SCIENCE. 
9i 
With these facts before us, we read without sur- 
prise the note by Professor O. Stone in our last issue, 
in which he says of a recently published “ Record of 
the Progress of Astronomy during the year 1879,” by 
Mr. Deyer, of Dublin, one-third of the memoir is de- 
voted to the result of astronomical work done in the 
United States. 
An article on this subject would be incomplete 
without a reference to the very perfect work of Messrs. 
Alvan Clark & Son, of Cambridge, Mass., who appear 
to have distanced both the English and the Conti- 
nental opticians in the excellence of their objectives, 
and who have secured to the United States the honor 
of supplying the objective for the great equitorial about 
to be manufactured for the Russian Government, to 
be used in the Pulkowa Observatory by the distin- 
guished astronomer, Otto Von Streuve. We also 
notice that of the forty observatories recognized by the 
Smithsonian Institute, seventeen have telescopes made 
by this firm. In regard to the work now in progress 
at the Messrs. Clark’s establishment, it may be stated 
without exaggeration that the world awaits with eager 
expectancy the result of their labors. 
We record with pleasure the very perfect harmony 
with which American astronomers co-operate and 
work, which has doubtless been a leading point in 
gaining the successes that have been attained. This is 
in strong contrast with the constant bickering among 
members of the Royal Astronomical Society and many 
English astronomers, some of whom have not thought 
it humiliating to charge the Astronomer Royal with 
ignorance, and a stubborn adhesion to error, and to 
allege that members of the council of the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society suppress the papers of their fellow 
members from personal and unworthy motives. 
Of American astronomers, it might seem invidious 
to make a personal reference to particular men, but 
the names of Newcomb, Hall, Eastman, Holden, 
Stone, Burnham, Draper, Swift and Rutherford are 
familiar in all civilized countries, and respected 
wherever the science of astronomy is appreciated. 
M. Mascart has been making some observations at the 
College of France, on atmospheric electricity, with a 
Thomson quadrant electrometer, the deflections of the needle 
being transmitted to a pencil. The two pairs of quadrants 
are kept at equal potentials of contrary sign by two poles 
of a battery which communicate with the ground ; the 
needle is connected with a vessel letting flow a continuous 
stream of water into the outer air. Generally the poten- 
tial of the air, always positive, is found much higher, and 
more uniform by night than by day. From 9 P. M. to 3 
A. M„ it varies little, falls at daybreak, reaches a minimum J 
about 3 P. M., and rises rapidly to a maximum about 9 I 
P. M. It is commonly thought that there are two maxima, j 
viz. morning and evening, and two minima, one in the day- | 
time, the other at night. M. Mascart believes that insula- j 
fion has been too much neglected. 
A NEW ELECTRIC PILE DEVISED BY M. 
REYN 1 ER. 
Translated for “ Science.” 
M. Emile Reynier, the electrician, and inventor of an 
electric lamp, which we have more than once had occasion 
to present to our readers, and which its author has never 
ceased to improve and perfect, with the view of making its 
use more satisfactory, more convenient, and more econom- 
ical, has now arranged a pile, which is at the same time 
powerful and economical. This apparatus is composed of 
a glass vessel in the form of an oblong square, in which is 
immersed a sheet of copper bent upon itself, as shown in 
Fig. 1. Upon the bottom of this copper hook rests a cup 
of parchment, into which the zinc plate is placed, as shown 
in Fig. 2. 
Fig. 1. 
Fig. 2. 
Fig. i. — The copper plate of the Pile of Reynier. 
Fig. 2. — The zinc plate of the Pile of Reynier. 
This vessel or porous diaphragm has this peculiarity, that 
it is made up of a conical sheet of parchment, and that 
corresponding with the rectangular or octagonal form, just 
as may be chosen, it is folded upon itself (Figs. 3 and 4) as 
indicated by the tracings of the diagrams (Figs. 5 and 6). 
The strongly marked lines in the figures represent the folds 
of the angles, the figures indicating the faces, whilst the 
lighter lines represent the intermediate folds which insure 
the stability of the system. 
Fig. 3. 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 3. — Parchment diaphragm of the hexagonal form. 
Fig. 4. — Parchment diaphragm of the rectangular form. 
When the different parts are thus mounted, forming the 
group known as an element (Fig. 7), a solution of caustic soda 
is turned into the porous cup containing the zinc ; into the 
outer vessel, a concentrated solution of the sulphate of 
copper. The two electrodes, zinc and copper, being placed 
in relation by the conductors, a constant chemical decom- 
position begins. This pile, which M. Reynier qualifies as 
