Inventors

"It is in like manner also that they destroy and burn up the Lungs. Hence also it is, that by frequently contracting and shrivelling, and then soon after relaxing, they weaken and wear out the Substance and Coats of the Stomach, on which they more immediately prey, every time they are drank."

"Johannes Gadesden [i.e.,] Johannes Anglicus, Anno 1516, says that Sea-Water may be sweetened four ways, viz. by filtrating thro' Sand: By clean Linnen laid over a Boiler, and squeesing the Moisture out, as from the Sponges: By Distillation: As alfo by thin Bowls made of white Virgin Wax, which 'tis said will free the Water from its Saltness, and from some part of its nauseous Bitter. But this is only a matter of curiosity, because but a very small Quantity can be thus prepared; and in order to make those waxen Bowls fit for farther Filtration, they must be cleansed from the Salt, by being washed in fresh Water."

"About the Year 1675, William Walcot, Brother to Sir , obtained a Patent for making Sea-Water fresh: And the King, before the Grant of this Patent, had the curiosity to go and see Mr. Walcot do it, which was by distilling it in a very large Still; into the Still he put some Ingredient, which was to cure the distilled Water of any noxious Quality: But what it was, he kept a great secret. I suspect that the principal thing was only Distillation, because in all his printed Accounts of it, he purposely avoids the calling it a Still, but calls it a Machine or Engine, and Distilling he calls the working of the Machine, not Distilling."

"A Translation of which ingenious Treatise, was communicated to me by Dr. Mortimer; in which he says, "In Hospitals and Barracks for the Sick, this Machine is placed in the , from whence two or three Pipes go down, some Inches thro' the Ceiling, into each Room where the Sick lie; and thus draw out all the unwholesome Air and Stench, which does more harm than any Physick can repair. And at the same time, has this accidental Benefit, That those who begin to mend, may give themselves a proper Exercise, in working the Machine: Only they ought to take care to keep all the Garret-Windows open, while the Machine is a going. In Men of War and Hospital-Ships, this Machine is placed on the upper Deck, directly over the great other Hatch: And then the Pipe, which goes down between the Decks, draws out the unwholesome Air; which is instantly supplied by fresh."

"[I]t occurred to me the March following, that large Ventilators would be very serviceable, in making the Air in Ships more wholesome; this I was so fully satisfied of, that I immediately drew up an Account of it; several Copies of wbich were communicated, both by my self and others, to many Persons of Distinction, and Members of the Royal Society: Before whom I laid a large Account of it, which was read in their Presence the May following..."

"For this Engine [] had a Privilege for Life granted him by the King and Senate of Sweden, dated the 20th October 1741..."

"I was at first much discouraged, when I reflected on my Rashness, in venturing on an Undertaking, which had baffled the repeated Attempts of the best Philosophers and Chymists, both Ancient and Modern: In so much that they looked upon it as almost impracticable to find out any way to procure a wholesome Drink from Sea-Water."

"Green s serene retreat, For Philosophic studies meet, Where the good Pastor, Stephen Hales Weigh'd moisture in a pair of scales, To ling'ring death put s and dogs, And stripp'd the skin from living frogs (Nature he loved, her works intent To search, and sometimes, to torment!)"

"This Acid in Tar-water will curdle Milk; yet Turpentine-water will not... which shows that Tar is considerably acidulated, by the action of Fire in making."

"We have seen in the Course of these Experiments, the Quantity of Tar that there is in Tar-Water; and the great Difference of that Quantity, made with different kinds of Tar, and different Degrees of Stirring. Now, since, notwithstanding these Quantities of Tar, and the additional more subtile volatile Oil, which flies off in Evaporation, it has yet undoubtedly proved an efficacious Remedy in many Cases and Instances; it may hence be reasonably concluded, that the Medicinal Virtue of the Water does not reside solely in the Acid, but partly also in the unctuous oily Parts, which are so temper'd by the Acid, as in some Cases to prevent their heating too much."

"But whereas in some Cases, it is observed by Physicians to be too inflammatory, it is probable, that heating Quality, may in some Degree be abated, by making Tar-Water with the Strainer... without Stirring; thereby to divest the Water of a good Quantity of its grosser, tarrish Particles, and yet retain whatever Powers it may have to do good."

"In William Stukeley... who came in 1704 to live in Corpus Christi College, Hales seems to have found a very congenial companion, though Stukeley was the younger by ten years. ...The two friends also studied anatomy together, dissecting frogs, dogs and other animals; while Hales devised an ingenious method of obtaining a preparation of the lungs in lead. They moreover studied chemistry and "repeated many of Mr. Boyle’s experiments" and prepared various substances, "some of use, some of curiosity.""

"When Tar-waters of different Degrees of Strength were put into Florence Flasks, with other inverted Flasks fixed on them, and all were placed in the same Vessel of hot Water; on breaking the upper Flasks, the volatile acid Spirit could very sensibly be tasted, especially that of the stronger Tar-water; which shows that these Waters are impregnated therewith: and which when distilled from Turpentine, Dr. Boerhaave in his Chemistry says, is the best vegetable Acid that is known."

"I shall... give an Account of what has been formerly attempted for making Sea-Water drinkable, especially what was done by Mr. Walcot and Mr. Fitz-gerald in King Charles the Second's Time."

"It is hoped, that the Light given by these Researches, may be of use in skilful Hands, for regulating and adapting the due Proportions of the acid, and the oily Principles, to different Cases and Constitutions. This is the proper Province of the Physician, which I am no ways qualified to meddle in."

"Man, not contented with the Liquors, which his bountiful Creator intending for his Comfort, has wisely tempered with such a due Proportion of Strength, as would (if taken in Moderation,) make his Heart glad, has unhappily found Means to extract, from what God provided for his Refreshment, a most intoxicating and baneful Spirit, to which, in a great measure, is owing the remarkable Increase of Drunkenness of late Years; which Vice reigns to a most enormous Degree, among the habitual Drinkers of Gin, Brandy, and other Distilled Liquors; which are found to be most pernicious and destructive. For at the same shat they coagulate and thicken the Blood, they also contract and narrow the Blood-Vesels; which has, in fact, been found to be true, by Experiments I have purposely made with Brandy, on the Blood and Blood-Vesels of Animals."

"He proposes also to prevent Sea-Sickness thereby, by having a Man thus shut up in a close Cabin in a compressed Air: This, I suppose, has led some to say, that this and my Proposal are the same. But bow wide is their Difference! My Ventilators are intended to promote a free Perspiration and Breathing, by conveying great Quantities of fresh Air into Ships, in exchange for very bad Air. On the contrary, Dr. Henshaw's Conetrivance would make a good Air, by confining it, very bad, and thereby retard Perspiration, and incommode the Breathing, and so cause, instead of preventing, Sickness... Besides, the Make of my Ventilators is very different from that of Organ-Bellows."

"He proposes by this means to cure intermitting Fevers, by having the Air in the Room rarefied in the cold Fit, and condensed in the hot Fit; during the whole time of which, the Patient is to continue therein: And recommends the use of it, among other Distempers, to cure the Stone and the Pox."

"As these Ventilators are like to prove of great Benefit to Mankind, in many other Respects than are here mentioned, or can as yet be thought of; so it will be of great use, if those who shall have made farther Improvements, will... communicate them; as also an Account of the Difficulties or Success they have met with in putting the Things here proposed in execution."

"These two books were again edited under the title, "Statical Essays, Vols. I & II.""

"And Mr. Triewald further says, that in the Summer of the Year 1742, be bad sent one of his Engines, calculated for a Sixty Gun Man of War, to France; which being approved of by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, the King of France has ordered all the Men of War to be furnished with the like Ventilators."

"And in his Letter to Baron Wasenberg, Envoy from the King of Sweden, dated the 22d of April 1743... he says, "that every Swedish Man of War, and Hospital Ship, was last Year furnished with one of my Engines; which had not been done, in case so they had not experienced the Benefit of the same, the Campaign so before that." So that a Trial was made with these Ventilators in the Year 1741, which proved a very sickly Summer in the Swedish Fleet, except only in the Ship or Ships, which were refreshed by Ventilators: A strong Instance of their great Usefulness; which induced the Swedes to put them into every Man of War and Hospital-Ship, the rear following."

"Being informed, while this Book was printing, that it was said that M.D. F.R.S. had long since made a like Proposal, for sweetning the Air of Ships, in a Treatise called Aëro-Chalinos, or a Register for the Air, printed in the Year 1677... In which Book is the following Proposal, viz. In order to have the Benefit of Change of Air, to another Country or Climate, almost at any Season, and that without going out of the House; he would have a Room, which he calls an Air-Chamber, to be built... Air-tight every where; with a very large Pair of Organ-Bellows to be placed in the Room; to or from which, Air is to be conveyed through the Wall, by a Copper Pipe; with Valves to open inward or outward as Occasion shall require. With these Bellows, the Air in the Room is either to be condensed and made heavier, by forcing Air in, or lighter, by conveying Air out of the Room."

"The methods devised by Hales and Triewald seem to have been identical, and the history of their invention is told by Hales in his book on ventilators published in 1743."

"As the celebrated Tar-water, recommended by the worthy and learned Bishop Berkeley, is said to be taken with great Benefit by some, and Detriment by others; I thought it might probably be of use to inquire whether any, or what Quantity of Tar, there was in Tar-water, made with different kinds of Tar, different Degrees of stirring, and in different Ways of making it. A short Account of which I shall give, without interesting myself, either in Favour or Disfavour of a Medicine that is under the Inspection of the proper Judges, as well as of all the rest of the World."

"I have here, and as occasion offered under several of the foregoing Experiments, only touched upon a few of the most obvious instances, wherein these kind of researches may possibly be of service in giving us useful hints in the culture of plants: Tho' I am very sensible, that it is from long experience chiefly that we are to expect the most certain rules of practice, yet it is withal to be remembred, that the likeliest method to enable us to make the most judicious observations, and to put us upon the most probable means of improving any art, is to get the best insight we can into the nature and properties of those things which we are desirous to cultivate and improve."

"St. Basil, in his Homilies, says that when Men were cast on an Island, where there was no fresh Water; and they boiled Sea-Water; and catched the Vapour with Sponges, which they squeezed into another Boiler; and having passed thus, four or five Times from Boilers thro' Sponges, it became drinkable. This tedious way was used before the method of Disttiling was known, which was an Invention of the Arabs."

"In [1739] he reported to the Royal Society an account of some "further experiments towards the discovery of a medicine for dissolving the stone in the kidneys and bladder, and preserving meat in long voyages," and it was for this that he received the []. In the following year he published an account of some experiments and observations on Miss Stephens’ medicines for dissolving stone, in which their dissolving power was inquired into and demonstrated."

"Upon Inquiry from knowing Persons, I find that Norway or Swedish Tar, which is dark, thick and clear... is accounted the best for the general Uses... But that the Tar which is made of the Tops of -Trees... having lain long dead... after having either fallen... or being killed by the draining off their Sap... (These Tops are commonly called Light-wood, the poorer People making use of them instead of Candles:) This Tar being burned in a very strong Fire of such dry Wood, is of a very caustick, corroding Nature, so as to be hurtful to Ropes, &c. for which reason it is not used in the Royal Navy. But the American Tar, which is made of green Fir-Trees, with a less degree of Fire, is esteemed good, and is called green Tar..."

"This Treatise, he says, was read before the Royal Academy of Sweden the third day of April 1742. ...This was eleven Months after mine was laid before the Royal Society."

"It were a very extraordinary Circumstance that two Persons at so great a Distance from each other, without getting a Hint of it one from the other, should happen to hit on inventing a like very useful Engine."

"Having procured some Norway or Swedish Tar which was thirty Years old... I, according to the Bishop's Prescription, made Tar-water in the proportion of a Gallon of Water to a Quart of Tar, stirring it four Minutes: I then took a Pint of this Tar-water, and evaporated it away in a , cut to a wide Orifice... and weighed."

"Whence we may evidently see the Reason why those Liquors do so frequently cause those Obstructions and Stoppages in the Liver; which occasion the Jaundice, Dropsy, and many other fatal Diseases."

"November the sixth following, viz. in the Year 1741 Martin Triewald, Captain of Mechanicks and Military Architect to the King of Sweden, and Fellow of the Royal Society at London, in a Letter to M.D. and Secretary of the Royal Society, says, that "this Spring he had invented a Machine, for the Use of his Majesty's Men of War, which went to block up Petersburgh, in order to draw out the bad Air from under their Decks, the least of which does exhaust 36172 cubick Feet of Air in an Hour,"..."

"I think I’ve kind of carved out a sweet spot for myself by combining science and comedy. To me, it’s like putting syrup in your medicine. Everything just goes down easier if you add humor to it, and you can reach a lot more people if you manage to do it in an entertaining way."

"I’ve shied away from the ‘women in tech’ question because it’s always what people ask about. I think as soon as you’re a woman, or any minority doing something, you automatically become a representative for it, and I think a lot of brilliant women’s interviews are being wasted on talking about what it’s like being a woman."

"Most people, both Christian and non-Christian, saw Hypatia’s killing as a brutal, unprovoked murder that exploded out of a toxic set of circumstances for which Hypatia bore little responsibility."

"In speech articulate and logical, in her actions prudent and public-spirited. The city gave her suitable welcome and accorded her special respect."

"Hypatia was a University lecturer denounced by Church dignitaries and torn to pieces by Christians. Such will probably be the fate of this book: therefore it bears her name. What I have written here I believe and shall not retract or change for similar episcopal denunciations."

"We were witnessing the birth of a new era in endocrinology, one that started with Yalow."

"I think things that work well start to look good as well."

"We still live in a world in which a significant fraction of people, including women, believe that a woman belongs and want to belong exclusively in the home."

"Initially, new ideas are rejected. Later they become dogma, if you’re right. And if you’re really lucky you can publish your rejections as part of your Nobel presentation."

"We cannot expect in the immediate future that all women who seek it will achieve full equality of opportunity. But if women are to start moving towards that goal, we must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed."

"I have also rendered the phonic molecular vibrations visible, when produced by the longitudinal oscillations of a column of air ..."

"The instruments and processes I am about to describe being all founded on the principles established by Ohm in his theory of the voltaic circuit, and this beautiful and comprehensive theory being not yet generally understood and admitted, even by many persons engaged in original research, I could scarcely hope to make my descriptions and explanations understood without prefacing them with a short account of the principal results which have been deduced from it. It will soon be perceived how the clear ideas of electro-motive forces and resistances, substituted for the vague notions of intensity and quantity which have been so long prevalent, enable us to give satisfactory explanations of most important phenomena, the laws of which have hitherto been involved in obscurity and doubt."

"... Wheatstone was to become a household name for his work on electric telegraphs, and indeed the Prince Consort consulted him as a parent of the telegraph system. Wheatstone had other claims to fame. He held a Chair at King's College London for 41 years and, although he hardly ever gave a lecture, the College subsequently named a laboratory after him. He invented the concertina and he discovered the principle of stereoscopy. He used his encyclopaedic knowledge of the literature to spread scientific ideas. He designed ingenious electro-mechanical devices and pioneered precise electrical measurements."

"Because beyond hell, it is in any salon, with bronze of Barbedienne or not, that the suffering is: as soon as other people see clearly in the game of the human being."

"Do you want me to tell you how this is going? The guy suffocates, he sinks, he drowns, only his eyes are out of the water and what does he see? A bronze from Barbedienne."

"dear Bernard, with his two bronzes of Barbedienne and his wedding crown in orange blossom that stands on the mantelpiece..."