CPS. ^ 
SCIENCE 
IS 
KNOWLEDGE. 
KNOWLEDGE 
IS 
POWER. 
A Popzdar Record of Scientific Experiments, hiventions and Progress 
Copyright Secured, 1877. 
Vol. I. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY, 1878. 
No. 
IVIake-shift Apparatus— Its Successes and 
Failures. 
HE majority of our 
text - books and 
books on popular 
science delight to 
tell us of the won- 
derful scientific 
discoveries which 
have been made by 
means of very 
cheap and simple 
apparatus. We are 
told how Newton 
investigated the 
laws of light and 
color by means of soap-bubbles — the em- 
blematic plaything of children; how Black 
discovered latent heat by means of a few 
thermometers and 'old dish-pans; how il- 
luminating gas and its applications were 
discovered by Murdoch, who used the bowl 
of a tobacco pipe for his retort, and the 
stem for the first|main; how Franklin dis- 
covered the identity of lightning and elec- 
tricity by means of a boy's kite, and dozens 
of other cases. All these instances afford 
example and encouragement to those who 
are trying, with limited means, to see for 
themselves the great wonders of nature, 
but they are sometimes liable to mislead 
those who are inclined to think that if 
Galileo, by means of a telescope which was 
little better than a modern spy-glass, made 
discoveries which have immortalized his 
name, it is not worth while for them either 
to procure costly apparatus or to spend 
great labor in finishing and perfecting that 
which they make themselves. To some per- 
sons the idea of " rough and ready " pos- 
sesses wondrous charms, and they come at 
length to despise the neatness and care 
which are born of accuracy and delicacy, 
and without which no scientific work really 
worthy of the name can be accomplished. 
In this connection two things must be 
borne in mind. In the first place, we must 
remember that if Newton made great dis- 
coveries with very insignificant apparatus, 
it required a Newton to do it; and in the 
second place, the extent to which such dis- 
coveries can be carried, even by Newton, 
are quite limited. When Newton pushed 
