176 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2ndS. N<>61., Feb. 28. '67. 



manner in which the outline is defined hy one or other of 

 these methods.'' 



I am obtuse enough not to be able to discover 

 in Mb. Ferrey's Note any method to which he al- 

 ludes as ensuring the erection of a perpendicular 

 and beautiful spire- 

 Perhaps either he or some other correspondent 

 will have the goodness to enlighten my mind in 

 case I should incline to build a beautiful spire. 



J. S. s. 



A RAILWAY QUERY. 

 (2"'JS. iii. 111.) 



Our practical engineers have not made any 

 allowance for the element in question in their cal- 

 culation of the working powers required for rail- 

 ways whose direction is north and south, nor have 

 apy of our railway companies ever detected the 

 operation of this element to any extent. These 

 companies run their trains to and fro without con- 

 sidering the motion of the earth, unless a landslip 

 chance to touch their line of rail. 



G. J. C. D. can calculate how many hundreds of 

 miles in an hour the surface of the earth moves 

 from east to west in the latitude of Blackheath ; 

 the rapid rate at which he is continually carried 

 through space by the rotation of the earth on its 

 axis is frightful to contemplate. 



If G. J. C. D. in an attempt to stand upright on 

 Blackheath, with his face turned towards the 

 south, find himself instantly tripped up and thrown 

 violently down upon his right side, he might as- 

 cribe the effect to the element in question ; and if 

 in an endeavour to rise from the ground with his 

 face towards the north, he find himself prostrated 

 on his left side, his view, however limited, would 

 be in some degree confirmed. Again, if he at- 

 tempt to stand facing the west, and fall acci- 

 dentally, or if in an endeavour to see the sun rise 

 he rise only to fall upon his back, he may reason- 

 ably conclude that the element has something in 

 it. 



If, however, after carefully repeated experi- 

 ments, G. J. C. D. find that he can keep upon his 

 feet at all hours without any involuntary inclina- 

 tion towards the west, he may, perhaps, arrive at 

 the conclusion that the surface of the earth moving 

 from west to east carries with it G. J. C. D,, 

 railways, and railway trains, without disturbing to 

 any extent his or their equilibrium. J. L. C. 



Aldermanbury. 



"Practical engineers," in their calculation of 

 the working powers required for railway travel- 

 ling, have made no " allowance for lateral pres- 

 sure, acting as a retarding force, on a railway 

 train travelling in a due north or south direction." 

 Because they do not believe in the existence of 



any such element in the case in question ; basing 

 their opinion on the generally received axiom that 

 two bodies may move in the same direction, while 

 each moves in a different direction, without the 

 action of the one interfering in any way with that 

 of the other ; an apparent solecism, or rather pa- 

 radox, to those who take but a superficial view of 

 the question. 



Granting the hypothesis of the querist, that " at 

 the point of arrival the railway is found to have 

 diverged upwards of twelve miles from the ap- 

 parent rectilinear path," " practical engineers " 

 assume, notwithstanding, that the journey has been 

 performed at precisely the same rate of speed as if 

 the earth had been at rest. 



The railway, on the arrival of the train at the 

 terminus, has described the vertical angle of an 

 isosceles triangle, without, it is scarcely necessary 

 to observe, having changed its original position on 

 the surface of the earth ; the bearings of its ex- 

 tremes, and their angle of position with surround- 

 ing stationary objects, being always the same. 



In conclusion, may it not be appositely re- 

 marked, that if the theory of G. J. C. D. be tenable, 

 a railway train starting due south from the pole 

 on a journey to the equator, would, long ere it 

 reached its destination, be overthrown and preci- 

 pitated across the rails by the excessive " lateral 

 pressure " it would encounter on the rapidly re- 

 volving point at which it had arrived. C. A. 



Queen's Road,' Guernsey. 



aacjplic^ to Minav €t\im^S. 



Anti-Cromwellian Song (2""^ S. iii. 15.58.) — A 

 friend of mine, in passing through an unfre- 

 quented street in London about thirty years ago, 

 was surprised to hear the following piece of a 

 song by a little girl : 



" Hey diddle diddle, T heard a bird sing, 

 The Parliament Captain is going to be King." 



T. C. 



Durham. 



''London, sad London" (2°'^ S. iii. 108.) — 

 Your correspondent B. W. may be glad to know 

 that the lines he has furnished are printed in the 

 collection of Rump Songs, 8vo. Lond. 1662, p. 86. 



W. D. Macbay. 



Dr. Giiillotin not the Inventor of the celebrated 

 Machine (P' S. xil. 319.) — May I be permitted 

 to call Mb. Bates' attention to the following 

 notice of Dr. Guillotin, and of the invention which 

 bears his name. It appeared in Galignani's Mes- 

 senger, under date of Feb. 4, 1857 : 



" A dealer in old iron and other cast-away articles, re- 

 siding at Lyons, found two days ago amongst a lot of 

 miscellaneous matters sold to him, a small copper case 

 containing two autograph letters from Dr. Guillotin to 



