THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Dec. 



Dundrum Bay, beaten and buffetted by wind ami tide, as afoiesaid, and 

 that she is reserved for further amateur experiments. 



As no lives have as yet been lost in these experiments, one would not crum- 

 ble at their having been carried on with a view to the advancement of prac- 

 tical science, if they had been conducted with some regard to economy. But 

 what is chiefly to be complained of is, that experience has been purchased at 

 to dear a rate. Fifty thousands to a hundred and twenty thousands of 

 pounds are not trifling sums to pay in experimenting. Are we to suppose 

 that engineers like Watt, iMaudslay, Miller, Seawards, Penn, or Napier, ac- 

 quired in a day the experience necessary for the conslrnctinn of marine engines 

 of from 500 to 1000 horse power.' Amau must flatter his inventive talents 

 most outrageously if he supposes that they can compete against the accvmu- 

 lated knowledge of others, who, even if for argument sake we suppose them 

 greatly inferior in individual capacity, have yet been working together for 

 years in the same pursuits. It is impossible to imagine that the abilities of 

 one man can ever so greatly surpass those of the rest of mankind as to enable 

 him to contend against the long-continued and co-operating efforts of his 

 fellow labourers. M"e do not wish to give to experience more than its due 

 share of merit ; but it is obvious to every one who knows any thing of marine 

 engines, that the most profound scientific knowledge, and the most brilliant 

 inventive talents, will not alone constitute a practical engineer. Long, labo- 

 rious, even painful, experience must be superadded. 



That every man is to be trusted in his own art — cuiqite in sua arte creden- 

 dum est is a proverbial expression, aud like other proverbial expressions in- 

 volves both truth and falsehood. The man who is constantly in practice of 

 the technical rules of bis profession, and who trusts to his experience alone, 

 will frequently become the slave of routine. He has got into fixed habits of 

 thought — like the mill-horse he can only go his round : and a valuable idea 

 which would occur to a mere bystander may be overlooked liy him. The 

 extra-professional suggestions of clever amateurs or men of science are not 

 discouraged : and the professional superciliousness with which such sugges- 

 tions are frequently met is destestable. But there is a great diflTerence be- 

 tween encouraging the suggestions of inexperienced persons, and suffering 

 such persons to carry out their ideas independently of professional control ; 

 especially when the works undertaken are of such magnitude as the Sidoi, 

 the Great Korthern, or the Great Britain. 



THE NEW PLANET. 



The dispute respecting the discovery of the new planet is likely to be 

 brought to a satisfactory termination. At a meeting of the Astronomical 

 Society, held during tlie last mouth, the Astronomer- Rojal read a paper, 

 tracing the iuvestigalions from the commencement, and distinctly assigning 

 to Mr. Adams his priority of right and title to the liiscovery. Profesor 

 Airy has beeu iu correspondence with both M. Le Verrierand Mr. Adams, 

 and his paper was supported throughout by original letters and other 

 authentic documents, of which the dates are indisputable. He allows 

 fully to JI. Le Verrier the merit of having performed his investigations in- 

 dependently, and of having, in the first instance, anuoiinced his results in a 

 more public manner than Mr. Adams. The latter contented himself with 

 depositing iu the Greenwich and Cambridge observatories the calculations 

 necessary to facilitate the search for the planet with the telescope. 



It is very important to remark, that the calculations of Mr. Adams were 

 not only the earliest, but by far the most ample aud recondite. M. Le 

 A'errier contented himself with publishing last June the heliocentric longi- 

 tude of the planet. In addition to this, Mr. Adams announced its mass, 

 longitude nf fierihclion, and eccentricity — infinitely more difiicult and com- 

 plicated investigmions than those to which JI. Le Verrier restricted him- 

 self. No one would wish to detract from the merit of the latter, but to 

 compare bis labours with those of his scientific opponent would be ridi- 

 culous. 



It is very gratifying to learn that the paper read by the Astronomer- 

 Royal, and Mr. Adams's investigations, are about to be published. The 

 world will then have the opportunity of examining the two independent in- 

 vestigations. Hen of scicuce will confine themselves to the examination 

 of them on their own merits, irrespectively of all considerations of the 

 time when they were made, and we doubt not that even the French philo- 

 sophers will allow the superiority, iu this respect, of the claims of the 

 Enj^lishman. The publication of the paper read by the Aslrouomer-Royal 



will also confirm, on the highest authority, the assertion made in these pages 

 last mouth, that Mr. AdaiLs's claims were prior iu point of time, as well as 

 intrinsic merit. 



The opponents of this view of the question are now shifting their mode 

 of attack — a sure sign that they are losing ground. They say that the 

 announcement to the French Academy was »nort public than that to the 

 English astronomers, and that according to a conventional rule in these 

 matters, the discovery belongs to him who makes his announcement in the 

 most public manner. But what more could be required of Mr. Adams 

 than that he should deposit his results in the principal public observatories 

 of Great Britain? He made kno^^n his discoveries to the Astronomer- 

 Rojal, and through him to the whole body of English astronomers— Sir 

 John ilerschell, for instance, was perfectly aware of .\lr. Adams's investi- 

 gation, though the information reached him in no other way than through 

 the Greenwich observatory, besides, the papers were deposited in the 

 very places where alone the requisite telescopic observations could be un- 

 dertaken. Had Mr. Adams the least suspicion that any attempt would he 

 made to wrest his rights from hira, he might, with the greatest ease, have 

 precluded the attempt effictually. The Fren< 'i Academy may hug their 

 self-conceit, and extol M. Le Verrier for having flattered it by addressing 

 his commuuic'ition to them ; but let them not accuse Mr. Adams because 

 he has not imitated this course, but acted more soberly and quietly. The 

 publiraliiin made by him was quite sufficient for all useful purposes— not 

 quite suRicient, it seems, for show and ostentation. 



Many great matiiematical discoveries have heretofore been communicated 

 in a far more private way, aud yet the claims of the discoverer remaio 

 inconlestible. John Bernoulli first announced the general principle of 

 Virtual Velocities iu a private letter to Varignon. Is therefore tiie merit 

 of his discovery the less because hf stated it through the medium of ordi- 

 nary correspondence? The different modes T making a discovery known 

 are comparatively trifling ; and certainly if in the case belbre us a com- 

 parison must be made, it results in favour of Mr. Adams, who chose the 

 method most advantageous — not to his own fame — but to the interests of 

 science. 



There is one consideration however which may perfectly satisfy us in 

 all these disputes. Whatever discussion may now exist as to the proper 

 conventional method of making known a discovc.y, posterity will concern 

 itself little in a debate so trifling and artiScal. Future generations of 

 philosophers will be more anxious to know the author of the discovery, 

 than the etiquette which ought to be observed on the occasion. These 

 foolish ephemeral quibbles will be forgotten with the authors of them; 

 and the great sterling fact will alone remain, that our countryman was the 

 first man in the history of the world who looked into the firmament 

 with prophetic sight, and discerned there a new world — weighed it, 

 measured it, and traced the course of it, while as yet unseen by human 

 eye. 



One of the magazines spe.iks of Mr. Adams as an under-graduate ! It 

 is provoking that these " sciutific journals" do not confine themselves to 

 subjects of which they Icljw a little. Mr. Adams look his degree as 

 senior wrangler, is fellow and lecturer of St. John's, and tht University 

 moderator fur next year. 



The following may be relied upon as an accii ate sketch of the history 

 of Mr. Adams's labours. We should not perhnps be justified in slating the 

 authority for this statement, but the reader may be assured of the accuracy 

 of the dates. The resolution of endeavouring to account for the perturba- 

 tions of the motion of Uranus by the action of another planet, was first 

 formed by Mr. 4danis iu the year 1841 ; and it appears, from memoranda, 

 that finding, in the summer of that year, the labour of calculation to be 

 so great, that, if undertaken at that time, it would seriously interfere with 

 his academical studies, he resolved to defer, until after taking his degree, 

 the investigation which was to determine approximatively the place of the 

 disturbing planet, aud thus assist astronomers in discovering it by actual 

 observation. In the course of 1813 (three years ago), the first approxi- 

 mation to the place of the planet was arrived at by Mr. Adams, and the 

 calculations, though comparatively rough, were suliicienlly close to satisfy 

 him that his hypothetical explanation of the anomalies iu the motion of 

 Uranus was a correct one. In February, 1S44, having obtained from the 

 AstronomerUroyal the observations made at Greenwich since 1781, he 

 renewed the investigation of the problem, and this time rendered it much 

 more complete than before. Several solutions were obtained, differing but 

 very slightly from each other; and by successively taking into account 

 more and more terms of the series expressing the perturbations, first ia 

 April, lb4J, again in May, and finally in September of that year, the ac 



