THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
THE 
"YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
\Published Monthly at 50 cents per year. 
Postage free to all parts of the United States and 
Oanada, except New York City. Our absurd postal 
2aw8 make the charge for delivering our journal to 
eubscribers in New York city five times as great as that 
required for transporting it across the continent, and 
•delivering it to subscribers in San Francisco or New 
Orleans. We are therefore compelled to charge our 
New York subscribers the 12 cents postage which we 
'have to pay on city addresses. 
To Advertisers. 
The Young Scientist has been received with so 
much favor that its circulation is already greater than 
that of any other monthly Scientific or Mechanical 
journal published in the city of New York. It goes 
into the best families, and has their confidence. No 
-CLAP-TBAP ADVERTISEMENTS, OR ADVERTISEMENTS OF 
PATENT MEDICINES RECEIVED AT ANT PRICE. 
Advertising Rates— 30 cents per line, agate meas- 
ure. 
All Communications should be addressed to 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST, 
P. O. Box 4875. 176 Broadway, New York. 
For Club Rates, Premiums, etc., see Prospectus. 
Has Your Subscription Expired ? 
This number will be sent to all old subscrib- 
ers, whether they have renewed or not. Suc- 
ceeding numbers will be sent to those only who 
Slave been entered upon our books for 1879. 
Our New Volume. 
In commencing a new volume of the Young 
Scientist it may be well to take a calm view 
•of past success and future prospects. After 
the first year the progress of every journal 
settles down into a steady gait, and it is not 
difficult to determine the extent to which 
vigorous effort is warranted. 
Although our circulation is still very far 
from what we expect it to be ultimately, we 
feel sufficiently encouraged to warrant us in 
•securing the very best matter and illustrations 
attainable for our pages. We can therefore 
promise our readers the very best articles that 
'Can be procured, and by a better arrangement 
■of our matter and the use of new type we ex- 
pect to give more than even the promised in- 
crease of four pages. We therefore have no 
hesitation in calling upon our friends to exert 
themselves for us, for we intend to exert our- 
selves most earnestly for them. 
Careful examination will show that the pres- 
ent number contains as much matter as eighteen 
pages of the numbers issued last year — an in- | 
crease of quite one-half. At the same time our i 
new, clear type makes not only a more readable 
but a more beautiful page. 
Our Trial Trip— Back Numbers. i 
In offering four numbers as a trial trip at a 
price less than the yearly rate, our sole object 
is to give to those interested an opportunity to 
examine the journal more fully than can be 
done by the inspection of a single number. 
We do not propose to supply a file of the 
journal at these rates, and neither do we pro- 
pose to furnish a year's numbers in free speci- i 
men copies. Our January number is intended 
to be a fair specimen of the general scope and 
character of the journal for 1879, and will be 
sent to all who desire a specimen and the num- 
bers for January, February, March and April, 
will be sent to those who subscribe for a trial 
trip. Other single numbers may be had for. six 
cents each, and the eight numbers following 
the April number will be sent for 35 cents. 
We have on hand a few complete sets for 
1878, which may still be had for 50 cents, in 
loose numbers. We have also a few volumes 
with wide margins, handsomely bound with 
gilt titles, price $1.00, postage ten cents extra. 
The numbers for 1878 were not stereotyped, and 
the number on hand is now quite small. 
Our circulation is now so great that we feel 
not only warranted but compelled to stereotype 
the pages of the journal. Full sets and odd 
numbers for 1879 will therefore be always on 
hand. 
Things that are Old. 
That the world moves and that knowledge 
increases have passed into proverbs. Never- 
theless it is the experience of every one who 
has watched the history of the arts, that real 
novelties are scarce. Occasionally we have ^ 
new discovery which leads to entirely novel 
practical applications, but on the other hand 
many of the things which are brought forward 
as new, and which prove intensely interesting, 
are really old. In proof of this we may note 
that the readers of one of the prominent me- 
chanical journals in England, have for several 
weeks past been deeply interested in the curi- 
ous experiment known as the " Pneumatic 
Paradox," a singularly interesting and won- 
derful puzzle which occupied the attention of 
