_July 1852._
When we shall have a constant supply of pure water--a complete system
of efficient and innoxious sewers--a service of street hydrants--when
the Thames shall cease to be the _cloaca maxima_, are questions to
which, however seriously asked, it is not easy to get an answer. Add
to these grievances, the delay of proper regulations for abolishing
intramural interments, and the fact that Smithfield is not to be
removed further than Copenhagen Fields--a locality already surrounded
with houses--and it will occasion no surprise that the authorities are
treated with anything but compliments.
The laying down of an under-sea telegraph wire across the Irish
Channel, may be taken as a new instance of the indifference consequent
on familiarity. When the line was laid from Dover to Calais, the whole
land rang with the fact; but now the sinking of a wire three times the
length, in a channel three times the width, excites scarcely a remark,
and seems to be looked on as a matter of course. The wire, which is
eighty miles in length, is said to weigh eighty tons. It was payed out
and sunk from the deck of the _Britannia_, at the rate of from three
to five miles an hour, and was successfully laid, from Holyhead to
Howth, in from twelve to fifteen hours; and now a message may be
flashed from Trieste to Galway in a period brief enough to satisfy the
most impatient. The means of travel to the East, too, are becoming
tangible in the Egyptian railway, of which some thirty miles are in a
state of forwardness, besides which a hotel is to be built at Thebes;
so that travellers, no longer compelled to bivouac in the desert, will
find a teeming larder and well-aired beds in the land of the Sphinxes.
And, better still, among a host of beneficial reforms to take place in
our Customs' administration, there is one which provides that the
baggage of travellers arriving in the port of London shall be examined
as they come up the river, instead of being sent to the Custom-house.
By a report of the Astronomer-royal to the Board of Visitors, who have
lately made their annual inspection of the Greenwich Observatory, we
are informed, of a singular fact, that observations of the pole-star
shew that its position varies some three or four seconds on repeating
the observations at intervals of a few months, and this
notwithstanding the extreme accuracy of the transit circle. The only
explanation which can as yet be given for this phenomenon is, that the
earth, solid as it appears, is liable to slight occasional movements
or oscillations.
We shall know, in a few weeks, the result of the telegraphic
correspondence with the Observatory at Paris--one interesting point
being, as to whether the respective longitudes, as at present
determined, will be verified by the galvanic test. Besides which,
Greenwich time is to be sent every day to London, where a pole, with a
huge sliding-ball, has been fixed on the top of the Telegraph Office,
near Charing Cross. This ball is to be made to descend at one o'clock
simultaneously with the well-known ball which surmounts the
Observatory; and thus scientific inquirers--to say nothing of the
crowds who will daily throng the footways of the Strand to witness the
downcome--will be informed of the true time, while, by means of the
wires, it may be flashed to all parts of the kingdom.
The lecture with which Professor Faraday wound up the course at the
Royal Institution may be mentioned here, seeing that it adds somewhat
to our knowledge of the theory and phenomena of magnetism. As usual,
the lecture-room was crowded; and those who could not understand, had
at least the satisfaction of being able to say they were present. Mr
Faraday, who, enlarging upon his view, announced, a short time since,
that there are such things as magnetic lines of force, now contends
that these lines have a 'physical character'--a point most
satisfactorily proved by sundry experiments during the lecture. The
inquiry is one, as Mr Faraday observes, on the 'very edge of science,'
trenching on the bounds of speculation; but such as eminently to
provoke research. The phenomena, he says, 'lead on, by deduction and
correction, to the discovery of new phenomena; and so cause an
increase and advancement of real physical truth, which, unlike the
hypothesis that led to it, becomes fundamental knowledge, not subject
to change.' A chief point of discussion to which the investigations
have led is: Whether the phenomena of what we call gravity may not be
resolvable into those of magnetism--a force acting at a distance, or
by lines of power. 'There is one question,' continues Mr Faraday, 'in
relation to gravity, which, if we could ascertain or touch it, would
greatly enlighten us. It is, whether gravitation requires _time_. If
it did, it would shew undeniably that a physical agency existed in the
course of the line of force. It seems equally impossible to prove or
disprove this point; since there is no capability of suspending,
changing, or annihilating the power (gravity), or annihilating the
matter in which the power resides.' The lines of magnetic force may
have 'a separate existence,' but as yet we are unable to tell whether
these lines 'are analogous to those of gravitation, acting at a
distance; or whether, having a physical existence, they are more like
in their nature to those of electric induction or the electric
current.' Mr Faraday inclines at present to the latter view. He
'affirms' the lines of magnetic force from actual experiment, and
'advocates' their physical nature 'chiefly with a view of stating the
question of their existence; and though,' he adds, 'I should not have
raised the argument unless I had thought it both important and likely
to be answered ultimately in the affirmative, I still hold the opinion
with some hesitation, with as much, indeed, as accompanies any
conclusion I endeavour to draw respecting points in the very depths of
science--as, for instance, one, two, or no electric fluids; or the
real nature of a ray of light; or the nature of attraction, even that
of gravity itself; or the general nature of matter.' These are
profound views; but we may reasonably conclude, that, however obscure
they may at present appear, they will in time be cleared up and
further developed by the gifted philosopher from whom they emanate.
Of minor matters which have been more or less talked about, there is
the Library for the Working-Classes, just opened in the parish of St
Martin-in-the-Fields--a praiseworthy example for other parishes, but
not to be followed unless the readers actually exist, and manifest the
sort of want which books alone can satisfy. A suggestion has been
made, to use for books in hot climates, where paper is liable to rapid
decay, the sheet-iron exhibited at Breslau, which is as thin and
pliant as paper, and can be produced at the rate of more than 7000
feet to the hundredweight. This would be something new in the
application of metal. Metallurgy generally is being further
investigated by Leonhard of Heidelberg, who has just called on
manufacturers to aid him in his researches, by sending him specimens
of scoriæ, particularly of those which are crystallised. Then there is
Mr Hesketh's communication to the Institute of British Architects, 'On
the Admission of Daylight into Buildings, particularly in the Narrow
and Confined Localities of Towns;' in which, after shewing that the
proportion of light admitted to buildings is generally inadequate to
their cubical contents, and means for estimating the numerical value
of that which really does enter, he states that the defect may be
remedied by the use of reflectors, contrived so as to be 'neither
obstructive nor unsightly.' He explains, that 'a single reflector may
generally be placed on either the outside or inside of a window or
skylight, so as to throw the light from the (perhaps small) portion of
sky which remains unobscured overhead, to any part in which more light
is required.' Such difficulties of position or construction as present
themselves, 'may be overcome in almost every case, by, as it were,
cutting up the single reflector into strips, and arranging them one
above the other, either in the reveal of the window, or in some other
part where it will not interfere with ventilation, or the action of
the sashes.' This is adopting the principle on which improved
lighthouse reflectors are constructed; and we are told, that 'the
combinations may be arranged horizontally, vertically, or obliquely,
according to the positions of the centre of the unobscured portion of
sky, and of the part into which the light is to be thrown, and
according to the shape of the opening in which the combination is to
be placed.' As a case in point, it was mentioned that a reflector 'had
been fitted to a vault (at the Depôt Wharf, in the Borough) ninety-six
feet in depth from front to back. The area into which the window opens
is a semicircle, with a heavy iron-grating over it; and the result is,
that small print can be easily read at the far end of the vault.' It
is a fact worth knowing, that reflectors may be so constructed as to
throw all the available daylight into any required direction; and in
one instance the reflector may be made to serve at the same time as a
dwarf venetian window-blind. Instead of wooden splats or laths, flat
glass tubes or prisms are used, fitted into the usual framework, and
these being silvered on the inside, throw all the light that falls on
them into the room, when placed at the proper angle.
Again, the possibility of locomotion without the aid of steam is
talked about, and the New Yorkers are said to be about to send over a
large ship driven by Ericsson's caloric engine, which is to prove as
powerful as vapour at one-half of the cost--a fact of which we shall
be better able to judge when the vessel really arrives. Then, looking
across the Channel, we find the Abbé Moigno proposing to construct and
establish a relief model of Europe in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris,
of a size to cover several acres, and with the railways of iron, and
the rivers of water, by which means one of the most interesting and
instructive of sights would be produced, and the attractions of the
Trench capital greatly increased. A desirable project--but the cost!
The Montyon prize of 2000 francs has been awarded to M. Mosson, for
his method of drying and preserving vegetables for long sea voyages,
as published a few months ago. M. Naudin states, that a certain kind
of furze or thistle, of which cattle are very fond, may be made to
grow without thorns--an important consideration, seeing that at
present, before it can be used as food, it has to undergo a laborious
beating, to crush and break the prickles with which it is covered. As
the plant thrives best on poor soils, which might otherwise lie
useless, the saving of this labour will be a great benefit to the
French peasantry; and the more so, as it appears the plant will grow
in its new state from seed. M. Naudin believes, that the condition of
other vegetable productions may be varied at pleasure, and promises to
lay his views shortly before the Académie. M. Lecoq, director of the
Botanical Garden at Claremont, informs the same body of something
still more extraordinary, in a communication, entitled 'Two Hundred,
Five Hundred, or even a Thousand new Vegetables, created _ad
libitum_.' Having been struck by the fact, that the ass so often feeds
upon the thistle, he took some specimens of that plant, and, by
careful experiment, has succeeded in producing for the table 'a
savoury vegetable, with thorns of the most inoffensive and flexible
sort.' Whatever be the kind of thistle, however hard and sharp its
thorns, he has tamed and softened them all, his method of
transformation being, as he says, none other than exposing the plants
to different influences of light. Those which grew unsheltered, he
places in the dark, and _vice versâ_. Familiar examples are given in
the celery, of which the acrid qualities are removed by keeping off
the light; while the pungency of cress, parsley, &c., is increased by
exposure to the sun. M. Lecoq has not yet detailed all his
experiments; but he asserts that, before long, some of our commonest
weeds, owing to his modifications, will become as highly esteemed as
peas or asparagus. Let him shew that his process is one that admits of
being applied cheaply and on a large scale, and he will not fail of
his reward.