246 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



experiments in statical electricity; here is a for- 

 midable iron cylinder, which resembles a piece of 

 ordnance, designed for the purpose of solidifying, or 

 rather liquefying, carbonic acid gas, a fashionable 

 experiment twenty years ago. In overturning the 

 dusty contents of the rooms we discover appara- 

 tus illustrative of the discoveries and inventions 

 of each decade. At the commencement of the last, 

 we have the spectroscope. This instrument is 

 probably the first one ever constructed and used in 

 this country. It was made for us by the late Mr. 

 Fitz, of New York, in 1860, immediately upon the 

 appearance of Bunsen's and Kirchhoff's papers 

 upon spectrum analysis. 



A third of a century devoted to the study of the 

 physical sciences, and their practical, experimental 

 investigation, is an interesting period to look back 

 upon. How greatly extended have been the 

 boundaries of human knowledge, how vast and 

 sublime the results of scientific labor and re- 

 search ! How many important and useful dis- 

 coveries and inventions have had their birth and 

 development in that period ! We have lived to 

 see a thousand timid, hesitating suggestions in 

 science ripen into demonstrated facts ; to see a 

 thousand important truths snatched from the do- 

 main of surmise, conjecture, or doubt, and trans- 

 ferred to that of established, unquestioned cer- 

 tainty. 



