MYTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE. 



81 



snense mass of news and advertise- 

 ments as was now contained in 

 them, had not this invention en- 

 abled them to make use of any size 

 required. By the revolution of 

 the great cylinder employed in the 

 process, an extraordinary degree 

 both of rapidity and convenience 

 in the production is secured. One 

 of its chief advantages is the pre- 

 vention of all risk of combination 

 among the workmen, the machine 

 being so easily managed that the 

 least skilful person can attend to 

 it. It was added, that the inven- 

 tion had caused a remarkable in- 

 crease in the revenue : in the year 

 1800, when this machine was not 

 in existence, the amount of the 

 paper duty was 195,641 ; in 1821, 

 when the machinery was in full 

 operation, the amount of duty was 

 .;79,867 ; in 1835, it was 833,822. 

 No doubt, part of this increase must 

 be set down to other causes ; still, 

 it was impossible, but for this dis- 

 covery, that such a quantity of 

 paper could have been made and, 

 consumed. The positive saving to 

 tjho country effected by it has not 

 been less than 8,000,000; the in- 

 crease in the revenue not less than 

 500,000 a-year. At length, in 

 May, 1840, the sum of 7000 was 

 voted by Parliament to Messrs. 

 Fourdrinier, as some compensation 

 for their loss by the defective state 

 of the patent law. 



In 1839, there was made by this 

 .machinery at Colinton, a single 

 sheet of paper weighing 533 Ibs., 

 .-viiil measuring upwards of a mile 

 And a half in length, the breadth 

 being only 50 inches. Were a 

 ream of paper of similar sheets 

 made, it would weigh 266,500 Ibs. 

 or upwards of 123 tons. (London 

 Anecdotes.) 



ARCHIMEDES AND THE LEVER. 



Archimedes said, "Give me a 

 lever long enough, and a prop 

 .strong enough, and with my own 



weight I will move the world." 

 "But," says Dr. Arnott, "he would 

 havQ required to move with the 

 velocity of a cannon-ball for mil- 

 lions of years, to alter the position 

 of the earth a small part of an 

 inch. This feat of Archimedes is, 

 in mathematical truth, performed 

 by every man who leaps from the 

 ground ; for he kipks the world 

 away from him whenever he rises, 

 and attracts it again when he 

 falls." 



THE DRUMHOND LIGHT. 



The importance of simplicity in 

 inventions for popular use, has 

 been shown in the late Lieutenant 

 Drummond's apparatus for illumi- 

 nating lighthouses with his oxyhy- 

 drogen light ; that is, a stream of 

 oxygen and another of hydrogen, 

 directed upon a ball of lime. Ex- 

 perimentally, the light has suc- 

 ceeded beyond the expectation of 

 the inventor; but the machinery 

 or apparatus remains to be simpli- 

 fied before it can be worked by the 

 keepers of lighthouses. The light 

 is seen at a distance of 60 miles. 



MYTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE. 



M. Arago, in his brilliant eloge 

 on Fourier, observes: "The an- 

 cients had a taste, or rather a pas- 

 sion, for the marvellous, which 

 made them forget the sacred ties 

 of gratitude. Look at them, for 

 instance, collecting into one single 

 group the high deeds of a great 

 number of heroes, whose names 

 they have not even deigned to 

 preserve, and attributing them all 

 to Hercules. The lapse of centu- 

 ries has not made us wiser. The 

 public in our time also delight in 

 mingling fiction witli history. In 

 all careers, particularly in that of 

 the sciences, there is a design to 

 create Herculeses. According to 

 the vulgar opinion, every astrono- 

 mical discovery is attributable to 

 Herschel. The theory of the mo- 



