KNOWLEDGE 



335 



oWLEi) 



^^f V^ AN ILUiEXRATED 



^ ^ MAGAZINE oFS^IENCE 



PlmnltWorded -EXACTLTDESCRIBED j 



LONDON: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1882. 



Contents of No. 51. 



PAGE. PiSI. 



ndArt Gossip 335 Hint to Botanists; or Leaf Copying 342 



of Llandudno and Rhjrl. Eetiews : — Magnetism and Elec- 



Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. 337 I tricify 343 



Electrician. Electrical ] Correspondence :— Saturn's Bings — 



ent— n". (nimlrated) 339 HighTides— Long Tricycle Eide— 



h Telescope. Fairy Rings — Spiritualism— Fif- 



;:.A.S 339 1 teen Puzzle-Flint Jack, ic. ... 3« 



-h Isles 339 Answers to Correspondents 345 



or 311 1 Our Whist Colunm 317 



m \ Oar Chess Column 318 



Offence anli art (So^^ip. 



Ax observation, unprecedented in the history of comets, 

 was made at the Cape Town Observatory, on Sept 17, at 

 4 h. .50 min. 58 sec. Cape mean time, corresponding to 

 -I h. ."!7 min. 3 sec. Greenwich time. " The comet was 

 followed," writes Mr. Gill, "by two observers with separate 

 instruments, right up to the sun's limV), where it suddenly 

 disappeared," at the hour named. To be seen under these 

 conditions the comet must at the time have been intensely 

 brilliant — partly, no doubt, tlie effect of solar heat and 

 Light, but partly alsn, we conceive, on account of the 

 resistance it experienced in its onward rush at the rate of 

 certainly not less than 340 miles per ferond .' The time 

 when Mr. Gill's assistants saw the comet reach the sun's 

 limb, preceded by 1 h. 35 min. the time of perihelion 

 passage as given below. 



The Emperor of Brazil telegraphs to the Academy of 

 •Sciences that the comet was visible in full daylight on the 

 isth, 19th, and 20th September. The spectroscope showed 

 the presence of sodium and carbon. On the ilGth, from 

 1 h. 10 min. to 5 h. 40 min. in the morning, it was a 

 -plendid object. 



Dr. Hi.vd finds now for the comet the following 

 elements: Perihelion Passage, Sept 17-21G9 Greenwich 

 .M.T.=Sept 17, 5h. 12 m. p.m., instead of Sept 17 about 

 - h. 30 ra. p.m. 



New Comet, Comet, 



estimate. lOOS. 1843. 



I.ongitnde of Perihelion 276 145 277 2 278 3;> 



„ „ Ascending node ... 346 7 357 17 361 12 



Inclination 37 59 35 5S 35 41 



Logarithm of Perihelion Distance 7-90653 767210 774036 

 (We have added 360^ to the Long, of Asc. node of comet 

 1>^43 to make the comparison easier.) 



Wf. publish elsewhere an interesting letter (which 

 appeared in last Saturday's I'imrs) about the comet 

 Uut what a pity it is people will not learn enough of 

 elementary matters iu astronomy to write correctly. The 



letter, for want of such knowledge, is full of absurdities. 

 The comet is "appearing in latitude 10° N," it "rises 

 almost perpendicular to the sun," and " travels the length 

 of its tail (45'') in less than an hour " (which would in- 

 volve a real motion among the stars at the rate of 30' 

 ill less than an hour, or twice round the star sphere in less 

 than a day '.) ; it " measures some 3.000 miles to the naked 

 eye from its corona," and at such and such a time " the 

 great flame was in an apparent flutter," whicli is all just 

 impossible nonsense. , 



The Isle of Wight wOl be raised to white heat by the 

 too rapid motion of its trains. A 'rate of fourteen miles 

 in an hour and a quarter is advertised. Luckily for the 

 island this terrific speed is not always attained. 



The Peterhead Police Commissioners ha\e resolved that 

 the electric light shall not be supplied to their town by 

 any company. They are the owners of the gas-works. 

 There appears to be on the part of the \arious corporations, 

 itc, throughout the country, a determination to resist the 

 introduction of the electric light into their respective 

 districts by the companies owning the patents. However, 

 many of these local bodies contemplate introducing the 

 light on their own account. If this spirit is maintained, 

 the concessions for which so many thousands have been 

 paid will be scarcely worth the paper they are written on. 



The Telephone and Ballooning. — Last week several 

 ascents were made by members of the Academie d'Aerosta- 

 tion Metcrologique, from the Place Saint Jacques, Paris. 

 Amongst other things, conversation was carried on with 

 people on the earth by means of a telephone line suspended 

 from the balloon. The height at which the balloon is said 

 to have been was 500 ft. 



A MINE has been found in a mountain near Salzburg, 

 Austria, which, it is considered, gives indications of having 

 been occupied and abandoned at least two thousand years 

 ago. It contains a large and confused mass of timbers, 

 which were used for support, and a number of miners' 

 implements. The timbeis were notched and sharpened, 

 but were suVject to an inundation, and left in confused 

 heaps. The implements were mainly wooden shovels, axe- 

 handles, itc. Among the relics, also, was a basket made of 

 untanned raw hide, a piece of cloth woven of coarse wool, 

 the fibre of which is very even and still in good prcser\-a- 

 tion, and a torch, bound together with tlax-fibre. Tlie 

 probabilities are that the ancient salt miners were over- 

 taken by the flooding of the mine, as mummified bodies 

 have been discovered also. The find seems to have be- 

 longed to the pre-lloman times, as the axe-l>andles were 

 evidently used for bronze axes, specimens of wliich have 

 been found upon the surface of the mountain. The relics 

 arc of a high order, the basket Vieiiig superior even to some 

 that were used in tlie early historic times. 



Ikon chessboards and chessmen, with concealed magnets 

 to steady tliem on the board, are sold to travellers in 

 Berlin. 



The recent Imperial decree relating to the precautions to 

 be taken against fire in the Vienna theatres enacts that all 

 theatres built from this date are to be complt-tely detached. 

 The stage is to be divided from the auditorium l>y a wall 

 not less than 20 in. high and IS in. thick alK>ve the roof, 

 so that in case of fire tlie stage may be isolated from the 

 rest of the house. The stage must be of sufficient height 



