282 Mr. G. Forbes on the Meteoric Shower of November 1866. 



a flexible thread on a plane film. By direct observation I thus 

 succeed in supporting the accuracy of the proposition previ- 

 ously admitted, which expresses the complete independence be- 

 tween the tension and the curvature of a liquid film. 



XXXVII. Additional Note on the Meteoric Shower of November 

 1866. By George Forbes, Esq. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 

 Gentlemen, 



SINCE addressing my last communication to you*, the ob- 

 servations made by Mr. Maclear at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, on the late meteoric shower, have been published in the 

 Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society. The observations 

 of the numbers I collected in successive periods of five minutes 

 each, and projected them on the plate of curves I had before de- 

 duced from British observations. A most curious fact immedi- 

 ately became apparent. In the first place the time of maximum 

 frequency reduced to Greenwich time was fourteen or fifteen 

 minutes earlier than the time of maximum frequency in Britain. 

 And also, as may be seen in 

 the annexed woodcut, in 

 which both curves are esti- 

 mated by Greenwich time, 

 every point on the Cape 

 Town curve is about a quar- 

 ter of an hour earlier than 

 the corresponding point on 

 the British curve. 



Of the four curves that were 

 compared in the February 

 Number of the Philosophical 

 Magazine, I chose for compa- 

 rison that deduced from the 

 observations of Mr.Talmage, 

 who observed at Leyton, in 

 Essex, because in this case 

 the numbers were also coun- 

 ted in successive periods of 

 five minutes. The similarity 

 of the two curves is certainly 

 more remarkable than any 

 one could have expected ; in 

 fact every irregularity in the 

 one is brought out most 



* Philosophical Magazine and Journal, February 1867. 



Cape Town 



Essex 



