635 



VACUUM. 



VAGRANT. 



626 



considered, accept these numbers as fair expressions of the minute 

 quantities of matter they are intended to represent. 



Mr. Grove (' Phil. Trans.' and ' Phil. Mag.,' 1852) having originally 

 observed a peculiar striation in electric discharges taken in a well- 

 exhausted air-pump receiver, apparatus in some respects similar to 

 that employed by Davy has been constructed by Mr. Gassiot, for the 

 further investigation of that phenomenon as observed in Torricellian 

 vacua, and partly by means of a process devised by the late Mr. John 

 Welsh (' Phil. Trans.' 1856, p. 507), he has produced more perfect 

 Torricellian vacua than any before obtained. 'Phil. Trans.,' 1858, 

 pp. 3, 5. 



In the continuation of the researches which these experiments of 

 Mr. Grove and Mr. Gassiot initiated, the united science and ingenuity 

 of several physicists, chemists, and mechanicians, have produced vacua 

 still more perfect, that is, still more devoid of ordinary or ponderable 

 matter ; more strictly again, spaces in which a smaller amount of such 

 matter existed than in any obtained before, and probably greatly 

 exceeding in this respect the most perfect Torricellian vacua previously 

 experimented with t.y the old electricians, and by Davy, as well as 

 those first employe I by Mr. Gassiot himself. For the purpose of 

 obtaining them, a method bus been adopted, often indicated, and to a 

 certain extent employed, in chemical and physical research, but now 

 pursued with much greater care and refinement, and with all the 

 resources to ensure accuracy which the most delicate operations of 

 modern chemistry can supply. The vacuum tubes to which we now 

 allude appear to have been first constructed about 1857, by M. Geissler, 

 of Bonn, and the vacua obtained by an application of the method 

 alluded to, but which, it is understood, he has not precisely explained. 

 Mr. Gassiot, desirous of knowing, during the progress of the experi- 

 mental research upon which he had entered, the exact conditions under 

 which each particular vacuum had been obtained, and finding that 

 there was some uncertainty in the description of those he had obtained 

 from M. Gei.-aler, employed Mr. CaseUa to construct above 100 new 

 tubes, each of which, however, was charged and exhausted by himself 

 or in his presence. Kach tube was filled, in the first instance, with 

 atmospheric air, hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen, then exhausted by a 

 good air-pump ; another supply of air or of gas admitted, and the tube 

 again exhausted ; after the repetition of this process two or three times, 

 mercury was introduced, aud the tube finally exhausted as a Torri- 

 cellian vacuum, aud lastly hermetically sealed ; the attenuated medium 

 within thus being mercurial vapour, plus the remains of air or of the 

 gas with which the tube had been originally filled. 



Tested by the appearance of the electrical discharge from the 

 Ruhmkorff inductive coil, found by Mr. Gassiot in these researches to 

 be the moat delicate of all tests of the presence of ponderable matter, 

 these vacuum-tubes were at length ascertained to be void even of the 

 slightest trace of air or gas, mercurial vapour alone remaining. But 

 the progress of the investigation required that this also should be 

 removed, and a still nearer approach to empty space obtained. This 

 was effected by a refined modification of Dr. Andrews's process already 

 described, suggested by Dr. Frankland ; tubes, into which caustic 

 potash had been introduced, being repeatedly filled with carbonic acid 

 and exhausted ; finally exhausted to the utmost limit of the capability 

 of the air-pump, and sealed. These were found, on the application of 

 the electrical test, to be far more perfect vacua than the Torricellian, 

 and when the infinitesimally rare included atmosphere of carbonic 

 acid gas was exposed to the action of a large surface of hydrate of 

 potash, the vacuum no longer permitted the electrical discharge to 

 pass, a result first obtained by Mr. Gaasiot, and in these researches ; 

 when the potash was heated, more ponderable matter being diffused in 

 the tube, the discharge again passed ; but on allowing it to cool, 

 the tube resumed its insulating state. These results were given 

 by a tube 40 inches long and 1' inch internal diameter. An 

 excellent carbonic-acid vacuum was obtained by the same method 

 in an egg-shaped veosel, 22 inches long and 7 inches in its greatest 

 diameter ; but this did not insulate the discharge, judging from the 

 appearance of which, this vacuum may be inferred to be about equal, 

 though in so large a vessel, to the best Torricellian vacuum in com- 

 paratively narrow tubes. The minute fraction of ponderable matter pre- 

 sent does not appear to have been calculated in any of these instances. 

 This is the nearest approach to a true physical vacuum that science 

 has yet succeeded in producing. Mr. Gassiot concludes his paper with 

 the remark adopting a suggestion made by Mr. Brayley " The fact 

 that a vacuum so perfect can be obtained in a closed vessel containing 

 uch a substance as hydrate of potassa, would excite a hope that the 

 limit to vaporation (vaporisation), the existence of which Faraday and 

 others have, if not proved, at least rendered so probable, may be 

 determined, and even its consequences exhibited by direct experiment." 

 (' Hliil. Trans.,' 1858, p. 157.) 



Such is the present condition of this "subject, one of the most in- 

 teresting and most extensive in its philosophical applications which 

 nil tlji- attention of the physicist and the chemist. The bearings 

 of Mr. Gassiot's results, and of those obtained by other experimenters 

 with similar apparatus, on the nature and theory of electricity, how- 

 ever important, are foreign to the object of this article. But the 

 terms in which they have been described and the reasoning which has 

 been founded upon them, involve a subject which is strictly within 

 it* scope. We conceive that the true and immediate induction from 



these results, is, in general terms, that in consequence of the diminu- 

 tion in density of the media through which the electricity has to pass 

 that is, of the diminution of the quantity of matter contained in a 

 given space certain properties of electricity are exhibited in a manner 

 which a denser medium precludes it from manifesting : that this takes 

 place up to a certain point of rarefaction, through which, if electricity 

 can pass at all, greater intensity is required ; or it may even be that a 

 vacuum absolutely free from ponderable matter, which luminous 

 electricity requires for its production and convection, has been tempo- 

 rarily obtained. Considering the nature aud circumstances of the 

 vessels and materials by which only it can be obtained, it must necessa- 

 rily be temporary only. But the results have been described and 

 reasoned from .(originally, we believe, on account of certain views 

 respecting the nature of matter entertained by Mr. Grove, to which we 

 have elsewhere adverted), as if they depended, not on the removal of 

 ponderable matter, but on its presence in an increased degree and with 

 increased causation of phenomena. But in proportion to the com- 

 pleteness with which such matter is removed from an inclosed space, 

 the ether which it still contains will be more free to exhibit its pecu- 

 liar properties, unimpaired by the presence of an inferior and grosser 

 form of matter ; and the phenomena which have been attributed to 

 " attenuated (ordinary) matter," ought, we conceive, to be ascribed to 

 the unincumbered ether which remains. The fact that a certain 

 amount of ordinary matter is essential to the manifestation of any 

 sensible effects whatever by the electricity does not militate against 

 this conclusion. It should be so. The conduction, or the convection 

 by induction, of electricity belongs to ordinary matter, while the 

 reception and transmission of impressions from it in the form of light 

 and heat,'belong to the higher order of matter, the ether. 



VAGABOND. [VAGRANT.] 



VAGRANT. This term, which in its etymological meaning simply 

 denotes " a wandering person," is obviously derived from the Latin 

 i-fii/'i. It was probably introduced into our law language from the 

 Norman French ; the phrase " ruyeruntz de lieu en lieu currants per 

 paii " occurring in our early statutes in the sense in which the word 

 ' vagrant " is used in common language at the present day. (Stat. 7 

 Ric. II., c. 5 ) The persons to whom it is applied in ancient documents 

 are usually classed with " faitours," (a word of doubtful origin, but 

 meaning an idle liver or slothful person : Cowell's ' Interpreter ; ' 

 Kelham's 'Dictionary,') "travelyug-tnen," and "vagabonds." The 

 latter expression, " vagabundus," was known throughout Europe in 

 connection with feudal law, and is interpreted to mean " crebro vagans, 

 cui nee certum domicilium, nee conshins habitatio est." (Calvini 

 ' Lexic. .lurid.') It was used in this sense in English law as early as 

 the reign of Henry II. (Cowell's ' Interpreter.') Modern laws have 

 however given to the word " vagrant " a much more extended meaning, 

 in the application of which the notion of wandering is entirely lost. 



In the course of the transition made by the lower classes of society 

 from the condition of feudal villeins to that of free labourers, vagrancy 

 and mendicity necessarily ensued from the unsettled state of the poor ; 

 and in most countries where feuds had prevailed, severe laws were 

 made to repress the evils which sprung from this source. In England 

 various statutes and ordinances passed from time to time to obviate 

 the inconveniences arising from wandering mendicancy. The earliest 

 of these was a statute of ordinance, made in the 23rd year of Edward 

 III. (1349), commonly called the Statute of Labourers, which, after 

 reciting that " many sturdy beggars (validi mendicantes) were enabled 

 by the gains of begging to live, and to devote themselves to pleasures 

 and sins, and sometimes to thefts and other crimes," forbade "all 

 persons, on pain of imprisonment, to give anything under colour of 

 piety or charity to such as were able to labour." In 1366 there is a 

 petition of the Commons complaining of wandering artificers and 

 servants becoming beggars in order to support an idle life, and praying 

 that it might be forbidden under a penalty for any one to give alms or 

 sustenance to any such idle beggars ; and that they should be appre- 

 hended and put in the stocks or sent to jail until they found surety for 

 their return to their own country. (' Rolls of Parliament,' vol. i., p. 

 340.) The auswer to this petition does not appear : but a few years 

 afterwards a statute was passed making it (almost in the language of 

 the petition) penal for artificers, servants in husbandry, and others, 

 without a special licence, to quit the town, hundred, or wapentake in 

 which they lived, to live and work in another town, hundred, or 

 wapentake ; and persons found vagrant (rayarant) without such 

 licence might be placed in the stocks and imprisoned by the local 

 authorities, until they found security for their return to the place to 

 which they properly belonged. (Stat. 12 Ric. II., c. 3.) It was also 

 enacted that " those who were able to work and went begging should 

 be dealt with as persons travelling without a licence, and that beggars 

 unable to work, dwelling in cities or towns, should remain in such 

 cities or towns ; that if such cities and towns were unable to support 

 them, they should be taken to other places within the same hundred or 

 wapentake, or to the place of their birth, and there remain during 

 their lives." (Stat. 12 Ric. II., c. 7.) And it was probably upon the 

 principle declared by these laws, that in the 16th century it was held 

 to be lawful for any person to arrest and send to jail a man " found 

 wandering (vayai-ant) in such manner that it is unknown how he gets 

 his living." (' Year Book,' 9 Edw. IV., c. 27.) A statute which was 

 passed in 1494 declared that all "vagabonds, idle and suspected 



