scholarly journals III. Photochemical researches.—Part V. On the measurement of the chemical action of direct and diffuse sunlight

1863 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 306-312 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Chemical Action ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Methods Of Measurement

In one of the four communications which the authors have already had the honour of presenting to the Royal Society on the subject of the measurement of the chemical action of light, the attempt was made to determine experimentally the laws regulating the distribution of the chemical action of the sunlight and diffuse daylight on the surface of the earth when the sky is perfectly unclouded and the atmosphere clear. The methods of measurement there employed do not, unfortunately, apply to the much more usually occurring case of cloudy skies and hazy atmosphere.

scholarly journals XIV. On the absorption of gases by solids

1881 ◽  
Vol 32 (212-215) ◽  
pp. 407-408
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Hydraulic Press ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Solid Matter ◽  
Chemical Action ◽  
High Pressure And Temperature ◽  
Solid Iron ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Very High

During the progress of the investigations which I have from time to time had the honour of bringing under the notice of the Royal Society, I have again and again noticed the apparent disappearance of gases inclosed in vessels of various materials when the disappearance could not be accounted for upon the assumption of ordinary leakage. After a careful examination of the subject I found that the solids absorbed or dissolved the gases, giving rise to a striking example of the fixation of a gas in a solid without chemical action. In carrying out that most troublesome investigation, the crystalline separation of carbon from its compounds, the tubes used for experiment have been in nine cases out of ten found to be empty on opening them, and in most cases a careful testing by hydraulic press showed no leakage. The gases seemed to go through the solid iron, although it was 2 inches thick. A series of experiments with various linings were tried. The tube was electro-plated with copper, silver, and gold, but with no greater success. Siliceous linings were tried fusible enamels and glass—but still the' tubes refused to hold the contents. Out of thirty-four experiments made since my last results were published, only four contained any liquid or condensed gaseous matter after the furnacing. I became convinced that the solid matter at the very high pressure and temperature used must be pervious to gases.

Royal fossils: The Royal Society and progress in palaeontology

2001 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-67
Author(s):  
G. E. Budd
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Evolutionary Morphology ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
Past Life ◽  
Evolutionary Radiations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Science Interests ◽  
The 19Th Century

The study of the remains of past life is a relatively young discipline, and one that has been defined partly by conflicting demands placed on it by both the life and Earth sciences. Fellows of The Royal Society have made critical contributions both to the growth of material knowledge of the subject and to the expansion of its theoretical basis, especially in the formative decades at the beginning of the 19th century. In particular, British palaeontologists and stratigraphers were pre-eminent in the shift away from viewing the Earth as a young creation conforming to the account in Genesis and towards the modern view of it as an ancient and dynamic system with a distinct history. Despite these early Earth science interests, palaeobiological subjects were also soon a topic of research, ranging from the reconstruction of ancient ecologies to the description of extinct organisms such as the dinosaurs. Nevertheless, palaeontology has notoriously failed to make signal contributions to evolutionary theory and the recent development of areas where palaeontology does have a unique imput to make, such as the global patterns of biodiversity through time and the controversy over mass extinction, has largely been a North American concern. British palaeontologists have, however, made fundamental contributions to the study of major evolutionary radiations, and this tradition is well represented in the current research interests of extant Fellows. Palaeontology remains a poorly defined discipline with little sense of an overarching paradigm, but one important future prospect probably lies with the revival of evolutionary morphology and development as neontological subjects.

scholarly journals XXII. An improved solution of a problem in physical astronomy; by which, swiftly converging series are obtained, which are useful in computing the perturbations of the motions of the Earth, Mars, and Venus, by their mutual attraction. To which is added an appendix, containing an easy method of obtaining the sums of many slowly converging series which arise in taking the fluents of binominal surds, &c. In a letter to the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne, D. D. F. R. S. and Astronomer Royal

1798 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 527-566
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Easy Method ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
Mutual Attraction ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
Nevil Maskelyne

Reverend Sir, Such is the subject of the inclosed paper, and such the repu­tation for skill and industry, which the many valuable papers you have communicated to the Royal Society, and your other learned works, have justly procured to you, that it could not with more propriety be submitted to the judgment of any other person than yourself, even if the writer of it were a stranger to you. But there are circumstances which render my presenting it to you, in some measure, a duty. I had the advantage of being, for some years, your Assistant in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich; during which time, you made the important observations on the mountain Schehallien , in Scotland, which afford an ocular demonstration of the attraction of that mountain, and a strong argument for the general attraction of matter, a subject nearly connected with that of the following pages; and it was from you that I received the problem of which you will here find an improved solution.

XVI. The Bakerian Lecture.— On the radiation of heat from the moon, the law of its absorption by our atmosphere, and of its variation in amount with her phases

1873 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 587-627 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Short Series ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law

In the years 1869 and 1870 I communicated to the Royal Society the results of a series of experiments made with the view of determining, if possible, the amount of radiant heat coming to the earth from the moon in various conditions of phase, and the nature of that heat as regards the average refrangibility of the rays. Though more successful than I had at first been led to expect, the imperfect accordance between many of the observations still left much to be desired, and the novelty and importance of the subject appeared sufficient to render it advisable to pursue the investigation with greater care and closer attention to details than had hitherto been deemed necessary. Since the conclusion of the series of observations which form the subject of the second paper above referred to, nothing (with the exception of a short series of observations in August and October 1870, of which mention is made towards the end of this paper) was done towards pursuing the subject till the spring of the following year (1871), when the series of observations which form the subject of the present paper were commenced, the same apparatus (only slightly modified) being used and the same method of observation adopted; but, with the view of obtaining an approximate value of the absorption of the moon’s heat in its passage through our atmosphere, and of rendering possible the satisfactory comparison of observations made at different zenith-distances of the moon, the observations were in many cases carried on at intervals at all possible zenith- distances on the same night, and the most favourable opportunities for observing the moon at very different zenith-distances in various conditions of the atmosphere were not lost.

‘But where shall my soul repose?’: Nonconformity, Science and the Geography of the Afterlife, c. 1660–1720

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 268-279
Author(s):  
Andrew Cambers
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Religious Cultures ◽  
Henry More

Life, the afterlife, and life beyond the Earth are matters of scientific inquiry as well as religious belief. As we might expect, in the wake of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the afterlife was subjected to new scrutiny. Such scrutiny, notably the demonology of Joseph Glanvill and Henry More, both fellows of the Royal Society, was undoubtedly scientific and serious, even if it has rarely been treated as such by scholars preferring to treat belief in witchcraft as a hangover from an earlier age. Far from being opposed, or necessarily pulling in opposite directions, the conjunction of science and religion in this era breathed new life into old problems and opened up new questions for debate. One such area, with a long history as a philosophical conundrum, was the possibility of life beyond Earth. It is this question, its place within religious cultures, and its relation to traditional ideas about the afterlife, that is the subject of this essay.

scholarly journals XII. On the action of the rays of the solar spectrum on vegetable colours, and on some new photographic processes

1842 ◽  
Vol 132 ◽  
pp. 181-214 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Chemical Action ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Substances ◽  
Viola Tricolor ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Bad Weather ◽  
Past Summer ◽  
Effect Of Light

149. In my paper on the "Chemical Action of the Solar Spectrum on preparations of Silver and other substances,” read to the Royal Society in February 1840, and of which the present communication is intended as a continuation or supplement, some experiments on the effect of the spectrum on the colouring matter of the Viola tricolor , and on the resin of guaiacum are described, which the extreme deficiency of sunshine during the summer and autumn of the year 1839 prevented me from prosecuting efficiently up to the date of that communication. The ensuing year 1840 was quite as remarkable for an excess of sunshine as its predecessor for the reverse. Unfortunately the derangements consequent on a change of residence prevented my availing myself of that most favourable conjuncture, and it was not till the autumn of that year that the inquiry could be resumed. From that time to the present date it has been prosecuted at intervals as the weather would allow, though owing to the almost unprecedented continuance of bad weather during the whole of the past summer and autumn (1841), it has of late been almost wholly suspended. In photographic processes, where silver and other metals are used, the effect of light is so rapid that the state of the weather, as to gloom or sunshine, is of little moment. It is otherwise in the class of photographic actions now to be considered, in which exposure to the concentrated spectrum for many hours, to clear sunshine for several days, or to dispersed light for whole months, is requisite to bring on many of the effects described, and those some of the most curious. Moreover, in such experiments, when unduly prolonged by bad weather, the effects due to the action of light become mixed and confounded with those of spontaneous changes in the organic substances employed, arising from the influence of air, and especially of moisture, &c., and so give rise to contradictory conclusions, or at all events preclude definite results, and obscure the perception of characters which might serve as guides in an intricate in quiry, and afford hints for the conduct of future experiment. It is owing to these causes that I am unable to present the results at which I have arrived, in any sort of regular or systematic connection; nor should I have ventured to present them at all to the Royal Society, but in the hope that, desultory as they are, there may yet be found in them matter of sufficient interest to render their longer suppression unadvisable, and to induce others more favourably situated as to climate, to prosecute the subject.

scholarly journals XXXIII. On the figure of the earth

1826 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 548-578 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mathematical Theory ◽  
Second Order ◽  
The Earth ◽  
First Approximation ◽  
Figure Of The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference

The ellipticity of the earth, deduced by Captain Sabine from a series of pendulum experiments the most extensive, and apparently the most deserving of confidence, that has ever been made, differs considerably from that which, as is generally believed, is indicated by geodetic measures. The difference can only be explained by errors of observation, by peculiarities of local circumstances, or by some defect in the theory which connects the figure of the earth with the variation of gravity on its surface: under the last head may be placed defects in the mathematical part of the theory, and errors in the assumptions of the original constitution and present state of the earth. It was with a view to ascertain the sufficiency of the mathematical theory, that I undertook the investigations contained in this paper. The celebrated proposition called Clairaut's theorem, by which the earth's ellipticity is inferred from the variation of gravity on its surface, is obtained only by the rejection of the squares and higher powers of the ellipticity. It is by the same rejection that the figure of the earth, supposed a heterogeneous fluid, is proved to be an elliptic spheroid. It appeared therefore probable, that a more accurate theory might introduce some modification into Clairaut's theorem, and might also show he figure of the earth to differ from an ellipsoid ; and there was no reason to think that the first approximation to that figure was more accurate, than the first approximation to the motion of the moon’s perigee. The result of my investigation does not at all serve to reconcile the pendulum observations made by Captain Sabine with the measures of degrees : and with respect to one object, which I hoped to obtain, I am therefore completely unsuccessful. The theory shows, however, that the earth’s figure, on the usual suppositions as to its constitution, is not an elliptic spheroid; and the formulæ which I have obtained will give the means of determining very exactly the figure of the earth, when the experiments on the variation of gravity, or the measures of arcs on the earth’s surface, shall be thought sufficiently accurate. As the subject is one whose interest is not confined to the present time, I have ventured to offer my investigations to the Royal Society. The first part of the following sheets contains the theory of the heterogeneous earth, pushed so far as to include all the terms of the second order: it is succeeded by a comparison of this theory with Captain Sabine’s results, and with the best arcs of the meridian that have been measured and in the conclusion, I have offered some suggestions on the propriety of repeating some of these measures.

scholarly journals II. On the mathematical theory of the stability of earth-work and masonry

1857 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 60-61 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Stress ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mathematical Theory ◽  
Natural Slope ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Stability

In the preparation of my course of lectures, I have found it necessary to re-investigate much of the above-named branch of mechanics, and I have now a paper in preparation on the subject, which I propose to offer to the Royal Society when it is ready. In the meanwhile, it appears to me that the two fundamental principles on which my researches are based are of such a nature, that they may very properly be communicated to the Royal Society at once. They are as follows:― I. Principle o f the Stability of Earth . At each point in a mass of earth the directions of greatest and least compressive stress are at right angles to each other; and the condition of stability is, that at each point the ratio of the difference of those stresses to their sum shall not exceed the sine of the angle of natural slope of the earth.

scholarly journals IX. On a failure of the law in photography that when the products of the intensity of the light acting and of the time of exposure are equal, equal amounts of chemical action will be produced

1894 ◽  
Vol 54 (326-330) ◽  
pp. 143-147 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Action ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law ◽  
Methods Of Measurement

It has been generally assumed that when the products of the intensity of light acting on a sensitive surface and the time of exposure are equal similar amounts of chemical action are produced, and with the ordinary exposures and intensities of light employed such, no doubt, is practically the case, and any methods of measurement hitherto practicable have been insufficiently delicate to discover any departure from this law, if such departure existed. In some recent experiments however, I have discovered that this law breaks down under certain conditions, and I think the fact worthy the attention of those interested in the subject, since it is possible that these conditions may arise with other experimenters.

scholarly journals III.—On the Formation of Mountains, with a Critique on Captain Hutton's Lecture

1873 ◽  
Vol 10 (108) ◽  
pp. 248-261
Author(s):  
O. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Cambridge Philosophical Society ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Horizontal Pressure ◽  
The Subject

The subject of Captain Hutton's lecture, on the Formation of Mountains, delivered at Wellington, New Zealand, is one which has engaged a good deal of my attention, and was discussed by me in a paper read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society, and printed in their Transactions. In that paper I attributed the elevating force, which has raised mountain ranges, to the contraction of the heated interior of the earth, and subsequent wrinkling of the crust so as to accommodate itself to the diminished nucleus. This was an old hypothesis, but I believe the amount of horizontal pressure produced in that manner had not been estimated before. Mr. Mallet, the eminent seismologist, read a paper on the same subject before the Royal Society in May, 1872, in ignorance of what I had written, and came to the same conclusion as myself as to the amount of the horizontal pressure.

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