Astronomy, instead of merely being an amusement, became my chief study.
It occupied many of my leisure hours. Desirous of having the advantage
of a Reflecting Telescope of large aperture, I constructed one of
twenty-inches diameter. In order to avoid the personal risk and
inconvenience of having to mount to the eye-piece by a ladder,
I furnished the telescope tube with trunnions, like a cannon, with one
of the trunnions hollow so as to admit of the eye-piece. Opposite to
it a plain diagonal mirror was placed, to transmit the image to the
eye. The whole was mounted on a turn-table, having a seat opposite to
the eye-piece, as will be seen in the engraving on the other side.
[Image] "Trunnion Vision" Reflecting telescope of 20-inch diameter
mounted on a turn-table.
The observer, when seated, could direct the telescope to any part of
the heavens without moving from his seat. Although this arrangement
occasioned some loss of light, that objection was more than compensated
by the great convenience which it afforded for the prosecution of the
special class of observations in which I was engaged namely, that of
the Sun, Moon, and Planets.
I wrote to my old friend Sir David Brewster, then living at St. Andrews,
in 1849, about this improvement and he duly congratulated me upon my
devotion to astronomical science. In his letter to me he brought to
mind many precious memories.
"I recollect," he said, "with much pleasure the many happy hours that I
spent in your father's house; and ever since I first saw you in your
little workshop at Edinburgh,--then laying the foundation of your
future fortunes,--I have felt a deep interest in your success, and
rejoiced at your progress to wealth and reputation.
"I have perused with much pleasure the account you have sent me of your
plan of shortening and moving large telescopes, and I shall state to
you the opinion which I have formed of it. If you will look into the
article 'Optics' in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia (vol. xv. p. 643),
you will find an account of what has been previously done to reduce by
one-half the length of reflecting telescopes. The advantage of
substituting, as you propose, a convex for a plane mirror arises from
two causes that a spherical surface is more easily executed than a
plane one; and that the spherical aberration of the larger speculum,
if it be spherical, will be diminished by the opposite aberration of
the convex one. This advantage, however, will disappear if the plane
mirror of the old construction is accurately plane; and in your case,
if the large speculum is parabolic and the small one elliptical in
their curvature.
"The only objection to your construction is the loss of light;
first of one-fourth of the whole incident light by obstruction, and
then one-half of the remainder by reflection from the convex mirror,
thus reducing 100 rays of incident light to 37 1/2 before the pencil is
thrown out of the tube by a prism or a third reflector. This loss of
light, it is true, may be compensated by an additional inch or two to
the margin of the large speculum; but still it is the best part of the
large speculum that is made unproductive by the eclipse of it by the
convex speculum. "With regard to the mechanical contrivance which you
propose for working the instrument, I think it is singularly ingenious
and beautiful, and will compensate for any imperfection in the optical
arrangements which are rendered necessary for its adoption.
The application of the railway turn-table is very happy, and not less
so is the extraction of the image through the hollow trunnions.
"I am much obliged to you for the beautiful drawing of the apparatus
for grinding and polishing specula, invented by Mr. Lassell and
constructed by yourself. I shall be glad to hear of your further
progress in the construction of your telescope; and I trust that I
shall have the pleasure of meeting you and Mr. Lassell at the
Birmingham meeting of the British Association.
In the course of the same year (1849) I sent a model of my Trunnion
turn-table telescope for exhibition at a lecture at the Royal
Institution, given by my old friend Edward Cowper. In the model I had
placed a neat little figure of the observer, but the head had
unfortunately been broken off during its carriage to London.
Mrs. Nasmyth had made the wearing apparel; but Edward Cowper wrote to
her, before the lecture, that he had put "Sir Fireside Brick" all to
rights in respect of his garb. His letter after the lecture was quite
characteristic.
"The lecture," he said, "went off very well last night.
All the models performed their duty, and were duly applauded for doing so.
My new equatorial was approved of by astronomers and by instrument-makers.
The last gun I fired was a howitzer, but mounted swivel-gun fashion;
on a sort of revolving platform, or something like a turn-table proper
--the gunner at the side of the carriage. Do you know anything of the
kind? Bang! Invented by one Nasmyth. Bang! The observer is sitting at
ease; the stars are brought down to you instead of your creeping up a
scaffolding after the stars. Well, the folks came to the table after
the lecture, and 'The Nasmyth Telescope' kept banging away for a
quarter of an hour, and was admired by everybody. The loss of light
was not much insisted on, but it was said that you ran the risk of
error of form in three surfaces instead of two. I see that Sir J. South
states that Lord Rosse would increase the light of his telescope from
five to seven by adopting Herschel's plan.
"De La Rue was quite delighted. He said, 'Well, I congratulate you on
a most splendid lecture--I cannot call it anything else.' My father,
who takes very little interest in these things, said, 'Well, Edward has
made me understand more about telescopes than I ever did in my life.'
The theatre was full, gallery and all. They were very attentive,
and I never felt more comfortable in a lecture. I am happy to say that,
having administered a dose of cement to Mrs. Nasmyth's friend,
Sir Fireside Brick of Green Lanes, he is now in a convalescent state.
The lecture is to be repeated in another fortnight. With many thanks
for your kind assistance, yours very sincerely,
"EDWARD COWPER."
In the course of my astronomical inquiries I had occasion to consider
the causes of the sun's light. I observed the remarkable phenomena of
the variable and some times transitory brightness of the stars. In
connection with geology, there was the evidence of an arctic or glacial
climate in regions where such cannot now naturally exist; thus giving
evidence of the existence of a condition of climate, for the
explanation of which we look in vain for any at present known cause.
I wrote a paper on the subject, which I sent to the Astronomical
Society. It was read in May 1851. In that paper I wrote as follows:
"A course of observations on the solar spots, and on the remarkable
features which from time to time appear on the sun's surface, which I
have examined with considerable assiduity for several years, had in the
first place led me to entertain the following conclusion: namely, that
whatever be the nature of solar light, its main source appears to
result from an action induced on the exterior surface of solar
sphere,-- a conclusion in which I doubt not all who have attentively
pursued observations on the structure of the sun's surface will agree.
"Impressed with the correctness of this conclusion, I was led to
consider whether we might not reasonably consider the true source of
the latent element of light to reside, not in the solar orb, but in
space itself; and that the grand function and duty of the sun was to
act as an agent for bringing forth into vivid existence its due portion
of the illuminating or luciferous element, which element I suppose to
be diffused throughout the boundless regions of space, and which in
that case must be exhaustless.
Assuming, therefore, that the sun's light is the result of some
peculiar action by which it brings forth into visible existence the
element of light, which I conceive to be latent in, and diffused
throughout space, we have but to imagine the existence of a very
probable condition, namely, the unequal diffusion of this
light-yielding element, to catch a glimpse of a reason why our sun may,
in common with his solar brotherhood, in some portions of his vast
stellar orbit, have passed, and may yet have to pass, through regions
of space, in which the light-yielding element may either abound or be
deficient, and so cause him to beam forth with increased splendour,
or fade in brilliancy, just in proportion to the richness or poverty of
this supposed light-yielding element as may occur in those regions of
space through which our sun, in common with every stellar orb,
has passed, is now passing, or is destined to pass, in following up
their mighty orbits.
"Once admit that this light-yielding element resides in space, and that
it is not equally diffused, we may then catch a glimpse of the cause of
the variable and transitory brightness of stars,and more especially of
those which have been known to beam forth with such extraordinary
splendour, and have again so mysteriously faded away; many instances of
which abound in historical record.
"Finally, in reference to such a state of change having come over our
sun, as indicated by the existence of a glacial period, as is now
placed beyond doubt by geological research, it appears to me no very
wild stretch of analogy to suppose that in such former periods of the
earth's history our sun may have passed through portions of his stellar
orbit in which the light-yielding element was deficient, and in which
case his brilliancy would have suffered the while, and an arctic
climate in consequence spread from the poles towards the equator,
and thus leave the record of such a condition in glacial handwriting on
the everlasting walls of our mountain ravines, of which there is such
abundant and unquestionable evidence. As before said, it is the
existence of such facts as we have in stars of transitory brightness,
and the above named evidence of an arctic climate existing in what are
now genial climates, that renders some adequate cause to be looked for.
I have accordingly hazarded the preceding remarks as suggestive of a
cause, in the hope that the subject may receive that attention which
its deep interest entitles it to obtain.
"This view of the source of light, as respects the existence of the
luciferous element throughout space, accords with the Mosaic account of
creation, in so far as that light is described as having been created
in the first instance before the sun was called forth."
Dr Siemens read a paper before the Royal Society in March 1882,
on "A New Theory of the Sun". His views in many respects coincided
with mine.*
[footnote...
Interstellar space, according to Dr. Siemens, is filled with
attenuated matter, consisting of highly rarefied gaseous bodies--
including hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and aqueous vapour;
that these gaseous compounds are capable of being dissociated by
radiant solar energy while in a state of extreme attenuation; and that
the vapours so dissociated are drawn towards the sun in consequence of
solar rotation, are flashed into flame in the photosphere, and rendered
back into space in the condition of products of combustion.
With respect to the influence of the sun's light on geology, Dr. Siemens
says: "The effect of this continuous outpour of solar materials could
not be without very important influences as regards the geological
conditions of our earth. Geologists have long acknowledged the
difficulty of accounting for the amount of carbonic acid that must have
been in our atmosphere at one time or another in order to form with
lime those enormous beds of dolomite and limestone of which the crust
of our earth is in great measure composed. It has been calculated that
if this carbonic acid had been at one and the same time in our
atmosphere it would have caused an elastic pressure fifty times that of
our present atmosphere; and if we add the carbonic acid that must have
been absorbed in vegetation in order to form our coal-beds we should
probably have to double that pressure. Animal life, of which we had
abundant traces in these 'measures,' could not have existed under such
conditions, we are almost forced to the conclusion that the carbonic
acid must have been derived from an external source."
...]
Soon after my paper was read, Lord Murray of Henderland, an old friend,
then a Judge on the Scottish Bench, wrote to me as follows: --"I shall
be much obliged to you for a copy, if you have a spare one, of your
printed note on Light. It is expressed with great clearness and
brevity. If you wish to have a quotation for it, you may have recourse
to the blind Milton, who has expressed your views in his address to
Light: --
"'Hail, holy Light! offspring of heaven first-born
Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity--dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate!"'
About the same time Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor General of Australia,
communicated his notions on the subject. "My dear Sir," he wrote,
"Your kind and valuable communications are as welcome to me as the
sun's light, and I now thank you most gratefully for the last, with its
two enclosures. These, and especially your views as to the source of
light, afford me new scope for satisfactory thinking--a sort of
treasure one can always carry about, and, unlike other treasures,
is most valuable in the solitude of a desert. The beauty of your
theory as to the nature of the source of light is, that it rather
supports all preconceived notions respecting the soul, heaven, and an
immortal state."
I still continued the study of astronomy. The sun, moon, and planets
yielded to me an inexhaustible source of delight. I gazed at them with
increasing wonder and awe. Among the glorious objects which the
telescope reveals, the most impressive is that of the starry heavens in
a clear dark night. When I directed my 20-inch reflecting telescope
almost at random to any part of the firmament, especially to any
portion of the Milky Way, the sight of myriads of stars brought into
view within the field of the eye-piece was overpoweringly sublime.
When it is considered that every one of these stars which so
bewilderingly crowd the field of vision is, according to rational
probability, and, I might even say, absolute certainty, are Suns as
vast in magnitude as that which gives light to our globe, and yet
situated so inconceivably deep in the abyss of space as to appear
minute points of light even to the most powerful telescope, it will be
felt what a sublime subject appears before us. Turn the telescope to
any part of the heavens, it is the same.
Let us suppose ourselves perched upon the farthest star which we are
enabled to see by the aid of the most powerful telescope. There, too,
we should see countless myriads of Suns, rolling along in their
appointed orbits, and thus on and on throughout eternity. What an idea
of the limitless extent of Creative Power--filling up infinite space
with the evidences of His Almighty Presence! The human mind feels its
utter impotency in endeavouring to grasp such a subject.
I also turned my attention to the microscope. In 1851 I examined, by
the aid of this instrument, the infusoria in the Bridgewater Canal.
I found twenty-seven of them, of the most varied form, colour,
and movements. This was almost as remarkable a revelation as the
mighty phenomena of the heavens. I found these living things moving
about in the minutest drop of water. The sight of the wonderful range
of creative power--from the myriads of suns revealed by the
telescope, to the myriads of moving organisms revealed by the
microscope--filled me with unutterably devout wonder and awe.
Moreover, it seemed to me to confer a glory even upon the instruments
of human skill, which elevated man to the Unseen and the Divine.
When we examine the most minute organisms, we find clear evidence in
their voluntary powers of motion that these creatures possess a will,
and that such Will must be conveyed by a nervous system of an
infinitesimally minute description. When we follow out such a train of
thought, and contrast the myriads of suns and planets at one extreme,
with the myriads of minute organised atoms at the other, we cannot but
feel inexpressible wonder at the transcendent range of Creative Power.
Shortly after, I sent to the Royal Astronomical Society a paper on
another equally wonderful subject, "The Rotatory Movements of the
Celestial Bodies. As the paper is not very long, and as I endeavoured
to illustrate my ideas in a familiar manner, I may here give it entire:
"What first set me thinking on this subject was the endeavour to get at
the reason of why water in a basin acquires a rotatory motion when a
portion of it is allowed to escape through a hole in the bottom.
Every well-trained philosophical judgment is accustomed to observe
illustrations of the most sublime phenomena of creation in the most
minute and familiar operations of the Creator's laws, one of the most
characteristic features of which consists in the absolute and wonderful
integrity maintained in their action whatsoever be the range as to
magnitude or distance of the objects on which they operate.
"For instance, the minute particles of dew which whiten the grass-blade
in early morn are moulded into spheres by the identical law which gives
to the mighty sun its globular form!
"Let us pass from the rotation of water in a basin to the consideration
of the particles of a nebulous mass just summoned into existence by the
fiat of the Creator--the law of gravitation coexisting. "The first
moment of the existence of such a nebulous mass would be inaugurated by
the election of a centre of gravity, and, instantly after, every
particle throughout the entire mass of such nebulae would tend to and
converge towards that centre of gravity.
"Now let us consider what would be the result of this. It appears to
me that the inevitable consequence of the convergence of the particles
towards the centre of gravity of such a nebulous mass would not only
result in the formation of nucleus, but by reason of the physical
impossibility that all the converging particles should arrive at the
focus of convergence in directions perfectly radial and diametrically
opposite to each other, however slight the degree of deviation from the
absolute diametrically opposite direction in which the converging
particles coalesce at the focus of attraction, a twisting action would
result, and Rotation ensue, which, once engendered, be its intensity
ever so slight, from that instant forward the nucleus would continue to
revolve, and all the particles which its attraction would subsequently
cause to coalesce with it, would do so in directions tangential to its
surface, and not diametrically towards its centre.
"In due course of time the entire of the remaining nebulous mass would
become affected with rotation from the more rapidly moving centre, and
would assume what appears to me to be their inherent normal condition,
namely, spirality, as the prevailing character of their structure;
and as that is actually the aspect which may be said to characterise the
majority of those marvellous nebulae, as revealed to us by Lord Rosse's
magnificent telescope, I am strongly impressed with the conviction that
such reasons as I have assigned have been the cause of their spiral
aspect and arrangement.
"And by following up the same train of reasoning, it appears to me that
we may catch a glimpse of the primeval cause of the rotation of every
body throughout the regions of space, whether they be nebulae, stars,
double stars, or planetary systems.
"The primary cause of rotation which I have endeavoured to describe in
the preceding remarks is essentially cosmical, and is the direct and
immediate offspring of the action of gravitation on matter in a
diffused, nebulous, and, as such, highly mobile condition.
"It will be obvious that in the case of a nebulous mass, whose matter
is unequally distributed, that in such a case several sub-centres of
gravity would be elected, that is to say, each patch of nebulous matter
would have its own centre of gravity; but these in their turn
subordinate to that of the common centre of gravity of the whole
system, about which all such outlaying parts would revolve.
Each of the portions above alluded to would either be attracted by the
superior mass, and pass in towards it as a wisp of nebulous matter,
or else establish perfect individual and distinct rotation within
itself, and finally revolve about the great common centre of gravity of
the whole.
"Bearing this in mind, and referring to some of the figures of the
marvellous spiral nebulae which Lord Rosse's telescope has revealed to
us, I shall now bring these suggestions to a conclusion.
I have avoided expanding them to the extent I feel the subject to be
worthy and capable of; but I trust such as I have offered will be
sufficient to convey a pretty clear idea of my views on this sublime
subject, which I trust may receive the careful consideration its nature
entitles it to. Let any one carefully reflect on the reason why water
assumes a rotatory motion when a portion of it is permitted to escape
from an aperture in the bottom of the circular vessel containing it;
if they will do so in the right spirit, I am fain to think they will
arrive at the same conclusion as the contemplation of this familiar
phenomenon has brought me to.
" BRIDGEWATER FOUNDARY, June 7, 1855."
I was present at a meeting of the Geological Society at Manchester in
1853, in the discussions of which I took part.
I was much impressed by an address of the Rev. Dr. Vaughan
(then Principal of the Independent College at Manchester), which is as
interesting now as it was then. After referring to the influence which
geological changes had produced upon the condition of nations, and the
moral results which oceans, mountains, islands, and continents have had
upon the social history of man, he went on to say: "Is not this island
of ours indebted to these great causes? Oh, that blessed geological
accident that broke up a strait between Calais and Dover! It looks but
a little thing; it was a matter to take place; but how mighty the moral
results upon the condition and history of this country, and, through
this country's influence, upon humanity! Bridge over the space between,
and you have directly the huge continental barrack-yard system all over
England. And once get into the condition of a great continental
military power, and you get the arbitrary power; you cramp down the
people, and you unfit them from being what they ought to be--FREE And
all the good influences together at work in this country could not have
secured us against this, but for that blessed separation between this
Isle and the Continent."
In 1853 I was appointed a member of the Small Arms Committee for the
purpose of re-modelling and, in fact, re-establishing the Small Arms
Factory at Enfield. The wonderful success of the needle gun in the war
between Prussia and Denmark in 1848 occasioned some alarm amongst our
military authorities as to the state of affairs at home. The Duke of
Wellington to the last proclaimed the sufficiency of "Brown Bess" as a
weapon of offence and defence; but matters could no longer be deferred.
The United States Government, though possessing only a very small
standing army, had established at Springfield a small arms factory,
where, by the use of machine tools specially designed to execute with
the most unerring precision all the details of muskets and rifles,
they were enabled to dispense with mere manual dexterity, and to
produce arms to any amount. It was finally determined to improve the
musketry and rifle systems of the English army. The Government
resolved to introduce the American system, by which Arms might be
produced much more perfectly, and at a great diminution of cost.
It was under such circumstances that the Small Arms Committee was
appointed.
Colonel Colt had brought to England some striking examples of the
admirable machine tools used at Springfield, and he established a
manufactory at Pimlico for the production of his well-known revolvers.
The committee resolved to make a personal visit to the United States
Factory at Springfield. My own business engagements at home prevented
me accompanying the members who were selected; but as my friend John
Anderson (now Sir John), acted as their guide, the committee had in him
a most able and effective helper. He directed their attention to the
most important and available details of that admirable establishment.
The United States Government acted most liberally in allowing the
committee to obtain every information on the subject; and the heads of
the various departments, who were intelligent and zealous, rendered
them every attention and civility.
The members of the mission returned home enthusiastically delighted
with the results of their inquiry.The committee immediately proceeded
with the entire re-modelling of the Small Arms Factory at Enfield.
The workshops were equipped with a complete series of special machine
tools, chiefly obtained from the Springfield factory.
The United States Government also permitted several of their best and
workman and superintendents to take service under the English Government.
Such was the origin of the Enfield rifle. The weapon came as near to
absolute perfection as possible, It was perfect in action, durable and
excellent in every respect even in it's conversion to the breechloader
it is still one of the best weapons. It is impossible to give too much
praise to Sir John Anderson and Colonel Dixon for the untiring and
intelligent zeal with which they carried out the plans, as well as for
the numerous improvements which they introduced. These have rendered
the Enfield Small Arms Factory one of the most perfect and best
regulated establishments in the kingdom.