Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 159 



that direction was V—v ; we may neglect the absolute velocity 

 towards the Sun ; the absolute velocity perpendicular to the plane 



of the ecliptic was — - — ; the total velocity of the meteors in space 



V{" + (^)} 



The smallest admissible value of v (in an algebraical sense) is 

 that which makes the orbit round the Sun parabolic, supposing the 

 meteors subject to the law of gravitation. This gives 



m 



of which the negative solution is v=—Vx 1*32. From this, the 

 absolute velocity perpendicular to the ecliptic 



== V - V = y x 0-464; 

 5 



and as the metoors were then at the node, and the velocity v is 



perpendicular to the line of nodes, the tangent of the inclination of 



0*464 

 the orbit to the ecliptic is= =0*35 nearly, or the inclination is 



J." o2i 



=19J°. 



The largest admissible value of v is that beyond which the 

 meteors would have been seen receding towards the vanishing 

 point, or that which would have made them appear stationary. 

 This gives V — v = 0; motion towards the ecliptic = ; velocity 

 parallel to the Earth's motion is=V; tan inclination of orbit is 



We may therefore conclude that the inclination of the orbit of the 

 meteors to the ecliptic is less than 19°. 



If the absolute motion of the meteors in the direction of the 

 Earth's movement on Nov. 13-14 was very small, the excentricity 

 of their orbit would not be great ; but in any other case it would be 

 considerable. — Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society t 

 December 14, 1866. 



OX AN ARRANGEMENT FOR THE GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF 

 CURVES OF VIBRATION BY MEANS OF MECHANISM. BY ERNST 

 MACH. 



For the purpose of an acoustical investigation, I wanted to calcu- 

 late beforehand and construct a large number of the curves of vibra- 

 tion which were to be observed ; and as in cases which were at all 

 complicated this is both tedious and laborious, I preferred to repre- 

 sent these curves mechanically by the aid of an apparatus. 



Wheatstone has already devised an apparatus for mechanically 

 producing his kaleidophonic figures ; and Konig has constructed one. 



The plan of my apparatus is represented in the following figure. 



