July 31, 1885.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



THE FACE OF TUE SKY. 



Fkosi July 31 to Augi.st It. 



By "F.R.A.S." 



THE usual watch for spots and facub^ on the sun will be kept on 

 every clear day. Map VIII. of " The Stars in their Seasons " 

 eihibits the aspect of the sky after dark. Slercury is an evening 

 star daring the next fourteen days, and may be picked up after 

 sunset close to the Western horizon, lie is at his greatest Eastern 

 elongation (27' 21') from the sun at 3 a.m. on August 6. In the 

 telescope he is becoming crescentic. Venus i.s an evening star too, 

 and is a much more conspicuous object than Mercury in the same 

 region of the heavens. She presents a small brilliant gibbons 

 disc in the telescope. She is in conjunction with Mercury at 3 p.m. 

 <ui the 8th, and is 3' -12' North of him. The actual night sky so 

 far as the other planets are concerned is now a blank, the whole of 

 them being more or less in the neighbourhood of the Sun. The 

 Moon enters her last quarter at Oh. So'Sm. p.m. on August 3, and 

 is new fourteen minute.-i after noon on the 10th. No occul- 

 tations happen within our prescribed hours during the period 

 these notes cover. When they begin the Moon is in Pisces, 

 which she quits for the extreme N.W. corner of Cetu.'i at 

 avelling through which f, r cloven 



I the 



the 



,nd ( 



through whicli ocoupie 

 last-named hour slie passes the boundary of t 

 Orion. It takes lier until 1 o'clock in the aft< 

 cross this, and then she enters Gemini. At 1 

 enters Cancer ; which, at 11 a.m. on the lutli, 

 for Leo. In her passage through Leo she, at 



descends into Sex 



a half afterwards. At 10 p.m. 



for Virgo ; across which great c 



the ill 



i¥li0reUanca. 



In consequence of the enormous stock of beetroot sugar on the 

 Continent, the East and West India Dock Company lost in the 

 first half of the year no less than 22,000 tons of sugar-laden vessels 

 from the West Indies as compared with the jirevious year. 



A Reutkb's telegram dated Rome, .Inly 23, says that during a 

 violent thunderstorm at Torre Cajetani, a small m.'irkettown in the 

 neighbourhood of Anagni, thirteen persons were killeland twenty- 

 two severely injured by the lightning. 



We understand that Mr. Alexander Watt has been for many 

 months engaged in writing a comprehensive jiractical treatise on 

 the "Electro-deposition of Metal.a," including the electrolytic 

 retining of copper and other metals and treatment of ores. The 

 work, being now complete, will shortly be in the hands of the 

 lublic. The publishers will be Messrs. Crosby Lockwood & Co. 



A Bui Bl,\st.— A mass of granite estimated to weigh at least 

 500,000 tons wa,'! displaced recently on the line of tlie Iron Moun- 

 tain Railroad, Missouri, by a single blast. A shaft (15 ft. deep was 

 sunk, with lateral chambers in wliiih live tons of ]iowder were 

 stored. After the shaft had been nearly tilled to the top, an 

 electric spark from a battery a half niile distant lired the magazine 

 with the result indicated. 



ingenious construction. It has been determined that the tempera- 

 I ture at the depth of 1,392 mJ'Crcs wag Ui' C, or 120° Fahr. At this 

 ! rate of increase the boiliug-pi<iut of water should be reached at a 

 depth of 3,000 metres. 



The coalfields of Russia are, Mr. W. Mather says, still practically 

 undeveloped. The Donetz coalfield is too remote for the manu- 

 facturing districts, and the railroad cammanications are too un- 

 certain to admit of its being largely used. The lignite found 

 within a radius of 200 miles of Moscow does not offer fuel of a 

 sufficiently good quality. It is a remarkable fact that during the 

 past two years English coal has been found to be the most profit- 

 able fuel that manufacturers could use immediately around 

 Moscow at a price laid down of alwut iOs. per ton. Twenty years 

 ago the price of wood fuel was so low as to be equivalent to coal at 

 lOs. per ton, and now coal at tOs. per ton is cheaper fuel. This is, 

 apparently a consequence of the reckless destruction of forests iii 

 Russia without systematic planting under Government superviBion.i 



I.v the'lluUetin d.- la Hori.^ld .VEi<con^ajer,:€nt pour Vlndushie 

 Xatiotiale, M. Carnot, in a report presented by him on behalf of 

 the Committee of Chemical Arts, showed that the cause of the 

 corrosion of sheet copper employed for the sheathing of ships is 

 the presence of cuprous oxide, which, in contact with salt water, 

 occneioned the formati.m of soluble salts, even when the air is 

 excluded. In order to reduce more completely the oxygen com. 

 ixuinds iiresent in the copper, he introduces a small quantity of 

 meti.lli<- niaiig.inese, which completely reduces the cuprous oxide 

 remaining in the metal, and becomes converted into a manganese 

 silicate, ill contact with the sides and the sole of the famace. If 

 a few thousandths of manganese remain alloyed with the copper, 

 they affect neither its malleability ni 

 of sea water. The mang ' '_ 



Prize Awakhko to Dr. Bkowx-Slvv.\ei..— It is the custom of 

 the five Academies constituting the Institute of France to award a 

 prize of 20,000 francs every two years. The prize is successively 



an archsDologist. Every second year one of the five Academies 

 selects a candidate, and, with the consent of the other bodies form- 

 ing the Institute, awards him the prize— a prize, be it remembered, 

 that such men as M. (iuizot and M. Thiers were proud to obtain. 

 The Academio des Sciences selected Dr. Brown-Seqnard for the 

 prize, and the Institute ratified the choice by a majority of sixty- 

 seven votes, the numbers being seventy-four and seven. It must 

 be a source of auch gratification to Dr. Brown-Sequard to find 

 that his efforts to extend onr knowledge of physiology and patho- 

 logy have been so ungrudgingly appreciated by the Acadomie de3 



In the following figures are given, first, the sea-going merchant 

 fleets of all nations, and, second, the .steamships ot all nations :— 



\,rm V 





I said that 





.8 repoi 



..f t 



Danube. This money is to be m : 



TliK Nalionu! (:••■ nuihhrsayl^ :' i . . ! :\l;une mad | 



ia finished inside with mahogany. i , , - >, . . m » 1, ..vs 



on aside. The seating consist, I'm i i : , : 



stered in leather, each of which i-i ■ i 



sell them to the patrons of th.. i. , !:• . n ,], ,| , , , ri: , ,, i.,, . 1 ,^ 



last year." 



TnK German Govcrnnicnt ar.' liaNlnga liuiing made near Schlade- 

 baoh for the purpose of ileii-rnuniiig i he increase of tho earth's 

 temperature. The depth reached is uioro than 1,392 miitres, the 

 lowest depth yet obtained by boring. The temperature at succes- 

 aivo depths is ascertained by a new mercurial thermometer of most 



