The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING. AUGUST 27, 1863,

Meeting of the British Association.

Yesterday was appointed for the meeting of the
general committee of the British Association, in
the hall of the Literary and Philosophical Society,
Newcastle. It had also been arranged that the sec-
tion committee meetings should take place at three
p.m., and eight o'clock in the evening had been ap-
pointed for the grand opening meeting i❑ the Town-
hall. The following is the inaugural address pre-
pared by Sir W. Armstrong, president of the asso-
ciation :

Gentlemen of the British Association,—l esteem
it the greatest honour of my life that I am called
upon to assume the office of your President. In that
capacity, and as representing your body, I may be
allowed to advert to the gratifying reception which
the British Association met with on their former
visit to this region of mining and manufacturing in-
dustry; and, as a member of the community which
you have again honoured with a visit, I undertake
to convey to you the assurance of a renewed and
hearty welcome. A quarter of a century has elapsed
since the association assembled in this town, and in
no former period of equal duration has so great a
progress been made in physical knowledge. In
mechanical science, and especially in those branches
of it which are concerned in the application of steam
power to effect interchange between distant com-
munities, the progress made since 1838 has no
parallel in history. The railway system was then
in its infancy, and the great problem of trans-
Atlantic steam navigation had only received its
complete solution in the preceding year. Since that
time railways have extended to every continent, and
steamships have covered the ocean. These reflec-
tions claim our attention on this occasion, because
the locality in which we hold our present meeting
is the birthplace of railways, and because the coal
mines of this district have contributed more largely
than any others to supply the motive power by
which steam communication by land and water has
been established on so gigantic a scale.

The history of railways shows what grand results
may have their origin in small beginnings. When
coal was first convoyed in this neighbourhood from
the pit to the shipping place on the Tyne, the pack-
horse, carrying a burden of 3 cwt., was the only
mode of transport employed. The railway system,
like all large inventions, has risen to its present im-
portance by a series of steps ; and so gradual has
been that Europe finds itself committed
to a
progress,ously determined by the distance
between the wheels of the carts for which wooden
ifortui
rails were originally laid down.
Last of all came the locomotive engine, that
crowning achievement of mechanical science, which
enables us to convey a lo ad of 200 tons at a coat of
fuel scarcely exceeding that of the corn and hay
which the original pack-horse consumed in convey-
ing its load of 3 cwt. an equal distance.
It was chiefly in this locality that the railway
system was thus reared from earliest infancy to full
maturity; and amongst the many names associated
with its growth, that of George Stephenson stands
pre-eminent.
The coal fields of this district, so intimately
connected with the railway system both in its origin
and maintenance, will doubtless receive much
attention from the association at their present meet-
ing.
Estimates have been made at various periods of
the time which would be required to produce com-
plete exhaustion of all the accessible coal in the
British Islands. These estimates are extremely
discordant; but the discrepancies arise, not from
any important disagreement as to the available
quantity of coal, but from the enormous difference
in the rate of consumption at the various dates when
the Estimates were made, and also from the different
views which
-have been entertained as to the probable
increase of consumption in future years. The
quantity of coal yearly worked from British
mines Ms been almost trebled during the last
twenty years, and has probably increased tenfold
since the commencement of the present cen-
tury; but as this increase has taken place
pending the introduction of steam navigation and
railway transit, and under exceptional conditions of
manufacturing development, it would be too much
to assume that it will continue to advance with
equal rapidity. The statistics collected by Mr.
Hunt, of the Mining Record Office, show that at
the end of 1861 the quantity of coal raised in the
United Kingdom had reached the enormous total of
86 millions of tons, and that the average annual in-
crease of the eight preceding years amounted to 21
millions of tons. Let us inquire, then, what will be
the duration of our coal-fields if this more moderate
rate of increase be maintained.

di nto refer,ence
afford as
There is another souree of motive power to which
induced
I am
the
exhibiting
meansanof
instance
i n
solarwhich obtaining
mechanical effects from inanimate agents. I allude
to the power of water descending from heights to
which it has been lifted by the evaporative action
of the sun. To illustrate the great advantage of
collecting water for power in elevated situations, I
may refer to the waterworks of Greenock, where
the collecting reservoirs are situated at an elevation
of 512 feet above the river Clyde. The daily yield
of these reservoirs is said to be nearly 100,000 tons
of water, which is derived from the rainfall on the
area of 5,000 acres. The power Jbtainable from
this quantity and head of water is equal to that of
a steam engine of about 2,000 horse power, and the
whole effect might be realised on the margin of the
river by bringing down the water in a pipe of
sufficient capacity, and causing it to act as a column
on suitable machinery at the foot of the descent.
I have hitherto spoken of coal only as a source of
mechanical power, but it is also extensively used
for the kindred purpose of relaxing those cohesive
forces which resist our efforts to give new forms
and conditions to solid substances. In these appli-
cations, which are generally of a metallurgical
nature, the same wasteful expenditure of fuel is
everywhere observable. In an ordinary furnace
employed to fuse or soften any solid substance,
it is the excess of the heat of combustion over
that of the body heated which alone is
rendered available for the purpose intended.
The rest of the heat, which in many in-
stances constitutes by far the greater proportion cf
the whole, is allowed to escape uselessly into the
chimney. The combustion, also, in common furnaces
is so imperfect, that clouds of powdered carbon, in
the form of smoke, envelope cur manufacturing
towns, and gases, which ought to be completely
oxygenised in the fire, pass into the air with two-
thirds of their heating power undeveloped.
Some remedy for this state of things, we may
hope, is at hand, in the gas regenerative furnaces
recently introduced by Mr. Siemens.
With regard to smoke, • which is at once a waste
and a nuisance, having myself taken part with Dr.
Richardson and Air. Longridge in a series of ex-
periments made in this neighbourhood in the years
1857.58 for the purpose of testing the practicability
of preventing smoke in the combustion of bitumin-
ous coal in steam-engine boilers, I can state with
perfect confidence that, so far as the raising of steam
is concerned, the production of smoke is unnecessary
and inexcusable. The experiments to which I refer
proved beyond doubt, that by an easy method of
firing, combined with a duo admission of air and a
proper arrangement of fire-grate, not involving any
complexity, the emission of smoke might be per-
fectly avoided, and that the prevention of the smoke
increased the economic value of the fuel and the
evaporating power of the boiler. As a rule there
is more smoke evolved from the fires of steam-
engines than from any others, and it is in these fires
that it may be most easily prevented. But in the
furnaces used for most manufacturing overatieue
the prevention of smoke is much more difficult, and
will probably not be effecred until a radical change
is made in' the system of applying fuel for euch.ope-
rations.

Not 1C waktergl extravag4nt eqr racae of

employing coal for domestic purposes. The simplest
arrangements to confine the heat and concentrate it
upon the operation to be performed would suffice
to obviate this. In warming houses we con-
sume in our open fires about five times
as much coal as will produce the same
beating effect when burnt in a close and properly.
constructed stove. Toese are homely considera-
tions—too much so, perhaps, for an amnesty like
thus ; hut I trust that an abuse involving a useless
expenditure exceeding in amount our income-tax,
and capable of being rectified by attention to scien-
tific principles, may not be deeined unworthy of the
notice of some of those whom I have the honour of
addressing.
The introduction of the Davy lamp was a great
event in the history of coal mining, not as effecting
any great diminution of those disastrous accidents
which still devastate every colliery district, but as
a means of enabling mines to be worked which,
from their greater explosive tendencies, would
otherwise have been deemed inaccessible. Thus,
while the Davy lamp has been of great benefit both
to the public and the proprietors of coal, it has been
the means of leading toe miners into more perilous
workings, and the frequency of accident by explo-
sion has in consequence not been diminished to the
extent which was originally expected.

The increase of the earth's temperature as we
descend below the surface is a subject which has
been discus ed at previous meetings of the British
Association. It possesses great scientific interest,
as afflicting the computed thickness of the crust
which covers the molten mass assumed to constitute
the interior portions of the earth, and it is also of
great practical importance as determining the depth
at which it would be possible to pursue the working
of coal and other minerals. The deepest coal min e
in this district is the: Monkwearmouth Colliery,
which reaches a depth of 1,800 feet below the
surface of the ground, and nearly as much below
the level of the sea. The observed temperature of
the strata at this depth agree pretty closely with
what has been ascertained in other localities, and
shows that the increase takes place at the rate of 1
degree Fehr. to about 60 feet of depth. Assuming
the temperature of subterranean fusion to be 3,000
deg., and that the increase of heat at greater depths
continues uniform (which, however, is by no
means certain), the thickness of the film which
separates us from the fiery ocean beneath will
be about thirty-four miles—a thickness which
may be fairly represented by the skin of a
peach taken in relation to the body of the fruit
which it covers. The depth of 4,000 feet, which
has been assumed as the limit at which coal could
be worked, would probably be attended by an in-
crease of heat exceeding the powers of human en-
durance. In the Monkwearmouth colliery, which
is less than half that depth, the temperature of the
eir in the workings is about 84 deg. Fehr., which is
considered to be nearly as high as is consistent with
the great bodily exertion necessary in the operation
of mining. The computations, therefore, of the
duration of coal would probably require a conside-
rable reduction in consequence of too great a depth
being assumed as practicable.
At the last meeting of the British Association in
this town, the importance of establishing an office
for mining records was brought under the notice of
the Council by Mr. Sopwith, and measures were
taken which resulted in the formation of the present
Mining Records Office.
In the course of the preceding observations I
have had occasion to speak of the sun as the great
source of motive power on our earth, and I must
❑ot omit to refer to recent discoveries connected
with that most glorious body. Of all the results
,which science has produced within the last few
years, none has been more unexpected than that by
which we are enabled to test the materials of which
the sun is made, and prove their identity, in part
at least, with those of our planet. The spectrum
experiments of Bunsen and Kirchhoff have not only
shown all this, but they have also corroborated
previous conjectures as to the luminous envelope of
the sun. I have still to advert to Mr. Nasmyth's
remarkable discovery, that the bright surface of
the sun is composed of an aggregation of apparently
solid forms, shaped like willow-leaves or some well-
known forms of DiatomacEse, and interlacing one
another in every shape as to have led to a suggestion
from one of our profoundest philosophers of their
being organisms possibly even partaking of the
nature of life, but at all events closely connected
with the ,heating and vivifying influences of the
sun. These mysterious objects, which, since Mr.
Nasmyth discovered them, have been seen by
other observers as well, are computed to be each
not less than 1,000 miles in length and about 100
miles in breadth. Tae enormous chasms in the
sun's photosphere, to which we apply the diminu-
tive term " spots," exhibit the extremities of these
leaf-like bodies pointing inwards, and fringing the
sides of the cavern far down into the abyss. Some-
times they form a sort of rope or bridge across the
chasm, and appear to adhere to one another by
lateral attraction. I can imagine nothing more
deserving of the scrutiny of observers than these
extraordinary forms. The sympathy also which
appears to exist between forces operating in the
sun and magnetic forces belonging to the earth
merits a continuance of that close attention which
lit has already received from the British Association,
and of labours such as General Sabine has with so
much ability and effect devoted to the elucidation
of the subject. I may here notice that most remark-
able phenomenon which was seen by independent
observers at two different places on the Ist Sept.,
1859. A sudden outburst of light, far exceeding •
the brightness of the sun's surface, was seen to take
place, and sweep like a drifting cloud ever a portion
of the solar face. This was attended with magnetic
disturbances of unusual intensity, and with exhi-
bitions of aurora of extraordinary brilliancy. The
identical instant at which the effusion of light was
observed was recorded by an abrupt and strongly
marked deflection in the self-registering instru-
ments at Kew. The phenomenon, as seen, was
probably only part of what actually took place, for
the magnetic storm in the midst of which it oc-
curred commenced before and continued after the
event. If conjecture be allowable in such a case,
we may suppose that this remarkable event had
some connection with the means by which the sun's
heat is renovated. It is a reasonable supposition that
the sun was at that time in the act of receiving a
more than usual accession of new energy ; and the
theory which assigns the maintenance of its power
to cosmical matter, plunging into it with that
prodigious velocity which gravitation would im-
press upon it as it approached to actual contact
with the solar orb, would affcrd an explanation
of this sudden exhibition of intensified light
in harmony with the knowledge we have now at-
tained that arrested motion is represented by
equivalent heat. Telescopic observations will pro-
bably add now facts to guide our judgment on this
suhject, and, taken in connection with observations
on terrestrial magnetism, may enlarge and correct
our views respecting the nature of heat, light, and
electricity. Much as we have yet to learn respect-
ing these agencies, we know sufficient to infer that
they cannot be transmitted from the sun to the earth
except by communication from particle to particle
of intervening matter. Not that I speak of particles
in the sense of the atomist. Whatever our views
may be of the nature of particles, we must conceive
them as centres invested with surrounding forces.
We have no evidence, either from our ;senses or
otherwise, of these centres being occupied by solid
cores of indivisible, incompressible matter essentially
distinct from force. Dr. Young has shown that,
even in so dense a body as water, these nuclei, if
they exist at all, must be so small in relation to the
intervening space that a hundred men distributed
at equal distance,s over the whole surface of Eng-
land would represent their relative magnitude and
distance. What then must be these relative dimen-
eions is highly rezefied matter? But wily encutn-

ber our conceptions of material forces by this un-
necessary imagining of a central molecule? If we
retain the forces and reject the molecule,we sh.lll
still have every property we can recognise in matter
by the use of our senses or by the aid of our reason.
Viewed in this light, matter is not merely a thing
subject to force, but is itself composed and consti-
tuted of force.

The science of gunnery, to which I shall make but
slight allusion on this ce2caGion, is intimately con-
nected with the dynamical theory of heat. When
gunpowder is exploded in a cannon, the immediate
effect of the affinities by which the materials of the
powder are caused to enter into new combinations,
is to liberate a force which first appears as heat, and
then takes the form of mechanical power communi-
cated in part to the shot and in part to the pre-
ducts of explosion which are also propelled from
the gun. The mechanical force of the shot is re-
converted into heat when the motion is arrested by
striking en object, and this heat is divided between
the shot and the object struck, in the proportion of
the work done or damage inflicted upon each.
These considerations recently led me, in conjunction
with my friend Captain Noble, to determine experi-
mentally, by the heat elicited in the shot, the loss
of effect due to its crushing when fired against iron
plates. Joule's /aw, and the known velocity of the
shot, enabled us to compute the number of dyna-
mical units of heat representing the whole mecha-
nical power in the projectile; and by ascertaining
the number of units developed in it by impact, we
arrived at the power which took effect upon the
shot instead of the plate. These experiments showed
an enormous absorption of power to be caused by
the yielding nature of the materials of which pro-
jectiles are usually formed; but further experi-
ments are required to complete the inquiry.
While speaking of the subject of gunnery, I must
pay a passing tribute of praise to that beautiful in-
strument invented and perfected by Major Navez,
of the Belgian artillery, for determining, by means
of electro-magnetism, the velocity of projectiles.
This instrument has been of great value in recent
investigations, and there are questions affecting
projectiles which we can only hope to solve by its
assistance. Experiments are still required to clear
up several apparently anomalous effects in gunnery,
and to determine the canditions most conducive to
efficiency both as regards attack and defence. It is
gratifying to see our Government-acting in accord-
ance with the enlightened principles of the age by
carrying on scientific experiments to arrive at
knowledge, which, in the arts of war as well as in
those of peace, is proverbially recognised as the true
source of human power.

Professor Tyndall's recent discoveries respect-
ing the absorption and radiation of heat by va-
pours and permanent gases constitute important
additions to our knowledge. The extreme deli-
cacy of his experiments and the remarkable
distinctness of their results render them beauti-
ful examples of physical research. They are of
great value as affording further illustrations of the
vibratory actions in matter which constitute heat ;
but it is in connection with the science of meteoro-
logy that they chiefly command our attention. From
these experiments we learn that the minute quan-
tity of water suspended as invisible vapour in the
atmosphere acts as a warm clothing to the earth.
The efficacy of this vapour in arresting heat is, in
comparison with that of air, perfectly astound-
ing. Although the atmosphere contains on an ave-
rage but one particle of aqueous vapour to 200 of
air, yet that single particle absorbs 80 times as much
heat as the collective 200 particles of air. Remove,
says Professor Tyndall, for a single summer night,
the aqueous vapour from the air which overspreads
this country, and you would assuredly destroy every
plant incapable of bearing - extreme cold. The
warmth of our fields and gardens would pour itself
unrequitted into space, and the sun would rise upon
an island held fast in the grip of frost. Many me-
teorological phenomena receive a feasible explana-
tion from these investigations, which are probably
destined to thraw further light upon the functions
of our atmosphere.

Few sciences have more practical value than me-
teorology, and there are few of which we es yet
know so little. Nothing would contribute more to
the saving of life and property, and to augmenting
the general wealth of the world, than the ability to
foresee with certainty impending changes of the
weather. At present our means of doing so are ex-
ceedingly imperfect, but, such as they are, they
have been employed with considerable effect by Ad-
miral Fitzroy in warning mariners of the probable
approach of storms. We may hope that so good an
object will be effected with more unvarying success
when we attain a better knowledge of the causes by
which wind and rain, heat and c'ld, are determined.
The balloon explorations conducted with so much
intrepidity by Mr. (ilaisher, under the auspices of
the British Association, may perhaps in some de-
gree assist in enlightening us upon these important
subjects. We have learnt from Mr. Glaisher's ob-
servations that the decrease of temperature with
elevation does not follow th© law previously as-
sum of 1 deg. in 300 feet, and that in fact it follows
no definite law at all. Mr. Glaishor appears also
to have ascertained the interesting fact that rain is
only precipitated when clouds exist in a double
layer. Rain-drops, he has found, diminish in size
with elevation, merging into wet mist and ulti-
mately into dry fog. Mr. Glaisher met with snow
for a mile in thickness below rain, which is at vari-
ance with our preconceived ideas. He has also
rendered good service by testing the efficiency of
various instruments at heights which cannot be
visited without personal danger.
The facility now given to the transmission of in-
telligence and the interchange of thought, is one of
the most remarkable features of the present age.
Cheap and rapid postage to all parts of the world—
paper and printing reduced to the lowest possible
cost—electric telegraphs between nation and nation,
town and town, and now even (thanks to the beau
tiful inventions of Professor Wheatstone) between
house and house—all contribute to aid that com-
merce of ideas by which wealth and knowledge are
augmented.
Another subject of a social character which de-
mands our consideration is the much debated ques
tion of weights and measures. Whatever difference
of opinion there may be as to the comparative
merits of decimal and duodecimal division, there
can at all events be none as to the importance of
assimilating the systems of measurement in different
countries. It is much to be regretted that two
standards of measure so nearly alike as the English
yard and the French metre should not be made
absolutely identical. The metric system has already
been adopted by other nations besides France, and
is the only one which has any chance of becoming
universal. We in England, therefore, have no alter-
native but to conform with France, if we desire
general uniformity. The change might easily be .
introduced in scientific literature, and in that ea"
it would probably extend itself by degrees among
the commercial classes without much legislative
pressure. Besides the advantages which would thus
be gained in regard to uniformity, I am con-
vinced that the adoption of the decimal divi-
sion of the French scale would be attended with
great convenience both in science and commerce. 1
can speak from personal experience of the superio-
rity of decimal measurement in all cases where
accuracy is required in mechanical construction. in
the Elswick Works, as well as in some other large
ar
establishments of the same description, the inch is
adopted as the unit, and all fractional parts are
r expressed in decimal!. No difficulty has been
ex-
perienced in habituating the workmen to the use of
this method, and it has greatly contributed to pre-
cision of workmanship. The inch, h
—°wever, is too
small a unit, and it would be advantageous to sub-
stitute the metre if general concurteece could be
obtained. As to Our thermometric scale, it was
originally founded. in error ; it is also most incon-
, venient in division, aLd ought at 04Cd to be aban-

STAMPED

doned in favour of the centigrade scale. The recog,
nition of the metric system and of the centigrade
scale by the numerous men of science composing the
British Association would be a most important step
towards effecting that universal adoption of the
French standards in this country which sooner or
later will inevitably take place ; and the association,
min its collective capacity, might take the lead in this
future good work, by excluding in all other
standards from their published proceedings.
The recent discovery of the source of the Nile by
Captains Speke and Grant has solved a problem in
geography which has been a subject of speculation
' from the earliest ages. It is an honour to England
that this interesting discovery has been made by
two of her sons; and the British Association, which
is accustomed to value every addition to knowledge
for its own sake, 'whether or not it be attended with
any immediate utility, will at once appreciate the
importance of the discovery, and the courage and
devotion by which it has been accomplished. The
science of organic life has of late years been making
great and rapid strides, and it is gratifying to ob-
serve that researches both in zoology and botany
are characterised in the present day by great accu-
racy and elaboration. Investigations patiently
conducted upon true inductive principles cannot
fail eventually to elicit the hidden laws which
govern the animated world. Neither is there any
lack of bold speculation contemporaneously with
this painstaking spirit of inquiry. The remark
able work of Mr. Darwin promulgating the doc-
trine of natural selection has produced a pro-
found sensation. The novelty of this ingenious
theory, the eminence of its author, and
his masterly treatment of the subject, have per-
haps combined to excite more enthusiasm in its
favour than is consistent with that dispas-
sionate spirit which it is so necessary to
preserve in the pursuit of truth. The Dar-
winian theory, when fully enunciated, founds the
pedigree of living nature upon the most elementary
form of vitalised matter. One step further
would carry us back, without greater violence to
probability, to inorganic rudiments, and then we
should be called upon to recognise in ourselves,
and in the exquisite elaborations of the ani-
mal and vegetable kingdoms, the ultimate results of
mera material forces left free to follow their own
unguided tendencies. Surely our minds would in
that case be more oppressed with a sense of the
miraculous than they now are in attributing the
wondrous things around us to the creative hand of
a Great presiding Intelligence.
The evidences bearing upon the antiquity of man
have been recently produced, in a collected and
most logically treated form, by Sir Charles
Lyell. It seems no longer possible to doubt
that the human race has existed on the earth in a
barbarian state for a period far exceeding the limit
of historical record; but, notwithstanding this great
antiquity, the proofs still remain unaltered that man
is the latest as well as the noblest work of God.
I will not run the risk of wearying this assembly
by extending my remarks to other branches
of science. In conclusion I will express a hope
that when the tame again comes round to receive
the British Association in this town, its
members will find the interval to have been
as fruitful as the corresponding period on
which we now look back. The tendency
of progress is to quicken progress, because
every acquisition in science is so much vantage
ground for fresh attainment. We may expect,
therefore, to increase our speed as we struggle
forward; but however high we climb in the pursuit
of knowledge, we shall still see heights above us;
and the more we extend our view, the more con-
scious we shall be of the immensity which lies
beyond.