SCIENTIFIC.

Waipawa Mail, Volume I, Issue 11, 19 October 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

SCIENTIFIC.

THE SUN. Mr. A. J. Harvey, F.R.G.S., in a letter to a leading English journal says : “ Comets are lengthened out and drawn more into the state of continuous meteortrails with successive returns into the sphere of the sun’s attraction—trains formed into meteor streams that are sources from which these streams have been primarily issued. The coronal of the sun is made up of comparatively minute solid particles thrown off and scintillating. The zodiacal light is the outer extremity of these jets. The dark spots on the sun’s disc are stupendous craters from which these streams are cast forth in endless succession by a veritable process of eruption. Ruddy flames, or outbursts of hot vapour, part of this eruptive process, are seen rising to distances as vast as 100,000 miles, the more ponderable matters must, of necessity, be shot so much further than the light vapour, that some of them must get to distances where they would be abandoned to their own momental impetuosities, and circle in orbits of their own around the sun. Successive discoverers have come to contemplate the immediate neighbourhood of the sun as a shining ocean of meteoric emission, instead of a desolate stretch of void space. Mattieu Williams has said that the heat energy of the sun is maintained by the rushing of the mighty orb with a velocity of half a million of miles per day through a universally diffused atmostphere of mixed oxygen and nitrogen 100,000 times more rare than air.

There can now scarcely be a doubt that the same operations connected with the maintenance of the physical energy of the sun are reproduced in an inferior degree in the independent system of planets. The planet Jupiter is not a fixed and settled orb of solid unchanging uniformity. It is still white hot, and, shaded from the solar rays, would appear like a phosphorescent ball. The atmospheric pressure upon the surface of Jupiter cannot be less than 7401b5. to the square inch. This weight must generate a temperature of 2,259 Fahrenheit, about the melting point of cast iron. Jupiter, therefore, must be ranked as a miniature subordinate sun, rather than a finished and consolidated world, conferrring upon its little family of satellites the same beneficent service that the sun affords to its family.

And what has been said of Jupiter equally applies to Saturn. This planet contains the volume of 1397 Earths, with the specific gravity of coal, lighter mass for mass than Jupiter or an equal bulk of water. This lightness emphatically points to high temperature, small central nucleus, and a large amount of rare vapours, spots similar to Jupiter have been seen on its surface, shining with a golden, not pale light, which speaks of internal powers of illumination. The angular velocity of Saturn's rotation is fifty-eight times greater than that of the sun. Hence it should be embraced by a ring of meteorites as a narrow equatorial belt. Galileo discovered the belt in 1610, which is 24,000 miles broad and 250 miles thick, with a velocity of 22,000 miles an hour. Struve says the ring is gradually extending itself inwards, and if it continues should be in contact with the planet in another 120 years.

This ring of revolving meteors is analogous to the August meteors which revolve round the sun. Hence, then, the eruptive and meteoric parentage of comets. Vagrant comets travel in Hyperbolas shot forth with an infinite range. The renewal of solar energy by the mechanical impact of meteors, it is held by the advocates of 'the Dynamical Theory of heat,’ that the aerolite or solid meteor rushing from an infinite distance, with a velocity of 390 miles a second, would generate 9000 times as much heat as an equal mass of coal ; and if the earth fell into the sun from an infinite distance, it would generate enough heat for a century. Burning in an ordinary way, the sun would consume itself in 4600 years, and a mass of meteors of equal bulk 9000 times this period.” A NOVEL TORPEDO. A torpedo boat of a novel design has been tried in Birkenhead Docks. It is the design of the Rev. George William Garrett, of Manchester, and it is propelled by a treadle worked by men on board, but compressed air or other motive power can be applied. It is intended to fix torpedoes on the hulls of an enemy’s ship below water or to clear a channel of these destructive engines. It is lighted by electricity internally and can direct rays of light to any direction under water. One of the most interesting features in the invention is an apparatus for purifying the atmospheric air taken down in the boat so as to enable men to remain at work several hours under water. This novel apparatus was severely tested and worked satisfactorily. It could be used by divers apart from a torpedo boat, or by miners where requisite. The boat answered her helm readily, was moved easily, and rose or sank to any level required, the men remaining for upwards of four hours under water. A VALUABLE INVENTION. Amongst the various patents registered within the last few days, is one of so remarkable a character, that its striking utility and importance will no doubt be at once recognised, not only on account of the time and money it will economise, but also on the score of humanity to that indispensable friend of mankind, the horse. All those who have lost engagements or missed trains through fallen horses blocking the line of traffic, and who have spent half-an-hour on London-bridge invoking blessings upon the inventors of asphalte pavements, will be rejoiced to learn that in future these apparently inevitable nuisances need not be prolonged beyond a minute or two. By a simple arrangement, which can be applied to any harness at a comparatively trifling outlay, whenever a horse falls down in less than two seconds every part of the harness except the bridle falls off, and the animal, if uninjured, is free to rise immediately. When once on his legs the harness can be replaced with ease in half a minute and the journey resumed, to the great comfort of all whose vehicles have been kept waiting. The inventor, Mr. Martin Kosminski, is not a professional mechanician but a wholesale furrier in Aldermanbury, whose attention lias been directed to the subject by the constant interruptions of the traffic in the crowded city thoroughfares. A CHEAP WEATHER-GLASS. Take a broad-necked bottle, such as are used for pickles or fruit jellies, and fill it with water within two or three inches of the brim ; turn a clean oil-flask upside down, with its neck within the picklebottle. Should the weather be set fair, the water in the neck of the flask will remain about half an inch above the level ; but if the rain be near the water will rise gradually but quickly in the neck of the flask ; and if rain be very near, and the atmosphere in consequenee very heavy, the water may rise in the flask’s neck as much as two or three inches within a few hours. No one should be without this useful instrument ; it gives no trouble ; the water does not require changing out-doors or in-doors ; heat or cold are alike immaterial, In frosty weather it should not be forgotten that this instrument must be kept in a temperature above freezing, otherwise it cannot act ; and should the bottle be left full of water it will probably break in the ordinary course with the congelation of the water.