Invention and Discovery: Curious Facts and Characteristic Sketches
Transcribers Note: An effort has been made to keep the project as authentic as possible. Two printers errors have been corrected: toothach has been changed to toothache , and recals has been changed to recalls . Hyphenated words have been standardized as well.
Curious Facts and Characteristic Sketches.
W M . W. SWAYNE, BROOKLYN AND NEW YORK.
MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.
In the annals of Invention and Discovery, it may be said without undue boasting, no nation of modern times can lay claim to such an eminent position as Great Britain; and her many ingenious and intrepid adventurers into what they found unknown regions of the arts, the sciences, and the earth's surface, have so largely contributed to raise her to her great place and power, that it is mere justice and self-interest to bestow on them grateful rewards in life, and renown after death. In this little volume are brought together a number of sketches and memoranda, illustrating the history of discovery, and the lives and labours of inventors and explorers, not of our own country alone, but of others—for knowledge is of no country, but of all. The object of the collector has been rather to present the popular than the strictly scientific side of his subject—to furnish materials of interest and amusement, as well as instruction; and if now and then he has been tempted to stray into bye-paths of anecdote and gossip, excuse may readily be found in the fact that the private life of our men of science, often singularly noble and full of character, is apt to be altogether obscured by the brilliancy of the results of their secret and silent toil. This volume will have served its purpose, if it excites an appetite for fuller and deeper inquisition into the sources of British greatness and of modern civilisation.
In Dr. Darwin's Botanic Garden , first published in 1789, but written, it is well known, at least twenty years before the date of its publication, occurs the following prediction respecting Steam:—
Anonymous
---
INVENTION AND DISCOVERY:
CONTENTS.
NOTE.
POETIC PROPHECIES.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE THAMES TUNNEL.
VAST SPOT ON THE SUN.
DEATH OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY.
HOMAGE TO CUVIER.
FALSE ESTIMATE OF RAILWAY SPEED.
THE CRAWSHAYS OF MERTHYR TYDVIL.
WEIGHING MACHINE AT THE BANK OF ENGLAND.
CHILDHOOD OF PASCAL.
THE DISCOVERER OF GUTTA PERCHA.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S MAGNET.
COAL GAS in BALLOONS.
CUVIER AND NAPOLEON.
LAST MOMENTS OF LEIBNITZ.
FRANKLIN'S DISCOVERIES.
CARNÔT, WHEN A CHILD.
SMEATON'S INDEPENDENCE.
CHILDHOOD OF CUVIER.
HOW PASCAL WEIGHED THE ATMOSPHERE.
HOLDING A "CRAWS' COURT."
ALPINE PERILS.
PHILOSOPHICAL ENTHUSIASM.
"SHEPHERD TO THE KING OF ENGLAND FOR SCOTLAND."
TRAVELS OF VOLCANIC DUST.
EARLY LIFE OF ALEXANDER BRONGNIART.
SMEATON'S REPROOF OF GAMING.
INVENTION OF GUN-COTTON.
SIR JOSEPH BANKS'S "BALANCE."
BUCKINGHAM PALACE GATES.
EARTHQUAKES IN CHILE.
CUVIER IN LONDON.
THE FIRST CUP OF TEA DRUNK IN ENGLAND.
BENEFIT OF A WIFE TO AN AUTHOR.
THE WORLD IN A DROP OF WATER.
ORIGIN OF POST-PAID ENVELOPES.
CHARACTER IN WORKS.
BRINDLEY, THE ENGINEER.
REASON FOR SILENCE.
ASCENT OF THE JUNGFRAU ALP.
ANCIENT OBSERVATORY IN PERSIA.
LONDON AS A PORT.
FOURDRINIER'S PAPER-MAKING MACHINERY.
THE COCOA-NUT CRAB.
DESCARTES' WOODEN DAUGHTER.
ASTRONOMICAL SHOEMAKER.
DECLINE OF SCIENCE.
VARIABLE CLIMATE OF TEBREEZ.
STRYCHNINE A REMEDY FOR PARALYSIS.
RAPID MANUFACTURE.
DISCOVERIES ANTICIPATED.
THE FIRST USE OF JESUIT'S BARK.
NICE ROBBERY.
FEMALE MATHEMATICIAN.
FOURIER'S INDEPENDENCE.
MECHANICAL TRIUMPHS.
THE ELGIN MARBLES.
RALEIGH A CHEMIST.
MR. BABBAGE'S CALCULATING MACHINE.
HERSCHEL'S LOVE OF MUSIC.
POWER OF THE LEVER.
AN ELECTRIFYING MACHINE IN PERSIA.
THE DRUMMOND LIGHT.
ST. PIERRE'S "PAUL AND VIRGINIA."
MYTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE.
EL DORADO OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
AMBER, A SOURCE OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE.
ANTIQUITY OF LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS.
HOW THE DEAF MAY HEAR.
DRYING WOOD FOR VIOLINS.
COLUMBUS'S OWN SHIP JOURNAL.
THE RIGHTS OF WHITEBAIT.
CATCHING ELECTRIC EELS.
SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL'S FIRST TELESCOPE.
WONDERS OF AUSTRALIA.
VICISSITUDES OF MINING.
TROPICAL DELIGHTS.
INVENTION OF THE DIVING-BELL.
EXPERIMENTS WITH AN ELECTRIC EEL.
TALENT AND OPPORTUNITY.
TRAVELLING IN THE HIMALEH MOUNTAINS.
GOLD IN SIBERIA.
COMBINATIONS OF THE KALEIDOSCOPE.
"THE MEANS TO THE END."
BALLOON VOYAGE FROM LONDON TO NASSAU.
ANTIQUITY OF REFINED SUGAR.
INTRODUCTION OF THE POTATO.
FARADAY, AS A LECTURER.
THE RAILWAY SYSTEM SUGGESTED.
LORD BROUGHAM'S BLUNDERS.
THE FIRST KALEIDOSCOPE.
FERGUSON AND HIS WIFE.
A DESCENT IN A DIVING-BELL.
SIR HUMPHRY DAVY AN ANGLER.
MISS CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL.
TYCHO BRAHE'S CREDULITY.
INVENTION OF THE TELESCOPE, AND EARLY DISCOVERIES WITH IT.
IDENTITY OF BLACK AND GREEN TEA.
PROTECTION BY RUST.
THE LION EATEN AS FOOD.
LONGEVITY OF THE BEETLE.
TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.
THE DIVING-BELL.
RATE OF BALLOON TRAVELLING.
SAFE DESCENT IN A PARACHUTE.
"FOSSIL RAIN."
MELTING OF A WATCH BY LIGHTNING.
THE INDIAN JUGGLERS' SECRET.
THE ART OF STEREOTYPE.
"RAINING TREES."
THE INVISIBLE DISPATCH.
TAME HYÆNA.
NOVEL TRAVELLING CARRIAGE.
ENEMIES OF THE OSTRICH.
FIRE-PROOF HOUSE ON PUTNEY HEATH.
THE LAST OF THE ALCHEMISTS.
CELEBRATED DIAMONDS.
DR. DEE, THE NECROMANCER.
VOYAGE OF MANUFACTURE.
SIR DAVID BREWSTER'S KALEIDOSCOPE.
LORD ROSSE'S LEVIATHAN TELESCOPE.
ORIGIN OF REFLECTING LIGHTHOUSES.
WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE.
LIFTING HEAVY PERSONS.
ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
VAST MIRRORS.
TRANSPORTATION OF THE COFFEE-TREE.
ARKWRIGHT'S SPINNING FRAME.
SPINNING FEATS.
MARVELS OF THE ALCHEMISTS.
INVENTION OF THE HAND GEAR.
POKER ACROSS THE FIRE.
THE ARTESIAN WELL OF GRENELLE, AT PARIS.
"WET THE ROPES."
THE DEATH OF DR. BLACK.
ORIGIN OF THE TELEGRAPH.
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION.
A "DRY-MAKING" IN HOLLAND.
A SCIENTIFIC PILGRIM.
THE BURNING MIRRORS OF ARCHIMEDES.
NAVIGATION BEFORE THE COMPASS.
A WRENCH TO OLD ST. PAUL'S.
SNOW SPECTACLES.
A SELF-TAUGHT MECHANIST.
THE AMSTERDAM PILE.
THE PERILS OF EXPERIMENT.
THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH REMAINS.
VELOCITY OF ELECTRICITY.
MONOCHROMATIC PAINTING.
THE MARINER'S COMPASS.
THE DISCOVERY OF LITHOGRAPHY.
