Nov. 21, 1884.] 



. KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



429 



iBisfrfllanra. 



A Gigantic Oil Well. — On Saturday, October 11, the Christie 

 Brothers' drilling well at Phillips City, Bntler Co., Pa., struck the 

 oil-bearing sand and began to flow at a tremendous rate, gushing 

 forth the crude petroleum at the rate of 5,000 barrels per day, and 

 the well will go down in history as being one of the largest wells 

 ever struck in the oil region. The well is still producing at the 

 rate of 180 barrels per hour. This well of Christie Brothers is only 

 365 feet from the famous Phillips well, which was struck August 3U, 

 and is yet producing 2,200 barrels per day. These great wells have 

 paralysed the oil trade, and the oil market has sagged from 75 cents 

 to C2 cents per barrel. 



International E.xhibition at the Ale.xandra Pal.u-e. — An 

 Imternational Eshibition is to be held at the Alexandra Palace next 

 year, commencing about March 31, and remaining open for six 

 months. Ten per cent, of the gross receipts from admission money 

 is to be set apart for distribution among the principal London 

 hospitals. For this purpose a committee has been appointed as 

 follows : — Chairman, Colonel Sir Herbert Sandford; vice-chairman, 

 Admiral Sir Edward Inglefield ; General Sir Michael Kennedy, Sir 

 Henry Pitman, Sir Andrew Clark, Mr. F. D. Di.xon-Hartland, and 

 Dr. George Johnson. The exhibition, like those at South Kensing- 

 ton, will not rely simply upon the attractiveness of the exhibits, 

 but will include amusements of a varied nature. The building 

 and grounds are to be brilliantly illuminated by the electric 

 light. Machinery is to be largely represented. A small charge 

 is to be made for space. Mr. E. Ray, 21, Queen Victoria-street, is 

 the secretary. 



At a meeting of the Anthropological Institute, Xov. 11, Professor 

 Flower, F.R.S., President, in the chair, Mr. Francis Galton de- 

 scribed the object, method, and appliances of the late Anthropo- 

 metric Laboratory at the International Health Exhibition. He 

 stated that 9,344 persons passed through the Laboratory, each of 

 them being measured in seventeen distinct particulars for the sum 

 of 3d., in a compartment onh- ft. wide and 36 ft. long. The 

 popularity of the Laboratory was so great that its door was 

 besieged by far more applicants than conld be admitted, and many 

 persons made repeated attempts and waited long for their turn, 

 but at last gave up their attempts as hopeless. .So many applica- 

 tions have been made abroad and at home for duplicates of the 

 instrumental outfit that it was advisable that any suggested im- 

 provements in them shonid be considered before they became esta- 

 blished in nse. The present paper was to invite discussion. 



Petrified Wood. — The petrified wood which is so abundant in 

 the United States territories of Arizona, Wyoming, and Rocky 

 Mountain regions is rapidly becoming utilised by the practical 

 American. In San Francisco there is now a factory for cutting 

 and polishing these petrifactions into mantelpieces, tiles, tablets, 

 and other architectural parts for which marble or slate is commonly 

 used. Petrified wood is said to be susceptible of a finer polish 

 than marble, or even onyx, the latter of which it is driving from 

 the market. The raw material employed comes mostly from the 

 forests of petrified wood along the line of the Atlantic and Pacific 

 Railway. Several other companies have also been formed to obtain 

 concessions of different portions of these forests. Geologists will 

 regret the destruction of such interesting primeval remains, and 

 some steps ought to be taken to preserve certain tracts in their 

 original state. — Engineering. 



Mr. T. Mellard Reade, C.E., who has devoted much attention 

 ro chemical denudation of the earth's surface, in his presidential 

 address to the Liverpool Geological Society this session, dealt with 

 " The Denudation of the Two Americas." He showed that 

 150,000,000 tons of matter in solution are annually poured into the 

 Gulf of Mexico by the river Mississippi ; this, it was estimated, 

 would reduce the time for the denudation of 1 ft. of land over the 

 whole basin — which time has hitherto been calculated solely from 

 the matter in suspension — from 1 ft. in 6,000 years to 1 ft. in 4,500 

 years. Similar calculations were applied to the La Plata, the 

 Amazons, and the St. Lavfrence, Mr. Eeade arriving at the result 

 that an average of 100 tons per square mile per annum are removed 

 from the whole American continent. This agrees with results he 

 previously arrived at for Europe, from which it was inferred that 

 the whole of the land draining into the Atlantic Ocean from 

 America, Africa, Europe, and Asia contributes matter in solution, 

 which, if reduced to rock at two tons to the cubic yard, would equal 

 one cubic mile every six years. [In connection with this, the 

 attention of our readers is drawn to an article on " River Action on 

 Land," Knowledge Vol V., p. 270, in which such statistics are 

 shown to be unreliable. — Ed.J 



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



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

 serted. Correspondents must not le offended, there/ore, should their 

 letters not appear. 



All Editorial communications should he addressed to the Editor o» 

 Knowledge ; all Business communications to the Publishers, at the 

 Office, 74, Great Queen-street, fV.C. If this is not attended to 



DELAYS ARISE FOR WHICH THE EDITOR 18 NOT RESPONSIBLE. 



All Remittances, Cheques, and Post Office Orders should he made 

 payable to Messrs. Wyjun & Sons. 



The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of correspondents. 



No COMMUNICATIONS ARE ANSWERED BY POST, ETEN THOUGH STAMPED 

 AND DIBECTED ENTKLOPE BE ENCLOSED. 



SOME OF YOUR CORRESPONDENTS. 



[1511] — It appears to me that if Mr. Fowler's facts are correct, 

 his explanation of the " talisman " is a sufficient one. The question 

 is not, " What connection is there between the figures and the 

 powers attributed to them ? " but " What connection did the 

 Egyptians or Asiatics, or any one else, suppose them to have ? " 

 And it is quite conceivable that superstitious people would see 

 " magic " in the fact that the same total conld be obtained in 

 several ways. Why they saw it was probably because they knew 

 no better. 



Mr. Mathias ■ivill find his "problem" abundantly answered in 

 letter 1501. If he will take the trouble to put four such squares 

 together in the form of a square (or arrange the numbers four 

 times over on a chess-board), he may obtain 34 in a sufficient 

 number of ways to satisfy him. Any consecutive four numbers in 

 a straight line, whether horizontal, perpendicular, or diagonal, will 

 cast to 34 ; and so will any square of four 'numbers, or the four 

 corner numbers in squares of 9, IG, 36, 49, or 64 numbers. And 

 there is a perfectly mechanical process by which he may produce 

 from this " magic square " a very large number of others having 

 precisely the same properties. 



But, sir, would it not be well to stamp out the " magic square" 

 epidemic before it sets in badly. Some time ago we had a severe 

 attack of it, which was only cured by a rigid refusal to publish any 

 more squares. You stand a good chance of being deluged vrith 

 them for the next few weeks. 



" W. S. B." tries to galvanise the long-defunct "Fifteen puzzle" 

 into life. " O ! W. S. B.," don't you know your question (in which, 

 by the bye, I suppose 13, 14, 15 is wrongly printed for 13, 15, 14) 

 has been asked and answered a thousand times ? If all questions 

 were answered as often, the world itself would not contain the 

 replies to correspondents that would be written. You want to 

 know how to get the numbers consecutive. There is one most 

 simple and effectual way. Carefully remove " 15 " from the box 

 and place it after " 14." Should you not be satisfied with this 

 method, invert the " 6 " and the " 9 " and work the puzzle over 

 again ; you will find it will come right. 



If this will not suit you either, it will be time your friends should 

 look carefully after you, for your case will soon be hopeless. W. 



[I entirely agree with " W." that we have had more than enough 

 of the " Magic Square " and the Fifteen game. Any future contri- 

 butions, be they letters or queries, on either of these subjects, must 

 be " declined, with thanks." — Ed.] 



FOREGLOW. 



[1512] — Tliere was a very fine foreglow here (Maidstone) on 

 Nov. 7, almost equal in brilliancy, if not in duration, to any seen 

 by me last winter. For some time the sky next the horizon was of 

 a deep orange colour. At 6.30 this band of orange became almost 

 white, whilst above this was the splendid crimson glow, almost an 

 equal-sided triangle in shape, the apex reaching half way to the 

 zenith. At 6.45 it quickly disappeared, there being no colouration 

 after that time. The rest of the sky was deep blue, absolutely no 

 clouds being visible on the eastern half. About 7.10 the sun rose, 

 but there was no red colouration. 



It seems to me that these glows differ in two respects from a 

 usual dawn : that they occur and disappear some considerable time 



