Abstract
January 16, 1834.—After a voyage of two months from Portsmouth, Sir John Herschel, on Jan. 16, 1834, reached Cape Town. Re-erecting his famous 20-feet telescope at Feldhausen, near the base of Table Mountain, during the next four years he carried out his great survey of the southern hemisphere, observing more than 4000 nebulke and star clusters, and 2095 double stars. He also made many observations of relative stellar brightness, of Halley's comet, of the satellites of Jupiter, and of sunspots. January 17, 1783.—Of capital importance in the industrial development of Great Britain were the two inventions of Henry Cort-the rolling mill and the puddling furnace. The former was patented on Jan. 17, 1783, the latter on Feb. 13, 1784. Dudley, the Darbys, Huntsman, and others, had improved the methods of making cast iron and steel, but the main British supply of wrought iron came from Sweden and Russia. Cort's improvements were the resplts of years of work at his foundry at Fareham, but no sooner had he brought out his invention than misfortune befell him and he was completely ruined. England, however, benefited immensely by his work, and by 1860, just before the Bessemer process was taken up, there were 8000 puddling furnaces in use.
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S., E. Calendar of Discovery and Invention. Nature 119, 104 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119104a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119104a0