The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 21, 1895, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 21, 1895. 17 MARYELS B Y Since the days of antiquity, when the | I izns ‘“‘plowed the main” to distant e in- rs have been inseparable. Th astronomical science in all mar ations a greater or less share of official ion, ana in modern times govern- ts are devoting much time to improve- nts in equipments connected with nau- stronomy, while investigations of the os in general also receive a consider- eble encouragement. This is a tribute to the claims of science | lependently of utility. Itisof thegravest | portance to the mariner to know the position of a heavenly body with ‘the | utmost precision, but whether it be two billions or twenty billions of miles distant, whether it be vaporous or solid, or mark the furthest extension of matter, hasno bearing on the safety of the cargoes com- | mitted to his care. By weans of the familiar heavens he not only sails the ocean highways, lmtAcunJ even venture on un n seas if provided with a sextant,an al almanac anda | chronometer. 2 2g the first yearsof this Republic hthouses of the ‘ , some opposition, but this ave way to the | es Naval Obsery- | founded. From | y including the stronomy, , twenty-siy ure, acquired facilities for | search not to be found el ime. This venture in opti- | was fully justified, when in | , Professor Asaph Hall, U.S. ered-the satellites of Mars. the exception of the meteors, these | smallest heavenly bodies yet | z only a few miles in diameter, | ne of discovery were about | 00,000 miles distant from the earth. | ze the Washington telescope now | the seventh place on the list of giant | ors,a brief account of which was | nced in last Sunday’s CALL. > telescopes of Vienna, Nice, Pul. | Meudon, Mount Hamilton and | go are undoubtedly beyond it in | 1t-gathering_power, but with the ex- ption of the Lick telescope, which has proved its superiority, their advantages in other respects are not yet known. the summer of 1893 the equipment of val Observatory was changed to a ew structure on Georgetown Heights, ahout two miles north of the old site, which was then abandoned, and as there have been marl improvement hods of mounting in recent y 26-inch lens has been given the benefit of progress in that respect and is now also spectroscopic and photographic | hus commencing a new career y favorable circumstances. th the 26-inch refractor of the Uni- ty of Virginia, in use since 1885, the f colossal refractors may be consid- i to end, though Mr. Newall’s 25-inch ely presented to the University of Cam- | England, has a fair claim to be | i In " cope is one of the few that have been capable of revealing the fifth satellite of Jupiter. Many faint neb- | ule have been brought forth from the darkness of space by means of its light- gathering power, and it has also been used n the measurement of close double stars | in the southern heavens. Professor Or-| mond Stone, ars connected with the ins tnown to the | als of astronomy. His drawings of the corona, which he observed in Col- do in 1878, are a familiar illustration in v of the textbooks. Of the recently leted e torials of Greenwich and ories, measuring respect- | t and twenty-nine inches et known beyond the ruction, and in the latter ccording to a recent record, the year were cloudy, it will e time yet before the opti- | new instrument canbe fact of their con city, wher But even without this new and valuable addition to its equipment, the old his- titution will always take a promi- | ong the observatories of the | t of the mechanical excel- e of some of its instruments, the sys- work of a large staff of skilled ob- and computers, and the value of its , especial the French Na- ti I Almanac, Connaissance des Temps, | which has appeared with unfailing punc- | | requisites of an astronomical observatory \ | p | | tuality since 1679. Founded at a period when little was yet understood of the the building, though not deficient in arct tectural merit, has been found irretrievab. unsuitable to the purpose intended. This became so evident, even at first, | that Cassini always preferred to observe in asmall hut that he had erected on the h time matters grew worse and now between the excavations beneath the vers | foundation, the tremors produced by ex- tensive and unceasing street traffic, the volumes of city d shrouding river mis s, the intrusive glare of electric lignts and the cternal din of | and smoke, the en- | of MOBERN ASTRSNCMY Qose O He;”oror\ | celestial photography, as its name implies, by the best optical and mechanical skill to be found in France. It 1s a refracting telescope fitted with two object glasses, one to form the image | of the heavenly body and the second to adapt the image to the requirements of the photographic plate. Its peculiar aspect is due to the elaborate attention bestowed. on those accessories | required for the best results in photog- | raphy. It was selected by the International Congress that convened at Paris in 1887 as a model for the instruments to be used in charting the entire heavens by means of the camera. Unfortunately its use has been grievously interfered with by the large instrument at Nice, and a few years later at the Lick Observatory and else- where, the fact of the canalswas fully corroborated and likewise their duplica- - lon. i That they are the work of intelligent be- ings isa view held by very few scientific observers. i In 1886 an 18-inch refractor was ob- tained, and _combinin its higher powers with the wonderful vision of the famous observer, and the clear skies above, revealed additional details on Mars and also enabled him to announce with confidence what he had long sus- pected, namely, that the’ planets Venus and Mercury rotated on their axis in about the same time that they revolved round the sun. The dlscove)a'qi these planetary details were surpassed in importance in recent times only by the discovery of the fifth satellite of Jupiter by Professor Bar~ nard of the Lick Observatory. As the keen-eved Italian is now only in his sixty-first year it is not probablethat his start! inF announcements have come to an end. In the Italian observatories, though they are under Government con- trol, little Toutine work is enforced, much scope being wisely left to the predilections of the observers. If Schiaparelli were doomed to expend his vision on the positions of 3000 or 4000 stars every year the wearing monotony of the work would probably dim the eagle glances of self-directed enthusiasm. Ti there be any national feeling in the scientific world Americans must note with pleasure that they are not eclipsed by any country in effort and result. | The observatory of Harvard basan en- | viable record in this respect. On the whole it is probably the most completely equipped astronomical institution on this continent. Its photographic department is furnished with three refractors and five reflectors of | medium size, and on_clear nights two of these picture the orbs of space until ap- proaching dawn. Miss Bruce’s gift of $50,000 has also pro- vided one of the largest telescopes yet con- | structed for photography. Several financial gifts and bequests have | thus placed the observatory on an unusual | vantage ground. The wise measure was LOWELL OBSER VATORY DOME LOOKING FROM TEE SOUTHWEST — FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. [From an approved engraving.) Paris life there could scarcely be found a more uncongenial place for the contempla- tion of the worlds beyond. It is not much wonder then that we chiefly hear of its routine work of nautical astronomy kept up conscientiously and erseveringly in spite of difliculties, though the spectroscopic and photographic work carried on with all the latest appli- ances constantly bring light and aid to the cause of science. The equatorial conde, a peculiarly shaped instrument invented by Mr. Leewy, the sub-director, will be referred to later-on, as | it more strictly belongs to the class of tele- scopes known as reflectors. The astro-photo-heliograph, represented | in the illustration, was constructed for [HE ASTRO-PHOTOe HELIOGRAPH AR AR N OF THE PARIS OBSERVATORY. [Reproduced from an engraving.) rounding terrestrial lights which promptly befog the plate before the | serene stars have time to glance below. The late director, Admiral Monchez, | made several efforts to have a new observa- tory erected on some desirable site, and there is every evidence now that his wishes will soon be fulfilled. Notwithstanding | its historic_association with the names of K ni, Lalande, Arago and Leverrier, it has been proposed to raze the building and devote the site to other uses, but it is to be hoped that it may be eventually preserved as a monument to the first centuries of telescopic achievement. | _The observatory of Greenwizh, which | lies southeast of London, was founded in | 1675, just a few years later than that of Paris. The eminent names of Halley and | Bradley, connected with its early history, will ever be remembered in the annals of astronomy. Being a Government institution its best forces have been always given to the utili- | tarian side of the science, and correcting the planetary and lunar tables with un- | wearied assiduity, observing with the utmost care the positions of the fixed stars used for longitude, the testing and care of | all the chronometers of the British navy and the distribution of time-signals throughout the United Kingdom, consti- tute a large share of the work of the ob- servatory. One of the best nautical almanacs pub | lished is the result of this strict adherence to the aims for which the institution was | founded. Until 1ate years a 12-inch lens | was the largest in the equipment, in which excellence more than size bas been the aim. In 1883 Lassel's reflector, two feet in | diameter, with which the satellite of Nep- | tune discovered, was presented o the tory and in 1894 a gift of £5000 was 1 for a photographic telescope of twenty-six inches aperture. _ Though spectroscopic and photographic work has been carried on for several years with instruments of moderate power the transit instrument represented in the illus- tration and considered by the late director, Sir George Airy, as a perfect specimen of its class, is typical of the aims and work of the obsgrvatory up to the present time. There 1s little doubt but that the large telescopes lately acquired will be chiefly used in,the interests of nautical’ astronomy, for though it be a captivating and lofty pursuit to search for new worlds and analyze the stellar beams, still the'path of duty will ever remain higher even than the stars. A few observatories mnot especially pledged to shield the mariner from the dangers of the deep have also won promi- nence without very large instruments, owing to the popular nature of the work in which they have been successful. Among these are the observatories of Brera, Milan; of Harvard and of Potsdam, near Berlin. The first named, one of the most ancient in Italy, has published an ephemeris since 1775, when Lagrunfie, the famous French geometer, was its director, and under a succession of eminent directors it has been a vigilant watchtower of the heavens. As seen in the illustration it is some- what medieval in aspect, though the oc- tagonal structure has been renovated to suit the equipments of later times. In 1877, when the planet Mars was favor- ably situated for observation, G. V. Schia-. parelli, the present diréctor, announced the discovery of the canals which have since held the public mind captivated witi the idea of an inhabited sister world and its vast engineering industries. These startling discoveries were made with an 814-inch refractor, a mere pigmy compared with the giants that have since searched in vain for the stranee formations. In 1881 he announced that the canals were Aouble in some cases, and again the scien- tific world was mmgefled to listen in help- | less doubt. On the completion of tue | then adopted of seckingns near as possible an ideal standpoint, and after various jour- | neys and temporary sojourns on many | mountain tops, stations have been estab- lished at high altitudes near Arequipa, Peru. Professor Pickering, already famous for his spectroscopic discoveries, has been | in charge of, these expeditions. | From these well-selected stations has | come an entire corroboration of the reality | of the strange formations seen by the | Ttalian astronomer on the surface of Mars. | Similarin aimsand ideas is the observatory | established at Arizona by Mr. Percival | Lowell, whose 18-inch refractor more %'l;%n rivals the startling discoveries of 1lan. These three observatories, with medium- sized instruments, but choice standpoints and fearless interpreting proclivities, have waked up a world-wide controversy, for which the god of war is very fittingly re- sponsible. For some years the successful tro- scopic work cartied on at Potsdam, a few miles from Berlin, has been attractin much_attention in the scientific world. Founded in 1879, by imperial authority, for the special purpose of investigation as. to the matter of 'which the sun, stars and i\ Y \ S T X THE OBSERVATORY OF BRERA. [From a photograph.] nebula are composed, its equipment has been elaborate and inferior to none of the nstmé)hysical observatories since estab- lished. Every consideration has been bestowed on the structure and surroundings to en- sure success, To counteract the accumula- tion of heat on the metal roof, it has been transformed into a turf-strewn tract kept verdant by moisture, and thus different temperatures are not generated in the neighborhood of the instruments. For similar purposes the buildings are sur- rounded by cool woody tracts, and itis also in _this way protected from the dust, din and tremor caused by passing vehicles. The discoveries of Dr. Vogel, the direc- tor of the institution, have shown that the spectroscope reveals the existence of in- visible stars to those familiar with the effects of motion in the line of sight on the spectrum of an incandescent body. The skill and success of thislearned scientist has brought a world-wide fame to the shrine of spectrum analysis at Potsdam. CIEpCE - NDUSTRY N A2 >2 oz i, PR 3 Kt B -~ Tre CoLor oF Bur- «‘\4 \JZ L jl * tERFLiEs. — The pur- 3~ " pose of the coloring of butterflies is entertainingly told by Dr. C. F. Marshall. The color of animals and plants is no accidental quality; 1t is in- | tended, in different ways, to benefit its possessor in the struggle for existence. In the case of flowers it has been shown that the colors and scent serve to attract in- sects to visit and fertilize them. There- fore, if insects can appreciate the colors of the various flowers, thev must be able to distinguish colors in the members of their own and other species, The colors of butterflies may be divided into four main groups: Protective colors, warning colors, sexual colors and the colors of mimicry. The protective colors enable the butterfly to escape from its enemies, owing to the coloring bearing a strong resemblance to some other object and thus aiding conceal- ment. The resemblance may be to an- other butterfly, or to a flower or leaf. Protective coloring -is usually confined to the under surface of the wings, which is colored more or less like the leaves or flowers on which the butterfly alights or perches. When the wings are folded up, exposing the under surfaces only, the protection is often very striking. In different specimens resemblances may be found to dead leaves in almost every stage of decay; the “‘leaf insect’’ resembles a bunch.of leaves, and it is hard to tell the “‘stick insect”” from a group of dried twigs. The larvee, or caterpillars of butterflies, being soft-bodied, defenseless creatures, are also protectively coiored. The usual color of caterpillars is green, the color of the leaves on which they feed. Caterpil- lars which have the habit of feeding on grass are protected by longitudinal stripes, which facilitate concealment. At the time when the larve are about to change into pupe, or the chrysalis stage, they usually PERSPEOTIVE VIEW OF GREENWICH TRANSIT CIRCLE. [Reproduced from an engraving.] tura a brown color to resemble the earth onto which they descend. Warning colors form a remarkable group of instances in which the colors are conspicuous for the purpose_of warning other insects to keep away. Warning col ni arises from the fact that if an animal, liable to be ezten by others, has a nauseous taste it is advan- tageous - that it should be guickly recognized and hence avoided by the animals which would otherwise eat it as food. 'The butterflies i lg warning color are gcnaflllybrl:hfly col- ored on both surfaces of &em and they ‘excrete juices of a pows _odor, which are offensive to insect-eating ani- mals. In sexual coloring, the more bril- liant colors of the male are explained by Darwin_as meeting the preference of the female for a more brightly colored mate; but Wallace attributes the more sober hues of the female to the necessity of escaping detection at the critical egg-laying period. One of the most curious points in the col- oring of insects js that many butterfiies escape destruction by mimicking the colors and markings of the uneatable forms. A large number of cases are known in which an edible butterfly mimics an inedible and nauseous one, protected by its warning col- ors, so closely that in many cases it would be considered a member of the same fam- ily. This resemblance is sometimes so close as to deceive the butterflies them- selves, and the male of the mimicking but- terfly has been seen pursuing the female of the mimicked species, unaware of his mis- take tiil he got very close to her. THE ILinaTABLE DEPTES OF SPACE.—Sir Robert Ball, who has an unequaled faculty for throwing light upon astronom- ical facts which are ordinarily beyond the power of the human mind to grasp, has endeayored in the last of his lecture to suggest the inconceivable distance of some of the stars in the heavens. Taking elec- tricity, which will travel around the world seven times in one second, or, as itis gen- erally calculated, 180,000 miles a second, as the unit of speed, he shows that it would take eight minutes to send a mes- sage to the sun. Toreach Alpha Centauri, the nearest star, however, would take no less than four years. Many of the still more remote stars would be still un- reached if_an electrical impulse had been dispatched to them at the time of the | battle of Waterloo, eighty years ago, and | had been continuously traveling in their | direction at its normal gait of 180,000 miles a second. Again, there are | over our heads thousands of stars so distant that if the news of the discovery of America by Columbus had been circulated far and wide throughout the universe by | the instrumentality of the telegraph, these | thousands of stars are elevated into bound- | less space at an altitude so stupendous | that the announcement would not yet | have reached them. IMany stars are only | known to us by the impression they make | on a photographic plate. Many of these | are so far from this earth that if the tid- | ings of the first Christmas at Bethlehem, | 1894 years ago, had been disseminated | through the universe by the electric cur- | rent, all the seconds which have- elapsed in the 1894 years of our present era would not have sufficed for the journey. Mk As A Dier.—A medical man ex- presses the belief that a person could live for any length of time and take heavy exercise all ‘the time on no other food than sweet milk. Hisconviction is-the re- sult of personal experiment. He wanted to establish the fact that persons convales- cing from sickness may grow stronger with no other nutriment than sweet milk and that they are not obliged to take “something solid”’ to eat, as so many veople imagine. He holds that many a convalescent has gone to his grave as a re- sult of oxertaxing his weak stomach by putting “‘solid” food into it; and he main- tains that the old belief as to bread being the first essential of human life is shown by his experiments to be erroneous. His test was to live for thirty days with only sweet miik as a nourishment. In the whole time he lost five and a half pounds in ‘weight, but no strength. He even at- tributes the loss of weight ‘to the warmth of the weather and to excessive exercise on the bicycle and the daily man- ipulation of sixteen - pound .dumbbells and other heayy-weights, He took more exercise than usual in-order to test the thing fairly. On the seventh day of the experiment he ran several footraces with a skillful runner and was beaten .in each race. On the'thirtieth day he again pitted himself against the same runner, and did the best of the racing, which certainly would tend to confirm his. statement that he lost no strenth during the thirty days’ test. He drank four pints of milk daily | for the first three weeks and five pints daily for the last week. He' thinks a healthy person should take about five pints of milk daily when no other food is being taken. His practice was to drink milk at intervals of two hours during the day, commencing at 7 o'ciock in the morn- ing and continuing until 10 at night. Af- ter that he would take no more untit next morning. Tre New MAxiM GuN.—The new Maxim gun is one of the most terrible weapons known to man. Inappearanceitis a mere toy, weighing but twenty-five pounds. It can fire 600 shots per minute, o that if every man of a regiment were supplied with it 36,000.000 shots could be fired per hour, each bullet being capable of piercing forty inches of oak. If even a small per- centage of the bullets did iheir deadly work war on a large scale would be impos- sible, and armies would cease to meet. So long as the trigger is held back the gun will fire automatically as long as ammuni- tion is supplied. When the trigger is re- leased the firing ceases. The gun can'be unlimbered and firing commenced within fifty-eight seconds of the giving of the word of command. It will prove of speeial value in a mountainous country, where a few well-placed guns would wipe out an, army. Itisno exaggeration to say tha® 100 men armed with the gun conld mowe down 10,000 cavalrymen with ease. The ssibilities of the machine seem unlim- ited, and its extraordinary effectiveness is well conveyed by a military expert, who was present at the last testof the gun. He says: ‘‘Itisthe most deadly instrument of war I have ever seen. I have been told it was only a toy, whereas its accuracy and reliability are s)mplgo appalling.” "Each bullet will pierce the body of six men, and its muzzle can be moved like the end of a garden hose. New Uses ror OLp CApLEs.—Many cities which are discarding their cables in favor of electricity for street traction are avail- ing themselves of a plan first tried on the Market-street road, San Francisco, for using up worn-out cables. Old rope is cut into lengths short enough to melt in a small cupola, and from it are cast carry- ing-pulleys and even sheaves of thirty inches diameter. A curious feature of the casting is its extreme brittleness, a sharp, sudden blow from a hammer causing the pulley to fly into fragments like glass. On this account it is necessary to cast the ulley on its axle instead of boring and inserting the shaft, as is usually done. Although the castings may be so easily fractured they are found fo last in service fully as long as the ordinary pulley, and as the wheel is of the same metal as the rope it carries, it affords an ideal surface for the rope to run upon. NEw Types oF Cars.—An. .ingenious method for keeping fruit cool in rail trans- portation has been patented. The caris built of frame work, covered with burlap, and is kept damp by water from a tank at the top of the car. The draught caused by the moving train heightens evaporation, which, by its cooling effect, keeps the fruit at the normal temperature, neither too hot nor too cold. In thigway, it isclaimed, none of the flavor of the fruit islost. A new sleeping-car is described as a berth which disappears at the will of the passenger into the wall of the car, and is confined in a space - of one and seven-eighths inches. Mattresses. of air are to be used, and all bed-clothing can be put in lockers under- neath the seat of each section. The berths are to be made of steel and aluminum. NEW TO-DAY. NOTICE. Trespassers will be prosecuted. FISHERMEN HUNTERS NOTICE. No fishing or hunting permitted here. ° CAM PERS Who see signs like these stick- ing out dislike them, and when they know the owners who have had them erected, they do not feel the most Christian disposition toward them. But there are many people who can neither go hunting, camping or fishing because their health does not permit them. Those who suffer from dyspepsia, insomnia, indigestion, nervous debility, “that tired feeling,” etc., don’t feel like going camping, and so the ugly signs which decorate some fences have for them no significance. But those who are lucky enough to know of and who use DR. HENLEY'’S Celery, Beef and Iron, no matter how ill they are now, will soon be in a position to enjoy ANY BRANCH OF SPORT, no matter how ‘‘done up” they may be. good digestion, pure blood and bright spirits. It brings sound sleep, quiet nerves, And to those sportsmen who are going on trips, this grand | tonic and stimulant proves of inestimable value. It wards off colds, chills, swamp fever, cramps and all other ills, and should never be omitted. | SEE THAT IT IS TAKEN WHEN YOU GO OUT,