Images Dated 6th September 2004

A storm approaches West Palm Beach, Florida from the East after hurricane Frances hit yesterday

A storm approaches West Palm Beach, Florida from the East after hurricane Frances hit yesterday. Severe thunderstorms have been hitting South Florida all day today, September 6, 2004. Frances hit Florida for a second time on Monday, weaker but still bearing torrential rains and high winds as it crossed from the Gulf of Mexico onto the northwestern Panhandle. A huge and slow-moving storm, Frances lumbered into the state's east coast as a hurricane on Saturday and in two days cut power to more than 6 million people, disrupted telephone services, felled trees, damaged homes and smashed boats. State emergency management officials blamed three Florida deaths on Frances - a woman killed when a tree fell on her mobile home, a man killed when his car crashed on a rain-slick road and an 81-year-old man who suffered a fatal fall while walking his dog during the storm. REUTERS/Marc Serota NO RIGHTS CLEARANCES OR PERMISSIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR THIS IMAGE JDP/ - RP5DRHYXKRAB

Optical telegraphy, 19th century

Optical telegraphy. Historical artwork of 19th century French soldiers using a telescopic device for optical telegraphy (sending and receiving a message using light). One such early device was the Mangin projector, invented by a colonel Mangin in the early 1880s. Optical telegraphy systems used a telescopic device for observing a distant signal. The range of visibility varied from 20-100 kilometres, depending on the weather and if it was day or night. In the day, reflected sunlight was used to send the signal. The sequences of flashes was read out by the observer and recorded and decoded by the other soldiers. From La Telegraphie Historique (Alexis Belloc, 1888)

© SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Lavoisier making water

Lavoisier making water. Historical artwork of the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743- 1794) conducting his 1783 experiment on water. The two cylinders (grey, right and left) hold oxygen and hydrogen. The static electricity generator at lower right supplies the energy for producing the sparks in the spherical glass reaction vessel (the flask at centre). The oxygen and hydrogen gases are piped into the flask and the spark causes the hydrogen to burn in the oxygen (combustion). The product of the reaction is water, proving water to be a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. Lavoisier is considered the founder of modern chemistry. From Physique Populaire (E. Desbeaux, 1891)

© SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY