Rollo's Experiments

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. CONTENTS. Page. JONAS AN ASTRONOMER. 11 PRUNING. 23 THE GREAT BEETLE AND WEDGE. 35 THE LITTLE BEETLE AND WEDGE. 46 SPLITTING. 59 HOROLOGY. 80 JONAS’S DIAL. 94 THE BEE-HIVE. 112 JONAS’S MAGNET. 126 MAGNETISM. 139 INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY. 157 OSCILLATIONS. 165 ROLLO’S EXPERIMENTS. JONAS AN ASTRONOMER. One day, when Rollo was about seven years old, he was sitting upon the steps of the door, and he heard a noise in the street, as of some sort of carriage approaching. A moment afterwards, a carryall came in sight. It drove up to the front gate, and stopped. Rollo’s father and mother and his little brother Nathan got out. His father fastened the horse to the post, and came in. When Rollo first heard the noise of the carryall, he was sitting still upon the steps of the door, thinking. He was thinking of something that Jonas, his father’s hired boy, had told him about the sun’s shining in at the barn door. There was a very large double door to Rollo’s father’s barn, and as this door opened towards the south, the sun used to shine in very warm, upon the barn floor, in the middle of the day. Rollo and Jonas had been sitting there husking some corn,—for it was in the fall of the year;—and as it was rather a cool autumnal day, Rollo said it was lucky that the sun shone in, for it kept them warm. “Yes,” said Jonas; “and what is remarkable, it always shines in farther in the winter than it does in the summer.” “Does it?” said Rollo. “Yes,” said Jonas. “And what is the reason?” asked Rollo. “I don’t know,” said Jonas, “unless it is because we want it in the barn more in the winter than we do in the summer.” “Ho!” said Rollo; “I don’t believe that is the reason.” “Why not?” said Jonas. “O, I don’t believe the sun moves about in the heavens, to different places, only just to shine into barn doors.” “Why, it keeps a great many farmers’ boys more comfortable,” said Jonas. “Is it so in all barns?” asked Rollo. “I suppose so,” said Jonas. After some further conversation on the subject, the boys determined to watch the reflection of the sun’s beams upon the barn floor for a…