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THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS.

[From Chambers'* Journal^ of April, 1855.]

Astronomers are to be on the alert during the present year, to decide, if possible, an important question that has lattly arisen with respect to Saturn— namely, the collapsing of its rings. Com* pared with drawings made 200 years ago, a const* <lerable difference is now perceived, as though the ring 9 were gradually falling in upon the body of the planet ; and if such be the fact, these remarkalia objects will some day disappear. This, it must be admitted, is an interesting inquiry — one worthy of the science of the present day ; and as the planet for the next twelve months will be particularly well situated for observation, an attempt is to be , made to verify the change. Huyghen9 made his observations with a tubeless telescope, and the Royal Society being in possession of hin classes, contemplate the erection of an edifice, with the necessary apparatus, at Kew, for applying those glasses in a series of observations on thi planet and its rings. We trust the opportunity will not be lost, as the same favourable circumstances will not again occur for fifteen years. In any case, the results will be valuable.

The notion started by a French astronomer, that the temperature of the earth varies according to the meridi;in if the sun which is turned towards us, has been inquired into by the Astronomerloyal, and found to be a mistake. Another notion, thrown out by an eminent German astronomer, remains under discussion. He concludes from long ttutly, vhal ihe centre of gravity of the moon is sixty miles on one side of the centre ; the effect of which would be that the side visible to us may be regarded as a vast mountain sixty miles high, while the other side (that which we do not see) may have all the water anil all the atmosphere. Hence our satellite may not be so devoid of these two elements a 9 is commonly believed ; but to determine the question will involve investigations of the profoundest character. The French AcadeVnie have portioned their Lalande prize among the six diicoverera of the last instalment of small planets. English observers come in for a share.

The Panama Railway is now complete from one tide of the Isthmus to the other, a distance of forty-nine railf s, rising at one part of the line to a height of 250 fe^t above the sea. Communication between the two oceans will now be more rapid than ever; and when the Pacific line of steamers is in operation from Panama to Sydney; we shall get news from Australia in about forty days. The cost of this work is £1,400,000. The railway from Alexandria to Cairo, 130 miles, will be opened through the entire route as 6oon a 9 the three bridges are finished ; and then locomotives will go screaming and panting through the land of the Pharaohs. In India, too, the railway is open for 120 mi let, and a train leaves Calcutta one day, and returns the nest. This, for Hindoitan, is good progrets ; but the Indian telegraph may be cited as an instance of praiseworthy enterprise— 3,ooo miles having been erected in less than twelve months, at a cost of £42 per mile. The news conveyed by (he mail to Bombay is now flashed to Madras, Calcutta, Agra, and Lahore, in about three hours t Think of the wires being stretched to within a few miles of the fatal Khyber Pass ! A lina U to be carried also to Prome, Rangoon, end to the capital of Arscan ; so that ere long the Governor-General will receive daily or hourly reporta of what is going on in the remotest parts of his wide, dominion. And our communications with the west ire likely to be expedited, for a submarine wire will toon come into play from Nova Scotia to St. John's, Newfoundland; and after that, means are to be found for sinking a wire from St. Jtthn'a to Gal way, and then messages from New York will be as frequent and familiar as they now are from France. There is something truly wonderful in this rapid extension of the electric telpgraph. It in considered a triumph, that during the late

aaow-atorma no interruption took place iv the simultaneous dropping of the time-balls at Greenwich and Deal. To insure the punctual transmission of the signal to the latter place, an ingenious contrivance, a switch clock, ia fixed at ABbford, which being always fast, lifts the Dover wire a few minutes before the hour, establishes a connection with that leading to Deal, and after the signal has passed, lets the Dover wire fall into its place again. The tlectric-clock lately fitted up at the South-eastern Railway terminus, London Bridge, moves beat for beat with that at Greenwich Observatory. On this line, a message of twenty words can now be gent to any station for one shilling. Incredible though it seem, the Greek Government have voted £4.300 towards the canalisation of the Euripus — that awkward strait which separates Negropont from the main. The narrowest part is to be widened and deepened, to allow of the passage of ships ; and a swing-bridge and beacons are to be erected. The Pleiad steamer, which was sent out last year to explore the African rivers, has made a successful voyage. Under charge of Dr. Baikie, the Tchadda was ascended 250 miles further than before: a trip was also made up the Quofra, the good-will of the natives was conciliated, and openings established for trade. One hundred and eighteen days were passed in the rivers, and the expedition returned to the coast without losing a man — a striking proof that, by proper management, health may be preserved in the worst climate?. To obviate the dangers that beset Europeans, a company is taking measures to have native Africans trained for the exploration of the interior of the country. In Australia, the navigation of the Murray is now a fait accompli, Captain Cadell in hia last trip having steamed 2,000 miles up from the mouth, and reached a point within twenty miles of Albury, in New South Wales. The stream thus affords an outlet to three great colonies. Two steamers and four barges, soon to be doubled in number, are in full work transporting all kinds of farm-produce, and hundreds of bales of wool; and £1,500 ia to be spent in buojing the entrance of the river. Enterprise ia active, too, in another direction. Sir H. Young, Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia, has drawn up a plan, subject to approval by the Home Government, for a railway from Sydney to Melbourne, 1,000 miles, passing through Adelaide; the ways and means to be provided by a loan, and the sale, of a ten miles' strip of land along each side of the line.

The copper-mines in Namaqualand may now be looked on as a fact; for the yield of ore continues abundant, ne.v deposits are continually discovered, and we hear of people " rushing" to these mines from Cape Colony, as they do to the diggings in Australia. A lake ot sulphur a mile in diameter has been discovered not far from Corn Creek, in Utah Territory; and near Poughkeepsie, in the State of New York, a huge skeleton of a mastodon has been dug vp — another proof of the existence of the animal in the Valley of the Hudson in past ages. Among other native produce, Canada is sending specimens of her minerals to the French Exhibition : a lump of the magnetic iron ore, weighing 2,000 pounds, from the extraordinary bed near Bj-Town, where a mound containing 3,000,000 tons rises above the surrounding surface, is one of the most remarkable. Every year shews more and more the advantageous field open in Canada for industry and enterprise.

The Society of Arts have added to their list of prizes one of £25, for a specimen of tho best and finest flax-thread spun by machinery ; another of ihe same amount for the best essay, with practical examples, on smoke prevention ; and two olherß for microscopes, which are not to cost respectively more than half a guinea and three guineas. Should the latter be forthcoming, the society will hare been the means of aiding students all over the kingdom by a cheap box of water-colours, a cheap case of instruments, and a cheap microscope, and all good of their kind. A "rolling" museum has been formed out of the designs and art-objects collected at Gore House, for exhibition in the provinces. It is now open at Birmingham, and will be removed in turn to other town?, so that designers and art-studenta out of London may benefit by the jmetropolitan collection — a commendable educational operation. The coinage at the Mint last year amounted to £4,152,183 of gold, £140.430 of silver, and £61,538 of copper. Apropos of the Mint, we hear that Sir J. Plerschtl has resigned bis post as Master. Mr. Smee stated in his recent lecture on the new Bank-note, that the Batik of England issues 9 000,000 notes in the year, representing £300,000,000 of money. This fact, as much as anything, shews the prodigious amount of business done at that establishment.

The artificial tourmalines, to which we referred a month or two ago, are made by Dr. Pritchard of Clapham : some of his specimens are an inch in diameter; and when two are held between the eye and the light, and properly rotated, the black polarisation is distinctly produced. A preparation of bisulphate of quinine ia the formative material. Mr. Wettwood reports to the Entomological Society, that he has received several pupae of Bombyx Cynthia from Malta, and finds them to be very hardy. The silk from the corded cocoons is said to be of incredible durability." It appears, too, that in India there are not fewer than 150 species of moths, the lance of which produce cocoons available for manufacturing purposes, and improvable by "education," to use the term of the French eericulturists. Dr. Daubeny has been trying to throw light on a question often raised by geologists : whether organic life ever existed in the series of rocks below the Silurian ; in other words, whether the lowest rocks were deposited before the appearance of animal life. If not, the rock should exhibit traces of phosphoric acid under chemical analysis; but chemistry not having resolved the question, the doctor has made an indirect attempt to arrive at a conclusion by sowing bailey in tubs filled with comminuted fragments of the various rocks, watching the growth, and testing the crop when ripe. The results hitherto are negative ; and so far as they go, both series of experiments lead to the inference, that animals did not exist at the time when the rocks in question were deposited. The beautiful process known as " Nature-self-printing," is coming into use for the illustration of botanical works, the impressions taken from the plants themselves. A London firm is bringing out a handsome illustrated woik; and on the conti nent, the " Cryptogamia of Transylvania," the 11 Flora of Southern Tyrol," and the " Euphor. biacese," shewing the various forms of the leaves, are in course of publication. Educational developments are silently taking place, old habits giving way : the East India Company are going to break up their college at Haileybury; and henceforth, candidates for their service are to be at liberty to come from any 6chool or university, and the best qualified for the duties to be performed are to be chosen. The day neems to be come when merit wilt have a clear field ; and if our best and wisest are needed anywhere, it is in India.

A Thus Patriot.— Some men, when their ambition in thwarted by the people, are apt to raise the cry of "public ingratitude;" but at the close of a recent municipal election in the north, one of the defeated candidates is said to have philosophically exclaimed, "that, if the burgesses would not allow him to serve them in office, he would serve them out!"

A Good Thing.— A Yankee newspaper, criticizing "an ocean of words" without meaning, poured forth from the press by an archbishop, compares the production to "a tub without a bottom—a dictionary on the spree."

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NENZC18551201.2.19

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, 1 December 1855, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
2,044

THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS. Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, 1 December 1855, Page 4

THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS. Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, 1 December 1855, Page 4

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