Sept. U, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



173 



" Let Knowledge grow from more to more." — Alfeed Tennyson. 



Only a small proportion of Letters received can possibly he in- 

 serted. Corresponde:its must not be offended, therefore, should their 

 letters not appear. 



All Editorial comm^mications should be addressed to the Editor of 

 Knowledge; all Business communications to the Poblishers, at the 

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 payable to Messrs. Wymak & Sons. 



The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of correspondents. 



No communications are answered by post, EVEN though stamped 

 and directed envelope be enclosed. 



THE BENNETT BATTERY. 



[924] — My attention has been calleil to a paragraph in your 

 issue of Sept. 1st, which contains several grave misstatements in 

 connection with the voltaic battery which bears my name. You 

 are, of course, at liberty to publish the results of honest experi- 

 ments made with the battery, and to remark thereon in an impartial 

 spirit, but you are not entitled to publish distinct untruths, with 

 tlie apparent object of injuring it in public estimation. Your 

 contributor states that the battery gives forth an odour of rotten 

 eggs to such an extent as to contaminate the air, and attributes 

 the smell to sulphuretted hydrogen (!) As a matter of fact, the 

 battery is quite odourless, and cannot, under any circumstances, 

 emit sulphuretted hj-drogen, for the very sufficient reason that 

 there is no sulphur in any form in the cell. Your contributor 

 .states that the cell is of no use whatever to anybody. 

 Perhaps you are unaware of the fact that it is in exten- 

 sive use in Scotland and elsewhere for several purposes, and 

 is giving better results than the Leclancbe. An exhaustive 

 comparative trial has licen in progress, on a jn-actical scale, 

 since March last, by independent persons in Glasgow, with the 

 result, so far, altogether in favoiu' of my battery as compared with 

 the Leclancbe. These results, in a tabulated form, are to be pub- 

 lished on the completion of the experiment, which has been prolonged 

 owing to the durability of the battery. The bias of your contributor 

 is evident from the fact that he makes an equally untrue statement 

 regarding the Leclancbe battery. He states that, even with hard 

 work, the agglomerate blocks last two years. All practical men 

 know this to be false. With such work as they get in the Glasgow 

 Central Telephone Exchange, agglomerate blocks last from three to 

 four months, and then require complete renewal. 



Sept. 5, 1883. A. B. Bennett. 



[J[y remarks on the Bennett cell were based on experiments 

 made upon it some months since. The odour of SII.. was unmis- 

 takable, and I attributed it to the presence of impurities. The 

 cell did not show such good results as were obtainable from the 

 six-rod agglomerate Leclancbe, and I could not, thorofore, recom- 

 mend amateurs to adopt the cell. Practical men would judge for 

 themselves. May be the invention of Mr. Bennett has been 

 lately improved. If so, I shall be glad to hear from him, and he 

 will find that no journal is more ready to bestow praise where it 

 is deserved than Knowledge. Anent the durability of the agglo- 

 merate, all practical telegraph men praise it highly for what it 

 has done and is still doing. I could have shown Jlr. Bennett a 

 number of blocks which had been working hard, night and day, 

 for upwards of eighteen months. The resistance of a telephone 

 line is very low in comparison with the average telegra])h line, 

 and that may help to account for the bad result Mr. Heiuictt has 

 obtained. Or it may be that he has had a largo number of short 

 circuits drawing upon one battery at a time. — W. Slinod.] 



SMALL WHEELS FOR TRICYCLES. 



[925] — I am obliged for the reminder of your rorrespondent 

 "J. S." that the "Sun and Planet" is a small-wheeled bicycle 

 gearcd-up. I have seen the machine, though I have never cidden 



it as I have the "Facile." If the merits of the machine are great, 

 it is a pity it is not more advertised, as, being a rotary machine, 

 some would prefer it to any machine with a lever action. 



As "J. S." suggests, there may be a great future for small 

 geared-up safety bicycles. Will " J. S." oblige me by stating the 

 true weight, of his own knowledge, of his machine ? 



I am glad that so thoughtful a rider agrees with my conclusions 

 as to the desirability of reducing the size of the wheels of tricycles. 

 Since my papers on this subject have appeared in Knowledge, I 

 have received assurances from the following well-known riders that 

 they agree with my conclusions : — Messrs. Marriott, Nixon, Letch- 

 ford, S. Salmon, A. Salmon, and Howard, and also Messrs. Grace 

 and Bennett. It must be recollected that all these riders have 

 tried first large wheels and then small, and have proved small to be 

 the best. John BROWNnNG. 



A CURIOUS PHENOMENON. 



[926] — Can any of my brother readers of Knowledge offer a 

 feasible explanation of a very remarkable phenomenon which I 

 witnessed at lOh. 35m. p.m. on Tuesday, August 28 ? I was just 

 coming out of my observatory when, on the E.N.E. point of the 

 horizon beneath the Pleiades, I saw a bright light. My first thought 

 was that the moon was rising, but an instant's reflection sufficed to 

 remind me that she would not be up for the next two hours. As 

 I watched the light becoming brighter and brighter, I saw that it 

 threw a kind of radial illumination upward, the effect of which I 

 have tried to reprodncc in the accompanying rough little sketch. 



As will be seen, a few distant cumulo-stratus clouds, close to the 

 horizon, crossed it. For a moment I imagined that I was 

 viewing the apparition of a new and most glorious comet ; 

 but, as I watched, the "tail" disappeared, and what would 

 represent the nucleus flashed up brilliantly. Then I made up 

 my mind that some distant house, barn, or ■ haystack was on 

 fire, and returned to the observatory for a 3 inch telescope, 

 which I keep for looking over the landscape. Before I had 

 time, however, to enter the door, every vestige of illumination 

 disappeared as suddenly as it had come into view, and after 

 waiting in vain for some time, I left the observatory and came into 

 the house. I have diligently inquired if there was a fire anywhere 

 in this part of Sussex on the night of which I am speaking, but 

 there was none. Were the Crystal Palace concealed by the high 

 ridge from behind which this strange apparition arose, the con- 

 cluding burst of a grand pyrotechnic display might reproduce what 

 I witnessed ; but merely its a matter of topography the Crystal 

 Palace is not on Ashdown Forest, nor on Crowborough Common 

 (which lies beyond it in an E.N.E. direction from here) either. Nor, 

 oddly enough,"does any house, or even any agricultural buildings, 

 lie upon the line drawn from my observatory through the point at 

 which this light arose, as any one may see from the Ordnance Map, 

 whereon, of course, Forest Lodge is marked. I m.ay add that the 

 latitude of the observatorv is 51° 0' 56' N., and its longitude 

 17-8" E. of Greenwich. ' William Noble. 



STORMY PETREL. 



[027]— On going into the yard at the back of 13, Guildford-strcet, 

 Birmingham, about 7.30 a.m. on Sept. 4, I saw a strange bird lying 

 with wings extended, quite dead, but warm. It had evidently 

 dropped from exhaustion. On examination it tamed out to be the 

 stormv petrel (Procellaria pelatjica). I attribute it to the very 

 heavv" srales that have occurred lately. You may insert tliis if you 

 think it will be of interest to any of your readers of Knowledge. 



E. W. BURFORD. 



