which he owes, perhaps, most of his reputation. He had been engaged
for nearly a year and a half in making a survey of the heavens, when,
on the evening of the day that has been mentioned, having turned his
reflector (an excellent seven feet reflector of his own constructing)
to a particular part of the sky, he observed among the other stars one
which seemed to shine with a more steady radiance than those around it;
and on account of that and other peculiarities in its appearance, which
excited his suspicions, he determined to observe it more narrowly. On
reverting to it after some hours, he was a good deal surprised to find
that it had perceptibly changed its place--a fact which the next day
became more indisputable. At first he was somewhat in doubt whether
or not it was the same star which he had seen on these different
occasions; but, after continuing his observations for a few days
longer, all uncertainty upon that head vanished. He now communicated
what he had observed to the astronomer royal, who concluded the
luminary could be nothing else than a new comet. Continued observation
of it, however, for a few months, dissipated this error; and it became
evident that it was in reality a hitherto undiscovered planet. This new
world so unexpectedly found to form a part of the system to which our
own belongs, received from Herschel, the name of the _Georgium Sidus_,
or Georgian Star, in honour of the King of England; but by continental
astronomers it has been more generally called either _Herschel_, after
its discoverer, or _Uranus_. Subsequent observations, made chiefly by
Herschel himself, have ascertained many particulars regarding it, some
of which are well calculated to fill us with astonishment at the powers
of the sublime science which can wing its way so far into the immensity
of space, and bring us back information so precise and various. In
the first place, the diameter of this new globe has been found to be
nearly four and a half times larger than that of our own. Its size
altogether is about eighty times that of our earth. Its year is as long
as eighty-three of ours.
Its distance from the sun is nearly eighteen hundred millions of miles,
or more than nineteen times that of the earth. Its density, as compared
with that of the earth, is nearly as twenty-two to one hundred; so
that its entire weight is more than eighteen times that of our planet.
Finally the force of gravitation near its surface is such, that falling
bodies descend only through fourteen feet during the first second,
instead of thirty-two feet as with us. Herschel afterwards discovered
no fewer than six satellites, or moons, belonging to his new planet.
The announcement of the discovery of the Georgium Sidus at once made
Herschel’s name universally known. In the course of a few months the
king bestowed on him a pension of three hundred pounds a year, that
he might be able entirely to relinquish his engagements at Bath; and
upon this he came to reside at Slough, near Windsor. He now devoted
himself entirely to science; and the construction of telescopes, and
observations of the heavens, continued to form the occupations of the
remainder of his life. Astronomy is indebted to him for many other most
interesting discoveries besides the celebrated one of which we have
just given an account, as well as a variety of speculations of the most
ingenious, original, and profound character. But of these we cannot
here attempt any detail. He also introduced some important improvements
into the construction of the reflecting telescope--beside continuing
to fabricate that instrument of dimensions greatly exceeding any that
had been formerly attempted, with the powers surpassing in nearly a
corresponding degree, what had ever been before obtained. The largest
telescope which he ever made, was his famous one of forty feet long,
which he erected at Slough for the king. It was begun about the end
of the year 1785, and on the 28th of August, 1789, the enormous tube
was poised on the complicated but ingeniously contrived mechanism by
which its movements were to be regulated, and ready for use. On the
same day a new satellite of Saturn was detected by it, being the sixth
which had been observed attendant upon that planet. A seventh was
afterwards discovered by means of the same instrument. This telescope
has been taken down and replaced by another of only half the length,
constructed by Mr. J. Herschel, the distinguished son of the subject
of our present sketch. Herschel himself eventually became convinced
that no telescope could surpass, in magnifying power, one of from
twenty to twenty-five feet in length. The French astronomer, Lalande,
states that he was informed by George III. himself, that it was at his
desire that Herschel was induced to make the telescope at Slough of the
extraordinary length he did, his own wish being that it should not be
more than thirty feet long.
So extraordinary was the ardour of this great astronomer in the study
of his favourite science, that for many years it has been asserted,
he never was in bed at any hour during which the stars were visible.
And he made almost all his observations, whatever was the season of
the year, not under cover, but in his garden, in the open air--and
generally without an attendant. There was much that was peculiar to
himself, not only in the process by which he fabricated his telescopes,
but also in his manner of using them. One of the attendants in the
king’s observatory at Richmond, who had formerly been a workman in
Ramsden’s establishment, was forcibly reminded, on seeing Herschel
take an observation, of a remark which his old master had made.
Having just completed one of his best telescopes, Ramsden, addressing
himself to his workman, said, “This, I believe, is the highest degree
of perfection we opticians by profession will ever arrive at; if any
improvement of importance shall ever after this be introduced in the
making of telescopes, it will be by some one who has not been taught by
us.”
Some years before his death, the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon
Herschel by the University of Oxford; and in 1816, the Prince Regent
bestowed upon him the Hanoverian and Guelphic Order of Knighthood. He
died on the 23rd of August, 1822, when he was within a few months of
having completed his eighty-fourth year.
We have been thus particular in the enumeration of particulars in the
lives of those great men, who have cultivated this sublime science,
for the purpose of availing ourselves of a suggestion furnished by Dr.
Priestly, who observed, “That we could only see Newton in two points of
his career: at the bottom of the ladder, and at the top; having left no
account of his progress, it appeared as though he had broken the steps
by which he had ascended, that none should follow.”
From the facts collected by the many eminent men whose names have
ornamented our pages, we are enabled to state the following particulars
concerning that part of the universe denominated the Solar system.
The _Sun_, a luminous body diffusing light and heat; whose diameter
is computed at 890,000 miles; diurnal rotation on axis 25 days 6
hours; performs his annual revolution in orbit in 365 days 6 hours;
progressive equatorial motion in orbit per hour, 3818 miles.
_Mercury_, whose diameter is 3,000 miles, revolves in an orbit
36,481,448 miles from that of the sun. He performs his annual period
round that planet in 87 days 23 hours; his hourly equatorial motion in
orbit is 109,699 miles.
_Venus_,--her diameter is 9,330 miles; revolves in an orbit 68,891,486
miles distant from the sun; performs her annual revolution in 224 days
17 hours; diurnal rotation on axis 24 days 8 hours: hourly equatorial
motion in orbit 80,295 miles.
The _Earth_,--its diameter 7970 miles; distance of orbit from the sun
95,173,000 miles; revolves on its axis once in 24 hours; performs her
annual period round the sun in the same time the sun completes his
revolution; hourly equatorial and progressive motion in orbit 80,295
miles.
The _Moon_ is a satellite to the earth; her diameter is 2180 miles; her
diurnal rotation on axis is performed in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes;
she performs her annual revolution round the sun in precisely the same
time as does the earth, her superior planet; her motion in orbit per
hour is 22,290 miles.
_Mars_,--his diameter is 5400 miles; distance from the sun, 145,014,148
miles; annual period round the sun 671 days, 17 hours; diurnal rotation
on axis 19 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes; hourly motion in orbit 55,287
miles.
_Jupiter_,--his diameter 94,000 miles; distance from the sun
494,990,976 miles; annual period in 11 years, 314 days, 18 hours;
diurnal rotation on axis 9 hours, 56 minutes; hourly motion in orbit
29,803 miles.
_Saturn_,--his diameter 78,000 miles; distance from the sun 907,956,130
miles; annual revolution in orbit 22 years, 167 days, 6 hours; hourly
motion in orbit 22,101 miles.
It should be observed that Jupiter has four moons, or satellites, with
a large and very luminous belt at a great distance from his surface.
Saturn also has seven moons, with a very luminous ring about 21,000
miles broad, from its uppermost to its undermost edge; and about the
same distance from its surface.
_Georgium Sidus_,--the distance of the orbit from the sun,
1,758,000,000 miles; annual revolution 28 years, 289 days; diameter
56,726 miles; has two satellites, or moons.
About 1801, 2, and 4, there were discovered three other small planets
in the system of the sun, called _Vesta_, _Juno_, and _Pallas_.
The fixed stars composing the _Zodiacal Signs_, are divided into twelve
constellations, one to each month; which asterisms were discovered by
Flamstead to consist of the following number of stars to each:
_Aries_, the Ram, 66; _Taurus_, the Bull, 141; _Gemini_, the Twins, 85;
_Cancer_, the Crab, 83; _Leo_, the Lion, 95; _Virgo_, the Virgin, 110;
_Libra_, the Scales, 51; _Scorpio_, the Scorpion, 44; _Sagitarius_, the
Archer, 69; _Capricornus_, the Goat, 51; _Aquarius_, the Water-Carrier,
108; _Pisces_, the Fishes, 113.
A comparative idea of the extent of the works of Omnipotence may be
perhaps collected, on our being informed, that the sphere where the
fixed stars appear, is presumed to be placed far beyond the most remote
planetary orbit; and that some of them are supposed to serve as suns to
illumine other systems, or worlds, to us unknown.
NAVIGATION.
The sacred records inform us that the ark of Noah was the first ship,
and produced by the invention of the great Architect of Nature himself;
and “though some men have so believed,” says the learned and ingenious
Sir Walter Raleigh, in his “History of the World,” “yet it is certain
the world was planted before the flood, which could not be performed
without some transporting vessels. It is true, and the success has
proved that there was not any so capacious, nor any so strong, as to
defend themselves against so violent and so continued a pouring down of
rain, as the ark of which Noah was the builder, from the invention of
God himself. Of what fashion or fabric soever were the rest, with all
men they perished according to the ordinance of God.” And it appears
extremely probable that those testimonials, whereof Ovid speaks of
former existence, were remains of ships wrecked at the general flood.
There can be no question that the Syrians were the first maritime power
in the world, as well in point of time as importance;--but of what
species of construction their vessels were, we are not informed. Their
merchants trading to the Eastern Indies, as they did for Solomon; to
Ophir, whence they brought gold; and also to this country for tin, and
their having made three distinct descents upon America, will enable us
to maintain this our opinion. After them the Greeks, a people living
chiefly on the shores of the Hellespont and Ægean seas, with many
islands in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Archipelagion Seas, besides
their possessions in Asia Minor, and their commerce with the European
Continent, obtained the next power by sea. We read indeed, that Minos,
the famous Cretan sovereign and legislator, who lived two descents
before the Trojan war, sent out shipping to free the Grecian seas of
pirates; which shows, as Sir Walter Raleigh ingeniously infers, that
there had been trade and war upon the waters before his time also.
The next in point of time and importance on record was the highly
renowned expedition of the Argonauts for the golden fleece to Colchis,
a country of Asia, on the Euxine sea. Immediately after this was the
colonization of Cyrene, in Africa, by Battus, one of the companions
of Jason, in his Colchian expedition. Shortly afterwards, the Grecian
states united against Phrygian treachery and the abuse of Grecian
hospitality; forming another most memorable epoch in the history of the
world. We are informed the Grecian Neptune, or as mythology styles him
a God of the Saturnian family, for the great service he did his father,
Saturn, or Noah, against the Titans, had the seas given to him. History
informs us that the first inventor of rowing vessels was a citizen
of Corinth; and likewise that the first naval war was between the
Samians and Corcyrians. The history of Ithicus, translated into Latin
by St. Jerome, affirms that Griphon, the Scythian, was the inventor
of long-boats; and Strabo also gives the honour of the invention of
the anchor to another Scythian, the famous Anacharsis, whilst Greece
herself by her historians, ascribes its invention to Eupolemus. Also,
it is said, that Icarus invented the sail, and others, various other
pieces of the component parts of ships and boats. The specification of
such other imperfect memoirs, many of fabulous appearance, may be of no
great importance.
It appears certain that among the four sons of Javan, the son of
Japhet, the grandson, and other the posterity of Noah, who peopled
the “Isles of the Gentiles,” the Grecian Islands must long before the
days of Minos have used those seas, from the insular nature of their
inhabitants. And it certainly does not appear extravagant to us, to
presume that this people were among the first who navigated the seas.
Mankind in various parts of the world, being stimulated by the same
necessities, urged by the same wants, and possessing the same means,
might probably produce similar inventions to each other. Most, indeed,
had occasion to navigate lakes, and cross rivers. They accordingly
constructed such machines as would answer their purpose of passage or
migration. So were rafts and canoes, formed of canes, osiers, twigs,
&c., where they grew, which they fashioned like boats, and then
covered with skins of various animals; others formed rafts of wood;
whilst some others fashioned canoes, having hollowed out trees for that
purpose. One way or other, each people thus possessed a marine, proper
for their purpose it is true, but in various degrees of excellence.
This was the case with Greeks as well as barbarians of all nations;
all these people, excepting the immediate descendants of Noah, might,
perhaps, lay a feasible claim to the honour of the original invention
of these articles; and, having never seen such, they virtually have
each a good title to the distinction. Indeed, many of them might have
taken the idea for such invention from the policy of certain animals,
and the nature of others; to instance the sagacity of the beaver and
his raft, and the little nautilus with his swelling sail: hence they
might have adopted from that animal, and that piscatory insect, the
idea of a raft, and also of a vessel with a sail.
In latter days we find the Teutonic Saxons first came to this country,
according to Mr. Turner, the Anglo-Saxon historian, in vessels they
called _cyules-kells_ by Sir Walter Raleigh. Marine vessels have borne
a variety of names, as well as of numerous figures, from the gondola of
the Venetian to the canoe of the Esquimaux,--the British man-of-war to
the ponderous bonaventure in which the Doge annually espouses the sea.
All those nations, too, through whose hands the maritime power has
passed, from time to time, as they have been instructed by experience,
or taught by necessity, might repeatedly have made additions and
improvements in naval architecture: some calculated for mercantile
utility, while others have only attended to warlike strength, and some
to answer both purposes, like our Indiamen. But now, the British navy,
being supplied with the best materials, and having as ingenious workmen
as any, with the addition of the warlike children of the soil, may
openly defy all nations, and proudly claim the sovereignty of the seas
where her flag has been flying ’midst the battle and the breeze for so
many years.
But the most important improvement in Navigation--propelling vessels
by steam--has been left to our own times. The steam-engine was first
applied to small vessels for the coasting or river trade; but it has
now increased to vessels of the largest size,--in fact, the most
part of the British navy are steamships. In former times before the
introduction of this valuable auxiliary, the passage between England
and America was tedious and uncertain, sometimes taking months, but
rarely less than from four to six weeks, according to the state of
the weather; but now the case is altered. There are a regular line of
steamships, one of which leaves Liverpool every week, and the voyage
is performed with almost positive certainty in from twelve to fourteen
days, independent of the rude Boreas, or the boisterous Atlantic.
These vessels are of the largest size and handsomely fitted up for the
accommodation of passengers.
LIGHT-HOUSES.
A light-house, in marine architecture, is a building, or watch-tower,
erected on the sea-shore, to serve as a land-mark to mariners, on a low
coast, by day, and, in any situation, to inform them of their approach
to land in the night;--being of most essential utility in causing them
to take soundings, avoid shoals, rocks, &c.; or else it is a building
erected on a rock in the sea, which, from its situation, would be
extremely dangerous to vessels, were not some intimation given of the
existence of a rock, where it is locally situated. Of this latter
description is the celebrated Eddystone light-house, off Plymouth.
Although this species of architecture is not likely to have been
so general in extreme antiquity, because it could not have been
essentially necessary to any except to those nations who, from the
proximity of their situation to the coast, or other circumstances,
pursued maritime concerns; or to those whose connexions rendered the
encouragement of the marine of other nations important.
The oldest building of this description, which we believe to be upon
record, is the famous Pharos erected on the Egyptian coast, which,
being very low land, and exposed entirely to the almost constant west
winds coming up the Mediterranean from the vast Atlantic, must, of
necessity, have made the port of modern Alexandria, anciently called
Dalmietta, very dangerous. It was originally erected by Ptolemy
Philadelphus, for the encouragement and convenience of the Phœnicians,
who were accounted the foreign factors of that empire; as the Egyptians
possessed an unconquerable aversion to the sea, and therefore they
never obtained its sovereignty: whilst the former people were the first
who obtained the supremacy of that sea.
The island upon which Pharos stood, in the time of Homer, in his simple
geography and estimation, was said to be one day’s sail from the
Delta; whereas, since the foundation of Alexandria, it was only a mile
in distance, and was even joined to the mainland by a mole, having a
bridge at each end; or according to some authors, in the middle. The
tower was, if report be true, justly entitled to the appellation it
obtained--one of the seven wonders of the world; and it is reported,
that the light from it has been seen at the distance of a hundred
miles; which, assuredly, appears improbable, because the convexity of
the earth, we think, would not permit. Its height must have been, at
least, 2,400 feet, or 800 yards from the base.
We are enabled to furnish the following particulars of this famous
structure. It was built by order of that patron of learning and the
arts, Ptolemy Philadelphus, by that eminent architect, Sostrates, who
constructed many of the public buildings in Alexandria. It is said
to have cost Ptolemy eight hundred talents! Respecting its mode of
construction, it was raised several stories one above another; each
was decorated with columns, balustrades, and galleries of the finest
marble and most exquisite workmanship; and some have even said that
the architect had furnished the galleries with large mirrors, by which
shipping could be seen at a great distance. However, respecting this
edifice, once so famous, that its very name, Pharos, was considered
as a common term for all other constructions for the same purpose, it
is now said, from Saracenic ignorance and brutality, aided, perhaps,
by the assistance of the common leveller, Time, that nothing now
remains of this once elegant edifice, but an unsightly tower rising
out of a heap of ruins, the whole being accommodated to the inequality
of the ground on which it stands, and being, at present, no higher
than that which it should command. Such as it is, there is now a
light, we understand, usually maintained. There is also an island,
which was called Pharos, in the Adriatic sea, on the coast of Italy,
opposite Brundusium, for the same reason: likewise the celebrated
colossal statue of Apollo, at Rhodes, answered the same purpose, and
occasionally had the same appellation, as had a river of Asia, in the
environs of Cilicia and the Euphrates. This last consideration brings
us to the etymology of the word, as Ozanum says, “Pharos originally
signified a strait, as the Pharos of Messina.” Of every description of
light-houses yet known, there is none more famous than that called
Eddystone, with a description of which we shall conclude this article.
Mr. Winstanley’s light-house was begun upon the Eddystone rock in
1696, and was more than four years in building, from the numerous
interruptions of the wind and the element he had to contend with, the
violence whereof is truly alarming, occasioned by that rock being
exposed to every wind which comes up the vast Atlantic, and that
tumultuous sea, the Bay of Biscay. These obstacles were considerably
increased by the shape of the rock itself, having a regular slope
to S.W., and from the very deep sea in its vicinity, it, therefore,
receives the uncontrolled fury of those seas: meeting with no other
object whereon to break their vehement force, the effect is so great
at high water with a S.W. wind, which continues for many days, though
a calm may have succeeded, the violent action of the waters has not
ceased, but break frightfully on Eddystone. An engraving of Mr.
Winstanley’s light-house was published at the period of its erection,
from which it appears to have been a stone tower of twelve sides,
rising forty-four feet above the highest point of the rock, which, in
the dimensions on which it was built, twenty-four feet in diameter, was
ten feet lower on one side than it was upon the other; at the top was
a balustrade and platform; upon this were erected eight pillars, which
supported a dome of the same dimensions as the tower; from the top of
which arose an octagon tower, of a diameter of fifteen feet, and seven
in height. On the summit was placed the lantern, ten feet in diameter,
and twelve in height: it had a gallery surrounding it, which gave
access to the windows. The whole was surrounded by fencible iron-work.
The entry was by a solid stone door at the bottom; the whole building
was of the same material, except the aperture for the staircase. At the
bottom was a room twelve feet high for a store-room; the next story
was of the same height, which was the stateroom; and the third was of
a similar height, which was the kitchen. Those compartments occupied
the whole height to the platform. The dome above this contained the
lodging-room; the octagon above it, the look-out.