The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First ProfessorsJones, Bence
History
The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First Professors
Jones, Bence
Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829; Royal Institution of Great Britain; Rumford, Benjamin, Graf von, 1753-1814; Young, Thomas, 1773-1829
It is to be used by
candle-light in this manner: Attach to the fixed pins a small lock of
the wool to be examined, containing 20 or 30 single fibres, and look
through them and through the central hole at a candle not very remote
from the card, the blackened side of the card being turned towards the
eye. The hole will appear to be surrounded by a bright surface, reddish
at the margin, by a dark circle or ring, and again by a brighter ring,
bluish-green within and red without. If the colours are not seen
distinctly, we may conclude that the wool is mixed and not perfectly
fit for examination; but in this case we may generally form an estimate
of its quality by means of the bright surface only, moving the card
along the rod until the holes of the inner circle appear exactly at
the extreme margin of that surface, where it is of a reddish hue, the
place of the card as indicated by the scale showing the number which
characterises the wool. It will also be most convenient to begin by
producing this coincidence of the inner circle in other cases where the
outer ring of colours is more distinctly seen, and then to adjust the
card more accurately; so that the holes in the circumference of the
outer circle may appear to coincide with the middle of the coloured
ring at the common limit of the red and greenish portions. If the
holes be seen in the red ring, the card must be brought nearer to the
edge; if in the blue, it must be moved farther off, and the number of
the scale must be observed as before. It will require very attentive
observation, and perhaps some practice, to obtain always precisely the
same number for the same substance, but by taking the mean of several
trials we may be perfectly certain of coming within a unit of the true
place of the slider, and perhaps even of avoiding any error at all.
I have not yet had an opportunity of examining any great variety of
substances, but I send you the result of such observations as I have
made, which will be sufficient to enable you to judge of the accuracy
of the instrument.
Fibres of coarse wool from green baize, 52. Southdown, 35. Anglo-merino
from a flock of Mr. Henty Tarring, 27. A lock taken from a Paular ewe
by Mr. Sheppard, 25 (varying from 24 to 30). Another specimen from the
same flock brought by another gentleman as a test of the instrument,
25. Cotton, mixed but about, 19. Vigonia from the Rev. P. Wood, very
distinct 14½. Beaver from a hat, 11. Blood diluted with saliva and
rubbed on glass, beautifully distinct 5. Milk diluted with water, very
indistinct 3. I have sometimes thought of employing the instrument as a
nosological test of the state of the blood, of pus, and of other animal
fluids.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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