EVERY-DAY SCIENCE
BY
HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D.
ASSISTED BY
EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, M.D.
VOLUME VII.
THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK AND LONDON
THE GOODHUE COMPANY
PUBLISHERS · MDCCCCX
Copyright, 1910, by The Goodhue Co.
All rights reserved
[CONTENTS]
THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES
Geographical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, p. [5]—The mariner's compass, p. [7]—Reference to the thirty-two points of the compass by Chaucer, p. [9]—Halley's observations on the changes in the direction of the compass in a century, p. [10]—Deviation of the compass, p. [11]—The voyage of the Carnegie, the non-magnetic ship, p. [12]—The "dip of the needle" first observed by Robert Norman, p. [13]—The modern compass invented by Lord Kelvin, p. [14]—Sailing by dead reckoning, p. [14]—The invention of the "log," p. [15]—The modern log, p. [17]—The development of the sextant, p. [18]—The astrolabe, p. [19]—The quadrant invented by Hadley, p. [20]—The perfected sextant, p. [21]—Perfecting the chronometer, p. [23]—The timepieces invented by the British carpenter, John Harrison, p. [25]—The prize won by Harrison, p. [27]—Finding time without a chronometer, p. [28]—The Nautical Almanac, p. [30]—Ascertaining the ship's longitude, p. [31]—Difficulties of "taking the sun" at noon, p. [33]—Measuring a degree of latitude, p. [34]—The observations of Robert Norman, p. [35]—The function of the Nautical Almanac, p. [37]—Soundings and charts, p. [41]—Mercator's projection, p. [44]—The lure of the unknown, p. [45]—The quest of the Pole, p. [47]—Commander Peary's achievement, p. [49]—How observations are made in arctic regions, p. [50]—Making observations at the Pole, p. [52]—Difficulties as to direction at the Pole, p. [54].
THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS
Use of sails in ancient times, p. [56]—Ships with many banks of oars, p. [57]—Mediæval ships, p. [59]—Modern sailing ships, p. [60]—The sailing record of The Sovereign of the Seas, p. [60]—Early attempts to invent a steamboat, p. [63]—Robert Fulton's Clermont, p. [64]—The steamboat of Blasco de Gary, p. [66]—The Charlotte Dundas, p. [67]—The steamboat invented by Col. John Stevens, p. [68]—Fulton designs the Clermont, p. [71]—The historic trip of the Clermont up the Hudson, p. [71]—Sea-going steamships, p. [73]—Ships built of iron and steel, p. [74]—The Great Eastern, p. [76]—Principal dimensions of the Great Eastern, p. [78]—Twin-screw vessels, p. [80]—The triumph of the turbine, p. [81]—The Lusitania and Mauretania, p. [82]—Submarine signalling, p. [83]—The rescue of the Republic, p. [84]—How the submarine signalling device works, p. [86]—The Olympic and Titanic, p. [90]—Liquid fuel, p. [90]—Advantages and disadvantages of liquid fuel, p. [91].
SUBMARINE VESSELS
Slow development of submarine navigation, p. [93]—The first submarine, p. [94]—Description of David Bushnell's boat, p. [94]—Attempts to sink a war vessel during the American Revolution, p. [97]—Robert Fulton's experiments, p. [98]—The attack on the Argus by Fulton's submarine, p. [100]—The attack upon the Ramilles in 1813, p. [102]—A successful diving boat, p. [103]—The sinking of the Housatonic, p. [104]—Recent submarines and submersibles, p. [105]—The Holland, p. [106]—The Lake type of boat, p. [108]—Problems to be overcome in submarine navigation, p. [109]—Present status of submarine boats, p. [111]—The problem of seeing without being seen, p. [113]—The experimental attacks upon the cruiser Yankee in 1908, p. [115]—The possibility of using aeroplanes for detecting the presence of submarines, p. [117].
THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE
The earliest railroad, p. [119]—The substitution of flanged wheels for flanged rails, p. [120]—The locomotive of Richard Trevithick, p. [121]—The cable road of Chapman, p. [123]—Stephenson solves the problem, p. [124]—Versatility of Stephenson, p. [125]—His early locomotives, p. [126]—Stephenson's locomotive of 1825, p. [127]—The first passenger coach, p. [128]—The Liverpool and Manchester Railway projected, p. [129]—Conditions named for testing the competing locomotives, p. [130]—The Rocket and other contestants, p. [132]—Description of the Rocket, p. [133]—Improvements on the construction of the Rocket, p. [134]—Improvements in locomotives in recent years, p. [135]—The compound locomotive, p. [137]—Advantages of compound locomotives, p. [138]—The Westinghouse air brake, p. [141]—The "straight air brake," p. [143]—The automatic air brake, p. [144]—The high-speed air brake, p. [146]—Automatic couplings, p. [147]—Principle of the Janney coupling, p. [149]—A comparison—the old and the new, p. [150].
FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE
When were carts first used? p. [152]—The development of the bicycle, p. [154]—The pneumatic tire introduced, p. [155]—The coming of the automobile, p. [156]—The gas engine of Dr. Otto, p. [157]—Cugnot's automobile, p. [158]—The automobile of William Murdoch, 1785, p. [158]—Opposition in England to the introduction of automobiles, p. [159]—An extraordinary piece of legislation, p. [161]—Scientific aspects of automobile racing, p. [164]—Some records made at Ormonde, p. [165]—Records made by Oldfield in 1910, p. [166]—Comparative speeds of various vehicles and animals, p. [167]—Speed of birds in flight, p. [168]—A miraculous transformation of energy, p. [170]—Electrical timing device for measuring automobile speeds, p. [171].
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC RAILWAYS
New York the first city to have a street railway, p. [175]—Cable systems, p. [177]—Early self-sustained systems, p. [178]—The electro-magnetic locomotive of Moses G. Farmer, p. [179]—The efforts of Professor Page to produce a storage battery car, p. [180]—The experiments of Siemens and Halske with electric motors, p. [181]—The Edison electric locomotive, p. [182]—Third rails and trolleys, p. [184]—The inventions of Daft and Van Depoele, p. [185]—The work of Frank J. Sprague in developing electric railways, p. [186]—How the word "trolley" was coined, p. [187]—Storage battery systems, p. [188]—The Edison storage battery car of 1910, p. [189]—Monorail systems, p. [191]—Electric aerial monorail systems, p. [193].
THE GYROCAR
Mr. Louis Brennan's car exhibited before the Royal Society in London, p. [195]—How the gyroscope is installed on this car, p. [196]—Gyroscopic action explained, p. [197]—Why does the spinning wheel exert gyroscopic power? p. [199]—Mr. Brennan's model car, p. [200]—The "wabble" of the gyroscope explained, p. [202]—How the Brennan gyroscopes work, p. [203]—Technical explanation of the gyroscope, p. [204]—The evolution of an idea, p. [213]—Sir Henry Bessemer's experiment, p. [214]—What may be expected of the gyrocar, p. [215].
THE GYROSCOPE AND OCEAN TRAVEL
Bessemer's costly experiment, p. [217]—Dr. Schlick's successful experiment, p. [219]—The action of Dr. Schlick's invention explained, p. [220]—Did gyroscopic action wreck the Viper? p. [222]—Theoretical dangers of the gyroscope, p. [223]—Probable use of the gyroscope on battleships, p. [225].
NAVIGATING THE AIR
Some mediæval traditions about airships, p. [266]—The flying machines devised by Leonardo da Vinci, p. [277]—The flying machine of Besnier, p. [228]—The discovery of hydrogen gas and its effect upon aeronautics, p. [230]—The balloon invented, p. [231]—The first successful balloon ascension, p. [232]—Rozier, the first man to make an ascent in a balloon, p. [235]—Blanchard's attempt to produce a dirigible balloon, p. [238]—Hot-air balloons and hydrogen-gas balloons, p. [240]—Rozier, the first victim of ballooning, p. [241]—Progress in mechanical flight, p. [244]—Cocking's parachute, p. [245]—Henson's studies of the lifting power of plane surfaces, p. [246]—The flying machine of Captain Le Bris, p. [248]—Giffard "the Fulton of aerial navigation," p. [251]—The flights of the Giant, p. [252]—The record flight of John Wise in 1859, p. [256]—Early war balloons and dirigible balloons, p. [257]—The use of balloons during the Franco-Prussian war, p. [258]—The dirigible balloon achieved, p. [262]—The dirigible balloon of Dupuy de Lome, p. [263]—The aluminum balloon of Herr Schwartz, p. [264]—The dirigible balloons of Count Zeppelin, p. [266]—Early experiments of Santos-Dumont, p. [267].
THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE
Balloon versus aeroplane, p. [272]—The kite as a flying machine, p. [273]—How the air sustains a heavier-than-air mechanism, p. [274]—Langley's early experiments, p. [275]—Experiments in soaring, p. [277]—Lilienthal's imitation of the soaring bird, p. [279]—Sir Hiram Maxim's flying machine, p. [283]—Langley's successful aerodrome, p. [284]—The failure of Langley's larger aerodrome, p. [287]—Wilbur and Orville Wright accomplish the impossible, p. [288]—The first public demonstration by the Wright brothers, p. [290]—The Wright aeroplane described, p. [291]—A host of imitators, p. [292]—Mr. Henry Farman's successful flights, p. [293]—Public demonstrations by the Wright brothers in America and France, p. [293]—The English Channel crossed by Blériot, p. [294]—Orville Wright fulfils the Government tests, p. [295]—Spectacular cross-country flights, p. [296]—The Wright brothers the true pioneers, p. [300].
[ILLUSTRATIONS]
| THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE IN FRANCE IN 1908 | [Frontispiece] |
| Facing page | |
| "TAKING THE SUN" WITH THE SEXTANT | [22] |
| THE OLD AND THE NEW—A CONTRAST | [60] |
| MARINE ENGINES AND AN EARLY TYPE OF STEAMBOAT | [64] |
| THE STEAMSHIPS "CHARLOTTE DUNDAS" AND "CLERMONT" | [68] |
| THE "CLERMONT" | [72] |
| ROBERT FULTON | [98] |
| THE AMERICAN SUBMARINE BOAT "CUTTLEFISH" IN DRY DOCK AT THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD | [108] |
| A FLEET OF BRITISH SUBMARINES MANŒUVERING AT THE SURFACE | [116] |
| GEORGE STEPHENSON | [124] |
| A CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN LOCOMOTIVE BUILDING | [128] |
| CUGNOT'S TRACTION ENGINE AND THE "NOVELTY" LOCOMOTIVE | [132] |
| THE FAMOUS LOCOMOTIVES "ROCKET" AND "SANS-PAREIL" | [134] |
| THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCOMOTIVE | [150] |
| THE HOBBY-HORSE OF 1820 CONTRASTED WITH THE MOTOR CYCLE OF TO-DAY | [154] |
| THE EVOLUTION OF THE BICYCLE | [156] |
| THE EXTREMES OF AUTOMOBILE DEVELOPMENT | [158] |
| AN ENGLISH STEAM COACH OF 1827 AND A NEW YORK TAXICAB OF 1909 | [162] |
| A RACING AUTOMOBILE | [166] |
| RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT IN TRANSPORTATION—THE DE WITT CLINTON TRAIN AND THE GYROCAR | [200] |
| TWO VIEWS OF MR. LOUIS BRENNAN'S MONORAIL GYROCAR | [216] |
| AN INTERNATIONAL BALLOON RACE | [242] |
| TWO FAMOUS FRENCH WAR BALLOONS | [264] |
| THE ZEPPELIN DIRIGIBLE BALLOON | [266] |
| AN ENGLISH DIRIGIBLE BALLOON | [268] |
| ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DIRIGIBLE WAR BALLOONS AND A WRIGHT AEROPLANE | [270] |
| THE AEROPLANE OF M. SANTOS-DUMONT | [272] |
| LEARNING HOW TO FLY | [278] |
| FLYING MACHINES OF THE MONOPLANE TYPE | [284] |
| THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE | [288] |
| MR. WILBUR WRIGHT PREPARING TO ASCEND IN HIS AEROPLANE WITH HIS PUPIL M. CASSANDIER | [292] |
| THE FARMAN AEROPLANE | [294] |
| THE MONOPLANES OF BLÉRIOT AND LATHAM | [296] |
| A BRITISH AEROPLANE | [298] |
| MR. WILBUR WRIGHT FLYING OVER NEW YORK HARBOR, OCTOBER 4, 1909 | [300] |
[THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE]
[INTRODUCTION]
THE preceding volume dealt with the general principles of application and transformation of the powers of Nature through which the world's work is carried on. In the present volume we are chiefly concerned with man's application of the same principles in his efforts to set at defiance, so far as may be, the limitations of time and space.
Something has already been said as to the contrast between the material civilization of to-day and that of the generations prior to the nineteenth century. The transformation in methods of agriculture and manufacture has been referred to somewhat in detail. Now we have to do with contrasts that are perhaps even more vivid, since they concern conditions that come within the daily observation of everyone. Steamships, locomotives, electric cars, and automobiles, are such commonplaces of every-day life that it is difficult to conceive a world in which they have no part. Yet everyone is aware that all these mechanisms are inventions of the nineteenth century. Meantime the aeroplane, which bids fair to rival those other means of transportation in the near future, is a creation of the twentieth century.
In order to visualize the contrast between the practical civilization of to-day and that of our grandparents, it suffices to recall that the first steam locomotive that carried passengers over a railway was put in operation in the year 1829; and that the first ship propelled by steam power alone did not cross the ocean until 1838. Not until well towards the middle of the nineteenth century, then, were the conditions of transportation altered materially from what they had been since the very dawn of civilization,—conditions under which one hundred miles constituted about the maximum extent of a hard day's land journey.
The elaboration of railway and steamship lines through which nearly all portions of the habitable globe have been made accessible, has constituted one of the most remarkable examples of economic development that man has ever achieved. It requires but the slightest use of the imagination to realize with some measure of vividness the extent to which the entire structure of present-day civilization is based upon this elaboration of means of transportation. To point but a single illustration, the entire central and western portion of the United States must have remained a wilderness for decades or centuries had not the steam locomotive made communication easy between these regions and the seaboard.
Contrariwise no such development of city life as that which we see throughout Christendom would have been possible but for the increased facilities, due primarily to locomotives and steamships, for bringing all essential food-stuffs from distant regions.
What this all means when applied on a larger scale may be suggested by the reflection that the entire character of the occupation of the average resident of England has been changed within a century. A century ago England was a self-supporting nation, in the sense that it produced its own food-stuffs. To-day the population of England as a whole is dependent upon food shipped to it from across the oceans. Obviously such a transformation could never have been effected had not the application of steam revolutionized the entire character of transportation.
Far-reaching as are the economic aspects of the problem of transportation, this extraordinary revolution, the effects of which are visible on every side, has been brought about by the application of only a few types of mechanisms. The steam engine, the dynamo, and the gas engine are substantially responsible for the entire development in question. In the succeeding pages, which deal with the development of steamships, locomotives, automobiles, and flying machines, we have to do with the application of principles with which our previous studies have made us familiar; and in particular with the mechanisms that have engaged our attention in the preceding volume. Yet the application of these principles and the utilization of these mechanisms gave full opportunity for the exercise of inventive ingenuity, and the story of the development of steamships, locomotives, electric vehicles, automobiles, gyro cars, and flying machines, will be found to have elements of interest commensurate with the importance of these mechanisms themselves. Before we take up these stories in detail, however, we shall briefly review the story of geographical discovery and exploration in its scientific aspects.
I
THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES
THE contrast between modern and ancient times is strikingly suggested by reflection on the limited range of geographical knowledge of those Oriental and Classical nations who dominated the scene at that remote period which we are accustomed to characterize as the dawn of history. The Egyptians, peopling the narrow valley of the Nile, scarcely had direct dealings with any people more remote than the Babylonians and Assyrians occupying the valley of the Euphrates. Babylonians and Assyrians in turn were in touch with no Eastern civilization more remote than that of Persia and India, and knew nothing of any Western world beyond the borders of Greece. Greeks and Romans, when in succession they came to dominate the world stage,—developing a civilization which even as viewed from our modern vantage-ground seems marvelous,—were still confined to narrow strips of territory about the shores of the Mediterranean, and had but the vaguest notions as to any other regions of the earth.
In the later classical period, to be sure, the globe was subjected, as we have seen, to wonderful measurements by Eratosthenes and by Posidonius, and the fact that man's abiding place is a great ball utterly different from the world as conceived by the Oriental mind, was definitely grasped and became more or less a matter of common knowledge. It was even conceived that there might be a second habitable zone on the opposite side of the equator from the region in which the Greeks and Romans found themselves, but as to just what this hypothetical region might be like, and as to what manner of beings might people it, even the most daring speculator made no attempt to decide. The more general view, indeed, precluded all thought of habitable regions lying beyond the confines of the Mediterranean civilization; conceiving rather that the world beyond was a mere waste of waters.
Doubtless the imaginative mind of the period must have chafed under these restrictions of geographical knowledge; and now and again a more daring navigator must have pressed out beyond the limits of safety, into the Unknown, never to return. Once at least, even in the old Egyptian days, a band of navigators surpassing in daring all their predecessors, and their successors of the ensuing centuries, made bold to continue their explorations along the coast of Africa till they had passed to a region where—as Herodotus relates with wonder—the sun appeared "on their right hand," ultimately passing about the southern extremity of the African continent and in due course completing the circumnavigation, returning with wonder tales to excite the envy, perhaps, but not the emulation of their fellows.
Then in due course some Phœnician or Greek navigators coasted along the northern shores beyond the "Pillars of Hercules" and discovered at the very confines of the world what we now term the British Isles. But this was the full extent of exploration throughout antiquity; and the spread of civilization about the borders of the known world was a slow and haphazard procedure during all those centuries that mark the Classical and Byzantine periods.