The Seven Follies of Science [2nd ed.] / A popular account of the most famous scientific impossibilities and the attempts which have been made to solve them. To which is added a small budget of interesting paradoxes, illusions, and marvels

by John Phin

It is true that the pen is mighty, and in the hands of philosophers and diplomats it accomplishes much, but it is only when resting on the printing press that it is provided with that fulcrum which enables it to raise the world by diffusing knowledge, inculcating morality, and providing pleasure and culture for humanity at large.

When assigned to such a task the sword breaks, and well it may. But we have a well-grounded hope that through the influence of the pen and the printing press there will soon come an era of universal

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INDEX

• Absurdities in perpetual motion, [42]
• Accuracy of modern methods of squaring the circle, [17]
• Adams, perpetual motion, [71]
• Ahaz, dial of, [133]
• Air, liquid, [65]
• Alkahest, or universal solvent, [104]
• Altar of Apollo, [30]
• Angelo, Michael, finely engraved seal, [136]
• Angle, Trisection of, [33]
• Apollo, Altar of, [30]
• Approximations to ratio of diameter to circumference of circle, [17]
  • De Morgan's Illustration of, [18]
  • New Illustration of, [19]
• Archimedean screw, [49]
• Archimedes, area of circle, [13]
  • Ratio of circumference to diameter, [14]
• Archimedes and his fulcrum, [171]
• Arithmetic of the ancients, [15]
• Arithmetical problems, [163]
  • Chess-board problem, [163]
  • Nail problem, [164]
  • A question of population, [165]
  • How to become a millionaire, [166]
  • Cost of first folio Shakespeare, [168]
  • Arithmetical puzzles, [170]
  • Archimedes and his fulcrum, [171]
• Army Medical Museum, [142]

• Ball, Prof. W. W. R., [39], [129], [133], [134]
• Balloons for conveying letters, [147]
• Balls—proportion of weight to diameter, [32]
• Bean, jumping, [128]
• Bells kept ringing for eight years, [41]
• Bible in walnut shell, [136]
• Bible, written at rate of 22 to square inch, [141]
• Boat-race without oars, [129]
• Bolognian phosphorus, [102]
• Boots—lifting oneself by straps of, [128]
• Boyle and palingenesy, [107]
• Bramwell, Sir Frederick, [38]
• Brick, to look through, [151]
• Buckle and geometrical lines, [119]
• "Budget of Paradoxes," De Morgan, [6], [18], [118]

• Carbon bisulphide for perpetual motion, [67]
• Capillary attraction, [53]
• Carpenter, Edward—fourth dimension, [122]
• Catherine II, [118]
• "Century of Inventions," [74]
• Chess-board problem, [163]
• Child lifting two horses, [131]
  • Perpetual motion by a, [64]
• Circle, squaring the, [9]
  • Supposed reward for squaring the, [9]
  • Resolution of Royal Academy of Sciences on, [10]
  • What the problem is, [12]
  • Approximation to, by Archimedes, [14]
  • Jews, ratio accepted by, [13]
  • Egyptians, ratio accepted by, [14]
  • Symbol for ratio introduced by Euler, [14]
  • Graphical approximations, [22]
• Circumference of circle, to find, when diameter is given, [22]
• Clock that requires no winding, [38]
• Columbia College seal, [140]
• Column of De Luc, [40]
• Compass, watch used as a, [134]
• Congreve, Sir William, [53]
• Cube, duplication of, [38]
• Crystallization seen by microscope, [108]
  • Mistaken for palingenesy, [100]

• Dancer—microphotographs, [144]
• Dangerous, fascination of the, [1]
• Declaration of Independence, [145]
• De Luc's column, [40]
• De Morgan—Legend of Michael Scott, [6]
  • Ignorance v. learning, [8]
  • Illustration of accuracy of modern attempts to square the circle, [18]
  • "Budget of Paradoxes," [6], [18]
  • Trisection of angle, [34], [118]
  • On powder of sympathy, [112]
  • Anecdote of Diderot, [118]
• Dial of Ahaz, [133]
• Diderot, anecdote of, [118]
• Digby, Sir Kenelm, and palingenesy, [109]
  • Sir Kenelm and powder of sympathy, [111]
• Dircks, [56], [71], [75]
• Discoveries, valuable, not due to perpetual-motion-mongers, [36]
• Duplication of the cube, [30]