Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-02-11
Tuesday. February IL, 1890

Tuesday
bers of the excellent organization. Children
will be permitted to attend the Saturday
matinee for half price, and all in attendance
will receive costly souvenir, a cabinet
photograph of Mr.. Sully, who, by the way,
has not been seen In New Haven for q long
time. The attraction is undoubtedly de-
serving of large business.
WHAT IT Isf
Facts and Theories About the Mysteri- i
Gus Gulf Stream.
Letter Of Lieutenant Pillsbury U. S. NJ
b think the gulf stream docs change its |
position to slight extent, but not in the |
arbitrary manner or to the great extent |
stated by some of the newspaper writers of
late. The usually accepted position of the |
stream along our coast is that fixed by Pro-
lessor Bache, based upon temperature OBJ
servations made by various officers in the |
navy. While it is probably fact that, a. .
rule, current from the equator is warm and |
one from the pole is colder than the sur |
rounding waters, it is not always the fact |
that warmest of flowing water is from the |
south, nor that the coolest is from the north. |
The mere prevalence of warm water does not |
necessarily show that current exists, nor |
does change in temperature show that there |
is q change in current. |
Thermometric navigation, Lieutenant
Pillsbury thinks, is, to a certain extent, fal.
lacious, and submits in support of this con-
clusion table of observations of surface
temperatures and directions, taken off Cape
Hatteras, which showed continual changes,
and that the temperatures were lowest when
q current was flowing toward the northeast
quadrant, and highest when the water was
coming from the northward. Anchored q
few miles outside the 100 fathom curve,
southeast of Cape Hatteras, he found aver
age current setting north by east, with q
temperature of 70 degrees. A month later
at this spot, with current south-southwest,
there was temperature of so degrees. Two
years before, with a current always flow
ing toward the northeast, temperatures
varying from 76 degrees to 70 degrees were
observed.
He believes that the daily volume of the
stream varies but little. Along the north
| east coast, however, its variation is not al
ways on the surface, but is from an unknown
cause overrun by other currents. But its
| track through the ocean is absolutely fixed
| by law and its vibration is periodic, although
the limit Of the periodic change may vary to
q trifing amount
The generally accepted belief that wind
blowing across the current changes the posi-
ton of it's axis Is, Lieutenant Pillsbury
thinks, erroneous. Every temporary wind,
however, does transport water, and with 1t
goes its heat Or cold. The fact of finding
gulf weed within a few miles of Nantucket
lightship does not so much prove as it does
that winds have prevailed in the direction
from which it comes.
Anchored to the edge of the Florida reefs,
he says, with strong wind blowing directly
from the gulf stream-which was only q
| short distance away-its clear blue water
was driven by the sea and overcame the
| cloudy reef water, but no current accompa-
MED it. In Key West harbor the water is
usually cloudy. A southerly wind will cause
a sea that will carry the clear water in shore
in spite of an ebb tide. The wind shifting
| to the opposite quarter will at once alter 1t
, to milky Wilderness.
"You will see, therefore" he writes, "that
the location of currents by temperature, ap-
pearance of the water or drift on small float
ing objects leans only to error. I do not
doubt but that, when we know the positions
of the currents by actual observations and
| not by differences, and know the laws govern
| ing their flow, we will be able to find out the
| relation between them and the temperature,
but, until then, to guess at the former from
GQ0 18Gt6r ID maklDR u6uuSLlOu IIOm du CT
roneous promise"
A Mysterious Count and His Machine.
birmingham Posts London Correspondence
The visit of a certain French count to
London has given much to think of be-
yond the limits of the disease, both mental
and bodily, by which we have been assailed.
This Count P.-who, strange to say, seeks
I &. oe he 1oornod
men of the century. His studies have been
followed in partici patton with the expert
ments of the great experimentalist, the late
4 Ruhmkorff. The latter was generous enough
to own that it was under the direction Of
Count P. that he accomplished most of thu
greatest inventions. This wondrous rec
invented by the count is still considered thu
most marvellous conquest of science. Upol
this reel is wound length Of silver wir
measuring "a, 900 metres. Two magnetic
needles crossing each other in a contrary d.
: rection are fixed upon the reel, and sus
pended by a slender thread. The apparatui
works under glass like watch, 30 that nc
tampering with the mechanism is possible
| It in mounted, moreover, on high stand
I The count takes his hold of the two con
!, ductors, to which are attached the two ends
| of the silver thread rolled upon the reel, and
bids you order the machine to move to right
| or left, according to your will. Under thi
. power alone, hitherto misunderstood or un
, derrated-this, the mightiest power in tn
universe, according to Count F., the powe
of the human will-the machine will ac
without the contact of touch. To right O
| to left will the reel revolve according to tn
! fancy of the visitor. Without speech, with
. out touch, by the mere mental infuenc
alone will the machine move in obedience tx
| the unexpressed command.
But not in all cases does the machine an
!, ! swer unreservedly. 1t is to the powerful
| will alone-the concentrated and fixed de
, termination-that 1t eau be made to reply
| Ruhmkorff used to laugh immoderately q
!, | the vacillsting movement of Count 2. :
machine when the savants of the Academi
we're induced to try the experiment. Wit
: | some the wire would tremble and vibrate
then start to one side, then move toward
| the other; while with others it would refus
. to move at all, but con6ne its trembling VI
bration to one spot. The experiments mad
by Count P in London have all been ex
!, hibited strictly In private. His object II
! coming here is merely to obtain wire MOI
2 finely spun than any he has hitherto bee
u able to get in Paris. They cay that, con
:. trary to the general rule, the count, froi
J, having been all his life confirmed mater
alist, has been converted to the highest de
. gree of religious faith, to conviction of tt
lofty destinies of man and his connectio
.' with the divinity; man has abused his gift
!, and delivered himself to evil, but the divir
y essence is still within him. So fearful hi
y the philosopher been of the pursuit of th
:, fashionable coteries who under the prefer
- of scientific inquiry merely seek to deriv
:. amusement from the most serious exper
~ ments in science, that he has sought retres
i in a convent near London, and his excuse {
~ being compelled to return thither by elgl
10 o'clock ia made to reply to all invitations
~ dinner, or to "select parties" or to "smal
y and-earlies' with which the fine ladies
y London would seek to overwhelm him..
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