I90 



NATURE 



{Jan. 3, 1878 



comet appeared in the west ; it was like a great Pei Kow 

 (a kind of measure). The luminous envelope was scat- 

 tered ; it appeared like a broken-up star. It was sixty 

 cubits in length and three cubits in breadth. Its direc- 

 tion was to the north-east ; it passed through Kwei, Lew, 

 Wei, Maou, and Peih, which are sidereal divisions deter- 

 mined according to Biot by the stars /3 Andromedas, 

 /3 Arietis, a Musc^, 77 Tauri, and e Tauri respectively. 

 " It then entered into the clouds, and was no more seen." 

 Gaubil's manuscript, used by Pingrd, assigns precisely the 

 same course. 



European historians relate that on February 4 (or 

 according to others on the following day) a star was seen 

 which was distant from the sun only " a foot and a half; " 

 Matthew Paris and Matthew of Westminster call this 

 star a comet. On February 7 a comet, properly so called, 

 was discovered in Palestine in " that part of the sky 

 where the sun sets in winter/' its ray had " the whiteness 

 of snow," and extended to the commencement of the 

 sign Gemini, below the constellation Orion. As Pingrd 

 points out the comet must at this time have had a south 

 latitude, and, considering the sun's position, could not be 

 less advanced than 10° or 12° of Pisces to have been seen 

 in the evening affer sunset. The comet subsequently 

 passed by west to north-west, the tail directed to that part 

 of the sky between the north and the east ; the comet was 

 visible until the middle of the night, and " shone during 

 twenty-five days in the same manner at the same hour ; " 

 as one writer states, it had a real motion from west to 

 east. The length of the comet's appearance is variously 

 given ; an eye-witness says that the most piercing sight 

 could hardly distinguish it after fifty days, and a manuscript 

 consulted by Pingrd, in the Bibliotheque de Sainte- 

 Genevifeve, of the thirteenth century at latest, mentions 

 fifty-six days for the duration of visibility. 



The comet of 1106 long attracted attention from the 

 circumstance of Halley having identified it as the famous 

 comet of 1680, an idea which was first disputed by 

 Dunthorne, on the authority of a manuscript preserved in 

 one of the College libraries at Cambridge, which gives the 

 comet's track from the beginning of the sign Pisces (on 

 February 7 as Dunthorne reads) in the order of the signs 

 to the commencement of Cancer, which agrees closely 

 with the path recorded by the Chinese. He considered 

 that this track " quite overbalanced the probability of the 

 identity of the comet with that of 1680" — and this view 

 has been confirmed by subsequent calculation. Again, 

 when astronomers were searching for earlier accounts 

 which might refer to the great comet of 1843, first detected 

 at noon-day on the date of its perihelion passage, this 

 comet of 1 106 was fixed upon by MM. Laugier and 

 Mauvais, as probably identical with it, several of the 

 circumstances mentioned above being overlooked by 

 them, particularly the fact of the comet having been 

 observed so long in the northern part of the heavens, 

 where it is impossible that the comet of 1843 could be 

 located. 



On carefully weighing the scanty evidence afforded by 

 the records of the time, it appears likely that the elements 

 of the comet of 1106 bore some resemblance to those of 

 the great comet of 161 8 (Pingrd's third comet), the 

 inclination being smaller. 



The Satellites of Mars.— Both of the newly-dis- 

 covered satellites of Mars were observed during Sep- 

 tember with the 12-inch equatorial of the Morrison 

 Observatory, Glasgow, Missouri, by Mr. Pritchett. On 

 September 7 the two satellites could be seen with the 

 planet entirely in the field, and were very distinct when 

 it was shut out of it, and on September 10 and 13, the 

 inner one was easily observed. The outer satellite 

 was again estimated to be of the fourteenth magnitude. 

 The observations of this satellite were made with wires 

 faintly illuminated with a red light ; for observations of 

 the inner one the light of the planet sufficed Unfavour- 



able skies prevented any observations in October, though 

 Mr. Pritchett thinks the satellites might have been well 

 followed during that month. 



Coloured Double Stars.— In Sir John Herschel's 

 seventh catalogue of double stars from the sweeps with 

 the 20-feet reflector is one the position of which identifies 

 it with S 724, and the note attached runs thus : " A very 

 curious double star, the small star is very red." The 

 ctservation belongs to sweep No, 121, for the epoch 

 r.S28-o5. Struve measured this object in 1829, but says 

 nothing respecting the colours of the components, which 

 he estimated on his scale 87 and lo'o. In 1829-85 the 

 angle was 241-5°, and the'distance 6-86". Has any one 

 confirmed Sir John Herschel's observation on the colour 

 of the smaller star? The position for 1 878-0 is in R.A. 

 5h. 33m. 30s., N.P.D. 79° 5'-5. 



In Memorie del' Osservatorio del Collegia Ro7na}io, 

 i857-59> P> I73> Secchi mentions a wide double star, 

 which is called nova, and is thus measured : — 



1856-63 Pes. 335-25 Dist.23''-83JS3;rbluI™''"^^"'" 

 He has the additional remark, " Colori siiperbi." This 

 object would appear to be formed by Nos. 3743 and 3744 

 of Zone -f- 37° of the Durchmusterimg : positions for 

 1855-0:- 



h. m. s. , 



3743 R.A.. 195823-5 N.P.D. 524-1 



3744 » 195825-5 „ 524-7 



THE TALKING PHONOGRAPH^ 



TWTR. THOMAS A. EDISON recently came into this 

 ■^'-L office, placed a little machine on our desk, turned 

 a crank, and the machine inquired as to our health, 

 asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it 

 was well, and bid us a cordial good night. These remarks 

 were not only perfectly audible to ourselves, but to a 

 dozen or more persons gathered around, and they were 

 produced by the aid of no other mechanism than the 

 simple little contrivance explained and illustrated below. 

 The principle on which the machine operates we 



Fig. 



recently explained quite fully in announcing the discovery. 

 There is, first, a mouth-piece. A, Fig. i, across the inner 

 orifice of which is a metal diaphragm, and to the centre of 

 this diaphragm is attached a point, also of metal. B is a 



' From the Scientific American of December eg, 1877. 



