I^O KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



279 



12 hrs. 42 mill. A. M. and on Feb. 27 at 

 9 hrs. 30 niin. P. M. The remaining 

 eclipses will occur in the early morning 

 or during the daylight hours. 



The Wonderful Sirius. 



BY CHARLES XEVERS HOLMES, NEWTON, 

 :\L-\SSACHUSETTS. 



The time has come, to look again for 

 the spectacular sun Sirius, of the con- 

 stellation Canis Major. 



Its appearance is so brilliant and glit- 

 tering that even an inexperienced star- 

 gazer should have no difficulty in find- 

 ing it. 



Its brilliant and glittering appearance 

 is owing chiefly to two reasons : — first, 

 its comparative nearness ; secondly, its 

 size. Respecting its nearness, Sirius is 

 only approximately 50,000,000,000,000 

 miles distant from the earth — a mere 

 cipher astronomically — and, as regards 

 its size, the brilliance of Sirius exceeds 

 that of the sun by about tAventy times. 

 In comparison the sun is at a mean or 

 average distance of 93,000,000 miles 

 and possesses a volume which is more 

 than a million times that of the world. 

 Therefore, were the sun at the same re- 

 moteness from us as Sirius, it would 

 present a very dim and inconspicuous 

 firmamental exhibition. 



Sirius is, of course, the famous "dog- 

 star" or Canicula — but how changed is 

 the appearance of the landscape since 

 we saw it rising during the morning 

 hours of summer! 



The New Haven Railroad Goes to the 

 Moon Every Day. 



In an interesting article in regard 

 to hot boxes on the cars of the New 

 York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- 

 road, the statement is made that 2,500 

 passenger cars travel 240,000 miles in 

 twenty-four hours, or ten times the 

 circumference of the earth. It is inter- 

 esting to note that this distance is the 

 same as that from the earth to the 

 moon, and if such a thing were possible, 

 it would help us make the immense 

 distance somewhat realizable. 



Yet occasionally when there is a hot 

 box among the wheels of these cars 

 how much impatience it too often oc- 



casions on the part of the passengers ! 

 Is it not rather astonishing that in one 

 week there were only eighteen hot 

 boxes on all the passenger cars, about 

 2,500 of them, reported on the entire 

 New Haven road. This speaks vol- 

 umes for the rigid inspection of cars, 

 journals and bearings. It may be of 

 interest to our readers to know how 

 these journal boxes are packed. 



Within the journal box oil-soaked 

 woolen waste is packed for the pur- 

 pose of lubrication. This waste is 

 soaked for forty-eight hours in special- 

 ly prepared oil, and allowed to drain 

 for forty-eight hours to remove all ex- 

 cess of oil, the waste retaining suffi- 

 cient oil for the purpose but not 

 enough to impair its own elasticity. It 

 is packed in the journal box in three 

 distinct parts. The first is a roll packed 

 at the back to prevent dust from en- 

 tering at the rear, and to keep the se- 

 cond or center packing in position. 

 This second packing supplies the oil 

 that continually flows between the 

 journal and the bearing. It is placed 

 in the box fairly loose and on the un- 

 derside of the journal. The revolving 

 journal draws the oil from the waste 

 upwards but does not move the waste 

 itself. The third and last packing is 

 a roll placed in the front to keep the 

 second packing in position and to pre- 

 vent dust from reaching the journal. 



According to Elihu Tompson, the 

 familiar appearance of the aurora, the 

 long streamers reaching toward the 

 zenith, is merely an optical effect. In 

 reality, he maintains, the streamers 

 stand everywhere just about vertically 

 and are arranged in bands which in a 

 general way follow the parallels of lati- 

 tude. Occasionally, it appears, the ob- 

 server may be just under one of these 

 sheets of light, and so see it directly 

 overhead, while other sheets, farther 

 north, add the appearance of a vast 

 arch. 



A private exploring party to the un- 

 known interior of Australia reports 

 five new species of birds and as many 

 new plants. New species of insects 

 proved still more numerous, including 

 nineteen new species of ants. 



