Brighter than how many suns? Sir Isaac Newton’s burning mirror

1989 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-51 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sir Isaac Newton ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Hearsay Evidence

There are a number of references in the scientific literature to a burning mirror designed by Sir Isaac Newton (1). Together, they record that it was made from seven separate concave glasses, each about a foot in diameter, that Newton demonstrated its effects at several meetings of the Royal Society and that he presented it to the Society. Nonetheless, neither the earliest published list of instruments possessed by the Royal Society nor the most recent one mentions the burning mirror; the latest compiler does not even include it amongst those items, once owned, now lost. No reference to the instrument apparently survives in the Society’s main records. It is not listed by the author of the recent compendium on Newton’s life and work (2). There is, however, some contemporary information still extant (Appendix 1). Notes of the principles of its design and some of its effects are to be found in the Society’s Journal Book for 1704; some of the dimensions and the arrangement of the mirrors are given in a Lexicon published by John Harris which he donated to the Royal Society at the same meeting, 12 July 1704, at which Newton gave the Society the speculum. The last reference in the Journal Book is dated 15 November that year, when Mr Halley, the then secretary to the Society, was desired to draw up an account of the speculum and its effects (3). No such account appears to have been presented to the Royal Society. There is no reference in Newton’s published papers and letters of his chasing Halley to complete the task, nor is there any mention of it in the general references to Halley. The latter was, of course, quite accustomed to performing odd jobs for Newton; that same year he was to help the Opticks through the press. The only other contemporary reference to the burning mirror, though only hearsay evidence since Flamsteed was not present at the meeting, is in a letter the latter wrote to James Pound; this confirms that there were seven mirrors and that the aperture of each was near a foot in diameter (4). Because John Harris gave his Dictionary to the Royal Society in Newton’s presence, it is reasonable to assume that his description is accurate. As Newton would hardly have left an inaccurate one unchallenged, then, belatedly, the account desired of Mr Halley can be presented. In some respects, the delay is advantageous, since the subject of radiant heat and its effects, although already by Newton’s period an ancient one, is today rather better understood. On the other hand, some data has to be inferred, that could have been measured, and some assumptions made about Newton’s procedures and understanding that could have been checked (5).

On Research and Other Matters

1922 ◽  
Vol 26 (140) ◽  
pp. 325-330
Author(s):  
S. Heckstall Smith
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Air Force ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Stimulation Of

If the thought of another war troubles you, then don't read this article. If you would rather say to yourself as the Secretary of State said to the Air Conference, “ There won't be another war for ten years, so why worry? ” then no doubt you will think with him that it is better to let other nations have alk the bother and expense of trying to advance; after all, we are jolly fine fellows and can soon pick up. If, on the other hand, you have imagination which gives you a nasty queasy sensation when you think of what might be, then perhaps the following notes, albeit disjointed and mostly stale, may at least conjure up in you thoughts of your own on the subject. This is all that is needed to help, our advancement in the air–the stimulation of spoken and written thoughts by the British nation, for if every taxpayer in the British Empire says “ Air Force,” then the Press and Parliament will say it too.

scholarly journals At the Anniversary Meeting, November 30, 1844

1851 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 519-538
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Sir Isaac Newton ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
The Public ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Antarctic

Gentlemen, The time has again come round for my addressing you, and for ex­pressing my own gratitude, as well as yours, to your Council for their constant and zealous attention to the interests of the Royal Society. We have been compelled during several late years to have recourse to legal proceedings on the subject of the great tithes of Mablethorp, a portion of the Society’s property, and I rejoice to say with success. In my last address, I was required to give our thanks to Mr. Watt and to Mr. Dollond for the valuable busts which they had kindly presented to us. That of Mr. Dollond is placed at the commence­ment of the staircase leading to our apartments, and serves to indi­cate that his valuable improvements in the construction of our tele­scopes have been so many steps to the acquisition of higher and higher knowledge of the great universe of which this globe forms so insignificant a part. By the liberality of Mr. Watt we shall soon be furnished with handsome pedestals for the busts of his father and of Sir Isaac Newton, the two great lights of British mechanical genius and British philosophical science. Mr. Gilbert has kindly undertaken to furnish a similar pedestal for the bust of his father, and we have thought it right to provide one for that of Sir Joseph Banks. These will shortly form a conspicuous ornament of our place of meeting. The magnetical observatories are still carrying on their observa­tions, both in Her Majesty’s dominions and in foreign countries, and another naval officer, Lieut. Moore, has proceeded to the Antarctic Seas to complete a portion of the survey of Captain Sir James Ross, which was interrupted by stress of weather. That gallant and enter­ prising officer will, I hope, ere long give to us and to the public his own narrative of his important discoveries. Detailed accounts of the botany and zoology of the regions visited by him are preparing under the patronage of the Government, while Colonel Sabine is proceeding with the raagnetical observations, which were the more immediate objects of this, one of the most important voyages of discovery ever undertaken.

scholarly journals XIII. On the organization of the fossil plants of the coal-measures. —Part III. Lycopodiaceæ (continued)

1872 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 283-318 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
New Genus ◽  
The Other ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Extended Study ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Coal Measures ◽  
The Relationship

In the last memoir which I laid before the Royal Society I described a number of forms of Lepidodendroid plants from the Coal-measures, without making any material attempt to ascertain the relationship which they bore to each other. I now propose to carry the subject somewhat further, and to show that some of these apparently varied forms of Lycopodiaceæ merely represent identical or closely allied plants in different stages of their growth. The discovery of some remarkable beds in Burntisland, by George Grieve, Esq., and his persistent kindness in supplying me abundantly with the raw material upon which I could work, have enabled me to do this in a manner, at least, satisfactory to myself. Upon the geology of these remarkable beds I will not now enter, beyond saying that they appear to have been patches of peat belonging to the lower Burdiehouse series, which are now imbedded in masses of volcanic amygdaloid. The stratum, where unaltered by contact with the lava, is little more than a mass of vegetable fragments, the minute structure of most of which is exquisitely preserved. The more perfect remains that are capable of being identified belong to but few types. The most abundant of these are the young twigs of a Lepidodendron , portions of the stem of a Diploxylon , stems of a remarkable Lycopodiaceous plant belonging to my new genus Dictyoxylon (but which, for reasons to be stated in a future memoir, I propose to unite with Corda’s genus Heterangium , under the name of H. Grievii ), and fragments of Stigmaria-ficoides . Along with these occur, but more rarely, several other curious Lycopodiaceous and Fern stems, and those of an articulated plant, which I believe to be an Asterophyllites ; also some true Lepidostrobous fruits and myriads of caudate macrospores belonging to the Lepidostrobi . The first point to be noted is that all the Lepidodendroid branches are young twigs. No one example of a large stem has been found presenting exactly the same structure as these small branches, which, as already stated, are so abundant. On the other hand, all the Diploxylons are large branches or matured stems. These facts at once suggested the inquiry whether the two plants referred to might not be complementary to each other. A careful and very extended study of a large number of specimens has convinced me that such is the case. I have made more than a hundred sections of the two forms, and the result has been a remarkably clear testimony that the Lepidodendra are the twigs and young branches of the Diploxylon -stems. I am also led to the conclusion that the Lepidostrbi , with their peculiar macrospores and microspores, belong to the same plant. I will examine each of these forms in detail.

The Last Controversy over Ritual Murder? The Debate over the Paintings in Sandomierz Cathedral

2003 ◽  
pp. 483-490
Author(s):  
Anna Landau-Czajka
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Ritual Murder ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
The Press ◽  
Religious Paintings ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Church Doctrine

This chapter addresses a series of religious paintings in the Sandomierz Cathedral, one of which depicts a ritual murder. In 2000, a debate began over what should be done with a painting whose message was so clearly and unambiguously antisemitic. Should a depiction of ritual murder be on display in a church even though Church doctrine has long recognized that Jews never killed children for matzah? On the other hand, should works of art be censored? If they are illegal or immoral, should they be removed? The subject of the painting in Sandomierz Cathedral soon ceased to be merely a local issue when discussion of it filled the Polish press for several weeks. The main problem seemed to be that the myth of ritual murder, though it should by now have been relegated to the past along with that of the existence of witches, was a subject whose interest, in Poland at least, was by no means confined to historians and folklorists. This should come as no surprise, since the issue of ritual murder was still taken seriously by the press in the period between the two world wars. Despite official Church prohibitions, accusations against the Jews were still being made during that period.

Mortality of Europeans in British West and British East Africa

1927 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. Raynes
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Finite Differences ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Sir Isaac Newton ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
University Library ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University

In two previous papers (vol. li, p. 77 and p. 211) an account has been given, of the published work of Newton on the subject of Interpolation by means of formulas of Finite Differences, and references have been made to the important letter which Newton sent on 24 October 1676, to Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, with the intention that it should be communicated to Leibnitz. The second paper closed with a quotation from this letter, in which Newton mentions “a method [for the “construction of tables by interpolation] which I had almost “decided to describe here for the use of computers.” It has been my good fortune to discover that Newton had prepared an account of his method for inclusion in the letter and that the draft is preserved in the University Library at Cambridge among the Portsmouth Collection of Books and Papers written by or belonging to Sir Isaac Newton. By the freely granted permission of the Syndicate of the Library, I am able to give a reproduction and transcription of the manuscript, and I have added a translation.

II. On the precession of the equinoxes

1807 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 57-82
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Sir Isaac Newton ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Figure Of The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theory Of Gravity

Perhaps the solution of no other problem, in natural philo­sophy, has so often baffled the attempts of mathematicians as that of determining the precession of the equinoxes, by the theory of gravity. The phenomenon itself was observed about one hundred and fifty years before the Christian æra, but Sir Isaac Newton was the first who endeavoured to estimate its magnitude by the true principles of motion, combined with the attractive influence of the sun and moon on the spheroidal figure of the earth. It has always been allowed, by those competent to judge, that his investigations relating to the subject evince the same transcendent abilities as are displayed in the other parts of his immortal work, the mathematical Principles of natural Philosophy, but, for more than half a century past, it has been justly asserted that he made a mistake in his process, which rendered his conclusions erro­neous. Since the detection of this error, some of the most eminent mathematicians in Europe have attempted solutions of the problem. Their success has been various; but their investi­gations may be arranged under three general heads. Under the first of these may be placed such as lead to a wrong conclusion, in consequence of a mistake committed in some part of the proceedings. The second head may be allotted to those in which the conclusions may be admitted as just, but rendered so by the counteraction of opposite errors. Such may be ranked under the third head as are conducted without error fatal to the conclusion, and in which the result is as near the truth as the subject seems to admit.

scholarly journals The Difficult alliance. Military cooperation between the ruthenian king Daniel and the Piasts of Mazovia

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-112
Author(s):  
Michał Skoczyński
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Military Cooperation ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
The Military

Abstract The article presents the military cooperation between the King of Galician-Volhynian Ruthenia, Daniel Romanowicz, and the Dukes of Mazovia, Konrad and his son Siemowit. The alliance, based as a counterweight for the cooperation between the King of Hungary and the Piast princes of Lesser Poland, who were trying to conquer Ruthenia and dominate all Piast principalities in then fragmented Poland. It lasted for several decades from the 1220’s to the 1260’s and was primarly aimed at mutual protection against the invasions of the pagan Yotvingians and supporting each other in armed conflicts. The text contains an analysis of war expeditions, tactics and ways of support that were given by both sides of the allianace. It is a new point of view on this aspect of political strategy of both sides that in some ways defined the regional situation. Ruthenians granted masovian Piasts some mobile and political uncommited support in fight with their relatives in Poland, and also secured their border with the Yotvingians. On the other hand, masovian knights were an additional strike force in ruthenian plundering expeditions to Yotvingia. The research was based on the analysis of preserved historical sources and scientific literature using historical methodology.

Applied Anthropology in 1860

1942 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
H. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Long Life

Much has been written of William Duncan, "the Apostle of Alaska", who came to the coast of northern British Columbia in 1857 as a missionary to the Tsimshian Indians. Although he deplored it, in the course of his sixty years' residence in this area controversy raged around him as a result of his clashes with church and state, and his work has been the subject of numerous investigations, both public and private. His enemies have called him a tyrant and a ruthless exploiter of the Indians under his control; and there are men still living who find a disproportionate amount of evil in the good that he did, especially during the declining years of his long life. On the other hand, he has had ardent and articulate supporters who have written numerous articles and no less than three books in praise of his self-sacrificing ideals and the soundness of his program for civilizing the Indian.

An Archaic Vase with Representation of a Marriage Procession

1880 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 202-209
Author(s):  
Cecil Smith
Keyword(s):  
Archaic Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Greek Vases ◽  
The Subject

The vase which forms the subject of this memoir has been thought worthy of publication, both because it belongs to a type of which we have as yet but few examples, and also on account of the peculiar interest attaching to the design painted upon it. Its probable age can only be a matter of conjecture, as some of the vases of the class to which it belongs have been considered by archaeologists to be late imitations of the archaic, while on the other hand the internal evidence of the painting would seem to assign it to a place among the earliest class of Greek vases. It is figured on Plate VII.It is a circular dish with two handles, 3 inches high by 11¾ inches diameter, composed of a soft reddish clay of a yielding surface; the painting is laid on in a reddish brown, in some parts so thinly as to be transparent, and in other parts has rubbed away with the surface, so that it has acquired that patchy appearance generally characteristic of vase pictures of this type. The drawing, though crude and in parts almost grotesque, is executed with great spirit and freedom of style,—and thus could hardly have been the work of a late provincial artist—while in the shape of the column and of the wheel of the cart, in the prominent nose and chin which admit of no distinction between bearded and beardless faces, and in the angular contour of the human figures, we recognise features peculiar to an archaic period of art.

XXIII. On the water-barometer erected in the hall of the Royal Society

1832 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 539-574 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Metallic Tube ◽  
French Academy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Made In

I have for some time entertained an opinion, in common with some others who have turned their attention tot he subject, that a good series of observations with a Water-Barometer, accurately constructed, might throw some light upon several important points of physical science: amongst others, upon the tides of the atmosphere; the horary oscillations of the counterpoising column; the ascending and descending rate of its greater oscillations; and the tension of vapour at different atmospheric temperatures. I have sought in vain in various scientific works, and in the Transactions of Philosophical Societies, for the record of any such observations, or for a description of an instrument calculated to afford the required information with anything approaching to precision. In the first volume of the History of the French Academy of Sciences, a cursory reference is made, in the following words, to some experiments of M. Mariotte upon the subject, of which no particulars appear to have been preserved. “Le même M. Mariotte fit aussi à l’observatoire des experiences sur le baromètre ordinaire à mercure comparé au baromètre à eau. Dans l’un le mercure s’eléva à 28 polices, et dans Fautre l’eau fut a 31 pieds Cequi donne le rapport du mercure à l’eau de 13½ à 1.” Histoire de I'Acadérmie, tom. i. p. 234. It also appears that Otto Guricke constructed a philosophical toy for the amusement of himself and friends, upon the principle of the water-barometer; but the column of water probably in this, as in all the other instances which I have met with, was raised by the imperfect rarefaction of the air in the tube above it, or by filling with water a metallic tube, of sufficient length, cemented to a glass one at its upper extremity, and fitted with a stop-cock at each end; so that when full the upper one might be closed and the lower opened, when the water would fall till it afforded an equipoise to the pressure of the atmo­sphere. The imperfections of such an instrument, it is quite clear, would render it totally unfit for the delicate investigations required in the present state of science; as, to render the observations of any value, it is absolutely necessary that the water should be thoroughly purged of air, by boiling, and its insinuation or reabsorption effectually guarded against. I was convinced that the only chance of securing these two necessary ends, was to form the whole length of tube of one piece of glass, and to boil the water in it, as is done with mercury in the common barometer. The practical difficulties which opposed themselves to such a construction long appeared to me insurmount­able; but I at length contrived a plan for the purpose, which, having been honoured with the approval of the late Meteorological Committee of this Society, was ordered to be carried into execution by the President and Council.

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