Suppose now that we pass to Nature, so as to ascertain whether any such provisions were in existence before it was imitated, however unconsciously, by man. This certainly was the case with one of the commonest and most insignificant of our insects, the little Gall-fly, belonging to the genus Cynips. It could not lay its eggs without the aid of a very long ovipositor, and, owing to structural details, it cannot carry that ovipositor in a straight line, as is done by many insects, some of which have already been mentioned. Accordingly, it is coiled up exactly like our measuring tapes, and can be unrolled when needed. The long, protrusible tongues of the Wryneck, Creeper, and Woodpecker are examples of a similar structure, the tendinous portions being coiled round the head when not needed.
The Spirit-level.
Having now seen how the forces of Nature enable us to produce a perfectly perpendicular line, we will see how the same force, though applied in a different manner, enables us to produce a perfectly horizontal line, the intersection of the two lines producing a right angle.
The measuring tool in question is called the Spirit-level, and is represented on the right hand of the accompanying illustration. Its construction is very simple, consisting of a tube, nearly filled with spirit, and having just one bubble of air in it. Now, owing to the force of gravitation, the air-bubble must always be uppermost. Consequently, if the tube be a perfect cylinder, whenever it is held so that the bubble is in the centre, the tube must be horizontal, a hair’s breadth of deviation altering the line. I may here mention that, as far as the principle of the instrument goes, water would serve the purpose as effectively as spirit. But as in cold weather the water might freeze, and so burst the tube, as well as being useless until it was thawed, spirit is always substituted.
This instrument is used for various purposes. Sometimes it is employed for levelling billiard tables, or for ascertaining the exact level of walls and other parts of buildings. Surveyors could scarcely do their work without the Spirit-level, which forms an important part of their chief instrument, the theodolite. Indeed, the new science of land drainage, by which the tough, unproductive clay soil is converted into fertile earth, is entirely dependent on the use of the Spirit-level, which detects the slightest rise or fall in the ground.
A most ingenious modification of the Spirit-level is used by military engineers, and is known by the name of the “Contouring-glass,” a term which requires some explanation.
It is of the utmost importance that a military engineer should be able, whether on foot or on horseback, to ascertain the approximate heights of the various points which he visits, the efficiency or failure of a battery very much depending on the comparative elevation of the spot on which the battery is placed, and that of the place against which its fire is directed. In an unknown country, of which no detailed maps exist, an invading force must of necessity depend on the extemporised surveys of their engineer officers, and one of the most valuable of their devices is the system of Contouring, invented, as far as I know, by the late Colonel Hutchinson, R.E.
The idea is simple enough. A hill is seen, and the engineer makes a sketch of it before he ascends. At the foot he halts, and marks the spot where his foot presses the earth. He then looks in front at a spot exactly on the level of his eye, marks it, and walks to it. He then draws a line across his sketch, at the exact spot on which he is standing, and that is the first “contouring line.” Others follow, until he has reached the top of the hill.