scholarly journals On periodical laws discoverable in the mean effects of the larger magnetic disturbances

1854 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 30-32 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Magnetic Storms ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Hours ◽  
Different Seasons ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances ◽  
Made In

In a discussion of the two-hourly observations of the magnetic declination, made in 1841 and 1842 at the observatories of Toronto and Hobarton, published in 1843 and 1845, the author expressed an opinion that themagneticdisturbances,of largeamountand apparently irregular occurrence, commonly called magnetic storms or shocks, would be found, when studied in their mean effects on the magnetic direction and force extending over a sufficient period of time, to be subject to periodical laws , connecting them with the seasons of the year and the hours of the day at the particular stations. In preparing for the press the hourly observations of the declination in the years 1843, 1844 and 1845, at the same two stations, the author found his previous opinions strongly confirmed; and believing that the evidence thus obtained of periodical laws is far too systematic, and rests on a series of too long duration to make it probable that it will be otherwise than confirmed by the continuation of the observations in subsequent years, he has been induced to make it the subject of a communication to the Royal Society; although it is probable that the exact periods, and the mean numerical values of the effects produced, or their proportions to each other in the different seasons and at the different hours, may hereafter receive modifications.

scholarly journals V. On periodical laws discoverable in the mean effects of the larger magnetic disturbances

1851 ◽  
Vol 141 ◽  
pp. 123-139 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Great Satisfaction ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
The Press ◽  
Occasional Occurrence ◽  
The Hours ◽  
Different Seasons ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Times ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances ◽  
Magnetic Phenomena

In the preface to the first part of the first volume of the “Observations on days of unusual Magnetic Disturbance at the British Colonial Observatories,” published in 1843, and in the introductory comments prefixed to the first volume of the “Observations at the Toronto Observatory,” published in 1845, I stated the reasons which induced me to believe that the magnetic disturbances of large amount and occasional occurrence, designated in the Report of the Committee of Physics of the Royal Society as the “irregular variations,” and perhaps more commonly known by the name of magnetic storms or shocks, would be found, when studied in their mean effects on the local magnetic direction and force extending over a sufficient period of time, to have a character of periodcity , which if established, would leave no doubt as to the class of magnetic phenomena to which they should be considered to belong. The opinion thus expressed resulted from an examination to which I had subjected the series of two-hourly observations of the Declination in 1841, made simultaneously at Toronto and at Hobarton, and those of 1842 at Toronto; (the corresponding observations for 1842 at Hobarton not having reached England in sufficient time to be included in the examination). Short as this period was, the evidence of the existence of laws of periodical action, connecting the effects of causes operating for the most part simultaneously at distant parts of the globe with the seasons of the year and the hours of the day at particular stations, was sufficiently systematic to induce me to regard this branch of inquiry as a most hopeful one, but as requiring for its prosecution a longer continuance of observations than had been at that time provided for. At Toronto and the other observatories under the Ordnance Department, hourly observations were substituted in 1842 for the two-hourly series previously adopted. It had appeared desirable at the commencement of these establishments not to overcharge them with work; but as it became obvious that whenever a physical theory should be brought forward to explain the phenomena which were the subjects of observation, such as, for example, those of the diurnal variation , there would be an immediate demand for the variation observed at least at every hour, arrangements were made, in the spirit of the Royal Society’s Instructions, to secure a better provision for the requirements of theory than had been contemplated by the letter of those Instructions, and with this view observations at every hour were substituted for observations at every two hours. The series at Hobarton (under the Admiralty) had been made hourly from its commencement, the personal establishment left by Sir James Clark Ross having been calculated with that view*. Having lately examined the hourly simultaneous observations of the Declination at Toronto and Hobarton for the years 1843, 1844 and 1845, in the course of their preparation for the press, I have had great satisfaction in finding that they confirm in a remarkable degree the anticipations which I had formed. The general evidence of periodicity, connected with the seasons of the year and the hours of the day in the mean effects at these two distant stations, of causes which yet operate for the most part simultaneously at both, thus furnished by a series of hourly observations continued for three years, is far too systematic, and rests on a basis of too long duration to make it probable that it will be otherwise than confirmed by the continuation of the series in the subsequent years; although the exact periods, and the mean numerical values of the effects produced, or their proportions to each other in the different seasons and at the different hours may, and doubtless will, receive modifications. The term “irregular” can therefore no longer be considered as correctly applied to this remarkable branch of the magnetic phenomena, which studied in their effects must now be regarded as included in the class of “periodical variations.” However (apparently) irregular may be the times of their occurrence, as general phenomena affecting contemporaneously parts of the globe most distant from each other, their effects at those stations are found to be subject to periodical laws connected with local seasons and local time, indicating a relation directly or indirectly to the sun's place in the ecliptic, and to the earth’s diurnal rotation on its axis, and producing a sensible mean effect on the magnetic direction in conformity with their own peculiar laws.

XV. On periodical laws discoverable in the mean effects of the larger magnetic disturbances.—No. III

1856 ◽  
Vol 146 ◽  
pp. 357-374 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Total Force ◽  
Vertical Force ◽  
Magnetic Forces ◽  
The Hours ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances

Having at length completed the analysis of the larger disturbances of the horizontal and vertical magnetic forces at Toronto during five years of hourly observa­tion, with a view to the development of the periodical laws which regulate the occur­rence of the occasional disturbances of those elements, and of their theoretical equiva­lents, the Inclination and Total Force, I now propose to lay before the Royal Society a condensed view of the mode in which the investigation has been made, and of its results. The hourly observations of the Bifilar and Vertical Force Magnetometers during the five years terminating June 30, 1848, were received at Woolwich, from Toronto, precisely in the state in which they are printed in the second and third volumes of the 'Observations at the Toronto Observatory'; namely, the readings, uncorrected for temperature, at every hour of Göttingen time, arranged in Monthly tables, accom­panied by corresponding tables of the temperature of the magnets, shown by thermo­meters of which the balls were enclosed in the same case with the magnets, and which were read contemporaneously with the Bifilar and Vertical Force scales. The Monthly tables of the scale-readings and of the temperatures were summed before their transmission to Woolwich, both in vertical and horizontal columns, and means were taken of all the days in the month at the different hours, and of all the hours of the day on the different days, forming "hourly means” and "daily means.” In this state the observations were received at Woolwich and subsequently printed; they were, in fact, printed from the original manuscripts.

scholarly journals I. On the laws of the phenomena of the larger disturbances of the magnetic declination in the Kew Observatory: with notices of the progress of our knowledge regarding the magnetic storms

1860 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 624-643
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Storms ◽  
Vertical Column ◽  
First Approximation ◽  
Exact Measurement ◽  
Continuous Record ◽  
The Hours ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Mean ◽  
As Effects ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances

The laws manifested by the mean effects of the larger magnetic disturbances (regarded commonly as effects of magnetic storms) have been investigated at several stations on the globe, being chiefly those of the British Colonial Observatories; but hitherto there has been no similar examination of the phenomena in the British Islands themselves. The object of the present paper is to supply this deficiency, as far as one element, namely the declination, is concerned, by a first approximation derived from the photographs in the years 1858 and 1859, of the self-recording declinometer of the observatory of the British Association at Kew; leaving it to the photographs of subsequent years to confirm, rectify, or render more precise the results now obtained by a first approximation. The method of investigation is simple, and may be briefly described as follows:— The photographs furnish a continuous record of the variations which take place in the direction of the declination-magnet, and admit of exact measurement in the two relations of time, and of the amount of departure from a zero line. From this automatic record, the direction of the magnet is measured at twenty-four equal intervals of time in every solar day, which thus become the equivalents of the “hourly observations” of the magnetometers in use at the Colonial Observatories. These measures, or hourly directions of the magnet, are entered in monthly tables, having the days of the month in successive horizontal lines, and the hours of the day m vertical columns. The “means” of the entries in each vertical column indicate the mean direction of the magnet at the different hours of the month to which the table belongs, and have received the name of “First Normals.” On inspecting any such monthly table, it is at once seen that a considerable portion of the entries in the several columns differ considerably from their respective means or first normals, and must be regarded as “disturbed observations” The laws of their relative frequency, and amount of disturbance, in different years, months and hours, are then sought out, by separating for that purpose a sufficient body of the most disturbed observations, computing the amount of departure in each case from the normal of the same month and hour, and arranging the amounts in annual, monthly, and hourly tables. In making these computations, the first normals require to be themselves corrected, by the omission in each vertical column of the entries noted as disturbed, and by taking fresh means, representing the normals of each month and hour after this omission, and therefore uninfluenced by the larger disturbances. These new means have received the name of “Final Normals,” and may be defined as being the mean directions of the magnet in every month and every hour, after the omission from the record of every entry which differed from the mean a certain amount either in excess or in defect.

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.

scholarly journals I. On the evidence of the existence of the decennial inequality in the solar-diurnal magnetic variations, and its non-existence in the lunar-diurnal variation, of the declination at Hobarton

1857 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Variation ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Magnetic Elements ◽  
Imperial Academy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Hourly Observation ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Magnetic Observatories

In a report presented to the British Association at Liverpool in September 1854, entitled "On some of the results obtained at the British Colonial Magnetic Observatories," I stated that, as far as my examination of the observations had then gone, I had found in the Lunar-diurnal magnetic variation no trace of the decennial period which is so distinctly marked in all the variations connected with the Sun. And in a subsequent communication to the Royal Society in June 1856, “On the Lunar-diurnal Variation at Toronto,” in which the moon’s influence on each of the three magnetic elements was examined, the conclusion arrived at was to the same effect, viz. that the observations at Toronto “showed no appearance of the decennial period which constitutes so marked a feature in the solar-diurnal variations.” Since these statements were made, I have read M. Kreil’s memoir “On the Influence of the Moon on the horizontal component of the Magnetic Force,” presented to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna in 1852 and printed in 1853, from which I learn (pp. 45, 46) that M. Kreil is of opinion that the observations of different years at Milan and Prague, when combined, would rather favour the supposition that the same decennial period which exists in the solar variation affects also the lunar magnetic influence. The question is one of such manifest importance in its theoretical bearing, that I considered it desirable to lose no time in re-examining it by the aid of the Hobarton observations, which, as it appeared to me, were particularly suitable for the purpose, inasmuch as they consist of eight consecutive years of hourly observation (from January 1841 to December 1848 inclusive), made with one and the same set of instruments, and by a uniform system of observation. The results of this examination have been, as it appears to me, so decidedly confirmatory of the conclusions drawn from the Toronto observations, both as regards the existence of the decennial period in the two classes of solar-diurnal variation (viz. in the mean diurnal variation occasioned by the disturbances of large amount, and in what may be termed the more regular solar-diurnal variation), and the non-existence of a similar decennial period in the case of the lunar-diurnal variation, that I have been induced to make these results the subject of a communication to the Royal Society.

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).

XIII. Experimental researches in voltaic electricity and electro-magnetism

1832 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 279-298 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Experimental Researches ◽  
Made In

The splendid discoveries which have lately been made in magnetism and electro-magnetism have so much engaged the attention of philosophers, that the theory and laws of action of voltaic electricity, no longer possessing the charms of novelty, have been entirely neglected. The subject appearing to me full of interest, and lying at the very foundation of a large portion of physical science, induced me to undertake an experimental investigation of some of the most important points connected with it, the result of which I have the honour of laying before the Royal Society.

scholarly journals Alfred George Hastings White (1859-1945)

1946 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-112
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Trinity College ◽  
The North ◽  
The Press ◽  
Walter White ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Regent's Park ◽  
Library Catalogue ◽  
General Secretary

In 1872 the Royal Society occupied quarters in Old Burlington House. The wings of the new building had been completed and the Society awaited the furnishing of the rooms before moving to its present home. At that time Walter White was Assistant Secretary and Librarian; Henry B. Wheatley was Clerk and Henry White had charge of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers . The latter was the father of Alfred George Hastings White, the subject of this notice. Alfred White was born at Albany Street, Regent’s Park, on 9 February 1859. His mother was the daughter of George W. Hastings, who for some years was the Honorary General Secretary of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. Henry White, the father, came of an old Reading family. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his M.D., but he never practised as a doctor. Alfred White was educated at the North London Collegiate School for Boys in Camden Road, where he gained a reputation for a quickness in learning, especially with regard to languages. He left school at the early age of thirteen, in January 1873, to help his father at the Royal Society, joining the staff engaged upon the compilation of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers . In the same year, when the Society moved to its new quarters, he had much to do with arranging and shelving the books in the library. In this and the work on the Catalogue he gained valuable experience in library work which was a great help to him when he came to assist his father in preparing a catalogue of the Society’s library. This work occupied some years; and when Henry White died suddenly in 1880 from a heart attack in the Meeting Room of the Society it was left to Alfred White to complete the Library Catalogue and see it through the press. The first part was published in 1881 and the second in 1883.

XXIX. On the tides of Bombay and Kurrachee

1868 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 685-696 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Diurnal Tide ◽  
Semidiurnal Tide ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Engineering Survey ◽  
Continuous Curves ◽  
Made In

The tides on the coasts of India present a marked difference from those on our own coasts in the large amount of diurnal inequality to which they are subject. My attention was first directed to the subject in the course of an engineering survey of the Harbour of Kurrachee which I made in 1857-58, when I obtained between three and four months’ continuous observations, a copy of which is deposited with the Royal Society. Subsequently I obtained from the Admiralty, through the kindness of Captain Burdwood, R. N., the loan of the records of three years’ observations taken at Bombay in 1846, 1847, and 1848. Of these I plotted in a series of continuous curves the records for 1846, and deposited them, at the Astronomer Royal’s request, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. These records, however, are not perfect. They were made by a self-acting machine, the adjustment of which does not appear to have been always accurately pre­served; and I hope that they will be superseded as data for investigation by a better record 'for the year 1868. Taking them as they were, however, I discussed them to obtain the semimonthly curves of semidiurnal tide, and also formulæ for the approxi­mate determination of diurnal tide.

scholarly journals On periodical laws discoverable in the mean effects of the larger magnetic disturbances.―No. III

1857 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 40-40
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Storms ◽  
The Other ◽  
Total Force ◽  
Magnetic Element ◽  
Similar Investigation ◽  
Magnetic Declination ◽  
Magnetic Elements ◽  
Minimum Variation ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances

In two previous papers bearing the same title as the present (Phil. Trans. 1851, Art. V., and 1852, Art. V III.), the author showed, from the hourly observations of the magnetic Declination at Toronto and Hobarton, that the magnetic disturbances of large amount, and apparently irregular occurrence, commonly called magnetic storms , are found, when studied in their mean effects, to he governed by periodical laws of systematic order and regularity, and to exhibit periods whose duration is, respectively, 1, a solar day; 2, a solar year; and 3, a period of about ten of our solar years, corresponding both in duration and in the epochs of maximum and minimum variation, to the approximately decennial period discovered by Schwahe in the phsenomena of the solar spots. In the present paper the author communicates the results of a similar investigation into the laws of the disturbances of the two other magnetic elements at Toronto, namely, the Inclination and the Total Force, derived from the hourly observations of the horizontal and vertical Forces during the five years from July 1843 to June 1848; affording, as he states, a full confirmation of the existence of periodical laws regulating the disturbances of the Inclination and Total Force corresponding to those which he had previously deduced from the disturbances of the other magnetic Element, viz. the Declination.

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