TABLES OF CONSTANTS OF NATURE AND ART, 289 



ON TABLES OF THE CONSTANTS OF NATURE AND ART. 



BY CHARLES BABBAGB. 



Amongst those works of science which are too large and too labori- 

 ous for individual efforts, and are therefore fit objects to be undertaken 

 by united institutions, I wish to point out one which seems eminently 

 necessary at the present time, and which would be of the greatest 

 advantage to all classes of the scientific world. 



I would propose that its title should be '^The Constants of Nature 

 and of Art." It ought to contain all those facts which can be ex- 

 pressed by numbers in the various sciences and arts. A better idea 

 will be formed by giving an outline of its proposed contents, and it 

 may, perhaps, be useful to indicate the sources whence much of the 

 information may be drawn. 



These constants should consist of — 



1. All the constant quantities belonging to our system : as distance 

 of each planet ; period of revolution ; inclination of orbit, etc. ; pro- 

 portion of light received from sun ; force of gravity on surface of each. 



These need not be further enumerated, as they have already been 

 collected, and need only be copied.* 



2. The atomic weights of bodies. 



These may be taken from Berzelius, Thompson, or Turner. 

 The proportions of the elements of various compounds ; acids with 

 bases ; metals with oxygen, etc. 



These may be taken from the best treatises on chemistry. 



3. A list of metals, with columns containing specific gravity, elas- 

 ticity, tenacity, specific heat, conducting power of heat, conducting 

 power of electricity, melting point, refractive power, proportion of 

 rays reflected out of 1,000, at an incidence of 90°. 



List of specific gravities of all bodies. 



4. List of refractive indices. 



dispersive indices, 

 polarizing angles. 



4. List of angle formed by the axes of double refraction in crystals. 



. * A work of this kind, embodying the results of eicence, has been projected for sometime 

 by M. PoggendorfF, of Berlin, and a specimen of it may be seen in his Jinnalen, xxi, p. 603 



19 s 



