QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MILKY WAY. 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
THE DOMINICAL LETTER. 
A young correspondent, in Oswego county, asks 
the following questions about the Milky Way : 
1. Why does the galaxy appear in different positions, 
and of different brightness, in different seasons? 
2. Is this change a regular revolution ? 
3. Why is it not visible in the evening in the month 
of May. 
The Milky Way is a belt, from four to twenty 
degrees broad, round the heavens, and of very dif¬ 
ferent brightness in its parts. When the splendid 
star in Lyra is on our meridian, just south of the 
zenith, about the middle of August, this belt of 
whiteness lies from N. E. to S. W. The Milky 
Way always passes through the constellation Cas¬ 
siopeia, in which is the W, a group of five stars, 
about thirty degrees from the Pole star, and it can 
bo traced through Perseus, Aurirja, Orion , to the 
feet of Gemini, and thence onward in the same 
direction south of the equator. It is this peculiar 
trace through the constellations that makes a diffi¬ 
culty in apprehending the apparent motions and 
positions of this belt, by some minds. 
From the daily revolution of the earth on its 
axis from west to east, the stars, and of course, the 
to move round daily from 
As an explanation of the meaning 
Dominical Letter is seldom found i 
paper, perhaps an article respecting 
uninteresting to many Rural reader 
heard it explained by one of his 
years since, but has never seen an 
print, though some old arithmetic is 
one. 
The first seven letters of the alpl 
for the purpose of determining the d 
or month, without referring to a < 
manac. Let us observe, in the fi 
these letters are applied to 
The first day of the year is 
designated by the letter 
A, the second by B, the third by C, and so on, re¬ 
peating the letter for every seven days. Now, by 
continuing thus through the year, and noting the 
letters which fall on the first days of the months, 
we shall find that they occur in the following order, 
A, 1), D, G, B, E, G, C, F, A, D, F. These twelve 
(seven different) letters constitute the basis of 
reckoning for any year. A always designating the 
first day of January, 1) the first of February, D the 
first of March, and so on. The following couplet 
will assist in remembering their order: 
At Dover Dwells George Brown Esquire, 
Good Carlos Finch And David Fryer. 
Let us now consider how the seven letters are 
applied to the days of the week. Since A always 
designates the first day of the year, it necessarily 
designates the days of the week on which it occurred, 
also” B the day following, and so on. If the first 
of January occurs on Friday, then A will designate 
Friday, B Saturday, &c.; if on Tuesday, then A 
will designate Tuesday, B Wednesday, &c. We 
see then, that the same letter designates different 
days of the week in different years, but the same 
day of the week throughout the same yeai. 
By knowing the letter designating a particular 
day of the week, we know at once the lctlcis loi 
the other days of the week. The letter designating 
Sunday is the one fixed on from which to reckon. 
It is generally given in the Almanac, and is called 
the Dominical (dies Domini, Lord’s day, or Sunday,) 
Milky Way, appear 
east to west. Follow the motion of Cassiopeia 
through several hours of a clear evening, and this 
motion of the Milky Way will be obvious. And, 
as Cassiopeia is always above our horizon, the W 
is always visible when the sky is cloudless in the 
evening and night, because its distance from the 
pole is less than our distance from the equator; or, 
in other words, our place is 43° from the equator, 
and the W is only about 30° from the pole, so that 
some portion of the Milky Way will be visible with 
Cassiopeia. Because Cassiopeia thus appears to 
revolve from E. to W., the position of the Milky 
Way will be different at different hours. 
From the annual revolution of the earth round 
the sun from W. to E., the constellations appear to 
move annually over our heads from E. to W.— 
alarm was immediately given, and the 
Lawrence ’ and ‘ Eclipse,’ the 
were soon on the ground, 
at once set to work, and the flames were 
subdued after about an hour’s hard labor. A second 
alarm was given, calling together the entire depait- 
ment, including the engines from South and East Boston. 
“The ‘Lawrence’ machine, which was stationed at a 
reservoir near Franklin street, did not work very well 
on account of a scarcity of water in the reservoir and 
the dryness of the suction hose. The ‘ Eclipse,’ the 
rotary machine built at Seneca Falls, N. Y., was placed 
at a hydrant in Federal, near Milk st., under the direc¬ 
tion of Assistant Engineer Hibbard, and worked admi¬ 
rably. In eight minutes after she arrived upon the 
long time, 
engines, includin] 
now Steam Fire-Engines, 
They were 
The very low pressure of steam necessary to drive me 
Engine, viz.: from 20 to 50 pounds to the square inch, 
although it is capable of sustaining a pressure of loO 
to 200, renders the boiler doubly safe. ’ 
These Western New York Fire-Engines are now 
in use in several cities—Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, 
&c., and are highly commended by the press and 
authorities of those cities. Having seen one of 
them operated in this city, last season, we might 
speak from personal observation of their great 
power, capacity, &c., but prefer quoting fiom 
journals whose editors have had frequent opportu¬ 
nities of witnessing their work when in contact 
with the devouring element. Chicago has four ot 
these Steam Fire-Engines which have given great 
satisfaction. The Chicago Daily Democrat of Dec. 
I 18,1858, in a long and highly commendatory notice 
The Steam Fire-Engine (Holly’s Patent Rotary 1 
Engine and Pump,) above represented, is a Western | 
New York production, and one which bids fair to 
add to its reputation in the line of valuable inven¬ 
tions and manufactures. It is manufactured at the 
extensive “Island Works” of Silsby, Mynderse & 
Co., Seneca Falls, N. Y. Three sizes are made, 
which are thus described: 
“No. 1, throws 1 two-inch stream, 200 feet; 1 onc-and- 
a-half-i'nch stream 230 feet; 2 one-and-a-quarter-inch 
streams, 200 feet; 4 one-and-a-quarter-inch streams, 165 
feet. Weighs 10,000 pounds. 
No. 2, throws 1 onc-and-a-half-inch stream, 230 feet; 
2 one-and-a-quarter-inch streams, 200 feet; 4 one-inch 
streams, 175 feet. Weighs 9,000 pounds. 
No. 3, throws 1 onc-and-a-half-inch stream, ISO feet; 
2 one-inch streams, 175 feet; 1 one-and-a-quarter-inch 
stream, 220 feet. Weighs 7,000 pounds. 
The above distances arc made with a steam pressure 
of from 35 to 60 pounds. A working pressure of steam 
is generated in from five to ten minutes, and a steady 
pressure of steam maintained for constant playing for 
any length of time. j 
These Machines have now been a long time before | 
the public, and have been exhibited in different cities j 
and approved by the first Engineers in the country. 
The whole arrangement of the Machine is in special 
reference to the greatest degree of simplicity, safety, 
portability, durability, and efficiency. The construction 
of the boiler is such as to generate steam very readily 
and with perfect safety, as the tubes are always full of 
water, the fire passing around instead of through them, 
leaving a large space for the accumulation of steam. 
Way is visible in our latitude. It is then truly 
magnificent. But in May the sun and this most 
splendid part of the belt rise and set together, and 
this part can be only partially seen for several 
weeks. But as the sun sets with this belt at the 
west, the opposite portion of it rises in the east; 
vet it has so much less splendor that it is little 
noticed, and many seem not to consider it at all.— 
In fact, then, some portion of the Milky Way may 
be seen every clear night in the year. 
The irregular outline of this belt and its obli¬ 
quity to the equator, ecliptic, and meridians, prob¬ 
ably gave rise to the ancient myth, that when 
Phaeton undertook to guide the chariot of the sun, 
and could not manage the steeds and keep them in 
their true course, the sun set the heavens on fire, and 
the mighty conflagration left the Milky Way to be 
the perpetual memento of its desolating power. 
Magnificent is the discovery by astronomers, that 
this white and beautiful belt is the mingled light of 
myriads of stars and suns too remote to be seen 
except in a large telescope. Herschell reckoned 
that in one-quarter of an hour 116,000 fixed stars, in 
one part of the Milky Way, passed over the field of 
view. The larger telescopes, like Lord Rosse’s, 
create a great physical and moral revolution in me 
Fire Departments of our larger villages and cities. 
The engines now manufactured—and we believe 
there are two or three different patents—may not 
yet be perfect, but the fact is established that steam 
can be substituted for muscle in this highly impor¬ 
tant department of labor, and the final result can¬ 
not be doubted. It is a source of congratulation, 
also, that Western New York—so recently an un¬ 
inhabited wilderness—should invent and manu¬ 
facture so valuable a machine, and furnish it to 
such an old-time city as Boston, the emporium of 
tVio “Universal Yankee Nation’ of invcntois and 
age, the people would be wondering how the salt 
got’there, little thinking that the Mormons ever 
built a city upon its shores when it was a great 
salt lake. There are also, however, salt rocks, 
taking their place in regular geological series with 
other rocks, interspersed between red sandstone, 
magnesian and carboniferous strata; these we can 
only account for, as we do for other stratified 
rocks, viz., that they were deposited from their 
solution in water or carried mechanically to the 
spot where now found by that noble liquid. W e 
fear we shall be accused of an attempt to put our 
readers in pickle, so will stay our pen, hoping they 
will remember these bits of information when next 
if you please.”— Scientific 
In Virginia there are beds ot salt, ana me oai- 
mon Mountains, in Oregon, are capable of a {folding : 
large quantities of the same material. The brine 
springs of Salina and Syracuse are well known, 
and from about forty gallons of their brine, one 
bushel of salt is obtained. There are also exten¬ 
sive salt springs in Ohio. The brine is pumped up 
from wells made in the rock, and into which it 
flows and runs into boilers. These boileis aie 
large iron kettles set in brickwork, and when tires 
are lighted under them, the brine is quickly evapo¬ 
rated" The moment the brine begins to boil, it 
becomes turpid, from the compounds of lime that 
it contains, and which are soluble in cold, but not 
in hot water; these first sediments are taken out 
with ladles called “bittern ladles,” and the salt 
being next disposed of from the brine, is carried 
away to drain and dry. The remaining liquid con¬ 
tains a great quantity of magnesia in every form. 
“But how did this salt come into the rock?” is 
the natural query, and the wonder seems greater 
when we recollect that salt beds are found in nearly 
every one of the strata composing the earth’s crust. 
This fact proves another, that as a majority of 
' these salt beds, have come from the lakes left in 
hollows of the rocks by the recedence of the sea, 
' the sea has through all geological ages been as salt 
; as it is to-day. Let us take Great Salt Lake as an 
■ illustration, it being the largest salt lake in the 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
SCHOOLS FOR MECHANICS. 
INFORMATION WANTED. 
THE SALT, IF YOU PLEASE. 
Everybody has a partiality for dinner, and one 
of the most frequent expressions at a dinner table 
is the one which forms our caption, and in order 
that our readers may know something ot the sub¬ 
stance they are using, we will tell them a few facts 
about salt. Salt is a chemical compound of twenty- 
three parts, by weight, of a beautiful silver white, 
but soft metal, called sodium, discovered by Sir A. 
Davy in 1807, and thirty-five parts of a pungent, 
yellow-greenish gas, called chlorine, discovered by 
Scheele in 1774 — these two combined form this, 
they say, 
American. 
numerous subscribers, advise me as ;o paj,anu now 
much I should get? Some say work by the month, from 
place to place. I saw in your last that Frank had asked 
questions which you had answered. Please favor me. 
—Wolverine, Macomb Co., Mich., 1859. 
Remarks.— It is difficult to answer such ques¬ 
tions without knowing more of the circumstances. 
But we will say a few words that may be useful to 
our young friend. By working from place to 
place by the month, you may perhaps get a little 
more money than by binding yourself to a farmer, 
but we fear the money is all the good you would 
get. You would make a very bad bargain in bind¬ 
ing yourself to some farmers, even though at 
twentv-one vou would find yourself well dressed, 
around it. The human body is also a magnet, and 
when the body is placed in certain relations to the 
earth these currents harmonize, when in any other 
position they conflict. When one position is to be 
maintained for some time, a position should be 
chosen in which the magnet currents of the earth 
and the body will not conflict. This position, as 
indicated by theory, and known by experiment, is 
to lie with the head towards the north pole. Per¬ 
sons who sleep with their head in the opposite 
direction, or lying cross wise, are liable to tall into 
various nervous disorders. When they go back to 
the right position, these disorders, if not too deeply 
impressed upon the constitution, soon vanish. 
Sensitive persons are always more refreshed by 
si eon when their heads point due north. Architects, 
Educational Matters in Washington. Senator 
Wilson has ascertained that at Washington, 1). G., 
where there are 10,697 children between the ages 
of five and eighteen, 3,328 are in private schools, 
2,400 in public schools, and 5,069 are in no schools 
at all. With a population of 65,000, and a real 
estate valued at $30,000,000, there is but $20,950 
expended a year, and all the school-houses are not 
worth $30,000.— Mass. Teacher. 
to say, it was t p e pattern which was weaving when the sun went, 
i upheaval of down, is weaving when it comes up to-morrow. 
its salt water--- 
xorate, and its All men who do anything must endure a depre- 
, and the land ciation of their efforts. It is the dirt which tlieii 
distant future chariot wheels throw up. 
Never open the door to a little vice, lest a great 
one should enter also. 
