XIV. A comparison of the changes of magnetic intensity throughout the day in the dipping and horizontal needls, at Treurenburgh Bay in Spitsbergen

1828 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 303-311

The few observations I had an opportunity of making at Port Bowen in 1825, on the diurnal changes of intensity shown by the dipping and horizontal needles, first suggested the idea of a daily rotatory motion of the general polarizing axis of the earth, as the cause, not only of the diurnal changes of intensity, but also of the diurnal oscillations of the horizontal needle throughout the world. And the circumstance, of the times of the maximum and minimum effect of these phænomena, occurring generally when the sun bore north, south, east, and west by compass, indicated his agency in producing this motion of the pole. The entire confirmation of an hypothesis so important in the theory of terrestrial magnetism, requires the evidence of varied and extensive observation; and as my professional pursuits have recently led me to revisit those regions best calculated for the experiments, I have thought a continuation of them under favourable circumstances, might prove an useful auxiliary to those already honoured with a place in the Philosophical Transactions for 1826.

The observations made by the author at Port Bowen in 1825, on the diurnal changes of magnetic intensity taking place in the dipping- and horizontal-needles, appeared to indicate a rotatory motion of the polarizing axis of the earth, depending on the relative position of the sun, as the cause of these changes. By Capt. Foster’s remaining at Spitzbergen, during the late Northern Voyage of Discovery, a favourable opportunity was afforded him of prosecuting this inquiry. Instead of making observations with a single needle, variously suspended, as had been done at Port Bowen, two were employed,— the one adjusted as a dipping-needle, and the other suspended horizontally. The relation between the simultaneous intensities of the two needles could thus be ascertained, and inferences deduced relative to the question whether a diurnal variation in the dip existed as one of the causes of the observed phenomena, or whether, the dip remaining constant, they were occasioned by a change in the intensity. The dipping-needle used was one belonging to the Board of Longitude, and made by Dollond. Both this and the horizontal-needle were made in the form of parallelopipedons, each 6 inches long, 0·4 broad, and 0·05 thick. The experiments were continued from the 30th of July to the 9th of August; and were so arranged, that in the course of two days an observation was made every hour in the four-and-twenty; that is, part of them in one day and another part in the other day.


Among the celestial bodies the sun is certainly the first which should attract our notice. It is a fountain of light that illuminates the world! it is the cause of that heat which main­tains the productive power of nature, and makes the earth a fit habitation for man! it is the central body of the planetary system; and what renders a knowledge of its nature still more interesting to us is, that the numberless stars which compose the universe, appear, by the strictest analogy, to be similar bodies. Their innate light is so intense, that it reaches the eye of the observer from the remotest regions of space, and forcibly claims his notice. Now, if we are convinced that an inquiry into the nature and properties of the sun is highly worthy of our notice, we may also with great satisfaction reflect on the considerable progress that has already been made in our knowledge of this eminent body. It would require a long detail to enumerate all the various discoveries which have been made on this subject; I shall, therefore, content myself with giving only the most capital of them.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-72
Author(s):  
Jane Mikkelson

Abstract The phoenix (ʿanqā) appears in the philosophy of Avicenna (d.1037) as his example of a “vain intelligible,” a fictional being that exists in the soul, but not in the world. This remarkable bird is notable (along with the Earth, the moon, the sun, and God) for being a species of one. In this essay, I read the poetry Bedil of Delhi (d.1720) in conversation with the philosophical system of Avicenna, arguing that the phoenix in Bedil’s own philosophical system functions as a key figuration that allows him simultaneously to articulate rigorous impersonal systematic ideas and to document his individual first-personal experiences of those ideas. The phoenix also plays a metaliterary role, allowing Bedil to reflect on this way of doing philosophy in the first person—a method founded on the lyric enrichment of Avicennan rationalism. Paying attention to the adjacencies between poetry and philosophy in Bedil, this essay traces the phoenix’s transformations from a famous philosophical example into one of Bedil’s most striking figurations in his arguments about imagination, mind, and self.


Author(s):  
J. P. Zinsser

In the 1740s, the Marquise du Châtelet translated Newton's Principia (1731, third edition) into French. Her's remains the standard translation. In addition, she wrote an extensive commentary in which she gave her own description of the System of the World , and analytical solutions to key disputed aspects of Newton's theory of universal gravitation. She also included summaries of two mathematical essays that clarified and confirmed Newton's application of his theory to observed phenomena: Aléxis–Claude Clairaut's on the shape of the Earth and Daniel Bernoulli's on the effects of the Sun and Moon on the tides.


Author(s):  
Sandhya Gangarade

The creator, the Creator, the creator, by whatever name, calls the ultimate power that colors the sky blue, the earth green, the sun gold and the moon silver. The colors of Pushpavali in the forest division are countless and the colors of water creatures in the ocean are amazing. Colorless water is also the miracle of the same and the white, black and red color of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati is also an expression of the same. Some also create 'Kavirmanishi Paribhu Swayambhu', the poet of the world of life, nature's colors with full sensibility Does. In poetry, there are mainly three basic colors - white, black, white, black and red. सृष्टा, रचेता, विधाता जिस भी नाम से पुकारें उस परम शक्ति को जो आकाश को नीला, धरती को हरा, सूरज को स्वर्ण और चाँद को रजत रंग में रंग देता है। वन प्रान्तर में पुष्पावलि के रंग अनगिनत है और सागर में जल-जीवों के रंग अद्भुत। रंगहीन जल भी उसी का चमत्कार है और गंगा, यमुना और सरस्वती का श्वेत, श्याम और लाल रंग भी उसी की अभिव्यक्ति है।कवि भी रचेता है ‘कविर्मनीषी परिभू स्वयंभू’ जीवन के जगत के, प्रकृति के रंगो को कवि पूरी संवेदन शीलता से संयोजित करता है। काव्य में मुख्य रूप से तीन रंग आधारभूत रंग है- श्वेत, श्याम, रतनान-सफेद, काला और लाल।


On Purpose ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 42-60
Author(s):  
Michael Ruse

This chapter discusses the Scientific Revolution that is dated from the publication of Nicolaus Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543, the work that put the sun rather than the earth at the center of the universe to Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in 1687, the work that gave the causal underpinnings of the whole system as developed over the previous one hundred and fifty years. Historian Rupert Hall put his finger precisely on the real change that occurred in the revolution. It was not so much the physical theories, although these were massive and important. It was rather a change of metaphors or models—from that of an organism to that of a machine. By the sixteenth century, machines were becoming ever more common and ever more sophisticated. It was natural therefore for people to start thinking of the world—the universe—as a machine, especially since some of the most elaborate of the new machines were astronomical clocks that had the planets and the sun and moon moving through the heavens, not by human force but by predestined contraptions. In a word, by clockwork!


Impact! ◽  
1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerrit L. Verschuur

During the first century B.C., Lucretius wrote, “Legend tells of one occasion when fire got the upper hand. The victory of fire when the earth felt its withering blast, occurred when the galloping steeds that draw the chariot of the sun swept Phaeton from the true course right out of the zone of the ether and far over all lands.” He knew about comets, which is why he said, “There is no lack of external bodies to rally out of infinite space and blast [the world] with a turbulent tornado or inflict some other mortal disaster.” This awareness made him think that the world was newly made, and perhaps in some sense it is. The wheel has come full circle. We now appreciate that the threat of comets and asteroids is real, although the distinction between comets and asteroids has grown blurred. What is no longer in doubt is that catastrophic impacts have occurred in the past, and that they will happen again. At the same time, the hypothesis that impacts and flood legends are related is beginning to experience a revival. A chink in the dam of prejudice against the idea actually began to appear in the 1940’s when two astronomers, Fletcher Watson and Ralph Baldwin, in separate books considered the implications of the discovery of near-earth asteroids (NEAs) and concluded that impacts were likely every million years or so. They were all but ignored. In 1942 H. H. Nininger, the famous meteorite researcher, gave a talk to the Society for Research on Meteorites entitled “Cataclysm and Evolution.” Because of his highly specialized forum, his remarks also went unheard in the wider astronomical community. He considered the danger following the close encounter with Hermes, the NEA discovered in October 1937 that passed within 670,000 kilometers of our planet, which can be compared with the moon’s distance of 384,000 kilometers. (Oddly, Hermes has never been found again. Its rediscovery is one of the prizes that asteroid hunters strive for.) If, instead, it had “smacked the earth in a single lump,” the consequences would “constitute a catastrophe of a magnitude never yet witnessed by man,” said Nininger.


The Geologist ◽  
1861 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 332-347
Author(s):  
W. Pengelly

The rooks composing the earth's crust contain a history and represent time—a history of changes numerous, varied, and important: changes in the distribution of land and water; in the thermal conditions of the world; and in the character of the organic tribes which have successively peopled it. The time required for these mutations must have been vast beyond human comprehension, requiring, for its expression, units of a higher order than years or centuries. In the existing state of our knowledge it is impossible to convert geological into astronomical time: it is at present, and perhaps always will be, beyond our power to determine how many rotations on its axis, or how many revolutions round the sun the earth made between any two recognised and well-marked events in its geological history. Nevertheless it is possible, and eminently convenient, to break up geological time into great periods: it must not be supposed, however, that such periods are necessarily equal in chronological, organic, or lithological value; or separated from one another by broadly marked lines of demarcation; or that either their commencements or terminations in different and widely separated districts were strictly synchronous.One of the terms in the chronological series of the geologist is known as the Devonian, that which preceeded it the Silurian, and the succeeding one the Carboniferous period; and these, with some others of less importance, belong to the Palæozoic or ancient-life epoch, or group of periods.


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