341 1 



GALVANOMETER 



1809 he travelled abroad on busi- 

 ness, meeting Byron on his travels. 

 In 1813 he issued his Letters from 

 the Levant, and 

 in' 1821 The 

 Annals of the 

 Parish, his best 

 known book. 

 There followed 

 The Entail. 

 1 823; The 

 Omen, 1825; 

 and The Last 

 of the Lairds, 

 1826. The 

 years 1826-29 

 he spent in Canada as agent of 

 the Canada Company. Later he 

 brought out Lawrie Todd, 1830, 

 and Boyle Corbet, 1831, novels of 

 settler Ufe in America, and a Life 

 of Lord Byron, 1830. He died 

 April 11, 1839. 



Galton, SFR DOUGLAS STRUTT 

 (1822-99). British scientist. Born 

 July 2, 1822, and educated at 

 Geneva and 

 Rugby, he 

 entered the 

 Royal Engi 

 neers from 

 Woolwich in 

 1840. After 

 serving in the 

 Mediterranean 

 he, in 1846, 



Sir Douglas Galton, joined the ord- 

 British scientist nance survey. 



Elliott A fry ^ 1847 he be . 



came secretary to the rly. com- 

 mission, and in 1854 secretary of 

 the rly. dept. of the board of trade. 

 From 1860-69 he was at the war 

 office, being appointed assistant 

 under-secretary for war, 1862. 

 Thence he was transferred to the 

 office of works as director of public 

 works and buildings, retiring in 

 1875. Galton had many interests, 

 particularly in physical science, 

 Red Cross work, and education, but 

 he is best remembered as an expert 

 on sanitation and hygiene. He was 

 given the K.C.B. in 1887, and died 

 in London, March 18, 1899. 



Galton, SIR FRANCIS (1822- 

 1911). British anthropologist and 

 meteorologist. Born near Bir- 



m i n g h a m, - -. 



Feb. 16, 1822, ? 

 a cousin of I 

 Charles Dar- 

 win,he studied 

 medicine, 

 travelled i n 

 the Sudan, 

 1846, and ex 

 plored Dama- 

 raland, 1850. 

 He formulated 

 the theory of anticyclones and new 

 methods of weather-charting, em- 

 bodied in Meteorographica, 1863, 

 from which arose his long associa- 



tion with the Meteorological Coun- 

 cil. His works, Hereditary Genius, 

 1869, and Inquiries into Human 

 Faculty, 1883, established the 

 principles of what he termed 

 eugenics, in furtherance of which 

 he founded a laboratory, 1904, 

 bequeathing 45,000 for a chair in 

 London. He devised composite 

 portraiture and systematised finger- 

 print methods. He was knighted 

 in 1909, and died Jan. 17, 1911. 

 See Finger Print ; consult also 

 Memories of My Life, 1908. 



Galtonia. Small genus of bulb- 

 ous herbs of the natural order 

 Liliaceae. Natives of S. Africa, 



~n 



Sir Francis Galtou, 

 British scientist 



ttaltoma leaf and truss of bell-shaped 

 flowers 



they have more or less erect strap- 

 shaped leaves, about 30 ins. long. 

 They have also a tall scape (4 ft.) 

 bearing at its summit a loose truss 

 of drooping bells which, in the case 

 of G. candicans, the best known of 

 the two species, are pure white 

 and fragrant. 



Galty OR GALTEE. Range of mts. 

 in Ireland. It extends for 15 m. 

 in an E. to W. direction through 

 the counties of Tipperary and 

 Limerick. Galtymore, the highest 

 peak, attains 3,015 ft. 



Galvani, LUIGI (1737-98). Ita- 

 lian physiologist. Born at Bologna, 

 Italy, Sept. 9, 1737, he became, in 

 1762, professor . ^.^^, .^ 

 of anatomy at :' 

 Bologna Uni- 

 versity, resign- 

 ing,for political 

 reasons, in ^ 

 1797. By, Tfr 

 v x p e ri m e n t, i^ 

 largely on I 

 frogs, he dis- tE 

 covered animal 

 electricity, and 

 h i s investiga- 

 tions are commemorated in certain 

 electrical manifestations and terms, 

 e.g. galvanism and galvanometer. 

 His work On the Force of Elec- 

 tricity in Muscular Movement was 

 published in 1791. He died Dec. 4, 

 1798. His collected works were 

 published at Bologna, 1841-42. ; 



Galvanic Battery. Name given 

 to a cell for producing electricity by 

 chemical action. The name voltaic 

 cell is now generally used in place 

 of galvanic battery. Both names 

 are derived from those of the elec- 

 trical pioneers, Galvani and Volta. 

 See Cell. 



Galvanising. Method of coat- 

 ing iron with zino. It was devised by 

 Paul Jacques Malouin, the French 

 chemist, in 1742. In galvanising, 

 the zinc coating does not merely 

 lie on the surface of the iron as a 

 sheet of paper might, but actually 

 combines or alloys with the iron, 

 penetrating the latter to an appre- 

 ciable extent. The modern process 

 is in all essentials as proposed by 

 Malouin, the principal departure 

 being the use of sal-ammoniac as a 

 covering to the molten zinc and as 

 a flux, a modification patented by 

 H. W. Crawfurd in 1837. 



To-day the process is chiefly ap- 

 plied to the coating of thin sheets of 

 iron or steel intended to be used for 

 roofing and other building purposes, 

 and to wire. Sheets are usually de- 

 livered black with the scale on 

 them to the galvanising works, 

 where the scale is removed, then 

 dipped in a " pickle " of hydro- 

 chloric acid or hot sulphuric acid, 

 withdrawn, washed with water, 

 often rubbed with sand, and then 

 passed through a bath of molten 

 zinc covered with sal-ammoniac 

 As the sheets emerge they are 

 scrubbed with revolving wire 

 brushes. When desired, the sheets 

 are subsequently corrugated. Wire 

 for galvanising is reeled continu- 

 ously through both the pickle 

 trough and the zinc bath. Wire net- 

 ting is woven while black and then 

 galvanised. For the best sheets a 

 small percentage of tin 2 p.c. to 

 3 p.c. is added to the zinc. The 

 proportion of zino taken up by the 

 metal may range from 25 p.c. in 

 the case of fine wire to 6 p.c. in 

 anchors, chains, and other large 

 objects. 



Galvanised sheets, though ex- 

 tremely useful, cannot be employed 

 in contact with acids or caustic 

 alkalis or for the preparation of 

 containers for food products where 

 organic acids may be present. Even 

 the ordinary atmosphere of a 

 manufacturing town, containing, 

 as it may, appreciable quantities 

 of sulphurous gases and moisture, 

 will attack them. See Zinc. 



Galvanometer. Instrument for 

 detecting the passage of an electric 

 current, or, in its refined form, for 

 measuring small electric currents. 



A simple galvanometer consists 

 of a light, magnetised "needle" 

 swinging freely on a pivot and sur- 

 rounded by a coil of insulated 

 copper wire. If an electric current 



