scholarly journals XCII. A letter from Monsieur Clairaut, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and F. R. S. to Thomas Birch, D. D. Secret. R. S. containing a comparison between the notions of M. de Courtivron and Mr. Melvil, concerning the difference of refrangibility of the rays of light

1753 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 776-780 ◽  

As I was perusing the last volume of the Philosophical Transactions, I fell upon a memoir of Mr. Melvil, the Subject of which having been handled in a book, that I presented some time ago to the Royal Society, from a friend of mine, and written upon a matter, which l had formerly studied myself, I first examined whether any notice had been taken of the things common to both of the works, and to what degree the two authors agreed together.

1828 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 153-239 ◽  

In the year 1790, a series of trigonometrical operations was carried on by General Roy, in co-operation with Messrs. De Cassini, Mechain, and Legendre, for the purpose of connecting the meridians of Paris and Greenwich. In England, the work commenced with a base measured on Hounslow Heath, whence triangles were carried through Hanger Hill Tower and Severndroog Castle on Shooter’s Hill, to Fairlight Down, Folkstone Turnpike, and Dover Castle on the English coast; which last stations were connected with the church of Notre Dame at Calais, and with Blancnez and Montlambert upon the coast of France. An account of these operations will be found in the Philosophical Transactions for 1790. In the year 1821, the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Board of Longitude at Paris communicated to the Royal Society of London their desire, that the operations for connecting the meridians of Paris and Greenwich should be repeated jointly by both countries, and that commissioners should be nominated by the Royal Academy of Sciences and by the Royal Society of London for that purpose. This proposal having been readily acceded to, Messrs. Arago and Matthieu were chosen on the part of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and Lieut.-Colonel (then Captain) Colby and myself were appointed by the Royal Society to co-operate with them.


1872 ◽  
Vol 20 (130-138) ◽  
pp. 35-39 ◽  

A discussion has taken place on the Continent, conducted partly in the 'Astronomische Nachrichten,’ partly in independent pamphlets, on the change of direction which a ray of light will receive (as inferred from the Undulatory Theory of Light) when it traverses a refracting medium which has a motion of translation. The subject to which attention is particularly called is the effect that will be produced on the apparent amount of that angular displacement of a star or planet which is caused by the Earth’s motion of translation, and is known as the Aberration of Light. It has been conceived that there may be a difference in the amounts of this displacement, as seen with different telescopes, depending on the difference in the thicknesses of their object-glasses. The most important of the papers containing this discussion are:—that of Professor Klinkerfues, contained in a pamphlet published at Leipzig in 1867, August; and those of M. Hoek, one published 1867, October, in No. 1669 of the 'Astronomische Nachrichten,’ and the other published in 1869 in a communication to the Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences. Professor Klinkerfues maintained that, as a necessary result of the Undulatory Theory, the amount of Aberration would be increased, in accordance with a formula which he has given; and he supported it by the following experiment:— In the telescope of a transit-instrument, whose focal length was about 18 inches, was inserted a column of water 8 inches in length, carried in a tube whose ends were closed with glass plates; and with this instrument he observed the transit of the Sun, and the transits of certain stars whose north-polar distances were nearly the same as that of the Sun, and which passed the meridian nearly at midnight. In these relative positions, the difference between the Apparent Right Ascension of the Sun and those of the stars is affected by double the coefficient of Aberration; and the merely astronomical circumstances are extremely favourable for the accurate testing of the theory. Professor Klinkerfues had computed that the effect of the 8-inch column of water and of a prism in the interior of the telescope would be to increase the coefficient of Aberration by eight seconds of arc. The observation appeared to show that the Aberration was really increased by 7'' 1. It does not appear that this observation was repeated.


The first section of this paper contains a narrative of the proceedings of the Commission appointed for executing the object announced in the title. The first trigonometrical operations for connecting the meridians of Paris and Greenwich were carried on by General Roy, in cooperation with Messrs, de Cassini, Mechain, and Legendre, in the year 1790, an account of which was published in the Philosophical Transactions of that year. In 1821, the Royal Academy of Sciences, and Board of Longitude at Paris, communicated to the Royal Society of London their desire that these operations should be repeated, and the following Commissioners were nominated by these scientific bodies for that purpose; namely, Messrs. Arago and Mathieu, on the part of the Academy of Sciences; and Lieutenant-Colonel Colby and Captain Kater, on the part of the Royal Society.


1746 ◽  
Vol 44 (482) ◽  
pp. 388-395

The World is much obliged to Mons. le Monnier for the many Discoverics he has made of the Power of Electricity; though the Reason of my troubling you with this Paper at this time, is my differing with that Gentleman in the Conclusions which he deduces from several of the Experiments contain’d in his Memoir lately presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris , his own Extract of which was lately communicated to the Royal Society .


1832 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 539-574 ◽  

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.


Sir, Though the Royal Society heard with the greatest concern the resolution taken by their late worthy President, to decline being any longer chosen into that office


1743 ◽  
Vol 42 (466) ◽  
pp. 227-234

The last News from Paris gives something very surprising in the Account of Monsieur Reaumur's late Memoir, read in the Royal Academy of Sciences there, concerning an Animal called a Polypus , in which Life said to be preserved, after it has been cut into several Pieces, so that One Animal seems by Section to be immediately divided into Two or Three more complete Animals, each separately enjoying Life, and continuing to perform the proper Offices of its Species.


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.


1825 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 440-466 ◽  

The object of the paper which I have the honour of sub­mitting at this time to the attention of the Royal Society, is to describe particularly two new compounds of carbon and hydrogen, and generally, other products obtained during the decomposition of oil by heat. My attention was first called to the substances formed in oil at moderate and at high temperatures, in the year 1820; and since then I have endea­voured to lay hold of every opportunity for obtaining information on the subject. A particularly favourable one has been afforded me lately through the kindness of Mr. Gordon, who has furnished me with considerable quantities of a fluid obtained during the compression of oil gas, of which I had some years since possessed small portions, sufficient to excite great interest, but not to satisfy it. It is now generally known, that in the operations of the Portable Gas Company, when the oil gas used is compressed in the vessels, a fluid is deposited, which may be drawn off and preserved in the liquid state., The pressure applied amounts to 30 atmospheres; and in the operation, the gas previously contained in a gasometer over water, first passes into a large strong receiver, and from it, by pipes, into the portable vessels. It is in the receiver that the condensation principally takes place; and it is from that vessel that the liquid I have worked with has been taken. The fluid is drawn off at the bottom by opening a conical valve: at first a portion of water generally comes out, and then the liquid. It effervesces as it issues forth; and by the difference of re-­fractive power it may be seen, that a dense transparent vapour is descending through the air from the aperture. The effervescence immediately ceases; and the liquid may be readily retained in ordinary stoppered, or even corked bottles; a thin phial being sufficiently strong to confine it. I understand that 1000 cubical feet of good gas yield nearly one gallon of the fluid.


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