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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), B. (search)
h and the poor. The buildings were illuminated at night by lamps and candelabrae, the light of which was, according to Seneca, thrown on crystal balls placed in the vaulting or on the walls, so as to produce the most dazzling reflection. Glass waenter, for the doors uniformly swung outward into the street. They were used to awaken the family or call them to meals (Seneca). They were used publicly in the camps and garrisons, on triumphal cars, and Plutarch alludes to their use in the fish-maarsis the Scythian, who was coeval with Solon. The anchor and the potter's wheel are also ascribed to this man by Pliny, Seneca, and other Romans; the declaration, however, is quite inadmissible as to the potter's wheel, and equally untrue as to bote city, the Brucheion and the Serapeum. It contained from 400,000 to 700,000 books. Authorities (Gellius, Josephus, and Seneca) differ. Ptolemies Soter, Philadelphus, and Euergetes were its patrons. Philadelphus added the famous library of Aristo
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), C. (search)
A.But if it smokes, it will be worse than none. B.The man will kill me with his endless questions. From The woman sitting up all night, a play by Alexis; quoted by ATHENAeUS in the Deipnosophists, A. D. 220. One mode of warming is noticed by Seneca and Pliny, and consisted in an arrangement of pipes to convey hot air from an underground apartment into which red-hot coals were occasionally thrown. The intention was to avoid the smoke incident to the burning of the fuel before it attained theasure. The Emperor Julian, when at Paris, complained of the rigor of the climate and the inefficient means for mitigating it, even in the best apartments. He disliked the braziers, and it would seem that no arrangements, such as described by Seneca, and suggested by the hypocaust of the baths, was at hand. See hypocaust ; heating apparatus. Vitruvius does not mention chimneys. Winckelmann states that no traces of them are found in Herculaneum, where the people warmed themselves by fir
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), H. (search)
tors. 5. By gas. Methods of Warming combined with Ventilation. 6. By open fires placed in the several apartments. 7. By causing air, which has been previously heated, to pass through registers into the several rooms. In the time of Seneca a large stove, or several smaller ones, was constructed in a cellar beneath the living-apartments, and the flue conducted into dining-room and bedchambers. It is probable that the plan resembled some of our green-house arrangements. It was origas in all probability invented by Archimedes, who was killed in the storming of Syracuse, 212 B. C. His discovery of the mode of ascertaining specific gravity by displacement of liquid is referred to by many writers of Europe, Asia, and Libya. Seneca, Pliny, and Galen, who flourished during the first and second centuries of our era, and whose writings refer to the methods then in use of ascertaining the specific gravity of solids and fluids, appear unacquainted with the hydrometer, though the
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), L. (search)
on our gross atmosphere is bent out of its rectilinear course, which causes these luminaries to appear to rise sooner than they do in reality. Euclid's treatise on optics was about 280 B. C. He is the one who told his royal master Ptolemy Philadelphus, There is no royal road to learning, sir. Ptolemy was the first to measure refractions, and is therefore the founder of an important part of optical science. — Humboldt. The magnifying power of hollow glass spheres filled with water (Seneca, 1, 6) was, indeed, as familiar to the ancients as the action of burning glasses or crystals (Aristoph. Nub. V. 765 [424 B. C.]) and Nero's emerald (Pliny, XXVII. 5). — Humboldt's Cosmos. Layard found in the ruin called Nimroud a planoconvex lens of rock-crystal 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 9/10 of an inch thick. It shows the marks of the lapidary's wheel. It gives a focus 4 1/2 inches from the plane side. Sir David Brewster says, It was used as a lens, either for magnifying or for co
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), M. (search)
l to the sine of the angle of incidence, and from that time date all great discoveries in optics. Glass balls, called burning spheres, were sold in Athens before the Christian era. Their magnifying power was mentioned by the Roman philosopher Seneca, and by Porta of Naples in his Magia Naturalis, published in 1590. Alhazen, A. D. 1100, was the first to correct the popular error as to the nature of vision, showing that the rays came from the object and did not issue from the eye, as had be(speculum-metal absorbs 37 per cent of the rays), and for this reason, as well as its durability, was largely employed by the ancients for making mirrors. Silver mirrors are enumerated in the Roman laws among other articles of plate; and Pliny, Seneca, and other writers who ridicule the extravagance of the times, tell us that every young woman of that period must have a silver mirror. These mirrors, judging from the specimens in collections of antiquities, were merely faced with a thin sheet
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), O. (search)
etc. The reamer is introduced into the bore to true it; the drill fails to make a smooth hole, and the reamer is about circular in its form, giving a perfect shape, and fitting the bore to receive the tube. Oil-well packing. Ointment-syringe. Oldham's coupling. The pipe-tongs is adapted to grasp the drill-rod or tube while a new hitch is being taken in withdrawing or introducing either. The presence of oil in springs has been noticed from time immemorial, and the rock-oil, Seneca oil, or whatever custom or charlatans have called it, has been famous either as having a sacred character or association, as in the famous wells of the Caspian, or as a liniment. Bitumen, asphate, bituminous shales and rocks, are found in many parts of the world, and the references to the subject are found scattered in the writings of Herodotus, Pliny, and very many others of the writers of antiquity. It is said that on digging near the river Ochus [in Bactria] a spring of oil was discov
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), R. (search)
chimney it is equivalent to the jamb, or, when beveled, the coving. In windows the reveal is the outside-return, or the space between the window-frame and the exterior arris. Re-ver′ber-a-to′ry-fur′nace. （Metallurgy.) A furnace in which ore, metal, or other material is exposed to the action of flame, but not to the contact of burning fuel. The flame passes over a bridge and then downward upon the material, which is spread upon the hearth. Reverberatory, with water-boshes. Seneca credits Democritus with the invention of the reverberatory-furnace. The reverberatory is a very usual form of furnace, and is used in the treatment of many metals. See list under furnace; also puddling-fur-Nace. Fig. 4283 is a reverberatory, with water-chambers around the fire-box and in the fire-bridge. In Fig. 4284, air is heated by contact with the walls and introduced into the metal chamber in converging currents the full width of the throat. Reverberatory with air-ducts.
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), T. (search)
8 feet. Along the whole course there is a second cutting 20 cubits deep and 3 feet broad, whereby water is brought through pipes from an abundant source into the city. — Book III. chap 60. Strabo mentions a tunnel at Cumae connecting that town with Avernus, made by Cocceius during the Augustan age. A more ancient and longer one had been made long previously between Dicaearchia (Puteoli) and Neapolis (Napies). It is yet open, and is known as the Grotta di Pausilipo. It is referred to by Seneca. The lakes Trasimene, Albano, Nemi, and Fucino in Italy were all drained by tunnels (emissaria); the last mentioned was devised by Julius Caesar and executed by Claudius A D. 52. It is still nearly perfect. The circumference of the lake drained was 30 miles. The length of this tunnel is about 3 miles, discharging into the river Liris (Garigliano). 30,000 men were employed; time occupied, 11 years. A large number of shafts were sunk to allow a greater number of men to work and to facilit
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), W. (search)
guys of the jib-boom. Whis′ket. 1. A small lathe, used for turning wooden pins. It has a hollow chuck, which holds the pin while turning. 2. A basket. Whis′key. Corrupted from kibitka, or britschka. See Buitzska. Whis′per-ing-gal′ler-y. One of circular plan, in which a faint sound conveyed around the interior wall may be readily heard, while the same is inaudible elsewhere in the interior. Whisk. Police duplex calls, with guard. Steam-whistle. Mentioned by Seneca, and well known to the ancients. Whis′tle. 1. A shrill-toned wind-instrument, used as a child's toy. Larger instruments of the kind are employed as alarms and for signaling. Fig 7204 is a duplex whistle, for policemen, street-railroad car-starters, etc. It has two tubes of different lengths and consequent pitch. The only musical instruments exhumed from the prehistoric deposits are whistles and pipes; one of the former obtained in a cavern of the Department of Dordogne in Fran