761 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Wonders 

 \\ ork 



we caught sight of it, and rapidly passed 

 from it to the other words of the phrase. 

 We apprehended it, in short, with a cloud 

 of associates, and, thus perceiving it, we felt 

 it quite otherwise than as we feel it now 

 divested and alone. JAMES Psychology, vol. 

 ii, ch. 19, p. 80. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3764. WORDS, THEIR UNDYING 

 POWER In all ... later studies, ver- 

 bal material is the vehicle by which the 

 mind thinks. The abstract conceptions of 

 physics and sociology may, it is true, be 

 embodied in visual or other images of phe- 

 nomena, but they need not be so; and the 

 truth remains that, after adolescence has 

 begun, " words, words, words " must consti- 

 tute a large part, and an always larger part 

 as life advances, of what the human being 

 has to learn. This is so even in the natural 

 sciences, so far as these are causal and ra- 

 tional, and not merely confined to descrip- 

 tion. JAMES Talks to Teachers, ch. 12, p. 

 149. (H. H. & Co., 1900.) 



3765. WORK, ANCIENT AND MOD- 

 ERN, COMPARED flow? Machinery Would 

 Rebuild the Great Pyramid. I know we are 

 frequently referred to the immense masses 

 of stone transported and wrought by ancient 

 art, which are found among the ruins of 

 Baalbec and Thebes, and are frequently 

 told that the management of these would 

 far transcend the skill and power of modern 

 engineers. Such assertions are, however, 

 rather intended to convey an idea of the- 

 impression produced upon the beholder of 

 these venerable ruins than a declaration of 

 absolute truth. As a sufficient illustration 

 of this we may mention the fact that in 

 New York large buildings of brick and stone 

 are moved from place to place while the 

 inhabitants remain undisturbed within; or 

 we may point to the Menai Strait tubular 

 bridge, a structure of cast-iron several hun- 

 dred tons in weight, suspended in mid air 

 over a chasm more than a hundred feet deep. 



The pyramid of Cheops is said to have 

 employed the power of 100,000 men for twen- 

 ty years in its erection ; but, vast as is this 

 pile, were the steam-engines employed in one 

 of our large cities directed to the task of 

 rearing one of equal magnitude the whole 

 would be accomplished in a few weeks. 

 HENRY Improvement of the Mechanical Arts 

 (Scientific Writings, vol. i, p. 321). (Sm. 

 Inst., 1886.) 



3766. WORK A SPECIFIC Rest Joy- 

 ful Because of Previous Toil. Sooner or 

 later every intellectual canker disappears 

 before earnest work, the influence of which, 

 moreover, fills a wide margin beyond the 

 time of its actual performance. Thus, to- 

 day, I sang as I rolled along not with 

 boisterous glee, but with serene and deep- 

 lying gladness of heart. This happiness, 

 however, had its roots in the past, and, had 

 I not been a worker previous to my release 

 from London, I could not now have been 



so glad an idler. In any other country than 

 Switzerland the valley through which we 

 sped would have called forth admiration 

 and delight. Noble fells, proudly grouped, 

 flanked us right and left. Cloudlike woods 

 of pines overspread them in broad patches, 

 with between them spaces of the tenderest 

 green, while among the meadows at their 

 feet gleamed the rushing Rhine. TYNDALL 

 Hours of Exercise in the Alps, ch. 5. p. 62. 

 (A., 1898.) 



3767. WORK, INCESSANT, OF IN- 

 SECTS Industry of Ants Long Days of La- 

 bor Persevering Toil. In industry ants are 

 not surpassed even by bees and wasps. They 

 work all day, and in warm weather, if need 

 be, even at night, too. I once watched an 

 ant from six in the morning, and she 

 worked without intermission till a quarter 

 to ten at night. I had put her to a saucer 

 containing larvae, and in this time she car- 

 ried off no 'less than a hundred and eighty- 

 seven to' the nest. I had another ant, which 

 I employed in my experiments, under con- 

 tinuous observation several days. When I 

 started for London in the morning, and 

 again when I went to bed at night, I used 

 to put her in a small bottle, but the mo- 

 ment she was let out she began to work 

 again. On one occasion I was away from 

 home for a week. On my return I took her 

 out of the bottle, placing her on a little 

 heap of larvae about three feet from the 

 nest. Under these circumstances I certain- 

 ly did not expect her to return. However, 

 tho she had thus been six days in confine- 

 ment, the brave little creature immediately 

 picked up a larva, carried it off to the nest, 

 and after half an hour's rest returned for 

 another. AVEBUBY Ants, Bees, and Wasps, 

 ch. 1, p. 27. (A., 1900.) 



3768. WORK INVOLVES THE UN- 

 DOING OF SOME PREVIOUS WORK 



Clock Mill-wheel Rifle. Whenever work 

 is done, it is by the undoing of some pre- 

 vious work. When a clock moves, it is the 

 unwinding of a spring or the falling of a 

 weight which keeps it going, and some one 

 must have wound it up to begin with. If 

 the water of a river falls year after year 

 over a cataract, and is intercepted to drive 

 our mill-wheels, the river continues to run 

 because some power [that of the sun] is 

 continually raising and returning to the 

 hilltops the water which has flowed into 

 the sea a process precisely equivalent to 

 the daily rewinding of the clock. If the 

 powder in a rifle explodes and drives out the 

 bullet, its explosive energy depends upon 

 the fact that some power has placed the 

 component molecules in such relations that, 

 when the trigger is pulled, and the exciting 

 spark has, so to speak, cut the bonds which 

 hold them apart, they rush together just 

 as suspended weights w T ould fall if freed. 

 Before the same substance, which once was 

 a charge of gunpowder, but now is dust and 

 gas, can again do the same work, the prod- 



