THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
127 
(see Fig". 2) Ih. 56m. before the time of "be- 
ginning," and leave it the same time after 
" ending," as those times are for contact with 
the umbra or dark shadow. 
TABLE OF ECLIPSE OF MOON. 
Chicago, 
St. Louis, 
New Orleans, 
Austin, 
Little Rock, 
Begins. 
H. M. 
5 10 
5 0 
5 1 
Middle. 
H. M. 
Ends. 
H. M. 
Kansas City, 4 
Omaha, 4 
Sante Fe, 3 
Denver, 4 
Salt Lake City, 3 
Virginia City, 3 
San Francisco, 2 
Portland, Or., 2 
52 
42 
37 
57 
1 
33 
33 
51 
51 
5 48 
5 38 
5 39 
5 8 
5 30 
5 20 
5 15 5 
4 35 5 
4 39 5 
4 11 4 
4 11 4 
3 29 4 
3 29 4 
^ o 
EPHEMEEIDES OF THE PEINCIPAL STAES AND 
CLUSTEES, APEIL 22, 1883. 
H. M. 
Alpha Andromeda (Alpheratz) in- 
visible. 
Omicron Ceti (Mira) variable, in- 
visible. 
Beta Fersei (Algol) variable, sets 10 7 eve. 
Eta .Tauri (Alcyone or Light of 
Pleiades) sets 9 7" 
Alpha Tauri (Aldebaran) sets 9 25 " 
Alpha Aurigge ( Capella ) rises 4 59 mor. 
Beta Orionis (Eigel) sets 8 38 eve. 
Alpha Orionis (Betelguese) sets 10 12 " 
Alpha Canis Majoris (Sirius or Dog 
8tar) sets 9 39 " 
Alpha Canis Minoris (Procyon) sets 11 50 " 
Alpha Leonis (Regulus) in merid. 8 0" 
>4.Zp/ict Virginis (Spica) rises 5 54 " 
Alpha Bootis ( Arcturus) in merid. 0 12 mor. 
Alpha Scorpionis (Antares) rises 10 0 eve. 
Alpha Lyrae (Vega) " 7 37 " 
Alpha Aquillae (Altair) " 11 13 " 
Alpha Cygni (Deneb) " 8 40 " 
Alpha Pisces Australis (Fomalhaut) 
rises 4 52 mor. 
fenn Yan, Yates Co., N. Y. 
Current ftote. 
— The much-ridieuled sunflower is thus praised 
by a writer in an English journal: " There would, 
indeed, appear to be but few purposes to which 
the sunflower cannot be turned with advantage 
to mankind. Scientifleally dealt with, it will sup- 
ply us alike with our morning roll and our even- 
ing cigar. It is equally susceptible of conversion 
into a cake of soap, surpassingly emollient, or 
into a rich and lustrous silk dress. As oil it may 
be consumed no less freely in the salad-bowl 
than in the table-lamp. Cattle will fatten sooner 
on sunflower-cake than upon linsecd-cake. The 
little busy bee improves each shining hour more 
profitably in connection with the girasol than 
with any other opening flower. In fact, so nu- 
merous are its excellences and so beneficial its; 
virtues that the sunflower may with great pro- 
priety be designated the friend of man." 
— Pernicious stories of the " dime novel" class' 
continue to do their mischievous work. The 
latest recorded victim was a New London boy;^ 
aged fourteen, who shot himself during a period 
of mental aberration caused by reading dime 
novels. Parents who hear of such cases and fear 
for their own boys usually wish that someone 
would kill the writers and publishers of the vile^ 
trash that most boys read when they can get itr 
but such wishes do not mend matters in the 
least, for there is no one to do the killing. The^ 
only antidote to the dime novel is good reading- 
matter that is not prosy ; there is plenty of it in 
the market, and fathers who do not see that their 
boys are well furnished with it have only them- 
selves to blame if the youngsters are compelled 
to find their own literature for want of a paternal 
supply.— A^. Y. Hei^ald. 
— The Mirage, or Fata Morgana, is a very curi- 
ous but sufficiently common phenomenon, and ia 
the Asiatic and African plains it is frequently 
observed. When the weather is calm and the 
ground hot, the Egyptian landscape appears like 
a lake, and the houses look like islands in the 
midst of a widely-spread expanse of water. This 
causes the mirage, which is the result of evapora- 
tion, while the different temperatures of the air- 
strata cause an unequal reflection and refraction 
of light, which give rise to the mirage. Travel- 
lers are frequently deceived, but the camels will 
not quicken their usual speed until they scent 
water. The Fata Morgana and the inverted 
images of ships seen at sea are not uncommon 
on European coasts. Between Sicily and Italy 
this effeet is seen at the Sea of Keggio with fine 
effect. Palaces, towers, fertile plains, with cattle 
grazing on them, are seen, with many other ter- 
restrial objects, uiion the sea— the palaces of the^ 
Fairy Morgana. The inverted images of ships 
are frequently perceived, and many most extra- 
ordinary but perfectly authentic tales have been 
related concerning the reflection and refraction 
of persons and objects in the sky and on land,, 
when no human beings nor any of the actual ob- 
.iects were within the range of vision. 
inittitai pints. 
Violet Stain for Wood. —The wood is treated 
in a bath made up wit): 4^4 ounces of olive oil, the 
same weight of soda ash, and 2.^2 pints of boiling 
water. It is then dyed with magenta, to which a» 
corresponding quantity of tin crystals have been 
added. 
