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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[April 3, 1885, 



In a former article I have alluded to Leni's Anatomical 

 Saddle, which is of eheet-steel, shaped exactly like an old 

 sagged leather suspension saddle, but with all the parts 

 sunk that could by any possibility exert any injurious 

 pressure upon the rider. 



I have no experience of this saddle, which is scarcely yet 

 ready for delivery to the puLlic, but I should consider 

 that, even if it should not prove a luxurious seal, it will 

 certainly be a fairly comfortable one, and the safest, from 

 a hygienic point of view, that has yet been made. 



This is a matter of such great importance that, after I 

 have ridden one of these new saddles, as I intend to do, 

 for some time, I shall give a report of my experience, if the 

 results at all equal the sanguine anticipations of the 

 inventor. 



Whatever leather saddle I ride, I always keep it well 

 dressed with vaseline or Prout's dubbin. Either of these 

 protects the leather from drying and cracking in summer 

 or becoming mildewed by damp in the winter. The dress- 

 ing also prevents the rider from shifting about on the 

 saddle when riding, and, if the machine should be out in a 

 shower of rain, the leather will absorb but very little 

 moisture. 



There is unfortunately a prejudice on the part of most 

 ladies against riding on saddles. They confound riding a 

 tricycle saddle with straddling a horse as a man does. In 

 fact, you do not ride astride of a small tricycle saddle ; 

 you simply sit upon it. The seat of a lady on a saddle is 

 firmer, the action in riding is easier, and the dress is much 

 less disturbed by pedalling than it is when she rides upon a 

 seat. 



Something may be done with a tricycle seat by shaping 

 it similarly to the seat of an old-fashioned Windsor chair. 

 But even the best shaped seat prevents the rider from 

 sitting nearly over his pedals, and thus pedalling with a 

 vertical action, or, if he sits over, will chafe him most 

 uncomfortably, and deprive him of a great deal of his 

 power. 



Hale's Divided Seat. 



Those who cannot, or will not, ride on a saddle should 

 try Bale's divided seat, which is made by the Coventry 

 Machinists Company. 



This seat is made of sheet-iron in two portions, as 

 shown in the engraving. Each half rocks on a separate 

 hinge, which is placed underneath the seat. As one leg falls 

 and the other rises each half of the seat gives alternately, 

 so that the rider can place full power on his pedals without 

 any resistance on the edge of the seat ; so that all chafing is 

 prevented, and as the two halves of the seat are so arranged 

 that there is a clear space of nearly an inch between them 

 all injurious pressure when riding is completely avoided. 

 This is undoubtedly the most jjcrfect seat, physiologically 

 speaking, that has been contrived. This seat is furnished 

 with two small cushions, stuffed with horsehair and covered 



with a strong rep. I should prefer rather thinner cushions 

 for my own riding, covered with leather. 



My first sensation when riding on this seat was a feeling 

 of insecurity produced by the seat moving under me ; but 

 after I had been working on it a few minutes, I found that 

 I could leave go of my handles and pedal fast, so that with 

 those who like a seat, or are ajiprehensive of any ill effects 

 from riding on a saddle, I should think that Bale's divided 

 seat will be a great favourite. 



I 



OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS. 



A WEEK'S CONVEESATION ON THE PLURALITY OF 

 WORLDS. 



By Mons. de Fontenelle. 



with notes by richard a, proctor, 



THE FIFTH EVENING. 



{Continued from p. 235.) 



DO not ask you," said the Marchioness, "whether in 

 those worlds of the Milky Way there be any moons. 

 I see they would be of no use to those principal planets 

 which have no night, and move in spaces too straight and 

 narrow to cumber themselves with the baggage of inferior 

 planets : yet pray take notice, that by your liberal multi- 

 plication of worlds, you have started an objection not easily 

 answer'd. Tlte vortexes whose suns we see touch the 

 vortex in which we are ; and if it be true that vortexes are 

 round, how then can so many bowls or globes all touch one 

 single ooel I would fain know how this may be done, but 

 cannot well reconcile it." 



" You show a great deal of wit, madam," said I, " in 

 raising this doubt, and likewise in not being able to resolve 

 it ; for in itself the thing is extremely difficult, and in the 

 manner you conceive it, no answer can be given to it ; and 

 he must be a fool who goes about to find answers to objec- 

 tions which are unanswerable.* If our vortex had the 

 form of a dye, it would have six squares or flat faces, and 

 would be far from being round ; and upon every one of 

 these squares might be plac'd a vortex of the same figure; but 

 if instead of these six square faces, it had 20, 50, or 1,000, 

 then might 1,000 vortexes be plac'd upon it, one upon 

 every flat : and you know very well, that the more flat 

 faces any body hath on its outside, the nearer it approacheth 

 to roundness ; just as a diamond cut facewise on every side, 

 if the faces be very many and little, it will look as round 

 as a pearl of the same bigness. 'Tis in this manner that 

 the vortexes are round ; they have an infinite number of 

 faces on their outside, and every one of 'em has upon it 

 another vortex : these faces are not all equal and alike ; 

 but here, some are greater, and there, some less : the least 

 faces of our vortex, for example, answer to the Milky-way, 

 and sustain all those little worlds. When two vortexes are 

 supported by the two next flats on which they stand, if 

 they leave beneath any void space between them, as it 

 must often happen. Nature, who is an excellent housewife, 

 and suffers nothing to be useless, presently fills up this 

 void space with a little vortex or two, perhaps with a 

 thousand, which never incommode the others, and become 

 one, two, or a thou.sund worlds more ; so that there may 

 be many more worlds than our vortex has flat faces to bear 

 'em. I will lay a good wager that tho' these little worlds 

 were made only to be thrown into the corners of the 

 universe, which otherwise would have been void and use- 

 less, and tho' they are unknown to other worlds which they 



* Especially when these objections arise out of theories which 

 are neither demonstrated nor demonsti'able. — R. P. 



