426 



NA TURE 



\August 30, 188,5 



occupying exactly two minutes, while it left a shining track for 

 several se:onds in the sky. On August 12 at about 9 p.m. a 

 mete >r was seen at Sarpsborg, in Norway. It represented a 

 fireball with a long shining tail, passing in a straight line across 

 the sky in an easterly direction. It was in view for about one 

 minute. 



A -hock of earthquake of a rather severe nature, but of short 

 duration, 'was felt at Agram at 3.40 p.m. on the 28th inst. It was 

 accompanied by subterranean rumblings. 



M. Jacquei.ain has endeavoured to prepare a pure carbon 

 for electric purposes that should be as hard and as conductive as 

 gas carbon. He first takes gas carbon, which he submits to four 

 processes: (1) treatment with dry chlorine at a red heat for 

 thirty hours ; (2) treatment witli hot alkali for about three hours ; 

 (3) immersion in hydrofluoric acid (I to 2 of water) at a tem- 

 perature of 15° to 25 ; (4) carbonised by heating strongly in the 

 vapour of a high-boiling hydrocarbon, for commercial purposes 

 gas tar will do well. All these operations may be performed 

 after the carbon has been cut into sticks. By these processes the 

 impurities have been reduced t) a minimum and a good, pure 

 car'xm obtained. 



The director of the Jardin d'Acclimatation of Paris has just 

 received an entire tribe of Kalmucks from the desert lands in the 

 neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea. It consists of 9 men, 8 

 women, 4 girls and children, iS camels, 15 mares and young 

 horses, 10 Kirghiz sheep, with tents, instruments, arms, &c. 

 They will probably visit London after having made in Pari-, a 

 stay proportionate to their success. 



On" Sunday week an extraordinary ascent was made at 

 Nogent-sur-Marne. The aeronaut ascended at 4.30 p.m., and 

 lande 1 near St. Cloud on the following day at 7 a.m. He 

 remained 14^ hours in the air, and travelled no more than 30 

 kilometres. 



M. FrIEDEL has found that at certain temperatures blende, 

 de of sodium, and horacite exhibit pyroelectric phenomena. 

 Boracite he found to be so most markedly at the point when it 

 lost its cubical form whilst cooling after being heated to 265°. 



Messrs. Longmans and Co. have issued the eleventh edition 

 of Prof. Atkinson's translation of Ganot's " Elementary Treatise 

 on Physics.'' About thirty-two pages have been added to the 

 new edition, while the chapter on the steam-engine has been 

 entirely recast. 



Mr. Fisher Unwin has added to his useful series of Half- 

 Holiday Handbooks a Guide to Wimbledon, Putney, and 

 Barnes. The same publisher also sends us a little Handbook to 

 the Fernery and Aquarium. 



M. DE Fonvielle asks us to say that by mistake he stated in 

 his note on the Montgolfier status that it was cast in bronze; it 

 is in plaster, and the cast is being executed. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Maholi Galago (Galago maholi), purchased ; 

 a Vervet Monkey (Cercopithecus lalandii), presented by Mr. J. 

 H. Sheppard ; two Golden Eagles (Ai/uila chrysaltos) from 

 Scotland, presented by Mr. A. H. Browne ; two Short-toed 

 Eagles [Cinalttts galliots), purchased ; a Yellow-headed Conure 

 (Comtrus jendaya), presented by Her Grace the Duchess of 

 Wellington ; a Slender-billed Cockatoo (Licmetis tenuirostris), 

 pre-ented by Mr. R. Keele ; a Land Rail (Crex pratensis), pre- 

 sented by Mr. M. Bryant ; a Partridge Bronze-winged Pigeon 

 (Geophaps seripla), and a Mo lest Grass Finch (Amadina mod, sfa), 

 presented by Mrs. J. Abrahams ; a Martinique Waterhen 

 (Porphyrio martinicus), a Mississippi Alligator (Alligator missis- 

 sippiensis), presented by Mr. Cuthbert Johnson ; six Chameleons 

 (Chamaleon vulgaris), purchased ; a Hog-nosed Snake (ffelerodon 

 platyrhinos), presented by Mr. Y. J. Thompson. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Division of Biela's Comet. — Those who have made 

 themselves acquainted with Hubbard's masterly researches on 

 the motion of lhela's comet will be aware that he arrived at the 

 conclusion that the disruption of the comet, by whatever cause 

 effected, took place in heliocentric longitude 3i8'6°, and latitude 

 + I2'0°, distance 4-36, which position he states the comet occu- 

 pied in November, 1844. In fact, if we adopt Hubbard's final 

 elements for perihelion passage in February, 1846, we find for 

 1844, November 160 G.M.T., longitude 318° 36', latitude 

 + 12° 2', radius-vector 4'3665, and the true anomaly 209° 57'. 

 At the time when Hubbard's investigation was made, no one of 

 the known minor planets attained this distance from the sun. 

 We are now acquainted with several which recede further, 

 towards aphelion passage, and an encounter between the comet 

 and a small planet might explain the phenomenon which occa- 

 sioned so much astonishment in 1845-46. The orbits of some 

 230 of these bodies have been calculated, but on submitting them 

 to examination with a view to discover whether any one of the 

 planets c uld pass through the point indicated by Hubbard as 

 thai of the separation of biela's comet, we arrive at a negative 

 result. Andromache recedes to a distance of 4723 from the sun, 

 Jsmcnc to 4'59°, and Hilda to 4-632, but at such distances all 

 three are much nearer to the plane of the ecliptic than Hubbard's 

 -1. We may therefore say that if the Biela catastrophe 

 was occasioned by collision with a small planet, it was not one 

 of the large number already calculated. 



Variable Stars. — Mr. Knott has succeeded this year in 

 following the variable S Virginia almost if not quite to a minimum, 

 but unfortunately the long twilight, moonlight, ami hazy and cloudy 

 skies in July preventing him from fixing the exact date. On 

 April 4 the star was 97m., and ruddy ; April 25, 1015 ; May 4, 

 gauged 11*5 ; May 31, 121 ; June 25 and 28, I2'2 and 12-3 : 

 June 30, 127 ; and on July 4, by a doubtful observation, 1275. 

 The observations made by Mr. Hind, soon after the discovery of 

 the star's variability in 1S52, compared with those of Prof. 

 Schonfeld to 1875. give the following elements ; — 



Minimum 1875, April 27-4 + 37377 E. 



Maximum 1866, June 7-15 ,, 



This formula n-signs July 4, 18S3, for minimum, a date closely 

 borne out by Mr. Knott's observations, and for next maximuai, 

 1883, October 30, not observable. 



The star varies from about 57m. to 12-7. It i- XIII. 420 of 

 Weisse's Hesse], and it* position for 1884-0 is in R.A. 13I). 

 26m. 569s., N.P.I). 96° 35' 46". 



Mr. Knott has als 1 found a maximum of R Scirpii on 1883, 

 July 9, magnitude io'i. S Scorpii had already passed maximum 

 "when the observations commenced in the middle of May. 



The Greai of 1882.— It may be hoped that one or 



more of the larger instrumen's in our observatories will lie em- 

 ployed in a further attempt to fix positions of this remarkable 

 li 1 ly during the absence of moonlight in September. Positions 

 were given in NATURE, vol. xxviii. p. 334, and will also be 

 found in the Aslronomis lis Nachrickten. 



Now tha the period of revolution resulting from tin 

 reliable calculations approximates to eight centuries, it would be 

 interesting to bring together in their original form the numerous 

 descriptions of the greit comet of 1106, the substance of which 

 i, given by Pingre, moie especially the references to the direc- 

 tion of the tail (between the east and north) in the latter | 

 the comet's appearance. Like the comet of 1S82 it was seen 

 close to the sun : one historian '.ays it was si. observed from the 

 third to the ninth hour of the day on February 4. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



With reference to the Austrian Meteorological Expedition 

 which on Tuesday la-t arrived in Vienna from Jan Mayen, we 

 are now able to give the following particulars of the wintering 

 at the island. Leaving Iceland on August 1 the Pela sj^hied 

 the southern point of Jan Mayen on the 3rd, but a thick fog 

 prevented landing until the following day. Lieut, von Wolge- 

 muth, with some officers, at once came on board, and great were 

 the rejoicings on both sides at the meeting. The chief o( the 

 expedition states that at the end of August, 1882, the northern 

 storms began with a heavy fall of snow. September was, how- 



