bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
II. Description of a New Darkening Glass for Solar Observations, which has also the property of polarising the whole of the transmitted Light
Authors: Brewster David 
Published: January 2013

It will be readily admitted by every person who has been accustomed to solar observations, that an apparatus for diminishing the intensity of the sun's light, without distorting or colouring the resulting image, is still a desideratum in Practical Astronomy.Dr Herschel is the only person who has given any degree of attention to this subject. When he applied his powerful telescopes to examine the surface of the sun, he found that the ordinary method of attenuating the light by smoked or coloured glasses, was of no avail; and it was in the prosecution of his experiments for determining the relative advantages of differently coloured glasses, or of combinations of differently coloured glasses, that he was conducted to those splendid discoveries respecting the invisible rays, which have formed an epoch both in Chemistry and Optics.
XIII. Account of the remarkable Case of Margaret Lyall, who continued in a State of Sleep nearly Six Weeks
Authors: Brewster James 
Published: January 2013

My Dear Brother,The inclosed account was drawn up at the request of Robert Græme, Esq. when all the circumstances were fresh in my own recollection, and that of all with whom I had occasion to confer on the subject. Since you requested me to send you a correct copy of the whole case, I have renewed my inquiries among the friends of the young woman, and submitted my account to several persons, who were most capable of supplying any omissions, or correcting any mistakes. I can confidently vouch for the general accuracy of the statement; but would not wish its credibility to rest entirely on my single testimony.
VII. An Improvement of the Method of correcting the Observed Distance of the Moon from the Sun or a Fixed Star
Authors: Elliot Thomas 
Published: January 2013

ProblemHaving the apparent distance of the Moon's centre from a fixed Star, or from the centre of the Sun, together with the apparent altitudes of their centres, to find the true distance.SolutionThe difference between the apparent and true altitudes, and the angles which the Moon and Star make with the zenith and each other, must be known before the several corrections of distance are computed.
XIX. On the Quarantine Classification of Substances, with a view to the Prevention of Plague
Authors: Davy John 
Published: January 2013

To all those who have paid any attention to the subject of quarantine, it is well known that certain articles are held to be susceptible of conveying the contagion of plague; that certain others, in regard to this property, are considered doubtful; and that others are held to be unsusceptible of retaining and communicating it.Are these distinctions accurate? Are they founded on well-established facts? On these questions I shall have the honour of submitting some remarks to the Society, with the hope of drawing attention to a subject of much importance, and hitherto, in a scientific point of view, strangely neglected.
XXXIII.—Description of a New Self-Registering Barometer
Authors: Bryson Robert 
Published: January 2013

Although many proposals have been made to obtain a series of hourly meteorological observations by mechanical means, this desideratum has not, from various causes, been completely attained. The chief obstacle to be overcome, in such self-registering instruments, is the great amount of friction, which necessarily vitiates all the results, more especially in delicate instruments, such as the barometer and thermometer.Dr Robert Hooke was the first to propose a self-registered series of meteorological observations, by an instrument, which he quaintly called a Weather-wiser; but no further notice is taken of this contrivance than a short description in one of his tracts, bearing the date 5th December 1678, which would lead us to believe that the instrument was never used. The late Alexander Keith, Esq. of Ravelston also proposed a similar contrivance, a description of which is contained in this Society's Transactions, Vol. 4th. This contrivance, from the constant friction excited by the marker on the revolving paper, seems likewise to have been abandoned.
III. An Inquiry into the Geometrical Character of the Hour-Lines upon the Antique Sun-Dials
Authors: Davies T. S. 
Published: January 2013

Il resterait à résoudre une problème plus générale, à trouver la courbe hectémoreale sur la sphère même, et sur un cadran quelconque.Delambre, Conn. des Temps, an. 1820, p. 341.The nature of these lines, though a subject of repeated investigation, has never been accurately determined. The loci of the points which divide the semi-diurnal arc into n equal parts, have almost invariably been considered as great circles, and their projections upon a plane, which are the dial-lines in question, in consequence viewed as straight lines. Clavius was the first to point out, and to prove, the error of this opinion; and Montucla (or rather Lalande) not only denied that they were circles at all, but affirmed they were curves of a very fantastical kind—“tres bizarre.” This latter opinion, which is partly true and partly false, seems rather to have been inconsiderately hazarded, than derived from any satisfactory course of reasoning. They are not great circles, it is true; but, as Delambre has replied, “il y a beaucoup d'exageration à donner une forme tres bizarre à des lignes qui, dans aucun des cadrons qu'on a tracées de cette manière, n'ont jamais pas s'ecarter sensiblement de la ligne droite.”
VII. An Account of a Singular Halo of the Moon
Authors: Hall William 
Published: January 2013

Dear Sir James,I Send under cover the representation of a very singular Halo of the Moon, (See Pl. V,), seen here on the night of the 18th of February last, about 10 o'clock, and this I have hitherto delayed, in order, if possible, to gain farther information in the neighbourhood concerning it.During the short continuance of the small halo, which did not exceed 10 minutes after I got notice of it, I could not lay my hands on any other instrument to take the angles, but a Sisson's theodolite, which, unluckily, having been constructed so as not to admit of a vertical angle so great as the moon's altitude then was, I laid it aside, not recollecting that it might have measured several of the smaller angles. But I observed sundry marks, from which I took the angles as exactly as I could next day.
XI. Description of a Barometer, which marks the Rise and Fall of the Mercury from two different Times of Observation
Authors: Keith Alexander 
Published: January 2013

In August last, I read to this Society the Description of an Air Thermometer intended to record the various degrees of heat at every instant; and mentioned my intention of constructing a barometer, which would, in the same manner, record the variations of the weight of the atmosphere: Both which I proposed to adapt to one piece of clock-work.This piece of machinery appearing too complicated and expensive for general use, I contrived a thermometer, which marks the extreme points of heat and cold from any two times of observation. Of which instrument I also lately read an account, and produced the machine itself.
I.—An Account of some Experiments on Radiant Heat, involving an extension of Prevost's Theory of Exchanges
Authors: Stewart Balfour 
Published: January 2013

1. This paper consists of two parts, the first of which is confined to describing the experiments performed; while in the second it is attempted to connect these with certain theoretical views regarding Radiant Heat.2. The experiments were made with a fourfold object; at least, for the sake of clearness, it is well to class them into four distinct groups:—Group I. Contains those experiments in which the quantities of heat radiated from polished plates of different substances, at a given temperature, are compared with the quantity radiated from a similar surface of lamp-black, at the same temperature.II. Those in which the quantities of heat radiated at the same temperature, from polished plates of the same substance, but of different thicknesses, are compared with one another.III. Those in which the radiations, from polished plates of different substances at any temperature, are compared with that from lampblack at the same temperature, with regard to the quality or nature of the heat radiated.IV. Those in which the same comparison is made between the radiations from polished plates of the same substance, but of different thicknesses.
VII.—Inquiries about Terrestrial Temperature; to which is added an Index to M. Dove's Five Memoirs on the Temperature of the Globe
Authors: Forbes James D. 
Published: January 2013

1. To find the numerical law according to which the temperature of a place varies with its latitude, is an empirical problem which has, since the middle of the last century, from time to time engaged attention.2. Lambert, Mayer, and Kirwan in the last century, De Humboldt, Brewster, Kämtz, and Dove in the present, may be cited amongst those who have investigated formulæ which express, with more or less accuracy, the mean temperature of a place in terms of its latitude.3. The formulæ proposed are mostly reducible to two types—a variation depending upon the cosine of the latitude simply (that of Sir D. Brewster), and one depending on the square of the same quantity (that of Mayer).
VI.—Note on Confocal Conic Sections
Authors: Talbot H. F. 
Published: January 2013

A short paper of mine on Fagnani's theorem, and on Confocal Conic Sections, was inserted in the twenty-third volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society. Some of the conclusions of that paper can, however, be obtained more simply, as I will now proceed to show.I will, in the first place, resume the problem—“To find the intersection of a confocal ellipse and hyperbola.”Since the curves have the same foci, and therefore the same centre, let the distance between the centre and focus be called unity, since it is the same for both curves. Let a, b, be the axes of the ellipse, A, B, those of the hyperbola. Then we have 1 = a2 − b2 = A2 + B2, which equation expresses the condition of confocality.
VIII.—Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of the Conduction of Heat in Bars. Part II. On the Conductivity of Wrought Iron, deduced from the Experiments of 1851
Authors: Forbes James D. 
Published: January 2013

39. In the first part of this paper, read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in April 1862, and published in their Transactions, I explained the principles of a method devised by me in 1850 for ascertaining the absolute conducting power of substances capable of being formed into long bars; and I also stated the general results of experiments made in 1851 on the Conductivity for heat of wrought Iron.40. I explained in Art. 14 of that paper, that the publication of the results had been for ten years withheld, partly in consequence of the state of my health which completely interrupted the experiments, but still more from the defective graduation of some of the thermometers used, which made it necessary to submit the instruments to a careful scrutiny, and to repeat with the duly corrected numbers the whole of the elaborate projections of the curves and calculations from them, on which the accuracy of the final results of course depends.
XI.—Researches on Malfatti's Problem
Authors: Talbot H. F. 
Published: January 2013

The problem which bears the name of the Italian geometer Malfatti, by whom it was first proposed and solved, has long attracted the attention and exercised the ingenuity of mathematicians, and has been made the subject of many careful and elaborate researches.The great attention which has been bestowed upon this problem has arisen partly from its intrinsic difficulty, but chiefly on account of the extreme simplicity of the solution finally obtained by Malfatti, which seemed to open new views of geometrical research, and gave reason to hope that simple solutions might in like manner be found of many other geometrical problems usually accounted very difficult or insoluble.
XIV.—Further Experiments and Remarks on the Measurement of Heights by the Boiling Point of Water
Authors: Forbes James D. 
Published: January 2013

In 1843 I presented a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, giving an account of experiments made on the boiling point of water in the Alps, under various barometric pressures. My object was twofold: first, to describe an apparatus which I considered more practically available than those previously in use; and, secondly, to give a simple, and, as I believed, new formula for computing heights from such observations.With reference to the second point, I became aware, some time after the publication of my paper, that Sir John Leslie had proposed to compute heights by the thermometer, assuming the change of the boiling point to be exactly in proportion to the height ascended. While cheerfully conceding to Sir John Leslie priority on this point, I submit that he did not bring forward experiments to justify its practical adoption.
XXVIII.—On a Proposition in the Theory of Numbers
Authors: Stewart Balfour 
Published: January 2013

Problem. If p be one of the roots of the equation xm − 1 = 0, (not 1,) then (1 − p)(1 − p2) …. (1 − pm − 1) = m, provided m is a prime number.If m be not a prime number, and if , the same will hold for all roots p = p1α, where α is a number < m and prime to m. But for all roots p = p1α, where α, or one of its prime factors, is also a prime factor of m, the product (1 − p)(1 − p2) …. (1 − pm − 1) will be equal to 0.
XXXII.—On the Urinary Secretion of Fishes, with some Remarks on this Secretion in other Classes of Animals
Authors: Davy John 
Published: January 2013

Notwithstanding the progress made of late years in animal chemistry in connection with comparative anatomy, I am not aware of any observations that have yet been published on the urinary secretion of fishes. The neglect of this inquiry probably has arisen from several circumstances,—the nature of the element inhabited, the peculiarities of the urinary organs, the difficulty of collecting the matter voided, and its having no well-marked distinctive qualities obvious to the senses.For some years, as leisure and opportunities offered, I have given attention to the subject, and in the paper which now I have the honour to submit to the Society, I beg to communicate the observations I have made. Few and imperfect as these are, they are given mainly with the hope of attracting notice to the inquiry and of inducing others more favourably situated to engage in its prosecution.
XXVI.—On the Fossil Flora of the South Wales Coal Field, and the Relationship of its Strata to the Somerset and Bristol Coal Field
Authors: Kidston Robert 
Published: January 2013

The Coal Measures of the South Wales Coal Field fall into three well-marked divisions:—I. The Upper Pennant or Upper Penllergare Series.II. The Lower Pennant Series.III. The White Ash Series.In 1885 I paid a visit to this Coal Field, with the object of studying its Fossil Flora, hoping by this means to ascertain the relative position of the Welsh Coal Measures to those of the other Coal Fields of Britain.
XXXI.—On the Partition of a Parallelepiped into Tetrahedra, the Corners of which Coincide with Corners of the Parallelepiped
Authors: Brown Crum 
Published: January 2013

It will be convenient first to fix a form of notation for the corners of the cube. With the origin within the cube and rectangular co-ordinates parallel to three edges meeting in a corner, the eight corners lie each in one of the eight octants, and may conveniently and symmetrically be represented thus:—Or, calling any corner A, the corners distant √2 from A (the length of the edge being 1) and taken positively, i.e., contrary to the watch-hand way, as seen from A, are B, C, D (see figures).So that, passing from corner to corner along an edge, we change both letter and sign, along a face diagonal we change letter but not sign, along a body diagonal we change sign but not letter.
I.—On the Volcanic Geology of the Vivarais (Ardêche)
Authors: Forbes James D. 
Published: January 2013

The limited district of country which I am about to describe, is one of those which may rank amongst the least frequented in the civilized part of Europe, yet which might justly claim for France the character of romantic beauty which travellers on her beaten highways commonly, and not without reason, deny to her.The modern department of the Ardêche, corresponding in part to the ancient province of the Vivarais, includes country of very dissimilar features, the southern and eastern part, forming the right bank of the Rhone near Viviers, being comparatively flat; whilst the north-western boundary is the irregular chain of the Cevennes, including the localities more immediately to be described. This chain is not so remarkable for its absolute height, although that be considerable, rising at the Mont Mezenc, in the neighbouring department of the Haute Loire, to an elevation of 5750 English feet above the sea, as from forming the separation of a remarkably elevated tract stretching to the north and west, and which suddenly subsides, at the point of which we now speak, into the wide champaign country of the Lower Rhone, possessing a very different aspect, soil, climate, and population.
VIII.—Note as to the Dynamical Equivalent of Temperature in Liquid Water, and the Specific Heat of Atmospheric Air and Steam, being a Supplement to a Paper On the Mechanical Action of Heat
Authors: Rankine William John Macquorn 
Published: January 2013

(33*.) In my paper on the Mechanical Action of Heat, published in the 1st Part of the 20th Volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, some of the numerical results depend upon the dynamical equivalent of a degree of temperature in liquid water. The value of that quantity which I then used, was calculated from the experiments of De la Roche and Bérard on the apparent specific heat of atmospheric air under constant pressure, as compared with liquid water.The experiments of Mr Joule on the production of heat by friction, give, for the specific heat of liquid water, an equivalent about one-ninth part greater than that which is determined from those of De la Roche and Bérard. I was formerly disposed to ascribe this discrepancy in a great measure to the smallness of the differences of temperature measured by Mr Joule, and to unknown causes of loss of power in his apparatus, such as the production of sound and of electricity; but, subsequently to the publication of my paper, I have seen the detailed account of Mr Joule's last experiments in the Philosophical Transactions for 1850, which has convinced me, that the uncertainty arising from the smallness of the elevations of temperature, is removed by the multitude of experiments (being forty on water, fifty on mercury, and twenty on cast iron); that the agreement amongst the results from substances so different, shews that the error by unknown losses of power is insensible, or nearly so; and that the necessary conclusion is, that the dynamical value assigned by Mr Joule to the specific heat of liquid water, viz.:—772 feet per degree of Fahrenheit, does not err by more than two or at the utmost, three feet; and therefore, that the discrepancy originates chiefly in the experiments of De la Roche and Bérard.
XVIII.—On Torsional Oscillations of Wires
Authors: Peddie W. 
Published: January 2013

About two years ago I communicated to this Society a paper on the above subject, which was printed in the Philosophical Magazine (1894). The object of the investigations therein discussed was the determination of the law of decrease of torsional oscillations when the range of oscillation was large in comparison with the palpable limits of elasticity. An equation of the formwhere y represents the range of oscillation, and x represents the number of oscillations which have taken place since the commencement of the observations in any one experiment, was found to give an exceedingly close representation of the results. The values of the quantities n, a, and b depend on the magnitude of the initial oscillation, and on the previous treatment of the wire. It was also found that, when the oscillations were allowed to die away to a sufficient extent, the value of n tended to diminish. The oscillations were practically isochronous.
XXII.—Observations on the Phonograph
Authors: M'Kendrick John G. 
Published: January 2013

1. Since I had the honour of showing the phonograph to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, at a special meeting in November 1894, the instrument has occupied a good deal of my time and attention, and I now venture to give the general results of the investigation.2. The instrument chiefly studied has been the machine used in this country known as the “Commercial Phonograph.” Any records taken by myself have been obtained with the ordinary apparatus forming part of the “commercial” speaker arm, but I have always reproduced these with the aid of the so-called “musical” arm. The commercial machine, or, to give it a better name, the English model, is so geared that the wax cylinder, inch (197 mm.) in circumference, makes two revolutions in one second, while the spiral grooves described on the cylinder are inch (⅛ mm.) apart. A spiral line about 136 yards in length may be described on the cylinder, and the recording or reproducing point travels over this distance in about six minutes.3. I have also used the American model, which resembles in all essential particulars the one just described, except that the grooves on the cylinder are inch (¼ mm.) instead of .
XXI.—On the Total Eclipse of the Sun, on July 28, 1851, observed at Göteborg; with a Description of a new Position Micrometer
Authors: Swan William 
Published: January 2013

Having long desired to witness a total eclipse of the sun, I resolved to proceed to some place in the line of the moon's shadow, for the purpose of observing that which took place on the 28th of last July.Various reasons induced me to prefer the town of Göteborg in Sweden to any other station. It had interesting historical associations connected with eclipses: and there was something pleasing in the prospect of seeing the red prominences, which excited so much attention at the eclipse of 1842, at the very spot where they were observed, probably for the first time, in 1733; but a more important ground of preference, was its proximity to the central line of the moon's shadow, and its being directly accessible from England.
XXXIII.—Contributions to a Knowledge of the Phenomena of the Zodiacal Light
Authors: Smyth C. Piazzi 
Published: January 2013

When preparing to make a night journey over one of the plains of South Africa, in the month of June 1843, a friend called my attention to the peculiar appearance of the sky in the west, as offering a very decided proof, “agreeably with theory,” that there was no “Solar atmosphere” to be seen at that season of the year.On looking in the direction mentioned, the last portion of the twilight was just visible, and forming a peculiarly level line above the place where the sun had set, for an extent in azimuth, of perhaps 40°, and at a height of about 5°. All the gorgeous colours which had attended the setting of the sun had long since vanished, and there only remained sufficient light within the flattened arc described, to make the space included between it and the horizon appear light blue, while all the rest of the sky had attained a deeper colour, nay was almost black, and thickly spangled with small as well as large stars.