98 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Aug. 1, 1884. 



claims no moi-e than is due to him when he expresses the 

 hope that his endeavour to meet the wants of both ele- 

 mentary and advanced students has been successful. 



Half-hours at. the Sea-side. By J. E. Tatlor, Ph.D., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., etc. (London : W. H. Allen & Co. 1884.) 

 — The holidiiy-maker, whose idea of a sea-side trip is com- 

 prised in the daily succession of the bath, the liovel, and 

 the promenade, need only open Dr. Taylor's work to see 

 what a wealth of intellectual pleasure and recreation lies 

 altogether outside of such stock devices for " killing time." 

 There is no such rest, either for mind or body, as a total 

 change of occupation ; and more delightful occupation than 

 the study of the myriad forms of life that people our 

 shores it would be difficult or impossible to find. Beginning 

 with a half-hour with the waves themselves, our author 

 goes on to instruct us in the employment of the microscope, 

 the construction and stocking of temporary aquaria, the 

 use of the tow-net and dredge, the anatomy and physiology, 

 manners and customs, of sea-weeds, sponges, sea-worms, 

 corallines, jelly-fish, sea-anemones, sea mats and squirts, 

 sea-urchins and star-fish, .shell-fish, and Crustacea. The 

 reader who takes this book with him in his summer or 

 autumn jaunt to the coast, will find that it will supply him 

 with a perennial source of amusement. He who weak- 

 mindedly omits to do so, will cut himself off from an incal- 

 culable amount of pleasure of the most novel and exciting 

 kind. 



Bringing it to Booh is an advertisement of a Mr. Eglin- 

 TON a (so-called) " Medium," which we decline to forward 

 or further by taking any more notice of it. Professor Ray 

 Lankester and Dr. Carpenter would be the fittest people to 

 deal with this person in the outset, as Mr. Flowers, at Bow- 

 street, would be at a subsequent stage of the proceedings. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY. 



Tkom Augu-st 1 TO August 15. 

 By F.R.A.S. 



THE usual daily watch for spots and facnlas will be kept upon 

 the SuTi. A picture of the Kight Skj' will be found in Map 

 Till, of " The Stars in their Seasons." Minima of the variable 

 star Algol (Map I. of "The Stars in their Seasons") will occur at 

 2h. 35m. a.m. on Aug. 13, and at the more convenient hour of 

 llh. 23m. p.m. on Aug. 15. The reader should keep a careful 

 watch on the sky during the nights of the 9th, lOtb, and 11th 

 (notably on that of the 10th) for that marvellous shower of shoot- 

 ing stars which has been familiar from classical antiquity ; and 

 mediaevally designated " St. Lawrence's Tears," is now known more 

 philosophically as the " Perseids," from the fact of all their paths 

 appearing to radiate from a point in the Constellation Perseus 

 (" The Stars in their Seasons," Map I.). These bodies were shown 

 conclusively by Schiaparelli to be travelling in the orbit of a comet 

 (2) which appeared in 1862. Moonlight will interfere to some 

 extent, though not to a great one, with their observation this year. 

 Mercury is an evening star, and may just possibly be picked up 

 close to the horizon after sunset during the fortnight over which 

 our notes extend. Venus is a morning star, and a most brilliant 

 object she is in the eastern sky before sunrise ; in fact, by a device 

 akin to that explained on p. 421 of Yol. T., she may be found, and 

 easily seen with the naked eye in bright sunshine, abont the time 

 when these notes terminate. No other planets are at present 

 visible. The Moon enters her last quarter at eight minutes past 

 three in the early morning of the 1-lth, so that the first two 

 or three days of August will probably suit the ordinary observer 

 best for examining her in the telescope. She will occult three 

 stars at convenient hours during the next fourteen days. The first 

 is BAG. 6292, a sixth magnitude one, which on the 3rd will dis- 

 appear at the Moon's dark limb at 7h- 32m. p.m., at an angle of 

 130° from her vertex ; reappearing at her bright limb at a vertical 

 angle of 190° at 8h. 4m. Then, on the 14th, another sixth magni- 

 tude star, 63 Tauri, will disappear at the bright limb of the Moon 

 fifty minntea after midnight, at a vertical angle of 49°. It will 



reappear at the dark limb at Ih. 45m. the next morning, at an 

 angle from the vertex of the Moon of 253°. On the same night 

 (the 14th) BAG. 1351, a star of the sixth and a-half magnitude, 

 will disappear at the bright limb eight minutes later than 63 Tauri 

 at an angle of 12° from the vertex ; but it will reappear sooner, 

 I.e., at lb. 34m. a.m. on the 15th, at the dark limb, at a vertical 

 angle of 290°. The moon is in Ophiuchns when these notes begin, 

 but at 6 a.m. on the 3rd enter Sagittarius. Hence at 6 p.m. on the 

 5th she passes into the N.W. portion of Gapricomne ; there she 

 remains until 10 a.m. on the Cth, when she crosses into Aquarius; 

 traversing Aquarius it is the same hour on the 9th ere she enters 

 Pisces. Her passage across this great constellation occupies her 

 until 10 a.m. on the 12th, at which time she crosses into Aries. 

 She leaves Aries at 2h. 30m. a.m. on the 14th for Taurus; she is 

 still in Taurus when our notes terminate. 



iBi^ftllanrn. 



There is an article on " Scintillation," by M. Ch. Montigny in 

 the number of Ciel et Tcrre, for July 15, containing an account of 

 the naked-eye observations of that phenomenon by M. Ch. Dufonr. 

 It should be read by all interested in the curious subject to which 

 it refers. 



Accident feom Light.xixg. — It is stated that on Wednesday, the 

 IGth inst., during a storm, a house in the village of Chantemerle, 

 Geneva, was struck by lightning and set on fire. There being no 

 water available to extinguish the flames the &ie spread, and the 

 whole village was reduced to ashes. 



Steam Ploughing in the West. — Recently, at Fargo, Dakota, 

 a traction engine drew eight ploughs, turning a sod 4 in. thick as 

 even and well as could be done by horse-power, and at a rate of 

 over twenty-five acres per day. The cost of steam-ploughing is 

 rated at about 1 dol. per acre as against 3 dels, per acre by horse- 

 power. — Engineering. 



Be,ssemek Steel. — The production of Bessemer steel in the 

 principal countries of the world last year is estimated at 4,852,956 

 tons. This total was made up as follows : Great Britain, 1,553,380 

 tons ; United States of America, 1,119,576 tons ; Germany, 955,000 

 tons ; France, 440,000 tons ; Belgium, 220,000 tons ; Sweden, 

 50,000 tons J Russia, 340,000 tons ; and Austria, 175,000 tons. 



WEDNESD.iv's standard says : — " Litigation in respect to patent 

 rights has hitherto impeded the development of electric railways. 

 The Patent Office has now decided in favour of S. D. Field against 

 Edison and Siemens. The first railway was opened at Cleveland, 

 Ohio, on Saturday, and others are expected to be constructed now 

 in quick succession." 



The Raihcay Review says : — Bnffalo claims to have the tallest 

 telegraph-pole in the world. The Western Union put up one 

 measuring 70 feet, and thought thereby to cut the Baltimore and 

 Ohio off from getting its wire to its office, but the Baltimore and 

 Ohio got a pole 90 feet high, 8 inches at the tip, and set it up 

 within 5 feet of the Western Union pole, so that the two now point 

 to heaven in parallel lines, with the Baltimore and Ohio a trifle 

 ahead. 



A SULPHUR deposit exists at Djemsa, Suez, in a perfectly rainless 

 desert on the African coast, very near the sea, and constituting a 

 hill 600 ft. high, whose sides are blasted down as in quarrying 

 stone. Some 200 Arabs, employed under French engineers, succeed 

 in mining ten tons a day. A similar deposit occurs at Ronga, 

 500 miles from Suez, also near the coast of the African continent, 

 which differs only in being buried under other strata, so that mining 

 is necessary. 



During a slight thunderstonn which passed over the Lake dis- 

 trict on Saturday morning last, the corning house at the Black 

 Beck Powder Mills, near Ulverston, was struck by lightning. A 

 terrible explosion ensued, completely wrecking the btiilding, and 

 instantaneously killing three men who were inside. Another man 

 was standing outside the corning house, and the flames from the 

 explosion set fire to his clothing, but by throwing himself into an 

 adjoining brook he escaped with a severe scorching. 



Facts co^•CEENING Vaccination. — At a meeting of the Vaccination 

 Officers' Association, held on Saturday last, a cordial vote of thanks 

 was given to the National Health Society for issuing their pamphlet 

 entitled " Facts concerning Vaccination." The Association ex- 

 pressed their appreciation of the " thoughtful kindness which 

 prompted the society to assist the vaccination officers of the 

 Metropolis in the discharge of their often diflicult duties." We 



