Conversations on natural philosophy, by the author of Conversations on chemistry

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Page 342 - It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it — draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge anchors — cut steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.
Page 116 - Had in her sober livery all things clad; Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests Were slunk, all but .the wakeful nightingale; She all night long her amorous descant sung; Silence was...
Page 136 - evidence of things not seen," in the fulness of Divine grace ; and was profound on this, the greatest concern of human life, while unable even to comprehend how the " inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit" could be the cause of the change of the seasons.
Page 89 - ... time that the axle describes a small one, therefore the power is increased in the same proportion as the circumference of the wheel is greater than that of the axle. If the velocity of the wheel...
Page 342 - We have said that Mr Watt was the great improver of the steam-engine ; but, in truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in its utility, he should rather be described as its inventor. It was by his inventions that its action was so regulated as to make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate manufactures, and its power so increased as to set weight and solidity at defiance. By his admirable...
Page 115 - Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad ; Silence accompanied ; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale ; She all night long her amorous descant sung...
Page 428 - The single microscope (fig. 5.) consists simply of a convex lens, commonly called a magnifying glass; in the focus of which the object is placed, and through which it is viewed: by this means, you are enabled to...
Page 184 - No; in a cubical vessel the pressure downwards will be double the lateral pressure on one side: for every particle at the bottom of the vessel is pressed upon by a column of the whole depth of the fluid, whilst the lateral pressure diminishes from the bottom upwards to the surface, where the particles have no pressure.
Page 342 - It has armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no limits can be assigned; completed the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter ; and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of mechanic power which are to aid and reward the labours of after generations.
Page 431 - Very well. We shall enlarge the opening, and place the lens XY (fig. 2.) in it, to converge the rays to a focus on the object A B. There is but one thing more wanting to complete the solar microscope, which I shall leave to Caroline's sagacity to discover. CAROLINE. Our microscope has a small mirror attached to it, upon a moveable joint, which can be so adjusted as to receive the sun's rays, and reflect them upon the object. If a similar mirror were placed to reflect light upon the lens, would it...

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