570 



NATURE 



{Sept. 26, 1878 



the illumination of the sky was not considered in the 

 estimates." Before he entered upon the reduction of his 

 observations, he had thought the second object might be 

 f Cancri (though surprised to find it so bright) because 

 he did not see that star — a well-known double star, com- 

 ponents 5^ and 6J, — a gust of wind which occurred just 

 before the end of totality having possibly disturbed the 

 telescope. Yet, the circumstance of his not having re- 

 marked i Cancri would be accounted for by his state- 

 ment that he did not sweep further than the second 

 object, which his reading places in right ascension 

 8h. 9m. 24s., declination 18° 3', and which he believes to 

 be correct — the sun coming out immediately afterwards, 

 and of course putting an instantaneous termination to 

 his observations. 



Variable Stars. — The following are the Greenwich 

 times of geocentric minima of Algol and S Cancri in the 

 last quarter of the present year, which fall between dusk 

 and I3h. M.T. 



Algol. 



h. m. h. m. h. m. 



Oct. 7 1227 ... Nov. 2 "746 ... Dec. I2 11 11 



„ 10 916 ... „ 19 1239 ... ,,15 80 



„ 13 6 5 ... „ 22 928 ... „ 18 449 



„ 30 1057 ... „ 15 617 ... ., 



S Cancri. 



h. m. h. tn. h. m. 



Oct. 2 II 46 ... Nov. 9 10 12 ... Dec, 17 838 

 „ 21 1059 ... „ 28 935 



The maximum of Mira Ceti occurs on'October 1 1, and 

 the minimum of x Cygni on October 26, according to 

 Prof. Schonfeld. 



The Meteor of December 24, 1873. — Mr, Cleveland 

 Abbe, Director of the Observatory of Cincinnati, sends 

 us a discussion of the observations of a remarkable 

 meteor seen on Christmas Eve, 1873, to which the atten- 

 tion of the Washington Philosophical Society had been 

 particularly directed soon after its occurrence, and, on 

 the suggestion of the late secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, a committee formed with the view of collect- 

 ing and discussing observations. Though about fifty 

 accounts of the appearance of the meteor were thus 

 brought together, they have only sufficed to give a general 

 idea of its track and altitude. Nearly all the observers 

 describe it as equalling the full moon in brightness, with 

 conical form moving base forward, but not followed as in 

 so many cases, by any regular train ; colour bright 

 yellow, sparks or flames of red and blue proceeding from 

 it. Mr. Abbe finds that it " entered the earth's atmo- 

 sphere at some point vertically above the northern part 

 of the State of Delaware, so that its apparent altitude, as 

 seen at Danbury, Conn., was 30°, and at Washington, 

 D.C., about 45°," whence he concludes its real altitude 

 above the earth' s surface to have been about ninety miles. 

 Its aftpr-ronrse was downward to beyond Fairfax county, 

 and at its nearest approach to the earth it was distant 

 twenty miles. Its entire visible path of about 120 miles 

 was described in from three to five seconds. An explo- 

 sion occurred at a distance of about thirty miles from 

 Washington, where the meteor was observed, amongst 

 others, by Profs, Newcomb, Hilgard, and H olden. 



MR. THOMAS GRUBB, F.R.S. 

 'lyE regret to announce the death of Mr. Thomas 

 Grubb, F.R.S,, and we cannot do so without re- 

 ferring to his marked talents and the important service 

 he has rendered to science, 



Mr. Grubb was originally intended for a mercantile 

 career, but his natural tastes proved too strong to allow 

 him to continue in the life he had begun. He became a 

 mechanical engineer, and soon his workshops became 

 Known not only for excellent workmanship but still more 

 for marked originality of conception in design. His 

 chef-d'auvre in both these respects is probably the 



machinery for engraving, printing, and numbering the 

 notes of the Bank of Ireland. 



Whilst Mr. Grubb' s workshops were rising in reputa- 

 tion, he was quietly and steadily developing marked 

 powers as a practical optician. During the construction 

 of the great 6-feet equatorial at Parsonstowri, the late 

 Lord Rosse frequently acknowledges his obligations to 

 Mr. Grubb for valuable suggestions. The system of 

 levers on which Lord Rosse supported his specula, to 

 avoid flexure, was of Mr. Grubb's invention. Of his 

 chief scientific works we may mention : — 



1. The equipment of nearly forty British magnetic, 

 stations under the direction of Provost Loyd. 



2. A I s-inch reflecting telescope equatorially mounted 

 at the Armagh Observatory. 



3. The equatoreals of the Markree and Dunsink 

 Observatories — refractors of 13 and 12 inches aperture 

 respectively. And lastly, the great Melbourne telescope 

 of 4 feet aperture, equatorially mounted, and driven by 

 clockwork. After this last achievement Mr. Grubb 

 retired from business life, succeeded by his son, Mr. 

 Howard Grubb. 



Such works as the 15-inch refractors in the observa- 

 tories of Lord Lindsay and Dr. Huggins, and the great 

 refractor of 27 inches aperture now in course of construc- 

 tion for Vienna show that the son is no unworthy repre- 

 sentative of the father. 



Mr. Thomas Grubb was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society of London in 1864, in recognition of his success- 

 ful completion of the great Melbourne telescope, and of 

 his other successful labours in the cause of science. He 

 was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He 

 died on the 19th instant at his residence in Dublin, and 

 leaves to mourn his loss a large circle of friends whom 

 his kindly genial manners and ever interesting conver- 

 sation had drawn round him. 



MR. THOMAS BELT, F.G.S. 



THE scientific world will hear with regret the recent 

 death of the well-known naturalist and geologist, 

 Mr, Thomas Belt, F,G,S., which has just been tele- 

 graphed from Colorado. It is believed to have been 

 caused by mountain fever. Elected a Fellow of the 

 Geological Society in 1866, the geological world owes to 

 him the division of the Lingula flags into Maentwrog, 

 Ffestiniog, and Dolgelly flags, proposed in 1867, In 

 1874 appeared his well-known and deservedly popular 

 "Naturalist in Nicaragua," in which he showed how his 

 professional avocations as an engineer had lent keenness 

 to his observing faculties, and how an acute reasoner can 

 utilise his observations. The work conveyed much in- 

 formation on protective mimicry, plant-fertilisation, 

 sexual selection, and the other collateral issues of the 

 theory of evolution. It contained the first sketch of those 

 views on glacial geology which were the most prominent 

 subject of the author's study for the rest of his life. 

 These views were given in considerable detail in the 

 Geological Magazine for April, 1874, and were well ex- 

 pounded by Mr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., in his presi- 

 dential address of that year to the Geologists' Associa- 

 tion, Mr. Belt skilfully answered his opponents in 

 Nature, vol. x., his controversial speaking and writing 

 being always marked by a candour and temper which, if 

 it did not carry conviction, could not fail to elicit admira- 

 tion from perfect strangers and mere spectators. In 

 November, 1875, he read a paper to the Geological 

 Society " On the Drift of Devon and Cornv/all" {Quart. 

 Jour. Geol. 6'(?r., vol, xxxii,), and another "On the Steppes 

 of Southern Russia" {Quart. Jour. Geol. Sac, vol. xxxiii.), 

 in June, 1877. He also contributed various papers to 

 the Quarterly Journal of Science, amongst others one 

 ', On the Loess of the Rhine and the Danube," in 

 January, 1877, and one "On the Glacial Period in the 

 Southern Hemisphere," in July, 1877. 



