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INTRODUCTION
ALTHOUGH "The South Kensington Museum" now takes the lead, and
surpasses all former scientific institutions by its vastly superior collection
of models and works of art, there will be doubtless many thousand
young people who may remember (it is hoped) with some pleasure the
numerous popular lectures, illustrated with an abundance of interesting
and brilliant experiments, which have been delivered within the walls of
the Royal Polytechnic Institution during the last twenty years.
On many occasions the author has received from his young friends
letters, containing all sorts of inquiries respecting the mode of performing
experiments, and it has frequently occurred that even some years
after a lecture had been discontinued, the youth, now become the young
man, and anxious to impart knowledge to some "home circle" or
country scientific institution, would write a special letter referring to a
particular experiment, and wish to know how it was performed.
The following illustrated pages must be regarded as a series of philosophical
experiments detailed in such a manner that any young person
may perform them with the greatest facility. The author has endeavoured
to arrange the manipulations in a methodical, simple, and popular
form, and will indeed be rewarded if these experiments should arouse
dormant talent in any of the rising generation, and lead them on
gradually from the easy reading of the present "Boy's Book," to the
study of the complete and perfect philosophical works of Leopold
Gmelin, Faraday, Brande, Graham, Turner, and Pownes.
Every boy should ride "a hobby-horse" of some kind; and whilst
play, and plenty of it, must be his daily right in holiday time, he ought
not to forget that the cultivation of some branch of the useful Arts and
Sciences will afford him a delightful and profitable recreation when
satiated with mere play, or imprisoned by bad weather, or gloomy with
the unamused tediousness of a long winter's evening.
The author recollects with pleasure the half-holidays he used to devote
to Chemistry, with some other King's College lads, and in spite of
terrible pecuniary losses in retorts, bottles, and jars, the most delightful
amusement was enjoyed by all who attended and assisted at these
juvenile philosophical meetings.
It has been well remarked by a clever author, that bees are geometricians.
The cells are so constructed as, with the least quantity of
material, to have the largest sized spaces and the least possible interstices.
The mole is a meteorologist. The bird called the nine-killer is an arithmetician,
also the crow, the wild turkey, and some other birds. The
torpedo, the ray, and the electric eel are electricians. The nautilus is
a navigator. Ea raises and lowers his sails, casts and weighs anchor,
and performs nautical feats. Whole tribes of birds are musicians. The
beaver is an architect, builder, and wood-cutter. He cuts down trees
and erects houses and dams. The marmot is a civil engineer. He does
not only build houses, but constructs aqueducts, and drains to keep
them dry. The ant maintains a regular standing army. Wasps are
paper manufacturers. Caterpillars are silk-spinners. The squirrel is a
ferryman. With a chip or a piece of bark for a boat, and his tail for a
sail, he crosses a stream. Dogs, wolves, jackals, and many others, are
hunters. The black bear and heron are fishermen. The ants are day labourers.
The monkey is & rope dancer. Shall it, then, be said that any
boy possessing the Godlike attributes of Mind and Thought with Freewill
can only eat, drink, sleep, and play, and is therefore lower in the
scale of usefulness than these poor birds, beasts, fishes, and insects ?
No ! no ! Let "
Young England" enjoy his manly sports and pastimes,
but let him not forget the mental race he has to run with the educated
of his own and of other nations ; let him nourish the desire for the
acquisition of
"
scientific knowledge," not as a mere school lesson, but
as a treasure, a useful ally which may some day help him in a greater or
lesser degree to fight
" The Battle of Life."
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. THE PROPERTIES OF MATTER IMPENETRABILITY CHAPTER II. CENTRIFUGAL FORCE CHAPTER III. THE SCIENCE OF ASTRONOMY CHAPTER IV. CENTRE OF GRAVITY CHAPTER V. SPECIFIC GRAVITY CHAPTER VI. ATTRACTION OF COHESION CHAPTER VII. ADHESIVE ATTRACTION CHAPTER VIII. CAPILLARY ATTRACTION CHAPTER IX. CRYSTALLIZATION CHAPTER X. CHEMISTRY CHAPTER XI. CHLORINE, IODINE, BROMINE, FLUORINE CHAPTER XII. CARBON, BORON, SILICON, SELENIUM, SULPHUR, PHOSPHORUS CHAPTER XIII. FRICTIONAL ELECTRICITY CHAPTER XIV. VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY CHAPTER XV. MAGNETISM AND ELECTRO-MAGNETISM CHAPTER XVI. ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MACHINES CHAPTER XVII. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CHAPTER XVIII. RUHMKORFF'S, HEARDER'S, AND BENTLEY'S COIL APPARATUS CHAPTER XIX. MAGNETO-ELECTRICITY CHAPTER XX. DIA-MAGNETISM CHAPTER XXI. LIGHT, OPTICS, AND OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS CHAPTER XXII. THE REFRACTION OF LIGHT CHAPTER XXIII. REFRACTING OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS CHAPTER XXIV. THE ABSORPTION OF LIGHT CHAPTER XXV. THE INFLECTION OR DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT CHAPTER XXVI. THE POLARIZATION OF LIGHT CHAPTER XXVII. HEAT CHAPTER XXVIII. THE STEAM-ENGINE CHAPTER XXIX. THE STEAM-ENGINE continued
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