April 



1863.] 



• KNOWLEDGE 



213 



^^ 



MJ^2INEo?SqENCE 



iPlAINi;^RD£D-£XACTq:i)ESCRIB£D 



LONDON.- FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1883. 



Contents op No. 78. 



Seienoe and Art Ooesip 243 Secondary Batterien 



^cial Draamite. Bj Richard A. 

 Proctor 2M 



Piquant Hours with the Micro- 

 •cope. Bj H. J. Slack, F.G.3., 

 F.K.M.8 215 



The Chjmistrr of Cookery. VIII. 

 Br W. Mattieu Williams 2-J5 



•Enelish S.'asido Ilealth-Resorls. 

 By Alfred Haviland, M.K.C.3., 

 F.B.M.C.S. Lond 217 



Br B. C. Riiuineton ... 218 

 A Nfw D«ep-Sea Fish, (///in.) ,. 250 

 Newspaper Science. Br W. Sligo 251 

 Beriews : Sludv and StimulHnts ... 252 

 The Face of the Sky. By F.K.A.S. 253 

 Correspondence ; Multiplication — 

 Value of Gold — Learning Lan- 

 guages — Large Sun Spots 253 



Our Whist Column 255 



Onr Chess Column 266 



^titmt anil art Gossip. 



We regret that in a Gossip paragraph which appeared a 

 few weeks ago, Dr. Collyns Simon's name was spelled, by 

 mistake, Dr. Collins Symon. The Oxford Chronicle and 

 Bucks and Berks Gazette regards this as evidence that we 

 are "smarting under discomfiture," and so forth; but it 

 was purely accidental. We had not a book, pamphlet, 

 letter, or even card of Dr. Simon's to remind us how his 

 name is spelled. Beyond noting that we did not " quarrel 

 with," but accepted, Dr. Thos. Young's illustration of the 

 absorptive action of our air on light, we have nothing 

 further to say about Dr. Simon's theory. Not for the fifty 

 pounds he otfers, nor for five thousand, would we under- 

 take to convince him it is preposterous. 



We supposed a letter sent us came from Dr. Simon. He 

 *ays (for it is manifest that it is he who writes in the 0. C. 

 and B. and B. G.) he did not write it ; and of course we 

 accept his statement. He must permit us to assure him in 

 turn that he is wholly mistaken in attributing to our pen a 

 letter signed " An Admirer of K\owledge," which ap- 

 peared in Knowledge for Dec. 10, 1881. We do not 

 know who wrote it ; but it bore the O.xford post-mark. 

 We wish we had consigned it to the waste-paper basket. 



Among opinions which he regards as paradoxical (natu- 

 Tally enough), Dr. Simon attributes to us this : that "the 

 ■weight of bodies is something different from the earth's 

 attraction." If Dr. Simon will look at any elementary 

 treatise on Mechanics, he will find that the quality 

 called weight is an ell'ect of the earth's attraction ; and 

 philosophj- is so fanciful as to draw a distinction between 

 cause and effect The other " paradoxes " relate to Dr. 

 Simon's peculiar theory, and we forbear to irritate him by 

 dealing further with that theory. 



In response to many requests, we propose to publish in 

 Knowledge of May 4, the passage (nominally Richter, 

 but, in reality, rather De Quincey'S) which formed the 

 closing quotation of the first and last lectures at St. 

 James's HalL 



Compositors are sometimes a little hard on jests, senti- 

 ment, and science. We have all heard how the touching 

 line, " lie kissed her under the silent stars," was altered by 

 a cruel compositor into " He kicked her under the cellar 

 stairs"; and I think I have already mentioned in these 

 columns how the words " Lines, bands, and stria- near the 

 violet end of spectra," were altered into " Links, bonds, and 

 stripes for the violent kind of spectres." Now, I have to 

 lament the destruction of a very mild joke, meant at once 

 to instruct and to amuse " A Little Girl " — see " Letters 

 Received," page 2-10. She had spelled experience "ex- 

 periance," and — well, the rest is not worth repeating ; but 

 by carefully correcting the spelling, notwithstanding an 

 entreaty in the margin that ho would leave it alone, a hard- 

 hearted compositor knocked the point off tliat little joke, 

 anyhow ! 



Mit. Browning has recently sent to the Royal Observa- 

 tory at Rome a set of apparatus which he has made for 

 Professor Tucchini, consisting of a very powerful direct 

 vision spectroscope fitted to a photographic camera. The 

 apparatus is intended to be used for the purpose of photo- 

 graphing the spectra of the flames which issue from 

 Vesuvius when in a state of eruption. The scale of the 

 spectroscope for reading off the position of the lines in 

 any spectrum is illuminated by means of a small incan- 

 descent electric lamp. 



The Comet. — Mr. A. B. Biggs supplies the following 

 interesting notes : — On Monday evening at ten o'clock I 

 perceived a minute star (9th magnitude) in the advancing 

 edge of the comet's coma, which I foresaw would be 

 crossed centrally by the nucleus — a rare opportunity which 

 I determined not to miss. At eleven o'clock the star was 

 fairly in the centre of the nucleus. The nucleus was 

 perfectly transparent. I watched the star until it had well 

 crossed, and never lost sight of it, even when a slight 

 atmospheric haze obscured the comet itself. The light of 

 the star was not even sensibly diminished, except so far as 

 being seen upon the light background of the comet — 

 Launceston {Tasmania) Examiner. 



An Improved Bell Telephone. — M. D'Arsonval, the 

 well-known telephonist, has devised a new form of Bell 

 receiver, which is, for its size and weight, the most 

 powerful yet constructed. The chief modification consists 

 in enclosing the bobbin entirely between the poles of the 

 magnet This is done by making one pole of the magnet 

 the core of the bobbin, and the other pole an enclosing 

 ring of iron. The inductive plate vibrates over the poles 

 and upper surface of the coil as before. The complete 

 instrument only weighs a little over five ounces, and is 

 stated to be as powerful as the heavy Gower-Bell receiver. 

 M. Leczensky has applied magnets of steel, tempered by 

 compression after the manner introduced by M. Clemandot, 

 and since this mode of tempering does not deform the 

 magnets, a neater article is the result — Engineering. 



The Xaitlical Gazette (New York, March 22), referring 

 to the triple-hulled steamer designed by Captain William 

 Coppin, expresses a very favourable opinion of its value ; 

 and this seems to be shared by a number of American naval 

 officers. The feature which they consider of chief import- 

 ance is the high speed at which it is said that a vessel of 

 this type may be propelled ; and the writer remarks that, 

 if it is adopted, there is no question but that the ocean can 

 be crossed in 120 hours. 



