The North American Luminary, 1st July, 4796.
Originally published in The New Monthly Magazine (S.&R. Bentley) vol.2 #7 (Jul 1821).
A celebrated professor of chemistry has discovered a method of composing and decomposing the surrounding atmosphere, so that any farmer can, with the greatest facility, and at a small expense, avert rain, or produce it in any quantity necessary for the perfection of his crops. The professor recently dispelled the clouds over the city of New York and its suburbs for the space of a week, converting the cold, damp weather of our winter into a clear and comparatively warm season. By this useful contrivance, any mariner may allay the violence of a hurricane, or give the wind the direction and degree of force best suited to the objects of his voyage.
The corporation of Baltimore have subscribed a sum for erecting one of the newly-invented telescopes. It is to be liberally appropriated to the use of all the citizens, so that the meanest mechanic may amuse himself in his leisure moments by viewing the different occupations of the inhabitants of the moon. The effect of this invention upon morals is beyond all calculation. The labouring classes now give up the enjoyment of spirituous liquors for the superior pleasure of contemplating the wonders which this invention exposes to the human senses.
The army of the northern states will take the field against that of the southern provinces early next spring. The principal northern force will consist of 1,490,000 picked troops. General Congreve's new mechanical cannon was tried last week at the siege of Georgia. It discharged in one hour 1120 balls, each weighing five hundred weight. The distance of the objects fired at was eleven miles, and so perfect was the engine, that the whole of these balls were lodged in a space of twenty feet square.
According to the census just taken by the order of government, the population of New York amounts to 4,892,568 souls, that of Philadelphia to 4,981,947, and the population of Washington, our capital, exceeds six millions and a half.
Our celebrated travellers Dr. Clarke and Baron Humbold have just arrived from their researches into two of the countries of ancient Europe. By means of a new invention. Dr. Clarke crossed the Atlantic in seven days. He sailed up the ancient river Thames, to a spot which our antiquaries are now agreed must be the site of the once renowned city of London, but not a vestige of human habitation remained. There existed the mutilated portion of a granite arch, which Dr. Clarke conceived might be the last remains of the once-celebrated bridge of Waterloo.[1] The Doctor proceeded further up the river, to an elevated situation on the left bank, which commanded a view of savage but delightful scenery. This our antiquary conjectured might be the ancient Richmond Hill, but he could not procure a single coin, or discover any one object of antiquarian research. Our traveller was extremely desirous of ascending the river yet higher, in order to reach the ancient Windsor, once the proud abode of England's monarchs, but he was so annoyed by the tribes of savages, that he found it impossible to proceed. Dr. Clarke intends next year to renew his travels in this once glorious and now almost forgotten island; and he will take with him a body of five and twenty of the United States' troops, which will effectually repel any force that the savage inhabitants can bring against him.
Our traveller Baron Humbold directed his researches to France. He discovered the mouth of the ancient river Seine, and attempted to ascend as far as the site of the once-famed city of Paris, but he found the river entirely choaked with weeds; and after he had proceeded about thirty miles, the stream became a mere muddy brook. The baron, however, found the inhabitants of the country so inoffensive and communicative, that he proceeded to his object by land, protected only by two servants and three American sailors. The people could give the baron no information whatever, but seemed by far more ignorant than the savages of England; making up for this ignorance, however, by a cheerfulness of disposition at once admirable and ridiculous. These poor barbarians appeared fond to excess of decorating their heads and bodies with feathers and skins died in the most gaudy and varied colours. The baron observed numberless groups of these people using the most ridiculous grimaces, and twisting the body into a dozen ridiculous attitudes. They then began to dance, an exercise which they seemed so attached to, that it appeared to be their only recreation. The musical instrument to which these poor creatures were so fond of jumping and dancing, was about two feet long, and consisted of a hollow body, with a solid handle of about the same length, and curved at the extremity. It had four strings, extending from the extremity of the handle, beyond the middle of the instrument itself, and being held between the chin and the collar-bone by the left hand, was played on by the right with a bent stick, curved at the two ends, being drawn together with horse-hair. This we have no doubt is some, species or description of that instrument so celebrated amongst the Europeans between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries under the name of fiddle or violin: for the Society of Antiquarians, in their last report, have given it as their decided opinion that the ancient fiddle, viola, violin, violincello, and bass-viol, were merely different kinds of the same instrument; and they very ably refute Dr. Camden's conjecture that the violin of ancient Europe was an instrument of parchment and bells, played upon by the knuckles.—Vide Reports of the Antiquarian Society of New York, folio, vol. 1783, p, 860.[2]
The late voyage of Professor Wanderhagen to the moon took up a space of nearly seven months, but the present expedition, it is expected, will take up much less time. The body of the balloon will be filled with the new gas discovered by our chemist Dr. Ætherly, and which is 800 times lighter than the lightest gas known to the ancient Europeans. The body of this balloon will not be circular, but a polygon, of an infinity of angles, and at each angle a pair of wings, all of which are worked with the greatest precision and facility, by the most simple but beautiful machinery. These wings at once create a draft, and determine the direction of the air at the will of the aeronaut, whose balloon is easily steered by a newly-constructed air-rudder. The boat of the balloon will contain twenty-five persons, and provisions for a twelvemonth. This boat has two immense self-acting wings, which, like a bird's, condense the air underneath the boat so as to assist in supporting the machine. The boat itself will be covered with a paste made of the essence of cork, as a non-conductor of heat; and Professor Wanderhagen, having suffered so much from the cold in his previous voyage, will provide himself with a store of the "condensed essence of caloric," a cubic inch of which will keep up a brilliant light and an intense heat for four-and-twenty hours.
The new mechanical steam-coach left Philadelphia at eight in the evening of the 3d ultimo, and arrived at Parrysburg, Greenland, at noon on the 5th, a distance of 893 miles in 40 hours. It carried eighteen in, and twenty-seven outside passengers, besides a great quantity of luggage.
By the method of instruction which has been followed for nearly two centuries by the professors of our various universities, a gentleman is made thoroughly acquainted with literature, philosophy, and the sciences, in less than two years; but according to the new plan proposed by Professor Swift, the same perfection of knowledge may be acquired in less than twelve months.
Advertisement.—Shortly will be published, price two dollars. The Complete Farmer; shewing the art by which the earth is made to produce four crops in the year, and the crops preserved from any possibility of injury by season or weather.
In the press, and shortly will be published, price one dollar, A Description of the Patent Safety Machine, by means of which Dr. Boreum descended through the crater of a volcano, and discovered the cause of volcanic eruptions.
The present maturity of the medical science is beautifully displayed by the last report of our College of Physicians. By the assistance of the optical glasses which enable us to perceive minutely all the most secret functions of the animal œconomy, and by the perfect state of the various sciences relating to medicine, the modern physician is not only able to recover the human body from the various attacks of disease, but he is able to anticipate its causes, and to prevent its approach to a degree of moral certainty. But more even than this can be effected by the magic of modern science. The physician can prolong life to treble that time which was formerly considered its natural period of duration, and can at once render the human body secure from disease and free from deformity. Those medicines which with infallible security either totally prevent, or if not applied in time for prevention, will rapidly cure the gout, stone, phthisis pulmonalis, and other disorders, are now known to all. But, does Nature make us feeble and diminutive, the physician calculates the means by which he can effect the accretion of particles to the various parts of our bodies, and thus render his patient perfect in symmetry. If our teeth are not to the model of perfection, they can be extracted without pain, and by taking those elements of which by analysis teeth are found to be composed, they may be regenerated, and during their growth they can be formed to the standard of ideal beauty. Is our vision imperfect, the medicines which are found to affect the size and colour of our eyes are applied, and in a week those organs are both beautiful and of perfect operation. Thus are we brought to a state free from disease, a state of longevity, in which our form and features have no model but that formed by our ideas of perfection and beauty.
The manner in which the numerous productions of the earth are now exchanged between man and man, is beautiful from the simplicity of its cause, and from the effect it has upon human happiness. It was a plausible theory amongst the ancients, that a statesman of wisdom should sit in his closet as in a focus of knowledge, to which should be brought all the returns of custom-houses, with the various reports and data of commerce—that, weighing these in the balance of wisdom, he should be able to instruct corporate bodies as well as individuals, as to the various channels into which their capital and industry should flow. From hence had arisen commercial treaties, bounties, drawbacks, imposts, licenses, &c. until the simple principles of trade were lost in the most complex and absurd systems of commercial polity. But the experience of ages has at length proved what the speculations of ingenious men had previously advanced, and man is now very properly left to direct his capital and labour according to his own knowledge and discretion. Is it not the height of impertinence for a statesman to say to him who enters a commercial city for the purposes of trade, "Sir, you shall not employ your capital according to your own knowledge and experience, but according to my conceptions of commerce: you want to trade to the West; I think it better that trade should flow to the East, and I have therefore laid heavy duties, and even prohibitions upon western trade, whilst I will encourage eastern trade by drawbacks, bounties, and special immunities"? Thus every thing was forced out of its natural channel, and every country may be said to have been in a sort of peaceful siege. Now things are left to their own level. The common principles of demand and supply are now acknowledged to regulate markets much better than legislatorial calculations and interference. Human necessities and the common principles of our nature are found to constitute the best barometers of commercial policy, and individuals are permitted to trade with their wealth, according to their own knowledge and calculations. Thus we have no circuitous channels of communication—no licensing—bonding—no unloading to load again, no entering one port as a passport into another, no waste of labour; man freely exchanges with man, and the bounties of Providence are diffused over the whole earth.
Last year, no less than 734 vessels sailed from Alaska, and the western coast of America, through the channels separating America from North Georgia and Greenland. It is curious to reflect that the very existence of such a passage was a problem of difficult solution to the Europeans from the 16th to the 19th centuries. This was then called the North-west passage, and was first discovered by a navigator of great celebrity amongst the ancient English; but whether his name was Parry or Croker it is now impossible to ascertain, from the imperfect state of our records at that period.
The Honourable Mr. Northerly, we understand, intends to take his lady and their children in their yacht this summer to traverse the North Pole.
A chemist, deeply read in the sciences of the middle ages, (the 18th and 19th centuries of the Christian æra) assures us that the English men of science about the year 1800, plumed themselves much upon their discovering the means of making brilliant lights by reflectors, and the different gases of oil and coal burnt in various descriptions of lamps. How these pigmies would have hid their diminished heads, could they have, foreseen our present perfection in lighting the atmosphere, by exciting attraction and motion among the constituent particles of light and heat. The aerometer of New York, at a trifling expense, produces a light in the atmosphere equal to the brightest moon-shine. So that darkness is unknown to the moderns, and we experience only the gradations between the light of the moon and that of the sun.
1. The origin of this name of Waterloo is now irrecoverably lost, unless it be a corruption of the terms water low, or low water, the bridge perhaps having been built at a spot of less depth than the contiguous parts of the river.
2. The ancient fiddle, with its cognomen, or monosyllabic præfixture, was, we fancy, a low instrument, very generally played upon by the vulgar. Professor Von Helmont conceives it to have been not a stringed, but a wind instrument; but this is little more than conjecture.