Masters of Science and Invention, Volume 1 |
Common terms and phrases
Agassiz alternating current America animals astronomer atomic became began Bell Berzelius Bessemer botany brake Bunsen century chemical chemist chemistry coal tar coil Cuvier Darwin Davy device discovered discovery early earth Edison Einstein electric elements engine England ether ether waves experimental experiments Faraday father field fossil French Galileo Helmholtz Henry Humboldt Humphry Davy hundred important industry interest invention inventor investigation laboratory Lamarck later lectures Liebig light Linnaeus Louis Agassiz machine Madame Curie magnetic Marconi mechanical ment miles million mirror galvanometer modern Morse motion never nitroglycerin Nobel observed obtained Paris passed Pasteur patent Perkin phlogiston theory pioneer plants produced Professor radioactive radium received Samuel F. B. Morse scientific scientist solar system soon stars steam steel submarine success telegraph telephone telescope theory thousand dollars tion train triumph University vast velocity waves weight Westinghouse wire wireless young
Popular passages
Page 161 - We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar systemwith all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
Page 131 - I ever read with attention. It opened to me a new world of thought and enjoyment; invested things before almost unnoticed with the highest interest ; fixed my mind on the study of nature, and caused me to resolve at the time of reading it that I would immediately commence to devote my life to the acquisition of knowledge.
Page 47 - He commonly laboured in his multifarious concerns from five o'clock in the morning till nine at night; and when considerably more than fifty years of age,— feeling that the defects of his education placed him under great difficulty and inconvenience in conducting his correspondence, and in the general management of his business, — he encroached upon his sleep, in order to gain an hour each day to learn English grammar, and another hour to improve his writing and orthography...
Page 47 - ... marriage, because she, convinced that he would starve his family by scheming when he should have been shaving, broke some of his experimental models of machinery. Arkwright was a severe economist of time; and, that he might not waste a moment, he generally travelled with four horses, and at a very rapid speed. His concerns in Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Scotland, were so extensive and numerous as to show at once his astonishing power of transacting business, and his all-grasping spirit.
Page 51 - Now you will not assert, gentlemen, said I, that it is more difficult to construct a machine that shall weave, than one which shall make all the variety of moves which are required in that complicated game.
Page 274 - One of the transmitter springs I was attending to. stopped vibrating and I plucked it to start it again. It didn't start and I kept on plucking it, when suddenly I heard a shout from Bell in the next room, and then out he came with a rush, demanding, 'What did you do then ? Don't change anything. Let me see!
Page 52 - April, 1785. This being done, I then condescended to see how other people wove, and you will guess my astonishment when I compared their easy modes of operation with mine.
Page 51 - One of the company observed, that as soon as Arkwright's patent expired, so many mills would be erected, and so much cotton spun, that hands never could be found to weave it.
Page 274 - I showed him. It was very simple. The makeand-break points of the transmitter spring I was trying to start had become welded together, so that when I snapped the spring the circuit had remained unbroken while that strip of magnetized steel by its vibration over the pole of its magnet, was generating that marvelous conception of Bell's — a current of electricity that varied in intensity precisely as the air was varying in density within hearing distance of that spring.
Page 181 - I wait, I watch, I question it, begging it to recommence for me the beautiful spectacle of the first creation. But it is dumb, dumb since these experiments were begun several years ago ; it is dumb because I have kept it from the only thing man...