Category: Children & Young Adult Reading
These words were addressed to a little group of tradesmen and others who were assembled in a small room over a mercer’s shop, in the town of Penzance. There was Jan Penberthy, the neighbouring miller, who, though in his holiday clothes, had sufficient of the flour clinging to...
These words were addressed to a little group of tradesmen and others who were assembled in a small room over a mercer’s shop, in the town of Penzance. There was Jan Penberthy, t...
2. CHAPTER II.“THE FIRST AND LAST INN IN ENGLAND, KEPT BY RICHARD BOTHERAS,” was the inscription recorded on both sides of a sign-board that swung backwards and forwards outside a little lone...
3. CHAPTER III.The resolution once formed, young Humphry hastened to convey the glad tidings to his mother, and as he rode along he kept talking to himself all the way, running over the many “...
4. CHAPTER IV.The widow, when the stupor of her grief had passed away, and the mental absorption of her first sorrow had given place to the calm reflection of melancholy, soon began to see th...
5. CHAPTER V.Humphry was hardly at home in his new quarters, when an incident occurred that directed his mind towards the investigation of one of the most subtle and mysterious principles in...
6. CHAPTER VI.Humphry was so full of his project, that all the day long he could think of little else, and at night he lay awake in his bed for many hours, planning an infinity of rude scheme...
7. CHAPTER VII.When Humphry had written thus far concerning the sources of heat (for the boy was delighted to note down his thoughts on the various subjects he was studying),[32] he began to p...
8. CHAPTER VIII.Secondly. Heat _changes the form_ of bodies, converting solids into liquids, and liquids into vapours; while cold, on the other hand, condenses vapours into liquids, and causes...
9. CHAPTER IX.“But heat,” said Humphry to himself, as he reviewed his previous experiments, “not only _expands_ the bulk of different bodies, but it _changes their form_, rendering certain so...
10. CHAPTER X.The young philosopher had now investigated the effects produced by an elevation of temperature, not only upon the _bulk_, but upon the _form_ of different bodies. He had found,...
11. CHAPTER XI.“What,” said he to himself, “are those brilliant sheets of light that dart from burning substances? And why is it that certain bodies burn with the evolution of flame, and that...
12. CHAPTER XII.Humphry by this time desired some little recreation. He had been at work for many weeks uninterruptedly—his days given to his profession, and his leisure, in the evenings, devot...
13. CHAPTER XIII.Humphry remained confined to his bed for many weeks, and every day his mother dreaded seeing some development of the symptoms which generally ensue from the bite of so rabid an...
14. CHAPTER XIV.Our young hero was still too weak to leave the house, for the wound in his leg was of so dangerous a description that Mr. Borlase had strictly enjoined him to take as little exe...
15. CHAPTER XV.“In the first place,” said he to his sister, “you must bear in mind that all objects throw off from them, in all directions, rays of light, which are of the _same colour_ as the...
16. CHAPTER XVI.Hitherto Humphry had considered only the laws which regulate the transmission of light through transparent bodies. This constitutes the branch of the subject called _dioptrics_...
17. CHAPTER XVII.3. That _non-luminous_ bodies are _transparent_, or _opaque_; that is to say, they either allow the rays of light emitted by luminous bodies to pass through them, or else they a...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.During the prosecution of his later experiments Humphry had formed the acquaintance of Mr. Davies Giddy, a gentleman of high scientific attainments, better known under the name...