Chapter LX Some Curious Modes of Transit
We have already noticed some novel means of locomotion in the water and in the air, and now a few of the means whereby locomotion is attained as a recreation or as an exhibition may be mentioned.
For instance, here is a very curious vehicle, and the explanation of it we give in the words of the anonymous inventor:—
“My vehicle will carry four people without counting the driver. It is strong, easy to draw, and can turn in a horse’s length. The driver completely controls the animal, and no dust is thrown up to inconvenience the sitters, for by the time it rises the car is well in advance of it. It is cheap; the harness is simple and safe. The horse is sheltered from heat and rain and flies. If he should fall, there is no more than ordinary danger to life and limb than if he fell in a carriage; and, last of all, no very showy animal is needed, so long as his wind is sound, and his legs and tail respectable. Travellers in this “trap” can sit in any position, back to back, or face to face, two and two. The weight is all near the collar, and the animal is under control most perfectly.
“The estimated cost is £40; the horse about £40, or less; harness (say), £7, which contrasts favourably with the expenses of an ordinary one horse vehicle.”
Endless Rails.
These adjuncts to locomotion can be adapted to any kind of vehicle, and are in pieces about two feet long, articulated, and resting upon a base to give the necessary stability. The endless rail entirely envelopes the wheels all along the train, and the right and left rails are quite independent of each other, and as the vehicles advance the rails are put down and raised again when the carriages have passed. In front there are two distributing wheels governed by the tractive power, so that as the engine, or the animal drawing the train turns aside, the rails are still laid down parallel as before, but the hind wheels will not permit of very sharp curves.
There are wheels also at the rear of the train, and as on curves one wheel will pass over more rail than another, and in the hinder wheels a differential arrangement is used, and when one goes back the other advances as much, and so the relative distance is kept up, for the rail does not alter in length at all. The wheels have double flanges to retain them on the line.
The system, considered from a mechanical point of view, gives striking results, and very little effort is required to put the train in motion. The resistance is very small, and much greater weights can, of course, be transported upon the endless rail than upon the ordinary road.
The experiment has been tried in the Tuilleries Gardens in Paris. Three carriages filled with children are drawn by two goats without any fatigue, and in the ordinary goat carriages at least twelve of the animals would be necessary—that is, four to each carriage. The economy of this mode of transport is therefore incontestable. The usual rate is about three-and-a-half to four miles an hour, so it is not adapted for travellers, but for merchandise.
The system might be applied to numerous vehicles on all kinds of roads for horses and oxen, in mines and factories, and in colonial plantations. M. Ader, the inventor, intended the system to be applied in the Landes, where the rails would lie close upon the sandy soil, and the expense of “metalling” roads would be entirely done away with. The adoption of the endless rail method of conveyance would prove a fortune to the Landes, where pine forests abound, and the wood and resin which is lost for want of transport could be removed and sold to advantage.
The endless rail may also be used upon the ordinary road in places where the highways are out of repair.
The picture (fig. 904) shows us the Nina, the tiniest steamer afloat. The keel is somewhat over twelve feet in length, and about three feet wide, the depth of water ten inches. A speed of about five-and-a-half miles an hour can be obtained with a pressure of one hundred pounds. It is a twin-screw “ship” with propellers of three blades. The Nina was built on the lines of the Nautilus, of cedar and oak, and coppered. It is stated to be a marvel of solidity and lightness. The chimney is movable, and can be lowered at pleasure if a bridge be too low. There is ample room for provisions for the occupant in a frame which can be attached to the sides or fixed astern. The boat is easily carried in sections, and can be transported easily from place to place.
The weights of the various portions are as follows:—The hull 90 lb., boiler 80 lb., engine 25 lb., machinery 20 lb.; total, 215 lb. Forty pounds of good charcoal can be packed into the sides of the boat in racks. The rudder can be so connected by wires that the feet will perform the function of steering, thus leaving the hands free to attend to the engine, so the occupant is perfectly at liberty to go where and how he pleases.
For river navigation or calm sea-steaming the Nina is admirably adapted, and any one who can be stoker, steersman, and engineer, as well as passenger and crew, will enjoy a trip in such a boat. Such a steamer costs about £250, but it might be less. It may be added that the Nina has uniformly behaved well, and was built by Fordham of New York.
A Mechanical Carriage.
A distinguished savant of the seventeenth century, Ozanam by name, a member of the Academy of Science, gave in 1693 a curious description of a mechanical carriage, which may perhaps be regarded as the parent of the velocipede and the bicycle. We here reproduce the engravings from Ozanam’s work and his words.
“Some years ago,” wrote the philosopher in 1693, “there may have been seen in Paris a chaise,” as in the picture, “and which a servant, by pressing alternately upon treadles” (as in the detail), “caused to progress by turning two small wheels hidden in a frame between the hinder pair of wheels of the chaise. The description I give as I received it from M. Richard, the doctor of Rochelle.
“A A is a roller attached to the box behind the vehicle, B is a pulley, over which the cord that works with the treadles passes; C and D are the treadles, with pedals, F F. The wheels, H H, being thus put in motion, the large wheels are moved, and when the hind wheels move forward, the foremost ones must advance also, and the sitter has only to guide the machine by the reins he holds attached to the guiding axle.”
Footnotes
1 It is well known that ants, by touching the skin of aphides, extract therefrom a secretion of viscous matter, which nourishes them. They will frequently carry off the aphides to their habitations, and keep them there; thus one may say they keep a cow in their stable.
2 The preservation of insects, and their preparation for collections, necessitates some precaution. Entomologists are in the habit of spreading them out on a small board, and arranging the legs and antennæ by means of large pins. The wings should be dried by placing them on strips of paper, which preserves them. These precautions are indispensable if it is wished that the insects in a collection should retain their distinctive characters. Worms and caterpillars can be raised in pots filled with earth, if carefully covered over with muslin or wire gauze with very fine meshes. The process of hatching may give rise to many interesting observations.
3 It frequently happens that in a small aquarium, constructed after this fashion, the animals escape. This is avoided by covering the vase with a net.
4 The infusion of parsley has the advantage of not sensibly obscuring the water.
5 Detailed accounts in Vol. lxxxiii., pp. 243 and 292 of “La Nature.”
6 See “La Nature,” 4th year, 1876, 2nd half-year, p. 167. M. A. Guillemin mentions, in connection with the phenomenon of July 12th, 1876, the presence of light masses of cloud of a greyish-blue colour, similar to those perceived in the phenomena just described.
7 M. A. G. has written us an interesting letter on the subject of similar experiments, which we here transcribe:—
“When a siphon of seltzer water has been opened some little time, and the equilibrium of tension is nearly established between the escaped gas and the dissolved gas, a vertical stream of bubbles is seen to rise from the bottom of the apparatus, which present a very clear example of the law of ascension of bubbles; that is to say (putting out of the question the expansion of the bubbles in their passage upwards), it is an inverse representation of the law of gravity affecting falling bodies. The bubbles, in fact, detach themselves from their starting point with perfect regularity; and as the interval varies in one file from another, we have before us a multiplied representation of that terrible law which Attwood’s machine made such a bugbear to the commercial world. I believe it is possible, by counting the number of bubbles that detach themselves in a second, in each file, and the number which the whole stream contains at a given instant, to carry the verification further; but I must confess that I have not done so myself.”
8 The experiment we have just described is a very old one. M. V. Sircoulon has told us that it was described at length in the works of Rabelais. The following remarks are in “Pantagruel,” book II., chap. xvii.
“Panuræ then took two glasses of the same size, filled them with water, and put one on one stool, and the other on another, about five feet apart, and placed the staff of a javelin about five-and-a-half feet long across, so that the ends of the staff just touched the brim of the glasses. That done, he took a stout piece of wood, and said to the others: “Gentlemen, this is how we shall conquer our enemies; for in the same way that I shall break this staff between these two glasses, without the glasses being broken or injured, or spilling a single drop of water, so shall we break the head of our Dipsodes, without any injury to ourselves, and without getting wounded. But that you may not think there is magic in it, you, Eusthenes, strike with this stick as hard as you can in the centre.” This Eusthenes did, and the staff broke in two pieces, without a drop of water being spilt.
9 The curved surface of a column of liquid is termed a “meniscus,” from the Greek word meniskos, meaning “a little lens.”
10 Traité de Physique, Paris 1874.
11 Traité d’optique Physiologique. French translation by MM. Javal and Klein.
12 From praxis, action, and skopein, to show.
13 This interesting experiment, which we have exactly verified, was described to us by Professor Waldner, and M. A. Keppler.
14 Ganot: Eléments de Physique.
15 Encly. Metrop.
16 “Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.”
17 Sabine: “The Electric Telegraph.”
18 We are indebted for many facts respecting Mr. Edison’s light in this chapter to a paper by Mr. Upton.
19 It is the same with a number of other common products, such as clay, sandstone, etc., the composition of which chemistry has revealed. Argil, or clay, slate, and schist all contain a metal—aluminium, which has become most valuable for industrial purposes. Stones for building are composed of a metal combined with carbon and oxygen—calcium; sandstone is composed of silicium, a metallic body united with oxygen; and sulphate of magnesia, which enters into the composition of a purgative drink, also contains a metal—magnesium.
20 These substances must be finely powdered and thoroughly mixed.
21 Requires oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe.
22 Cyanogen, ethyl, and cacodyl, are compound radicals.
23 A crystal should be held so that one of its axes is vertical to the spectator. This axis is termed the principal axis, and when there is inequality the longest axis is the principal.
24 See “Strontium” in Chemistry.
25 He was obliged to recant before the Inquisition, and to repudiate his researches. He was released on the condition of observing silence upon the theory he had supported, but again obliged to recant.
26 The bright part of the sun.
27 Mr. Burnham has lately given a list of two hundred and fifty-one new double stars, and in the Astronomical Society’s proceedings there is a list of ten thousand.
28 It might reach 14,000,000 of miles at a maximum.
29 “Physical Causes of Change of Climate,” _Phil. Mag._, 1864.
30 See Dawkins’ “Early Man in Britain.”
31 From Artois, where the first European well of this kind existed.
32 Those who wish to study the subject fully should read “Corals and Coral Reefs,” by the late Charles Darwin, and Dana’s “Coral Islands.”
33 See “Molecular Physics” (Tyndall).
34 “Fulgarites” are composed of melted quartz, and on Mount Ararat many have been found which give a character to the formation of the lesser Ararat.
35 Dr. Carpenter.
36 Respecting artificial colouring of flowers, see page 329.
37 Carpenter on the Microscope.
38 Huxley. “Classification of Animals.”
39 That the presence of millions of such ova in the air should not be detected, will appear very natural indeed, if we reflect that the animalcules are only 1/1500 to 1/2000 part of a line in diameter, and that the ova are a thousand times smaller.
40 Hercules conquered the “Hydra,” which is represented in mythology as capable of reproducing two heads for each one cut off by the warrior.
41 From “La Nature.” Notice of M. Ch. Boutemps.
42 Kampulos, a curve; metron, measure.
Leaf Shapes from the illustration on page 672
Lanceolate (Privet).
Ovate (Fuchsia fulgens).
Oblong (Primrose).
Cordate (White Bryony).
Palmate (vine).
II. Depending on Margin and Arrangement.
Serrate (Rose).
Biserrate (Elm).
Crenate (Betony).
Entire (Lilac).
Digitate (Lupin).
Pinnate (Vetch).
Bipinnate (Acacia).
Pinnatifid (Crepis).
Ternate (Clover).
Biternate (Columbine).
III. Depending on Point.
Obtuse (Dock).
Mucronate (Holly).
Retuce (Snowball).
Emarginate (Bladder Senna).
Moon Features
Table of the features illustrated in Figure 565, page 514
A Mare Crisium.
B Palus Somnii.
C Mare Serenitatis.
D Mare Tranquillitatis.
E Mare Fœcunditatis.
F Mare Nectaris.
G Sinus Medii.
H Mare Vaporum.
I Lacus Mortis.
J Mare Frigoris.
K Mare Imbrium.
L Oceanus Procellarum.
M Mare Humorum.
N Mare Nubium.
O Sinus Iridium.
a Apennine Mts.
b Caucasus.
c Carpathians.
d Pyrenees.
e Altai Mts.
f Riphaen Mts.
g Doerfel Mts.
h Leibnitz Mts.
i Corderillas.
j D’Alembert Mts.
k Taurus Mts.
l Hæmus Mts.
m Alps.
1 Clavius.
2 Maginus.
3 Maurolycus.
4 Stöfler.
5 Tycho.
6 Longomontanus.
7 Wilhelm I.
8 Schiller.
9 Schickhardt.
10 Hainzel.
11 Furnerius.
12 Metius.
13 Fabricius.
14 Riccius.
15 Piccolomini.
16 Zagut.
17 Apianus.
18 Walter.
19 Hell.
20 Pitatus.
21 Hesiodus.
22 Capuanus.
23 Ramsden.
24 Vieta.
25 Peravius.
25 Vendelinus.
27 Langrenus.
28 Fracastorius.
29 Theophilus.
30 Cyrillus.
31 Catharina.
32 Sacrobosco.
33 Almanon.
34 Albufeda.
35 Albategnius.
36 Hipparchus.
37 Ptolemy.
38 Alphonsus.
39 Purbach.
40 Regiomontanus.
41 Thebit.
42 Arzachel.
43 Bullialdus.
44 Lalande.
45 Mösting.
46 Herschel.
47 Gassendi.
48 Mersenius.
49 Sirsalis.
50 Grimaldi.
51 Riccioli.
52 Hevelius.
53 Condorcet.
54 Taruntius.
55 Proclus.
56 Cleomedes.
57 Romer.
58 Posidonius.
59 Plinius.
60 Julius Cæsar.
61 Manilius.
62 Godin.
63 Agrippa.
64 Triesnecker.
65 Bode.
66 Gambart.
67 Eratosthenes.
68 Copernicus.
69 Reinhold.
70 Landsberg.
71 Encke.
72 Kepler.
73 Marius.
74 Archimedes.
75 Timocharis.
76 Euler.
77 Aristarchus.
78 Herodotus.
79 Struve.
80 Messala.
81 Mare Humboldtanius.
82 Atlas.
83 Hercules.
84 Endymion.
85 Eudoxus.
86 Aristoteles.
87 Linne.
88 Autolycus.
89 Aristillus.
90 Cassini.
91 Plato.
92 Helicon.
93 Pythagoras.