scholarly journals XXVI. An account of some experiments relative to the passage of radiant heat through glass screens

1826 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 372-382
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Heating Effect ◽  
Direct Transmission ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Actual Radiation

(1) In a former Paper, communicated to the Royal Society, and which has been honoured with a place in the Philosophical Transactions for 1825, I attempted an investigation of the distinctive characters of two species of heating effect, in which particular reference was made to the action of transparent screens. In the present communication, my object is to examine a further point belonging to that part of the subject; and to which, as well as the former enquiry, I have been led, from considering the results obtained by M. De La Roche. The investigation given in my former paper proceeded upon the assumption, that simple radiant heat is incapable of permeating glass by direct transmission when the source is below luminosity: and the conclusion deduced from my experiments went to show, that that portion of the heat which is intercepted above luminosity, is simple heat, unaltered except in intensity, whilst that which is transmitted is of a different kind. That this assumption, at least under all ordinary circumstances, is warranted by most decisive experiments, I conceive sufficiently certain. It appears to me, however, that in reference to its strict universality, some further enquiry is necessary. The general inference respecting transmission, deduced from De La Roche's experiments, has, I conceive, been satisfactorily explained by mine; but there is one of his conclusions to which my principle does not apply (except in a particular case), and which might seem to afford considerable ground for the idea of an actual radiation through glass, under particular circumstances.

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.

scholarly journals VI. Electrification of air, of vapour of water, and of other gases

1898 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 187-228 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Atmospheric Electricity ◽  
British Association ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
The Subject

1. In this paper we describe a long series or experiments on the electrification of air and other gases, with which we have been occupied from May, 1894, up to the present time (June, 1897). Some results of our earlier experiments, and of preliminary efforts to find convenient methods of investigation, have from time to time been communicated to the Royal Society, the British Association, and the Glasgow Philosophical Society. 2. The method for testing the electrification of air, which we used in our earliest experiments, was an application of the water-dropper (long well-known in the ordinary observation of atmospheric electricity). Its use by Maclean and Goto, in 1890, led to an interesting discovery that air in an enclosed vessel, previously non-electrified, becomes electrified by a jet of water falling through it. An investigation of properties of matter concerned in this effect, related as it is to the “development of electricity in the breaking up of a liquid into drops,” which had been discovered by Holmgren as early as 1873, and to the later investigations and discoveries described by Lenard, in his paper on the “Electricity of Waterfalls,” forms the subject of 25-37 of the present communication.

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).

scholarly journals IX. An experimental enquiry into the nature of the radiant heating effects from terrestrial sources

1825 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 187-202
Keyword(s):  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Heating Effect ◽  
Radiant Heating ◽  
Heating Effects ◽  
The Subject

(1.) The nature of the heating effect emanating from lumi­nous hot bodies has been distinctly shown to be, in many particulars, very different from that evolved from non-luminous sources; but the ideas commonly entertained on the subject, are far from being precise and distinct. To gain if possible some ground for establishing more clear views, is the object of the following enquiries. (2.) Professor Leslie, in his well known and elegant expe­riments, (Inquiry concerning Heat, &c. chap, iii.) has fully established the theory of the effect of screens on radiant heat; and these effects give some of the most important criteria for examining the nature of radiating agents.

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.

scholarly journals XXIV. On the Indian arc of meridian

1861 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 579-594 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Central India ◽  
Negative Sign ◽  
Great Care ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
Direct Process ◽  
Resultant Effect ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference

It is with pleasure that I request the attention of the Royal Society to the present com­munication, in continuation and completion of my former papers, because I think that the anomalies which the Indian Arc has appeared to present are here traced to the true causes. 1. I will explain what those anomalies were. On completing a laborious and wellexecuted survey of the two northern portions of the Indian Arc of Meridian, between Kaliana (29° 30' 48") and Kalianpur (24° 7' 11"), and Kalianpur and Damargida (18° 3' 15"), Colonel Everest found that their astronomical and geodetical amplitudes differed considerably; in the higher arc the geodetic amplitude he found to be in excess by 5"·236, in the lower of the two ares in defect by 3"·791. The three stations had been selected with great care, and were finally chosen as being apparently free from all disturbing causes. Indeed, a fourth station which had been at one time adopted, Takal Khera in Central India, was rejected by Colonel Everest because a neighbouring hillrange was discovered on calculation to produce a deflection of about 5". Kaliana had been chosen nearly sixty miles from the lower hills at the foot of the Himmalaya Moun­tains, in the full conviction that it would be free from mountain influence. The surprise was therefore great when, on the completion of the survey of the two arcs in question, these two errors were brought to light. The first was attributed to the influence of the Himmalayas, but without any calculation; but the second, with its negative sign, received no interpretation. At this stage I devised a method of calculating the effect of the Himmalayas by a direct process; and found that the deflections produced are far greater than the errors which had to be explained, and the negative sign was left alto­gether unaccounted for. Thus the perplexity was increased. It next occurred to me that the vast Ocean to the south of India might have some influence on the plumb-line. On making the necessary calculations the effect of this cause was found, as the moun­tain attraction had been, to be far greater than had been anticipated; the negative sign was still unexplained, and the difficulties were not cleared up. No other cause of dis­turbance was apparent at the surface. But I showed by calculation that in the crust below one might exist sufficient to reduce the large deflections occasioned by the Moun­tains and the Ocean, and make them accord with the results deduced by Colonel Everest from the arcs themselves. But, being hidden from our sight, neither the magnitude nor indeed the existence of this cause could be à priori ascertained, much less reduced to calculation. Whether, moreover, the errors brought to light by Colonel Everest arose solely from local attraction, or from local attraction combined with some local peculiarity in the curvature of the Indian Arc, was not apparent; so that the subject of local attrac­tion and its influence on geodetic operations in this country, was still involved in obscu­rity, and the anomalies of the Indian Arc remained unexplained in the papers which I have hitherto forwarded to the Society. In the present communication I think ambi­guity is removed. It is demonstrated that no peculiarity in the curvature of the arc can produce any part of the errors brought to light by Colonel Everest; that those errors arise solely from local attraction; that they are in fact the exact measure of the difference of the resultant local attraction at the two extremities of each arc, from what­ ever causes the attraction may arise—mountains, ocean, or crust; lastly, it is proved that there are hidden causes in the crust below the Indian Arc, and the differences of their resultant effect upon the stations of the arc are computed. An inference from these results is, that the relative position of places in a Map, laid down from geodetic operations, is accurate, being altogether unaffected by local attraction; though the position of the Map itself on the terrestrial spheroid will be dependent upon the observed latitude of some one station in it, and that observed latitude will be affected by the local attraction at that place. To determine the absolute latitude in some one station connected with the geodetic operations is still a desideratum.

V. On the absorption and radiation of heat by gaseous and liquid matter.—Fourth memoir

1864 ◽  
Vol 154 ◽  
pp. 201-225 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Powerful Source ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Volatile Liquids ◽  
Permanent Gases ◽  
Gaseous Form

The Royal Society has already done me the honour of publishing in the Philosophical Transactions three memoirs on the relations of radiant heat to the gaseous form of matter. In the first of these memoirs* it was shown that for heat emanating from the blackened surface of a cube filled with boiling water, a class of bodies which had been previously regarded as equally, and indeed, as far as laboratory experiments went, perfectly diathermic, exhibited vast differences both as regards radiation and absorption. At the common tension of one atmosphere the absorptive energy of olefiant gas, for example, was found to be 290 times that of air, while when lower pressures were employed the ratio was still greater. The reciprocity of absorption and radiation on the part of gases was also experimentally established in this first investigation. In the second inquiry† I employed a different and more powerful source of heat, my desire being to bring out with still greater decision the differences which revealed themselves in the first investigation. By carefully purifying the transparent elementary gases, and thus reducing the action upon radiant heat, the difference between them and the more strongly acting compound gases was greatly augmented. In this second inquiry, for example, olefiant gas at a pressure of one atmosphere was shown to possess 970 times the absorptive energy of atmospheric air, while it was shown to be probable that when pressures of 1/30th of an atmosphere were compared, the absorption of olefiant gas was nearly 8000 times that of air. A column of ammoniacal gas, moreover, 3 feet long, was found sensibly impervious to the heat employed in the inquiry, while the vapours of many of the volatile liquids were proved to be still more opaque to radiant heat than even the most powerfully acting permanent gases. In this second investigation, the discovery of dynamic radiation and absorption is also announced and illustrated, and the action of odours and of ozone on radiant heat is made the subject of experiment.

scholarly journals XII. Harmonic analysis of hourly observations of air temperature and pressure at British observatories.—part I. Temperature

1893 ◽  
Vol 184 ◽  
pp. 617-646
Keyword(s):  
Harmonic Analysis ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Graphical Representations ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
Present Purpose ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Temperature And Pressure ◽  
Selection Of

The Meteorological Council have lately published a volume entitled ‘Harmonic Analysis of Hourly Observations of Air Temperature and Pressure at British Obser­vatories.’ It was thought preferable that this publication should be limited to the series of Tables giving the computed values of the harmonic constants, with a brief introduction explaining how the calculations had been carried out, and that the discussion of the results should be embodied in a separate memoir, which I hoped to communicate to the Royal Society, an intention which I now realize. I have annexed to the present communication a selection of such of the Tables given in the volume referred to as appear necessary for my present purpose, and I have added a series of graphical representations of some of the results of the computations, which will facilitate the study of the subject.

scholarly journals On the parallax of the fixed stars

1833 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 65-66
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Dr. Brinkley, of the Observatory of Dublin, having noticed for several years past a periodical deviation of several fixed stars from their mean places, strongly indicating the existence in them of annual parallax, the author was induced to institute a series of observations upon the subject, the results of which are submitted to the Royal Society in the present communication. Being unable to devote the mural circle, erected at the Royal Observatory in 1812, entirely to this investigation, the Astronomer Royal employed two ten-feet telescopes, fixed to stone piers, and directed to the particular stars whose parallax was suspected, and furnished with micrometers for the purpose of comparing them with other stars passing through the same field. The question of parallax is, theoretically speaking, rather curious than important; but with regard to the state of practical astronomy the case is very different, and, as far as relates to the natural history of the sidereal system, it is a subject of interest to ascertain whether the distances of the nearest fixed stars can be numerically expressed from satisfactory data, or whether it be so immeasurably great as to exceed all human powers either to conceive or determine. The principal stars observed by Dr. Brinkley were, α Lyræ, α Aquilæ, α Cygni.

scholarly journals I. The Bakerian Lecture.—On the absorption and radiation of heat by gases and vapours, and on the physical connexion of radiation, absorption, and conduction

1861 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Radiation Absorption ◽  
Earth’S Atmosphere ◽  
Practical Effect ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Earth's Atmosphere ◽  
Mutual Action

The researches on glaciers which I have had the honour of submitting from time to time to the notice of the Royal Society, directed my attention in a special manner to the observations and speculations of De Saussure, Fourier, M. Pouillet, and Mr. Hopkins, on the transmission of solar and terrestrial heat through the earth’s atmosphere. This gave practical effect to a desire which I had previously entertained to make the mutual action of radiant heat and gases of all kinds the subject of an experimental inquiry. Our acquaintance with this department of Physics is exceedingly limited. So far as my knowledge extends, the literature of the subject may be stated in a few words.

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