An Elementary Course of Natural and Experimental Philosophy ...

Front Cover
Hickling, Swan and Brown, 1858 - Physics - 528 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 400 - That very law* which moulds a tear, And bids it trickle from its source, That law preserves the earth a sphere, And guides the planets in their course.
Page 265 - I cannot answer better than by giving you an extract from the minutes I used to keep of the experiments I made, with memorandums of such as I purposed to make, the reasons for making them, and the observations that arose upon them, from which minutes my letters were afterwards drawn. By this extract you will see, that the thought was not so much "an out-of-the-way one," but that it might have occurred to any electrician.
Page 266 - ... ice. 8. Rending bodies it passes through. 9. Destroying animals. 10. Melting metals. 11. Firing inflammable substances. 12. Sulphureous smell. The electric fluid is attracted by points. We do not know whether this property is in lightning. But since they agree in all the particulars wherein we can already compare them, is it not probable they agree likewise in this ? Let the experiment be made.
Page 265 - Electrical fluid agrees with lightning in these particulars. 1. Giving light. 2. Color of the light. 3. Crooked direction. 4. Swift motion. 5. Being conducted by metals. 6. Crack or noise in exploding. 7. Subsisting in water or ice. 8. Rending bodies it passes through. 9. Destroying animals. 10. Melting metals. 11. Firing inflammable substances. 12.
Page 326 - ... every muscle in his countenance was simultaneously thrown into fearful action ; rage, horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly smiles, united their hideous expression in the murderer's face, surpassing far the wildest representations of a Fuseli or a Kean.
Page 498 - The inorganic part consists of the following earthy substances, viz., potassa, soda, lime, silica, magnesia, alumina, oxide of iron, oxide of manganese, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, and -chlorine.
Page 431 - Rectify the globe to the latitude of the place; bring the sun's place in the ecliptic to the meridian, and set the index to XII.
Page 358 - There is a remarkable class of constellations, going round the heavens like a band or belt, in which the planets always appear to move : this belt of stars contains twelve constellations, which are called the signs of the zodiac. The sun also appears to us to make a complete revolution in the heavens, in the course of a year, through the different constellations of the zodiac. This apparent path of the sun in the heavens is called the ecliptic ; the constellations of the zodiac, therefore, mark out...
Page 35 - Powers, are certain simple instruments, commonly employed for raising greater weights, or overcoming greater resistances, than could be effected by the natural strength without them. These are usually accounted six in number, viz. the Lever, the Wheel and Axle, the Pulley, the Inclined Plane, the Wedge, and the Screw.
Page 59 - The indicator-piston is pressed from below by the steam, and from above by the atmosphere. When the pressure of the steam is equal to that of the atmosphere, the spring retains its unstrained length, and the piston its original position. When the pressure of the steam exceeds that of the atmosphere, the piston is driven outwards, and the spring compressed ; when the pressure of the steam is less than that of the atmosphere, the piston is driven...

Bibliographic information