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Solar Panels within Budget

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Solar Energy Savings)
Sun Aug 28 21:55:14 2016

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 21:40:45 -0400
From: "Solar Energy Savings" <solar.energy.savings@kjdecor.com>
To:   <mit-talk-mtg@charon.mit.edu>

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   <p>Solar Panels within Budget<br /> possible, in either instance, that t=
hey might thus be whirled up again to the level of the ocean, without under=
going the fate of those which had been drawn in more early, or absorbed mor=
e rapidly. I made, also, three important observations. The first was, that,=
 as a general rule, the larger the bodies were, the more rapid their descen=
t - the second, that, between two masses of equal extent, the one spherical=
, and the other _of any other shape_, the superiority in speed of descent w=
as with the sphere - the third, that, between two masses of equal size, the=
 one cylindrical, and the other of any other shape, the cylinder was absorb=
ed the more slowly. Since my escape, I have had several conversations on th=
is subject with an old school-master of the district ; and it was from him =
that I learned the use of the words ' cylinder' and ' sphere.' He explained=
 to me - although I have forgotten the explanation - how what I observed wa=
s, in fact, the natural consequence of the forms of the floating fragments =
- and showed me how it happened that a cylinder, swimming in a vortex, offe=
red more resistance to its suction, and was drawn in with greater difficult=
y than an equally bulky body, of any form whatever. {*1} &quot; There was o=
ne startling circumstance which went a great way in enforcing these observa=
tions, and rendering me anxious to turn them to account, and this was that,=
 at every revolution, we passed something like a barrel, or else the yard o=
r the mast of a vessel, while many of these things, which had been on our l=
evel when I first opened my eyes upon the wonders of the whirlpool, were no=
w high up above us, and seemed to have moved but little from their original=
 station. &quot; I no longer hesitated what to do. I resolved to lash mysel=
f securely to the water cask upon which I now held, to cut it loose from th=
e counter, and to throw myself with it into the water. I attracted my broth=
er' s attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that came near us=
, and did everything in my power to make him understand what I was about to=
 do. I thought at length that he comprehended my design - but, whether this=
 was the case or not, he shook his head despairingly, and refused to move f=
rom his station by the ring-bolt. It was impossible to reach him; the emerg=
ency admitted of no delay ; and so, with a bitter struggle, I resigned him =
to his fate, fastened myself to the cask by means of the lashings which sec=
ured it to the counter, and precipitated myself with it into the sea, witho=
ut another moment' s hesitation. &quot; The result was precisely what I had=
 hoped it might be. As it is myself who now tell you this tale - as you see=
 that I _did_ escape - and as you are already in possession of the mode in =
which this escape was effected, and must therefore anticipate all that I ha=
ve farther to say - I will bring my story quickly to conclusion. It might h=
ave been an hour, or thereabout, after my quitting the smack, when, having =
descended to a vast distance beneath me, it made three or four wild gyratio=
ns in rapid succession, and, bearing my loved brother with it, plunged head=
long, at once and forever, into the chaos of foam below. The barrel to whic=
h I was attached sunk very little farther than half the distance between th=
e bottom of the gulf and the spot at which I leaped overboard, before a gre=
at change took place in the character of the whirlpool. The slope of the si=
des of the vast funnel became momently less and less steep. The gyrations o=
f the whirl grew, gradually, less and less violent. By degrees, the froth a=
nd the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to upr=
ise. The sky was clear, the winds had gone down, and the full moon was sett=
ing radiantly in the west, when I found myself on the surface of the ocean,=
 in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above the spot where the pool o=
f the Moskoe-str&ouml; m _had been_. It was the hour of the slack - but the=
 sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane. I=
 was borne violently into the channel of the Str&ouml; m, and in a few minu=
tes was hurried down the coast into the ' grounds' of the fishermen. A boat=
 picked me up - exhausted from fatigue - and (now that the danger was remov=
ed) speechless from the memory of its horror. Those who drew me on board we=
re my old mates and daily companions - but they knew me no more than they w=
ould have known a traveller from the spirit-land. My hair which had been ra=
ven-black the day before, was as white as you see it now. They say too that=
 the whole expression of my countenance had changed. I told them my story -=
 they did not believe it. I now tell it to _you_ - and I can scarcely expec=
t you to put more faith in it than did the merry fishermen of Lofoden.&quot=
; ~~~ End of Text ~~~ =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D VON KEMPELEN AND HIS DISCOVERY AFT=
ER THE very minute and elaborate paper by Arago, to say nothing of the summ=
ary in ' Silliman' s Journal,' with the detailed statement just published b=
y Lieutenant Maury, it will not be supposed, of course, that in offering a =
few hurried remarks in reference to Von Kempelen' s discovery, I have any d=
esign to look at the subject in a scientific point of view. My object is si=
mply, in the first place, to say a few words of Von Kempelen himself (with =
whom, some years ago, I had the honor of a slight personal acquaintance), s=
ince every thing which concerns him must necessarily, at this moment, be of=
 interest; and, in the second place, to look in a general way, and speculat=
ively, at the results of the discovery. It may be as well, however, to prem=
ise the cursory observations which I have to offer, by denying, very decide=
dly, what seems to be a general impression (gleaned, as usual in a case of =
this kind, from the newspapers), viz.: that this discovery, astounding as i=
t unquestionably is, is unanticipated. By reference to the ' Diary of Sir H=
umphrey Davy' (Cottle and Munroe, London, pp. 150), it will be seen at pp. =
53 and 82, that this illustrious chemist had not only conceived the idea no=
w in question, but had actually made no inconsiderable progress, experiment=
ally, in the very identical analysis now so triumphantly brought to an issu=
e by Von Kempelen, who although he makes not the slightest allusion to it, =
is, without doubt (I say it unhesitatingly, and can prove it, if required),=
 indebted to the ' Diary' for at least the first hint of his own undertakin=
g. The paragraph from the ' Courier and Enquirer,' which is now going the r=
ounds of the press, and which purports to claim the invention for a Mr. Kis=
sam, of Brunswick, Maine, appears to me, I confess, a little apocryphal, fo=
r several reasons; although there is nothing either impossible or very impr=
obable in the statement made. I need not go into details. My opinion of the=
 paragraph is founded principally upon its manner. It does not look true. P=
ersons who are narrating facts, are seldom so particular as Mr. Kissam seem=
s to be, about day and date and precise location. Besides, if Mr. Kissam ac=
tually did come upon the discovery he says he did, at the period designated=
 -- nearly eight years ago -- how happens it that he took no steps, on the =
instant, to reap the immense benefits which the merest bumpkin must have kn=
own would have resulted to him individually, if not to the world at large, =
from the discovery? It seems to me quite incredible that any man of common =
understanding could have discovered what Mr. Kissam says he did, and yet ha=
ve subsequently acted so like a baby -- so like an owl -- as Mr. Kissam adm=
its that he did. By-the-way, who is Mr. Kissam? and is not the whole paragr=
aph in the ' Courier and Enquirer' a fabrication got up to ' make a talk' ?=
 It must be confessed that it has an amazingly moon-hoaxy-air. Very little =
dependence is to be placed upon it, in my humble opinion; and if I were not=
 well aware, from experience, how very easily men of science are mystified,=
 on points out of their usual range of inquiry, I should be profoundly asto=
nished at finding so eminent a chemist as Professor Draper, discussing Mr. =
Kissam' s (or is it Mr. Quizzem' s?) pretensions to the discovery, in so se=
rious a tone. But to return to the ' Diary' of Sir Humphrey Davy. This pamp=
hlet was not designed for the public eye, even upon the decease of the writ=
er, as any person at all conversant with authorship may satisfy himself at =
once by the slightest inspection of the style. At page 13, for example, nea=
r the middle, we read, in reference to his researches about the protoxide o=
f azote: ' In less than half a minute the respiration being continued, dimi=
nished gradually and were succeeded by analogous to gentle pressure on all =
the muscles.' That the respiration was not ' diminished,' is not only clear=
 by the subsequent context, but by the use of the plural, ' were.' The sent=
ence, no doubt, was thus intended: ' In less than half a minute, the respir=
ation [being continued, these feelings] diminished gradually, and were succ=
eeded by [a sensation] analogous to gentle pressure on all the muscles.' A =
hundred similar instances go to show that the MS. so inconsiderately publis=
hed, was merely a rough note-book, meant only for the writer' s own eye, bu=
t an inspection of the pamphlet will convince almost any thinking person of=
 the truth of my suggestion. The fact is, Sir Humphrey Davy was about the l=
ast man in the world to commit himself on scientific topics. Not only had h=
e a more than ordinary dislike to quackery, but he was morbidly afraid of a=
ppearing empirical; so that, however fully he might have been convinced tha=
t he was on the right track in the matter now in question, he would never h=
ave spoken out, until he had every thing ready for the most practical demon=
stration. I verily believe that his last moments would have been rendered w=
retched, could he have suspected that his wishes in regard to burning this =
' Diary' (full of crude speculations) would have been unattended to; as, it=
 seems, they were. I say ' his wishes,' for that he meant to include this n=
ote-book among the miscellaneous papers directed ' to be burnt,' I think th=
ere can be no manner of doubt. Whether it escaped the flames by good fortun=
e or by bad, yet remains to be seen. That the passages quoted above, with t=
he other similar ones referred to, gave Von Kempelen the hint, I do not in =
the slightest degree question; but I repeat, it yet remains to be seen whet=
her this momentous discovery itself (momentous under any circumstances) wil=
l be of service or disservice to mankind at large. That Von Kempelen and hi=
s immediate friends will reap a rich harvest, it would be folly to doubt fo=
r a moment. They will scarcely be so weak as not to ' realize,' in time, by=
 large purchases of houses and land, with other property of intrinsic value=
 In the brief account of Von Kempelen which appeared in the ' Home Journal=
,' and has since been extensively copied, several misapprehensions of the G=
erman original seem to have been made by the translator, who professes to h=
ave taken the passage from a late number of the Presburg ' Schnellpost.' ' =
Viele' has evidently been misconceived (as it often is), and what the trans=
lator renders by ' sorrows,' is probably ' lieden,' which, in its true vers=
ion, ' sufferings,' would give a totally different complexion to the whole =
account; but, of course, much of this is merely guess, on my part. Von Kemp=
elen, however, is by no means ' a misanthrope,' in appearance, at least, wh=
atever he may be in fact. My acquaintance with him was casual altogether; a=
nd I am scarcely warranted in saying that I know him at all; but to have se=
en and conversed with a man of so prodigious a notoriety as he has attained=
, or will attain in a few days, is not a small matter, as times go. ' The L=
iterary World' speaks of him, confidently, as a native of Presburg (misled,=
 perhaps, by the account in ' The Home Journal' ) but I am pleased in being=
 able to state positively, since I have it from his own lips, that he was b=
orn in Utica, in the State of New York, although both his parents, I believ=
e, are of Presburg descent. The family is connected, in some way, with Mael=
zel, of Automaton-chess-player memory. In person, he is short and stout, wi=
th large, fat, blue eyes, sandy hair and whiskers, a wide but pleasing mout=
h, fine teeth, and I think a Roman nose. There is some defect in one of his=
 feet. His address is frank, and his whole manner noticeable for bonhomie. =
Altogether, he looks, speaks, and acts as little like ' a misanthrope' as a=
ny man I ever saw. We were fellow-sojouners for a week about six years ago,=
 at Earl' s Hotel, in Providence, Rhode Island; and I presume that I conver=
sed with him, at various times, for some three or four hours altogether. Hi=
s principal topics were those of the day, and nothing that fell from him le=
d me to suspect his scientific attainments. He left the hotel before me, in=
tending to go to New York, and thence to Bremen; it was in the latter city =
that his great discovery was first made public; or, rather, it was there th=
at he was first suspected of having made it. This is about all that I perso=
nally know of the now immortal Von Kempelen; but I have thought that even t=
hese few details would have interest for the public. There can be little qu=
estion that most of the marvellous rumors afloat about this affair are pure=
 inventions, entitled to about as much credit as the story of Aladdin' s la=
mp; and yet, in a case of this kind, as in the case of the discoveries in C=
alifornia, it is clear that the truth may be stranger than fiction. The fol=
lowing anecdote, at least, is so well authenticated, that we may receive it=
 implicitly. Von Kempelen had never been even tolerably well off during his=
 residence at Bremen; and often, it was well known, he had been put to extr=
eme shifts in order to raise trifling sums. When the great excitement occur=
red about the forgery on the house of Gutsmuth &amp; Co., suspicion was dir=
ected toward Von Kempelen, on account of his having purchased a considerabl=
e property in Gasperitch Lane, and his refusing, when questioned, to explai=
n how he became possessed of the purchase money. He was at length arrested,=
 but nothing decisive appearing against him, was in the end set at liberty.=
 The police, however, kept a strict watch upon his movements, and thus disc=
overed that he left home frequently, taking always the same road, and invar=
iably giving his watchers the slip in the neighborhood of that labyrinth of=
 narrow and crooked passages known by the flash name of the ' Dondergat.' F=
inally, by dint of great perseverance, they traced him to a garret in an ol=
d house of seven stories, in an alley called Flatzplatz, -- and, coming upo=
n him suddenly, found him, as they imagined, in the midst of his counterfei=
ting operations. His agitation is represented as so excessive that the offi=
cers had not the slightest doubt of his guilt. After hand-cuffing him, they=
 searched his room, or rather rooms, for it appears he occupied all the man=
sarde. Opening into the garret where they caught him, was a closet, ten fee=
t by eight, fitted up with some chemical apparatus, of which the object has=
 not yet been ascertained. In one corner of the closet was a very small fur=
nace, with a glowing fire in it, and on the fire a kind of duplicate crucib=
le -- two crucibles connected by a tube. One of these crucibles was nearly =
full of lead in a state of fusion, but not reaching up to the aperture of t=
he tube, which was close to the brim. The other crucible had some liquid in=
 it, which, as the officers entered, seemed to be furiously dissipating in =
vapor. They relate that, on finding himself taken, Kempelen seized the cruc=
ibles with both hands (which were encased in gloves that afterwards turned =
out to be asbestic), and threw the contents on the tiled floor. It was now =
that they hand-cuffed him; and before proceeding to ransack the premises th=
ey searched his person, but nothing unusual was found about him, excepting =
a paper parcel, in his coat-pocket, containing what was afterward ascertain=
ed to be a mixture of antimony and some unknown substance, in nearly, but n=
ot quite, equal proportions. All attempts at analyzing the unknown substanc=
e have, so far, failed, but that it will ultimately be analyzed, is not to =
be doubted. Passing out of the closet with their prisoner, the officers wen=
t through a sort of ante-chamber, in which nothing material was found, to t=
he chemist' s sleeping-room. They here rummaged some drawers and boxes, but=
 discovered only a few papers, of no importance, and some good coin, silver=
 and gold. At length, looking under the bed, they saw a large, common hair =
trunk, without hinges, hasp, or lock, and with the top lying carelessly acr=
oss the bottom portion. Upon attempting to draw this trunk out from under t=
he bed, they found that, with their united strength (there were three of th=
em, all powerful men), they ' could not stir it one inch.' Much astonished =
at this, one of them crawled under the bed, and looking into the trunk, sai=
d: ' No wonder we couldn' t move it -- why it' s full to the brim of old bi=
ts of brass!' Putting his feet, now, against the wall so as to get a good p=
urchase, and pushing with all his force, while his companions pulled with a=
n theirs, the trunk, with much difficulty, was slid out from under the bed,=
 and its contents examined. The supposed brass with which it was filled was=
 all in small, smooth pieces, varying from the size of a pea to that of a d=
ollar; but the pieces were irregular in shape, although more or less flat-l=
ooking, upon the whole, ' very much as lead looks when thrown upon the grou=
nd in a molten state, and there suffered to grow cool.' Now, not one of the=
se officers for a moment suspected this metal to be any thing but brass. Th=
e idea of its being gold never entered their brains, of course; how could s=
uch a wild fancy have entered it? And their astonishment may be well concei=
ved, when the next day it became known, all over Bremen, that the ' lot of =
brass' which they had carted so contemptuously to the police office, withou=
t putting themselves to the trouble of pocketing the smallest scrap, was no=
t only gold -- real gold -- but gold far finer than any employed in coinage=
-gold, in fact, absolutely pure, virgin, without the slightest appreciable =
alloy. I need not go over the details of Von Kempelen' s confession (as far=
 as it went) and release, for these are familiar to the public. That he has=
 actually realized, in spirit and in effect, if not to the letter, the old =
chimaera of the philosopher' s stone, no sane person is at liberty to doubt=
 The opinions of Arago are, of course, entitled to the greatest considerat=
ion; but he is by no means infallible; and what he says of bismuth, in his =
report to the Academy, must be taken cum grano salis. The simple truth is, =
that up to this period all analysis has failed; and until Von Kempelen choo=
ses to let us have the key to his own published enigma, it is more than pro=
bable that the matter will remain, for years, in statu quo. All that as yet=
 can fairly be said to be known is, that ' Pure gold can be made at will, a=
nd very readily from lead in connection with certain other substances, in k=
ind and in proportions, unknown.' Speculation, of course, is busy as to the=
 immediate and ultimate results of this discovery -- a discovery which few =
thinking persons will hesitate in referring to an increased interest in the=
 matter of gold generally, by the late developments in California; and this=
 reflection brings us inevitably to another -- the exceeding inopportunenes=
s of Von Kempelen' s analysis. If many were prevented from adventuring to C=
alifornia, by the mere apprehension that gold would so materially diminish =
in value, on account of its plentifulness in the mines there, as to render =
the speculation of going so far in search of it a doubtful one -- what impr=
ession will be wrought now, upon the minds of those about to emigrate, and =
especially upon the minds of those actually in the mineral region, by the a=
nnouncement of this astounding discovery of Von Kempelen? a discovery which=
 declares, in so many words, that beyond its intrinsic worth for manufactur=
ing purposes (whatever that worth may be), gold now is, or at least soon wi=
ll be (for it cannot be supposed that Von Kempelen can long retain his secr=
et), of no greater value than lead, and of far inferior value to silver. It=
 is, indeed, exceedingly difficult to speculate prospectively upon the cons=
equences of the discovery, but one thing may be positively maintained -- th=
at the announcement of the discovery six months ago would have had material=
 influence in regard to the settlement of California. In Europe, as yet, th=
e most noticeable results have been a rise of two hundred per cent. in the =
price of lead, and nearly twenty-five per cent. that of silver. ~~~ End of =
Text ~~~ =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D MESMERIC REVELATION WHATEVER doubt may still en=
velop the _rationale_ of mesmerism, its startling _facts_ are now almost un=
iversally admitted. Of these latter, those who doubt, are your mere doubter=
s by profession - an unprofitable and disreputable tribe. There can be no m=
ore absolute waste of time than the attempt to _prove_, at the present day,=
 that man, by mere exercise of will, can so impress his fellow, as to cast =
him into an abnormal condition, of which the phenomena resemble very closel=
y those of _death_, or at least resemble them more nearly than they do the =
phenomena of any other normal condition within our cognizance ; that, while=
 in this state, the person so impressed employs only with effort, and then =
feebly, the external organs of sense, yet perceives, with keenly refined pe=
rception, and through channels supposed unknown, matters beyond the scope o=
f the physical organs ; that, moreover, his intellectual faculties are wond=
erfully exalted and invigorated ; that his sympathies with the person so im=
pressing him are profound ; and, finally, that his susceptibility to the im=
pression increases with its frequency, while, in the same proportion, the p=
eculiar phenomena elicited are more extended and</p>=20
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