SCIENCE, INVENTION, DISCOVERY. 



311 



is the case with the diamond drill, the atmos- 

 pheric engine is either a rotary or reciprocat- 

 ing one. Compressed air is also used with 

 steam as a "motor. Air when compressed 

 greatly becomes very hot, and if it is then 

 forced through hot water it becomes saturated 

 with steam, and this steam and air are found 

 to have enormous expansive power. This 

 motive-power has been very successfully ap- 

 plied to the propulsion of street cars. In the 

 working of electric-light machinery compressed 

 air is used to a considerable extent. 



Copernican System, The, is that which 

 represents the sun to be at rest in the center of 

 the universe, and ~the earth and planets to 

 move round it as a center. It got its name 

 from Copernicus, who (although some vague 

 general notion of the system seems to be due 

 to Pythagoras) first distinctly drew the atten- 

 tion of philosophers to it, and devoted his life 

 to its demonstration. For the rest, the glory 

 of developing on the lines he broadly laid 

 down, belongs to Kepler, Galileo, and others, 

 and to Newton, who finally marked out the 

 form of modern theoretical astronomy. Many 

 who reverence the name of Copernicus in con- 

 nection with this system, would be surprised 

 to find, on perusing his work, how much of 

 error, unsound reasoning, and happy conjec- 

 ture combined to secure for him in all time 

 the association of the system with his name ; 

 yet, with all its faults, that work marks one 

 of the greatest steps ever taken in science. 



Corsets. An article of dress somewhat re- 

 sembling the corsets now worn by women was 

 used in Germany and France as early as the 

 thirteenth centuiy, and it found its way into 

 England in the latter half of the fourteenth 

 century. It contained rods and plates of whale- 

 bone and steel, and was designed, we are told, 

 to conceal the defects and exaggerate the beau- 

 ties of the figure. This stift" arrangement was 

 discarded at the time of the French Revolution 

 owing to the Greek costume having been 

 brought into vogue, arid its place was taken by 

 a smoothly fitting under waist. 



Cotton, a vegetable wool, is the product of 

 a shrub* indigenous to the tropical regions of 

 India and America. Indian cotton cloth is 

 mentioned by Herodotus, was known in Arabia 

 in the time of Mahomet 627, and was brought 

 into Europe by his followers. It does not ap- 

 pear to have been in use among the Chinese 

 till the thirteenth century ; to them we are in- 

 debted for the cotton fabric termed nankeen. 

 Cotton was the material of the principal 

 articles of clothing among the American In- 

 dians, when visited by Columbus. It was 

 grown and manufactured in Spain in the tenth 

 century ; and iu the fourteenth century was in- 



troduced into Italy. Indian muslins, chintzes, 

 and cottons were so largely imported into 

 England in the seventeenth century, that an 

 act of parliament followed prohibiting their 

 introduction. Cotton became the staple com- 

 modity of England in the present century. 

 First cotton factory in America established at 

 East Bridgewater, Mass., 1787. First power 

 looms in the United States, 1813. The method 

 of spinning cotton was formerly by hand ; 

 but about 1767 Mr. Hargraves, of Lancashire 

 invented the spinning jenny with eight spin- 

 dles ; he also erected the first carding machine 

 with cylinders. Sir Richard Arkwright ob- 

 tained a patent for a new invention of ma- 

 chinery in 1769 ; and another patent for an 

 engine in 1775. Crompton invented the mule, 

 a further and wonderful improvement in the 

 manufacture of cotton in 1779, and various 

 other improvements have been since made. 

 In 1793, Eli Whitney, an American, invented 

 the cotton gin, a machine by which cotton 

 wool is separated from the pod and cleaned 

 with great ease and expedition. 



Cremation. The reduction of the hu- 

 man body to ashes by fire was a very early and 

 widespread usage of antiquity. The early Ar- 

 yans, as opposed to the non- Aryan aborigines 

 of India, Greeks, Romans, Sclavs, Celts, and 

 Germans, burned their dead ; therefore crema- 

 tion may be regarded as the universal custom 

 of the Indo-European rac.es. The graves of 

 North Europe throughout the < ' bronze age ' ' 

 contain only jars of ashes. The advocates of 

 disposing of the dead by cremation are at the 

 present time numerous, their principal argu- 

 ments in favor of it being of a sanitary nature. 

 According to the method which is most fa- 

 vored by modern cremationists, the body is 

 placed in an oblong brick or iron-cased cham- 

 ber, underneath which is a furnace. The air 

 of the chamber is raised to a very high tem- 

 perature before the body is put in, and a stream 

 of heated hydro-carbon from a gasometer is 

 then admitted, which on contact with in- 

 tensely-heated air within immediately bursts 

 into flame. The chamber is, of course, so 

 constructed as neither to admit draughts of an 

 from without nor to permit the escape of gas 

 from within. The noxious gases which aie 

 evolved in the beginning of the combustion 

 process are passed through a flue into a second 

 furnace, where they are entirely consumed. 

 By this process a body weighing 144 pcrunds 

 can be reduced in about fifty minutes to not 

 more than four pounds of lime-dust. In the 

 cremation of each body about 200 pounds of 

 fuel is used. 



Crockery. The materials used in the 

 ' manufacture of crockery are kaolin, pipe-clay, 



