-
Articles/Ads
Article PHILOSOPHICAL EXPERIMENTS. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Philosophical Experiments.
underneath sometimes expands with such force as to rend the superior strata with violent explosions . ' In the frosty climates of the polar regions these explosions are sometimes as loud as ^ cannon . — Blocks of slate-stone , which is formed in thin plates or strata , not separable by a tool , are taken out of the quarry and exposed to rain , which soaking into the pores of the stone , is there frozen into ice ,
which by its expansion breaks the stone into thin plates . In the iron-works they sometimes , in order to break an old bomb-shell , fill it with water , then fasten up the vent and expose it to the frost , which bursts it into pieces without farther trouble . It is necessary , therefore , in order to preserve a vessel which has liquor in that is expected to freeze , to leave sufficient room for this expansion . The effects of it are observable in a thousand phenomena : trees are burst , rocks are rent , walnut , ash , and oak-trees , are sometimes cleft asunder , with a noise like the explosion of fire-arms .
EFFECTS OF EXTREME COLD
WHEN some French mathematicians wintered at Tornea , in Lapland , the external air , when suddenly admitted into their rooms , converted the moisture of the air into whirls of snow ; their breasts seemed to be rent when they breathed it , and the contact was intolerable to their bodies ; and the aqueous parts of the spirits of wine , which had not been highly rectified , burst some of their thermometers .
Extreme cold often proves fatal to animal life : 7000 Swedes perished at once in attempting to pass the mountains wliich divide Norway from Sweden . In cases of extreme cold , the person attacked first feels himself extremely chilly and uneasy , he begins to turn listless , is unwilling to walk , or use the exercise necessary to keep him warmand at last turns drowsy , sits down to refresh himself with
, sleep—but wakes . no more . Dr . Solander , with some others , when at Terra del Fuego , having taken an excursion up the country , the , cold was so intense as to kill one of the company : the doctor , though he had warned his companions of the danger of sleeping in that situation , could not be prevented from making that dangerous experiment himself ; and though he was awaked with all possible
expedition , he was so much shrunk in bulk that his shoes fell off his feet , and it was with the utmost difficulty he recovered . In very severe frosts and very cold climates , rivers have been known to be frozen over with great rapidity . Dr . Goldsmith mentions having seen the Rhine frozen at one of its most precipitate cataracts , and the ice standing in glassy columns like a forest of large trees , the
branches of which had been lopt away . So hard does the ice become in cold countries , that in 1740 a palace of ice was built at Petersburgh , after a very elegant model , and in just proportions of Augustan architecture . It was 52 feet long , and 20 feet hi gh . The materials were quarried from the surface of the river Neva ; and the whole stood glistening against the sun with a brilliancy almost equal to his « vvn , To increase the wonder , six cannons and two bombs , all of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Philosophical Experiments.
underneath sometimes expands with such force as to rend the superior strata with violent explosions . ' In the frosty climates of the polar regions these explosions are sometimes as loud as ^ cannon . — Blocks of slate-stone , which is formed in thin plates or strata , not separable by a tool , are taken out of the quarry and exposed to rain , which soaking into the pores of the stone , is there frozen into ice ,
which by its expansion breaks the stone into thin plates . In the iron-works they sometimes , in order to break an old bomb-shell , fill it with water , then fasten up the vent and expose it to the frost , which bursts it into pieces without farther trouble . It is necessary , therefore , in order to preserve a vessel which has liquor in that is expected to freeze , to leave sufficient room for this expansion . The effects of it are observable in a thousand phenomena : trees are burst , rocks are rent , walnut , ash , and oak-trees , are sometimes cleft asunder , with a noise like the explosion of fire-arms .
EFFECTS OF EXTREME COLD
WHEN some French mathematicians wintered at Tornea , in Lapland , the external air , when suddenly admitted into their rooms , converted the moisture of the air into whirls of snow ; their breasts seemed to be rent when they breathed it , and the contact was intolerable to their bodies ; and the aqueous parts of the spirits of wine , which had not been highly rectified , burst some of their thermometers .
Extreme cold often proves fatal to animal life : 7000 Swedes perished at once in attempting to pass the mountains wliich divide Norway from Sweden . In cases of extreme cold , the person attacked first feels himself extremely chilly and uneasy , he begins to turn listless , is unwilling to walk , or use the exercise necessary to keep him warmand at last turns drowsy , sits down to refresh himself with
, sleep—but wakes . no more . Dr . Solander , with some others , when at Terra del Fuego , having taken an excursion up the country , the , cold was so intense as to kill one of the company : the doctor , though he had warned his companions of the danger of sleeping in that situation , could not be prevented from making that dangerous experiment himself ; and though he was awaked with all possible
expedition , he was so much shrunk in bulk that his shoes fell off his feet , and it was with the utmost difficulty he recovered . In very severe frosts and very cold climates , rivers have been known to be frozen over with great rapidity . Dr . Goldsmith mentions having seen the Rhine frozen at one of its most precipitate cataracts , and the ice standing in glassy columns like a forest of large trees , the
branches of which had been lopt away . So hard does the ice become in cold countries , that in 1740 a palace of ice was built at Petersburgh , after a very elegant model , and in just proportions of Augustan architecture . It was 52 feet long , and 20 feet hi gh . The materials were quarried from the surface of the river Neva ; and the whole stood glistening against the sun with a brilliancy almost equal to his « vvn , To increase the wonder , six cannons and two bombs , all of