Short Fiction, Edgar Allan Poe [best autobiographies to read TXT] 📗

difference in length be any whole-number multiple of that fraction. A multiple by 2¼, 3¼, etc., gives an intensity equal to one ray only; but a multiple by 2½, 3½, etc., gives the result of total darkness. In violet rays similar effects arise when the difference in length is 0.000157 of an inch; and with all other rays the results are the same⁠—the difference varying with a uniform increase from the violet to the red.

“Analogous experiments in respect to sound produce analogous results.” ↩

Place a platina crucible over a spirit lamp, and keep it a red heat; pour in some sulphuric acid, which, though the most volatile of bodies at a common temperature, will be found to become completely fixed in a hot crucible, and not a drop evaporates⁠—being surrounded by an atmosphere of its own, it does not, in fact, touch the sides. A few drops of water are now introduced, when the acid, immediately coming in contact with the heated sides of the crucible, flies off in sulphurous acid vapor, and so rapid is its progress, that the caloric of the water passes off with it, which falls a lump of ice to the bottom; by taking advantage of the moment before it is allowed to remelt, it may be turned out a lump of ice from a red-hot vessel. ↩

The Daguerreotype. ↩

Although light travels 167,000 miles in a second, the distance of 61 Cygni (the only star whose distance is ascertained) is so inconceivably great, that its rays would require more than ten years to reach the earth. For stars beyond this, 20⁠—or even 1000 years⁠—would be a moderate estimate. Thus, if they had been annihilated 20, or 1000 years ago, we might still see them today by the light which started from their surfaces 20 or 1000 years in the past time. That many which we see daily are really extinct, is not impossible⁠—not even improbable.

The elder Herschel maintains that the light of the faintest nebulae seen through his great telescope must have taken 3,000,000 years in reaching the earth. Some, made visible by Lord Ross’ instrument, must, then, have required at least 20,000,000. ↩

An incident, similar in outline to the one here imagined, occurred, not very long ago, in England. The name of the fortunate heir was Thelluson. I first saw an account of this matter in the “Tour” of Prince Puckler Muskau, who makes the sum inherited ninety millions of pounds, and justly observes that “in the contemplation of so vast a sum, and of the services to which it might be applied, there is something even of the sublime.” To suit the views of this article I have followed the Prince’s statement, although a grossly exaggerated one. The germ, and in fact, the commencement of the present paper was published many years ago⁠—previous to the issue of the first number of Sue’s admirable Juif Errant, which may possibly have been suggested to him by Muskau’s account. ↩

Colophon

Short Fiction
was published between 1832 and 1849 by
Edgar Allan Poe.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Robin Whittleton,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2008 by
David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive (vols. 1, 2, 3 and 4).

The cover page is adapted from
Saint-Séverin,
a painting completed in 1909 by
Robert Delaunay.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

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