470 



♦ KNOV/LEDGE ♦ 



[Dec. 15, 1882. 



tht> p*rty in tihe room felt auj shock, aiid Uie sound was 

 ascriUxl to a passing veliicle ; a caudlestiok, however, was 

 jarred on the kitchen-toWe, In the other case tlie sound, 

 which was hke that of a train some miles away, was 

 supposed )>y n)t> to U' distant thunder, till it seeuu-d to 

 ivaoh the room wht-rt) 1 was, and gave a snap to a very 

 hard window-fastcninj:, which at once oonviiicetl me of the 

 nature of the occurrence, though I was taken too much l>y 

 surprise to notice what shock tlirro might have been ; it 

 was felt, liowfver, by my wife in another room ; and I 

 noticed how the pheasants in the woods immediately 

 he^jtn to crow in terror. 



I have many time* felt slight tremors and jarrings, 

 especially in l>ed, which I think were not illusory, and 

 which lead me to suppose, independently of tlie curious 

 experiments of M. d'Abbadie and otliers, that tlie surface 

 of the earth is less stable than we are apt to imagine. 



The earthquake in the time of Queen Elizabeth (ir)80) 



the apparatus consists, like the lloltz machine, of two glass 

 discs, UDOtpuil in diauiet<'r, of which the larger. A, is held 

 in a fixed position, while the other is mounted upon a 

 horizontal axis, and can, by means of multiplying gear (seen 

 to tlie right of the figure)' l>e rotsvted at a high velocity in 

 front of the tixed disc and in a plane parallel to it To 

 the back face of the larger plate are attached two pairs 

 of tinfoil discs, F K, F F, each pair lieing connected 

 together by a strip of tinfoil, and by a second strip to one 

 of the two bi>nt arms II and 11, by which they are connected 

 to a light metallic brush directed towards tho front face 

 of the rotating plate. Over the tinfoil are pasted 

 two paper coatings, which correspond to what used to be 

 called the paper "armatures "in the Holtz machines. To 

 the face of the rotating plate are attached, at equal 

 angular distances apart of 60 deg., and at a short distance 

 from the circumference, six discs of tinfoil (one of which is 

 marked D in the ligure), about an inch in diameter, corrc- 



f*u»«l «o much alarm that a special Form of Prayer was 

 pr»'par«l on the occasion, and a " Report" of it seems to 

 )iave U*n put forth by authority, both of which may be 

 found in Clay's " Elizalx-than Liturgies," a work to which 

 I have not at pr«'«'nt access. 



THE VOSS INDUCTION MACHINE. 



I^HE holrl which telephony, electric lighting, and such- 

 like applications of «-lectricity have made upon the 

 pulilic mind during the post three or four years is so un- 

 duly gT»«t, that progrcM in other branches of the science 

 has little pr«>iip<-ct of receiving a fair share of attention. 

 The VoM machine is in thin unfavourable position, for, 

 while it LI one of the greatest improvements of the day, 

 it haa not until recr^tly met with that attention to which 

 it is *o justly entitled. It is reprefMnt<-d in the accom- 

 panying illostration, from which it will Ije seen that 



spending in position and size with the tinfoil discs upon 

 the fixed plate — that is to say, if tho discs (D) were 

 numbered in rotation, 1, 2, 3, 4, .'), and 0, those numbered 

 1 and 2 would, in a certain position of the rotating plate, 

 correspond and bo opposite to one connected pair of 

 discs on the fixed plate. Nos. 4 and .5 would 

 similarly correspond to the other pair, and Nos. 3 

 and C would have no discs on the fixed plate opposite 

 to them. To each of the little tinfoil discs on the rotating 

 plate is attached a metallic button of the form of a piano 

 convex lens, and these liuttoiiH, in tho revolution of 

 the plate, pass under and are lightly touched by tho 

 metallic brushes (F F), which are held by tho bent arms 

 (If H), the brushes Vjeing so adjusted as only to touch the 

 buttfins, and not to come in contact with the glass of the 

 rotating platf; to which they are attached. E' and E' are 

 two horizontal collecting combs, insulated from one another 

 by being attached to a horizontal bar of ebonite, but con- 

 nected respectively to the two discharge terminals (C and 

 G) in the front of the instrument by the horizontal bars 



