The Seven Follies of Science [2nd ed.]: A popular account of the most famous scientific impossibilities and the attempts which have been made to solve them. To which is added a small budget of interesting paradoxes, illusions, and marvelsPhin, John
History
The Seven Follies of Science [2nd ed.]: A popular account of the most famous scientific impossibilities and the attempts which have been made to solve them. To which is added a small budget of interesting paradoxes, illusions, and marvels
Phin, John
Geometry -- Famous problems; Scientific recreations
Some idea of the minuteness of the characters in these specimens may be
obtained from the statement that the whole Bible and Testament, in
writing of the same size, might be placed twenty-two times on the
surface of a square inch. The grounds for this startling assertion are
as follows: "The Bible and Testament together, in the English language,
are said to contain 3,566,480 letters. The number of letters in the
Lord's Prayer, as written, ending in the sentence, 'deliver us from
evil,' is 223, whence, as 3,566,480 divided by 223, is equal to 15,922,
it appears that the Bible and Testament together contain the same number
of letters as the Lord's Prayer written 16,000 times; if then the prayer
were written in 1-16,000 of an inch, the Bible and Testament in writing
of the same size would be contained by one square inch; but as
1-356,000th of an inch is one twenty-secondth part of 1-15,922 of an
inch, it follows that the Bible and Testament, in writing of that size,
would occupy less space than one twenty-secondth of a square inch."
It only now remains to be seen that, minute as are the letters written
by this machine, they are characterized by a clearness and precision of
form which proves that the moving parts of the machine, while possessing
the utmost delicacy of freedom, are absolutely destitute of shake, a
union of requisites very difficult of fulfilment, but quite
indispensable to the satisfactory performance of the apparatus.
I have no information in regard to the present whereabouts of any of the
specimens turned out by Mr. Peters, and inquiry in London, among persons
likely to know, has not supplied any information on the subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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