THE SEVEN FOLLIES
OF SCIENCE
A
POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE MOST FAMOUS
SCIENTIFIC IMPOSSIBILITIES
AND THE ATTEMPTS WHICH HAVE BEEN MADE TO SOLVE THEM.
To which is Added a Small Budget of Interesting
Paradoxes, Illusions, and Marvels.
BY
JOHN PHIN
"The Shakespeare Cyclopedia"; Editor Marquis of Worcester's,
"Century of Inventions"; Etc.
SECOND EDITION
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY
23 Murray and 27 Warren Sts.
1906
By D. Van Nostrand Company.
PREFACE
In the following pages I have endeavored to give a simpleaccount of problems which have occupied the attentionof the human mind ever since the dawn of civilization, andwhich can never lose their interest until time shall be nomore. While to most persons these subjects will have butan historical interest, yet even from this point of view theyare of more value than the history of empires, for they arethe intellectual battlefields upon which much of our progressin science has been won. To a few, however, some ofthem may be of actual practical importance, for althoughthe schoolmaster has been abroad for these many years, itis an unfortunate fact that the circle-squarer and the perpetual-motion-seekerhave not ceased out of the land.
In these days of almost miraculous progress it is difficultto realize that there may be such a thing as a scientific impossibility.I have therefore endeavored to point outwhere the line must be drawn, and by way of illustrationI have added a few curious paradoxes and marvels, someof which show apparent contradictions to known laws ofnature, but which are all simply and easily explained whenwe understand the fundamental principles which govern eachcase.
In presenting the various subjects which are here discussed,I have endeavored to use the simplest languageand to avoid entirely the use of mathematical formulae, for[iv]I know by large experience that these are the bugbear ofthe ordinary reader, for whom this volume is specially intended.Therefore I have endeavored to state everythingin such a simple manner that any one with a mere commonschool education can understand it. This, I trust, will explainthe absence of everything which requires the use ofanything higher than the simple rules of arithmetic and themost elementary propositions of geometry. And even thisI have found to be enough for many lawyers, physicians,and clergymen who, in the ardent pursuit of their professions,have forgotten much that they learned at college.And as I hope to find many readers amongst intelligentmechanics, I have in some cases suggested mechanicalproofs which any expert handler of tools can easily carryout.
As a matter of course, very little originality is claimedfor anything in the book,—the only points that are newbeing a few illustrations of well-know