4 
é 
E. 8. Farquhar on a new variable Star. 79 
of sesquioxyd. We give these details not as new, but because 
we feel assured that with the simple modification here described 
the process will be found far more expeditious, convenient and 
acapella than any other process now in use. A small porce- 
ight be used instead of the tube platinum, but this 
cannot be ste as the porcelain is liable to break 
unless protected, and when properly protected sufficient heat 
best obtained from a small automatic generator, and the hydro- 
chloric acid gas may be generated in a small flask from coarse 
salt and sulphuric acid, which has been previously diluted with 
about one-third of its volume of water, and allowed to cool. 
This mixture when gently heated gives a constant flow of gas, 
which almost immediately stops when the lamp is withdrawn. 
Both gases rhonid pass through a was h bottle containing strong 
sulphuric acid before entering the = 
Art. XII—Memorandum of a variable or temporary Star of the 
Second Magnitude, seen in the Northern Bie ey 1866; by 
K. J. FARQUHAR, Assistant Librarian U. S. P nt Office. 
WALKING out between eight and nine o’clock in the evening 
of Saturday, May 12, near Sandy Spring, Montgomery county, 
Maryland, and looking over the constellations in the east, I was 
surprised at the appearance—or apparition I may call it—of a 
star in the Northern Crown which I could not believe I had 
ever seen there before. Immediately on reaching home I looked 
up an atlas of the heavens, and found no such star mark 
upon it. I then walked over to the house of my uncle, Mr. 
Benjamin Hallowell, who having looked at another ma of his 
own, and found no record of such a star, came out with me to 
see it, As soon asI had pointed it out to him, he remarked 
that he had seen it for several nights, amounting to three weeks, 
or as he afterwards said, a month, probably ever since the con- 
stellation had come within view of a spot where he was accus- 
tomed to take an sadian walk. He is therefore, so far as I 
om the first person who ever saw it. He had remarked it as 
unfamiliar star, and —— it was a tare ore consid- 
pare whether ou planet ever frequented there e did not 
think it had changed position at all during the dane but, he 
was inclined to beer it had varied in magnitude from time to 
time; though on neither of these matters “will he s : 
tively, beeause he had not given the star anys ecial attention. 
It appeared to be two-thirds or three-quarters of a degree were 
_of Epsilon Coron. It was of a pure, soft white, and twink] 
hat about fo: 
little. Seen through a telescope that magnifies rty times, - 
