Let me have a look at this a chapter at a time and see what grabs my attention.
Considering when the book was written, mechanics is an obvious place to start. We're relatively early on in the Industrial Revolution and there are fortunes to be made by people with an understanding of the basics behind the machines that will change the world. The dialogues concerning Cohesion and the Mechanical Powers sound intriguing. I'm not expecting too many surprises in this chapter though.CONTENTS.—
Conversation Page MECHANICS. I. Introduction 1 II. Of Matter. Of the Divisibility of Matter 4 III. Of the Attraction of Cohesion 7 IV. Of the Attraction of Cohesion 11 V. Of the Attraction of Gravitation 12 VI. Of the Attraction of Gravitation 16 VII. Of the Attraction of Gravitation 19 VIII. Of the Attraction of Gravitation 22 IX. Of the Centre of Gravity 26 X. Of the Centre of Gravity 28 XI. Of the Laws of Motion 31 XII. Of the Laws of Motion 36 XIII. Of the Laws of Motion 39 XIV. Of the Mechanical Powers 42 XV. Of the Lever 45 XVI. Of the Lever 48 XVII. Of the Wheel and Axis 52 XVIII. Of the Pulley 56 XIX. Of the Inclined Plane 59 XX. Of the Wedge 61 XXI. Of The Screw 63 XXII. Of The Pendulum 67
Excellent! Astronomy is always entertaining. I like the use of the antiquated phrase "fixed stars", we now know them as "stars"; the balls of burning gas that illuminate the universe. However, in historical astronomy anything visible in the heavens was a star (with the exception I think of the Moon and ironically the Sun). This brings us onto the Ephemeris which is a table of data describing the position of objects in the sky (I had to look that one up). There looks to be a lot of good stuff on the solar system and the motion of it's components. Though, how it fits in with our current understanding remains to be seen.
Conversation Page ASTRONOMY I. Of the fixed Stars 70 II. Of the fixed Stars 73 III. Of the fixed Stars and Ecliptic 76 IV. Of the Ephemeris 80 V. Of the Solar System 85 VI. Of the figure of the Earth 89 VII. Of the diurnal Motion of the Earth 92 VIII. Of Day and Night 97 IX. Of the annual Motion of the Earth 100 X. Of the Seasons 102 XI. Of the Seasons 105 XII. Of the Equation of Time 110 XIII. Of Leap Year 114 XIV. Of the Moon 116 XV. Of Eclipses 120 XVI. Of the Tides 124 XVII. Of the Harvest Moon 128 XVIII. Of Mercury 132 XIX. Of Venus 134 XX. Of Mars 137 XXI. Of Jupiter 139 XXII. Of Saturn 141 XXIII. Of the Herschel Planet 143 XXIV. Of Comets 146 XXV. Of the Sun 147 XXVI. Of the fixed Stars 148
Next up are conversations on the planets. One thing instantly caught my attention; what is the Herschel Planet? Well it's Uranus. It was discovered in the 1780s by Sir William Herschel; when prompted to name the planet, he suggested "Georgium Sidus" (translated as "George's Star") after the King of England; this did not go down at all well with the French (among others). The name Uranus was globally adopted in the mid 19th century and has served us well ever since. The absence of Neptune is understandable as it wasn't observed until 1846 and the author had been dead for some years by then. No Pluto either, so that's an improvement on my education in one respect.
My fluid dynamics is a bit (in reality, very) rusty. However, I'm fairly sure I have never learnt about the "Hydrostatic Paradox" or indeed "Tantalus's Cup". I'd like to think the Cup is a chalice adorned with images of frolicking satyrs filled with chocolate flavoured alcohol; I'm fairly sure I'll be disappointed about this. Other than those two, it all looks very sensible and relevant to the budding industrialist. I'm not entirely sure why he felt the need for quite so many chapters on specific gravity; maybe it was a lot more important a couple of centuries ago.
Conversation Page HYDROSTATICS I. Introduction 153 II. Of the Weight and Pressure of Fluids 157 III. Of the Weight and Pressure of Fluids 162 IV. Of the Lateral Pressure of Fluids 166 V. Of the Hydrostatic Paradox 168 VI. Of the Hydrostatic Bellows 173 VII. Of the Pressure of Fluids against the Sides of Vessels 176 VIII. Of the Motion of Fluids 179 IX. Of the Motion of Fluids 183 X. Of the Specific Gravity of Bodies 187 XI. Of the Specific Gravity of Bodies 190 XII. Of the Methods of finding the Specific Gravity of Bodies 193 XIII. Of the Methods of finding the Specific Gravity of Bodies 197 XIV. Of the Methods of finding the Specific Gravity of Bodies 201 XV. Of the Methods of finding the Specific Gravity of Bodies 203 XVI. Of the Hydrometer 208 XVII. Of the Hydrometer and Swimming 211 XVIII. Of the Syphon and Tantalus's Cup 214 XIX. Of the Diver's Bell 218 XX. Of the Diver's Bell 221 XXI. Of Pumps 223 XXII. Of the Forcing-pump — Fire-engine — Rope-pump — Chain-pump — and Water-press 226
Now, I can completely understand that, to the Victorian, the importance of learning about steam engines and how pistons work was paramount. What's with a conversation about "the Speaking Trumpet" though? Especially considering that the science of sound looks to be quite well covered in the material.
Conversation Page PNEUMATICS I. Of the Nature of Air 231 II. Of the Air-pump 233 III. Of the Torricellian Experiment 238 IV. Of the Pressure of the Air 240 V. Of the Pressure of the Air 243 VI. Of the Weight of the Air 246 VII. Of the Elasticity of the Air 250 VIII. Of the Compression of the Air 254 IX. Miscellaneous Experiments on the Air-pump 258 X. Of the Air-gun and Sound 260 XI. Of Sound 264 XII. Of the Speaking Trumpet 268 XIII. Of the Echo 270 XIV. Of the Echo 274 XV. Of the Winds 278 XVI. Of the Steam-engine 283 XVII. Of the Steam-engine 288 XVIII. Of the Steam-engine and Papin's Digester 290 XIX. Of the Barometer 293 XX. Of the Barometer, and it's Application to the Measuring of Altitudes 297 XXI. Of the Thermometer 300 XXII. Of the Thermometer 303 XXIII. Of the Pyrometer and Hygrometer 307 XXIV. Of the Rain-gauge, and Rules for judging of the Weather 311
I absolutely need to know about "the Torricellian Experiment" and "Papin's Digester". I'm not going to spoil it for myself by researching them yet.
I'm not convinced about the barometer being covered in this chapter, I would have thought it sat better in Hydrostatics. Also, "Rules for judging the Weather"? Really? This seems just a touch off topic.
The optics in this chapter should be fairly close to what I learnt in school, the basics have been understood for a long time (with grateful thanks to Newton).
Conversation Page OPTICS I. Light: the Smallness and Velocity of its Particles 316 II. Rays of Light — Reflection and Refraction 320 III. Refraction of Light 323 IV. Refraction and Reflection of Light 327 V. Different Kinds of Lenses 331 VI. Parallel diverging and converging Rays 334 VII. Images of Objects. — Scioptric Ball, &c. 338 VIII. Nature and Advantages of Light 341 IX. Colours 344 X. Reflected Light and Plain Mirrors 347 XI. Concave Mirrors 350 XII. Concave Mirrors. — Experiments 353 XIII. Concave and Convex Mirrors 355 XIV. Optical Deceptions, Anamorphoses, &c. 358 XV. Different Parts of the Eye 362 XVI. Manner of Vision 365 XVII. Spectacles, and their Uses 368 XVIII. Rainbow 372 XIX. Refracting Telescope 376 XX. Reflecting Telescopes 380 XXI. Microscope 382 XXII. Camera Obscura, Magic Lanthorn, and Multiplying Glass 388
I was faintly surprised to see the use of the word "particle" in association with light. When I was first taught about the subject, I was taught to see light as a wave; only after years of study was the relatively recent (by which I mean "in the last century") wave-particle duality brought in and I started to think about particles of the stuff. I'm going to be interested to see how the behaviour of light is explained in this respect.
I like the sound of a "Scioptric Ball", I sincerely hope it's as exciting as it appears to be.
Having tried many times, I always struggle to explain rainbows. It is quite a tricky thing to put into easily understandable sentences; I'm looking forward to see how the Rev. Joyce has done it.
A short chapter on magnetism, it seems fairly simple to me. Knowing what we know now it should have been rolled into the next chapter though; Electromagnetism is where it's all at nowadays don't you know.
Conversation Page MAGNETISM I. The Magnet 392 II. Magnetic Attraction and Repulsion 394 III. Methods of making Magnets 397 IV. Mariner's Compass 401
The chapter on electricity is the one I'm most looking forward to; it's the only chapter I read any amount of before deciding to start this project. Science at the time of writing the book had a limited understanding of electricity; this makes for some of the most entertaining wrong science. I guarantee that dialogue 14 on "Medical Electricity" will be absolutely brilliant.
Conversation Page ELECTRICITY I. Early History of Electricity 405 II. Electrical Attraction and Repulsion 407 III. Electrical Machine 412 IV. Electrical Machine 415 V. Electrical Attraction and Repulsion 419 VI. Electrical Attraction and Repulsion 424 VII. The Leyden Phial 427 VIII. Lane's Electrometer, and the Electrical Battery 431 IX. Experiments with the Battery 435 X. Miscellaneous Experiments 440 XI. Electrophorus — Electrometer — Thunder-house, &c. 444 XII. Atmospherical Electricity 446 XIII. Of Atmospheric Electricity — of Falling Stars — Aurora Borealis — Waterspouts and Whirlwinds — Earthquakes 450 XIV. Medical Electricity 455 XV. Animal Electricity — of the Torpedo — of the Gymnotus Electricus — of the Silurus Electricus 458 XVI. General Summary of Electricity, with Experiments 461
Again, there are things that seem a little out of the scope of the subject; falling stars, waterspouts, whirlwinds and earthquakes. There may be some fascinating wrongness in those conversations.
There are even more wonderful sounding things that I have no knowledge of. I'll take a stab at what they might/should be:
- Electrophorus - I'll take a serious guess that this is something that gives off light when electricity is applied to it; like a light bulb.
- Thunder-house - I'd like to think this is an outhouse at a particularly bawdy freehouse.
- Gymnotus Electricus - was this Galactus' herald while the Silver Surfer was on an Alpine skiing holiday? (Although something tells me it's probably an electric motor or similar)
- Silurus Electricus - absolutely has to be a Doctor Who villain. Failing that, using my outstanding powers of etymology, it could well be a Welshman with his finger stuck in a power socket.
[I'm going to need to remember about these guesses when I finally get around to writing up the chapter.]
Finally a little chapter that seems to be a bit of chemistry and biology. I'm expecting frog legs in here or I'll be sorely disappointed.
Conversation Page GALVANISM I. Of Galvanism; its Origin; Experiments - of the Decomposition of Water 465 II. Galvanic Light and Shocks 468 III. Galvanic Conductors - Circles - Tables - Experiments 472 IV. Miscellaneous Experiments 477 GLOSSARY AND INDEX 481
So that's it. The road ahead for this blog is laid out. I shall come back and edit this post to add links to all the entries as I go from now on.
Click on images for readable versions
Yupp, my head's reeling already, lol.. look forward to reading on..Good Luck ;), Neil
ReplyDeleteHaha. Hope your head recovers from the shock. It gets a bit less complicated for a bit, next time I'll be dealing with angles and triangles (I'm probably going to end up rambling about something only vaguely relevant)
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