Project Gutenberg #54475
Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century
Robert Routledge
1900Routledge's illustrated survey of nineteenth-century engineering and invention, prepared chapter by chapter from Project Gutenberg HTML.
Project Gutenberg #54475 Public domain in the United States Cover source Local typographic cover created for MojiMori from public-domain source metadata
18
words at B2 or above
A1
A2
B1
B2
C1
C2
C2+
highlighted
at or above your level
Missing dictionary data: 1 unique word is not in the dictionary data yet. Amber marks show where it appears.
to obtain the great prize of £2,000, which the late Emperor of the French (Napoleon III.) directed, in 1852, should be awarded every five years for the most useful application of the voltaic battery. But no award had been made until 1864, when the inventor of the induction coil was properly considered worthy of it. This invention was the means of bringing into notice a new range of interesting phenomena, especially those attending the discharge passed through highly exhausted vessels. Investigations into the circumstances which modify the appearances, and especially into the nature of the stratified discharge in which the vessels are filled with bands or flakes of light separated by dark intervals, have long engaged the attention of some of our ablest physicists. Remarkable results were obtained by Mr. Crookes with very highly exhausted vessels. These showed not only beautiful fluorescent luminous effects, but in them the discharge could produce mechanical actions, and Mr. Crookes was led to regard it as a stream of radiant matter.