Part 9

The late Earl of Rosse, with a devotion to science which has few parallels, constructed this gigantic telescope, at his seat, Parsonstown, in the south of Ireland. To the frame of the vast instrument is fixed a large cubical wooden box, about eight feet wide; in this there is a door, through which two men go in to remove, or to replace, the cover of the mirror. To this box is fastened the tube, which is made of deal staves, and hooped like a huge cask. It is about 40 feet long, and 8 feet diameter in the middle. _The Dean of Ely once walked through the tube with an umbrella up!_ The stupendous speculum weighs three tons; the casting and polishing of it were labours of wonderful skill. The telescope is not turned to any part of the sky, but limited to the range of half an hour on each side of the meridian, through which its motion is given by powerful clockwork, independent of the observer. For this purpose it stands between two pieces of masonry, of gothic design, which harmonize with Lord Rosse's castle; one of these piers sustaining the galleries for the observer, and the second the clockwork and other apparatus. There is an elegant arrangement of counterpoises to balance the enormous mass, so that a comparatively slight force only is required to elevate or depress it. A correspondent of the _Mechanics' Magazine_ thus describes the capacity of this wonderful instrument:--

"Such is its power, that if a star of the first magnitude were removed to such a distance, that its light would be three millions of years in reaching us, this telescope would, nevertheless, show it to the human eye. Is it to be wondered at, then, that, with such an instrument, grand discoveries should be made? It has been pointed to the heavens; and, although in the beginning of its career, it has already accomplished mighty things. There are nebulous spots in the heavens which have baffled all the instruments hitherto constructed, but this telescope resolves their true character completely. Among the wonderful objects which have been subject to its scrutiny, is the nebula in the constellation of Orion. I have had an opportunity of examining it. It is one of the most curious objects in the whole heavens. It is not round, and it throws off furious lights. From the time of Herschel it has been subjected to the examination of the most powerful instruments--but it grew more and more mysterious and diverse in its character. When Lord Rosse's great telescope was directed to its examination, it for a long time resisted its power. He found it required patient examination--night after night, and month after month. At length, a pure atmosphere gave him the resolution of its constitution; and the stars of which it is composed burst upon the sight of man for the first time!"

ORIGIN OF REFLECTING LIGHTHOUSES.

In the last century, at a meeting of a society of mathematicians at Liverpool, one of the members proposed to lay a wager, that he would read a paragraph of a newspaper, at ten yards' distance, with the light of a farthing candle. The wager was laid, and the proposer, having covered the inside of a wooden dish with pieces of looking-glass, fastened in with glaziers' putty, placed his reflector behind the candle, and won his wager. One of the company marked this experiment with a philosophic eye. This was Captain Hutchinson, the dockmaster, with whom originated the reflecting lighthouses, erected at Liverpool in 1763.

WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE.

In 1825, there was opened in Cochin-China a canal, 23 miles long, 80 feet wide, and 12 feet deep. It was begun and finished in six weeks, although carried through large forests and over extensive marshes. Twenty thousand men worked upon it day and night; and it is stated that 7,000 died of fatigue.

LIFTING HEAVY PERSONS.

One of the most extraordinary pages in Sir David Brewster's _Letters on Natural Magic_, is the experiment in which a heavy man is raised with the greatest facility, when he is lifted up the instant that his own lungs, and those of the persons who raise him, are inflated with air. Thus, the heaviest person in the party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being supported by the one, and his back by the other. Four persons, one at each leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him--the person to be raised giving two signals, by clapping his hands. At the first signal, he himself and the four lifters begin to draw a long and full breath, and when the inhalation is completed, or the lungs filled, the second signal is given for raising the person from the chair. To his own surprise, and that of his bearers, he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were no heavier than a feather! Sir David Brewster states that he has seen this inexplicable experiment performed more than once; and he appeals for testimony to Sir Walter Scott, who had repeatedly seen the experiment, and performed the part, both of the load and of the bearer. It was first shown in England by a gentleman who saw it performed in a large party at Venice, under the direction of an officer of the American navy.

ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.

"To this Society," a well-informed writer has said, "some of our best artists have owed the most priceless of all services that can be rendered to men of genius at the outset of their career--appreciation on the part of an enlightened few--introduction under favourable auspices to the many."

The Society of Arts was established in 1754, chiefly by Mr. William Shipley, a drawing-master; but it was not until 1774 that the institution was fairly located in its own premises, built in handsome style by the Adams', in John Street, Adelphi; the object being denoted by the inscription upon the entablature of the pediment in the front of the mansion, in these words: "Arts and Commerce promoted."

There are many interesting anecdotes of the early awards of this Society. Thus, in 1758, Bacon, the sculptor, received for a small figure of Peace a reward of ten guineas; and the same artist gained the highest premium upon nine different occasions. In 1761, Nollekens received ten guineas for an alto-relievo of Jephtha's Vow; and two years later, fifty guineas for a more important piece of sculpture. Flaxman, in 1768, gained for one of his earliest attempts a grant of ten guineas; and for another work, in 1771, he obtained the Society's gold medal. Lawrence, at the early age of thirteen, received the reward of a silver-gilt palette, with five guineas, for his drawing in crayons of the Transfiguration; and the painter in the height of his subsequent prosperity, was accustomed to speak of the impulse thus given to his love of art. In 1807, Sir William Ross, at the age of twelve, received the Society's silver palette for a drawing of the death of Wat Tyler; Mr. Edwin Landseer gained a similar mark of approbation in 1810, for an etching; and to Mr. Wyon was adjudged the gold medal, in 1818, for a medal die. But to artists there is a feature of still greater interest in the Society's history: it was in its rooms that the first exhibition of paintings in England took place in 1760, which was continued with great success for some years.

Within about ninety years, the Society had distributed more than 100,000_l._ in premiums. The growth of forest trees was one of its early objects of encouragement; and we find among the recipients of its gold medals the Dukes of Bedford and Beaufort, the Earls of Winterton, Upper Ossory, and Mansfield; and Dr. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff. Then came agriculture, chemistry, manufactures, and mechanics. In the latter, the Society taught us, or at least aided those who did so, the manufacture of Turkey carpet, tapestry, weaving, and weaving to imitate the Marseilles and India quilting; also, how to improve our spinning and lace-making, our paper, and our catgut for musical instruments, our straw-bonnets, and artificial flowers.

The colonies shared in the Society's early encouragement: potash and pearlash were produced by its agent in North America; and it was busily engaged, just before the breaking out of the war of independence, in introducing the culture of the vine, the growth of silk-worms, and the manufacture of indigo and vegetable oils. But the rewards given to poor Bethnal-green and Spitalfields weavers, for useful inventions in their calling, illustrate, perhaps even better than any of the foregoing instances, the object of the Society which so honourably distinguishes it from other associations--its readiness to receive, examine, and reward every kind of useful invention that may be brought forward by those who have neither friends nor money to aid them in making their inventions known.

Nor must we forget Barry's grand series of paintings upon the Society's large room; of which Dr. Johnson said, "there is a grasp of mind there, which you will find nowhere else." Upon the walls, too, hang some fine portraits of the early presidents of the Society, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

VAST MIRRORS.

Mirrors are cast of larger dimensions at St. Petersburg than elsewhere. In the imperial manufactory, there was cast for Prince Potemkin, a mirror measuring 194 inches by 100. One of the same proportions, valued at 3000 guineas, was cast for the Duke of Wellington many years since, but was broken to atoms in its conveyance from St. Petersburg to England.

TRANSPORTATION OF THE COFFEE-TREE.

One of the most interesting episodes in the history of coffee is, that of the transportation of the plant of the coffee-tree, taken from the hothouses of Amsterdam, given to Louis XIV., and father of the three plants, one of which was taken to the French Antilles by Captain Declieux, who, in a scarcity of water experienced by the ship's crew, shared the small quantity which he had to drink, between himself and his dear coffee-plant. It is believed that from this plant has sprung all the coffee grown in the West Indies.

ARKWRIGHT'S SPINNING FRAME.

Mr. Arkwright tells us, that he accidentally derived the first hint of this great invention from seeing a red-hot iron bar elongated by being made to pass between rollers; and, though there is no mechanical analogy between that operation and the process of spinning, it is not difficult to imagine that, by reflecting upon it, and placing the subject in different points of view, it might lead him to his invention.

SPINNING FEATS.

Among the wonders of this branch of manufacture, the following deserve mention:--In 1745, a woman at East Dereham, in Norfolk, spun a single pound of wool into a thread of 84,000 yards in length, wanting only 80 yards of forty-eight miles, which, at the above period, was considered a circumstance of sufficient curiosity to merit a place in the records of the Royal Society. Since that time, however, a young lady of Norwich has spun a pound of combed wool into a thread of 168,000 yards; and she actually produced from the same weight of cotton a thread of 203,000 yards, equal to upwards of 115 miles:--this last thread, if woven, would produce about twenty yards of yard-wide muslin.

MARVELS OF THE ALCHEMISTS.

The pretended secret of the Alchemists was the transmutation of the baser metals into gold, which they occasionally exhibited to keep the dupes who supplied them with money in good spirits. This they performed in various ways. Sometimes they made use of crucibles with a false bottom. At the real bottom, they put a quantity of gold or silver. This was covered by a portion of powdered crucible mixed with gum or wax, and hardened. The material being put into a crucible and the heat applied, the false bottom disappeared; and at the end of the process, the gold or silver was found at the bottom of the crucible. Sometimes, they made a hole in a piece of charcoal, filled it with oxide of gold or silver, and stopped up the hole with a little wax; or they soaked the charcoal in solutions of these metals; or they stirred the mixture in the crucible with hollow rods, containing oxide of gold or silver within, and the end closed with wax. By these means, the gold or silver wanted was introduced during the operation, and considered as a product.

Sometimes the cunning wights used solutions of silver in nitric acid, or of gold in aqua-regia, or an amalgam of gold or silver, which being adroitly introduced, furnished the requisite quantity of metal. A common exhibition was to dip nails into a liquid, and take them out, half converted into gold. The nails were one-half gold and the other half iron, neatly soldered together, and the gold was covered with something to conceal the colour, which the liquid was capable of removing.

INVENTION OF THE HAND GEAR.

It has been said that we are indebted for the important invention in the steam-engine, termed hand gear, by which its valves or cocks are worked by the machine itself, to an idle boy named Humphrey Potter, who, being employed to stop and open a valve, saw that he could save himself the trouble of attending and watching it, by fixing a plug upon a part of the machine which came to the place at the proper times, in consequence of the general movement. If this anecdote be true, what does it prove? That Humphrey Potter might be very idle, but that he was, at the same time, very ingenious. It was a contrivance, not the result of accident, but of acute observation and successful experiment.--_Dr. Paris._

POKER ACROSS THE FIRE.

Boswell and Johnson held a conversation upon this experiment as follows:--_Boswell._ "Why, sir, do people play this trick, which I observe now when I look at your grate, putting the shovel against it to make the fire burn?"--_Johnson._ "They play the trick, but it does not make the fire burn. _There_ is a better (setting the poker perpendicularly up at right angles with the grate.) In days of superstition, they thought, as it made a cross with the bars, it would drive away the witch."

Upon this, Dr. Kearney notes: "it certainly does make the fire burn: by repelling the air, it throws a blast upon the fire, and so performs the parts, in some degree, of a blower or bellows." These observations were made only as to the shovel, but the poker is equally efficacious. "After all," says Croker, "it is possible that there may be some magnetic or electrical influence, which, in the progress of science, may be explained; and what has been thought a vulgar trick, may be proved to be a philosophical experiment."

Whatever may be the cause, there is every-day evidence that a poker or shovel, as the case may be, if laid across a dull fire, will revive it; because, we think, the poker or shovel receives and concentrates the heat, and produces an additional draught through the fire.

THE ARTESIAN WELL OF GRENELLE, AT PARIS.

The boring of this well by the Messrs. Mulot occupied seven years, one month, twenty-six days, to the depth of 1794-1/2 English feet, or 194-1/2 feet below the depth at which M. Elie de Beaumont foretold that water would be found. The sound, or borer, weighed 20,000 lb., and was treble the height of that of the dome of the Hospital des Invalides, at Paris. In May, 1837, when the bore had reached 1246 feet 8 inches, the great chisel and 262 feet of rods fell to the bottom; and, although these weighed five tons, M. Mulot tapped a screw on the head of the rods, and thus, connecting another length to them, after fifteen months' labour, drew up the chisel! On another occasion, this chisel having been raised with great force, sunk at one stroke 85 feet 3 inches into the chalk![7]

Footnote 7:

The depth of the Grenelle Well is nearly four times the height of Strasburg Cathedral; more than six times the height of the Hospital des Invalides, at Paris; more than four times the height of St. Peter's, at Rome; nearly four times and a half the height of St. Paul's, and nine times the height of the Monument, London. Lastly, suppose all the above edifices to be piled upon each other, from the base-line of the Well of Grenelle, and they would but reach within 11-1/2 feet of its surface.--_Year-Book of Facts_, 1843.

"WET THE ROPES."

The property of cords contracting their length by moisture became generally known, it is said, on the raising of the Egyptian obelisk in the square facing St. Peter's, at Rome, by order of Pope Sixtus V. The great work was undertaken in the year 1586, and the day for raising the obelisk was marked with great solemnity. High mass was celebrated at St. Peter's, and the architect and workmen received the benediction of the Pope. The blast of a trumpet was the given signal, when engines were set in motion by an incredible number of horses; but not until after fifty-two unsuccessful attempts had been made, was the huge block lifted from the earth. As the ropes which held it had somewhat stretched, the base of the obelisk could not reach the summit of the pedestal, when a man in the crowd cried out, "_Wet the ropes!_" This advice was followed, and the column, as of itself, gradually rose to the required height, and was placed upright on the pedestal prepared for it.

THE DEATH OF DR. BLACK.

In the society of friends such as Adam Smith, Hume, Carlyle, Home, Hutton, Playfair, and Dugald Stewart, the closing days of this great and gentle chemist wore tranquilly away. Towards the end, he sank into a low state of health, and only preserved himself from the severe shocks of the weather in the changeable climate of Edinburgh, by a degree of care and abstemiousness rarely surpassed even by the devoutest Brahmin. "It was his generous and manly wish, that he might never live to be a burden to his friends; and never was the wish more completely gratified. On the 26th November 1799, in the seventy-first year of his age, he expired without any convulsion, shock, or stupor, to announce or retard the approach of death. Being at table with his usual fare--some bread, a few prunes, and a measured quantity of milk diluted with water; and having the cup in his hand when the last stroke of the pulse was to be given, he had set it down upon his knees, which were joined together, and kept it steady with his hand in the manner of a person perfectly at ease; and in this attitude expired, without spilling a drop, and without a writhe in his countenance; as if an experiment had been required, to show to his friends the facility with which he departed. His servant opened the door to tell him that some one had left his name; but getting no answer, stepped about half way towards him, and, seeing him sitting in that easy posture, supporting his basin of milk with one hand, he thought that he had dropped asleep, which he had sometimes seen happen after his meals. The man went back and shut the door; but before he got down stairs, some anxiety that he could not account for made him return, and look again at his master. Even then, he was satisfied, after coming pretty near, and turned to go away; but again returned, and coming quite close, found his master without life."

ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH.

When Arthur Young made his well-known journey in France, in the year 1787 to 1789, he met, he tells us, with a Monsieur Lomond, "a very ingenious and inventing mechanic," who had made a remarkable discovery in electricity. "You write two or three words on a paper," says Young: "he takes it with him into a room, and turns a machine enclosed in a cylindrical case, at the top of which is an electrometer, a small, fine, pith ball; a wire connects with a similar cylinder and electrometer in a distant apartment; and his wife, by remarking the corresponding motions of the ball, writes down the words they indicate; from which it appears that he has formed an alphabet of motions. As the length of the wire makes no difference in the effect, a correspondence might be carried on at any distance. Whatever the use may be, the invention is beautiful." This discovery, however, lay unnoticed until about the year 1845; though the apparatus was designed to effect the same end as the electric telegraph, by means very similar.

The possibility of applying electricity to telegraphic communication was conceived by several other persons, long before it was attempted upon a practical scale. The Rev. Mr. Gamble, in his description of his original shutter-telegraph, published towards the close of the last century, alludes to a project of electrical communication. Mr. Francis Ronalds, in a pamphlet on this subject, published in 1823, states that Cavallo proposed to convey intelligence by passing given numbers of sparks through an insulated wire; and that, in 1816, he himself made experiments upon this principle, which he deemed more promising than the application of galvanic or voltaic electricity, which had been projected by some Germans and Americans. He succeeded perfectly in transmitting signals through a length of eight miles of insulated wire; and he describes minutely the contrivances necessary for adapting the principle to telegraphic communication.

It is, however, to the combined labours of Mr. W. F. Cooke and Professor Wheatstone that electric telegraphs owe their practical application; and, in a statement of the facts respecting their relative positions in connection with the invention, drawn up at their request by Sir M. I. Brunel and Professor Daniell, it is observed that "Mr. Cooke is entitled to stand alone, as the gentleman to whom this country is indebted for having practically introduced and carried out the electric telegraph as a useful undertaking, promising to be a work of national importance; and Professor Wheatstone is acknowledged as the scientific man whose profound and successful researches had already prepared the public to receive it as a project capable of practical application."--_Penny Cyclopædia._

NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION.

When Vitiges, king of the Goths, besieged Belisarius in Rome in 536, and caused the fourteen large aqueducts to be stopped, the city was subjected to great distress, not on account of the want of water in general, for it was secured against that inconvenience by the Tiber, but on account of the loss of that water which the baths required, and, above all, of that necessary to drive the mills, which were all situated on these canals. Horses and cattle, which might have been employed in grinding, were not to be found; but Belisarius, a man of great ingenuity, devised an expedient to remedy this distress. Below the bridge that reached to the wall of Janiculum, he extended ropes, well fastened, and stretched across the river from both banks. To these he affixed two boats of equal size, at the distance of two feet from each other, where the current flowed with the greatest rapidity, under the arch of the bridge; and, placing large millstones on one of the boats, suspended in the middle space a machine by which they were turned. He constructed at certain intervals on the river other machines of the same description, which, being put in motion by the force of the water that ran below them, drove as many mills as were necessary to grind provisions for the city. To destroy these, the besiegers threw into the stream logs of wood, and dead bodies, which floated down the river into the city; but the besieged, by making use of booms to stop them, were enabled to drag them out before they did any mischief. This is said to have been the first invention of floating mills.

A "DRY-MAKING" IN HOLLAND.