The Torricellian vacuum, if perfectly free from air, is said by Mr.
Morgan and others to be a perfect non-conductor. This circ.u.mstance therefore would preclude the electric streams from rising above the atmosphere. But as Mr. Morgan did not try to pa.s.s an electric shock through a vacuum, and as air, or something containing air, surrounding the transit of electricity may be necessary to the production of light, the conclusion may perhaps still be dubious. If however the streams of the northern lights were supposed to rise above our atmosphere, they would only be visible at each extremity of their course; where they emerge from, or are again immerged into the atmosphere; but not in their journey through the vacuum; for the absence of electric light in a vacuum is sufficiently proved by the common experiment of shaking a barometer in the dark; the electricity, produced by the friction of the mercury in the gla.s.s at its top, is luminous if the barometer has a little air in it; but there is no light if the vacuum be complete.
The aurora borealis, or northern dawn, is very ingeniously accounted for by Dr. Franklin on principles of electricity. He premises the following electric phenomena: 1. that all new fallen snow has much positive electricity standing on its surface. 2. That about twelve degrees of lat.i.tude round the poles are covered with a crust of eternal ice, which is impervious to the electric fluid. 3. That the dense part of the atmosphere rises but a few miles high; and that in the rarer parts of it the electric fluid will pa.s.s to almost any distance.
Hence he supposes there must be a great acc.u.mulation of positive electric matter on the fresh fallen snow in the polar regions; which, not being able to pa.s.s through the crust of ice into the earth, must rise into the rare air of the upper parts of our atmosphere, which will the least resist its pa.s.sage; and pa.s.sing towards the equator descend again into the denser atmosphere, and thence into the earth in silent streams. And that many of the appearances attending these lights are optical deceptions, owing to the situation of the eye that beholds them; which makes all ascending parallel lines appear to converge to a point.
The idea, above explained in note on l. 123, of the existence of a sphere of inflammable gas over the aerial atmosphere would much favour this theory of Dr. Franklin; because in that case the dense aerial atmosphere would rise a much less height in the polar regions, diminishing almost to nothing at the pole itself; and thus give an easier pa.s.sage to the ascent of the electric fluid. And from the great difference in the specific gravity of the two airs, and the velocity of the earth"s rotation, there must be a place between the poles and the equator, where the superior atmosphere of inflammable gas would terminate; which would account for these streams of the aurora borealis not appearing near the equator; add to this that it is probable the electric fluid may be heavier than the magnetic one; and will thence by the rotation of the earth"s surface ascend over the magnetic one by its centrifugal force; and may thus be induced to rise through the thin stratum of aerial atmosphere over the poles. See note on Canto II. l.
193. I shall have occasion again to mention this great acc.u.mulation of inflammable air over the poles; and to conjecture that these northern lights may be produced by the union of inflammable with common air, without the a.s.sistance of the electric spark to throw them into combustion.
The antiquity of the appearance of northern lights has been doubted; as none were recorded in our annals since the remarkable one on Nov. 14, 1574, till another remarkable one on March 6, 1716, and the three following nights, which were seen at the same time in Ireland, Russia, and Poland, extending near 30 degrees of longitude and from about the 50th degree of lat.i.tude over almost all the north of Europe. There is however reason to believe them of remote antiquity though inaccurately described; thus the following curious pa.s.sage from the Book of Maccabees, (B. II. c. v.) is such a description of them, as might probably be given by an ignorant and alarmed people. "Through all the city, for the s.p.a.ce of almost forty days, there were seen hors.e.m.e.n running in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances, like a band of soldiers; and troops of hors.e.m.e.n in array encountering and running one against another, with shaking of shields and mult.i.tude of pikes, and drawing of swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments and harness."
NOTE II.--PRIMARY COLOURS.
_Cling round the aerial bow with prisms bright, And pleased untwist the sevenfold threads of light._
CANTO I. l. 117.
The manner in which the rainbow is produced was in some measure understood before Sir Isaac Newton had discovered his theory of colours.
The first person who expressly shewed the rainbow to be formed by the reflection of the sunbeams from drops of falling rain was Antonio de Dominis. This was afterwards more fully and distinctly explained by Des Cartes. But what caused the diversity of its colours was not then understood; it was reserved for the immortal Newton to discover that the rays of light consisted of seven combined colours of different refrangibility, which could be seperated at pleasure by a wedge of gla.s.s. Pemberton"s View of Newton.
Sir Isaac Newton discovered that the prismatic spectrum was composed of seven colours in the following proportions, violet 80, indigo 40, blue 60, green 60, yellow 48, orange 27, red 45. If all these colours be painted on a circular card in the proportions above mentioned, and the card be rapidly whirled on its center, they produce in the eye the sensation of white. And any one of these colours may be imitated by painting a card with the two colours which are contiguous to it, in the same proportions as in the spectrum, and whirling them in the same manner. My ingenious friend, Mr. Galton of Birmingham, ascertained in this manner by a set of experiments the following propositions; the truth of which he had preconceived from the above data.
1. Any colour in the prismatic spectrum may be imitated by a mixture of the two colours contiguous to it.
2. If any three successive colours in the prismatic spectrum are mixed, they compose only the second or middlemost colour.
3. If any four succesive colours in the prismatic spectrum be mixed, a tint similar to a mixture of the second and third colours will be produced, but not precisely the same, because they are not in the same proportion.
4. If beginning with any colour in the circular spectrum, you take of the second colour a quant.i.ty equal to the first, second, and third; and add to that the fifth colour, equal in quant.i.ty to the fourth, fifth, and sixth; and with these combine the seventh colour in the proportion it exists in the spectrum, white will be produced. Because the first, second, and third, compose only the second; and the fourth, fifth, and sixth, compose only the fifth; therefore if the seventh be added, the same effect is produced, as if all the seven were employed.
5. Beginning with any colour in the circular spectrum, if you take a tint composed of a certain proportion of the second and third, (equal in quant.i.ty to the first, second, third, and fourth,) and add to this the sixth colour equal in quant.i.ty to the fifth, sixth, and seventh, white will be produced.
From these curious experiments of Mr. Galton many phenomena in the chemical changes of colours may probably become better understood; especially if, as I suppose, the same theory must apply to transmitted colours, as to reflected ones. Thus it is well known, that if the gla.s.s of mangonese, which is a tint probably composed of violet and indigo, be mixed in a certain proportion with the gla.s.s of lead, which is yellow; that the mixture becomes transparent. Now from Mr. Galton"s experiments it appears, that in reflected colours such a mixture would produce white, that is, the same as if all the colours were reflected. And therefore in transmitted colours the same circ.u.mstances must produce transparency, that is, the same as if all the colours were transmitted.
For the particles, which const.i.tute the gla.s.s of mangonese will transmit red, violet, indigo, and blue; and those of the gla.s.s of lead will transmit orange, yellow, and green; hence all the primary colours by a mixture of these gla.s.ses become transmitted, that is, the gla.s.s becomes transparent.
Mr. Galton has further observed that five successive prismatic colours may be combined in such proportions as to produce but one colour, a circ.u.mstance which might be of consequence in the art of painting. For if you begin at any part of the circular spectrum above described, and take the first, second, and third colours in the proportions in which they exist in the spectrum; these will compose only the second colour equal in quant.i.ty to the first, second, and third; add to these the third, fourth, and fifth in the proportion they exist in the spectrum, and these will produce the fourth colour equal in quant.i.ty to the third, fourth, and fifth. Consequently this is precisely the same thing, as mixing the second and fourth colours only; which mixture would only produce the third colour. Therefore if you combine the first, second, fourth, and fifth in the proportions in which they exist in the spectrum, with double the quant.i.ty of the third colour, this third colour will be produced. It is probable that many of the unexpected changes in mixing colours on a painter"s easle, as well as in more fluid chemical mixtures, may depend on these principles rather than on a new arrangement or combination of their minute particles.
Mr. Galton further observes, that white may universally be produced by the combination of one prismatic colour, and a tint intermediate to two others. Which tint may be distinguished by a name compounded of the two colours, to which it is intermediate. Thus white is produced by a mixture of red with blue-green. Of orange with indigo-blue. Of Yellow with violet-indigo. Of green with red-violet. Of blue with Orange-red.
Of indigo with yellow-orange. Of violet with green-yellow. Which he further remarks exactly coincides with the theory and facts mentioned by Dr. Robert Darwin of Shrewsbury in his account of ocular spectra; who has shewn that when one of these contrasted colours has been long viewed, a spectrum or appearance of the other becomes visible in the fatigued eye. Philos. Trans. Vol. LXXVI. for the year 1786.
These experiments of Mr. Galton might much a.s.sist the copper-plate printers of callicoes and papers in colours; as three colours or more might be produced by two copper-plates. Thus suppose some yellow figures were put on by the first plate, and upon some parts of these yellow figures and on other parts of the ground blue was laid on by another copper-plate. The three colours of yellow, blue, and green might be produced; as green leaves with yellow and blue flowers.
NOTE III.--COLOURED CLOUDS.
_Eve"s silken couch with gorgeous tints adorn, Or fire the arrowy throne of rising morn._
CANTO I. l. 119.
The rays from the rising and setting sun are refracted by our spherical atmosphere, hence the most refrangible rays, as the violet, indigo, and blue are reflected in greater quant.i.ties from the morning and evening skies; and the least refrangible ones, as red and orange, are last seen about the setting sun. Hence Mr. Beguelin observed that the shadow of his finger on his pocket-book was much bluer in the morning and evening, when the shadow was about eight times as long as the body from which it was projected. Mr. Melville observes, that the blue rays being more refrangible are bent down in the evenings by our atmosphere, while the red and orange being less refrangible continue to pa.s.s on and tinge the morning and evening clouds with their colours. See Priestley"s History of Light and Colours, p. 440. But as the particles of air, like those of water, are themselves blue, a blue shadow may be seen at all times of the day, though much more beautifully in the mornings and evenings, or by means of a candle in the middle of the day. For if a shadow on a piece of white paper is produced by placing your finger between the paper and a candle in the day light, the shadow will appear very blue; the yellow light of the candle upon the other parts of the paper apparently deepens the blue by its contrast; these colours being opposite to each other, as explained in note II.
Colours are produced from clouds or mists by refraction, as well as by reflection. In riding in the night over an unequal country I observed a very beautiful coloured halo round the moon, whenever I was covered with a few feet of mist, as I ascended from the vallies; which ceased to appear when I rose above the mist. This I suppose was owing to the thinness of the stratum of mist, in which I was immersed; had it been thicker, the colours refracted by the small drops, of which a fog consists, would not have pa.s.sed through it down to my eye.
There is a bright spot seen on the cornea of the eye, when we face a window, which is much attended to by portrait painters; this is the light reflected from the spherical surface of the polished cornea, and brought to a focus; if the observer is placed in this focus, he sees the image of the window; if he is placed before or behind the focus, he only sees a luminous spot, which is more luminous and of less extent, the nearer he approaches to the focus. The luminous appearance of the eyes of animals in the dusky corners of a room, or in holes in the earth, may arise in some instances from the same principle; viz. the reflection of the light from the spherical cornea; which will be coloured red or blue in some degree by the morning, evening, or meridian light; or by the objects from which that light is previously reflected. In the cavern at Colebrook Dale, where the mineral tar exsudes, the eyes of the horse, which was drawing a cart from within towards the mouth of it, appeared like two b.a.l.l.s of phosphorus, when he was above 100 yards off, and for a long time before any other part of the animal was visible. In this case I suspect the luminous appearance to have been owing to the light, which had entered the eye, being reflected from the back surface of the vitreous humour, and thence emerging again in parallel rays from the animals eye, as it does from the back surface of the drops of the rainbow, and from the water-drops which lie, perhaps without contact, on cabbage-leaves, and have the brilliancy of quicksilver. This accounts for this luminous appearance being best seen in those animals which have large apertures in their iris, as in cats and horses, and is the only part visible in obscure places, because this is a better reflecting surface than any other part of the animal. If any of these emergent rays from the animals eye can be supposed to have been reflected from the choroid coat through the semi-transparent retina, this would account for the coloured glare of the eyes of dogs or cats and rabits in dark corners.
NOTE IV.--COMETS.
_Alarm with comet-blaze the sapphire plain, The wan stars glimmering through its silver train._
CANTO I. l. 133.
There have been many theories invented to account for the tails of comets. Sir Isaac Newton thinks that they consist of rare vapours raised from the nucleus of the comet, and so rarefied by the sun"s heat as to have their general gravitation diminished, and that they in consequence ascend opposite to the sun, and from thence reflect the rays of light.
Dr. Halley compares the light of the tails of comets to the streams of the aurora borealis, and other electric effluvia. Philos. Trans. No.
347.
Dr. Hamilton observes that the light of small stars are seen undiminished through both the light of the tails of comets, and of the aurora borealis, and has further ill.u.s.trated their electric a.n.a.logy, and adds that the tails of comets consist of a lucid self-shining substance which has not the power of refracting or reflecting the rays of light.
Essays.
The tail of the comet of 1744 at one time appeared to extend above 16 degrees from its body, and must have thence been above twenty three millions of miles long. And the comet of 1680, according to the calculations of Dr. Halley on November the 11th, was not above one semi- diameter of the earth, or less than 4000 miles to the northward of the way of the earth; at which time had the earth been in that part of its...o...b..t, what might have been the consequence! no one would probably have survived to have registered the tremendous effects.
The comet of 1531, 1607, and 1682 having returned in the year 1759, according to Dr. Halley"s prediction in the Philos. Trans. for 1705, there seems no reason to doubt that all the other comets will return after their proper periods. Astronomers have in general acquiesced in the conjecture of Dr. Halley, that the comets of 1532, and 1661 are one and the same comet, from the similarity of the elements of their orbits, and were therefore induced to expect its return to its perihelium 1789.
As this comet is liable to be disturbed in its ascent from the sun by the planets Jupiter and Saturn, Dr. Maskelyne expected its return to its perihelium in the beginning of the year 1789, or the latter end of the year 1788, and certainly sometime before the 27th of April, 1789, which prediction has not been fulfilled. Phil. Trans. Vol. LXXVI.
NOTE V.--SUN"S RAYS.
_Or give the sun"s phlogistic orb to roll._
CANTO I. l. 136.