Feb. lo, 188&.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Burlington House. Thej' never conspire to ignore any- 

 body or anything, but the history of science sadly proves 

 that they sometimes refuse to be taught by outsiders, 

 ■especially by humble aspirants w^ho dare to bring forth 

 any theory in advance of that which has been officially 

 accepted. 



As an example, I refer to the history of that 

 greatest triumph of scientific deduction — perhaps the 

 greatest on record — which predicted hypothetically 

 the existence of the planet Neptune. Nobody accuses the 

 Astronomer Royal of conspiring to bury in silence the 

 communication he had received from the young and then 

 unknown mathematician, but when we contrast the con- 

 duct of our official astronomer with that of Dr. Galle, of 

 the Royal Observatory of Berlin, we are forced to con- 

 clude that had there been more scientific ardour and less 

 Bumbleism at Greenwich, the merit of the discovery of 

 the new planet would have belonged to Adams and 

 England. 



Adams commenced his calculations in 1843. ^'^ 



CHINESE KITES.— II. 



(Continued Jrom p. 100.) 



TN our last nurober we gave some examples of Chinese 

 kites, and we now illustrate the most curious of all these 

 devices, the " Dragon Kite " (Fig. 4). This toy consists 

 of a series of small, very light elliptical discs, covered 

 with Chinese paper. These discs are connected by two 

 strings, which keep them at equal distances. A transverse 

 rod of bamboo is fixed in the major axis of the ellipses, 

 and extends slightly beyond it. To each of its ends is fixed 

 the stalk of a graminaceous plant, which serves to main- 

 tain the equilibrium. The front disc has its surface 

 slightly convex, and it is formed into a fantastic face with 

 two small mirrors to serve as eyes. The discs decrease 

 progressively, as shown in Fig. 4, and they are inclined 

 to the wind at an angle of about 45 degs. The entire 

 train takes an undulatory form, recalling the aspect of a 

 serpent creeping. The hindmost disc is fitted with two 

 small streamers, forming the tail ot this strange kite. 



Fig. 4. Chinese Dragon Kite. 



'October, 1845, he had finished them, and called at the 

 Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and there left his paper, 

 which assigned the position of the hypothetical planet for 

 October ist, 1845, and indicated its subsequent course. 



On loth November, 1845, Le Verrier communicated 

 to the Academy of Sciences an account of ihe first part 

 of his calculations; on ist June, 1846, the second part; 

 and on 31st August, 1846, the third part. On the i8th 

 September, he sent to the Royal Observatory of Berlin 

 a communication similar to that which Adams had left 

 at our Royal Observatory in October of the previous 

 year. The results of these communications were 

 curiously different. 



Dr. Galle at once sought for the planet at the predicted 

 place, and as Sir John Herschel says, " on that very night 

 actually found it," only forty-seven minutes of a degree 

 distant from the place assigned to it by the means of the 

 calculations of Adams and Le Verrier. There was no 

 good reason, outside of Bumbledom why this discovery 

 should not have been made at our national and liberally 

 endowed Observatory ten months earlier. 



Much skill is required in sending up this strange kite 

 The Chinese excel in its management, but Europeans 

 succeed in it with difficulty. 



ATOMS AND MOLECULES. 



\ N atom, in the language of chemistry, is the smallest 

 -^ * particle of matter that can exist in combination. 

 A molecule is the smallest particle of matter that can 

 have a separate existence. Most molecules are supposed 

 to consist of at least two atoms. Bodies are composed 

 of molecules, and molecules of atoms, as sentences are 

 composed of words, and words of letters, the letters being 

 indivisible. We can cut a lump of salt into halves, 

 quarters, eighths, sixteenths, and so on until we cannot 

 cut it again, we can grind it to powder, but the smallest 

 visible grain will contain millions of millions of mole- 

 cules. Some idea of the size of the ultimate particles, 

 may be given by imagining one of the smallest visible 

 grains of salt, measuring about a thousandth of an inch 



