Science in Short Chapters
Transcriber’s Note Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
BY W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. AUTHOR OF
“ The Fuel of the Sun ,” “ Through Norway with a Knapsack ,” “ A Simple Treatise on Heat ,” etc.
New York: JOHN B. ALDEN, Publisher. 1883.
I am not aware that this reprint of some of my scattered notes and essays demands any apology.
The practice of making such collections and selections by the author himself has now become very general, and is much better done thus than by friends after his death.
Besides this, it supplies a growing want of these busy times, when so many of us are prevented by the struggles of business from sitting down to the consecutive systematic study of a formal treatise.
I have kept this demand steadily in view throughout, by selecting subjects which are likely to be interesting to all readers who are sufficiently intelligent to prefer sober fact to sensational fiction, but who, at the same time, do not profess to be scientific specialists.
In the writing of these papers my highest literary ambition has always been to combine clearness and simplicity with some attempt at philosophy.
W. M. W.
Willesden, September, 1882 .
I offer the following sketch of the main argument which is worked out more fully in the essay I published in January, 1870, under the above title, hoping that many who hesitate to plunge into a presumptuous speculative work of more than 200 octavo pages may read this article, and reflect upon the subject.
W. Mattieu Williams
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PREFACE.
CONTENTS.
SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS.
THE FUEL OF THE SUN.
DR SIEMENS’ THEORY OF THE SUN.
ANOTHER WORLD DOWN HERE.
THE ORIGIN OF LUNAR VOLCANOES.
NOTE ON THE DIRECT EFFECT OF SUN-SPOTS ON TERRESTRIAL CLIMATES.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE RADIOMETER AND ITS COSMICAL REVELATIONS.
ON THE SOCIAL BENEFITS OF PARAFFIN.
THE SOLIDITY OF THE EARTH.
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF ELECTRIC LIGHTING.
THE FORMATION OF COAL.
THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1871.
The First Telegrams.
Further Details by Post.
METEORIC ASTRONOMY.
THE “GREAT ICE AGE” AND THE ORIGIN OF THE “TILL.”
THE BAROMETER AND THE WEATHER.
THE CHEMISTRY OF BOG RECLAMATION.
AERIAL EXPLORATION OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
The Anglo-American Arctic Expedition.
Mr. Walter Powell.
“THE ENGLISHMAN’S FIRESIDE.”
“BAILY’S BEADS.”
THE COLORING OF GREEN TEA.
“IRON FILINGS” IN TEA.
CONCERT-ROOM ACOUSTICS.
SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALISM.
MATHEMATICAL FICTIONS.
(British Association, 1871.)
WORLD-SMASHING.
THE DYING TREES IN KENSINGTON GARDENS.
THE OLEAGINOUS PRODUCTS OF THAMES MUD: WHERE THEY COME FROM AND WHERE THEY GO.
LUMINOUS PAINT.
THE ORIGIN AND PROBABLE DURATION OF PETROLEUM.
THE ORIGIN OF SOAP.
OILING THE WAVES.
TRAVERTINE.
THE ACTION OF FROST IN WATER-PIPES AND ON BUILDING MATERIALS.
THE CORROSION OF BUILDING STONES.
FIRE-CLAY AND ANTHRACITE.
COUNT RUMFORD’S COOKING-STOVES.
THE “CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE.”
THE AIR OF STOVE-HEATED ROOMS.
VENTILATION BY OPEN FIREPLACES.
HOME GARDENS FOR SMOKY TOWNS.
SOLIDS, LIQUIDS, AND GASES.
MURCHISON AND BABBAGE.
A NEGLECTED DISINFECTANT.
ANOTHER DISINFECTANT.
ENSILAGE.
THE FRACTURE OF COMETS.
THE ORIGIN OF COMETS.
FOOTNOTES
Transcriber’s Notes
