The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-15

lss
mind. The error they made III the suns an
gular diameter, granting il to be an error, IS
no greUter than the breadth of human mar
vie wed at distance Of 125 feet
But this is not all. Soon after the con
cordant results of all this work had 80 satls-
fed astronomers of the necessity OF reducing
the received value. Mr.. Stone of the dreen- d
wich Observatory, carefully and wisely SoinS9
over the old work in order TO be able 10 uiiooO
the proposed observations, found that an eA- @
cessively curious pl onomenon, to whlcn We
can only refer, observed at the transl1S' Ia"
msled the observers, and that, IL lVs luii
ence were taken into account, the Vaiuo V VI Va
the suns distance obtained from Tue .lauSiU I' IS
of 1869 was narvelously concordant WIN sne
reoentlv determined value. Mr.. Stone has
received the gold medal of the Royal Astro-
nomical Society for this research, and wen ne
deserves IT, The conclusions at whlcn ne mas
arrived will enable the observers OF the ap-
proachinp transit to obtain results oil the lasC
degree of accuracy.
Disnppenrnncc OTthc Dog star.
A most startling astronomical fact, the eX-
plosion, or rather the contagratlon, Oh Tau
CoronR occurred some time since. 1t ap-
pears now that another and much more inn
portant star is slowly taking itself out of our
system. BY calculations of extraordinary
minutepess and deiicacy, Mir. higgins and
Father Secchi have demonstrated that Sirius
and our sun are mutually receding from one
another at the rate of 29'4 miles per second
In the end, therefore, though the distance OF
time strains the imagination, we must lose
sight of Sirus-that is to say provided we
have not by that time gained the capacity of
watching the more distant universe towards
which he must be receding-an improbability.
Nothing seems so near its final limit as the
power of astronomical telescopes, while the
power Of the human eye, if it alters at all,
probably decreases.
4 SOIur steam Engine.
M. Mouchot is at present exhibiting, in
Paris, what he calls solar steam-engine-an
exceedingly interesting piece of mechanism,
| the novelty and ingenuity of which are
| equally striking. spherical mirror, or re-
hector, of a hollow form, plated with silver,
is placed in position to receive the full
| strength of the falling sunbeams, the intensi-
| fed heat of which is communicated to
| boiler formed of glass or crystal; the water
| contained in which hollis after the lapse of a
| few minutes, and the steam, playing upon
the piston. sets a small engine in rapid mo-
| ton, which, in turn moves an Archlmedean
screw, which forces g. body of waterup a con-
siderable height he inventor entertains
sanguine hopes that his machine, once con-
structed to work on a large scale, will be uni
| versally preferred fOr all industrial opera
| tions in intertropjcal countries, where the
ardent rays of the sun, for eight months in
the year. will insure regularity in working
and constitute for th2m the most economical
motive power. 1t re mains to be seen whether
operations on a large scale will be as brilli
antly successful as he experiments at pre-
sent performed by the ingenious model.
Opinions are mucn divided concerning the
practical working qualities of the invention,
some maintaining hat il is only an interest
ing toy, and others hat it is destined to ope-
rate another revolution in the walks of science
and industry.
McteOrs in %cripiuraI Times.
| Mr.. Ed. l.. Garbe' writes to the Spectator
in reference to the destruction of the cities of
| Sodom and GomoTlah maintaining that the
Cities of the Plain were destroyed by a
crowded group of the sodio-magnesic meteors
known to be following Tempels telescope
comet of January, 1856. Now the chances to
be considered were those for the following six
coincidences:--1. That the period deduced
from the node-passages of the comets only
observed visits, the Chinese of 1866 and ours
of 1866, would give a visit in the winter be-
tween BIC. 1898 and '97, in one of which
years the catastrope is dated, consequently in
| the right biennium ant Of 16S.
=. That the earth's passage of the node was
then about July 81, and the event was in a
hot season (when Abraham needed shade at
noon, and the visitors proposed abiding in
the street all night. Suppose this applicable
in Palestine to half the year; then we have
the right half-y ont of ?.
3. A fall as vertical as rain (''then the
Lord rained') was possible, from this source,
in no hour but that of sunrise. Hence we
have the right hour out of 24
4. Dividing each hemisphere (say) into
zones of latitude, this degree of verticality
was possible in none of these but the third
north Hence We have the right latitude
region out of l6.
). Sodium, the Chief element in the abnor-
NAL deposits now here (and III the salt said
to have buried Lots wife) was also the chief
observed by Browning and Secchi in these
meteors; and is not the chief in one-thou-
sandth of the matters on earth. But let us
suppose twentieth Of all known matter to
display it as prominently as the meteors did;
then we have the night chief element 0ut Of 20.
g.. Magnesium. die second in those salt de
posits was the only other ingredient conspi
cuous to Browning or to Seechi; and though
it stands higher in the order of known abun
dance on earth thar sodium, it would not be
thus conspicuous in one known solid of ten
Hence we have the right second element on
Of 10.
Now, suppose any event not due to this
comet to be recorded. The chances agains
the account presenting those six agreements
with its elements, and no disagreement ar'
found by deducting l from 165 x 81 II
X 20 10. In short, the discoveries of thes,
three years have made it three millions to on,
that the history of Sodom is true, and thi
the physical cause Now, do not call tina
scientific certainty but it will not be cas-,
to find in meteoric science a result resting OF
n q fITI fgl1.a IL fl.YNpn