Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ar00800
ciple of vitality . He does not accuse the English Freemasons of having participated in tbe conspiracy ; but he considers the Continental Lodges as having been universally implicated in it . " Professor Robison contributed several able scientific articles to the third edition of the Enct / clopcedia Britannica . He ivas a native of Scotland , and died at Edinburgh in 1805 , in his sixtysixth year ,
Literature.
Literature .
EEVIEWS . Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts . A Boot for Old and Young . By Jons TIMES , F . S . A . London Kent and Co ., Fleet-street . Tin : author of " Things not Generally Known , " in the present volume 1 ms given the reading public his hitherto most successful
work . Both in style ancl matter the book before us must be considered a great advance upon his previous writings , possessing in a much smaller degree the characteristics of a collection of extracts from the commonplace book of a miscellaneous though laborious student ; and marked throughout by an earnest desire to describe the progress of those arts which have raised our civilization to its present high standard , and to chronicle the struggles and the
fortunes of the great men ivhose inventions have exercised so great an influence upon the destinies of mankind . To write a history of the rise and development of those great discoveries in mechanics and chemistry which have made the learning of the nineteenth century almost as comprehensive as that attributed to our Grand Master Solomon himself , would require an encyclopedia in bulk to contain its details , and the lifetime of many historians to do
justice to the subject . Mr . Timbs ' s little book is of the most unpretending character , but is sufficiently comprehensive to give ample food for meditation ; and in the terse and neatly written narratives which he has placed before us , if he has not gone deeply into the mighty mysteries which formed the life study of the adepts whose career he briefly sketches , he has fairly earned the praise of compressing into a small and
compass , m a most interesting guise , sufficient particulars of deceased philosophers to be eminentl y suggestive and useful to both " j'ouug and old : " as his title declares his intention to have been . The work comprises some fifty or sixty sketches of o-reat inventors and discoverers from the very earliest times of ivhich authentic accounts remain , down to the latest wonders of our own time . The list begins with the sage Archimedes , whose recorded
feats have been so long considered as the mere childish traditions of an ignorant and wonder loving age , but whose inventions have m many instances been reproduced and adopted with perfect success in modern times . The last upon the roll of celebrities noticed by our author are the Brunels and the Stephensons , and the intervening period between the great ancient master of the sciences and his modern prototypes , is well illustrated by exles taken from the
amp philosophic luminaries of each succeeding age . In the consideration of this subject the author ' s countrviuen will not fail to observe with pride what a vast preponderance of the practical philosophy which has benefited the human race has been promulgated among civilized men through the wisdom ' and energy of natives of these islands ; and the fallacy becomes transparent which would attribute to Englishmen a deficiency in the faculty of invention . In , science as in arms , the mMity race which peoples these realms have ever been facil . es principes—the lands wiiicn produced Alfred , Bruce , Wallace . RaleiVh . Hi-mm ^ n
Blake , Marlborough and Wellington , have also nurtured the immortal genius of Bacon , Kenton , Watt , Davy and Stephenson It is an observation as old as Solomon , and therefore in truth somewhat trite at the present time , " that there is notliiim- rew under the sun , " and in the present volume our author liasliy no means lost sight of this truism ; some singular illustrations of tne assimilation of ancient magic and pscudo miracles to the every day oi modern
_ occurrences scientific practice are given and justice is done to the memory of those ancients ivhose pretensions have too often until recent times been made the objects of ricbcule and contempt , The magical practices of Friar Bacon or Albertus Magnus , are now seen to have been nothing more than the successful results of profound studies in chemistry and mechanics ; but our author farther back b long than the
goes y a way period ot these worthies , and gives good reason for attributing a knowledge of the process of printing to the Eomans . and the use of gunpowder or a similar composition to those ancient inhabitants of India who were coeval with Moses . After some very interesting chapters upou the air pump , th
diving bell , balloons , chronometers , aud other subjects , we find a sketch of the learned Kapler , the inventor of logarithms , and of his celebrated " Secret Inventions . " ' ¦ 'Of these , tho first is stated to be ' a burning mirror for burning ships by the sun ' s beams , ' of which Napier professes himself able to give to the world tbe ' invention , proof , and perfect demonstration , geometrical and algebraical , with an evident demonstration of their error who
affirm this to be made a parabolic section . ' The second is a mirror for producing the same effect by the beams of a material fire . The third is < i piece of artillery , contrived so as to send forth its shot , not iu a single straight line , but in all directions , in such a manner as to destroy everything in its neighbourhood . Of this the writer asserts be can give ' the invention mid visible demonstration . ' Tbe fourth ancl last of these formidable machines is described to be ' a round chariot iu metal , ' constructed so as both to secure the lete safety of those within itand ,
comp , moving about in all directions , to break the enemy ' s array , ' by continual charges of shot of the arquebuse through small holes . ' ' These inventions , ' the paper concludes , ' besides devices of sailing under water , and divers other devices aud stratagems for harassing the enemies , by the grace of God and work of expert craftsmen , I hope to perform , John Napier of Mei-ehiston , anno dom . 1596 , June 2 . ' " Another scheme of the inventor of logarithms is tbe manuring of laud with salt , as inferred from tbe following notice in' Bin-ell ' s Diary , Oct . '
23 , 1598 : ' Ane proclamation of the Laird of Mevkistoun , that he tuik upon hand to make the land muir profitable nor it wes before , be the sawing of salt upon it . ' The patent , or gift of office , as it is c tiled for this discovery , was granted upon condition that the patentee should publish his method in print , ivhich he did , under the . title of The Aw Order of Gooding and Manuring all sorts of Field Land with common Salt . This tract is now probably lost ; but the above facts establish Napier ' s claim to an agricultural improvement which has been revived in our day , and considered of great value ; while it proves that Napier directed bin speculations occasionally to the improvement- of the arts of common , life , as well as to that of the abstract sciences . "
Prince Rupert , Sir Samuel Morland , Lord Bacon , aud the Marquis of Worcester , ivere the undoubted discoverers of many scientific processes which have lain dormant , for want of faith in them by mankind , almost to our own day . Of Lord Worcester it may without exaggeration be asserted that ho was perhaps the greatest mechanical genius that this country has produced ; perhaps it is not going too far to say that iu the powers of mental conception he equalled the immortal Bacon himself though inferior as a reasoner and reflective philosopher .
" Worcester lias been illiberally described as a ' fantastic projector , ' and his Century as ' nn amazing piece of folly . ' But Mr . Partington , in Jus edition of the work published in 1 S 25 , has , throughout an able series of notes , fully demonstrated not only tlie practicability of applying the major part of the hundred inventions there described , but the absolute application of many of tbem , though , under other names , to some of the most useful purposes of life . It is surely injustice and ingratitude to apply the name of a 'fantastic projector' to the man who first discovered
a mode of applying steam as a mechanical agent , an invention alone sufficient to immortalise the age in ivhich he lived . Many of Worcester ' s contrivances have since been brought into general use : among them may especially be mentioned stenography , telegraphs , floating baths , speaking statues , carriages from which horses can be disengaged if unruly , combination locks , secret escutcheons for locks , candle-moulds , & c . "In the Transactions of the Society of Artsvol . iii . p . 6 is
recom-, , mended to tbe attention of every mechanic the Century , ' which , on account of the seeming improbability of discovering many things mentioned therein , has been too much neglected ; but when it is considered that somo of the contrivances , apparently not the least abtruse , have by close application been found to ansiver all that the Marquis says of them , ancl that the first hint of that most powerful machine , the steam engine , is given in that work , it is unnecessary to enlarge on the utility of it . "
The larger part of Mr . Timbs's volume is naturally devoted to the illustration of the progress of invention in later times ; and the achievements of James Watt , John Lombe , Sir Humphry Davy , Smcaton , anclRennie , bring the reader to the period of the illustrious families of Brunei ancl Stephenson , who have but so lately passed from among us . There are many pleasant anecdotes interspersed throughout the solid information which the author contributes for
the edification of his readers . Some of these we have certainly met with before , but they are generally well selected _ and will bear repetition . An instance of the kindness ancl discrimination of Sir Humphry _ Davy may be new to some of our readers : ~ ' ¦ ' One of tbe most pleasing episodes in the life of Davy is the account of his first reception of Michael Faraday , described in a note to Dr . Paris : — ' When I was a bookseller ' s apprentice' says Faraday' I was
, , very fond of experiment , and very averse to trade . It happened tbat a gentleman , a member of the Royal Institution , took mo to hear some of Sir H . Davy ' s last lectures in Albcinarle-strect , I took notes , ancl afterwards wrote them out more fairly in a quarto volume . My desire to escape from trade , which I thought vicious and selfish , and to enter into the service of science , which . I imagined made its pursuers amiable and
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ar00800
ciple of vitality . He does not accuse the English Freemasons of having participated in tbe conspiracy ; but he considers the Continental Lodges as having been universally implicated in it . " Professor Robison contributed several able scientific articles to the third edition of the Enct / clopcedia Britannica . He ivas a native of Scotland , and died at Edinburgh in 1805 , in his sixtysixth year ,
Literature.
Literature .
EEVIEWS . Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts . A Boot for Old and Young . By Jons TIMES , F . S . A . London Kent and Co ., Fleet-street . Tin : author of " Things not Generally Known , " in the present volume 1 ms given the reading public his hitherto most successful
work . Both in style ancl matter the book before us must be considered a great advance upon his previous writings , possessing in a much smaller degree the characteristics of a collection of extracts from the commonplace book of a miscellaneous though laborious student ; and marked throughout by an earnest desire to describe the progress of those arts which have raised our civilization to its present high standard , and to chronicle the struggles and the
fortunes of the great men ivhose inventions have exercised so great an influence upon the destinies of mankind . To write a history of the rise and development of those great discoveries in mechanics and chemistry which have made the learning of the nineteenth century almost as comprehensive as that attributed to our Grand Master Solomon himself , would require an encyclopedia in bulk to contain its details , and the lifetime of many historians to do
justice to the subject . Mr . Timbs ' s little book is of the most unpretending character , but is sufficiently comprehensive to give ample food for meditation ; and in the terse and neatly written narratives which he has placed before us , if he has not gone deeply into the mighty mysteries which formed the life study of the adepts whose career he briefly sketches , he has fairly earned the praise of compressing into a small and
compass , m a most interesting guise , sufficient particulars of deceased philosophers to be eminentl y suggestive and useful to both " j'ouug and old : " as his title declares his intention to have been . The work comprises some fifty or sixty sketches of o-reat inventors and discoverers from the very earliest times of ivhich authentic accounts remain , down to the latest wonders of our own time . The list begins with the sage Archimedes , whose recorded
feats have been so long considered as the mere childish traditions of an ignorant and wonder loving age , but whose inventions have m many instances been reproduced and adopted with perfect success in modern times . The last upon the roll of celebrities noticed by our author are the Brunels and the Stephensons , and the intervening period between the great ancient master of the sciences and his modern prototypes , is well illustrated by exles taken from the
amp philosophic luminaries of each succeeding age . In the consideration of this subject the author ' s countrviuen will not fail to observe with pride what a vast preponderance of the practical philosophy which has benefited the human race has been promulgated among civilized men through the wisdom ' and energy of natives of these islands ; and the fallacy becomes transparent which would attribute to Englishmen a deficiency in the faculty of invention . In , science as in arms , the mMity race which peoples these realms have ever been facil . es principes—the lands wiiicn produced Alfred , Bruce , Wallace . RaleiVh . Hi-mm ^ n
Blake , Marlborough and Wellington , have also nurtured the immortal genius of Bacon , Kenton , Watt , Davy and Stephenson It is an observation as old as Solomon , and therefore in truth somewhat trite at the present time , " that there is notliiim- rew under the sun , " and in the present volume our author liasliy no means lost sight of this truism ; some singular illustrations of tne assimilation of ancient magic and pscudo miracles to the every day oi modern
_ occurrences scientific practice are given and justice is done to the memory of those ancients ivhose pretensions have too often until recent times been made the objects of ricbcule and contempt , The magical practices of Friar Bacon or Albertus Magnus , are now seen to have been nothing more than the successful results of profound studies in chemistry and mechanics ; but our author farther back b long than the
goes y a way period ot these worthies , and gives good reason for attributing a knowledge of the process of printing to the Eomans . and the use of gunpowder or a similar composition to those ancient inhabitants of India who were coeval with Moses . After some very interesting chapters upou the air pump , th
diving bell , balloons , chronometers , aud other subjects , we find a sketch of the learned Kapler , the inventor of logarithms , and of his celebrated " Secret Inventions . " ' ¦ 'Of these , tho first is stated to be ' a burning mirror for burning ships by the sun ' s beams , ' of which Napier professes himself able to give to the world tbe ' invention , proof , and perfect demonstration , geometrical and algebraical , with an evident demonstration of their error who
affirm this to be made a parabolic section . ' The second is a mirror for producing the same effect by the beams of a material fire . The third is < i piece of artillery , contrived so as to send forth its shot , not iu a single straight line , but in all directions , in such a manner as to destroy everything in its neighbourhood . Of this the writer asserts be can give ' the invention mid visible demonstration . ' Tbe fourth ancl last of these formidable machines is described to be ' a round chariot iu metal , ' constructed so as both to secure the lete safety of those within itand ,
comp , moving about in all directions , to break the enemy ' s array , ' by continual charges of shot of the arquebuse through small holes . ' ' These inventions , ' the paper concludes , ' besides devices of sailing under water , and divers other devices aud stratagems for harassing the enemies , by the grace of God and work of expert craftsmen , I hope to perform , John Napier of Mei-ehiston , anno dom . 1596 , June 2 . ' " Another scheme of the inventor of logarithms is tbe manuring of laud with salt , as inferred from tbe following notice in' Bin-ell ' s Diary , Oct . '
23 , 1598 : ' Ane proclamation of the Laird of Mevkistoun , that he tuik upon hand to make the land muir profitable nor it wes before , be the sawing of salt upon it . ' The patent , or gift of office , as it is c tiled for this discovery , was granted upon condition that the patentee should publish his method in print , ivhich he did , under the . title of The Aw Order of Gooding and Manuring all sorts of Field Land with common Salt . This tract is now probably lost ; but the above facts establish Napier ' s claim to an agricultural improvement which has been revived in our day , and considered of great value ; while it proves that Napier directed bin speculations occasionally to the improvement- of the arts of common , life , as well as to that of the abstract sciences . "
Prince Rupert , Sir Samuel Morland , Lord Bacon , aud the Marquis of Worcester , ivere the undoubted discoverers of many scientific processes which have lain dormant , for want of faith in them by mankind , almost to our own day . Of Lord Worcester it may without exaggeration be asserted that ho was perhaps the greatest mechanical genius that this country has produced ; perhaps it is not going too far to say that iu the powers of mental conception he equalled the immortal Bacon himself though inferior as a reasoner and reflective philosopher .
" Worcester lias been illiberally described as a ' fantastic projector , ' and his Century as ' nn amazing piece of folly . ' But Mr . Partington , in Jus edition of the work published in 1 S 25 , has , throughout an able series of notes , fully demonstrated not only tlie practicability of applying the major part of the hundred inventions there described , but the absolute application of many of tbem , though , under other names , to some of the most useful purposes of life . It is surely injustice and ingratitude to apply the name of a 'fantastic projector' to the man who first discovered
a mode of applying steam as a mechanical agent , an invention alone sufficient to immortalise the age in ivhich he lived . Many of Worcester ' s contrivances have since been brought into general use : among them may especially be mentioned stenography , telegraphs , floating baths , speaking statues , carriages from which horses can be disengaged if unruly , combination locks , secret escutcheons for locks , candle-moulds , & c . "In the Transactions of the Society of Artsvol . iii . p . 6 is
recom-, , mended to tbe attention of every mechanic the Century , ' which , on account of the seeming improbability of discovering many things mentioned therein , has been too much neglected ; but when it is considered that somo of the contrivances , apparently not the least abtruse , have by close application been found to ansiver all that the Marquis says of them , ancl that the first hint of that most powerful machine , the steam engine , is given in that work , it is unnecessary to enlarge on the utility of it . "
The larger part of Mr . Timbs's volume is naturally devoted to the illustration of the progress of invention in later times ; and the achievements of James Watt , John Lombe , Sir Humphry Davy , Smcaton , anclRennie , bring the reader to the period of the illustrious families of Brunei ancl Stephenson , who have but so lately passed from among us . There are many pleasant anecdotes interspersed throughout the solid information which the author contributes for
the edification of his readers . Some of these we have certainly met with before , but they are generally well selected _ and will bear repetition . An instance of the kindness ancl discrimination of Sir Humphry _ Davy may be new to some of our readers : ~ ' ¦ ' One of tbe most pleasing episodes in the life of Davy is the account of his first reception of Michael Faraday , described in a note to Dr . Paris : — ' When I was a bookseller ' s apprentice' says Faraday' I was
, , very fond of experiment , and very averse to trade . It happened tbat a gentleman , a member of the Royal Institution , took mo to hear some of Sir H . Davy ' s last lectures in Albcinarle-strect , I took notes , ancl afterwards wrote them out more fairly in a quarto volume . My desire to escape from trade , which I thought vicious and selfish , and to enter into the service of science , which . I imagined made its pursuers amiable and