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and disunion ought not to be ever light by friction, or by the traditional flint and perpendicularly between the thumb and fore- a set of individual small pictures, utterly dissteel, up to the present time. Lord Bacon in his finger, at arm's length or nearly so, and, shutting united; writings spoke of the process of the smiths of his one eye, notice the proportional heights of trees, pleasant to the eye or to the mind. It is not day in producing light by hammering a small lines of building, and specially the width of enough, therefore, that each object have its own iron rod upon the anvil until it became so heated horizontal planes; for the latter are sure to light and shade, but there must be always some that when thrust into a bunch of shavings, cause no little surprise; they are probably less further general light and shade to unite the subthe shavings became ignited. It was not, how-than half the width they were thought to be, and jects into one; and it is here that the accomever, said Dr. Paul, till 1798, that Count Rum- an inch in length of the pencil thus held will plished artist revels at will-now causing unity ford, a Scotchman, who had been much engaged measure some miles of a level country. This is and concord by breadih of light, now by a skilin military matters, and particularly in the manu- illustrated in Fig. 19, where the space a, b, on the fully thrown breadth of shade, now by cunning repetition of form, now by a cast shadow. In a facture of cannon, observed that heat was given thousand ways, taught by ever-growing exoff in the process of boring cannon, and succeeded perience, he effects with ease what a beginner Yet still in inventing an apparatus by which he was cannot do by days of studied toil. enabled to measure the quantity of heat given off Something may be done, even in the earliest by a certain amount of work. In 1842, Mayer, a attempts, and this union and unity has always to German introduced the term "mechanical be the aim of any one and every one who desires equivalent of heat ;" and a year later, Joule, of to become a proficient. The great secret is not Manchester, made a return of the numerical to let the lights of the pieture be scattered about value of the ratio between heat and mechanical here and there, nor the shadows either, but to energy, by which quintities of heat could now be connect these by secondary lights and shadows. expressed in terms of units of work, and in other This will give to the eye, and thence to the mind, ways. Dr. Paul then made a few observations a sense of rest, and thus produce a pleasing imrelative to the way in which fuel was burnt in the production of steam, and in which the steam pencil, will evidently measure c, d, on the land- pression; but when light is scattered about all was disposed of, and the results obtained. The scape. It would be the same if the pencil were over the picture, the eye is drawn from one part application of heat to water for the purpose of replaced by a sheet of glass, and this is just to another, resting upon none-for, be it ob what occurs when we look out of a window-pane served, the eye is always first attracted by the producing steam was daily illustrated by the use of small size, yet are able to view an extended lights, and thence passes to the shadows. Moreof the kettle. Reversing the question, he spoke scene before us. The student may further learn over, in a broad light there should always be a of the method of taking heat out of water so as from this experiment, which should be tried at focus of brilliancy, as in a shadow one point. Howard, in his to produce ice, a method not used to any great all times and in various ways, the vast difficulty should be deeper than the rest. extent in this country. In the boiling of water, to be encountered in giving the appearance of an "Sketcher's Manual," gives certain rules upon the heat generated by fire was transmitted to the extended landscape in a picture of such narrow the above particulars of chiaroscuro, but they water, raising its temperature to 112 degrees, dimensions. It is a question of aerial per- are too artificial for our purpose, as we desire and then converting the liquid into vapour or spective, requiring a practised hand, and hence rather to send the student to nature than to set The latter, indeed, steam. Precisely in the same way ice was melted not even to be attempted until some skill in the forth definite rules of art. by applying heat to it, and both changes required delineation of simpler subjects has been attained. relating as they do more to composition than to certain definite amounts of heat. The same With regard to the size of picture or quantity of sketching, would be of no use to the beginner, quantity of heat that would convert 15lb. of landscape that may be introduced, the general however clearly laid down; and to compose a wa er from the boiling point into steam would rule is to take such an extent of view as can be picture requires a thorough acquaintance with heat 80lb. of water from the freezing to the included in an angle of 60°, which is as much as Nature in all her ever-varying aspects, and may boiling point, and would melt 1021b. of ice into the eye can compass without an effort. In an be at once considered as the most advanced study water, which, after being melted, would be at a open country, and for distant objects, this will of the most thoroughly-taught artist. temperature of 32 degrees. The production of give a wide field; but for foreground subjects, it reader, therefore, may rest satisfied that he will cold was an operation to which attention had will of course include less. It is not, however, please himself and his friends far more by carelately been paid, and the nature of the work to necessary for the sketcher to know much about ful studies from Nature, than by any such It may naturally be exbe done was very much the same as that required the optical limit of vision. Let him take what attempts at high art. for producing steam. To produce ice we must he can see comfortably at a glance, and he will pected that we say something of trees, and the take heat out of water; and the way this must not be far wrong; and the same rule is ap- method of treating them. be done was to find a substance which would ab- plicable with respect to the foreground. If we perspective to be attended to, by which the upper sorb the heat from the water at a temperature at look at what is close at our feet, it is plain part will curve downwards, the lower part upwhich ice could be formed. Ammonia, alcohol, that we cannot at the same time see what is wards; that on a level with the eye will be itself or ether would do, although the latter would distant; but if we make things at a moderate horizontal. Thus we shall see underneath the probably be the most suitable. Dr. Paul con- distance our pictorial foreground, we can include branches, and under the several masses or layers cluded his lecture by a reference to the other good deal beyond it. The width of the picture of foliage, until we come to a level with the modes now in use for producing ice. will be generally far more limited than its dis- horizontal line.

SKETCHING FROM NATURE-III.

W

a

The

First there is the

Below this we shall look down

A tree

we have, on the other

tance. Hold up the sketch-block nearly at arm's upon the upper convex side of the foliage. Next, length, and notice what it hides, and this may it may be well to note the great variety in the generally be taken as the limits of the sketch. branching of trees, which we have at this time Try another experiment. Bring the sketch- of year every facility for studying; and as we HEN a novice first sits down before the block gradually nearer to the eye, and observe can sit indoors, and sketch from the windows, how much more it covers. But you do not such study need not be passed by. scene which he desires to depict upon intend to hold your picture so close when finished sketched when bare of leaves, and afterwards paper or canvas, his usual difficulty is to deter- for inspection, and you should, therefore, bold from the same spot when clothed in summer verthan a dozen pages, mine how much of the scene he ought to your sketching-block further from you, because dure, will teach more In Fig. 20, however, is delineate, and how near his own position the perspective teaches us to delineate a given sub- although illustrated. picture ought to terminate. He also is usually ject (upon paper) as we should see it if that paper sketched the upper part of an aspen, in which rather doubtful as to whether the lines of yon distance from the eye. were transparent, and held at a certain given the branches have scarcely any perceptible anguwavy, Practically, we may larity, giving a exquisitely elegant cottage roof ought to tend upwards or down- take this distance as nearly an arm's length. To character. In Fig. 21 wards. In fact, he somewhat resembles the get thoroughly hold of the principles involved, it hand, marked angularity, as in the oak and the Englishman who, with a fair amount of school is a good plan to sketch some simple object-a thorn. In Fig. 22, which represents a bit of ash French in his head, first set his foot upon con- and from different distances; stand above it, and the ends of the boughs nearly always urn brick, for instance-from all sorts of positions stem, there is a medium between these extremes, tinental soil. The language sounds as strange to on a level with its upper surface; below, on one up, as in the sketch. In Figs. 23 and 24 are given bis ears, and is as incomprehensible, as that of side, opposite one corner, &c. Stand near and far examples of the gene al way in which leafage is the Ojibbeway Indians, and is not what he ex- off, and draw what you see, and no more. A treated in a sketch, with the larger lights on the pected. The art student, similarly, finds the white brick in a half light will teach you much, upper surface of the layers, beneath which the view before him by no means amenable to the and when you begin to colour, a red brick, backed deepest shadows are generally found. laws of perspective, which he fancied he had by green leaves, will give you a good lesson. If finished picture foliage is, of course, much more Never mind; it will all you wish to draw well, moreover (and if you do elaborated; in a sketch from nature, the general come right by-and-by; and as the sketcher gets not, you had better not draw at all), do all as aspect is rapidly blotted in or pencilled. Indie accustomed to view scenery with the eye of an thoroughly and truly as you can. Take simple vidual leaves can only belong to such trees as are artist, the several subjects will fall into their subjects, but work them out ca the spot. It is close at hand, and distance is expressed whether sketching them correctly. Moreover, as the far too untrustworthy. proper place, and there will be little difficulty in impossible to finish at home; your memory is by brush or pencil by avoiding detail, and giving In all probability the more and more indistinctness to the masses, outdoor practice is increased, the indoor theories sketcher will at first be much dis-atisfied with the which in nature become greyer as they recede will become more comprehensible, and errors in general effect of his pictures, which will look from the eye. These details should be studied drawing will always that lines of really equal height diminish details mus turto been carefull, drawn and takes a walk, note the aspect of the same subin proportion to their distance from the eye, shaded. Personally, I should be inclined to jects-e. g., trees, hedgerows (which are exceedthere will be little difficulty in ascertaining which doubt the ability of any pupil of mine to become ingly ugly), and vegetation generally, as they way the roofs of houses and similar horizontal an artist if he were not thus dissatisfied. His appear at different distances.

understood so well.

lines tend.

in a

A tree close to

But there can be no question that disappointment probably results from the ex-him will show in its nearest and outside sprays a line across the drawing, at the height of the upon one sheet of paper will, as a matter of are alike, partly because they lie in different greatly simplifies the task of sketching to role pectation tent preral objects carefully drawn individual leaves; note, however, that no two eye, and to mark upon it the position of the course, make a picture pleasing to the eye. This, planes, and partly be ause they overlap and

interfere with each other

A tree rather name

point of view, and also the vanishing however, is by no means necessarily the case. points (if such are needed). Then hold a pencil. They may and will for a time constitute rather remote displays masses-layers of flage v

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deep shadows between, the upper masses shutting out the light of the sun from below them. Still further off a tree is a mass of gradated, grey shadow, yet even then the general form suggests the kind of tree. In buildings, again, details become more and more indistinct as we go further from them. Doors and windows fade into oblong patches of shade (unless the sun shine brightly upon the glass), yet still there will be always a suggestion, so to speak, of detail. It is a mistake to make the distance always paler than the foreground. Very generally the middle distance is the darkest part of the picture. It is delicacy of treatment, not paleness, that gives distance, and the contrast of a vigorously expressed foreground. Our allotted space is now filled, but it is hoped that even this slight sketch may assist those who intend to devote their spare time in the ensuing summer to the most delightful study possible-a study that always repays our labour a thousand-fold. The writer strongly recommends the brush and sepia as a substitute for pencil or pen and ink, as being, after a little practice, much more manageable, and affording the most rapid method of work. For passing effects of light and shade, such as we specially see on cloudy, threatening days, when momen ary gleams of sunlight flash across the scene, ths medium is perfect. But whether by pen, pencil, or brush, let nature teach, and don't try to teach nature. J. L.

between them forming a steam chamber I. B B
are revolving shelves, and C is a self-acting screw
for feeding the grains from the hopper D into the
machine. A connection is made with the steam
boiler by means of the pipe E, through which the
jacket I is supplied with steam. The condensed
steam escapes at F. G is the exit for the dried
grains, whilst H is a ventilating flue for carrying
off the vapour arising from the grains or other
substances being operated upon. The action of
the machine is very simple:-The wet grains are
fed in through the hopper, and are gradually car-
ried to the other end of the machine by the
revolving shelves, where they are delivered dry.
The rate at which delivery takes place is of course
governed by the degree of dryness required, and
is regulated by the working speed of the engine
which drives the machine. The degree of heat
imparted is also under perfect control. The
machines at Messrs. Milburn's works are driven
by a 10-horse power engine, steam to which-and
to the dessicating machines-is supplied from a
40-horse Cornish double-flued boiler, of which
there are three at these works. Each of the ma-
chines dries about 100 quarters of grains per week,
and from 22 to 23 quarters of wet, produce 1 ton
of dry grains.

Another form of this apparatus has just been
completed by Messrs. Milburn, who have com-
bined the drying machine with a portable steam
engine. This arrangement is seen in perspective
at Fig. 3 of our engraving, Fig. 4 being a part

little work of that name, compiled by Mr. Henry J. Brown, the editor of The American Artisan. We shall so far follow in the footsteps of the absorbed penny journal as to take weekly from the same source a few specimens of its illustrations and descriptions.

1. A mode of obtaining an egg-shaped elliptical movement.

2. A movement used in silk machinery to guide the silk on to spools or bobbins. On the back of a disc or bevel-gear is secured a screw with a tappet-wheel at one extremity. On each revolution of the disc the tappet-wheel comes in contact with a pin or tappet, and thus receives an intermittent rotary movement. A wrist secured to a nut on the screw enters and works in a slotted bar at the end of the rod which guides the silk on the bobbins. Each revolution of the disc varies the length of stroke of the guide-rod, as the tappet wheel on the end of the screw turns the screw with it, and the position of the nut on the screw is therefore changed.

clamp between the jaws they are made to turn on 3. Carpenters' bench-clamp. By pushing the the screws and clamp the sides.

to the crank of an engine to each stroke of the 4. A means of giving one complete revolution piston.

MILBURN AND CO.'S APPARATUS FOR cross section and front end view. Here A is the 5. But when the ring is turned to bring the

DESICCATING GRAINS.

(Illustrated on page 13.)

The wrist which is fixed on one arm of the crank 5 and 6. Contrivance for uncoupling engines. (not shown) will communicate motion to the arm of the crank which is represented, when the ring on the latter has its slot in the position shown in steam space in connection with the water space slot in the position shown in 6, the wrist passes below; in other words, this is the boiler of the through the slot without turning the crank to engine. The revolving shelves are seen at B; C which the said ring is attached. is the flue from the furnace to the funnel, int Due leading from the dried material. The operation of drying is the same as in the machine we have previously described, the difference being only in the construction of the apparatus, the one being fixed and driven by an independent engine, the other being portable and having its driving power attached to it and transported with it. This machine will be found very valuable to agriculturists and others for drying corn, seed, pulse, roots, &c., also for coffee planters and others, and, being mounted on wheels, it can be readily removed from place to place.

HE fact that the spent grains from our Tbreweries and distilleries, when properly dried, become a valuable food for horses and all kinds of cattle has been recognised for some time past, although we believe it is only within the last few years that systematic attempts have been made to turn this knowledge to profitable account. The question of desiccating grains has received very careful attention at the hands of Messrs. Milburn and Co., of 76, Church-lane, Whitechapel, and they claim to have perfected an apparatus which successfully solves the problem they set themselves to work out. A perspective view of the machine is shown at Fig. 1 of our engraving; Fig. 2 being a vertical section through the MECHANICAL MOVEMENTS. feeding apparatus. The dimensions of the " machines are about 19ft. in length and 4ft. in which is today incorporated with the THE MECHANIC," a penny publication, diameter. A is a fixed cylinder, which consists ENGLISH MECHANIC, gave from week to week a of two boiler plate shells, the 2in. annular space series of "Mechanical Movements," from a useful

slide carrying the cutting tool in Sotting and 7. Contrivance for varying the speed of the shaping machines, &c. The driving-shaft works through an opening in a fixed disc, in which is a circular slot. At the end of the said shaft is a slotted crank. A slide fits in the slot of the crank and in the circular slot; and to the outward extremity of this slide is attached the connectingrod which works the slide carrying the cutting tool. When the driving-shaft rotates the crank is carried round, and the slide carrying the end of the connecting-rod is guided by the circular slot, which is placed eccentrically to the shaft; therefore, as the slide approaches the bottom, the length of the crank is shortened, and the speed of the connecting-rod is diminished.

8. Reversing-gear for a single engine. On released. The engine can then be reversed b raising the eccentric-rod the valve-spindle is working the upright lever, after which the eccentric-rod is let down again. The eccentric in this

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case is loose upon the shaft and driven by a pro- | the eccentric, and the steam-ports will only be
jection on the shaft acting upon a nearly semi- partially opened, and are quickly closed again, so
circular projection on the side of the eccentric, that the admission of steam ceases some time
which permits the eccentric to turn half-way
round on the shaft on reversing the valves.
9. This only differs from 3 in being composed
of a single pivoted clamp operating in connec-
tion with a fixed side-piece.

before the termination of the stroke, and the
steam is worked expansively. The nearer the
slide is to the middle of the slot the greater will
be the expansion, and vice versa.

(To be continued.)

THE EAR-ITS USES AND ABUSES. BY DR. USSHER.

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little daughter in company with another child. Who may your friend be?" asked the father. "She is an inquaintance of mine." Poor Beethoven! You might have flooded the world with the fruits of your unrivalled genius if woman's tender suasion had drawn you out of yourself and left you untrammelled by your galling kindred. Deafness to the musician, or blindness to the 10 and 11. Diagonal catch or hand-gear used painter, who can say which is the more dire in large blowing and pumping engines. In 181 calamity? Signposts on the way to decrepitude; , the lower steam-valve and upper eduction-valve slackenings of speed that tell of sands nigh run are open, while the upper steam-valve and lower out; warning chimes of a fast-fleeting three eduction-valve are shut; consequently the piston score years and ten-perhaps, a long way on this FI were asked to point out the most complex side the mark. We hear with the keenness of will he ascending. In the ascent of the pistonrod the lower handle will be struck by the propart of the body in the smallest space, I childhood, we feast in olfaction the glories of the jecting tappet, and, being raised, will become would indicate the human ear. It is the solitary summer flower garden freshened by a passing engaged by the catch and shut the upper eduction instance of bones, joints, and muscles not con- shower, but as we advance in life we find things and lower steam valves; at the same time, the cerned in locomotion or prehension, and appa- and gone-the flowers are the same, the brightare not what they were, pleasures are grasped upper handle being disengaged from the catch, rently beyond our control. Our senses are cor-ness of the glowing sun is none the less, the the back weight will pull the handle up and open the upper steam and lower eduction-valves, when related-each helps the other as a valuable hand- lovely quiet of a summer's eve, with its schoolthe piston will consequently descend. 11 repre- maid, recognised only too vividly as such when boy reminiscences-a far back vista-is brought sents the position of the catchers and handles when the piston is at the top of the cylinder. In going down, the tappet of the piston-rod strikes the upper handle and throws the catches and handles to the position shown in 10.

12 and 13 represent a modification of 10 and 11, the diagonal catches being superseded by two quadrants.

14. Link-motion valve-gear of a locomotive. Two eccentrics are used for one valve, one for the forward and the other for the backward movement of the engine. The extremities of the eccentric-rods are joined to a curved slotted bar, or, as it is termed, a link, which can be raised or lowered by an arrangement of levers terminating in a handle, as shown. In the slot of the link is a slide and pin connected with an arrangement of levers terminating at the valvestem. The link, in moving with the action of the eccentrics, carries with it the slide, and thence motion is communicated to the valve. Suppose the link raised so that the slide is in the middle, then the link will oscillate on the pin of the slide, and consequently the valve will be at rest. If the link is moved so that the slide is at one of its extremities, the whole throw of the eccentric connected with that extremity will be given to it, and the valve and steam-ports will be opened to the full, and it will only be toward the end of the stroke that they will be totally shut, consequently the steam will have been admitted to the cylinder during almost the entire length of each stroke. But if the slide is between the middle and the extremity of the slot, as shown in the figure, it receives only a part of the throw of

the loss is experienced. We see people happy from memory's treasure-house; friends gone
enough under the privation of one sense, but tion, and change impresses its finger on all
from our very embrace are present in imagina-
when the gap becomes larger, then it is an exist- things. Why should it not? There is nothing
ence so blotted and blurred that comfort only perfect here. Some of us are born with decay
all these groanings of creation will be set at rest soon fanned into giant dimensions, the unex-
comes with the certain hope that in another world ready imprinted, a tiny spark it may be, but
in the perfect liberty of the children of God. panded bud is nipped, and on all is inscribed
The blind man, who, from his birth, has been decay. How often comes the expression, with a
deprived of the sense of the beautiful, who sees sigh, "I cannot do what I used"! No, my
"men as trees walking;" the deaf mute who can friends, we once could go hand-over-hand the
never take in the beauty of song, are lightly five-barred gate; that no longer suits us; solid
smitten compared with those who are suddenly thews and sinews are useful but not lithesome;
bereft of these luxuries of life; they will hardly we now feel that we have organs that we must
adopt Pope's saying, that "whatever is, is best."
Can we read the history of Beethoven's crushing although time was, I daresay, when you and I
use with deference if they are to be lasting,
calamity of deafness, stealthy in its approaches considered "a stomach" a myth, or, at best, the
as the heavily-laden thunder-cloud, without feel- semblance of a reality capable of accommodating
ing the deepest sympathy for that will-impas- anything short of paving stones-but pain is a
sioned nature, weird-like in its grandeur, fierce, reminder, physic is a reminder-notably that
uncouth, rendered all the more taciturn by the horrid chief remembrancer, Gregory's Powder,"
master malady of his life, denied the full enjoy- which chemists call a "Khabarbarate of Mag-
ment of the very wonders he created, poor, inde-nesia "--barbarous enough in any sense, looking
pendent, high-souled, he seemed at last to wrap like a compound of crabs claws prepared by
himself within himself, preferring gloom and loving hands, and from which escape was impos-
solitude, to such friendships as were worth his sible, for if your sense caused you to eject the un-
acceptance?

savoury
Forgotten at Vienna, where he is now adored,

he died without the worldly consolations, Cole-
ridge has so happily touched, and quaintly ex-
pressed, in the following lines :-

Tho' friendships differ, endless in degree,
The sorts, methinks, may be reduced to three:
Acquaintance many, and conquaintance few,
But for Inquaintance I know only two,
The friend I've mourned with and the maid I woo.
These were written on the occasion of seeing his

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morsel through your nose into the cup or giver's face, a double portion in the morning was your shepherd's warning." This was a reminder that your future journey through life was to be crossed by ups and downs-troubles as plentiful as the sparks that fly upwards. What has all this to do with our senses and privileges? Much, I opine, considering that the better you use them the longer you will enjoy them. My labours, I trust, have not been in vain in my endeavour to

6

lighten your eyes, and it will not be my fault if I fail to enlist your attentive ears. Wisdom's proclamation will not be lost on you I trust when she says, "This is the way; walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand or to the left." The sensation is most pleasurable when a ship is in full sail, and one pair of hands can control the wheel. The compass before you, the course there indicated, and your eye ever and anon turned to the well-filled canvas, tells you all is right. The tall masts bend, and you feel her give as she flies through the water; but throw her out of her course, and as the bellying canvas flaps against the mast, you are conscious of loss of progress. Again you return to your missed point, and the breezes favour you. So I must take my course right ahead, and try and avoid a long tack.

[MARCH 25, 1870.

up.

M.

the auricle, or external car, so far as you might woven babitations crowds of spiders, which formed passage, is partly formed of cartilage, as is the his instrument. At first he was petrified with slice it off. The passage to the ear, or auditory a circle about him while he continued playing on ear proper, and this is attached to a bony canal astonishment, when, having ceased to play, the vagant supply to the ear, save in the very amiable Having a great dislike to vermin, it was two pretty firmly. Blood is not sent in very extra- assembly of animals immediately broke and tell-tale process of blushing (a nervous act), days before he ventured to touch the instrument, and by no means the tell-tale process it is sup- but having mustered courage to conquer his dis posed to be-although sometimes a charming like, he recommenced his concert, when the asthermometer of the thoughts-albeit a gentle sembly was far more numerous than at first, and suffusion, but acceptable to some eyes as the in the course of time he found himself surrounded roseate blush of morn to the expectant shep- by a hundred of these musical amateurs. herd. affected, and he even judged by her air that she conch shell, that a cat was not in the least would have given all the musical instruments in Marville observed, while a man was playing on a the world for a mouse, for she slept all the while short while before the window, raising his head unmoved in the sun; the horse stopped for a quiescent, is one of those things we have yet to up now and then as he was feeding on the grass; learn, unless it be that one carotid artery is larger the dog continued for above an hour seated on than the other, and this may account for the his hind legs looking steadfastly at the player; common fact that one whisker is smaller than the and the ass did not discover the least indication other. Special muscles are attached to the ear of his being touched, eating his thistles very message is telegraphed-not under post-office sur-ears and seemed very attentive; the cows slept which cause it to raise itself when any special peacefully; the hind lifted up her large white veillance. Some people can move the ear upwards a little, and after gazing awhile went forward; and downwards. I am favoured with that addi- some little birds who were in an aviary almost tion to my accomplishments. When the ear is out- tore their little throats with singing; but the stretched, increased hearing is the result. Look cock minding his hens, and the hens solely emat the sharp terrier, how movable his auricles are; ployed in scraping a neighbouring dunghill, did how he fixes them forward when he smells a rat, not show in any manner that they took the least and, with forepaws outstretched, is ready for a pleasure in hearing the music." spring. Watch the activity of the ear in the graceful greyhound; or observe the cavalry charger with outstretched ear patient for the call to arms, eyes iutent, nostrils dilated, muscles in impatient quiver, as if horse and rider were all one.

somebody spoke well of you that I can't be It used to be said when your left ear was red certain of; but when both ears suddenly redden you may set it down, on my authority, that the Man being the highest of creation, has every-one ear should be hot to tingling and the other parties have not paid their doctor's bill. Why thing for his wants fashioned in the highest perfection, "a place for everything, and everything in its proper place," saves his ideas, and these tenements of his brain he occasionally lets out to queer lodgers. We will follow the same division here as in the former paper on sidering first the external, then the inner or true ear; "The Eye," conbut first look at the temporal bone of the skull, called so because "Old Time," or Tempus, left his grey hairs thereon as a set-off against the bald vertex. In that triangular-looking portion which is the hardest in the body, was once the perfect hearing ear, there are some odd holes or so in it that used to puzzle us students when we had nothing better to do than load our brains with hard names, and devious courses of nerves, what they were related to, and what not, and what, I am rejoiced to say, I have long since forgotten, names invented to frighten one, as I thought when I came across the "mylohyoidean branch of the inferior dental of the fifth pair." Pity they didn't add some more! Now, this earbone contains an anatomical nut, one of the wonders of the body, seldom broken into unless a terrible fracture of the skull shatters it. The eye was placed in the front of the body, the van, as it were, the ear, as sentinel, does duty in the rear, unhappily no protection against those who talk behind your back distilling malice. We can afford, however, to pass on, as did He "who wrote on the ground as though he heard them not." Would that our grievances were always thus recorded, to be effaced by the next passer by!

A pretty ear is one of the special ornaments -may I say vanities?-of the ladies, highly prized. To be deprived of it was a mark of infamy. To be nailed by the ear to the pump was not a pleasant process, and a durance vile with a vengeance. Earrings are nowadays as common as earwigs, namiable weakness with women (affected sometimes by male Yankees, and others, under the delusion that they cure sore eyes, which they don't), but a graceful appendage, I must say, to the more graceful ear, common to all nations, and

(To be continued.)

THE EARTH-ITS FIGURE AND

MOTIONS.

RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B.A., F.R.A.S., Author of "Saturn and its System," "Sunviews of the Earth," &c., &c.

CHAPTER VI.—(Continued.)

BRADLEY'S discovery of the aberration of the

THE EARTH'S REVOLUTION.

doctor, drawing the munificent stipend of £60 per By
When I had the misfortune to be a parish
annum, more or less, and obliged to keep a horse
to do the work, I used to talk to my horse as I
went along, and watch his ears moving as if he
understood me, and the poor beast evinced his
gratitude for kindly care far more so than some
of the patients. He, as a goodly Houynhym, ap-
preciated my kindly qualities, except when I
passed a ball down his throat, and patted him
into an appreciation of the bolus. If the power
of speech had not been denied to him, he would
surely have exclaimed, "Save me from my
to the call of duty as those dumb creatures,
friends!" Would that we were always as ready
and ever grateful!
comfortable-looking ear, tapering in its point, as
if nature intended it as a whip for adventuresome
The elephant has a lazy,
flies; and we must not overlook the dear, old
patient donkey, patient even to the burthen of the
fat Brightonese ladies, done up in hats and
feathers, chignons and panniers. No wonder the
poet should exclaim :-

Poor little foal of an oppressed race,
I love the quiet patience of thy face.

narratives in the whole range of the history of
astronomy. Yet, here I must perforce leave it
fixed stars forms one of the most interesting
untouched, and deal only with the phenomenon
itself, since properly to relate the steps by which
would occupy all the rest of the space now avail-
able to me.
he was guided to that most important discovery,

apparent annual motions of the stars are sub-
jected a law which must be accounted for by
The great and general law, then, to which the
any theory which pretends to exhibit the real rela-
tions of the celestial bodies-is this: Every star
in the heavens, whether obvious to the naked

scopes, whether shining in solitary splendour or

En this country to all classes. You see light and The animal begets its kind care and thanks to eye or visible only by the aid of powerful teleheavy weights, false and real gems, adorning the the society for its protection. We seldom see the ar, but the beauty is in the soft, cushiony lobe, beast of burthen bludgeoned as in days gone by, lost, so to speak, in the profundities of some rich

with the speed of an arrow fl ing through the air,
or assailed with the savagery of a Balaam.
Fish moving quickly through the water, or birds
would be only encumbered with an external
auricle, and with them it is dispensed with.

minor axis depends on the position of the star ellipse, whose major axis is somewhat more than star-cluster, travels once a year in a minute with reference to that great circle on the heavens two-thirds of an arc-minute in length, while its

hat feels elastic to the fingers-a privilege
eserved for you when you are
ars in love," unless you are one of those who
66 over head and
longate the ears of youngsters as a corrective to
vil manners, a custom, let us hope, falling into
esuetude, a process that did convert the "silk Both fish and bird hear acutely enough, remark-in which the sun seems annually to travel.

urse into the sow's ear," and in the days of our rown bullies at school I have known boys to be

ably so the former.

of the seals, described by Sir Walter Scot ("Lib.
Not to go back to the story of Amphion and
Ent. Know.") as-

so

A

aus elevated by the monster dunces that infested the Dolphin, or to the music-loving propensities near the ecliptic itself has an aberration-ellipse star close by the pole of this circle-the ecliptic eccentric as to be almost a straight line. But has an almost circular aberration-ellipse; one every star has an aberration-ellipse of the same major axis. And that major axis, though, as I have said, minute, belongs to the order of magnithe worker in a well-appointed obse: vatory.* pable, unmistakable, clear as the sun at noon to tudes which are obvious to the telescopist-pal

ar Dotheboys Halls. Some jewellers, sensible of e beauty of the lobe, do not pierce it, but enrcle it with a gold wire, a mere trifling addion to the pleasure of supplying the pendants. ne piercing of the ears may lead to troublesome flammation or eruptions, as I have many times en. Some think that the allusion of the almist, "Mine ears hast thou opened," or ed, refers to the practice of boring an awl into lobe (Deut. xx., verse 17), the master by t proceeding making "a servant for ever." is a practice in the West Indies ("Wilde on Ear") for a negro, when he wishes to attach og to him, to nail his ear to a door-post for the iod of one day-rather a novel mode of proling, to say the least of it.

Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark, Will long pursue the minstrel's bark. nets, to which bows of wood, hung with a number "In Germany they take the shad by means of chime in harmony when the bells are moved. The of little bells, are attached in such a manner as to shad, when once attracted within the sound, will not attempt to escape while the bells continue to ring. Aelian says the shad are allured by castanets, and so delicate is the ear of the fish reported to be, that the sound of thunder terrifies them to death, and numbers are annually found thus The car stands out a little from the head to other cases of acute hearing in birds, &c. :-" An killed on the Rhine and the Moselle." But to cite ch the sounds, and the hollow cup, or concha officer confined in the Bastile of Paris begged the ll), acts as an ear-trumpet; the outer rims governor to permit him the use of his lute to alled respectively the helix (A) or fold, and soften his confinement by the harmonies of his antihelix, peaked portion in front, is denomi-instrument. ed the tragos (rpayoc), the hairs on which are modern Orpheus, playing on his lute, was greatly At the end of a few days this posed to resemble a goat's beard. These, with astonished to see frisking out of their holes great antitragos, opposite the tragos, complete numbers of mice, and descending from their

according to which these remarkable ellipses are
described by the stars, for much depends on this
Now let us inquire what the particular law is
point. If merely a vague notion is given of the
character of this instructive phenomenon, then
some vague and general explanations will imme-
diately suggest themselves to the supporters of
paradox. When the exact nature of aberration
is described, the proof of the earth's revolution

rations of the first fixed star he watched with care,
The mere fact that Bradley, when telescopic appli-
ances were so imperfect, at once recognised the aber-
nomenon is.
motion, is enough to show how very palpable the phe-
though he had no reason to look for or expect such a
mers can now recognise and feel certain about stellar
the aberration motion.
But it may be well to add that astrono-
displacements which are only about one-hundredth of

FIG.I

will be found (by all who have sufficient intelli- | have made use of the accepted theory to describe membered that this was the problem as presented gence to understand the matter, or honesty the observed motions, this by no means involves in Bradley's time by mere observation, and the assumption that the accepted theory is correct. It is the fact, and a striking fact it is, that we cannot even describe stellar aberration conveniently without a reference to the accepted theory, so that even though that theory were false, it would still be convenient to speak of the aberrations of the stars, as being such as would correspond to such and such assumptions respecting terrestrial motion.

[graphic]

2

SUN

enough not to pretend blindness), absolutely irrefragible.

But here we have a phenomenon to explain.
We have every star on the heavens announcing
some great fact to us, or rather writing down
year by year on the celestial concave a lesson for
our instruction. To reject the lesson as mean-
ingless, would be to abandon one of the highest
and noblest faculties given to man, his desire to
search out and investigate the problems set by
nature for his interpretation. What, then, is the
meaning of this million-on-million-fold repeated

Perhaps astronomers have some far-fetched ex-
planation, which they would force on the world
by crafty argument.

The best way of describing the nature of aber-lesson? Can astronomers explain the matter? ration is by a reference to the accepted theory of the earth's motion. Let 1,2,3,4, Fig.1, represent the earth's path (perspectively presented) around the sun, and suppose a star so placed on the heavens The case is otherwise. Astronomy can not as to occupy the pole of the ecliptic; then the only interpret the aberration motions of all the star being at a distance practically infinite, we millions of stars revealed by the telescope, but should expect the lines of sight from all the the accepted theory of astronomy would have to points in 1, 2, 3, 4, to the star, to be directed to-be abandoned if those motions did not take place. wards this point-the ecliptic pole. In other Stellar aberration was discovered as by an acciwords, the lines 1S, 2S, 3S, 4S, would all be at dent, was long looked on as a great source of right angles to the plane 1, 2, 3, 4. Instead of doubt and perplexity, was honest y submitted by this, when the earth is at 1, the star is seen to- astronomers to the inquiry of the world-and wards S1, the plane S1 s1 passing through the then suddenly it was seen that the aberration tangent line to 1, 2, 3, 4, at 1. So when the earth motions could not but take place, if the earth is at 2, the star is seen towards s2, the plane moves as the accepted theory asserts. Let us S2 passing through the tangent to the circle inquire how this is, 1, 2, 3, 4, at 2. And similarly when the earth i3 at 3 or 4, the star is apparently displaced as shown, the displacement being always an angle of one-third of a minute (approximately), and always in the direction of the earth's motion. Next suppose the star placed on the ecliptic. Then the earth's path being again represented by 1, 2, 3, 4, and the lines 1S, 2S, 3S, 4S, being drawn

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in that plane parallel to each other to indicate the direction in which one would expect to see ske star, it is found that, whereas when the earth is at 1 and 3, where she is moving in a line towards or from the star, there is no displacement; when she is at 2 and 4, where she is moving at right angles to the line of sight to the star, there is the same displacement as in the former case. Also, in this second case, the star seems more and more displaced as the earth travels from 1 to 2, then less and less till the earth is at 3, when there is no displacement; then more and more, but on the contrary side, till the earth is at 4, and so finally less and less till the earth is again at 1. It will be easily seen that in the first case the star appears to describe a circle 1, 2, 3, 4, Fig. 3, about its mean position S, while in the latter it describes a straight line 1, 2, 3, 4, Fig. 4, through its mean position S; 2, 4 in Fig. 4 being equal to the diameter of the circle 1, 2, 3, 4, in Fig. 3.

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When the star is somewhere between either pole of the ecliptic and the ecliptic itself, it describes an ellipse, as 1,2,3,4, Fig. 5, always reaching its greatest excursion as at 2 and 4, when the earth is travelling in a direction at right angles to the line of sight to the star (which necessarily happens twice a year), and its least excursion at land 3, when the earth is travelling as nearly as it can towards or from the star (which also necessarily happens twice a year). Now it is to be noticed here that though I

FIG. 7

FIC. 8

EE 2

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where represents the number 3.14159... or the
ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
Hence the velocity of light is to that of the earth
365 x 24 x 60

as

π

: 8

π.

360 X 60 X 3 at once, that we have a satisfactory explanation even with these rough assumptions, since the

1

72

part of 32400. Bnt if I had taken the mean of the estimates of the velocity of light from observations made on Jupiter's eclipses, as determined before Bradley's observation, and Bradley's estimate of the aberration of the star y Draconis as made before he knew what theory required, the coincidence would have been found very much

It had been independently discovered, by observations made on the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, that light travels with finite, though incon; or as 32850: T. Now ceivable velocity. Always when Jupiter and his family were farthest from the earth, the satel- the proportion of Eg, S to E1 E2 where E, S E2 is lites seemed tardiest to announce by appearance an angle of about one-third of a minute of are is or by disappearance, their motion through the shadow of their primary. And so it was seen 1: or 32400: . It is seen then, that the light messages sweeping to us from these bodies come at a definite speed to the earth. A consequence of this peculiarity had been wholly overlooked by astronomers. The light travelling in appreciably parallel lines from a difference between 32400 and 32850 is but -nd star towards the solar system, may be compared to a shower falling in parallel lines on moving bodies. Now we know that in moving through a vertical shower of rain, the rain seems to fall somewhat towards the face. The reason is obvious; thus, suppose a traveller's face at 1, Fig. 6, when a a rain drop is at R1, and that by the time he reaches 2, the rain drop is at R2, it is clear that the drop will seem to have fallen from a position in front of him, and in the direction indicated by the dotted lin- s; and if we conceive of the motion of a small body travelling in a circle under a vertical shower, we shall see at once that this property may be made to illustrate every case of stellar aberration, by assuming different positions, as 1, 2, 3, in Fig. 7, for the circle is which the body moves under the shower.

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closer.

Here, then, we have a perfect proof of the earth's revolution. No question can remain that the lesson really taught us by the stars as they annually traverse their aberration ellipses is this, that the earth annually traverses a nearly circular path round the sun. This interpretation accounts for all the peculiarities of the stellar aberration motions; nay, the theory of the earth's motion requires every one of those peculiarities. No other theory has ever been put forward in explanation of stellar aberration, and it may be alleged, with more than confidence, with the fullest certainty of conviction, that no other theor can explain the phenomenon.

CHAPTER VII.

THE EARTH'S MOTION AS AN ATTENDANT ON
THE SUN IN HIS JOURNEY THROUGH SPACE.
Since the stars are observed to be slowly shift-

ing their positions on the celestial vault, and
therefore presumably in space, it is obviously
of the sidereal family, has also his proper motion
suggested that the sun, which is but a member
through space. It is a difficult problem to deter-
mine what that motion is, because all we have to

It will be seen, though, that in order that this
explanation may hold, it is necessary that the
rate of motion of the earth should bear an appre-
ciable relation to the enormous velocity of light.
If rain fell a thousand times as fast as it actually
does, the fastest runner would not find that a
vertical rain-shower would seem to fall appreci-
ably towards his face. Now, apart from all con-
siderations of the real size of the earth's orbit, or
of the rates of motion either of light or of the
earth in her orbit, we can at once test this expla-
nation of aberration. It had been independently
hown by Römer that light takes about eight
minutes in crossing the radius of the earth's
orbit; the earth occupies a year in travelling
round the circumference of the circle; all we
want to know is, whether the displacement of a
star over an arc of about one-third of a minute,
corresponds to these re ations. What we require
is, that supposing S E2 to be the distance tra-
versed by light in any time, El E2 the distance
traversed by the earth in the same time, S1 E2 El
being a right angle, the angle E1 SE2 should be
about one-third of a minute of arc. Let it be re- have.

* I need take no further notice of a so-called explanation in a work purporting to be written by a Cambridge wrangler (name not given), than to remark that

it does not even pretend to explain details, and that what it does pretend to do suffices to exhibit the utter ignorance of the writer as to the real nature of the problem. I do not say that the writer is not a Cambridge wrangler, because I know from my own experience that a man may become a wrangler without knowing even the definitions of astronomy. But I do say that the writer, being a wrangler, should have had sense enough to know that before pretending to write on astronomy, he ought to have acquired a better knowledge of the subject than he shows himself to

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