest of their joint glory. Some years ago, the gold medal of our Astronomical Society was transmitted to her at her native Hanover, whither she removed after Sir William's death; and the same learned Society has recently inscribed her name upon its roll: but she has been rewarded by yet more, by what she will value beyond all earthly pleasures; she has lived to see her favourite nephew, him who grew up under her eye unto an astronomer, gather around him the highest hopes of scientific Europe, and prove himself fully equal to tread in the footsteps of his father."

TYCHO BRAHE'S CREDULITY.

This great astronomer strongly--and weakly--believed in the predictions of astrology. If, when he went abroad, he met an old woman, or a hare crossed his path, he would turn back, being persuaded that evil was threatened him.

INVENTION OF THE TELESCOPE, AND EARLY DISCOVERIES WITH IT.

It is singular that the epoch of the most extensive discoveries upon the surface of our planet was immediately succeeded by man's first taking possession of a considerable part of the celestial spaces by the telescope. The powers of this instrument have not yet reached their limit. The feeble commencement, however hardly magnifying as much as thirty-two times in linear dimension, enabled astronomers to penetrate into cosmical depths, before unknown. The accidental discovery of the space-penetrating power of the telescope was first made in Holland, probably as early as the close of 1608. According to the latest documentary investigations, this great invention may be claimed by Hans Lippershey, a native of Wesel and a spectacle-maker at Middelburg, who, on the 2nd of October, 1608, offered to the States-General certain instruments "with which one can see to a distance." Two other persons, Adrienz and Jansen, made a similar offer, nearly at the same time.

When the news of the Dutch invention reached Venice, Galileo was accidentally present; he at once divined what were the essential conditions of the construction, and immediately completed a telescope at Padua for his own use. He directed it first to the mountains in the moon; then examined with small magnifying powers the group of the Pleiades, the cluster of stars in Cancer, the Milky Way, and the group of stars in the head of Orion. Then followed in quick succession the great discovery of the four satellites of Jupiter, the two "handles" of Saturn, or his surrounding ring imperfectly seen, so that its true character was not at once recognised; the solar spots, and the crescent form of Venus. The occultations of the satellites, or their entrance into the shadow of Jupiter, led to the knowledge of the velocity of light; and led Galileo to perceive their importance in the determination of the longitude of places on land.

Galileo carried his first telescope to Venice, where his time for more than a month was employed in showing and explaining its nature to the different inhabitants. A ludicrous instance is related of the insatiable telescope mania which had seized on the people. Galileo went one day to the tower of St. Mark, in order to make observations on its summit, but the people espied him, and compelled him to hand a telescope which he had made for himself, from one to another, until all had gratified their curiosity by having a peep; and, after he had been detained several hours, he was not a little glad to regain his telescope, and return home. But this was not all: he heard them inquiring at what inn he lodged; and foreseeing the inconvenience of the celebrity which was beginning to attach to him, he left Venice early the next morning, to pursue his observations with greater privacy.

Melancholy is it to relate that these brilliant disclosures brought temporary disgrace and positive suffering upon their author. Galileo, at the age of seventy-seven, after having devoted his life to useful and valuable labours, was forced to abjure his philosophical opinions, and to declare, on his knees, that he believed his doctrines concerning the motion of the earth round the sun, the existence of solar spots, &c., to be false and pernicious. The moral firmness of the old man was not sufficient to make him brave the terrors of the Inquisition, and we must therefore look with a lenient eye at this abjuration of doctrines which at the very moment he firmly believed to be true: but what shall we say of those men, who, under the plea of religion, could subject so noble a mind to such humiliating degradation!

IDENTITY OF BLACK AND GREEN TEA.

Green and Black Tea are produced from the same plant, though the botanists were long at issue about this matter. The idea of green tea being dried upon copper is proved to be a popular fallacy, for the tea would be flavoured and spoiled in the process; besides, the bloom can be given by harmless means. Dr. Lettsom, by the way, thought it was given by a vegetable process.

Mr. Ball, who has written a practical volume on "the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea," describes an experiment made by him, proving that tea may be dried _black and green_, at once, in the same vessel and over the same fire: he divided the pan, and the leaves on one side he kept in motion, and the other quiet--when the latter became black, and the former green; thus proving the difference of colour to be not derived from any management of heat, but from manipulation, the heat being the same in both cases.

At the same time, certain Chinese rogues glaze our hysons most unscrupulously; and it has been proved by chemical analysis, that the Chinese green teas are artificially coloured, though not with indigo, as represented by the green tea merchants. We may add, that gunpowder tea is dried at the highest temperature, and pekoe at the lowest; and the chemical cause of black tea is its loss of tannin in its drying, previous to roasting, an opinion that is supported by the testimony of Liebig. Again, Mr. Ball thinks there may be one species of tea plant, but several varieties, and that all botanical difference is destroyed in the course of packing.

PROTECTION BY RUST.

Rust is usually associated with decay. Professor Faraday, however, observes that, in some cases, it is curious to see how tin, a metal having a slight attraction for oxygen, protects other metals from oxidation or rust. In Canada, tin-plate is used for the roofs of houses, and you are dazzled by the lustre of the setting sun upon the roofs; whilst there, although it is exposed to the atmosphere year after year, it does not decay, because the superficial coat of oxide protects the tin and iron beneath.

THE LION EATEN AS FOOD.

Captain C. Kennedy, in his "Journey through Algeria and Tunis," notes:--"We were anxious to know if there was any chance of another lion being found in the neighbourhood, and were informed that doubtless there were plenty; but such was the nature of the ground, that, unless their exact haunts were known (in which case they were generally killed), we might go out for a fortnight, and never encounter a single beast. The skins of all lions killed throughout the regency are sent to the Bey, who pays a handsome premium upon each. The flesh is eaten: contrary to our expectation, we found it excellent, and made a capital supper upon the ends of the ribs, stewed with a little salt and red pepper; it tasted like very young beef, and was neither tough nor strong flavoured."

THE MOON SEEN THROUGH LORD ROSSE'S TELESCOPE.

In 1846, the Rev. Dr. Scoresby had the gratification of observing the moon through the stupendous telescope constructed by Lord Rosse, at Parsonstown. It appeared like a globe of molten silver, and every object of the extent of one hundred yards was quite visible. Edifices, therefore, of the size of York Minster, or even of the ruins of Whitby Abbey, might be easily perceived, if they had existed. But there was no appearance of anything of that nature; neither was there any indication of the existence of water, or of an atmosphere. There were a great number of extinct volcanoes, several miles in breadth; through one of them there was a line of continuance about 150 miles in length, which ran in a straight direction, like a railway. The general appearance, however, was like one vast ruin of nature; and many of the pieces of rock driven out of the volcanoes, appeared to lie at various distances.

LONGEVITY OF THE BEETLE.

Some facts recently stated to the British Association may, perhaps, shake faith in the "corporal sufferance" of the beetle, whose cause has been so eloquently pleaded by Shakspeare. Sir G. Richardson has exhibited a beetle found imbedded in some artificial concrete, where it must have been at least sixteen years; yet, when the animal was brought to him, it was alive, and lived for six weeks after--the ordinary duration of the life of this species of beetle being but two or three years. Mr. Darwin left one of the same kind of beetles in a covered vessel for a year, without its being killed; he also dropped upon one hydrocyanic acid, but it walked off, quite unaffected by the poison.

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.

Sagua La Grande, on the island of Cuba, was the only place where total darkness was produced by the eclipse of the sun, on the 25th of July, 1846. The eclipse phenomenon commenced at 9h. 41m. 32s. a.m., sky clear. As the time of the total darkness approached, all animated nature gave signs of approaching night, man only excepted. Still, the mirth of the gay donnas and senoras soon ceased; the slaves abandoned their occupations, and many fell on their knees. The darkness came on gradually, and at 17 minutes past 11, the sun was totally obscured. There stood the moon, covering the whole face of the sun, and presenting the appearance of a great black ball in the heavens, with rays of light diverging from behind it. The rays gave out a pale, aurora-like reflection upon the earth, resembling that cast by the moon when half-full. This lasted only fifty seconds; and, at a little past 12, the eclipse ended.

THE DIVING-BELL.

Was first used in Europe at Toledo, in Spain, in 1538, before Charles V. and 10,000 spectators. The experiment was made by two Greeks, who, taking a very large kettle suspended by ropes with the mouth downward, fixed planks in it, on which they placed themselves, and with a lighted candle gradually descended to a considerable depth.

RATE OF BALLOON TRAVELLING.

Mr. Green relates some singular experiences of the variety of currents in our atmosphere, influencing the rate of his aërial travelling. He has found that at a great elevation, the north-west current generally prevails throughout the year, without reference to the direction of the wind near the earth; this constant current being at an elevation of from 13,000 to 14,000 feet. This upper current carries his balloon at the rate of six miles an hour; whilst the lower current wafts it at the rate of thirty miles an hour. He states, that in one of his ascents from Liverpool, he entered the constant current at an elevation of 14,000 feet, and descended into a lower south-east current at the height of 12,000 feet; the former carrying his balloon at the rate of five miles, and the latter at the rate of eighty miles an hour. He has travelled ninety-seven miles in fifty-eight minutes, and his speed has often been from sixty to eighty miles an hour.

SAFE DESCENT IN A PARACHUTE.

This feat, of very rare occurrence, was accomplished in September, 1838, when Mr. Hampton ascended with a parachute attached to a gas balloon, from Cheltenham, to the height of 9000 feet. At this altitude, he cut the connecting-cord, when the balloon rose for some hundred feet, and burst; Mr. Hampton safely descending in the parachute, within thirteen minutes; the collapsed balloon having reached the earth before him.

"FOSSIL RAIN."

In 1838, there was discovered at Liverpool, the impression of a fossil shower of rain upon sandstone. Dr. Buckland observes of the phenomenon:--"It could not be mistaken for ripple of the water, that was common enough: it had all the small-pox character, the pitted appearance, which a heavy shower of rain would leave, and which would be covered up by the next tide, and so preserved to future generations."

MELTING OF A WATCH BY LIGHTNING.

During a violent thunder-storm in 1844, a fishing-boat, belonging to one of the Shetland Islands, was struck by lightning. The electric fluid came down the mast, which it tore into shivers; and melted a watch in the pocket of a man who was sitting close by the side of the mast, without injuring him. Not only was the man altogether unhurt, but his clothes also were uninjured; and he was not aware of what had taken place until, on taking out his watch, he found it was fused into a mass!

THE INDIAN JUGGLERS' SECRET.

Lieutenant Hutton states, that the snakes which the Indian jugglers handle with impunity are drugged with opium, which renders them quiet and harmless. The effects of the drug will not wear off for a fortnight or three weeks; but a drugged snake which Lieutenant Hutton purchased, after the lapse of three weeks, flew at him unexpectedly, and nearly strangled him.

THE ART OF STEREOTYPE.

The first person mentioned as practising the modern art of stereotype, was a Dutchman, Van der Mey, who resided at Leyden about the end of the sixteenth century. He printed four books from solid plates; but at his death the art of preparing solid blocks was lost, or wholly neglected. In 1725, however, Mr. Ged, a jeweller of Edinburgh, apparently without knowledge of Van der Mey's performances, devised the plan of printing from plates; and in 1729 he entered into partnership with three other persons, for the purpose of prosecuting the art. A privilege was obtained by the company, from the University of Cambridge, to print Bibles and Prayer-books; but one of Ged's partners was so averse to the success of the plan, that he engaged such people for the work as he thought most likely to spoil it. The compositors wilfully made errors in correcting, and the pressmen battered the plates when the masters were absent. In consequence, the books were suppressed by authority, and the plates melted. Mr. Ged, with the help of his son, whom he had apprenticed to the printing trade, actually produced, in 1736, an 18mo edition of Sallust; and in 1742 another book was printed in Newcastle. But after the death of Ged and his son, the art again fell into disuse, till in 1780 it was revived by Mr. Tulloch of Glasgow, who practised it in partnership with Mr. Foulis, the University printer.

"RAINING TREES."

During Sir John Herschel's residence at the Cape of Good Hope, he often observed that on the windward side of the Table Mountain the clouds were spread out and descended very low, but frequently without any rain falling; while, on the lee-side they poured over the precipitous face of the mountain, producing as they rolled out, the well-known phenomenon of the table-cloth. Sir John, however, found that as he walked under fir-trees in the neighbourhood, while the clouds were closely overhead, he was subjected to a copious shower; but on coming from beneath the trees it was fair. On inquiring into the cause of this, he ascertained that the cloud was condensed on the trees, and thus the umbrella-shaped tops of the firs acted a part quite the reverse of our umbrellas in this country, for they wetted the person beneath them, instead of keeping him dry.

THE INVISIBLE DISPATCH.