FIG. 1.
In the actual apparatus the sphere is an ordinary round-bottomed flask about 95 mm. in diameter, and the lens a simple double convex lens of about 90 mm. focal length. The sensitive paper employed is the ordinary ferro-prussiate now so much used by engineers for copying tracings. This was selected in consequence of the ease with which the impression is fixed, for the paper merely requires to be washed in a stream of water for six minutes, no chemicals being necessary. When the paper is dry, radial lines containing between them angles of 15° are drawn from the center of the circular impression, and thus give the hour scale, the time of apparent noon being of course given by a line passing through the plan of the meridian. Fig. 2 is a copy of the record of June 27, 1884; in the morning the sun shone brightly, toward noon clouds began to form, and in the afternoon the sky was hazy. The field in which the instrument is placed is surrounded by trees, so the ends of the trace are cut off sharply by shadows.
FIG. 2.
With the alteration of declination of the sun, the light entering the camera is reflected from different portions of the sphere, and an alteration of the position of the focus results. This may be corrected in three ways; by moving (1) the paper, (2) the lens, or (3) the sphere. In the present apparatus the first method has been adopted, and now the camera is about twice as long as it was in June. As a consequence, the circular image is enlarged, and the light therefore weakened, and that at a time of year when it can least be spared. If the focus is altered by moving the lens, the winter circle is small and the summer circle is much larger. This would perhaps be too much to the advantage of the winter sun. If, however, the lens and paper are maintained at a constant distance, and the sphere alone moved, the circles are more nearly of the same diameter throughout the year, the winter one still remaining the smallest. This seems, therefore, to be the most advantageous arrangement, and the one that will be adopted in future. It may be possible also to find positions for the sphere, lens, and paper such that the intensity of the image is a true measure of the intensity of the sun's light; at present, however, this has not been done, the want of sunlight and the press of official work having prevented the carrying out of the necessary experiments. A more sensitive paper might also be used with advantage, and in observatories where photographic processes are carried on daily there would be no difficulty on this score, but my principal object was to devise some economical instrument requiring only easy manipulation, so that at a considerable number of places the instruments might be set up, giving a more useful average of the duration of sunshine than can be obtained from only a few stations. The instrument also gives a record when the sun is shining through light clouds; in this case the image is somewhat blurred and naturally weakened, and it may be difficult or impossible to employ any scale for measuring the intensity under such conditions, but it must be remembered that, even when the sun is shining in this imperfect manner, it is really doing work on the vegetation of the earth, and deserves to be recorded.
It may be well to say that the instrument is in no way protected. Some friends, whose opinion I highly value, urged me to patent it; but as I strongly hold the view that the work of all students of science should be given freely to the world, the apparatus was described at the Physical Society a few hours after the advice was given, lest the greed of filthy lucre should, on further deliberation, cause me to act contrary to my principles.—Herbert McLeod, Nature.
SKELETON OF A BEAR FOUND IN A CAVE IN STYRIA, AUSTRIA.
In the limestone mountains of the Austrian Alpine countries, numerous large caverns and caves are found, some of which are several miles long. They have been formed by the raising, lowering, and sliding of the layers of sand, or washed out by the stream.