44 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
the first day, the beans showed eleven hundred and sixty five pounds in the same 
length of time. 
When the beans were removed from the vessel in which the trial was made, 
it was found that many had sprouted, or rather, that the sprouts had grown to 
be half an inch or more in length. 
We could wish that time and space permitted a further statement of the 
facts in these cases, but we must stop. These experiments are conducted under 
the immediate supervision of Miss Susan M. Hallowell, Professor of botany at 
Wellesley College. — Natick Citizen. 
ASTRONOMY. 
TRUE TIME TAKEN AT KANSAS CITY BY REGULAR STELLAR 
OBSERVATIONS. 
W. W. ALEXANDER. 
In order to obtain time we must have a starting point, something must be 
noted, and its return or repetition again noted. To have our time perfectly 
equable or uniform in its increase, this event must be certain and regular. Then 
we can avail ourselves of some mechanical means to subdivide this interval into 
equal parts; this is what our watches and clocks are intended to do, but they 
must have something to start from and also to regulate their rate of speed; if not 
one will gain, another lose, or if two should agree both may be wrong, for a 
chronometer, no matter how well made, will after a long lapse of time show a 
variation in its rate of niotion. For the benefit of the public I will here ex- 
plain the method adopted by astronomers : It is to watch the daily rotation 
of the earth which presents us with a beautiful and accurate time signal, in fact 
it is the only regular and constant motion known ; it has been watched by astron- 
omers for centuries past and not a fraction of variation found (this regularity is 
of infinite value to them in determining the eccentricity of other celestial bodies), 
so they have adopted this rotation as the base to measure the flow of time. Jn 
order to use it some stationary point must be found outside and separate from 
the earth. The fixed stars filled this want, but what one to use was the next 
question, there being over 300,000 visible. It was finally agreed by astronomers 
to use the first point of Aries, or the intersection of the equator and the ecliptic 
at the vernal equinox for the commencement of the sidereal day. From the time 
a meridian leaves this point until it returns is twenty-four hours, or one day si- 
dereal time; the hours are divided into minutes and seconds. Watching our merid- 
ian move eastward across the heavens all the stars are found to be crossed by it • 
the interval from the time this day began until the star is on the meridian is called 
