The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical NotesDarwin, Erasmus
Philosophy
The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes
Darwin, Erasmus
Cosmology -- Poetry; Life -- Origin -- Poetry
And in this line, as they reciprocally meet, they appear to explode
and give out light and heat, and a new combination of the two ethers
is produced, as a residuum after the explosion, which probably
occupies much less space than either the vitreous or resinous ethers
did separately before. At the same time there may be another
unrestrainable ethereal fluid yet unobserved, given out from this
explosion, which rends oak trees, bursts stone-walls, lights
inflammable substances, and fuses metals, or dissipates them in a
calciform smoak, along with which great light and much heat are
emitted, or these effects are produced by the heat and light only thus
set at liberty by their synchronous and sudden evolution.
2. The curious circumstance of electric condensation appears from the
violence of the shock of the coated jar compared with the strongest
spark from an insulated conductor, though the latter possesses a much
greater surface; when vitreous electric ether is thrown on one side of
a coated jar, it attracts the resinous electric ether of the other
side of the coated jar; and the same occurs, when resinous ether is
thrown on one side of it, it attracts the vitreous ether of the other
side of it, and thus the vitreous electric ether on one side of the
jar, and the resinous ether on the other side of it become condensed,
that is accumulated in less space, by their reciprocal attraction of
each other.
This condensation of the two electric ethers owing to their reciprocal
attraction appears from another curious event, that the thinner the
glass jar is, the stronger will the charge be on the same quantity of
surface, as then the two ethers approaching nearer without their
intermixing attract each other stronger, and consequently condense
each other more. And when the glass jar is very thin the reciprocal
attractive powers of the vitreous and resinous ether attract each
other so violently as at length to pass through the glass by rupturing
it, in the same manner as a less forcible attraction of them ruptures
and passes through the plate of air in the production of sparks from
the prime conductor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account