Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Volume 93

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W. Bowyer and J. Nichols for Lockyer Davis, printer to the Royal Society, 1803

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Page iv - Society answerable, for the certainty of the facts, or propriety of the reasonings, contained in the several Papers so published, - which must still rest on the credit or judgment of their respective Authors.
Page 21 - Smithson says in one of his papers, " chemistry is yet so new a science," what we know of it bears so small a proportion to what we are ignorant of; our knowledge in every department of it is so incomplete, consisting so entirely of isolated points, thinly scattered, like lurid specks on a vast field of darkness, that no researches can be undertaken without producing some facts leading to consequences which extend beyond the boundaries of their immediate object...
Page 206 - ... after which the mass was found to make excellent blades. The royal historian adds, that on the incident of this iron of lightning being manufactured, a poet presented him with a distich that, " during his reign the earth attained order and regularity ; that raw iron fell from lightning, which was, by his world-subduing authority, converted into a dagger, a knife, and two sabres.
Page 26 - ... from the essential elements of a compound those products of its analysis whose quantity cannot be reduced to any admissible proportion. A certain knowledge of the exact proportions of the constituent principles of bodies, may likewise open to our view harmonious analogies between the constitutions of related objects, general laws, &c. which at present totally escape us. In short, if it is founded in truth, its enabling the application of mathematics to chemistry cannot but be productive of material...
Page 43 - Experiments and Observations on the various Alloys, on the specific Gravity, and on the comparative Wear of Gold.
Page 274 - These observations show, that there is some foundation for the vulgar opinion of workmen, concerning what is technically called the feeding of leather in the slow method of tanning ; and though the processes of the art may in some cases be protracted for an unnecessary length of time, yet, in general, they appear to have arrived, in consequence of repeated practical experiments, at a degree of perfection which cannot be very far extended by means of any elucidations of theory that have as yet been...
Page iii - Body, never interesting themselves any further in their publication, than by occasionally recommending the revival of them to some of their Secretaries, when, from the particular circumstances of their affairs, the Transactions had happened for any length of time to be intermitted- And this seems principally to have been done with a view to satisfy the Public, that their usual meetings were then continued, for the improvement of knowledge, and benefit of mankind, the great ends of their first institution...
Page 20 - The water is most probably not an essential element of this calamine, or in it in the state of, what is improperly called, water of crystallization, but rather exists in the crystals in fluid drops interposed between their plates, as it often is in crystals of nitre, of quartz, &c. Its small quantity, and the crystals not falling to powder on its expulsion, but retaining almost perfectly their original solidity, and spathose appearance in the places of fracture, and, above all, preserving their electrical...
Page 25 - If the theory here advanced has any foundation in truth the discovery will introduce a degree of rigorous accuracy and certainty into chemistry, of which this science was thought to be ever incapable, by enabling the chemist, like the geometrician, to rectify by calculation the unavoidable errors of his manual operations, and by...
Page 283 - I fixed a stake in the ground, about ten feet distant from the tree, on the east side of it ; and I attached the tree to the stake, at the height of six feet, by means of a slender pole about twelve feet long ; thus leaving the tree at liberty to move towards the north and south, or more properly, in the segment of a circle of which the pole formed a radius ; but in no other direction. Thus circumstanced, the diameter of the tree from north to south, in that part of its stem which was most exercised...

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