Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 75 



trouble and expense they have incurred at different times in for- 

 warding this investigation. And 1 may be excused observing, in 

 conclusion, that if the iron masters as a body exhibited the same 

 degree of interest in the improvement of their manufacture, there 

 would be such changes introduced as would prove of great national 

 benefit ; but at present, and so with this generation it will remain, 

 quantity is the object in manufacture; quality is altogether beside 

 the mark. 

 Laboratory, Temple Buildings, Birmingham. 



From the Chemical Gazette for December 15, 1849. 



ON THE PERIODICAL APPEARANCE OF SHOOTING STARS FROM 

 THE 13th TO the 15TH of NOVEMBER. BY VON HUM- 

 BOLDT *. 



I learned with astonishment from the newspapers that it had just 

 been stated to the Academy that the fall of shooting stars from the 

 12—14 November had advanced this year twenty-four days ; that the 

 fall of the Asteroids took place from the 15th to the 17th of Octo- 

 ber. This change of the node (of the intersection of the ring of the 

 Asteroids and of the orbit of the earth), a change so abrupt from 

 one year to another (the phaenomenon having been invariably at- 

 tached to the 12-17 of November from 1799 up to 1848), seemed to 

 me hardly probable. In fact, the fall which is asserted to have been 

 observed the 15-17 of October 1849, did not cause the great phae- 

 nomenon of November in this same year to disappear. At the Ob- 

 servatory of Breslau, M. de Boguslawski and a great number of 

 3'oung students who are acquainted with the constellations and know 

 how to observe the time, were placed at six large windows taking in 

 the whole horizon. On the 12th of November, from 10** 30°* to 

 12** 30™, there were reckoned in all 88 shooting stars, 78 of which 

 have been traced on maps : 1 was of the magnitude of Venus, 1 of Ju- 

 piter, 15 of stars of the first magnitude, 31 of the second magnitude. 

 On the 13th of November, again twenty-six observers, but a little 

 fog. They could only take observations from 10** 30™ to 12** 15™, 

 They saw 69 shooting stars, 62 of which were marked on maps of 

 the heavens. At 10^ 23' 12", mean time of Breslau, a fire-ball tra- 

 versed from the Cameleopard toward the Great Bear. Also 1 shoot- 

 ing star as large as Venus, 9 as stars of the first magnitude, 20 of 

 the second magnitude, 25 of the third magnitude. Observations 

 will be made at Breslau from lO** 30™ to 12'> 30™, from the 6th to 

 the 12th of December, on account of the period on which I have 

 insisted in the Kosmos. You will recollect that the three great 

 falls of shooting stars (such as have not been seen in Europe in 

 this century) were, on the 12-13 November 1799, Cumana; the 

 12-13 November 1833, North America; the 13-14 November 

 1834, North America. Since then the falls have frequently been 



* Extract from a Letter to M. Arago, Comptes Rendus, Nov. 26, 1849. 



