"Quadrant" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... hung round with barometers (aneroids), sympie-someters, fixed chest for chronometers, charts, &c. Of course, wherever the "Southern Cross" goes I go too, and I am a most complete skipper. I feel as natural with my quadrant in my hand as of old with a cricket bat. Then I do rather have good salt-water baths, and see glorious sunsets and sunrises, and star-light nights, and the great many-voiced ocean, the winds and waves ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge
... then start off again on a gallop. Every now and then a culinary or scientific instrument would be detached from its fastenings, when the infuriated pony would manage to give it a kick before it struck the ground and send it aloft again. The quadrant took the direction toward the sun without taking it; the saucepan was kicked into a stew; the thermometer was up to an hundred—inches above the ground, and fell to—worth nothing. To sum it all up, what with rearing, pitching, kicking, and galloping about, the pony was soon rid of ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various
... much and how variegated pain you may have in the abdomen, or how high your temperature may run, if you are not distinctly sore on firm pressure down in this right lower or southwest quadrant of the abdomen,—but be careful not to press too hard, it isn't safe,—you may feel fairly sure that you haven't got appendicitis. If you are, you may still not have it, but you'd better send for ...
— Preventable Diseases • Woods Hutchinson
... its greatness is half known, Stretching beyond our narrow quadrant-lines,— As in that world of Nature all outgrown Where Calaveras lifts his awful pines, And cast from Mariposa's mountain-wall ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... not get our instruments on shore to make the necessary observations for ascertaining the longitude by the watch. For the same reason, Mr Bayly did not set about this, till he found that the Discovery would probably be detained some days after us. He then placed his quadrant upon Drake's Island; and had time, before the Resolution sailed, to make observations sufficient for the purpose we had in view. Our watch made the island to lie 4 deg. 14', and his, 4 deg. 13 1/2', west of Greenwich. Its latitude, as found by Messrs Wales ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18) • Robert Kerr
... Hawk, about 10 miles west of Ellsworth, had reported an extremely bright light low on the horizon, off to the northeast. The radar had been scanning an area to the west, working a jet fighter in some practice patrols, but when they got the report they moved the sector scan to the northeast quadrant. There was a target exactly where the lady reported the light to be. The warrant officer, who was the duty controller for the night, told me that he'd studied the target for several minutes. He knew how weather could affect radar but this ...
— The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects • Edward Ruppelt
... thing to be practicable, for the magnetic needle had been discovered, or brought from the East by Polo, which always pointed to the North Star, so that mariners could sail in the darkest nights; and also another instrument had been made, essentially the modern quadrant, by which latitude could be measured. He supposed that after sailing west, about eight hundred leagues, by the aid of compass and quadrant, and such charts as he had collected and collated, he should find the land of gold ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VI • John Lord
... canvass, lines, sails, cordage, an eight-and-twenty-gallon cask of water, and the carpenter to take his tool-chest. Mr. Samuel got one hundred and fifty pounds of bread with a small quantity of rum and wine ... also a quadrant ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron
... radiant pendants of the glittering ceiling, every available nook and corner, and all the ordinary gangways of the Great Hall being completely occupied. The money value of the house that night was L422. Crowds were unable to obtain admittance at the entrances in the Quadrant and in Piccadilly, long before the hour fixed for the Farewell Reading. Inside the building 2034 persons were seated there, eagerly awaiting the Novelist's appearance. The enthusiasm of his reception when eight o'clock came, and he advanced to the ...
— Charles Dickens as a Reader • Charles Kent
... silver surface, that these grey stains are always there, most of them forming a chain which curves through the upper hemisphere. Of the bright parts of the moon, some shine out with greater lustre than others, particularly one spot in the lower left-hand quadrant, not far from the edge of the full disc. The edges of the moon gleam more brightly as a rule than the central parts. All this was apparent to the Hebrews of old, as it is to our ...
— The Astronomy of the Bible - An Elementary Commentary on the Astronomical References - of Holy Scripture • E. Walter Maunder
... end of the seventeenth century, the instrument used was of this simple kind. It was generally a large quadrant, with one or two bars moving on a hinge,—to all intents and purposes a huge pair of compasses. The direction of the sight was fixed by the use of a slit and a pointer, much as in the ordinary rifle. This instrument ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles
... ordinary gears. The latter, as a rule, exert a uniform and decreasing, instead of an increasing, purchase on the rudder, in moving it from midgear to hard over. This important object is attained in the gear under notice chiefly through the arrangement of the quadrant and the spring buffers, which form an essential part of it, and of the tiller crosshead. The quadrant—which, as may be gathered from our illustration, has its main body formed of wrought steel, flanged and riveted, making an exceptionally strong design—works ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 1178, June 25, 1898 • Various
... was natural to expect that the officers would consider on the course they were to steer, and the land they were to make. These reflections led them to the disheartening discovery, that there was neither compass nor quadrant on the island. Indeed, the commodore had brought a pocket compass on shore for his own use, but Lieutenant Brett had borrowed it to determine the position of the neighbouring islands, and he had been driven to sea in the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr
... sayd come on your waye with me Unto a goodly toure whiche is solacyous Beholde it yonder / full of felycyte Quadrant it was / me thought full meruaylous With golden turrettes / gaye and gloryous Gargayled with greyho[un]des / and with many lyons Made of fyne golde / with ...
— The coforte of louers - The Comfort of Lovers • Stephen Hawes
... a second later; but his blouse caught in the teeth of the quadrant. He stooped quick as thought, and peeled the thing over his head. Then he was caught fast by the wristbands, and the ponies of the 44 tipped over the broken abutment. Pull as he would he couldn't get free. The pilot dipped into the ...
— Golden Stories - A Selection of the Best Fiction by the Foremost Writers • Various
... few years Tycho spent in various places ardently pursuing somewhat varied branches of scientific study. At one time we hear of him assisting an astronomical alderman, in the ancient city of Augsburg, to erect a tremendous wooden machine—a quadrant of 19-feet radius—to be used in observing the heavens. At another time we learn that the King of Denmark had recognised the talents of his illustrious subject, and promised to confer on him a pleasant sinecure in the shape of a canonry, ...
— Great Astronomers • R. S. Ball
... as ignorant as I was on the subject, I determined to ascertain by some means exactly where this little paradise of a spot was situated. And, as a first step toward this, I ascertained roughly the latitude of the spot, by means of a quadrant that I found in Ricardo's room, as a result of which I discovered that I was undoubtedly somewhere on the island of Cuba. Since there were only two spots on the coast line of the island that could possibly have this precise latitude, ...
— A Middy in Command - A Tale of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood
... But his maine end does drooping Vertue raise, And crownes her beauty with eternall Bayes; In Scaenes where she inflames the frozen soule, While Vice (her paint washt off) appeares so foule; She must this Blessed Isle and Europe leave, And some new Quadrant of the Globe deceive: Or hide her Blushes on the Affrike shore Like Marius, but ne're rise to triumph more; That honour is resign'd to Fletchers fame; Adde to his Trophies, that a Poets name (Late growne as odious to our Moderne states As that of King to Rome) he vindicates From ...
— The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher in Ten Volumes - Volume I. • Beaumont and Fletcher
... of trigonometry was invented by Copernicus, and we see that early in his twenties he was well on the heels of it, for he had then arranged a quadrant to measure the height of standing trees, steeples, buildings or mountains. For rest ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 12 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists • Elbert Hubbard
... I have showed to be required in that thing which the church may lawfully prescribe by a law, are not quadrant nor competent to the cross, kneeling, ...
— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie
... contemplating the movement of the stars around the southern pole, in order to ascertain which had the least motion, and which might be nearest to the firmament; but I was not able to accomplish it with such bad nights as I had, and such instruments as I used, which were the quadrant and astrolabe. I could not distinguish a star which had less than ten degrees of motion around the firmament; so that I was not satisfied within myself to name any particular one for the pole of the meridian, on account of the large revolution ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8 - The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation • Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson
... to a peculiar sea-quadrant, because the back of the observer was turned towards the sun at the time of observing its zenith distance. The inventor was Captain Davis, the Welsh navigator, about 1590. It consists of a graduated arc of 30 deg. united to a centre by two radii, with a second arc of smaller radius, ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth
... blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Anguillan coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms depicts three orange dolphins in an interlocking circular design on a white background ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... most available point at which to work steam expansively is at I/4, as the percentage of increase of power does not equal the percentage of loss in economy. The nearer you bring the reverse lever to center of quadrant, the earlier will the valve cut the steam and the less will be the average pressure, while the farther away from the center the later in the stroke will the valve cut the steam, and the greater the average pressure, and, consequently, the greater the power. We have ...
— Rough and Tumble Engineering • James H. Maggard
... literally sang the wrath of Achilles, and the woes of Greece;" would it were so in England. Then, my poetical public, we should have Anacreon Moore singing his "Rich and rare were the gems she wore," in some such place as the Quadrant, or Opera Colonnade; and Sir Walter Scott celebrating the Field of Waterloo, not in the broad-margined octavos of Paternoster-row, but about the purlieus of the Horse Guards. Wordsworth would be his own Skylark. The laureate, ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 12, Issue 330, September 6, 1828 • Various
... spur is set, and I put another such spur to the opposite corner of the square, and we have the half base, Fig. LX., which is a general type of the best Gothic bases in existence, being very nearly that of the upper shafts of the Ducal Palace of Venice. In those shafts the quadrant a b, or the upper edge of the lower roll, is 2 feet 1-3/8 inches round, and the base of the spur d e, is 10 inches; the line d e being therefore to a b as 10 to 25-3/8. In Fig. LX. it is as 10 to 24, the measurement being easier and the type somewhat more generally representative ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin
... Genius's of that Age to the Disquisitions of natural Knowledge, who, if they had engaged in Politicks with the same Parts and Application, might have set their Country in a Flame. The Air-Pump, the Barometer, the Quadrant, and the like Inventions were thrown out to those busie Spirits, as Tubs and Barrels are to a Whale, that he may let the Ship sail on without Disturbance, while he diverts ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... although they look very much as if they did. They come over here in large numbers from other countries, chiefly from France; and in London abound in Leicester-square, and are constantly to be met with under the Quadrant in Regent-street, where they grin, gabble, chatter, and sometimes dance, to the no small diversion ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, August 7, 1841 • Various
... sacred, maintaining that the "sacredness" of the number was of much more recent date than the creation of the worlds, and could not therefore account for it. He next tried an ingenious idea, comparing the perpendiculars from different points of a quadrant of a circle on a tangent at its extremity. The greatest of these, the tangent, not being cut by the quadrant, he called the line of the sun, and associated with infinite force. The shortest, being the point at the other end of the quadrant, thus corresponded ...
— Kepler • Walter W. Bryant
... three inventions—of Sir William Thomson's portable electrometer to indicate whether or no the instrument is sufficiently charged; of the replenisher by Mr. Varley for charging or discharging; and of the quadrant electrometer for reading off the minute tensions measured. The instrument is in its present form so practically useful that it has been largely used in connection with telegraphic cables, and Mr. Varley has calculated tables to enable any electrician at a glance ...
— Western Worthies - A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West - of Scotland Celebrities • J. Stephen Jeans
... according to my fortune. I was drawn in by several persons to make that simple purchase. The year I bought it, I had my ascendant directed into a Trine of Jupiter first, and in the same year into the Cauda Draconis—my fortune into a quadrant of Mercury. When Colchester was besieged, John Booker and myself were sent for, where we encouraged the soldiers, assuring them the town would very shortly be surrendered, as indeed it was: I would willingly have obtained leave to enter the town, ...
— William Lilly's History of His Life and Times - From the Year 1602 to 1681 • William Lilly
... ponderibus pro novo aura ponderant' s' nobili xs. di. nobyl et quadrant' ejusdem cunagii et pro nobili de vjs. viijd. di. nobil et quadrant' et minoribus ponderibus utriusque cunagii cum le Scolys et ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850 • Various
... being impostors; and they were ordered to be apprehended, and put into the castle. One of the men, and the woman, fled into the woods; but were soon taken. They confessed they were English convicts, and that they had made their escape from Botany Bay. They had been supplied with a quadrant, a compass, a chart, and some small arms and ammunition, from a Dutch ship that lay there; and the expedition was conducted by the Governor's fisherman, whose time of transportation was expired. He was a good seaman, and a ...
— Voyage of H.M.S. Pandora - Despatched to Arrest the Mutineers of the 'Bounty' in the - South Seas, 1790-1791 • Edward Edwards
... tubs, carried off many. During our passage I first saw flying fishes, which surprised me very much: they used frequently to fly across the ship, and many of them fell on the deck. I also now first saw the use of the quadrant; I had often with astonishment seen the mariners make observations with it, and I could not think what it meant. They at last took notice of my surprise; and one of them, willing to increase it, as well as to gratify my ...
— The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African - Written By Himself • Olaudah Equiano
... agreement here, but will do so at Batavia," and forthwith we set sail for that place. Before leaving Singapore, however, Jensen bought some nautical instruments he could not get at Batavia—including compasses, quadrant, chronometer, &c. Strange to say, he did not tell me that his ship was named the Veielland until we had arrived at Batavia. Here the contract was duly drawn up, and the vessel fitted out for the voyage. I fancy this was the first ...
— The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont - as told by Himself • Louis de Rougemont
... They should leave the cab, boiler head, oil cans and deck in a clean condition, boiler full of water, enough fire and steam, so that the hostler will not be required to put in fuel while the engine is in his charge; should know that throttle valve is securely closed, reverse lever in center of quadrant, cylinder cocks open, and if equipped with independent brake, it to be applied; in fact, it is an excellent opportunity for a mechanical officer to judge the ability of the ...
— The Traveling Engineers' Association - To Improve The Locomotive Engine Service of American Railroads • Anonymous
... three quadrants of the circle of the world, arose low- rolling hills, smooth, fenced, cropped, and pastured, that melted into higher hills and steeper wooded slopes that merged upward, steeper, into mighty mountains. The fourth quadrant was unbounded by mountain walls and hills. It faded away, descending easily to vast far flatlands, which, despite the clear brittle air of frost, were too vast and far ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London
... perfect. Watt's mission saved him from this, for to succeed he had to be master, not of one process, but of all. Hence we find him first making brass scales, parallel-rulers and quadrants. By the end of one month in this department he was able to finish a Hadley quadrant. From this he proceeded to azimuth compasses, brass sectors, theodolites, and other delicate instruments. Before his year was finished he wrote his father that he had made "a brass sector with a French joint, which is reckoned as nice a piece of framing-work as is in the trade," ...
— James Watt • Andrew Carnegie |
