The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-06-25
SCIENCE AND PROGRESS.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THE
SCIL NTlFIC WORLD.
Photographic g. hart ofthe Heavens
--Boiler Injecto, - The Autcmat-
ic Library--It Pl cks up PAPER
Sheets--Inve.1 ted ror
Graveyard
A Photographic Chart or the
Heavens

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A Photographic Chart OF the
Heavens.
In many respects the most wonoIa r-
full OF all human achievements are
those OF astronomic science. No
other facts SO profoundly impress the
mind of the learned as we'll as the I'M
learned as those which have been as
certained by astronomic investigation.
That the inhabitants OF our planet
a mere atom in the unreasonable
universe of matter-have reached
millions upon millions of miles into
space, weighed and measured other
planets and systems and accurately
defined their orbits is the highest tri-
butte that can be paid to the intellect
OF man. In all astronomic progress
since time began the inventor and
scientist have worked together
Scarcely a. step was possible without
the aid Of invention. In fact there is
no other department of human study
in which science and invention are so
separately blended, in which the scien-
tist is so much the inventor and the
inventor so much the scientist,
as in astronomy. The leading
observatories in Europe and America
propose to construct a great photo
graphic chart Of the heavens. Prepar-
atoms for this gigantic work are now
going on and satisfactory results are
reported. Specimen plates from nu-
merous observatories were recently ex-
amined in Paris as an assistance in
the arrangement of final details of the
undertaking. A gratifying approach
to uniformity was observed in the pre-
llmlnary and experimental efforts. 1t
is stated, however, that at late
meeting of the Royal Astronomical
Society in London Mr.. Isaac Roberts,
whose wonderful photographs of the
Andromeda nebula and other celestial
phenomena have within the past two
Oh three years given him a world wide
fame, rather STARTLED some OF the as
tronomers by his report Of expert
ments that he had been trying. It ap-
pears that Mr.. Roberts found a sur
prising difference in the number OF
stars that he was able to photograph
on different nights. On one night he
got eighty stars on a plate represent
Ing particular spot in the sky, on
another night two hundred, and on
another night four hundred stars. all
within the same small expanse of the
heavens. He got the photographs OF
more stars when. a bright moon was
shining than in clear dark night
when to the eye the heavens appear
richer with stars. Should similar
difference affect photographs taken
for the proposed chart, the value of
the picture would be materially i'm
paired. Mr.. Roberts himself remark
ed that his apparatus was different
IN many respects from that which
would be employed in the charting,
and some of the members of the
Royal Astronomical Society who
listened to his statements appeared
not to attach great Importance to the
source of error which he had pointed
out. The New York Sun, in an
excellent editorial treatise on this
subject, concludes that with all it's
imperfections, this great photograph
OF the universe will be one of the most
wonderfully interesting achievements
OF human genius. Itmay be said with
out exaggeration that future ages will
refer back to it as one of the great
strategetic points won by science. A
photograph representation of the
heavens as they appear at the close
OF the nineteenth century may in the
twenty-ffth Or the fortieth century
prove to be the means of solving some
OF the great problems relating to the
constitution of the universe: The i'm
portance of the proposed chart stands
out clearly the moment attention is
drawn to the fact that the so-called
fixed stars are actually flying in every
conceivable Observation-Disclosures US,
away from us, to the right, to the left,
northward and southwark, from east
to west, and from west to east. There
is no observable centre of their mo-
ton, and they appear to stand still to
ordinary observation simply because
their distance is so immense and the
span Of human life is so brief that a
single observer attempting to perceive
their change OF place gets some such
sense OF mOtlOn as comes from a mo-
mentary glance at an express train
crawling along q river bank miles
away -1nventive Age.
Boiler Injector.
The apparent paradox OF steam
leaving one part of a boiler, and not
only rushing back into it, but carry
ing quantity OF water with it-al-
though, on it's passage, there is an
opening to the atmosphere-may be
thus explained. 1t must first be 90
served that whereas steam in motion
expands in all directions, Jet OF wa
ter moves in one direction only. Sup
pose we have steam 6Olb pressure
above the atmosphere; it's volume is
$50 times that of the water from
which it came, and into which it will
condense. Then, if it is supposed that
steam is leaving a boiler at that pres
sure through an opening of $50 square
inches, and that it's speed OF motion
remains the same, if it is suddenly