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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), B. (search)
estic utensil for sweeping, made of various materials, most commonly, with us, of the broom-corn, which is a species of doura or sorghum, and came from Africa. Of late years much attention has been directed to the subject of broom-heads, so that, instead of the handle and head being thrown away as useless when the corn is worn out, they are made permanent, with arrangements for clamping the corn and unclamping it, so that it may be removed when worn out, and fresh corn substituted. Benjamin Franklin introduced broom-corn into this country, previous to which brooms were made of evergreen boughs. It is said that, while examining an imported corn-whisk, he discovered a single seed, which he planted in his garden, and from which the corn was propagated. Brooms are, however, made of various materials, animal and vegetable. Among the kinds may be cited (and some of them are really brushes on long handles):— Carpet.Hearth. Coir.Hickory. Hair.Whisks. Broom—corn Seed—stripp<
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), C. (search)
and has the effect of sharping the note. See mouth-pipe. Chim′ney-valve. A device of Dr. Franklin for withdrawing the foul air from an apartment by means of the upward draft in the chimney. , forbidding non-admitted persons to make clocks, watches, or alarums, large or small. Benjamin Franklin's clock is noted as being the simplest on record. It shows the hours, minutes, and secondctricity through 2,800 feet of wire and 8,000 feet of water, using the earth circuit. Benjamin Franklin, in 1748, performed his experiments on the banks of the Schuylkill, concluded by a picnic,e latter was the Leyden jar, the invention of Muschenbroek and Kleist, three years previous. Franklin flew his kite in Philadelphia in 1752, and proved the substantial identity of lightning and fricontact with a leaf of bibulous paper. One of the first suggestions in this line was by Benjamin Franklin, who sanded the yet wet ink of the manuscript, passed it between rollers in contact with a
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), E. (search)
was of different kinds, and applied the names vitreous and resinous to them. Franklin attributed this difference to an excess or deficiency of the electric fluid, tission of the shock through 12,000 feet of wire was sensibly instantaneous. Franklin in 1747 pointed out the circumstances on which the action of the Leyden jar de which bodies can receive depends on their surface rather than their mass, and Franklin soon found that the whole force of the bottle and power of giving a shock is inous; the former being derived from glass and corresponding to the positive of Franklin, and the latter from resin, corresponding to the negative. It is by the latte Nollet, conjectured the identity of frictional electricity and lightning, yet Franklin was the first to attain the experimental certainty by his well-known kite experogen gas. The labors of Bunsen, Regnault, and Reiset, Williamson and Russell, Franklin and Ward, have brought the instrument to the present efficient form. Eu′phr
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), F. (search)
be filled. The illustration shows the firemen's apparatus of old time,— buckets, fire-hooks, hammer, and squirt. Fire-cage. A skeleton box or basket of iron for holding lighted fuel. A cresset. The form illustrated was invented by Dr. Franklin. The cage turns upon axes supported by a crotchet fixed on a stem. The stem may set in a step in the hearth, when used as a domestic grate, or the fire-cage may be used for a beacon light. The fuel is introduced after withdrawing the uppeal air into the caliducts, which form a fire-back, and the warmed air escapes into the room at z. He also introduced the parabolic sides. Rumford contracted the fire-chamber and throat, and inclined the jambs. See coving. In 1745, Dr. Benjamin Franklin introduced a fireplace which he named the Pennsylvanian, in which Prince Rupert's descending flue was combined with Polignac's caliducts. This is shown at F. (Fig. 1997.) Count Rumford's improvements consisted mainly in the contractio
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), H. (search)
antity of water the lower is the tone of the scale. Called musical glasses.) The instrument is said to have been invented by a German, and was improved by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. A stringed form is ascribed to Stein, 1788. b. Dr. Franklin's Harmonica consisted of a nest of hemispherical glasses, of different sizes, tuned, and aDr. Franklin's Harmonica consisted of a nest of hemispherical glasses, of different sizes, tuned, and arranged on a revolving spindle impelled by a treadle, the tips of the fingers being applied to the edges of the glasses to produce the tones. Each glass has an open neck or socket in the middle. The thickness of the glass is about 1/10 inch near the brim, but thicker nearer the aperture, which in the largest glasses is 1 inch feet long on the Potomac, and one built on his plan was launched and fitted after his death, and ran on the Thames four miles an hour against wind and tide. Dr. Franklin planned a boat of this kind in 1785, and it has since been tried on the Scheldt, two turbines being used for pumps. Linnaker's hydraulic propeller, 1808, ha
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), K. (search)
Kite. 1. A light frame covered with paper or cloth, and flown at the end of a string. Centuries of use among the Chinese, and the remarkable use by our Benjamin Franklin, have aided to make the kite respectable. Benjamin had a roughly made kite, two cross-sticks, over which was stretched a silk handkerchief, and this was flown in June, 1752. Franklin was not a boy at this time, but a mature man of 46. Betsy Trotwood observed, Franklin used to fly a kite. He was a Quaker or something of that sort, if I am not mistaken, and a Quaker flying a kite is a much more ridiculous object than anybody else ; so he might have appeared to some of the PhiladelphFranklin used to fly a kite. He was a Quaker or something of that sort, if I am not mistaken, and a Quaker flying a kite is a much more ridiculous object than anybody else ; so he might have appeared to some of the Philadelphians. Some of his propositions for conducting and using the electric current seem strangely modern. He proposed to fire spirits, kill animals, drive machinery, and discharge guns. Some of these things he performed. The kite has been used in scaling eminences; two remarkable occasions may be cited: the ascent of Pompey's pill
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), L. (search)
but iron is the material usually employed. The alleged improvements since its invention by Dr. Franklin are innumerable; most of these are, however, worthless, or of a trifling and unimportant charer. The first lightning-rod erected with a definite purpose of protection was put up by Benjamin Franklin soon after 1752, when he brought down electricity from a thunder-cloud. The first in Engln, and the charges of impiety were revived; but the centuries were exploding these notions, and Franklin held his ground. After the theory was admitted, a curious war arose. Knobs against points. BeBenjamin Franklin said points; but as he was a rebel, King George III. and his admirers of course declared for knobs. Franklin, who could handle a pen like a cimeter, wrote: I enter into no controversFranklin, who could handle a pen like a cimeter, wrote: I enter into no controversy. I leave my philosophical opinions to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), M. (search)
latter being the usual range on grandpianos. See plano-Forte. Piano-fortes were exhibited in London, 1851, with 7 1/2 and 8 octaves. Mu′si-cal Glass′es. （Music.) A musical instrument consisting of a number of goblets, tuned by filling them more or less with water, and played by touching their rims with the dampened finger. The size of the glasses being equal, the smaller quantity of water produces the lower note in the scale. The instrument was revived and improved by Benjamin Franklin in 1760. See harmonium. Mu′si-cal In′stru-ments. Devices designed to create a succession of harmonious sounds are to be found at the earliest historic periods, including under that term the times when men wrote by pictures, long before phonetic signs and syllables were invented. We find them among those races which stand low down in the scale of humanity, and ancient monuments show that at a very distant period they had advanced to a considerable degree of perfection.
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), P. (search)
ony. LeadGold Copper.Platinum. b. (Vitreous Electricity.) According to Dr. Franklin's theory and nomenclature, that which a body contains above its natural quan The terms positive and negative, as applied in electric science, were used by Franklin in 1747; the terms vitreous and resinous electricity, by Dufay, in 1734-37. rd is shown by the annexed cut, which is taken from the original press used by Franklin in London, and now in the museum of the United States Patent-Office. It is stDelaware, propelled by paddles like those of an Indian canoe. In 1786, Benjamin Franklin and Oliver Evans advocated the hydraulic propeller, receiving the water f often projected — by Allen, in 1729; Hulls, 1737; Ramsay, 1738; Rumsey, 1782; Franklin and Evans, 1786 — has been lately revived, the English government vessel the Wo pulp-dresser. Pulse-glass. Pulse-glass. An instrument invented by Dr. Franklin and constructed like a cryophorus, but intended to exhibit the ebullition of
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), R. (search)
b, joined at their apexes, where a portion of each is removed. At this central position, which is approximately at the foci of the reflectors, is a lamp c, whose beams are thus thrown in both directions in nearly horizontal beams of limited lateral divergence. 2. A short name for the reflecting-telescope (which see). 3. The reflector has also been extensively used for radiating the heat from an open fire into an apartment. Gas-light reflector. Street-car lamp-reflectors. Dr. Franklin and Count Rumford appear to have been the first who put forward intelligent ideas on this subject. As early as 1795, a patent was taken out in England for a removable reflector, and in 1805, polished metallic reflectors were placed on each side of the fireplace, to be turned at any angle to reflect the heat of the fireplace into the room. In 1816, the fire-grate was inclosed in a hollow metallic globe opening in front of the grate. In 1852, the hearth, cheeks, and faces of the grate
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