96 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Feb. 16, 1883. 



Australian Aktesia.n Wells. — A new artesian well at 

 Sale, with its outtlow of over 400,000 gallons of water a 

 day, risiiif,' 1 2 ft. above the surface, is a great sflccess. The 

 town is jubilant over the supply of pure water thus easily 

 and eheaply obtained. The recent sinking of an artesian 

 ■well by Mr. ])e Reuzil Wilson on Tatara Run, near Curri- 

 •willinghi, on the New South Wales side of the Queensland 

 boundary, where at the depth of 200ft a spring was tapped 

 ■which fo'rced itself to the height of 15 ft above the surface, 

 and at the estimated rate of 500 gallons per minute, is even 

 a more gratifying success. — Enijincerinij. 



A conte-MPORAUV says : " A telegram has been received 

 from Prof. Lomstrom, chief of the Finnish Meteorological 

 Observatory at Sodankyla, in which he states that he 

 placed a galvanic battery with conductors covering an area 

 of 900 square mfetres on a hill, and found the cone to be 

 surrounded by a halo which faintly but perfectly yielded 

 the spectrum of the aurora. He regards this, and some 

 subsequent resiilts, as direct proof of the electrical nature 

 of the aurora. 



The question of the hovering of birds is now under dis- 

 cussion in the columns of a weekly scientific contemporary. 

 Mr. Hubert Airy seeks to show that a bird can only hover, 

 in an absolutely changeless position, over slantingly ascend- 

 ing air currents, head from the wind ; the Duke of Argyll 

 maintains that horizontal air currents suffice, head to the 

 wind ; Mr. David OunDingham believes that cyclonic 

 ^vinds, with vertically ascending air currents, explain the 

 mystery best ; Mr. William Galloway adopts a theory 

 involving slight and therefore imperceptible descent in 

 horizontal air currents ; Mr. J. Rae believes that no air 

 currents at all are necessary (which seems to involve the 

 theory that the hovering of birds is miraculous) ; and Mr. 

 Larden, pointing out that the lifting power of the air would 

 not exist were there no friction (any more than a "friction- 

 less ship in a constant stream " would be moved " were it 

 sufficiently tapering "), shows that hovering in liorizontal 

 air-currents could last but a very short time. This is a 

 very pretty problem as it stands ; and the whole question 

 of Hight — at least, as birds fly, and as men, by aid of 

 machinery, will fly, if they ever fly at all — is involved in it. 



Advices from Sydney say that on the night of the 

 12th December last an accident happened, by which the 

 offices of the Telephone Exchange Company, at Sydney 

 E.'vchange, were ■wrecked. The wii-es leading to the 

 switch-board were partially fused, and the switch-board 

 itself charred, the centre of the roof of the office 

 blackened, and the floor bespattered with melted gutta- 

 percha. Outside, the telephone wire which leads to 

 Messrs. iMontefiore, Josephs, & Company's establishment 

 was found hanging down, fused, while the electric-light 

 ■wires were all secure. ilessrs. Montetiore, Josephs, ct 

 Company's wire hangs above and across the electric-light 

 ■wires, and it is presumed that it elongated and made 

 contact with them. 



A coRREsroNDEN'T of Xalirre calls attention to the 

 circumstance that the authorities of Cooper's Hill En- 

 gineering College make it a condition that the Professor 

 of Physics should " be a Protestant, and should attend 

 morning chapel and Sunday services with reasonable 

 regularity, showing in this respect a good example to the 

 students." "As the memorandum stands at present," 

 this correspondent wrathfully remarks, " it appears little 



short of insulting to men of science." The institution 

 being one supported by the State, and the State being at 

 present unwilling to insist that paid teachers of science 

 shall hold any specific religious belief, still less that they 

 shall prof(;ss such belief without (perhaps) holding it, the 

 objection of the correspondent of Nature seems sound 

 enough. Uut were the Engineering College not supported 

 from without, the authorities there might insist on any 

 Professor holding or professing any belief they chose. The 

 only drawback would be in the probable quality of the 

 Professor ; for one would say that e\ en if a Professor of 

 adequate skill chanced to be of the right religious persua- 

 sion, he would take the ofl'er of the Professorship on such 

 a condition, if not as insulting, yet at least as one he 

 could not possibly accept, if he had any self-respect. 



Mk. Xicols, in his recently-published work on the ways 

 of wild and domestic animals, gives the following account 

 of the love dances of a king lor}-, which may be com- 

 pared usefully with what Mr. Grant Allen told us last 

 week about the peewit : — " In a few minutes he flew on to 

 a tree, well within range of the binocular, and shortly 

 afterwards a female joined him in answer to his call. The 

 swain was ardent, the damsel coy ; they flitted from branch 

 to branch, and whenever she perched he circled round her, 

 threw himself underneath the branch, and swung to and 

 fro with outspread wings, displaying the full glory of his 

 scarlet breast. In every movement, whether on the wing 

 or swaying at the end of a bough, he studied to present in 

 the most efl'ective manner the brilliant adornments of his 



plumage I do not think it possible for any one who 



had seen this little episode in bird life to have resisted the 

 conclusion that the male was conscious of his beautiful 

 breast, and that he adopted the best method of showing it 

 by swinging himself beneath the branch, whence the female 

 could look down and admire the display." 



We give this week a short paper from the XeuraM- 

 Weekly Chronicle, describing a way of lighting the sides of 

 steamships, which would, we believe, diminish greatly the 

 number of collisions at night and in thick weather. The 

 Times of Thursday, the Sth inst, has an article, " from a 

 Correspondent " (who might be the same writer, for aught 

 we can say to the contrary), touching on the same subject. 

 A correspondent of Knowledge has sent us two letters 

 advocating the microscopical analysis of the sea water as a 

 means of determining a vessel's approach to the shore at 

 night or during fog, and the chemical analysis of the water 

 to indicate proximity to another ship. We have not been 

 able to find space for either letter, and must confess there 

 seems to us something a little whimsical in both ideas. 

 Imagine the officers of a ship engaged with a microscope 

 over tubes and phials, or applying chemical analyses (espe- 

 especially in broken weather). We have " been there," as 

 Americans say — in a steamship, waiting about, a whole day 

 and more, in dreaded pro.ximity to a dangerous reef off the 

 coast of California ; and assuredly we did not wish to see 

 the captain and officers turning from their seamanly duties 

 to attend to microscopical or chemical analysis. 



According to the experiments of M. Demarcay, the 

 metals which are generally regarded as fixed, even iron, 

 give out real vapours at relatively low temperatures. 

 Cadmium, for example, volatilises at 257°, and zinc at 302^'. 

 Magnesium had already been found to be volatile below a 

 red lieat, when acted upon by water and chloride of silicon. 



