THE FAIRY TALES OF SCIENCE. A BOOK FOB YOUTH. BY JOHN CARGILL BROUGH. WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHABLES H. BENNETT. " There about the beach he wandered, nourishing a youth sublime, With the fairy tales of science, and the long result of time." TENNYSON. LONDON" : GRIFFITH AND FARRAK SUCCESSORS TO NEWBERY & HARRIS, CORNER OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. LONDON : SAVILL AND EDWABDS, PEINTEES, CHANDO3 STSEKT, COVENT GABDBlf. PKEFACE. To place before the youthful student a compact and concise compendium of the leading and most uni- versally important branches of Science has been my principal object in the preparation of this little volume. To adapt the work to the capacity of all, I have endeavoured to divest the different subjects treated in it of hard and dry technicalities, and to clothe them in the more attractive garb of fairy tales a task by no means easy. That I have been obliged, in the composition of the work, to consult a crowd of authorities, need hardly be stated, nor will any more formal enume- ration or systematic acknowledgment be expected. In the fanciful sketches which illustrate these pages, my friend Mr. C. H. Bennett has most fully entered into the spirit in which I conceived the work. I have to tender my sincere thanks to my esteemed friend Dr. G. L. Strauss, who came to my aid, at a time when severe indisposition seemed to threaten that many of these Fairy Tales of Science should remain untold. J. C. B. STOCKWELL, CONTENTS. ge of ftosters. The griffins and dragons of fairy mythology The monsters revealed by science The ancient ocean and its inhabitants The Cetiosaurus The Plesiosaurus Aspect of the country of the Dinosaurians Crocodiles Turtles The Hylaeosaurus and Megalosaurus A fearful conflict An uncultivated garden No trace of man The Iguanodon, a huge herbivorous monster The Pterodactyle, a flying reptile Wealden beds The stone book . pp. 1 14 Spirit. The fairy messenger Thales and the Amber Spirit Ancient explanation of lightning and meteors Man's devices for enslaving the spirit Globe of sulphur Conductors and non-conductors Electrical machines The Leyden jar How to draw the spirit from the clouds The voltaic pile Deflections of the magnetic needle The spirit employed as a courier The electric telegraph explained Systems of Wheatstone, Morse, Bain, and Bakewell Telegraphic wires Submarine telegraphs France and England brought within a speaking distance of each other Irish cable Atlantic cable The spirit taught to measure time Bain's electric clock The electrotype The spirit's ver- satility pp. 1528 VI CONTESTS. &f)E JFour (Slemente. The ancient doctrine of the four elements Decomposition of and wood Universality of the mighty elements Health disease The true elementary bodies A burning candle- Fire the result of chemical action The destroying element Chemical compounds Composition of combustible bodies Air the great supporter of life Analysis of air Uniformity of composition Immensity of the atmosphere Properties of carbonic acid Ammonia Watery vapour Compounds of nitrogen and oxygen Carbonic oxide- Water in the liquid, solid, and aeriform states Analysis and synthesis Decomposition of water by potassium Wonderful revelations Water a product of combustion Synthesis of water Earth an indefinite substance The sixty- three elements of the chemist Principal ingredients of earth Silica, alumina, and lime Salt, pyrites, and fluorspar Metals and metalloids Composition of plants and animals The marvels of chemistry True interpreta- tion of the ancient dogma pp. 29 51 Wgt ILtfe of an atom. The vicissitudes of strange particles of matter A talking atom His relatives His existence as a rock-forming atom First glimpse of the outer world Sets out on his travels Launched into the ocean A roving life The coral polype Terrestrial mutations The atom liberated by volcanic agency The joys of an aerial atom Plants of the carboniferous period The atom again a captive Coal Modern career of the atom His philosophical speculations pp. 53_ 64 & SLittU Bit The nature of matter Illustrations of its divisibility The ultimate particles of a body never in actual contact CONTENTS. Vll Porosity of gold Opinions of Newton and Herschel Hidden truths Relative weights of the ultimate particles John Dalton The atomic theory of chemistry Celestial atoms pp. 65 74 JHotoertt glrijentg. The philosopher's stone Ancient and modern alchemy The mysterious unknown Liebig's remarks on the true phi- losopher's stone The laboratory of the modern alchemist Aluminium Ultramarine The wonders that may yet be performed by the alchemist Transmutation Like and unlike Charcoal, graphite and diamond Different forms assumed by sulphur Amorphous phosphorus Ozone Modern alchemists true descendants of the old gold-seekers pp. 7587 Cfje fHagfc of tfje Stm&eattt. The influence of the sunbeam Theories that have been ad- vanced to explain the nature of light Velocity of light Decomposition of the sunbeam The prismatic spectrum. Influence of light over the animal and vegetable king- doms The Proteus anguinus Distribution of animals in the ocean Plants grown in the dark Heat Dispersion of the heat-rays Effects of heat Actinism Blackening of horn silver Inorganic bodies sleep during the night Germination of seeds Photography . pp.89 102 (ges are Setter tfjan tie. The structure of the human eye Herschel's remarks on this wonderful organ Why two eyes are better than one An invisible pair of compasses Two eyes required to obtain a true conception of solidity The stereoscope Double vision Single vision pp. 103 111 CONTENTS. The belle of the sea Her submarine home A deep dive- Her Unfamiliar objects The mermaid's garden subjects of Oberon The black goby Emissaries from the Court umbrellas The An expert well- sinker Animated lamps of the sea The great crab family The porcelain crab, stars The the spider, and the hermit Sea-slugs Living The mermaid and sea-urchin Serpulse and acorn-shells the naturalist .......... pp. 113 127 Inhnatrti JJFIofoers. The flowers of the sea Smooth anemone Thick-horned anemone Living daisies Plumose anemone Voracity of these animal flowers Their curious structure The madrepore described by Gosse An amusing anecdote The living flowers of tropical seas The aquarium pp. 129139 A meeting of aged insects An unpleasant scene A sensible proposition The cabbage butterfly Swammerdam's re- marks on the internal structure of a caterpillar The tiger- moth The dragon-fly's narrative The gnat Reaumur's observations The case- fly The ichneumon- fly pp. 141153 The witches' cauldron and the tea-kettle Thermometers Boiling and freezing points Latent heat The genii of the kettle Ebullition Conduction and convection Hot por- ridge Oceanic currents Pressure of the atmosphere The spheroidal state Water frozen in a red-hot vessel Steam springs The fiery ordeal The Geysers of Iceland Sir George Mackenzie's description of the G rea t Geyser Bunsen's experiments Artificial Geysers . pp. 155 174 CONTENTS. The Solar System Earth Moon Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Mercury Venus Mars Vesta, Pallas, and other planetoids Eelative magnitudes and distances of the principal members of the solar system The Sun His diameter, bulk, and mass His distance from the Earth His apparent motion The twelve signs of the Zodiac The solar rays Planets habitable and inhabited Moon and planetoids not inhabited Fixed stars Constellations Coma Berenices Catalogues of stars Classification of stars into magnitudes Number of stars Milky Way Nebulae Distance of stars Light of Sirius Periodical or variable stars Temporary stars Dark bodies in the heavens Double and multiple stars Colour of stars Complementary colours in double stars . pp.175 196 & &sle af a Comet. Family and pedigree The comet protests against M. Babi- net's remarks anent his kindred Number of comets Bulk Nucleus Head Coma Tail or brush Tenuity of comets Disturbing influence of planets and planetoids upon the orbitsof comets Chance of a collision Cometary matter not luminous Forms of comets and their tails Length of tail Comets with more than one tail Eccen- tricity of motion Parabolic and hyperbolic orbits Uses of comets -Absurd and superstitious notions respecting cometary influences Comet of 1556 expected in 1860 Case of doubtful identity Cometary influence on seasons disproved Comets with fixed periods Halley's Comet of 1680 Comets of Olbers, Encke, Biela, Faye, De Vico, Brorsen, d' Arrest Winneke and Neslhuber versus Donati Supposed period and distance from sun of comet of 1858 pp. 197213 CONTENTS. Cfje Enbisi&le The revelations of the microscope Single and compound microscopes A drop of water Minute creatures The globe animalcule The wheel animalcule Microscopic plants Diatoms -Formation of rocky strata Beautiful forms Bed of earth composed of living infusoria The marls of Virginia Chalk Microscopic fungi Eggs of insects Scales of a butterfly's wing Insect anatomy Pollen Fissures and cavities in gems . pp. 215 229 A fanciful tree Bread-fruit Cabbage-palm Cow- tree The papyrus and fan-palm Pashiuba palm The mangrove Wonderful cane Australian trees The Banyan Sensi- tive traveller plants The and the moss . pp. 231 242 ffliobin^ 3Lants, Glaciers Regions of eternal snow- The Neve Rivers of ice Moraines Movement of the glacier A moving hut Lost knapsack- Mysterious noises Theories of glacier motion Saussure Observations of Professor James Forbes Viscous theory Tyndall's experiments The of ice Fracture plasticity and regelation Ancient glaciers Time slides pp. 243253 2Hje nomes. The home of the gnomes Wondrous architecture of the stalactite caverns Science and superstition The Grotto of Antiparos Petrifying springs Tabreez marble A scene busy The guardian of the jewels The Koh-i-noor Aluminous and silicious gems The keeper of the metals CONTENTS. XI The treasures of the earth Gold, silver, and iron The gnome of the coal-mines Use of coal Varieties of coal pp.