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INDEX AND GLOSSARY

TO THE

THREE VOLUMES.

ABSORB, to drink in.

A

Acceleration, a body moving faster and faster. Action and re-action, equal and contrary, Vol. i. 70. Curious instance of, i. 71.

Adhesion, a sticking together.

P.

Air, a fluid, the pressure of which is very great, ii. 137, 138. Its pressure, experiments on, ii. 152-160. Its weight, how proved, ii. 161. Its elasticity, ii. 166-170. Its compression, ii. 174 -178. Necessary to sound, ii. 186.

Air-gun, structure of, explained, ii. 183, 184. Air-pump described, ii. 141. Its structure explained, ii. 142-144. Experiments on, ii. 145 and 179.

F

Alcohol, ardent spirit: equal parts of alcohol and
water make spirits of wine.

Alkaline, a saline taste.

Anamorphoses, distorted images of bodies.

Ancients, their mode of describing the constella-
tions, ii. 170.

Angle, what it is, i. 11. How explained, ib. Right,
obtuse, acute, ib. How called, 12.

Animals, all kinds of, affected by Galvanism, iii.

243.

Aperture, a small hole.

Aphelion, the greatest distance of a planet from the

sun.

Apogee, the sun's or moon's greatest distance from
the earth.

Aquafortis, of what composed, i. 15.

Archimedes, proposed to move the earth, i. 76.
Some account of, ii. 87. His inventions, ii. 88.
Arrow, to find the height to which ascends, i. 44,

45.

Atmosphere, the effect of, iii. 30, 31.

Attraction, the tendency which some parts of mat-
ter have to unite with others.

Attraction, capillary, what meant by, i. 24. Illus-
trated, i. 25.

Attraction and Repulsion, electrical, iii. 151 and

169.

magnetic, iii. 131, &c.
Aurora Borealis, vulgarly called the Northern
lights. Its use in the Northern parts of the
globe, i. 218. Imitated, iii. 217. A curious one
described, iii. 218.

B

Balance, hydrostatical, described, ii. 75.
Balances, false, how detected, i. 84.

Ball, why easily rolled, i. 49. Scioptric, its effect,
iii. 44.

Barometer, explained, ii. 162 and 244-250. Its
construction, ii. 238. Its use, 239. Standard
altitude of, ii. 241. Variation of, ib. To mea-
sure altitudes with, ii. 244.

Battery, electrical, iii. 189, &c. Experiments on,
iii. 192.

Beccaria, his observation, iii. 215.
Bellows, hydrostatical, ii. 41-46.

Birds, how they support themselves in the air, i.

62.

Bissextile, the meaning of the word, i. 191.

Bodies, heavenly, why move in a curved path, i.
69. Elastic and non-elastic, illustrative of the
third law of motion. Weight of, diminished as
the distance from the centre of the earth is in-
creased, i. 39. Falling, the law of their velocity,
i. 46. How to insulate, iii. 163. Sonorous,
elastic, ii. 190. Heavenly, the latitude of, i. 141.
Body, moving one, what compels it to stop, i. 60.
Bodies, their vis inertiæ, i. 65.

Boyle, Mr. first saw the electrical light, iii. 149.
Bride's (St.) church, damaged by lightning, iii.

211.

Bucket, how suspended on the edge of a table, i,

55.

Buffon, M. his experiments, iii. 62.

Bullets, leaden, how made to cohere, i. 20.

VOL. III.-Z

C

Camera obscura, iii. 119, &c.
Cannon, the sound of, ii. 190.

Capillary attraction, fluids attracted above their
level, by tubes as small as a hair.

Cardinal points, how distinguished, i. 124.
Cavallo, Mr. his electrical experiments, iii. 210.
Catoptrics, the science of reflected light.

Centre of gravity, the point of a body, on which,
when suspended, it will rest. Between the earth
and the sun, i. 170. How applicable to the com-
mon actions of life, i. 53.

Centrifugal force, is the tendency which a body
has to fly off in a straight line.

Centripetal force, is the tendency which a body
has to another about which it revolves.

Chatterton, his lines on the solar system, i. 148.
Circles, Galvanic, what, iii. 251. First order, ib.
Second order, ib. The most powerful, iii. 253.
Clepsydra, principle of, explained, ii. 55.

Clocks and Dials, why not agree in the measure of
time, i. 186-189.

Cohesion, attraction of, i. 18. How defined, i. 19.
Instances, i. 20. Its force, i. 21. How overcome,
ib. Instances of, i. 21.

Coining, apparatus for, referred to, i. 113.
Colours, the cause of, iii. 53.

Comets, in what respects they resemble planets, i.
239. The heat of one calculated, i. 240.
Compression, the act of squeezing together.

Condensation, the act of bringing the parts of mat-

ter together.

Conductors, electrical, what meant by, iii. 154.
Table of, iii. 157. Galvanic, iii. 251. Perfect
and imperfect, ib.

Cone, double, why it rolls up a plane, i. 54.
Contact, touching.

Converge, drawing towards a point.

Cookery, some operations of, how accounted for,
i. 22.

Crane, the principles of a, i. 94. One invented by

Mr. White, i. 95. Distiller's described, ii. 113.
Cupping, the operation of, explained, ii. 172, 173.
Cups, hemispherical, experiments on, ii. 158.
Cylinder, how made to roll up a hill, i. 54.

D

Dancers, rope or wire, how they balance them-
selves, i. 52.

Day, astronomical, when begins, i. 138. The dif
ference between the solar and sidereal, i. 185.
Day and Night, how explained, i. 163.

Days and Nights, why of different lengths, i. 166,
167, &c. To whom always equal, i. 174.
Deception, optical, i. 118. In feeling, i. ib.
Deceptions, on the public, by short weights, how
detected, i. 84. Occasioned by swift motions, i.
159. Optical, iii. 27-29, and 77, &c.
Delaval, Mr. his experiments, iii. 57.

Density, compactness. Constitutes specific gravi-
ty, ü. 70.

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