Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
i
}
and tilted up in such a manner, by means of two
bits of brick, or any other heavy substance, that the
back of the retort will easily be under the inverted
mouth of the bottle. Now apply heat to the retort,
by means of some’ lighted charcoal
placed upon a fire-pan, or any other
convenient support, we are not par-
ticular about that. Professor Faraday
~used a crucible of black lead, perforated
with holes (Fig. 9), supplied witth an
iron grating, firmly bound together with
. wire; a common clay flower-pot, simi-
Jarly fitted up, answers perfectly well; but, as we
said before, the fire-pan will serve for the nonce ;
presently an air or gas will come over, and would
fill the bottle if collected; it is better, however, to
allow the first portions to escape.
As soon as the bottle becomes full of gas, slide
under its mouth a flat piece of glass;
reverse the bottle, and put it to stand
on the table, thus.. (Fig. 10.) “So
it appears,” continued the lecturer,
“that we have actually succeeded in
getting from this solid chlorate a gas
Fig. 9.
< el is
“=<——— . or air—for gas is only another name
Fig. 10. for air. Let us see what sort of air
it is, and what will it do. Remember we are hunt-
ing for a certain something that shall enable burn-
able substances to burn. Let us try it thus.””
And let the reader try it, let him learn by experi-
ment what sort of a gas he has got. Let him take
a long slip of wood, and having set fire to one end,
let nim blow out the flame, so that only a little ig-
nited charcoal point shall remain. Plunge this
glowing end into the gas, and mark how the stick
bursts into flame.
How beautiful is this! how simple is all becom-
ing! how clearly do appearances unveil themselves !
From a solid body we have got out an air, a gas, for
the terms are the same, and this gas is the same,
the very same, test it as you will, that forms that
part of the atmosphere, and enables bodies to burn.
it is the very virtue of the air, so to speak—we
won't give it a name just yet—the very essence.
Chlorate of potash contains much of it; nitre con-
tains an almost equal quantity; therefore how easy
is it to learn the reason why touch-paper burns so
well. We may now put our knowledge together;
burnable bodies burn, not universally because fire is}.
applied to them, for some burn without, and some,
as will be shown hereafter, don’t. burn even then;
but they burn when they are heated to a certain ex-
tent in contact with a supporter of combustion in a
convenient form. That is all our experiments war-
rant us in saying at present; by-and-by other points
will be made out. Now don’t imagine there is only
one supporter of combustion—there are several,
but the most important, the grandest in its effects,
the most glorious in its action, is what we will at
present call the virtue of atmospheric air. And now
one word more. Did we not say that bodies before
they can burn must be heated to a certain extent?
—and was the potassium heated by coming into
contact with cold water? Assuredly it was. That
point can be demonstrated, and so on for the rest.
Friction heats the lucifer-match ; percussion heats
the gun-cap ; in every case heating in one way or
another must be applied.
One thing more must here be remembered. Burn-
able bodies will not all burn under precisely similar
circumstances. Potassium will burn if it touches
water, but it won’t burn under water. Phosphorus
and chlorate mixed, will burn under water perfectly
well; so will a firework serpent, or a carcase fuse.
The wick of a candle and its contained oil will burn,
but not the surrounding wax or grease; whereas a
piece of camphor (try it) will burn all over. Thus
burnable bodies have most of them different burning
propensities; and many, which you think won't
burn at all, will burn perfectly well when their
caprices are favored, as we shall see hereafter. All
combustible or burnable bodies have their eaprices,
or fancies, so to speak; not only must they be
heated in contact with a supporter of combustion,
but they must be heated under peculiar circum-
stances. As a special illustration of this fact, we
cannot do better than conclude this sketch by de-
seribing an experiment performed by Professor
Faraday. , The experiment is pretty, interesting,
and instructive; moreover, it shows the exact Way
of making lightning as adopted in plays and panto-
mimes. Lycopodium may be called a sort of seed
of a sort of fern. Don’t be too severe on the editor,
young gentlemen and Jadies who know botany; he
is perfectly aware that lycopodium is not a fern; he
is also aware that neither ferns nor lycopodiums
have any seeds but spores. He knows all this just
as well as the facts that wheat, barley, and oats are
not seeds but fruits; that strawberries, pine-apples,
and figs, are no fruits; or that cactus plants have
no leaves. Lycopodium is a sort of seed of a sort
of fern, we repeat, and of this lycopodium mimic
lightning may be made. ‘It burns, therefore—burns
in air, yet, under just’ those circumstances alone
which please itself, as we shall see.
Put a little lycopodium flat upon a plate, and
touch it with a lighted match; the substance will
not burn yet. Treat it thus: put it into a little
sieve tied to the end of a stick, knock the end of the
stick with a mal-
7 let or hammer,
A Nytisn or anything o:
aS that kind, so that
AAU, the lycopodium
may fill the air
now a lighte
. candle in the
= == cloud, and see
ic.1LS what takes place
Me ne —~the whole cloud
burns with a vivid flash. Thus do we learn that the
lycopodium, though perfectly willing to burn, will
only burn when the air is mixed with it in a par-
ticular way. Children, put together all these facts.
In a future number we will proceed to learn something
more about that distilled gas, which, for the present,
shall still be called the virtue of atmospheric air.
To be continued. .
[For the N. Y. Journal.]
Mary Belle.
By M. T, Carrenter, of Jackson, Miss,
Théy call her bright and beautiful,
As beautiful may be,
But ’tis something more than beauty
at makes her dear to me;
+ : 2
Which makes one in her presence
Forget himself the while.
E’en the coldest may not listen
mmoved unto her words,
For they breathe a sweeter music
Than songs of singing birds.
And ’tis gushing, free, and simple,
~ And void of every art,
And in this consists its magic,
?*Tis music cf the heart.
Were her form not half so graceful,
Her eye not half so bright,
And were lost those raven tresses,
Which darker seem than night :
She still to me were beautiful,
nd in my heart would dwell,
The kindect thoughts and purest,
Of lovely Mary Belle.
nin
Tue Reuicion or tHe Insurcenr Cutnese.—
An exceedingly curious document has been publish-
ed, which offers a striking insight into the present
religious persuasions of the insurgent Chinese. We
make room for a brief summary of the facts con-
tained in the document, which is of excessive
length, and full of tautology and metaphorical lan-
age. It seems that among the princes of the
Pretender's court, one, styled the Eastern Prince,
professes, or is considered to receive, Divine inspi-
ration ; and indeed it is represented either figur-
atively or as literal truth, that the Divinity descends
from heaven to announce His will, either directly or
through some such medium, to the Chinese people.
The narrative accordingly purports to detail the re-
velations so made, and sets forth a visit of the
“Heavenly Father” in person, together with an
elaborate communication which the Eastern Prince
was commissioned to deliver in the Divine name to
the Celestial King—z. ¢. the Pretender himself. The
commands thus conveyed have reference not to any
doctrinal proposition or arly lofty precepts of moral-
ity, but to the general administration of the govern-
ment, the management of the court and even the
regulation of its ceremonial. The officers of the
court, and especially the female officers, are to be
‘treated with more indulgence and consideration ;
the king is to be less hasty and impetuous, to inflict
uniskment in moderation and upon reasonable
grounds only, to be thoughtfnl in his actions, andto
give his attendants less occasion to stand in awe of
him. In particular he is enjoined to be cautious in
visiting offences with death, and is recommended to
adopt such a method of proceeding in capital cases
as would leave room for investigation and pardon,
Such are the precepts for which the immediate au-
thority of the Divinity is claimed, and which are
announced in all the awful phraseology of Revela-
tion itself.. As a climax, the Celestiai King is re-
presented as ascribing to the Esstern Prince, in con-
46 FRANK LESLIE'S NEW YORK JOURNAL.
sideration of these communications, the mission and
title. of “The Comforter, even the Holy Ghost :”
and this designation, we are told, has been assumed
accordingly. -
A Srrance Witt.—We find the following extra-
ordinary statement in a New York paper :— ‘
“Mr. Railing, of New Hampshire, was among
the victims of the last railroad accident between
Brighton and London. His heirs, after having paid
him the customary funeral honors, did what all
heirs do in similar cases—opened the will of the
deceased, to ascertain what share each was to have
in his posthumous liberalities. As he had never
given a penny to either of his relatives during his
lifetime, they expected to be richer now that he was
no more. One may imagine the surprise caused by
the first line of his will: ‘This is my testament. .I
give and bequeath all my goods, present and future,
moveable or immoveable, in England or on the Con-
tinent, to that railroad company on whose road I
have had the happiness to meet with death, that
blessed deliverance from my terrestrial prison.”
Further on, the testator gives his reasons for his
bequest. - The idea had taken firm possession of his
mind, that he was destined to die a violent death,
and the most desirable one, in his view, was that
caused by the explosion of a locomotive. . He trav-
elled, therefore, constantly on the railroads of Eng-
land, Belgium, and France. There was not a sta-
tion where he was not known. All the conductors
were acquainted with his peculiar costume. -He
had narrowly escaped death several times. Once
he was shut up in a carriage under water; another
time he was in the next carriage to the one that was
shattered; and he described, with the greatest en-
thusiasm, those terrible accidents, when he saw
death so near without being able to obtain it. « Dis-
appointed in Europe, he went to the United States.
He made frequent excursions on the Ohio, the Mis- -
sissippi, the Ontario, and the Niagara; but, not-
withstanding their frequent explosions, he returned '
with a whole skin. He was destined to be crushed
under a carriage of the mother country. ‘It is said
that the relatives will attempt to set aside the will
on the ground of insanity; but it is probable that
the railroad will win the suit in spite of the proverb, °
that ‘the murderer never inherits from his vic-
tim?) . theo:
‘Compar Exrraorpinary.—A, somewhat ridicu-
lous occurrence was lately witnessed in Westches-
ter. A favorite cock finding one day its master’s
house quiet, and concluding from that circumstance
that its domestics were absent, set about exploring
the house. At length he entered the gentleman’s
bed-room, in which there was a large mirror. Upon
looking at this, chanticleer was not a little astonish-
ed at perceiving another cock, in every respect like
himself, standing opposite and staring at him. This
attitude he construed as a challenge to come and |
The din of the .
fight, which he readily accepted.
encounter attracted the attention of one of the in-
mates, who, on proceeding to the apartment, was
not a little amused at the spectacle. The intruder,
however, was compelled to leave the scerie without
bringing the matter to anything like a satisfactory
end,
Tur Arctic Exprpitioy.—While the announce-
ment which appears in another part of this number
settles the fate of Sir John Franklin and his party,
reflection has discovered that it still leaves the larger
number unaccounted for, and has given a new im-
pulse to searches for the other members of the
party, and for any records that they may have left
behind. Two overland expeditions have therefore
been decided upon—the one in boats, to go down
Wy
the Mackenzie River in search of Captain Collinson, ~
about the safety of whom there is now some anx-
iety ; the other, in canoes, down Back’s Fish River,
to make further, inquiry into the fate of Sir John
Franklin’s people, and to endeavor to obtain some
more relics; and, should any of the remains of the
dead be found, to place them decently under ground.
he bodies which have already been discovered were -
ata spot which indicated the probable movement
of the party towards the West. Captain Collinson
is known to have been well, and about to prosecute
his explorations, as late as August, 1852. - The
above-mentioned expeditions will be left wholly in
the hands of the Hudson’s Bay Company, _ ,
Beaury.—It may not be lasting—but it is preci-
ous. Jt may not be worthy—but it is powerful. ;
It may neither give nor take, yet we shall fear its -
frowns and value its smiles.. It may be in posses-
sion of the ignorant, but the wise shall bow to it.
It may exist in the weak, but the mighty shall suc-
cumb before it. There is but one antidote to its
effects—absence. :
{
t