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.

scholarly journals XI. On the mutual action of sulphuric acid and naphthaline, and on a new acid produced

1826 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 140-162 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sulphuric Acid ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
General Nature ◽  
Carbonaceous Matter ◽  
Gas Products ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Compounds ◽  
Oil Gas ◽  
Mutual Action

In a Paper on new compounds of carbon and hydrogen , lately honoured by the Royal Society with a place in the Philosophical Transactions, I had occasion briefly to notice, the peculiar action exerted on certain of those compounds by sulphuric acid. During my attempts to ascertain more minutely the general nature of this action, I was led to suspect the occasional combination of the hydro-carbonaceous matter with the acid, and even its entrance into the constitution of the salts, which the acid afterwards formed with bases. Although this opinion proved incorrect, relative to the peculiar hydro-carbons forming the subject of that Paper, yet it led to experiments upon analogous bodies, and amongst others, upon naphthaline, which terminated in the production of the new acid body and salts now to be described. Some of the results obtained by the use of the oil gas products are very peculiar. If, when completed, I find them sufficiently interesting, I shall think it my duty to place them before the Royal Society, as explicatory of that action of sulphuric acid which was briefly noticed in my last Paper.

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.

From Aviation to Astronautics

1958 ◽  
Vol 62 (573) ◽  
pp. 615-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Space Flight ◽  
Aircraft Industry ◽  
Earth’S Atmosphere ◽  
Legitimate Interest ◽  
Flight Operations ◽  
Technical Advances ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Earth's Atmosphere ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Scientific Talent

Now that major space flight operations are under way in Russia and America there is a natural interest in such topics in this country among those working on aeronautics and guided missiles. At present one can only speculate on how this country will eventually contribute to space flight. As the Duke of Edinburgh has remarked, the difficulty is not due to lack of scientific talent but to the absence of surplus funds. Even so, we can make effective contributions in many ways and we should not lack boldness in seeking out possible ways of doing this. In the meantime, however, there seems to be a place for a review of the present technical situation and prospects for the near future, as seen from the standpoint of one in the British Aircraft Industry. As the majority of interplanetary flights will begin through the Earth’s atmosphere and many will finish by way of the same medium, the Royal Aeronautical Society can claim a special and legitimate interest in these matters. Ever since its inception the Society has encouraged the discussion of new technical advances, although its ability to do this has sometimes been hampered by the requirements of security. The same restrictions apply to this paper with the result that I have chosen to draw upon published material throughout, and to review the subject on a broad basis. I hope the work will not be less acceptable on these grounds.

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).

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.

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 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.

1. On the Constitution of the Earth's Atmosphere in Remote Geological Epochs

1845 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 165-166
Author(s):  
Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Mineral Waters ◽  
Atmospheric Gases ◽  
Earth’S Atmosphere ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Earth's Atmosphere ◽  
Absolute Quantity ◽  
Considerable Depth

This is the first paper of a promised series on the subject here announced. In the present paper the author endeavours to shew, that in remote epochs the atmosphere was more extensive and heavier than it is now, that it contained a greater absolute quantity of oxygen, and that this quantity has gradually diminished up to our own era, and is probably still undergoing a sensible diminution. His views are founded partly on speculative considerations, of which it is not possible to give a sufficiently circumstantial abridgment, and partly on the evidence of various operations going on at or near the surface of the earth, the tendency of which must, on the whole, apparently be to diminish the quantity and proportion of the oxygen in the atmosphere. In addition to the ordinary and well known causes of deterioration, the author points out a new source of diminution to which his attention has been lately drawn. From experiments made upon the aeriform fluid discharged from the earth during an inundation, and obviously expelled by the water penetrating to a considerable depth, and displacing the gases contained in the soil, he found that this gaseous matter consists of 2.5 per cent, carbonic acid, 12.764 oxygen, and 84.736 nitrogen. Taking this observation in conjunction with many others previously made on the composition of the gaseous discharges in volcanic districts, and the gaseous contents of mineral waters, he infers that a process of oxidation is constantly going on at various depths below the earth's surface, the oxygen for which is in all probability derived by absorption of the atmospheric gases at the surface.

scholarly journals IX. Transmission of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere

1887 ◽  
Vol 178 ◽  
pp. 251-283 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Earth’S Atmosphere ◽  
Earth's Atmosphere

It will be in the recollection of the Royal Society that early last year General Festing and myself brought forward a method of colour photometry, which is described in a paper in the ‘Phil. T rans.' 1886. In a postscript, dated June, we added a description of a somewhat modified apparatus in which any variation in the intensity of the light producing the spectrum under measurement was equally reproduced in the comparison-light.

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