In geography, a geyser (from the Icelandic geysir which in turn deribes from heysa meaning to gush or rush forth) is a term applied to natural springs of hot water of the kind that were first observed in Iceland. The geysers of Iceland, about a hundred in number, lie about 30 miles north west of Mount Hecia, in a plain covered by hot-springs and steaming apertures. The two most remarkable are the Great Geyser and the New Geyser or Strokkur (churn), the former of which throws up at times a column of hot water to the height of from 80 to 200 feet. The basin of the Great Geyser is about 70 feet across at its greatest diameter. The New Geyser, which is only 100 meters away, is much smaller in size. The springs are supposed to be connected with Mount Hecia, and the phenomenon of eruption has been explained by Tyndall as due to the heating of the walls of a fissure, whereby the water is slowly raised to the boiling point under pressure, and explodes into steam, an interval being required for the process to be repeated. The geysers of Iceland, however, were surpassed by those discovered in the Rocky Mountains in the Yellowstone Region of Wyoming Territory, the largest of which throw up jets of water from 90 to 250 feet high. The hot-lake district of Auckland, New Zealand, is also famous in possessing some of the most remarkable geyser scenery in the world. These phenomena are of three kinds: the puias (fire-springs), geysers continually or intermittently active; ngawhas or inactive puias, which emitsteam, but do not throw up columns of water; and waiariki or hot-water cisterns. This region is remarkable for the number of natural terraces containing hot-water pools or cisterns, and its lakes all filled at intervals by the boiling geysers and thermal springs, but the configuration of the country was considerably altered by the disastrous volcanic outbreak of 1886. Ngahapu or Ohopia, a circular rocky basin, 40 feet in diameter, in which a violent geyser is constantly ng up to the height of 10 or 12 feet, emitting dense clouds of steam, is one of the natural wonders of the southern hemisphere. Research Geyser
The X Club was a private British dining club of scientists which met from 1864 to 1892. The X Club was comprised of Joseph Hooker the botanist; T H Huxley a biologist; John Tyndall, a physicist; John Lubbock, a banker, ethnologist, and entomologist; William Spottiswoode, the Queen's Printer and an amateur mathematician; Edward Frankland, a chemist; George Busk, a retired surgeon, comparative anatomist, and microscopist; T A Hirst, a mathematician; and HerbertSpencer, a sociologist and philosopher of evolution. Research X Club
John Tyndall was an Irish physicist. He was born in 1820 at Leighlin Bridge, County Carlow and died in 1893. Educated at the local school he became an assistant in the ordnance survey of Ireland in 1839 and in 1842 was transferred to the English survey. In 1847 he accepted an invitation to teach mathematics and surveying at Queenwood College, Hampshire, and the following year went to the university of Marburg where he studied chemistry before publishing his papers on the Magneto-Optic Properties of Crystals in 1859, followed by works on heat, sound and the forms of water. Research John Tyndall
Si Joseph Edgar Boehm was a Hungarian sculptor. He was born in 1834 at Vienna and died in 1890. He studied art in Italy and Paris, and settled in England in 1862. He executed many statues for public monuments, including those to Bunyan at Bedford, Carlyle and Tyndall on the Thames Embankment, Beaconsfield and Stanley for Westminster, etc, besides many portrait-busts. In 1881 he was appointed sculptor-in-ordinary to queen Victoria. Research Joseph Boehm
The Tyndall Effect is the scattering of light by fine suspended particles. If a beam of white light is passed through a colloidal suspension of a substance such as mastic in water, light will be emitted at right angles to the beam. Research Tyndall Effect
California is a state in the west USA on the Pacific Ocean. It was discovered in 1533 and named California after a fictional island in a story by a contemporary Spanish author, or perhaps it was so named from the Spanish Caliente Fornalla, meaning hot furnace and alluring to the climate. California was admitted into the USA in 1850.
The coast extends the full length of the state, measuring about 700 miles, following the indentations. On the southern part of the coast are a few islands. The state may be divided into three distinct portions - the central being much the most densely populated. This central portion is embraced between the parallels 35 degrees and 40 degrees, and has on its eastern side the Sierra Nevada, and on its western the Coast Ranges. Between these two mountain chains lies the Great Central Valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, renowned for its beauty and fertility.
The principal river is the Sacramento, which flows south for upwards of 300 miles, receiving numerous affluents from the Sierra Nevada, and falls into the Bay of Suisun. The San Joaquin rises in the SierraNevada, flows north for about 250 miles, and joins the Sacramento about 15 miles above Suisun Bay. It receives the waters of lakeTule or Tulares, and has numerous tributaries. The Bay of San Francisco, forming the most capacious harbour on the Pacific coast, is about 60 miles in length, 14 broad, and with a coast-line of 275 miles. It is connected with the ocean by a strait about two miles wide, and from five to seven long, called the Golden Gate. The city of San Francisco stands on the north-west shore of the southern arm.
The peaks of the SierraNevada - MountShasta, Lassen's Butte, Spanish Peak, Pyramid Peak, Mounts Dana, Lyell, Brewer, Tyndall, Whitney, and others - reach from 10,000 to nearly 15,000 feet above the sea (MountWhitney is 14,886). The volcanic character of the state is manifested by the mountain formations; and earthquakes are frequent.
California is celebrated for its many wonderful natural objects and remarkable scenery. Noteworthy are the Yosemite Valley and the 'big tree groves,' containing groups of giantredwood trees - Sequoia gigantea - some of which reach the height of nearly 400 feet.
The mineral resources of California are of great importance. Gold is found in abundance, being first discovered in 1848, and subsequently brought a great rush of settlers to this part of the world. Among other minerals found in the state are silver, mercury, copper, coal, lead, tin, antimony, cobalt, etc.
California, being intersected by the isothermal line of 60 degrees, has the same mean annual temperature as the north of Spain and the centre of Italy, and may, generally speaking, be esteemed genial and mild. The year may be divided into a dry and a wet season. On the lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada the climate is said to be that of constant spring. Wheat, barley, oats, maize and other cereals, the root-crops and vegetables of temperate climates are very largely grown. Fruits are most varied, including olives, grapes, apples, pears, plums, figs, oranges, peaches, pomegranates, plantains, bananas, and cocoa-nuts; the indigo-plant also, and the sugar-cane and tobacco, yield abundant returns. The cultivation of the vine rapidly extended from the 19th century, and the production of wine and brandy and raisins increased rapidly, and by the late 20th century Californian wines were world famous.
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