INVENTION AND DISCOVERY:
Reading edition
Curious Facts and Characteristic Sketches.
WM. W. SWAYNE, BROOKLYN AND NEW YORK.
MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Alchemists, The Last of the110
Alpine Perils—Professor Forbes on30
Amber an Article of International Trade66
Amsterdam Pile, The150
Antiquity of Lightning Conductors67
Antiquity of Refined Sugar87
Arkwright's Spinning Frame128
Art of Stereotype, The105
Artesian Well of Grenelle, The132
Ascent of the Jungfrau Alp, by Forbes, &c.44
Astronomical Shoemaker, An51
Babbage's Calculating Machine59
Balloon Travelling, Rate of103
Balloon Voyage from London to Nassau86
Banks', Sir Joseph, Balance37
Benefit of a Wife to an Author40
Black, Dr., The Death of133
Brindley the Engineer43
Brongniart's Early Life33
Brougham's, Lord, Scientific Blunders90
Buckingham Palace Gates37
Burning Mirrors of Archimedes, The140
Carnot when a Child23
Catching Electric Eels74
Character of Engineers in their Works43
Clearness of the Sky at the Cape of Good Hope88
Coal Gas in Balloons, Use of21
Cocoa-Nut Crab, The50
Coffee-Tree, Transportation of the127
Columbus' own Ship-Journal70
Crawshays of Merthyr Tydvil, The15
Cuvier and Napoleon21
Cuvier, Childhood of25
Cuvier, Homage to14
Cuvier in London39
Davy, Sir Humphry, Death of13
Davy, Sir Humphry, as an Angler93
Deaf, The, How they may Hear68
Decline of Science, The52
Dee, Dr., The Necromancer117
Descartes' "Wooden Daughter"51
Descent in a Diving-Bell, A92
Diamonds, Celebrated114
Discoveries Anticipated54
Diving-Bell, First Use of the103
Drummond Light, The62
Drying Wood for Violins69
Drymaking in Holland, A137
Early Incitements (Humboldt's) to Study of Nature72
Earthquakes, in Chile38
Earthquakes, How to Measure62
Electricity, The Velocity of155
Electrifying Machine in Persia, An60
El Dorado of Sir Walter Raleigh65
Elgin Marbles, The58
Experiments with an Electric Eel79
False Anticipations of Railway Speed14
Faraday as a Lecturer88
Female Mathematician, A French56
Ferguson, The Wife of James92
Fire-proof House on Putney Heath109
"Fossil Rain"104
Fourdrinier's Paper-making Machinery48
Fourier's Independence56
Franklin's Discoveries22
Gold in Siberia83
Gutta-percha, Discovery of20
Herschel's Love of Music59
Herschel, his First Telescope75
Herschel, his Sister94
Holding a "Craw's Court"30
Hyena, A Tame107
India Rubber 150 Years Since85
Indian Jugglers' Secret, The105
Invention of Gun Cotton35
Invention of the Diving-Bell78
Invention of the Hand Gear130
Invisible Despatch, The107
Jesuit's Bark, The First Use of51
Kaleidoscope, Combinations of the84
Kaleidoscope, Sir D. Brewster's120
Kaleidoscope, The First91
Leaning Tower of Pisa, The29
Leibnitz's Last Moments21
Lifting Heavy Persons124
Lighthouses, Reflecting, The Origin of123
Lion Eaten as Food, The101
Lithography, The Discovery of159
London as a Port48
Longevity of the Beetle102
Magnetic Correspondence in the 17th Century142
Mariner's Compass, The156
Marvels of the Alchemists129
"Means to the End," The84
Mechanical Triumphs57
Monochromatic Painting156
Moon Seen through Lord Rosse's Telescope, The101
Mythology of Science, The64
Navigation before the Compass144
Necessity the Mother of Invention136
Newton's Finger-Magnet20
Nice Robbery, A55
Observatory, Ancient, in Persia47
Old St. Paul's, A Wrench to146
Origin of Post Paid Envelopes42
Ostrich, Enemies of the108
Parachute Descent, A Safe104
Pascal's Childhood18
Pascal, How He Weighed the Atmosphere28
Perils of Chemical Experiment151
Philosophical Enthusiasm31
Poetic Prophecies of Darwin and Milton9
Poker across the Fire, The130
Potato, Introduction of the, into France88
Power of the Lever59
Railway System Suggested, The89
"Raining Trees" at the Cape106
Raleigh, Sir Walter, a Chemist58
Rapid Manufacture of a Coat54
Reason for Silence, Fontaine's44
Rosse's, Lord, Telescope121
Rust, Protection by100
St. Pierre's "Paul and Virginia"62
Scientific Pilgrim, A139
Self-taught Mechanist, A149
Semaphore v. Electric Telegraph146
"Shepherd to the King of England for Scotland"32
Siberian Mammoth Remains, The152
Smeaton's Independence,23
Smeaton, his Reproof of Gaming34
Snow Spectacles of the Esquimaux148
Society of Arts, Origin of the125
Spinning Feats128
Steam-Gun in the 15th Century46
Strychnine a Remedy for Paralysis54
Sun, Total Eclipse of the, at Cuba,102
Sun, Vast Spot on the12
Talent and Opportunity80
Tea, Identity of Black and Green,99
Tea, The First Cup of, Drunk in England40
Tebreez, Variable Climate of52
Telegraph, Origin of the Electric134
Telescope, Invention of the97
Thames Tunnel, Construction of the10
Travelling Carriage, A Novel108
Travelling in the Himalaya Mountains82
Travels of Volcanic Dust33
Tropical Delights, Sydney Smith's79
Tycho Brahe, Credulity of97
Vast Mirrors Made in Russia127
Vicissitudes of Mining in Mexico79
Voyages of Manufactures119
Waste of Human Life123
Watch Melted by Lightning, A105
Watt's Discovery of the Composition of Water26
Weighing-Machine at the Bank of England17
"Wet the Ropes!"131
Whitebait, The Rights of73
Who First Doubled the Cape?91
Wonders of Australia, Sydney Smith on the76
World in a Drop of Water, The42
NOTE.
In the annals of Invention and Discovery, it may be said without undue boasting, no nation of modern times can lay claim to such an eminent position as Great Britain; and her many ingenious and intrepid adventurers into what they found unknown regions of the arts, the sciences, and the earth's surface, have so largely contributed to raise her to her great place and power, that it is mere justice and self-interest to bestow on them grateful rewards in life, and renown after death. In this little volume are brought together a number of sketches and memoranda, illustrating the history of discovery, and the lives and labours of inventors and explorers, not of our own country alone, but of others—for knowledge is of no country, but of all. The object of the collector has been rather to present the popular than the strictly scientific side of his subject—to furnish materials of interest and amusement, as well as instruction; and if now and then he has been tempted to stray into bye-paths of anecdote and gossip, excuse may readily be found in the fact that the private life of our men of science, often singularly noble and full of character, is apt to be altogether obscured by the brilliancy of the results of their secret and silent toil. This volume will have served its purpose, if it excites an appetite for fuller and deeper inquisition into the sources of British greatness and of modern civilisation.