Before deciding on the best way to light the military workhouse at
Munich, Rumford made a series of experiments on the relative economy
of different methods, and for this purpose designed his well-known
shadow-photometer. In the final form of this instrument the shadows
were thrown on a plate of ground glass covered with paper, forming the
back of a small box, from which all extraneous light was excluded. Two
rods were placed in front of this screen, and the lights to be
compared were so situated that the shadow of one rod thrown by the
first light might be just in contact with that of the other rod thrown
by the second light. By introducing coloured glasses in front of the
lights, Rumford compared the illuminating powers of different sources
with respect to light of a particular colour. The complementary tints
exhibited by the shadows caused him to devise his theory of the
harmony of complementary colours. One result is worthy of mention: it
is a conclusion to which public attention has since been called in
connection with "duplex" burners. Rumford found that with wax tapers
the amount of light emitted per grain of wax consumed diminished with
the diminution of the consumption, so that a small taper gave out only
one-sixteenth as much light as an ordinary candle for the same
consumption of wax. He says:--
"This result can be easily explained if we admit the hypothesis which
supposes light to be analogous to sound.... The particles ... were so
rapidly cooled ... that they had hardly time to shine one instant
before they became too cold to be any longer visible."
An argand lamp, when compared with a lamp having a flat wick, gave
more light in the ratio of 100 to 85 for the same consumption of oil.
One of the latest investigations of Rumford was that bearing on the
effect of the width of the wheels on the draught of a carriage. To his
own carriage, weighing, with its passengers, nearly a ton, he fitted a
spring dynamometer by means of a set of pulleys attached to the
under-carriage and the splinter-bar. He used three sets of wheels,
respectively 1-3/4, 2-1/4, and 4 inches wide, and, introducing weights
into the carriage to make up for the difference in the weights of the
wheels, he found a very sensible diminution in the tractive force
required as the width of the wheels was increased, and in a truly
scientific spirit, despising the ridicule cast upon him, he persisted
in riding about Paris in a carriage with four-inch tyres.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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