The Yearbook Of Facts In Science And Art

Author : John Timbs
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330837894
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (378 download)

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Download or read book The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art written by John Timbs and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art: Exhibiting the Most Important Discoveries Improvements of the Past Year; In Mechanics and the Useful Arts; Natural Philosophy; Electricity; Chemistry; Zoology and Botany; Geology and Geography; Meteorology and Astronomy In the past year, France has lost one of her greatest lights, and Science has been shorn of one of her brightest beams: Arago is numbered with the illustrious dead. A glorious luminary has left our lower sphere; but his immortal writings will shed a lustre upon the paths of Science as long as the world is governed by the same laws. Dominique-Francois-Jean Arago was born in the village of Estagel, near Perpignan, in the Pyrenees, on the 26th of February, 1786; and he died at the Observatory, in Paris, on Sunday, the 2nd of October - consequently he was in the 68th year of his age. His father, who was cashier at the mint of Perpignan, encouraged the early taste of his son for science; but though he is said not to have been able to read at the age of fourteen, he made such rapid progress at the College of Montpellier that he was admitted at the age of eighteen a pupil of the Polytechnic School at Paris. In this able Seminary, where the most distinguished of the French philosophers received their education, young Arago took the lead of his fellow-scholars; and obtained such eminence in mathematics and astronomy, that he was appointed, in 1806, Secretary to the Board of Longitude. In this office he remained two years, when he was appointed, along with Biot and two Spanish commissioners, MM. Chaix and Rodriguez, to complete the measurement of the arc of the meridian, from Dunkirk to Barcelona, which had been begun by Mechain and Delambre, as the basis of the Metrical Decimal system first adopted by the Convention. This scientific labour was considerably advanced, when Biot returned to Paris, leaving Arago in charge of the important work. The war commencing at this time between France and Spain put an end to this mission of science; and the young mathematician had to make his escape in disguise from an enraged and ignorant peasantry. He escaped only to become a prisoner; and when eventually liberated by the Spaniards, he fell into the hands of an Algerine corsair, and was released from captivity by the Dey of Algiers only in 1809. At the age of twenty-three, Arago returned to Paris; and, as a reward for his zeal, upon the death of the celebrated astronomer Lalande, Arago{ though only twenty-three years of age, was, in opposition to the standing rules of the Academy of Sciences, appointed to the vacant place in the section of astronomy. Although Arago, when a pupil at the Polytechnic School, had voted against the assumption of the consulate for life, yet Bonaparte, who knew how to value an honourable man, never resented this act of hostility; but, remembering the courage of the young philosopher, he appointed him one of the Professors of the Polytechnic? School, and subsequently Director of the Imperial Observatory, in which he resided till his death. During this period, M. Arago contributed sixty distinct memoirs on various branches of science; the most important of which appeared in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, the Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Sceances de l' Academic des Sciences, and the Annales de Physique et de Chimie. Arago's first contribution to science was made in conjunction with the illustrious M. Biot. The paper was entitled, "On the Affinities of bodies for Light, and particularly on the Refractive Powers of the different Gases," and was read at the institute on March 24, 1806, when Arago was only twenty years of age. In the year 1808, the Institute of France proposed The Double Refraction of Light, as the subject of a prize to be awarded in 1810. The prize was adjudged to E. L. Malus (a member of the Egyptian Institute, and Colonel of the Imperial Corps of Engineers), who was thus led t