scholarly journals III. Further experiments on the action of an intermittent beam of radiant heat on gaseous matter. Thermometric measurements

1881 ◽  
Vol 31 (206-211) ◽  
pp. 478-479 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
Ordinary Temperature ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Musical Sounds

In the concluding paragraph of the note communicated on the 10th of January to the Royal Society these words occur:—“The vapours of all compound liquids will, I doubt not, be found sonorous in the intermittent beam.” Since that time I have examined eighty different liquids, both at the ordinary temperature of the air and at their boiling temperatures, and have verified so far the prediction just quoted. In all cases I have obtained musical sounds—some feeble, some moderate, and some exceedingly strong. I have, moreover, determined by thermometric expansion the absorptions exerted by the vapours of more than twenty of these liquids, and it is my intention to subject the whole' of them to this test. The harmony and mutual support exhibited by two series of experiments, conducted in accordance with these two diverse methods, are on the whole admirable.

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.

I. On the relation of radiant heat to aqueous vapour

1863 ◽  
Vol 153 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Keyword(s):  
Rock Salt ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Physical Property ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
The Body ◽  
Thin Plates ◽  
Polished Surface ◽  
Cause Of Error ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Possible Cause

I haye already placed before the Royal Society an account of some experiments which brought to light the remarkable fact that the body of our atmosphere, that is to say the mixture of oxygen and nitrogen of which it is composed, is a comparative vacuum to the calorific rays, its main absorbent constituent being the aqueous vapour which it contains. It is very important that the minds of meteorologists should be set at rest on this subject—that they should be able to apply, without misgiving, this newly revealed physical property of aqueous vapour; for it is certain to have numerous and important applications. I therefore thought it right to commence my investigations this year with a fresh series of experiments upon atmospheric vapour, and I now have the honour to lay the results of these experiments before the Royal Society. Rock-salt is a hygroscopic substance. If we breathe on a polished surface of rock-salt, the affinity of the substance for the moisture of the breath causes the latter to spread over it in a film which exhibits brilliantly the colours of thin plates. The zones of colour shrink and finally disappear as the moisture evaporates. Visitors to the International Exhibition may have witnessed how moist were the pieces of rock-salt exhibited in the Austrian and Hungarian Courts. This property of the substance has been referred to by Professor Magnus as a possible cause of error in my researches on aqueous vapour; a film of brine deposited on the surface of the salt would produce the effect which I had ascribed to the aqueous vapour. I will, in the first place, describe a method of experiment by which even an inexperienced operator may avoid all inconvenience of this kind.

scholarly journals III. Action of an intermittent beam of radiant heat upon gaseous matter

1881 ◽  
Vol 31 (206-211) ◽  
pp. 307-317 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Late Professor

The Royal Society has already done me the honour of publishing a long series of memoirs on the interaction of radiant heat and gaseous matter. These memoirs did not escape criticism. Distinguished men, among whom the late Professor Magnus and the late Professor Buff may be more specially mentioned, examined my experiments, and arrived at results different from mine.

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.

W. T. Astbury and Ross G. Harrison: the search for the molecular determination of form in the developing embryo

1980 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-219 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Limb Bud ◽  
Amphibian Embryo ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Biology I ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Molecular Patterns ◽  
Molecular Determination

Amongst the Fellows elected to the Royal Society in 1941 were W. T. Astbury for his studies using X-ray analysis to study the structures of natural fibres, and amongst the Foreign Members elected that year was Ross G. Harrison for his contributions to embryology. Astbury and Harrison were very different in temperament, and worked in very different fields on either side of the Atlantic, yet they were united in their approach to the study of biological phenomena. Both Astbury and Harrison believed that the organization and form of biological materials whether wool fibres or the limb-bud in an amphibian embryo depended on molecular structure and pattern. Moreover both were concerned with dynamic aspects of form; Astbury’s greatest achievement was to demonstrate the dynamic, reversible folding and stretching of proteins in the k-m-e-f group, and Harrison looked to changing molecular patterns to account for changing symmetries in the developing embryo. It was this common approach that brought them together and led to Harrison spending a brief month in Leeds where they and K. M. Rudall performed what have been described as ‘truly progressive experiments in molecular biology’. I believe this short series of experiments illuminates the character and work of both Harrison and Astbury and illustrates the difficulties, practical and conceptual, in carrying out ‘progressive experiments’. I shall begin by reviewing briefly the embryological background of the time before going on to discuss in detail the approaches of Harrison and Astbury to their work and the outcome of their collaboration.

scholarly journals II. On some phenomena exhibited by gun-cotton and gunpowder under special conditions of exposure to heat

1864 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 204-217
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Method ◽  
High Temperatures ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Sufficient Accuracy ◽  
Hot Wire ◽  
Full Extent ◽  
Mechanical Condition ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
The Wire ◽  
Made In

The experiments upon which I have been engaged for some time past, in connexion with the manufacture and properties of gun-cotton, have brought under my notice some interesting points in the behaviour of both gun. cotton and gunpowder, when exposed to high temperatures, under parti­cular conditions. I believe that these phenomena have not been previously observed, at any rate to their full extent, and I therefore venture to lay before the Royal Society a brief account of them. Being anxious to possess some rapid method of testing the uniformity of products obtained by carrying out General von Lenk’s system of manu­facture of gun-cotton, I instituted experiments for the purpose of ascer­taining whether, by igniting equal weights of gun-cotton of the same com­position, by voltaic agency, within a partially exhausted vessel connected with a barometric tube, I could rely upon obtaining a uniform depression of the mercurial column, in different experiments made in atmospheres of uniform rarefaction, and whether slight differences in the composition of the gun-cotton would be indicated, with sufficient accuracy, by a corre­sponding difference in the volume of gas disengaged, or in the depression of the mercury. I found that, provided the mechanical condition of the gun-cotton, and its position with reference to the source of heat, were in all instances the same, the indications furnished by these experiments were sufficiently accurate for practical purposes. Each experiment was made with fifteen grains of gun-cotton, which were wrapped compactly round the platinum wire; the apparatus was exhausted until the column of mercury was raised to a height varying from 29 inches to 29·5 inches. The flash which accompanied the deflagration of the gun-cotton was apparently similar to that observed upon its ignition in open air ; but it was noticed that an interval of time always occurred between the first application of heat (or incandescence of the wire) and the flashing of the gun-cotton, and that during this interval there was a very perceptible fall of the column of mercury. On several occasions, when the gun-cotton, in the form of “roving,” or loosely twisted strand, was only laid over the wire, so that it hung down on either side, the red-hot wire simply cut it into two pieces, which fell to the bottom of the exhausted vessel, without continuing to burn. As these results appeared to indicate that the effects of heat upon gun-cotton, in a highly rarefied atmosphere, differed importantly from those observed under ordinary circumstances, or in a very imperfect va­cuum, a series of experiments, under variously modified conditions, was instituted, of which the following are the most important.

scholarly journals V. The radio-micrometer

1889 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 159-186 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Strong Magnetic Field ◽  
Great Improvement ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Electric Circuit ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Preliminary Note ◽  
Thermo Electric

In the preliminary note on the Radio-micrometer which I had the honour to present to the Royal Society last year (1887), I promised to complete, as far as I might be able, the development of the instrument, and, in case of any great improvement in the proportions of the parts, to exhibit an instrument in the improved form. In the present paper I have shown how the best sizes of the several parts may be determined, and how the best result may be attained. I must, however, first refer to the fact that on February 5, 1886, M. d’Arsonval showed, at a meeting of the Physical Society of France, an instrument called by him the Thermo-galvanometer, with which mine is in all essential respects identical. The invention of an instrument for measuring radiant heat, in which one junction of a closed thermo-electric circuit suspended in a strong magnetic field is exposed to radiation, is due entirely to M. d’Arsonval, and I need hardly say that it was in ignorance of the fact that he had preceded me that my communication was made to the Royal Society. As soon as I became acquainted with M. d’Arsonval’s work, I took the earliest opportunity of admitting his claim to priority (see ‘Nature,’ vol. 35, p. 549).

scholarly journals XXII. On the thermal resistance of liquids

1869 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 637-660 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Resistance ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Contact Heat ◽  
The Subject

§ 1. The passage of heat through matter has been mainly examined in reference to the diathermancy of solids, liquids, and gases to radiant heat, and to the conduction of contact-heat through solids and gases. The conduction of contact-heat through liquids forms a chapter in heat transference which has not hitherto received as much attention from experimental physicists as it merits. § 2. In the following pages I have the honor of submitting to the Royal Society certain experimental results and considerations to which I have been led during an investigation of this subject. These results are necessarily incomplete. The inquiry is fraught with very numerous and considerable experimental difficulties; but I venture to hope that such as the results are, they may be found useful to those who shall hereafter pursue the subject with greater skill and more perfect appliances.

II. Discussion of the results of some experiments with whirled anemometers

1881 ◽  
Vol 32 (212-215) ◽  
pp. 170-188
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Standard Pattern ◽  
Crystal Palace ◽  
Proper Factor ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Grant

In the course of the year 1872, Mr. R. H. Scott, F. R. S., suggested to the Meteorological Committee the desirability of carrying out a series of experiments on anemometers of different patterns. This suggestion was approved by the Committee, and in the course of same year a grant was obtained by Mr. Scott from the Government Grant administered by the Royal Society, for the purpose of defraying .the expenses of the investigation. The experiments were not, however, carried out by Mr. Scott himself, but were entrusted to Mr. Samuel Jeffery, then Superintendent of the Kew Observatory and Mr. G. M. Whipple, then First Assistant, the present Superintendent. The results have never hitherto been published, and I was not aware of their nature till on making a suggestion that an anemometer of the Kew standard pattern should be whirled in the open air, with a view of trying that mode of determining its proper factor, Mr Scott informed me of what had already been done, and wrote to Mr. Whipple requesting him to place in my hands the results of the most complete of the experiments, namely, those carried on at the Crystal Palace which I accordingly obtained from him. The progress of the enquiry may be gathered from the following extract from Mr. Scott's report in returning the unexpended balance of the grant.

XII. On the polarisation of light by oblique transmission through all bodies, whether crystallized or uncrystallized. By David Brewster, LL.D. F. R. S. Edin. and F. S. A. Edin. In a letter addressed to Taylor Combe, Esq. Sec. R. S

1814 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
General Result ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Polarised Light ◽  
Partial Polarisation ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Humphry Davy ◽  
The Revolution

Sir, In a letter on “ the Affections of Light in its passage through crystallized Bodies," which I had the honour of transmitting a few days ago to the Royal Society through Sir HUMPHRY DAVY, I alluded to a series of experiments which I had in view for the purpose of generalising the various phenomena which had been described. At the very commencement of this enquiry I have been led to the important general result “ that “ light transmitted obliquely through all transparent bodies, “ whether crystallized or uncrystallized, suffers polarisation " like one of the pencils formed by doubly refracting crystals," and I hasten to communicate to you a brief sketch of the nature and consequences of this discovery. In examining if any change was produced upon common light during its passage along the oblique depolarising axis of mica, I observed, in one position of the mineral, some appearances which indicated a partial polarisation of the incident rays. Upon turning the mica round, so as to preserve its obliquity to the incident pencil, the same phenomena presented themselves in every part of the revolution of the mica, and the quantity of polarised light was found to increase with the obliquity of its incidence. I then substituted a plate of glass instead of the mica, and a similar result was obtained, though the quantity of polarised light was considerably less titan in the first experiment. By adding one plate of glass after another, the number of polarised rays was increased by the addition of each plate, and when the plates amounted to fifteen , the transmitted pencil was wholly polarised at an angle of about 70° 17', and possessed all the properties of that species of light.

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