Plan. Cotton Flannel RemovedPLAN. COTTON FLANNEL REMOVED.SECTION AT CO.
The Construction of the Air-Cushion.—The expense of such an air-cushion seemed at first likely to prevent its being used; but a method of construction suggested itself, the expense of which proved to be very slight. The wooden back-board, as constructed, is made in one piece containing no wide cracks. It has laid upon it some thick brown Manila paper, the upper surface of which has been previously shellacked to make it entirely air-tight. Upon this shellacked surfaceis laid a single thickness of thin paper of any kind; even newspaper will answer. Its object is simply to prevent the sheet rubber, which forms the top of the air-cushion, from sticking to the shellacked paper. The heat of the sun is often sufficient to bring the shellac to a sticky state. It would probably answer as well to shellac the under side of the paper, and to use but one sheet, but I have not tried this plan. Around the periphery of the pad, there is laid a piece of rubber gasket about one and a half inches wide, and about one-eighth of an inch thick. In order that the gasket may not be too expensive, it is cut from two strips about three inches wide. One of them is as long as the outside length of the frame, and the other is as long as the outside width of the frame. Each of these strips is cut into two L-shaped pieces, an inch and a half in width, with the shorter leg of each L three inches long. When the four pieces are put together a scarf joint is made near each corner, having an inch and one-half lap. It is somewhat difficult to cut such a scarf joint as perfectly as one would wish, and it is best to use rubber cement at the joints. Over the gasket is laid a sheet of the thinnest grade of what is called pure rubber or elastic gum. Above this, and over the gasket, is placed a single thickness of cotton cloth, of the same dimensions as the gasket, and yet above this are strips of ordinary strap iron, an inch and a half wide and nearly one eighth of an inch thick. These strips are filed square at the ends and butt against each other at right angles. As the edges of the strips are slightly rounded, they are filed away sufficiently to form good joints wherever the others butt against them. The whole combination is bound together by ordinary stove bolts, one quarter of an inch in diameter, placed near the center of the width of the iron strips, and at a distance apart of about two and one-half inches. Their heads are countersunk into the strap iron. In making the holes for the stove bolts through the thin rubber, care should be taken to make them sufficiently large to enable the bolt to pass through without touching the rubber, otherwise the rubber may cling to the bolts, and if they are turned in their holes the rubber may be torn near the bolts and made to leak. A rough washer, under each nut, prevents it from cutting into the back-board. For the purpose of introducing air to, or removing air from, the pad, a three-eighths of an inch lock nut nipple is introduced through the back-board, the shellacked paper, and its thin paper covering. Without the back-board a T connects with the nipple. One of its branches leads, by a rubber tube, to the pressure gauge, which is a U-tube of glass containing mercury. The other branch has upon it an ordinary plug cock, and, beyond this, a rubber tube terminating in a glass mouth-piece. When it is desired to inflate the air-cushion, it is only necessary to blow into the mouth-piece. A pressure of one inch of mercury is sufficient for any work that I have yet undertaken. With particularly good paper, a lower pressure is sufficient. Upon the top of the pad is laid a piece of common cotton flannel with the nap outward, and with its edges tacked along the under edge of the back-board. The cotton flannel is not drawn tight across the top of the pad. The reason for employing a cotton flannel covering is this: When the sheet rubber has been exposed for a few days to the strong sunlight, it loses its strength and becomes worthless. The cotton flannel is a protection against the destruction of the rubber by the sunlight. I first observed this destruction while experimenting with a cheap and convenient form of gauge. I used, as an inexpensive gauge, an ordinary toy balloon, and I could tell, with sufficient accuracy, how much pressure I had applied, by the swelling of the balloon. This balloon ruptured from some unknown cause, and I made a substitute for it out of a round sheet of thin flat rubber, gathered all around the circumference. I made holes about one-quarter of an inch apart, and passing a string in and out drew it tight upon the outside of a piece of three eighths of an inch pipe, I then wound a string tightly over the rubber, on the pipe, and found the whole to be air-tight. This served me for some time, but one day, on applying the pressure, I found a hole in the balloon which looked as if it had been cut with a very sharp knife. That it had been so cut was not to be imagined, and on further examination I found that the fracture had occured at a line which separated a surface in the strong sunlight from a surface in the shade, at a fold in the rubber. I saw that all of the rubber which had been continuously exposed to the intense sunlight had changed color and had become whiter than before, and that that portion of the balloon had lost its strength. I then returned to the use of the mercury gauge, and took the precaution to cover my pad with cotton flannel, as a protection from the light and from other sources of destruction. This pad is upon the roof of the Institute; and is exposed to all weathers. As a protection from the rain and the snow, the whole is covered again with a rubber blanket. It has withstood the exposure perfectly well for a year, without injury. The gauge, made from flat rubber, is altogether so cheap and so convenient that I am now experimenting with one of this description having a black cloth covering upon the outside. The balloon is of spherical shape, the black cloth covering is of cylindrical shape, and I hope that this device will serve every necessary purpose. A sectional view of the air-cushion is offered as a part of this communication.
The Frame, which Contains the Plate Glass, is made of thick board or plank, with the broad side of the board at right angles to the surface of the glass. A rabbet is made for the reception of the glass, and four strips of strap iron, overlapping both the glass, and the wood, and screwed to the wood, keep the glass in position. Strips of rubber are interposed between the glass and the wood and between the glass and the iron. The frame is hinged to the back-board by separable hinges, so that the glass can be unhinged from the pad without removing the screws. Hooks, such as are used for foundry flasks, connect the frame with the pad upon the opposite side. A frame made in this manner is very stiff and springs but little, and its depth serves an excellent purpose. The air-cushion and the frame are so mounted that they can be easily turned to make the surface of the glass square with the direction of the sun's rays. It is necessary to have a tell tale connected with the apparatus, which will show when the surface of the glass has been thus adjusted. The shadow of the deep frame is an inexpensive tell-tale, and enables the operator to know when the adjustment is right. I have now described, in detail, the construction of the air-cushion with its back-board, as well as that of the frame which holds the plate glass, and I think it will be evident that the first cost of the materials of which they are made is comparatively little, and that the workmanship required to produce it is reduced to a minimum. It will also, I think, be evident that a uniform pressure, of any desired intensity, can be had all over the surface of the sensitized paper for the purpose of securing perfect contact between it and the negative. The blue copies that are taken with this apparatus are entirely free from blue lines when the negatives, chemicals, and paper are good.
The Mechanism for Adjusting the Surface of the Glass, until it shall be Perpendicular to the Direction of the Sun's Rays.—I have found many uses for the blue copying process in connection with the work of instruction at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Notes printed by it are far better and less costly than those printed by papyrograph. I will not detain you now with an account of the uses that I have made of it. I will merely say that more than a year ago I found that my frame, which has a glass 3 feet x 4 feet, was wholly inadequate to the work in hand, and I tried to increase the production from it by diminishing the time of printing. The glass of this frame was horizontal, except when one of its ends was tilted off from the slides which guided it when pushed out of the window; and I knew that it took three or four times as long to print when the sun was low as it did when the sun was near the meridian. I made plans for mounting this frame upon a single axis, about which it could be turned after it had been pushed through the window, but I saw that no movement about a single axis would give a satisfactory adjustment for all times of the year, and I considered what arrangement of two axes would permit a rapid and perfect adjustment, at all times, with the least trouble to the operator. It was evident that when the sun was in the equatorial plane, the surface of the glass should contain a line which was parallel to the axis of the earth; and further, that if such a glass was firmly attached to an axis which was parallel to that of the earth, it would fulfill the desired purpose. For the glass, being once in adjustment, is only thrown out of position by the rotation of the earth, and if the glass is rotated sufficiently about its own axis, in a direction opposite to that of the earth, it will retain its adjustment. In order to have the adjustment equally good when the sun was either north or south of the equatorial plane, it was sufficient to mount a secondary axis upon the primary one and at right angles to it. About this the glass could be turned through an angle of 23½°, either way, from the position which it should have when the sun was in the equatorial plane.
Blue Process Printing ApparatusBLUE PROCESS PRINTING APPARATUS.
The Construction of the Adjusting Mechanism.—I desired to have the mechanism as compact and inexpensive as possible, and to have the frame well balanced about the primary axis, in every position. I also desired to have a rotation of nearly 180° about the principal axis. The plan adopted will be most easily understood by referring to the drawing which illustrates it. The axes are composed chiefly of wood. They are built up from strips which are 3 inches x 7/8 inch, and from small pieces of 2 inch plank. They are stiffly braced. A pair of ordinary hinges permit the secondary rotation to occur, while a pair of cast iron dowel pins with their sockets, such as are used in foundry flasks, serve as pivots during the primary rotation.
The Adjustments.—The adjustment about the secondary axis does not need to be made more frequently than once a week, or once a fortnight. In order to prevent rotation about this axis when in adjustment, two cords lead from points which are beneath the back board, and as far removed from the secondary axis as is convenient. Each cord passes forward and backward through four parallel holes in a wooden block which is attached to the primary axis. The cords can be easily slipped in the holes by pulling their loops, but the friction is so great that they cannot be slipped by pulling at either end. It takes about twice as long to make the adjustment as would be necessary if a more expensive device had been used; but this device is at once so cheap, so secure, and has so seldom to be used, that it was thought to be best adapted for the purpose. To prevent rotation from occurring about the primary axis when it is not desired, a bar parallel to the secondary axis is attached by its middle point to the primary axis near one end. A cord passes from either end of this bar through cam shaped clamps, which were originally designed for clamping the cords of curtains with spring fixtures. These clamps are cheap. They are easily and quickly adjusted, and are very secure.
The whole apparatus can be located upon the roof of a building, or, if convenient, it can be mounted upon slides, and pushed through an open window when it is to be exposed to the light. If it is to be used upon a roof, a small hut, or shelter of some sort, near by is a great convenience to the operator, particularly in winter.
An Inexpensive Drying Case for Use in Coating the Paper.—When the apparatus is in continuous use, time may be saved by having a convenient arrangement for drying the sheets that have been coated with the sensitizing liquid. I have made an inexpensive drying case which serves the purpose very well. It consists simply of a light-tight rectangular case of drawers. There are twenty-five drawers in all. They are constructed in an inexpensive manner, and are the only parts of the case that are worth describing. They are very shallow, being but 1-7/8 inches deep, and as it appeared that the principal expense would be for the materials of which the bottoms of the drawers should be composed, it was decided to make the bottoms of cotton cloth. This cloth is stretched upon a frame, the dimensions of which are greater than that of the paper to be dried. The stock of which the frame is made is pine, 1¼ inches wide, and three-eighths of an inch thick. The corners are simply mitered together and attached to each other by means of the wire staples that are commonly used for fastening together pages of manuscript, and which are called "novelty staples." Eight staples are used at each miter, four above and four below the joint. Two of the staples, at the top and near the ends of the joint, are set square across it, and two others, at the top and near the middle of the joint, are placed diagonally across it. The staples at the bottom are similarly placed. The joint is quite firm and strong, and is likely to hold for an indefinite period with fair usage. The cloth, stretched upon the frame, is fastened to it by means of similar staples. A dark colored cloth not transparent to light is to be preferred. A strip of pine, 1-13/16 inches wide, and three eighths of an inch thick, forms the vertical front of the drawer, and prevents the admission of much light from the front while the sheet is drying. Two triangular knee pieces, three-quarters of an inch thick, serve to connect the front board with the frame, and four small screws with a few brads are used in attaching them. The lower edge of the front board drops one-quarter of an inch below the bottom of the drawer. My case stands in a poorly lighted room, and paper dried in this case and removed to a portfolio as soon as it is dry does not seem to be injured by the light that reaches it. With the case in a well lighted room, I should prefer to have outer doors to the case, made of ordinary board six or eight inches wide, hinged to one end, and arranged to swing horizontally across the front of the case. These would more completely prevent the admission of light. The opening of any one of the doors would allow three or four of the drawers to be filled, while the rest of the case would be comparatively dark at the same time.2
The Portfolio for Protecting the Sensitized Paper from Exposure to Light.—The sensitized paper is very well protected from exposure to light, if kept in a portfolio or book, the brown paper leaves of which are considerably larger than the sensitized sheets. The sheets may be returned to such a book after exposure, and washed at the convenience of the operator. They can be washed more quickly and perfectly iftwowater-tanks are provided in which to wash them. A few minutes' soaking will remove nearly all of the sensitizing preparation which has not been fixed by the exposure. If the soaking is too long continued in water that is much discolored by the sensitizing preparation, the sheets become saturated with the diluted preparation, and they may become slightly colored byafterexposure. If the first soaking is not too long continued, and if the sheets are transferred at once to a second bath of clean water, which is kept slowly changing from an open faucet, they may remain there until the soluble chemicals have been entirely extracted, and there will be no risk of staining by after exposure. Washing in two tanks is of more consequence when the ground is white and the lines blue, than when the ground is blue and the lines white.
The Grades of Paper that are well Adapted for Blue Process Work.—I have tested many grades of paper, to ascertain if they were well adapted for blue process work. Some grades of brown Manila are very good; others have little specks embedded in their surfaces which refuse to take on a blue tint; still others, when printed upon, have white lines that are wider than the corresponding black lines of the negative. The blue obtained upon bond paper appears to be particularly rich, and the whites remain pure; but bond paper cockles badly, and the cockles remain in the finished print. Weston's linen record is an excellent paper. It is strong, cockles but little, and dries very smooth. A paper that is used by Allen & Rowell, for carbon printing, is comparatively cheap, and is an excellent paper. It is not so stiff as the linen record, and the whites are quite as pure. It does not cockle, neither does it curl while being sensitized. It comes in one hundred pound rolls, and is about thirty inches wide. The best papers are those that are prepared for photographic work. The plain Saxe and the plain Rives both give excellent results. Blue lines on a pure white ground can be obtained on these papers, from photographic negatives, without difficulty. None of the hard papers of good grade require the use of gum in the sensitizing liquid. The liquid penetrates the more porous papers too far when gum is not used, and without it good whites are seldom obtained upon porous paper.
The Best Chemicals for this Workare therecrystallizedred prussiate of potash and the citrate of iron and ammonia,which is manufactured by Powers & Wightman, of Philadelphia. If the red prussiate has not been recrystallized, the whites will be unsatisfactory and the samples of citrates of iron and ammonia which have come to us from other chemists than those named, have all proved unreliable for this process.
The Sensitizing Liquid.—Its Proportions.—The blue process was originally introduced from France, by the late Mr. A. L. Holley. I was indebted to Mr. P. Barnes, who was with Mr. Holley at the time, for an early account of it, and I had the first blue process machine that was in use in New England. Since 1876, instruction in the use of the blue process has been given to the students of mechanical engineering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and they have caused its introduction into many draughting offices. The proportions of the sensitizing liquid, as originally given me by Mr Barnes, were as follows:
Red prussiate of potash8 parts.Citrate of iron and ammonia8 parts.Gum arabic1 part.Water80 parts.
Results of Experiments.—In our use, it first appeared that the gum might be omitted from the preparation when sufficiently hard papers were used. Next, that a preparation containing
Red prussiate of potash2parts.Citrate of iron and ammonia3"Water20"
printed more rapidly. This preparation I continue to use when much time may elapse between sensitizing and printing; but, when the paper is to be printed immediately after sensitizing, I use a larger proportion of citrate of iron and ammonia. Before arriving at the conclusion that these proportions were the best to be used, I made a series of purely empirical experiments, beginning with the proportions:
Red prussiate of potash10 parts.Citrate of iron and ammonia1 part.Water50 parts.
and ending with the proportions:
Red prussiate of potash1part.Citrate of iron and ammonia10parts.Water50"
I found the best plan for conducting these experiments to be: To coat a sheet of the paper with a given mixture; to cut the sheet into strips before exposure; to expose all the strips of the sheet, at the same time, to the direct sunlight without an intervening negative; and to withdraw them, one after another, at stated intervals. I found that with each mixture there was a time of exposure which would produce the deepest blue, that with over-exposure the blue gradually turned gray, and that if a curve should be plotted, the abscissas of which should represent the time of exposure, and the ordinates of which should represent the intensity of the blue the curves drawn would have approximately an elliptical form, so that if one knew the exact time of exposure which would give the best result with any mixture, one might deviate two or three minutes either way from that time without producing a noticeable result. I have found that, with the same paper, the same blue results with any good proportions of the chemicals named, provided a sufficient weight of both chemicals is applied to the surface; that an excess of the red prussiate of potash renders the preparation less sensitive to light, and very much lengthens the necessary time of exposure; that the prints are finer with some excess of the red prussiate; that an excess of the citrate of iron and ammonia hastens the time of printing materially; that a greater excess of the citrate causes the whites to become badly stained by the iron, while a still greater excess of the citrate, in a concentrated solution causes the sensitized paper to change without exposure to light, and to produce a redder blue or purple, which does not adhere to the paper, but may be washed off with a sponge. I have found that the cheapest method of reproducing inked drawings that have been made on thick paper is not to trace them, but to print the blues from a photographic glass negative; and also, that the dry plate process is well adapted to such work in offices, when one has become sufficiently experienced. Printed matter can also most easily and inexpensively be reproduced by the same means, when a small issue is required on each successive year. For the reproduction of manuscript by the blue process, the best plan that I have found has been to write the manuscript upon the thinnest blue tinted French note-paper, with black opaque ink—the stylographic ink is very good—and, afterward, to dip the paper into melted paraffine, and to dry the paper at the melting temperature. This operation, if cheaply done, requires special apparatus. For positive printing from the glass negative, I use a multiple frame, by the aid of which I can print from 16 negatives at the same time, upon a single sheet of paper. This frame is interchangeable with the one that contains the plate glass. The negatives are so arranged in the frame that the sheets can be cut and bound, as in the ordinary process of book binding. The time required for exposure, when printing from glass negatives, varies with the negative; and, in order to secure satisfactory results with the multiple frame it is necessary to stop the exposure of some, while the exposure of others is continued. I insert wooden or cloth stoppers into the frame for the purpose of stopping the exposure of certain negatives. When paraffined manuscript is to be printed from, I find it convenient to have it written on sheets of small size, and to have these mounted upon an opaque frame of brown Manila paper, printing sixteen or more at a time, depending upon the size of the printing frame. Many small tracings may be similarly mounted upon a brown paper multiple frame, and may be printed together upon a single sheet.
[1]
Read June 21, 1882, before the Boston Society of Civil Engineers.
Read June 21, 1882, before the Boston Society of Civil Engineers.
[2]
Since this paper was read, I have seen in the office of the City Engineer of Boston a drying case which is similar in some respects to the one that I have devised. It has been longer in use than my own. The drawers are simply the ordinary mosquito netting frames covered with cotton netting. They have no fronts, but a door covers the front of the case, and shuts out the light.
Since this paper was read, I have seen in the office of the City Engineer of Boston a drying case which is similar in some respects to the one that I have devised. It has been longer in use than my own. The drawers are simply the ordinary mosquito netting frames covered with cotton netting. They have no fronts, but a door covers the front of the case, and shuts out the light.
At a recent meeting of the London Physical Society, Prof. Rowland, of Baltimore, exhibited a number of his new concave gratings for giving a diffraction spectrum. He explained the theory of their action. Gratings can be ruled on any surface, if the lines are at a proper distance apart and of the proper form. The best surface, however, is a cylindrical or spherical one. The gratings are solid slabs of polished speculum metal ruled with lines equidistant by a special machine of Prof. Rowland's invention. An account of this machine will be published shortly. The number of lines per inch varied in the specimens shown from 5,000 to 42,000, but higher numbers can be engraved by the cutting diamond. The author has designed an ingenious mechanical arrangement for keeping the photographic plates in focus. In this way photographs of great distinctness can be obtained. Prof. Rowland exhibited some 10 inches long, which showed the E line doubled, and the large B group very clearly. Lines are divided by this method which have never been divided before, and the work of photographing takes a mere fraction of the time formerly required. A photographic plate sensitive throughout its length is got by means of a mixture of eosene, iodized collodion, and bromized collodion. Prof. Rowland and Captain Abney, R.E., are at present engaged in preparing a new map of the whole spectrum with a focus of 18 feet.
In reply to Mr. Hilger, F.R.A.S., the author stated that if the metal is the true speculum metal used by Lord Rosse, it would stand the effects of climate, he thought; but if too much copper were put in, it might not.
In reply to Mr. Warren de la Rue, Prof. Rowland said that 42,000 was the largest number of lines he had yet required to engrave on the metal.
Prof. Guthrie read a letter from Captain Abney, pointing out that Prof. Rowland's plates gave clearer spectra than any others; they were free from "ghosts," caused by periodicity in the ruling, and the speculum metal had no particular absorption.
Prof. Dewar, F.R.S., observed that Prof. Liveing and he had been engaged for three years past in preparing a map of the ultra-violet spectrum, which would soon be published. He considered the concave gratings to make a new departure in the subject, and that they would have greatly facilitated the preparation of his map.
Pocket Opera GlassPOCKET OPERA GLASS.
Inasmuch as high power combined with small size is usually required in an opera glass, manufacturers have always striven to unite these two features in their instruments, and have succeeded in producing glasses which, although sufficiently small to be carried in the waistcoat pocket, are nevertheless powerful enough to allow quite distant objects to be clearly distinguished. Recently, a Parisian optician has succeeded in constructing an instrument of this kind that is somewhat of a novelty in its way, since its mechanism allows it to be closed in such a manner as to take up no more space than a package of cigarettes (Fig. 1.) It is constructed as follows:
AB and CD (Fig. 1) are two metallic tubes, in which slide with slight friction two other tubes. Into the upper part of the latter are inserted two hollow elliptical eye-pieces, which move therein with slight friction, and which are united by the two supports tor the wheel,bb(Fig. 4), and endless screw that serve for focusing the instrument. The eyepieces, TT, are held in the tube by means of two screws,vv(Figs. 2 and 4), in such a way that they can revolve around the latter as axes. The lenses of the eye-piece are fixed therein by means of a copper ring. The object glasses are placed in the ends of the tubes, AB and CD, atoo.
When the instrument is closed, it forms a cylinder 35 millimeters in diameter by 11 centimeters in length. To open it, it is grasped by the extremities and drawn apart horizontally so as to bring it into the position shown in Fig. 2. Then it is turned over so that the screw, V, points upward, while at the same time the two tubes are pressed gently downward. This causes the eye-pieces to revolve around their axes,vv, and brings the two tubes parallel with each other.—La Nature.
A lecture on ancient Greek painting was lately delivered by Professor C.T. Newton, C.B., at University College, London. The lecturer began by reminding his audience of the course of lectures on Greek sculpture, from the earliest times to the Roman period, which he completed this year. The main epochs in the history of ancient sculpture had an intimate connection with the general history of the Greeks, with their intellectual, political, and social development. We could not profitably study the history of ancient sculpture except as part of the collateral study of ancient life as a whole, nor could we get a clear idea of the history of ancient sculpture without tracing out, so far as our imperfect knowledge permits, the characteristics and successive stages of ancient painting. Between these twin sister arts there had been in all times, and especially in Greek antiquity, a close sympathy and a reciprocal influence. The method in dealing with the history of Greek painting in this course would be similar to that adopted in the course on sculpture. The evidence of ancient authors as to the works and characteristics of Greek painters would be first examined, then the extant monuments which illustrate the history of this branch of art would be described. In the case of painting, the extant monuments were few and far between, but we might learn much by the careful study of the mural paintings from the buried Campanian cities, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and those found in the tombs near Rome and Etruria. The paintings on Greek vases would enable us to trace the history of what is called ceramographic art from B.C. 600 for nearly five centuries onward.
After noticing the traditions preserved by Pliny and others as to the earliest painters, the lecturer passed on to the period after the Persian war. Polygnotos of Thasos was the earliest Greek painter of celebrity. He flourished B.C. 480-460. At Athens he decorated with paintings the portico called the Stoa Poikile, the Temple of the Dioscuri, the Temple of Theseus, and the Pinakotheke on the Akropolis. At Delphi he painted on the walls of the building called Lesche two celebrated pictures, the taking of Troy and the descent of Ulysses into Hades. All these were mural paintings; the subjects were partly mythical, partly historical. Thus in the Stoa Poikile were represented the taking of Troy, the battle of Theseus with the Amazons, the battle of Marathon. In the Temple of Theseus came the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs and the battle of the Amazons again. In the other two Athenian temples he treated mythological subjects. These great public works were executed during the administration of Kimon, to whom Polygnotos stood in the same relation us Phidias did to Perikles, the successor of Kimon. The paintings in the Stoa Poikile were executed by Polygnotos gratuitously, for which service the Athenians rewarded him with the freedom of their city. His greatest and probably his earliest works were the two pictures in the Lesche at Delphi. Of these there was a very full description in Pausanias. The building called Lesche was thought to have been of elliptical form, with a colonnade on either side, separated by a wall in the middle, and to have been about 90 ft in length. The figures were probably life size.
According to the list given by Pausanias, there were upward of seventy in each of the two pictures. In that representing the taking of Troy Polygnotos had brought together many incidents described in the Cyclic epics: Menelaos Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Neoptolemos, Antenor, Helen, Andromache, Kassandra, and many other figures, with which the Homeric poems have made us familiar, all appeared united in one skillful composition, arranged in groups. The other picture, the descent of Ulysses into Hades to interrogate Teiresias, might be called a pictorial epic of Hades. On one side was the entrance, indicated by Charon's boat crossing: the Acheron, and the evocation of Teiresias by Ulysses, besides the punishment of Tityos and other wicked men; on the other side were Tantalos and Sisyphos. Between these scenes, on the flanks, were various groups of heroes and heroines from the Trojan and other legends. From the remarks of ancient critics, it might be inferred that the genius of Polygnotos, like that of Giotto, was far in advance of his technical skill. Aristotle called him the most ethical of painters, and recommended the young artist to study his works in preference to those of his contemporary Pauson, who was ignobly realistic, or those of Zeuxis, who had great technical merit, but was deficient in spiritual conception. The course will comprise four more lectures, as follows—November 17, "Greek Painters from B.C. 460 to Accession of Alexander the Great B.C. 336—Apollodoros, Zeuxis, Parrhasios, Pamphilos, Aristides;" November 24, "Greek Painters from Age of Alexander to Augustan Age—Apelles, Protogenes, Theon;" December 1, "Pictures on Greek Fictile Vases;" December 15, "Mural Paintings from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other Ancient sites."
The new Iowa State Capitol has thus far cost $2,000,000, and it will require $500,000 to finish it. It is 365 feet long fron north to south, and measures 274 feet from the sidewalk to the top of the central dome.
[LONGMAN'S MAGAZINE.]
I.
Man is prone to idealization. He cannot accept as final the phenomena of the sensible world, but looks behind that world into another which rules the sensible one. From this tendency of the human mind, systems of mythology and scientific theories have equally sprung. By the former the experiences of volition, passion, power, and design, manifested among ourselves, were transplanted, with the necessary modifications, into an unseen universe from which the sway and potency of those magnified human qualities were exerted. "In the roar of thunder and in the violence of the storm was felt the presence of a shouter and furious strikers, and out of the rain was created an Indra or giver of rain." It is substantially the same with science, the principal force of which is expended in endeavoring to rend the veil which separates the sensible world from an ultra-sensible one. In both cases our materials, drawn from the world of the senses, are modified by the imagination to suit intellectual needs. The "first beginnings" of Lucretius were not objects of sense, but they were suggested and illustrated by objects of sense. The idea of atoms proved an early want on the part of minds in pursuit of the knowledge of nature. It has never been relinquished, and in our own day it is growing steadily in power and precision.
The union of bodies in fixed and multiple proportions constitutes the basis of modern atomic theory. The same compound retains, for ever, the same elements, in an unalterable ratio. We cannot produce pure water containing one part, by weight, of hydrogen and nine of oxygen, nor can we produce it when the ratio is one to ten; but we can produce it from the ratio of one to eight, and from no other. So also when water is decomposed by the electric current, the proportion, as regards volumes, is as fixed as in the case of weights. Two volumes of hydrogen and one of oxygen invariably go the formation of water. Number and harmony, as in the Pythagorean system, are everywhere dominant in this under-world.
Following the discovery of fixed proportions we have that ofmultipleproportions. For the same compound, as above stated, the elementary factors are constant; but one elementary body often unites with another so as to form different compounds. Water, for example, is an oxide of hydrogen; but a peroxide of that substance also exists, containing exactly double the quantity of oxygen. Nitrogen also unites with oxygen in various ratios, but not in all. The union takes place, not gradually and uniformly, but by steps, a definite weight of matter being added at each step. The larger combining quantities of oxygen are thus multiples of the smaller ones. It is the same with other combinations.
We remain thus far in the region of fact: why not rest there? It might as well be asked why we do not, like our poor relations of the woods and forests, rest content with the facts of the sensible world. In virtue of our mental idiosyncrasy, we demandwhybodies should combine in multiple proportions, and the outcome and answer of this question is the atomic theory. The definite weights of matter, above referred to, represent the weights of atoms, indivisible by any force which chemistry has hitherto brought to bear upon them. If matter were acontinuum—if it were not rounded off, so to say, into these discrete atomic masses—the impassable breaches of continuity which the law of multiple proportions reveals, could not be accounted for. These atoms are what Maxwell finely calls "the foundation stones of the material universe," which, amid the wreck of composite matter, "remain unbroken and unworn."
A group of atoms drawn and held together by what chemists term affinity is called a molecule. The ultimate parts of all compound bodies are molecules. A molecule of water, for example, consists of two atoms of hydrogen, which grasp and are grasped by one atom of oxygen. When water is converted into steam, the distances between the molecules are greatly augmented, but the molecules themselves continue intact. We must not, however, picture the constituent atoms of any molecule as held so rigidly together as to render intestine motion impossible. The interlocked atoms have still liberty of vibration, which may, under certain circumstances, become so intense as to shake the molecule asunder. Most molecules—probably all—are wrecked by intense heat, or in other words by intense vibratory motion; and many are wrecked by a very moderate heat of the proper quality. Indeed, a weak force, which bears a suitable relation to the constitution of the molecule, can, by timely savings and accumulations, accomplish what a strong force out of relation fails to achieve.
We have here a glimpse of the world in which the physical philosopher for the most part resides. Science has been defined as "organized common sense;" by whom I have forgotten; but, unless we stretch unduly the definition of common sense, I think it is hardly applicable to this world of molecules. I should be inclined to ascribe the creation of that world to inspiration rather than to what is currently known as common sense. For the natural history sciences the definition may stand—hardly for the physical and mathematical sciences.
The sensation of light is produced by a succession of waves which strike the retina in periodic intervals; and such waves, impinging on the molecules of bodies, agitate their constituent atoms. These atoms are so small, and, when grouped to molecules, are so tightly clasped together, that they are capable of tremors equal in rapidity to those of light and radiant heat. To a mind coming freshly to these subjects, the numbers with which scientific men here habitually deal must appear utterly fantastical; and yet, to minds trained in the logic of science, they express most sober and certain truth. The constituent atoms of molecules can vibrate to and fro millions of millions of times in a second. The waves of light and of radiant heat follow each other at similar rates through the luminiferous ether. Further, the atoms of different molecules are held together with varying degrees of tightness—they are tuned, as it were, to notes of different pitch. Suppose, then, light-waves, or heat-waves, to impinge upon an assemblage of such molecules, what may be expected to occur? The same as what occurs when a piano is opened and sung into. The waves of sound select the strings which respectively respond to them—the strings, that is to say, whose rates of vibration are the same as their own—and of the general series of strings these only sound. The vibratory motion of the voice, imparted first to the air, is here taken up by the strings. It may be regarded asabsorbed, each string constituting itself thereby a new center of motion. Thus also, as regards the tightly locked atoms of molecules on which waves of light or radiant heat impinge. Like the waves of sound just adverted to, the waves of ether select those atoms whose periods of vibration synchronize with their own periods of recurrence, and to such atoms deliver up their motion. It is thus that light and radiant heat are absorbed.
And here the statement, though elementary, must not be omitted, that the colors of the prismatic spectrum, which are presented in an impure form in the rainbow, are due to different rates of atomic vibration in their source, the sun. From the extreme red to the extreme violet, between which are embraced all colors visible to the human eye, the rapidity of vibration steadily increases, the length of the waves of ether produced by these vibrations diminishing in the same proportion. I say "visible to the human eye," because there may be eyes capable of receiving visual impression from waves which do not affect ours. There is a vast store of rays, or more correctly waves, beyond the red, and also beyond the violet, which are incompetent to excite our vision; so that could the whole length of the spectrum, visible and invisible, be seen by the same eye, its length would be vastly augmented.
I have spoken of molecules being wrecked by a moderate amount of heat of the proper quality: let us examine this point for a moment. There is a liquid called nitrite of amyl—frequently administered to patients suffering from heart disease. The liquid is volatile, and its vapor is usually inhaled by the patient. Let a quantity of this vapor be introduced into a wide glass tube, and let a concentrated beam of solar light be sent through the tube along its axis. Prior to the entry of the beam, the vapor is as invisible as the purest air. When the light enters, a bright cloud is immediately precipitated on the beam. This is entirely due to the waves of light, which wreck the nitrite of amyl molecules, the products of decomposition forming innumerable liquid particles which constitute the cloud. Many other gases and vapors are acted upon in a similar manner. Now the waves that produce this decomposition are by no means the most powerful of those emitted by the sun. It is, for example, possible to gather up the ultra-red waves into a concentrated beam, and to send it through the vapor, like the beam of light. But, though possessing vastly greater energy than the light waves, they fail to produce decomposition. Hence the justification of the statement already made, that a suitable relation must subsist between the molecules and the waves of ether to render the latter effectual.
A very impressive illustration of the decomposing power of the waves of light is here purposely chosen; but the processes of photography illustrate the same principle. The photographer, without fear, illuminates his developing room with light transmitted through red or yellow glass; but he dares not use blue glass, for blue light would decompose his chemicals. And yet the waves of red light, measured by the amount of energy which they carry, are immensely more powerful than the waves of blue. The blue rays are usually called chemical rays—a misleading term; for, as Draper and others have taught us, the rays that produce the grandest chemical effects in nature, by decomposing the carbonic acid and water which form the nutriment of plants, are not the blue ones. In regard, however, to the salts of silver, and many other compounds, the blue rays are the most effectual. How is it then that weak waves can produce effects which strong waves are incompetent to produce? This is a feature characteristic of periodic motion. In the experiment of singing into an open piano already referred to, it is the accord subsisting between the vibrations of the voice and those of the string that causes the latter to sound. Were this accord absent, the intensity of the voice might be quintupled, without producing any response. But when voice and string are identical in pitch, the successive impulses add themselves together, and this addition renders them, in the aggregate, powerful, though individually they may be weak. It some such fashion the periodic strokes of the smaller ether waves accumulate, till the atoms on which their timed impulses impinge are jerked asunder, and what we call chemical decomposition ensues.
Savart was the first to show the influence of musical sounds upon liquid jets, and I have now to describe an experiment belonging to this class, which bears upon the present question. From a screw-tap in my little Alpine kitchen I permitted, an hour ago, a vein of water to descend into a trough, so arranging the flow that the jet was steady and continuous from top to bottom. A slight diminution of the orifice caused the continuous portion of the vein to shorten, the part further down resolving itself into drops. In my experiment, however, the vein, before it broke, was intersected by the bottom of the trough. Shouting near the descending jet produced no sensible effect upon it. The higher notes of the voice, however powerful, were also ineffectual. But when the voice was lowered to about 130 vibrations a second, the feeblest utterance of this note sufficed to shorten, by one half, the continuous portion of the jet. The responsive drops ran along the vein, pattered against the trough, and scattered a copious spray round their place of impact. When the note ceased, the continuity and steadiness of the vein were immediately restored. The formation of the drops was here periodic; and when the vibrations of the note accurately synchronized with the periods of the drops, the waves of sound aided what Plateau has proved to be the natural tendency of the liquid cylinder to resolve itself into spherules, and virtually decomposed the vein.
I have stated, without proof, that where absorption occurs, the motion of the ether-waves is taken up by the constituent atoms of molecules. It is conceivable that the ether-waves, in passing through an assemblage of molecules, might deliver up their motion to each molecule as a whole, leaving the relative positions of the constituent atoms unchanged. But the long series of reactions, represented by the deportment of nitrite of amyl vapor, does not favor this conception; for, were the atoms animated solely by a common motion, the molecules would not be decomposed. The fact of decomposition, then, goes to prove the atoms to be the seat of the absorption. They, in great part, take up the energy of the ether-waves, whereby their union is severed, and the building materials of the molecules are scattered abroad.
Molecules differ in stability; some of them, though hit by waves of considerable force, and taking up the motions of these waves, nevertheless hold their own with a tenacity which defies decomposition. And here, in passing, I may say that it would give me extreme pleasure to be able to point to my researches in confirmation of the solar theory recently enunciated by my friend the President of the British Association. But though the experiments which I have made on the decomposition of vapors by light might be numbered by the thousand, I have, to my regret, encountered no fact which prove that free aqueous vapor is decomposed by the solar rays, or that the sun is reheated by the combination of gases, in the severance of which it had previously sacrificed its heat.
II.
The memorable investigations of Leslie and Rumford, and the subsequent classical reasearches of Melloni, dealt, in the main, with the properties of radiant heat; while in my investigations, radiant heat, instead of being regarded as an end, was employed as a means of exploring molecular condition. On this score little could be said until the gaseous form of matter was brought under the dominion of experiment. This was first effected in 1859, when it was proved that gases and vapors, notwithstanding the open door which the distances between their molecules might be supposed to offer to the heat waves, were, in many cases, able effectually to bar their passage. It was then proved that while the elementary gases and their mixtures, including among the latter the earth's atmosphere, were almost as pervious as a vacuum to ordinary radiant heat, the compound gases were one and all absorbers, some of them taking up with intense avidity the motion of the ether-waves.
A single illustration will here suffice. Let a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen, in the proportion of three to fourteen by weight, be inclosed in a space through which are passing the heat rays from an ordinary stove. The gaseous mixture offers no measurable impediment to the rays of heat. Let the hydrogen and nitrogen now unite to form the compound ammonia. A magical change instantly occurs. The number of atoms present remains unchanged. The transparency of the compound is quite equal to that of the mixture prior to combination. No change is perceptible to the eye, but the keen vision of experiment soon detects the fact that the perfectly transparent and highly attenuated ammonia resembles pitch or lampblack in its behavior to the rays of heat.
There is probably boldness, if not rashness, in the attempt to make these ultra-sensible actions generally intelligible, and I may have already transgressed the limits beyond which the writer of a familiar article cannot profitably go. There may, however, be a remnant of readers willing to accompany me, and for their sakes I proceed. A hundred compounds might be named which, like the ammonia, are transparent to light, but more or less opaque—often, indeed, intensely opaque—to the rays of heat from obscure sources. Now the difference between these latter rays and the light rays is purely a difference of period of vibration. The vibrations in the case of light are more rapid, and the ether waves which they produce are shorter, than in the case of obscure heat. Why, then, should the ultra-red waves be intercepted by bodies like ammonia, while the more rapidly recurrent waves of the whole visible spectrum are allowed free transmission? The answer I hold to be that, by the act of chemical combination, the vibrations of the constituent atoms of the molecules are rendered so sluggish as to synchronize with the motions of the longer waves. They resemble loaded piano strings, or slowly descending water jets, requiring notes of low pitch to set them in motion.
The influence of synchronism between the "radiant" and the "absorbent" is well shown by the behavior of carbonic acid gas. To the complex emission from our heated stove, carbonic acid would be one of the most transparent of gases. For such waves olefiant gas, for example, would vastly transcend it in absorbing power. But when we select a radiant with whose waves the atoms of carbonic acid are in accord, the case is entirely altered. Such a radiant is found in a carbonic oxide flame, where the radiating body is really hot carbonic acid. To this special radiation carbonic acid is the most opaque of gases.
And here we find ourselves face to face with a question of great delicacy and importance. Both as a radiator and as an absorber, carbonic acid is, in general, a feeble gas. It is beaten in this respect by chloride of methyl, ethylene, ammonia, sulphurous acid, nitrous oxide, and marsh gas. Compared with some of these gases, its behavior, in fact, approaches that of elementary bodies. May it not help to explain their neutrality? The doctrine is now very generally accepted that atoms of the same kind may, like atoms of different kinds, group themselves to molecules. Affinity exists between hydrogen and hydrogen and between chlorine and chlorine, as well as between hydrogen and chlorine. We have thus homogeneous molecules as well as heterogeneous molecules, and the neutrality so strikingly exhibited by the elements may be due to a quality of which carbonic acid furnishes a partial illustration. The paired atoms of the elementary molecules may be so out of accord with the periods of the ultra red waves—the vibrating periods of these atoms may, for example, be so rapid—as to disqualify them both from emitting those waves, and from accepting their energy. This would practically destroy their power, both as radiators and absorbers. I have reason to know that a distinguished authority has for some time entertained this hypothesis.
We must, however, refresh ourselves by occasional contact with the solid ground of experiment, and an interesting problem now lies before us awaiting experimental solution. Suppose two hundred men to be scattered equably throughout the length of Pall Mall. By timely swerving now and then, a runner from St. James's Palace to the Athenæum Club might be able to get through such a crowd without much hinderance. But supposing the men to close up so as to form a dense file crossing Pall Mall from north to south; such a barrier might seriously impede, or entirely stop, the runner. Instead of a crowd of men, let us imagine a column of molecules under small pressure, thus resembling the sparsely distributed crowd. Let us suppose the column to shorten, without change in the quantity of matter, until the molecules are so squeezed together as to resemble the closed file across Pall Mall. During these changes of density, would the action of the molecules upon a beam of heat passing among them at all resemble the action of the crowd upon the runner?
We must answer this question by direct experiment. To form our molecular crowd we place, in the first instance, a gas or vapor in a tube 38 inches long, the ends of which are closed with circular windows, air-tight, but formed of a substance which offers little or no obstruction to the calorific waves. Calling the measured value of a heat beam passing through this tube 100, we carefully determine the proportionate part of this total absorbed by the molecules in the tube. We then gather precisely the same number of molecules into a column 10.8 inches long, the one column being thus three and a half times the length of the other. In this case also we determine the quantity of radiant heat absorbed. By the depression of a barometric column, we can easily and exactly measure out the proper quantities of the gaseous body. It is obvious that one mercury inch of vapor, in the long tube, would represent precisely the same amount of matter—or, in other words, the same number of molecules—as 3½ inches in the short one; while 2 inches of vapor in the long tube would be equivalent to 7 inches in the short one.
The experiments have been made with the vapors of two very volatile liquids, namely, sulphuric ether and hydride of amyl. The sources of radiant heat were, in some cases, an incandescent lime cylinder, and in others a spiral of platinum wire, heated to bright redness by an electric current. One or two of the measurements will suffice for the purposes of illustration. First, then, as regards the lime light; for 1 inch of pressure in the long tube, the absorption was 18.4 per cent. of the total beam; while for 3.5 inches of pressure in the short tube, the absorption was 18.8 per cent., or almost exactly the same as the former. For 2 inches pressure, moreover, in the long tube, the absorption was 25.7 per cent.; while for 7 inches in the short tube it was 25.6 per cent. of the total beam. Thus closely do the absorptions in the two cases run together—thus emphatically do the molecules assert their individuality. As long as their number is unaltered, their action on radiant heat is unchanged. Passing from the lime light to the incandescent spiral, the absorptions of the smaller equivalent quantities, in the two tubes, were 23.5 and 23.4 per cent.; while the absorptions of the larger equivalent quantities were 32.1 and 32.6 per cent., respectively. This constancy of absorption, when the density of a gas or vapor is varied, I have called "the conservation of molecular action."
But it may be urged that the change of density, in these experiments, has not been carried far enough to justify the enunciation of a law of molecular physics. The condensation into less than one-third of the space does not, it may be said, quite represent the close file of men across Pall Mall. Let us therefore push matters to extremes, and continue the condensation till the vapor has been squeezed into a liquid. To the pure change of density we shall then have added the change in the state of aggregation. The experiments here are more easily described than executed; nevertheless, by sufficient training, scrupulous accuracy, and minute attention to details, success may be insured. Knowing the respective specific gravities, it is easy, by calculation, to determine the condensation requisite to reduce a column of vapor of definite density and length to a layer of liquid of definite thickness. Let the vapor, for example, be that of sulphuric ether, and let it be introduced into our 38 inch tube till a pressure of 7.2 inches of mercury is obtained. Or let it be hydride of amyl, of the same length, and at a pressure of 6.6 inches. Supposing the column to shorten, the vapor would become proportionally denser, and would, in each case, end in the production of a layer of liquid exactly one millimeter in thickness.1Conversely, a layer of liquid ether or of hydride of amyl, of this thickness, were its molecules freed from the thrall of cohesion, would form a column of vapor 38 inches long, at a pressure of 7.2 inches in the one case, and of 6.6 inches in the other. In passing through the liquid layer, a beam of heat encounters the same number of molecules as in passing through the vapor layer: and our problem is to decide, by experiment, whether, in both cases, the molecule is not the dominant factor, or whether its power is augmented, diminished, or otherwise overridden by the state of aggregation.
Using the sources of heat before mentioned, and employing diathermanous lenses, or silvered minors, to render the rays from those sources parallel, the absorption of radiant heat was determined, first for the liquid layer, and then for its equivalent vaporous layer. As before, a representative experiment or two will suffice for illustration. When the substance was sulphuric ether, and the source of radiant heat an incandescent platinum spiral, the absorption by the column of vapor was found to be 66.7 per cent. of the total beam. The absorption of the equivalent liquid layer was next determined, and found to be 67.2 per cent. Liquid and vapor, therefore, differed from each only 0.5 per cent.; in other words, they were practically identical in their action. The radiation from the lime light has a greater power of penetration through transparent substances than that from the spiral. In the emission from both of these sources we have a mixture of obscure and luminous rays; but the ratio of the latter to the former, in the lime light is greater than in the spiral; and, as the very meaning of transparency is perviousness to the luminous rays, the emission in which these rays are predominant must pass most freely through transparent substances. Increased transmission implies diminished absorption; and accordingly, the respective absorption of ether vapor and liquid ether, when the lime light was used, instead of being 66.7 and 67.2 per cent., were found to be
no difference whatever being observed between the two states of aggregation. The same was found true of hydride of amyl.
This constancy and continuity of the action exerted on the waves of heat when the state of aggregation is changed, I have called "the thermal continuity of liquids and vapors." It is, I think, the strongest illustration hitherto adduced of the conservation of molecular action.
Thus, by new methods of search, we reach a result which was long ago enunciated on other grounds. Water is well known to be one of the most opaque of liquids to the waves of obscure heat. But if the relation of liquids to their vapors be that here shadowed forth, if in both cases the molecule asserts itself to be the dominant factor, then the dispersion of the water of our seas and rivers, as invisible aqueous vapor in our atmosphere, does not annul the action of the molecules on solar and terrestrial heat. Both are profoundly modified by this constituent; but as aqueous vapor is transparent, which, as before explained, means pervious to the luminous rays, and as the emission from the sun abounds in such rays, while from the earth's emission they are wholly absent, the vapor screen offers a far greater hinderance to the outflow of heat from the earth toward space than to the inflow from the sun toward the earth. The elevation of our planet's temperature is therefore a direct consequence of the existence of aqueous vapor in our air. Flimsy as that garment may appear, were it removed terrestrial life would probably perish through the consequent refrigeration.
I have thus endeavored to give some account of a recent incursion into that ultra-sensible world mentioned at the outset of this paper. Invited by my publishers, with whom I have now worked in harmony for a period of twenty years, to send some contribution to the first number of their new Magazine, I could not refuse them this proof of my good will.
J. TYNDALL
Alp Lusgen, September 4, 1882
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