80 



ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



mena, and in a short time they might have been 

 forgotten as a vision of the night. But such 

 scientific rninds as those of Valli, Volta, Monro, 

 Bowler, Davy, Humboldt and Wollaston, having 

 seixed upon these facts, having contemplated 

 them in every point of view, and instituted ex 

 periments of every description in relation to 

 them most astonishing discoveries in science 

 have been brought to light the whole aspect of 

 chymistry has been changed, and numerous im 

 provements introduced into the practice of the 

 useful arts. Alkalis have been decomposed, 

 new metallic substances discovered, the cause 

 of the corrosion of metals ascertained, and the 

 means determined by which it may be effectu 

 ally prevented. 



It is a truth which the whole history of sci 

 ence fully corroborates, that very few important 

 discoveries have been made by accident or by 

 ignorant persons, whose minds were not di 

 rected to the particular object of research. On 

 the other hand, we have every reason to believe, 

 that there are many facts and circumstances 

 which have passed under the inspection of un 

 tutored minds, which, had they come within the 

 range of men of science, would have led to many 

 useful inventions which are yet hid in the womb 

 of futurity, and which will reward the industry 

 of more enlightened generations. The inven 

 tions to which we have now adverted, and many 

 others, where chance suggested the first rude 

 hints, would, in all probability, have lain for ages 

 in obscurity, without any real utility to mankind, 

 had not the genius of science seized upon them, 

 viewed them in all their bearings, and traced 

 them to all their legitimate consequences and re 

 sults. Had the telescope, the steam engine, 

 and the mariner s compass, in their first embryo 

 state, remained solely in the hands of ignorant 

 empirics, they might have been reserved merely 

 as play-things for the purpose of vulgar amuse 

 ment, or exhibited by cunning impostors to aid 

 their deceptions, or to produce a belief of their 

 supernatural powers. But science snatched 

 them from the hands of the ignorant and the de 

 signing, and having added the requisite improve 

 ments, bequeathed them to mankind as the 

 means of future advancement in the paths of 

 knowledge, and in the practice of the arts. 



It may be laid down as a kind of axiom, to 

 which few exceptions will occur, that great dis 

 coveries in science and improvements in art are 

 never to be expected but as the result of know 

 ledge combined with unwearied investigation, 

 This axiom might be illustrated, were it neces 

 sary, from what we know of the past history of 

 our most useful inventions. The celebrated M. 

 Huygens, who first discovered the means of ren 

 dering clocks exact by applying the pendulum, 

 and rendering all its vibrations equal by the cy 

 cloid was one of the first mathematicians and 

 astronomers of his age. He had long kept the 



object of his pursuit before his mind, he plied 

 his mechanical ingenuity in adapting tho ma 

 chinery of a clock to the maintaining of *he vi 

 brations of a pendulum, and by his mathemati 

 cal knowledge investigated the theory of its 

 motion. By the aid of a new department of 

 geometrical science, invented by himself, he 

 showed how to make a pendulum swing in a cy 

 cloid, and that its vibrations in this curve are all 

 performed in equal times, whatever be their ex 

 tent. The ingenious Mr. Robert Hooke, who 

 was the inventor of spring or pocket watches, 

 arid of several astronomical instruments fur mak 

 ing observations both at sea and land was 

 eminently distinguished for his philosophical and 

 mathematical acquirements. From his earliest 

 years he discovered a genius for mechanics, and 

 all his other knowledge was brought to bear upon 

 his numerous inventions and contrivances. 

 Otto Guerieke, who invented the Air-pump, was 

 one of the first mathematicians of his time ; and 

 the Honourable Robert Boyle, who improved this 

 valuable instrument, was one of the most illus 

 trious philosophers of the age and country in 

 which he lived. Mr. Ferguson, the inventor of 

 several orreries, the astronomiaal rotula, the 

 eclipsarian, the. mechanical paradox, and othe 

 astronomical machinery, had, from his earliest 

 years, devoted the greatest part of his time to 

 the study of mechanics, and the physical and 

 mathematical sciences with which it is con 

 nected, as appears from the numerous populai 

 works which he published on these subjects 

 which are still in extensive circulation. The 

 late Mr. Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning 

 jennies, devoted many years to the study of me 

 chanics and to the improvement of his inven 

 tion, till he was perfectly conversant in every 

 thing that relates to the construction of ma 

 chinery. This admirable invention, by which a 

 pound of the finest cotton has been spun by ma 

 chinery into a yarn extending more than 119 

 miles, was not the result of chance, but of the 

 most unwearied study and attention in regard tc&amp;gt; 

 every circumstance which had a bearing on the 

 object of his pursuit: and as he nad not ori 

 ginally received any thing like a regular scien 

 tific education, his acquirements were the result 

 of his own application and industry. &quot; The 

 new process of refining sugar, by which more 

 money has been made in a shorter time, and with 

 less risk and trouble, than was ever perhaps 

 gained from an invention, was discovered by an 

 accomplished chymist, E.Howard, brother of 

 the Duke of Norfolk, and was the fruit of a long 

 course of experiments, in the progress of which, 

 known philosophical principles were constantly 

 applied, and one or two new principles ascer 

 tained.&quot; 



There are few inventions of modern times 

 tl at have been more directly the result of phi 

 losophical knowledge and experiment, than thr 



