Scientific American Supplement, No. 829, November 21, 1891 by Various

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[Illustration]

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 829

NEW YORK, November 21, 1891.

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XXXII, No. 829.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

* * * * *

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. ASTRONOMY.--The Sun's Motion in Space.--By A.M. CLERKE.--
A very interesting article on the determination of this hitherto
uncertain factor.

II. BOTANY.--Hemlock and Parsley.--By W.W. BAILEY.--Economic
botany of Umbelliferae.

Raphides--the Cause of the Acridity of Certain Plants.--By
R.A. WEBER.--Effect of these crystals on the expressed juice
from calla and Indian turnip and other plants.

The Eremuri.--A very attractive flower plant for
gardens.--1 illustration.

III. DECORATIVE ART.--The Decorative Treatment of Natural
Foliage.--By HUGH STANNUS. The first of a series of lectures
before the London Society of Arts, giving an elaborate
classification of the principles of the subject.--5
illustrations.

IV. ELECTRICITY.--The Independent--Storage or Primary Battery--System
of Electric Motive Power.--By KNIGHT NEFTEL.--Abstract of a
recent paper read before the American Street Railway Association
on the present aspect of battery car traction.

V. GEOGRAPHY.--The Colorado Desert Lake.--A description of the new
overflow into the Colorado Desert, with the prognosis of its
future.

VI. GEOLOGY.--Animal Origin of Petroleum and Paraffine.--A plea
for the animal origin of geological hydrocarbons based on
chemical and geological reasons.

The Origin of Petroleum.--By O.C.D. Ross.--A further and more
lengthy discussion in regard to petroleum and theory of its
production by volcanic action.

VII. GUNNERY.--Weldon's Range Finder.--An instrument for determining
distances, with description of its use.--3 illustrations.

VIII. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.--Mercury Weighing Machine.--A
type of weighing machine depending on the displacement
of mercury.--1 illustration.

Wheels Linked with a Bell Crank.--Curious examples of
mechanical constructions in the communication of motion
between wheels.--3 illustrations.

IX. MEDICINE AND HYGIENE.--Cold and Mortality.--By Dr. B.W.
RICHARDSON.--The effect of cold upon the operation of the
animal system, with practical rules.

On the Occurrence of Tin in Canned Food.--By H.A. WEBER.--A
very valuable and important series of analyses of American and
other food products for tin and copper.

The Treatment of Glaucoma.--Note on the treatment of this
disease fatal to vision.

X. METALLURGY.--On the Elimination of Sulphur from Pig Iron.
By J. MASSENEZ.--The desulphurization of pig iron by treatment
with manganese, with apparatus employed.--5 illustrations.

XI. MISCELLANEOUS.--The California Raisin Industry.--How raisins
are grown and packed in California, with valuable figures
and data.

The Recent Battles in Chile.--The recent battles of Concon and
Vina del Mar.--2 illustrations.

XII. NATURAL HISTORY.--The Whale-headed Stork.--A curious bird,
a habitant of Africa and of great rarity.--1 illustration.

XIII. NAVAL ENGINEERING.--A Twin Screw Launch Run by a Compound
Engine.--The application of a single compound tandem
engine to driving twin screws.--2 illustrations.

Improvements in the Construction of River and Canal
Barges.--By M. RITTER.--A very peculiar and ingenious system of
construction, enabling the same vessel to be used at greater or
less draught according to the requirements and conditions of the
water.--5 illustrations.

Reefing Sails from the Deck--An effective method of reefing,
one which has been subjected to actual trial repeatedly in bad
weather off Cape Horn.--3 illustrations.

XIV. PHYSICS.--The Cyclostat.--An apparatus for observing
bodies in rapid rotary motion.--5 illustrations.

XV. TECHNOLOGY.--A New Process for the Bleaching of Jute.--By
Messrs. LEYKAM and TOSEFOTHAL.--A method of rendering
the fiber of jute perfectly white, with full details.

A Violet Coloring Matter from Morphine.--The first true
coloring matter obtained from a natural alkaloid.

Liquid Blue for Dyeing.--Treatment of the "Dornemann"
liquid blue.

New Process for the Manufacture of Chromates.--By J. MASSIGNON
and E. VATEL.--Manufacture of chromates from chromic
iron ore by a new process.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF CONCON, CHILE. August 21, 1891.

The Congressional troops advancing.
The river Aconcagua.
Balmaceda's troops retreating.
The Esmeralda.
Concon Point.
The Magellanes. ]

[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF VINA DEL MAR, CHILE, AUGUST 1891.

Esmeralda firing shell at Fort Callao.
Almirante Cochrane firing at Balmaceda's artillery behind Fort Callao.
Battery of Congress artillery trying to silence government troops at
Vina del Mar.
Balmaceda's field batteries at back of Fort Callao.
Fort Callao.
Congress infantry firing at troops at Vina del Mar, Balmaceda's
infantry returning fire of Congress troops opposite.
English, American, German, and French men-of-war watching the battle
of Vina del Mar.]

THE RECENT BATTLES IN CHILE.

The battle of Concon took place Aug. 21, 1891. Nine thousand
Congressional troops advancing toward Valparaiso from Quinteros Bay,
where they had landed the day previous, were met by Balmaceda's troops
on the other side of the river Aconcagua. The Esmeralda and the
Magellanes, co-operating from the sea, made fearful havoc among the
Balmacedists with their machine guns and shell. After a stubborn fight
the Balmacedists were totally defeated, and were pursued by the
victorious cavalry, losing 4,000 out of 12,000 in killed, wounded and
deserters. All their field pieces were captured, and thus the road was
left open for the Congressionalists to advance on Vina del Mar.

THE BATTLE OF VINA DEL MAR, CHILE.

A general engagement took place on Aug. 23, 1891, between divisions of
Balmaceda's and the Congressional troops, with the Esmeralda and the
Almirante Cochrane aiding the latter by firing at Fort Callao,
endeavoring to silence the field batteries at the back. The
Congressional troops failed to capture Vina del Mar, but eventually
cut the railway line a few miles out, and crossed over to the back of
Valparaiso, which was soon captured.--_The Graphic._

* * * * *

THE SUN'S MOTION IN SPACE.

By A.M. CLERKE.

Science needed two thousand years to disentangle the earth's orbital
movement from the revolutions of the other planets, and the
incomparably more arduous problem of distinguishing the solar share in
the confused multitude of stellar displacements first presented itself
as possibly tractable a little more than a century ago. In the lack
for it as yet of a definite solution there is, then, no ground for
surprise, but much for satisfaction in the large measure of success
attending the strenuous attacks of which it has so often been made the
object.

Approximately correct knowledge as to the direction and velocity of
the sun's translation is indispensable to a profitable study of
sidereal construction; but apart from some acquaintance with the
nature of sidereal construction, it is difficult, if not impossible,
of attainment. One, in fact, presupposes the other. To separate a
common element of motion from the heterogeneous shiftings upon the
sphere of three or four thousand stars is a task practicable only
under certain conditions. To begin with, the proper motions
investigated must be established with _general_ exactitude. The errors
inevitably affecting them must be such as pretty nearly, in the total
upshot, to neutralize one another. For should they run mainly in one
direction, the result will be falsified in a degree enormously
disproportionate to their magnitude. The adoption, for instance, of
system of declinations as much as 1" of arc astray might displace to
the extent of 10 deg. north or south the point fixed upon as the apex of
the sun's way (see L. Boss _Astr. Jour._, No. 213). Risks on this
score, however, will become less formidable with the further advance
of practical astronomy along a track definable as an asymptote of
ideal perfection.

Besides this obstacle to be overcome, there is another which it will
soon be possible to evade. Hitherto, inquiries into the solar movement
have been hampered by the necessity for preliminary assumptions of
some kind as to the relative distances of classes of stars. But all
such assumptions, especially when applied to selected lists, are
highly insecure; and any fabric reared upon them must be considered to
stand upon treacherous ground. The spectrographic method, however,
here fortunately comes into play. "Proper motions" are only angular
velocities. They tell nothing as to the value of the perspective
element they may be supposed to include, or as to the real rate of
going of the bodies they are attributed to, until the size of the
sphere upon which they are measured has been otherwise ascertained.
But the displacement of lines in stellar spectra give directly the
actual velocities relative to the earth of the observed stars. The
question of their distances is, therefore, at once eliminated. Now the
radial component of stellar motion is mixed up, precisely in the same
way as the tangential component, with the solar movement; and since
complete knowledge of it, in a sufficient number of cases, is rapidly
becoming accessible, while knowledge of tangential velocity must for a
long time remain partial or uncertain, the advantage of replacing the
discussion of proper motions by that of motions in line of sight is
obvious and immediate. And the admirable work carried on at Potsdam
during the last three years will soon afford the means of doing so in
the first, if only a preliminary investigation of the solar
translation based upon measurements of photographed stellar spectra.

The difficulties, then, caused either by inaccuracies in star
catalogues or by ignorance of star distances may be overcome; but
there is a third, impossible at present to be surmounted, and not
without misgiving to be passed by. All inquiries upon the subject of
the advance of our system through space start with an hypothesis most
unlikely to be true. The method uniformly adopted in them--and no
other is available--is to treat the _inherent_ motions of the stars
(their so-called _motus peculiares_) as pursued indifferently in all
directions. The steady drift extricable from them by rules founded
upon the science of probabilities is presumed to be solar motion
visually transferred to them in proportions varying with their
remoteness in space, and their situations on the sphere. If this
presumption be in any degree baseless, the result of the inquiry is
_pro tanto_ falsified. Unless the deviations from the parallactic line
of the stellar motions balance one another on the whole, their
discussion may easily be as fruitless as that of observations tainted
with systematic errors. It is scarcely, however, doubtful that law,
and not chance, governs the sidereal revolutions. The point open to
question is whether the workings of law may not be so exceedingly
intricate as to produce a grand sum total of results which, from the
geometrical side, may justifiably be regarded as casual.

The search for evidence of a general plan in the wanderings of the
stars over the face of the sky has so far proved fruitless. Local
concert can be traced, but no widely diffused preference for one
direction over any other makes itself definitely felt. Some regard,
nevertheless, _must_ be paid by them to the plane of the Milky Way;
since it is altogether incredible that the actual construction of the
heavens is without dependence upon the method of their revolutions.

The apparent anomaly vanishes upon the consideration of the
profundities of space and time in which the fundamental design of the
sidereal universe lies buried. Its composition out of an indefinite
number of partial systems is more than probable; but the inconceivable
leisureliness with which their mutual relations develop renders the
harmony of those relations inappreciable by short-lived terrestrial
denizens. "Proper motions," if this be so, are of a subordinate kind;
they are indexes simply to the mechanism of particular aggregations,
and have no definable connection with the mechanism of the whole. No
considerable error may then be involved in treating them, for purposes
of calculation, as indifferently directed, and the elicited solar
movement may genuinely represent the displacement of our system
relative to its more immediate stellar environment. This is perhaps
the utmost to be hoped for until sidereal astronomy has reached
another stadium of progress.

Unless, indeed, effect should be given to Clerk Maxwell's suggestion
for deriving the absolute longitude of the solar apex from
observations of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites (Proc. Roy. Soc.,
vol. xxx., p. 109). But this is far from likely. In the first place,
the revolutions of the Jovian system cannot be predicted with anything
like the required accuracy. In the second place, there is no certainty
that the postulated phenomena have any real existence. If, however, it
be safe to assume that the solar system, cutting its way through
space, virtually raises an ethereal counter-current, and if it be
further granted that light travels less _with_ than _against_ such a
current, then indeed it becomes speculatively possible, through slight
alternate accelerations and retardations of eclipses taking place
respectively ahead of and in the wake of the sun, to determine his
absolute path in space as projected upon the ecliptic. That is to say,
the longitude of the apex could be deduced together with the resolved
part of the solar velocity; the latitude of the apex, as well as the
component of velocity perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic,
remaining, however, unknown.

The beaten track, meanwhile, has conducted two recent inquirers to
results of some interest. The chief aim of each was the detection of
systematic peculiarities in the motions of stellar assemblages after
the subtraction from them of their common perspective element. By
varying the materials and method of analysis, Prof. Lewis Boss,
Director of the Albany Observatory, hopes that corresponding
variations in the upshot may betray a significant character. Thus, if
stars selected on different principles give notably and consistently
different results, the cause of the difference may with some show of
reason be supposed to reside in specialties of movement appertaining
to the several groups. Prof. Boss broke ground in this direction by
investigating 284 proper motions, few of which had been similarly
employed before (_Astr. Jour._, No. 213). They were all taken from an
equatorial zone 4 deg. 20' in breadth, with a mean declination of +3 deg.,
observed at Albany for the catalogue of the Astronomische
Gesellschaft, and furnished data accordingly for a virtually
independent research of a somewhat distinctive kind. It was carried
out to three separate conclusions. Setting aside five stars with
secular movements ranging above 100", Prof. Boss divided the 279 left
available into two sets--one of 185 stars brighter, the other of 144
stars fainter than the eighth magnitude. The first collection gave for
the goal of solar translation a point about 4 deg. north of [alpha] Lyrae,
in R.A. 280 deg., Decl. +43 deg.; the second, one some thirty-seven minutes of
time to the west of [delta] Cygni, in R.A. 286 deg., Decl. +45 deg.. For a
third and final solution, twenty-six stars moving 40"-100" were
rejected, and the remaining 253 classed in a single series. The upshot
of their discussion was to shift the apex of movement to R.A. 289 deg.,
Decl. +51 deg.. So far as the difference from the previous pair of results
is capable of interpretation, it would seem to imply a predominant set
toward the northeast of the twenty-six swifter motions subsequently
dismissed as prejudicial, but in truth the data employed were not
accurate enough to warrant so definite an inference. The Albany proper
motions, as Prof. Boss was careful to explain, depend for the most
part upon the right ascensions of Bessel's and Lalande's zones, and
are hence subject to large errors. Their study must be regarded as
suggestive rather than decisive.

A better quality and a larger quantity of material was disposed of by
the latest and perhaps the most laborious investigator of this
intricate problem. M. Oscar Stumpe, of Bonn (_Astr. Nach._, Nos.
2,999, 3,000), took his stars, to the number of 1,054, from various
quarters, if chiefly from Auwers' and Argelander's lists, critically
testing, however, the movement attributed to each of not less than 16"
a century. This he fixed as the limit of secure determination, unless
for stars observed with exceptional constancy and care. His discussion
of them is instructive in more ways than one. Adopting, the additional
computative burden imposed by it notwithstanding, Schonfeld's
modification of Airy's formulae, he introduced into his equations a
fifth unknown quantity expressive of a possible stellar drift in
galactic longitude. A negative result was obtained. No symptom came to
light of "rotation" in the plane of the Milky Way.

M. Stumpe's intrepid industry was further shown in disregard of
customary "scamping" subterfuges. Expedients for abbreviation vainly
spread their allurements; every one of his 2,108 equations was
separately and resolutely solved. A more important innovation was his
substitution of proper motion for magnitude as a criterion of
remoteness. Dividing his stars on this principle into four groups, he
obtained an apex for the sun's translation corresponding to each as
follows:

Number of Proper motion. Apex.
Group included stars. " " deg. deg.
I. 551 0.16 to 0.32 R.A. 287.4 Decl. +42.
II. 340 0.32 to 0.64 " 279.7 " 40.5
III. 105 0.64 to 1.28 " 287.9 " 32.1
IV. 58 1.28 and upward " 285.2 " 30.4

Here again we find a marked and progressive descent of the apex toward
the equator with the increasing swiftness of the objects serving for
its determination, leading to the suspicion that the most northerly
may be the most genuine position, because the one least affected by
stellar individualities of movement.

By nearly all recent investigations, moreover, the solar _point de
mire_ has been placed considerably further to the east and nearer to
the Milky Way than seemed admissible to their predecessors; so that
the constellation Lyra may now be said to have a stronger claim than
Hercules to include it; and the necessity has almost disappeared for
attributing to the solar orbit a high inclination to the medial
galactic plane.

From both the Albany and the Bonn discussions there emerged with
singular clearness a highly significant relation. The mean magnitudes
of the two groups into which Prof. Boss divided his 279 stars were
respectively 6.6 and 8.6, the corresponding mean proper motions 21".9
and 20".9. In other words, a set of stars on the whole six times
brighter than another set owned a scarcely larger sum total of
apparent displacement. And that this approximate equality of movement
really denoted approximate equality of mean distance was made manifest
by the further circumstance that the secular journey of the sun proved
to subtend nearly the same angle whichever of the groups was made the
standpoint for its survey. Indeed, the fainter collection actually
gave the larger angle (13".73 as against 12".39), and so far an
indication that the stars composing it were, on an average, nearer to
the earth than the much brighter ones considered apart.

A result similar in character was reached by M. Stumpe. Between the
mobility of his star groups, and the values derived from them for the
angular movement of the sun, the conformity proved so close as
materially to strengthen the inference that apparent movement measures
real distance. The mean brilliancy of his classified stars seemed, on
the contrary, quite independent of their mobility. Indeed, its changes
tended in an opposite direction. The mean magnitude of the slowest
group was 6.0, of the swiftest 6.5, of the intermediate pair 6.7 and
6.1. And these are not isolated facts. Comparisons of the same kind,
and leading to identical conclusions, were made by Prof. Eastman at
Washington in 1889 (Phil. Society Bulletin, vol. xii, p. 143;
Proceedings Amer. Association, 1889, p. 71).

What meaning can we attribute to them? Uncritically considered, they
seem to assert two things, one reasonable, the other palpably absurd.
The first--that the average angular velocity of the stars varies
inversely with their distance from ourselves--few will be disposed to
doubt; the second--that their average apparent luster has nothing to
do with greater or less remoteness--few will be disposed to admit.
But, in order to interpret truly, well ascertained if unexpected
relationships, we must remember that the sensibly moving stars used to
determine the solar translation are chosen from a multitude sensibly
fixed; and that the proportion of stationary to traveling stars rises
rapidly with descent down the scale of magnitude. Hence a mean struck
in disregard of the zeros is totally misleading; while the account is
no sooner made exhaustive than its anomalous character becomes largely
modified. Yet it does not wholly disappear. There is some warrant for
it in nature. And its warrant may perhaps consist in a preponderance,
among suns endowed with high _physical_ speed, of small or slightly
luminous over powerfully radiative bodies. Why this should be so, it
would be futile, even by conjecture, to attempt to explain.--_Nature._

* * * * *

ANIMAL ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM AND PARAFFIN.

R. Zaloziecki, in _Dingl. Polyt. Jour._, gives a lengthy physical and
chemical argument in favor of the modern view that petroleum and
paraffin owe their origin to animal sources; that they are formed from
animal remains in a manner strictly analogous to that of the formation
of ordinary coal from wood and other vegetable debris. For geological
as well as chemical reasons, the author holds that Mendeleeff's theory
of their igneous origin is untenable, pointing out that the
hydrocarbons could not have been formed by the action of water
percolating through clefts in the gradually solidifying crust until it
reached the molten metallic carbides, as these clefts could only occur
where complete solidification had taken place, and between this point
and the metallic stratum a considerable space would be taken up by
semi-solid, slag-like material which would be quite impervious to
water. Under the conditions, too, existing beneath the surface of the
earth, such polymerization as is necessary to account for the presence
of the different classes of hydrocarbons found in petroleum is
scarcely credible.

On the other hand it is to be specially noticed that, with a few
unimportant exceptions, all bituminous deposits are found in the
sedimentary rocks, and that just as these are constantly changing in
composition, so the organic matter present changes, there being a
definite relationship between the chemical constitution of the
petroleum and the age of the strata in which it is found. It is almost
certain that in the most recent alluvial formations no oil is ever
found, its latest appearance being in the rocks of the tertiary
period, the place where the solid paraffin is almost exclusively met
with; thus helping to show that the latter has been formed from the
decomposition of the oil, and is not a residue remaining after the oil
has been distilled off. To this conclusion the fact also strongly
points, that the paraffin is much simpler in constitution, purer, and
often of far lighter color than the crude oil, which could not be the
case if it were the original substance.

On examining by the aid of a map the position of the chief oil-bearing
localities it will be noticed that the most prolific spots follow
fairly accurately the contour lines of the country, so that at one
time they formed in all probability a coast line whereon would be
concentrated for climatic reasons most of the animal life both of the
land and sea. During succeeding generations their dead bodies would
accumulate in enormous quantities and be buried in the slowly
depositing sand and mud, till, owing to the gradual alterations of
level, the sea no longer reached the same point. This theory is borne
out by the fact that oil deposits are usually found in marine
sediments, sea fossils being frequently met with. The first process of
the decomposition of the animal remains would consist in the formation
of ammonia and nitrogenous bases, the action being aided by the
presence of air, moisture, and micro-organisms, at the same time,
owing to the well known antiseptic properties of salt, the
decomposition would go on slowly, allowing time for more sand and
inorganic matter to be deposited. In this way the decomposing matter
would be gradually protected from the action of the air, and finally
the various fatty substances would be found mixed with large amounts
of salt, under considerable pressure, and at a somewhat high
temperature. From this adipocere, fatty acids would be gradually
formed, the glycerol being washed away, and finally the acids would be
decomposed by the pressure into hydrocarbons and free carbonic acid
gas. That many of these hydrocarbons would be solid at ordinary
temperatures, forming the so-called mineral wax, which exists in many
places in large quantities, is much easier to imagine, in the light of
modern chemical knowledge, than that the fatty acids were at once
split up into the simpler liquid hydrocarbons, to be afterward
condensed into the more complex molecular forms of the solid
substance.

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