The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 28, 1897, Page 25

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 18917. COMETS, INPORTING CHANGE OF TIME AND STATE A Dr. F. M. Close Discusses Both Gomets and Astro- \f EVERAL hundreds of years ago | \ \here assembled in one of the O European cities a number of ed (?)-men before whom a certain man sought to obtain rec i- The assemblage of important sages e hotly asserting the impos: 2 upon its end. *“Itcan’t you koow,” they vehemently But the practicai man, whom ow bhonors,/stood the egg on end. nevertheless. It is a story familiar to every schoolboy. I am reminded of it 1st nOW by an effusion which appeared n last Tuesday's Examiner from an astronomical critic signing himself A. H. bcock, and who, I take it, is an ama- r very much like the majority of ama- | sin that Le knows a little—but not | This geytleman appears to have his pose threatened the contemplation the great and terrible wrong that I am | perpetrating upor pecting and less people by setting tnem to think- g for themselves. The distinguished astronom‘cal amatenr | critic says that the discovery of a second satellite to the e i (and which 1 had the vleasare to st Sunda There are critics and ntelligently eriticize, we must d the subject we aim to speak bring to the support of our | blished opinio To sc- | r we mus: read a great | mem ber what we read. Kepler | ts of astronomy | ering his meaus uiring knowledge he did some very rkable work. Bu: Kepler did not | er the p oi the He fell ttle short of acquiring equal knowledge th t eator. There have been nu- hird Law” . the am follows to the e sun.” i his conclusions upon his servations of the planet Mar 1 le he did stumble upon the recognit phendmena Which appear to be general, as & mattef of fact, his “Jaw” is u v incapable of exact application in any Professor Simon Newcomb, the rep- :“astronomer of the United Stat «1; Observatory, is the author of sey- works on -astronomy, which are the ed text-books in our schools and Protessor Neweomb say hat the places of the planets we. t h observation; mmand observatio of the present d made to perfe he Bl he motion Astronomy, s-that he read In fact, i 11, or else read r seem who d scientist, knowh astronomer, mens re dox that fue ates on its axis, i politely s Professor Younz to dis- the 3w e usual result that hodox astronomer declines the cor- and bides behind his hat. Emmens, - s the ortl moon his statement tha: the moon revolves its_axis-is ons of the heavenly phe- mena that is the most diflicuit to dem- strate. stranomers saw that most of the | bodies rotated upon their axes, | was assumed that the moon | not be an exception. Having| the proposition the next thing was | it, and that has been attempted fessor Young, (speaking for all| tox astrénomers), who says: “The | tates on itsaxis once a month, in | the same time as that occupied | nomical Critics by its revolution around the earth. In) the long run it therefore keeps the same side always toward the earth.” An ex- tremely simple explanation of an abso- lutely unknown ¢ If my readers will imagine a huge rod of steel stretch- ing from the earth to the moon and firmly fixed at its ends to tke two bodies they wiil have a conception of the actual re.pective relations, positions and condi- tions of the earth and the moon. As the moon swung around the earth, fixed to theend of the long rod, it would revolve upon its axis just as much asit now does— n> more, no less. Yet, who would be guilty of proposing to an intelligent man the statement that the moon so fixed re- voived on its axis! The real shape of the moon is that of & | pear, not a globe, and the larger end of | the pear is held toward the earth by the | foroe of pravity with as firm and unyield- | inza grasp asif the pravity were a solid Tod of steei fifty miles in diameter. ‘ are many statements out | cover of a little | which are equally as absura as this | were possible for the worid to forever get all that it knows about astronomy & physics and begin anew with its present advantages the intelligence of the next century would be of a higher order than is possibie under the handicap of obsoleie opinion th i simply because it There forth under scientific knowledge If it did not keep its engagement. The one of 1532 was said to have a period of 129 years. | It did return in 1661, but was absent in | 1790. No more ferti.e field for speculation is presented to the thought of men than is offered by the comet. The colnssal tail of through faphos with ‘se srrativ motion. | e o ey ntlestin rough > wit length, swept around the sun in a few Itis an impossibility to deternine when @ | pirates. i comet will reappear, if at all. We can only | Think of the enormous velocity and en- nub(lee}v:: when they appear, discuss the | geavor to imagine what kind of a force it probability of their exercisifg any infln- was that swayed that mighty object. No ence over our ;arlh: and then guess as to | ;own Jaw of nature can oxplain the sud- | t-xm\:.l:e‘lm;:'. 'l;ab‘u all. Over 500comets | qap, shift of position. Evidently we do visiple to the naked eye have been discov- | ot know all the laws of nature, not even ered during our era, and to one that has if we happen to be an astronomer. It ,b.?l:'k',lffi'c" :I}m mx" been ten that were | wouig appear that throughout all the vast Tl only lo lelescopie vision. Yet | universe exists a something—call it forcs out of thisimmense numberonly half & |is you will—that comprehends all other dozen have returned, and we are not abso- | jorces and that passes from measurable m;onyb:.;r;?:;;\o’r:flbod":;:;"l i energy to intangibility, only to manifest mioyein (st Hesve Gy | Colmen s g e y ¥ body we must | 1 conditions for such metamorphosis ob- kow lis clamsin? tain, Some forces of nature lie dormant until they are prought into contact with other forces, and then when the combina- tion occurs the resuitant energy is of changed form. That thers must be a something of this character is the only solution which satisfies tha reasoning | | mind. Some day it may be that our in- | telligence will comprehend it, but at the present it does not. | O:ie of the recognized laws of astronomi- cal physics is that every ste.lar body ex- erts some influence, great or small, upon every other steilar bod, They all attract one another. They all shed their light upon one another. The sun is popularly supposed to diffase heat among the mem- bers of his system. Recently the idea is In the above diagram the ellipse repre- senis the orbit of a heavenly body. Cis the center and S the sun. Now to tell whether a comet, or any other celestial object, will again appear to us we must know the size and shape of its orbit, and AJ‘I Babcock Indulges in Some Speculation Regarding a Recent Discovery THE number just issued of the pub- In 1852 they were seen again aud pra- lications of the Astronomical Society sented much the usual appearance, ex- of the Pacific will be found the in-|cept that their distance apart had in- teresting announcement that the prelimi- | creased to 1,500,000 miles, They were due nary orbit computed for the last comet |again in 1859 and in 1865, but were not re- discovered at Lick Observatory by Mr. |discovered until 1872 when they appeared, Perrine indicates the possibility that it is | this time in even a more remarkable identical with Biela’s Jost comet of 1852. | manner. Comets are not identifiable by any study | It had lonz been held by astronomers | of their visible features, because their ap- | that meteors are the remains of old, pearance may and often does change with | broken-up comets whose particles have great rapidity. They do posseds distinc- | been scattered along the former orbit. tive earmarks in the shape, size and posi- | Schinparelli announced it as a fact about tion of their orbits, with reference 10 tbe | 1867, buta part of his theory was laid by earth’s orbit. | for future confirmation. When Biela’s ‘When a comet is discovered observations | comef divided in December, 1846, it are made for three mights and a prelimi- | looked upon as the bezinning of the end nary orbit computed. Then the cata-|SO faras tp:s comet was eoncerned. Ac- logues of preceding comets are examined | cordingly its non-appearance in 1859 and to see whether or not anyprevious orbit was | 1855 was considered as confirming the approximately the same as the one com- | theory of its destruction, and further puted. Few, if any, cometary orbits are]evidence was furaished in 1872, when the exactly in the plane of the earth’s orbit, | predicted time of its return came ana but are more or less inclined to it. The | Wentand no comet. Finally, on Novem- angle of inclination as well as the locaiion | ber 27 of thatyeur, the theory was driven of the intersection of the plane of the | home and clinched by the appearance of & comet’s orbit with the plane of the earth’s | most brilliant meteoric display on the day orbit are two elements to be considered in | When the earth in its revolution around & comparison of this kind. When these | the sun passed the intersection of the old two quantities correspond closely, undiCDmet orbit. As many as 33000 were when combined with this the comet’s dis- | counted at cne observatory in six and a tance from the sun a the point of nearest | half hours, and it was by far the most approach and the location of this point | striking exhibition of the kind which had are within certain limits, it is probable that | occurred since 1833. | in the Salvation Army. was voiced by some learned (?) individual | 1o know this we must first learn the mean distance, or half the longer axis, A P of the ellipse, in which the body moves around tbe sun S. Second, the eccen- tricity, or the ratio of the distance C 8 ‘ ence affect our climate? The first recorded | ing ovéra between the center C and focus S to the | sppearance of Halley’s comet in 1005 was | computed. mean distance; third, the longitude of the ascending node; fourth, the inclina- ton of the plane of the ecliptic; fifth, the iongitude of the verihelion, or point of ihe orbit nearest to the sun, and sixth, the exact time at which the body passes this last point. Only in the case of two or three small comets of short periods navethese data been attzinable. All proph- ecies of the return of comets there ore only gnesswork. Some very interesting phenomena have been observed in connec- tion with comets. The one known as Biela’s aroused a great deal of speculative thought. This comet bad been in the habit of reappearing about every six years. It was due to appear in 1872, but failed to terialize. trem es i the wor ; 3 n tea down new stractt tecture of the new does nc mo antique, and the ot lass en- gaged in the werection of tructure which promises to be at some ti ple for the worship of the nat which nature shall not be relegated to a positior ior to th creature. I propose to keep on building, i know ina very crude way, o long as the columns of a great paper of the thinking people, as TrE CALL, permits me. ar I discussed the proba arge comet shortly making its a ance. Within the pastsixteen years three very large comets have illumined the skies; the one of 1880 had a tail over 150, 060,000 miles long and was visible during the deylight. As to what come are astronomers, both profes io amatears, are unable to say; nej they why tne fiery imeteor eaiih passed November 27 and 8, 1872, Back of this, in 1846, the comet bad been in all its glory, hut in September, 1, in ad of one ¢comet there seemed 10 be two ts has always had a very fascinat- power over amateur astronomers. ecasoned astronomers are extremely n dabbling with the question of tary orizin and movement. of comets have been studied carefu and partial success attained in computing the times of their probable return, but it has | always been found that something has in- courses | terfered to negative theresult. Thecomet | through the enveiopes of comets: through Instead, there was a very | the gaseous portions of these wanderers. rich shower of meteors through which the | It is believed by most scient earth passed throush Biels’s comet in | | awful confla it was shorn of its splendor, and in- | St | miles of territory. The comet beod split. The study | terrible fires in Minnesota testiy that the | eavens opposite to that occupied by t'e | Southern India: “Biela touched earth on | lames would suddenly, without warning, | burst forth in the thick timber, apparently | | coming from the sky. The ex- | verienced star sharp knows full well that | the speed and direction of quite & number | gaining ground that each body exerts an other bodies. What influence do the electrical or magnetic influence upon -ul | comets exert? Does the factof their pres- | | marked by a great famine in Earope; its | appearance in 1155 was accompanied by | | excessive cold and crop that of 1230 by the inundation of Germany; 1304, intense cold and drought; 1380, awful pestilence; 14 ndations and earth- quakes; 1531, great floods; 1607, intense | cold a 1682, floods and great | o able weather and | great earthquake in Egypt. | This comet isdue to reappear in 1910, {and a numerous army of prophets has arisen to predict cataclysms and minr celamities during the fir-t ten years of the coming century. Itis not only possible, but very probable, that the earth passes ts that the | October, 1871, at which time occurred the ations in the Northwestern States, dev: ing thousands of square | The survivors of the | The great fire at | Chicago, where buildings of stone ana | iron burned like tinder, occurred at this | time. Did it happen that the gaseous en- | velope of Biela's comet was hydrogen and thatit became mingled with the earth’s atmosphere? Who knows? F. M. Crosg, D. Sc. A newborn infant sometimes doublesits birth weight in seven days. | | approaches to the sun, in I the two comets are identical. The pre- | liminary orbits will not settle the quese tion, but a more exact one, based on a large number of observations «nd extend. veater period of time, must bs Biela’s comet of 1852 has a remarkable bistory. It was discovered in 1826 by the man whose name it bears, and who was an Austrian officer. Gambart investigated its orbit and announced it to bea periodic comet of short period, the second one of this kind to be discovered. It found that it had been observed on two previo 2 and in 1805. Damoiseau calculated its orbit, predicted its return in 1832, and even wentso far as to state that on October 29 of that year the two paths, the comet’s and the earth’s, would cross and the earth would not be very far away. There werc sensasional | journals even at this early date, and much | popular apprehension was created, especi- ally among the peasantry of the south of France. The scare proved groundless, for | the earth was 50,000,000 miles away on the | predicted day, and they were never less than 15,000,000 miles apart. It was not | visible at its next return owing to its ap- | proaching the sun from a direction in the | earth, but in November, 1845, it again be- came visible, and presented the usual ap- | pearance. Three weeks later it began to | elongateand finally in about two Week!-i more it divided and became double. Both | parts were very bright, but not equally so, | and when one increased in brightness the | other diminished. Part of the time they | were connected by a faint band of light. | orbit, so that it has not been proven that | They traveled together. about 160,000 miles apart, until they disappeared beyond the reach of telescopes. Dr. Klinkerfues of Gottingen argued thatif the shower wére due to particles from the comet, and there was much evi- dence 1n favor of this view, the greater part of the remains, or possibly one of the twins, would be found in the opposite quarter of the heavens from whicu the meteors appeared to come. This point opposite the meteor radiant was too far south to be visible in his latitude, o he cabled to the observatory at Madras, 27th; search near Theta Centauri” Bad weather prev.nted a search for two morn- ings, but on the third a comet was found near the position indicated and only one was to be seen. It was observed for two mornings and then cioudy weather prevailed again. Two observations will not determine an this really was the lost comet. Since 1872 it has not been observed, unless it proves to be identical with the comet of 1896 (Perrine), as it will then be known. The meteors observed in Novembver,1872, have become scattered further aiong the old orbit and are observed annually with more or less regulari They ae known as Bielids from their orgin, or more com- monly as Andromedes, their radiant point being near Gamma Andromedsz The main group is encountered about every thirteen years on November 27 or 28 They are rather slow in their movement because they overtake the earth instead of meeting it almost directly, as do the swift Leonias; are red in color and usually leave small trains, A. H. Bascock. The Pariahs of India. There is one native East Indian in this city wiro was much stirred by the accounts of India’s great famine in the Sun last Sunday. He is Deva Sundrum,a major ‘While he is more intereste:l in saving tbe souls of his fellow- countrymen than anything eise, he real- izes very well that this cannot be done unless their bodies are fairly comfortable. “In South India,” he said, “I waiked 3513 mles, pioneering fifty-six distriets, visiting 884 villages and 30,639 houses. In Malayalam, North Travancore, I walked 4065 miles. Here I pioneered twelve districts and visited 1631 villages and 34,796 houses. All the people With whom I came in contact on these journeys were pariahs—that is, the very lowest caste people. Poor variahs! They are all the slaves of the high caste people. To give an idea of how densely the country is populated with these unfortunate beings there are in Madras Presidency alone | 5,162,066. “The houses of the pariahs are never more than twelve fect square, and the sufferings of these people during the rainy teason and in famine are inde- scribable. They have no homes. They keep wandering from place to place by day trying to secure food, and when night comes they drop down where darkness overtakes them. Their main diet is a scant one of roots. In South India there | are fully 2,500,000 people who do not know what it is to have a single satisfactory meal from one year's end to another. Along with the periodical famine comes cholera. Those weakened by want of food quickly fall victims to the disease, and thousands die off every year. When the plague does break out the Government sometimes sends along a special medical officer to carry relief to the pariabs, but he is always a high caste, who, instead of visiting the cholera-stricken low caste, | contines himse!f 1o visiting those in his own caste. The result is that the pariahs are simply swept off the face of the earth. “Pariahs are always expected to peep at the respectable distance of ninety feet from the high-caste people. Indeed, the public roads are never opened in the vii- lage, since they are only for the use of the high caste. In certain parts of the coun- try there are special footpaths alongside all the main roads. If a pariah should | dare leave these to trespass on the main road, he would run the risk of losing his life. Oftentimes when the poor creatures see a high caste approaching on the main | romd, he leaves the path, and, hiding far | away under a bush, keeps exclaiming over | and over again in a mournful voice, as tha man passes: ‘Master, master, master.’ “When in need of money a pariah goes to his master and gets a loan amounting to $5 in American money. But he does not get this until a bond is signed by the pariah, in which he sigmifies his willing- ness to give himself to the service of the high caste for lite. India is’perishing, dying. The Government is not able to cope with the situation. The sanitary condition of the native quarters tend to spread the plague, but the pariahsdo not believe this; they think it a visitation from their gods. The Salvation Army is one of the hopesot my country. If we can win the millions away from their idols and temples they can be taught the be nehit of cleanliness, for then and pot { until then will they learn that their gods | have no control over famine and disease.” — New York Sun. ‘A LOS GATOS MAN INVENTS A WAVE-MOTOR Henry -Schomburg’s Design Promises to Successfully Harness Old Ocean’s Waves ¢ and has carefully.considered every point | came up—well, the apparatus could gen 4,7 last it looks as if the mighty, un- ceasing power of old Ocean's waves § has been successfully harnessed. o index that points toward this end vention of Henry »s Gatos, which, in & ems to have overcome | = 'many causes of failure in the past. | less to remark, this is not the first | “this great problem has apparently | Aen solved, but all indications are that | the darge working.plant soon to be tested | on the coast’in the vic ill prove a success. Everybody inter- | ed in it has m cars’ experience in | neering and mechanical construction ity of Santa Cruz | and calculated every strain. All are san- | crally be found scattered on the beach guine of success and, indeed, when all the | shortly alterward. In the second case the points of the apparatus are considered, | apparatus worked as long as the tide was failure seems impossivl-. at the proper height and the waves rose The great causes of the failure of wave- | and fell just so. But even motors in the past have bean the necessity | deviation ruined itsefficiency and rendered of locating them in places where there | it Worthless the greater part of the time. was a heavy swell in order to getenough | here were also a number of minor leverage 10 move the machinery, and tne | difficulties peculiar to each machine. If inadapltability of the mechanism itself to | they had such and such circumstances the varying size and force of the w. they would work; if they didn’t, they and the rise and fall of the tide | would not. Until the present time, as In the first case the machinery would | everybody knows, mome of them have nearly aiways work as long as the surface of | worked. the water was just right, but when a storm | In Mr. Schomberg's motor it seems as T;IE \;\"A\'E-MOTOR AND ITS INVENTOR. the sliehtest | ) if all difficulties have been overcome. Tre possibility of its being washied away by a | storm has been reduced toa minimum, | because it will work at its full efficiency on a 12-inch wave and can consequently | | be built in a shelterea place, possibly be- { bind a reef out of reach .of the heavy | swells. It will automatically adjust itself | to the size of the waves and the rise and | fall of the tide, with no change in its de- | velopment of power. | Mr. Schomberg has a working model of | his apparatus at 3647 Twentieth street, in | this City, that gives a good idea of what | the completed motor will look like. It is | simplicity itself. In the first piace there is a wharf built of piling, with a platform | | on the top. Between a certain set of the | vliea there is a float shaped like a square | | flatboat, that rests on the surface of the | | water and rises and falls with the waves | and tide. Itis this motion that has been utilized to develop power. Attached by a toggle-joint to the center of the float is a ratchet bar that reaches upward, when the float is at its lowest point, a short distance above the platform, and when he float is at its highest far into the air. 1t is perfectly natural that the float swinging on the wave tops will rise and fall a different distance with each swell. In overcoming this lies the point of Mr. Schomberg's invention. The power developed by the rise and fall of the float is converted into com- pressed air by means of an ordinary air pump. But instead of communicating the the ratchet bar is made to engage a leve: baving its fulerum at one end and the other on the connecting tod. The raichet | par works midway between the fulcrum and the connecting rod, so that when it rises or falls one foot the piston is movea two feet. Of course this makes a loss of power, but that is easily compensated for by making the float larger. If the waves always rose and fell just one foot there would be no need of any mechanical contrivarce to make the piston give a continuous two-foot stroke. Bat they do not alwaysdo that. In case the waves rose two feet it wonld be necessary to have a four-foot cylinder in order to accommodate the stroke of the raichet bar, This point Mr. Schomberg has overcome by controlling & dog that works in the ratchet bar. When the ratchet bar has risen one foot and driven the piston its full two feet, the dog is automatically re- leased, allowing the ratchet bar to ascend freely through the lever. The distance it rises is of no importance. It may be two | tank it is only necessary to connect an or- | engine and the proper vaives to be ready power directly from the float to the piston | Cruz are now being made at the Union I As the tide falls the ratchet bar descends | of its own weight, siipping past the dos | when the lever is at the end of the down | stroke. 1t will be thus seen that no mat- | ter bow erratic or irregular the rise and | fall of the waves the piston will aiwavs | give the same length of stroke in the cyl- | inder. It will be pushed “home” witn | every stroke and so compress the air to the greatest density. The handling of the compressed air is of course no part of the wave motor. The air is forced from the pump into a tank where it is stored until needed. ‘From the dinary steam pipe with an ordinary steam to develop power. By opening the vaive in the usual way the compressed air passes into theengine the same assteam and causes it to revolve. It has been conceded that air is better for this purpose, as tnere is no waste, no matter how far it is car- ried in the pipes from tank to engine. Change of temperature also has no effect on it Mr. Schomberg has put his working model to every possible test. He has tried it in the bay at North Beach and it worked perfectly, even when large waves came in and washed all over it. The piston gave about thirty strokes a minute and de- veloped enough power to continuously run a small steam engine. The mechanical parts of the largs ap- paratus that is to be built near Santa ron Works. There will be several tons of ron and brass in it and several receiving tanks for the compressed air. According to the most careful calculations this ap- paratus should develop been 50 and 6) horsepower. In case it is successful a number of them wili be built at different points along the coast. The Sweet, Saa Years. The sweet, sad years, the sun, the rain, Alas! 100 quickly did they wane, For each some boon, some blessing bore; Of smiles and tears each had its store, Its checkered lot of biiss and pain. Although it idle be and vain, Yet cannot I the wish restrain That I hed beld them evermore— The sweet, sed years! Like echo of an old refrain That long within the mind has lain, Ikeep repeating o'er and o'er “Nothing can e'er the past restore Nothing bring back the years af The sweet, sad years! feet or it may be two inches. CaxoN BELL, 1o Leisure Hour, A NOVEL WHEEL FOR TOURISTS The “Omesga,” Invented by William de Witt of Santa Barbara William de Witt of Santa Barbars, a woodcarver and inventor, has studied un and put together a wheel which he holds is an improvement on any of thecycle | family yet turned out to skim the road-| As he has not yet patented his machine be refrains from making public the de- tails of his invention, but states that with a model which he has constructed he can | attam greater sneed at less outlay of pro; pulsion power with it than with an ordi nary bicycle. The Omega, as he calls it, has large wheels of any diameter chosen run- ning side by side, about two feet apart, with a small steering wheel in front; also with a small wheel behind it.- By a pe- culiar device, not yet made known, the rear wheel also acts as a brake, which can | be operated by a slight change of position | on the part of the rider. One of the large wheels revolves on ball- bearings, like the bicycle, and its mate re- volves with its axle, consequently vower need only be applied to one wheel, the in- two ventor claiming that by this contrivance the force necessary to drive the machine may be lessened about one-half. This cycle may be built for one or two persons and the great wheels may be of any diameter, from three to six feet if des sired. Any amount of lugzage may be loaded on the machine, making it convenient for tourists, hunters or any persons desiring to carry a complete camping oufit with | them. Mr. de Witt claims that the “Omega” | will cover by easy work one mile with 150 power motions, or about twenty miles an | houron a good country road. If neces- | sary for a burst of speed or climbinga. | hill, both riders can drive the machine, one by hand and the other by foot power. It can be brought to a standstill on any grade and, being somewhat like a tri cycle, stands upright when stationary. The skeich accompanying this articla was furnished by tbe iuventor to THE CaLt. He has spent over two years work- ing upon his machine. THE BACK VIEW “OMEGA.” SIDE VIEW