September 1, 1887.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



255 



rapidly. These same movements are performed by a left- 

 handed pitcher for an in-curve. 



To throw a low in-curve the ball is held firmly with all 

 the fingera and the thumb on the opposite side. A straight 

 side motion is used, which brings the hand well out from 

 the body and on a level with the shoulder. In this curve, 

 when the ball is released, the palm of the hand is turned 

 exactly towards the left, with the fingers sufficiently closed 



Fig. 3.— Throwing a Low I.\-curve. 



around the ball to give it the required rapidity of rotary 

 motion. The ball is released while the hand is in this posi- 

 tion (fig. 3). This ciu-ve can be greatly improved by catching 

 hold of the seam of the ball with the ends of the first three 

 fingers before throwing it. This curve is, perhaps, the 

 easiest one to accjuire. Very often a beginner am throw a 

 good in-curve the firet time he tries. 



In a high incurve the hand passes above the head with 

 an overhand motion. 



The " Only " Nolan wps proliably the first pitcher to use 

 the down-curve, and he met with remarkable success. In 

 throwing a down-curve the ball is held in the same manner 

 as for the in-curve. An underhand throw is generally used 

 for this curve. When the ball is released, the hand is held 



Fig. 4.— Throwing a Drop-curve. 



pointing directly towards the home base, with the palm 

 turned upward, allowing the ball to roll off the tips of the 

 fingei-s (fig. 4). This curve is to-day one of the most deceptive 

 in use on account of the inclination of the ball to drop any- 

 where but at the right place. 



Radbourne is one of the successful men with the up-curve. 

 The up-curve was introduced by McC'ormick of the Pitts- 

 burgs some years ago. This is the most difficult curve to 

 pitch, and but few ever become perfect in it. Every one 

 knows that the ball is likely to curve downward, and in 

 order to overcome this downward tendency great swiftness 

 must be used to get sufficient resistance from the atmosphere. 

 In pitching an up-curve the ball is held in the same manner 

 as for an out-curve. The hand is thrown forward and 

 downward with a quick jerk. As the hand goes downward 



Fig. 5. —Throwing the Upcurve. 



it should pass the knee and go at least a foot to the 

 front of it before the ball is released. Just as the ball is 

 thrown the little finger edge of the hand will be turned 

 upward, and the palm wiU be in such a position that the 

 pitcher can look into it (fig. 5). The first two fingers will be 

 nearly horizontal and pointing directly away from the pitcher. 

 The ball is released from this position by allowing it to roll 

 under the first finger, and assisting the progress by a twist 



of the thumb. The ball should roll off the side of the 

 finger, and not ofl' the tip. 



These are by no me;ins the only curves used by the 

 pitchers nowadays. There are the out-rise, in-rise, out- 

 drop, and in-drop, all in the nature of two curves. Then 

 there are several ditlerent " shoots " used ; they are in the 

 nature of a quick curve. 



Avery, the famous Yale pitcher, probably never curved 

 the ball, yet he discovered the in-shoot. It is now no 

 unusual thing to find a pitcher with all these points, and 

 many more wrinkles that they keep working up. Change 

 of pace was most beautifully illustrated by Al. Spalding in 

 the old Boston champions. Tim Keefe of the New Yorks 

 is now the most successful in that line, while Clarkson of 

 the C'hicagos is also working the change of pace to good 

 advantage. AVill White and John Ward were about the 

 first to work the sharp curve and in-shoot as far back as 

 18TS. One of the gresitest pitchers that ever twirled a ball 

 was Charlie Sweeney, who was with the Providence Club in 

 1883-84. He was the first and perhaps the only man who 

 could curve an out-ball to a left-hand batsman. Several of 

 the pitchers can get a shoot, but his was a clean curve. 



Even with all these, curve-pitchers are not satisfied, nor 

 will they be until they can pitch a ball that will stop in the 

 air just before reaching the home-plate, and wait until the 

 batsman has made a strike, and then pass on to the catcher. 

 In curving the ball in the wind, E. J. Prindle says : — 

 " Thro.ving an out-curve from north to south curves the 

 ball to the east. Now, if the wind is blowing from the east 

 it will retard the curve, and it may, if very strong, entirely 

 prevent it. In pitching from north to south, an east wind 

 will a.ssist an in-curve, a west wind will assist an out-curve, 

 a south wind will assist any curve, and a north wind will 

 retard any curve." 



THE SUN'S INTERIOR. 



T is strange, but nevertheless true, that the 

 study of our earth's crust has taught science 

 something about the interior of the sun, or 

 rather about what lies below the visible sur- 

 face of the sun, which we call the photosphere. 

 The evidence is not at present precise, but it 

 is not difficult to see that along the line of 

 evidence thus afforded a much greater approach to exactness 

 can be made than has hitherto been obtained. 



When the geologist examines the earth's crust, he finds 

 evidence of the fiist progress of changes such as are now in 

 action, during millions, nay tens of millions of years. Thus, 

 among the rock strata of the earth are to be found traces of 

 the action of rain and water, wind and storm, alternate 

 heat and cold. Among the fossilised remains found in these 

 rocks are some which indicate the presence of forms of life 

 which could only have existed where there were light and 

 heat. Among all the strata, evidence is to be found of the 

 action of changes such as are produced by solar action alone. 

 Thus in the rocks of the earth we have evidence of past solar 

 activity, and the means of determining how much work was 

 done by the sun. 



It mattei-s nothing, so far as this inquiry is concerned, 

 whether we consider the sun to have been more active or 

 less active in the past than he is now, for it is the total 

 amount of work he has done upon the earth which we have 

 to consider, not the rate at which it was done. 



Dr. Croll, of Cilasgow, one of the most careful of our 

 geological inqiiirers, finds evidence in the rock strata of 

 Scotland showing that the amount of work done by the sun 

 on the earth corresponds to at least 100,000,000 of years of 



