302 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Oct. 10, 1884. 



of couHe, unnecessary, but I tbiak it cannot be too clearly 

 understojd that road-ridiag and path-racing have nothing 

 in conimou with each other ; one is a sport, the other is a 

 healthful recreation. They are as little connected with 

 each other as horse-riding and horse-racing. 



In describing the Emperor tricycle in my last paper, I 

 unwittingly did the machine some injustice by stating that 

 it required an arrangement iir tightening the chain, in 

 the event of its becoming slack, owing to strain or wear 

 and tear. I find that it is provided with a very simple 

 and efficient contrivance for tightening the chain, so in- 

 geniously contrived and well made, that it easily escapes 

 notice ; the upper part of the lower chain-wheel bracket 

 turns on a hinge, and counter-nuts, on a cantilever rod, 

 secure it in any position. 



Since the above was written, 100 miles have been ridden 

 by Mr. George Smith over right-away roads on a Kangaroo 

 safety bicycle in 7 h. 10 m. — that is at the rate of fourteen 

 miles an hour. The bicycle driving-wheel was only 36 in. 

 in diameter, and it weighed '10 lb., yet it was driven faster 

 than any machine with a 60-in. wheel has ever been ridden 

 100 miles before. Can anything more be wanted to show 

 the absurdity of fitting up tricycles with -IS-in. driving- 

 wheels 1 



Mr. Webb, of the London Tricycle Club, has ridden the 

 same 100 miles in 7 h. 35 m., and he would have ridden in 

 Jess time but for an accident. 



Mr. Webb rode a Humber tricycle with 42 in. driving- 

 wheels, which weighed about 48 lb. ; if Mr. Webb's 

 Humber had had 36-iu. wheels, the weight of his machine 

 might have been reduced several pound-s and it is quite 

 possible that he might have beaten the bicycle, instead of 

 being beaten, as a very few pounds dillerence in weight 

 would have made from 20 m. to 2-") m. difference in a 100 

 miles' ride. 



eiiitoiial (gosisJip. 



I HAVE discovered (experimentally) a very real source of 

 danger in mountain climbing — I mean that arising from a 

 sudden gust of wind striking you when you are on a narrow 

 and precipitous ridge. You may possess the best imagin- 

 able "head" — be able tslook down a sheer precipice without 

 feelicg giddy, and be, normally, as firm on your feet as need 

 be ; but to be twisted laterally by a sudden squall may not 

 impossibly result in your losing your balance, and making a 

 facilis decensus which you will never repeat on this earth. 



The opinion which I pronounced here, colloquially, on 

 ^' the Healtheries," some time ago, has since been uttered 

 more authoritatively by Herr Hartmann, of Berlin, in his 

 report of that show to the meeting of tlie Society for Health 

 Technics at Frankfort. In it, speaking of the Health 

 Exhibition, he says : " Indeed, from a scientific point of 

 view, it was simply pitiable." If the Commissioners of the 

 Exhibition of 1851, and the other Highnesses and Mighti- 

 nesses at South Kensington ever reid such an essentially 

 common poet as Burns, they will recollect his prayer for the 

 gift " to see oorsel's as ithers see us." 



them were present to listen to the very edifying address in 

 which this astonishing dogma was propounded. It is stated 

 that the church-going farmers felt this to be " the un- 

 kindest cut of all," inasmuch as their crops of hops were 

 no whit better than those of their Konconformist neigh- 

 bours. 



As everyone knows, at present, the initial meridian from 

 which longitudes are reckoned varies with the nationality 

 of the ephemeris-computer or map-maker, although, from 

 the wide diffusion of the " Nautical Almanac," Greenwich 

 is a very generally accepted one. The Geodetical Congress 

 last year was practically unanimous in the recommendation 

 that it should be univer.sally adopted ; and I had hoped 

 that the existing confusion might have been abolished by 

 the universal acceptance of that recommendation. The only 

 dissidence at all to be expected was from that neighbouring 

 nation whose entire metrical system is founded on an 

 erroneous measurement of a local arc of the meridian, and 

 whose action towards other countries generally in matters 

 scientific, literary, social, and political, is modelled on that 

 of the militiaman, who, on being reminded by his left-hand 

 man that he was out of step with the whole battalion, 

 replied, " Change your'n, then ! " France now declines to 

 support the proposition, but favours a so-called neutral 

 meridian throughout the Azores or Behring's Strait, as a 

 means of defeating the choice of Greenwich. 



I SEE by the English papers that the curate of a parish 

 in one of the home counties, a week or two ago, attributed 

 (from the pulpit) the shortness of the hop-crop to the fact 

 that the farmers in the locality, which he must at once 

 :adorn and illuminate, did not come to church ! A fact 

 which he emphasised by pointing out that only three of 



I DO not fancy that astronomy can be much cultivated 

 in the Isle of ]Man, as I learn from a correspondent of un- 

 questionable veracity that recently it was determined to 

 hold a bazaar for Church purposes, at a village on the 

 western side of the island ; and that an old inhabitant 

 reputed to be learned in the stars was consulted as to the 

 probability of fine weather. After pondering the matter 

 for a night and a day, he returned this oracular response : 

 " Oh ! yes, have the bazaar, the day will be fine ; the planets 

 are favourable. Juniper and Vesuvius are in conjunction." 

 What an acquisition this prophet of Mona's Isle would be 

 to the Solar Physics Committee, to be sure ! 



I SHALL look out curiously for accounts of Observations 

 of the Lunar Eclipse of last Saturday night. At the place 

 whence I write the effect at the time of totality differed 

 from any which I have ever previously witnessed. Ordi- 

 narily, at the time of greatest obscuration, the moon has 

 assumed the appearance of a huge glowing coppery-red ball 

 hung up iu the sky. On Saturday she was barely visible 

 as an ill-defined ring of a sickly green hue. If, as is prac- 

 tically certain, the usual ruddy tinge of the moon when 

 totally eclipsed has its origin in the refraction of the sun's 

 rays through our own atmosphere into the shadow-cone, 

 that atmosphere must have been laden with something which 

 acted as a dense screen to them on the night of the 4th. 

 Are we here once more brought face to face with the cause 

 of the persistent haze in the sun's neighbourhood, and of 

 the wonderful fore and afterglow? 



il. C. Flamm.\riox has received anonymoasly a sum of 5,000 f. 

 to be awarded as a prize to the author of the best project for the 

 reform of the Calendar. Doubtless, a competition is the beet 

 method of finding out the difiicalties of such a reform ; as also the 

 direction it should take without upsetting established customs. 

 The editor of L' Astnmomie has therefore opened a competition, in 

 the hope that those savants who will undertake the task will be 

 able to produce some simple, definite method appreciable to all 

 nations. Papers must be sent in by Oct. 1, 1885, to if. Flamma- 

 rion, 36, Avenue de I'Observatoii-e. A committee will read the 

 papers, award the prize, and propose the reform to an international 

 congress. 



