NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2362, 1 June 1899, Page 46

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Questions for reply in coining issue to te received not later than MONDAY w'gkl.

Our Mother Earth. — "Indoctus" writes: — If tEere is one geographical belief more ingrafted on to the minds of ordinary men than another it is that this earth is round like an orange — in precise language, an oblate spheroid. One of the savants of the Royal Geographical Society, London, J. W. Gregory, Doctor of Science, holds, however, a very different view. In the Geographical Journal of March last, under the heading of "The Plan of the Earth and Its Causes," is a learned report by Dr Gregory, read before a meeting of the society, the argument being that there is ample proof of our ordinary text books being quite wrong in their teachings upon the shape of this dear old earth. After disposing of the forms of the continents, the outlines of the oceans and the ocean beds, Doctor Gregory launches forth thus, and it must be a matter of regret to many more in Otago besides myself that our much esteemed friend, Mr Beverly, was not one of the learned company : — The oblate spheroid is no doubt the form that rotation would have caused the earth to assume as it solidified if the earth were quite homogeneous. But the earth is not homogeneous; it varies in strength and density, and an unequal load on the earth in any area leads to a divergence there from the circular shape. It is now, I believe, universally admitted that the earth is flattened laterally at the equator as well as at the poles. The earth is therefore not a true spheroid. There is good reason to believe that the earth is not even an ellipsoid; for the northern and southern hemispheres are unlike, and the earth is therefore shaped like a peg-top. This is shown in two wayß. It is a well-known property of the ellipse that degrees measured along the flatter side are longer 'than degrees measured near the sharper end. It was by proving that a degree of latitude in Lapland is longer than a degree of latitude in Ecuador that the French astronomers in the seventeenth century definitely proved the earth's flattening at the poles. In continuation of these observations, La Caille, in 1751, measured the length of a degree at the Cape. This measurement showed that the southern hemisphere was also flattened, but to a different extent from the northern hemisphere. This was confirmed and extended by Maclear. The inequality of the two hemispheres has also been shown by their variations in gravity. ... In both the northern and southern hemispheres the second-beating pendulum has to be steadily lengthened as we approach the poles; but the deviation is at a different rate for the two hemispheres. The surface of the southern hemisphere does not approach the earth's centre of mass at the same rate as in the northern hemisphere. If the earth's centre of mass is at its geometrical centre, then the earth's form is elongated southward like a peg-top. It is often held that the earth's centre of mass is to the south of its centre of form, because of the accumulation of water in the southern hemisphere. It is held that the "water is piled up there owing to the greater density of the southern hemisphere, "if that be the case, then the peg-top elongation 13 all the greater." The report throughout, a very lengthy one, is interesting, and although the president invited discussion, it was obvious from the shy manner in which one or two remarks were made that one and all were afraid of committing themselves to a decided expression of opinion. Indeed, the president of the Geographical Society said the question was too big to take up off-hand, it being one in which geologists, physicists, mathematicians* and many others were concerned. The president of the meeting, however, said that enough had been advanced for all to realise that the shape of the earth is not what it is said to be in the text books, and thai the first person who advanced the theory that the earth was the shape of a pegtop, or a pear, was Christopher Columbus. Dr Gregory is thus well buttressed in his views by a great name indeed. The mattei is of some importance from an educational point of view ; but there is no one in all New Zealand whose opinion will be received with greater respect concerning it than his whoso name for many long years past has appeared in Notes and Queries in your columns a thousand times over, by way of generously enlightening the darkness of tyros in science and information generally — viz., Mr Beverly. His views I respectfully solicit on behalf of all. Agent. — You have not given your asphalt floor sufficient time to set properly. When properly set and hardened there will be no odour. A top dressing of lime or cement might nullify to some extent the pungent odours, but we think you had far better allow matters to taken their own course, and meanwhile store your bread and butter, etc., elsewhere. Rabbiter. — The steamship Tolosa, from New York, via intermediate ports, arrived at Port Chalmers on February 7, leaving again on the 9th for London via the Bluff, and reaching Home on April 20. We know nothing of her subsequent movements. H. M., Balfour. — (1) Saddlers' wax is composed of pitch and rosin with the addition of a little grease. When melted and thoroughly incorporated pour out on to a cold slab, and when cool enough pull it rintil you get it of the proper consistency. When sufficiently pulled it will float. You may colour it by the addition of a little lamp black. (2) Take 15lb sliced parsnips, and boil until quite soft in sgal of water : squeeze the liquor well out of them, run it through a sieve, and add 3lb of coarse lump sugar to every gallon of liquor. Boil the whole for three-quarters of an hour When it is nearly cold add a little yeast on toast. Let it remain in a tub for ten days, stirring it from the bottom every day, then put into a cask, in which it should remain for a year. As it works over fill it up every day. Vulcan. — " Practical Horse-shoeing," by G. Fleming ; price 2s lOd, including postage ; Richardson's " Practical Blacksmithing," four vols.. 2is, postage included (a most reliable book), at Braithwaitc's Book Arcade. T. A. B—(1)B — (1) The subject is a rather extensive one to be dealt with in the course of the space at our disposal in this column; but it you write to the Secretary of the Agricultural department at Wellington, he will send you leaflets and reports which should give you an insight into it. (2) We cannot learn of any book on grape culture having been pxiblished in New Zealand. J. W.. Wyndham. — Write to the Inspector of Machinery, Custom House, Duneclin, who will give you the necessary instructions. Humanity. — We cannot see what good purpose would be served by the insertion of your letter. Kiwi. — A person who asserts that he is a legatee should be able to show it by documentary evidence. If he does not dc -sc a stiong presumption arises that the assertion is baseless, and that the person making it is untrustworthy. Unless the soi disant legatee chooses

to give particulars, it would be practically impossible to find out the truth of his assertion. He is probably trying to obtain money or credit by false pretences. Inquirer. — We think the chairman is bound to furnish every holder of a miner's right, whatever the age or sex of such holder may be, with a voting paper if demanded, where such holder has resided for three months within the school district. Miner. — Mr Beverly kindly replies : — Of course you mean to raise a head of water 40ft in addition to the 2 heads in the jet. To do this you will require a pressure of about 110 ft. If there were no friction, and the water were delivered at a small velocity (4ft or sft per second), 90ft pressure would be enough ; but there is always 15 to 30 per cent, of the pressure wasted in an elevator, and this must be made allowance for. The nozzle should be 2ijn in diameter, the throat of the, elevator 3gin, the pressure pipe 7in, and the elevator 7in, increasing to lOin at the top. Twice the quantity can be raised at the same pressure by using twice the quantity in the jet if the pipes, etc., are enlarged to correspond. The discharge from a line of pipes across a gully may be increased by enlarging at either end, where the pressure is least. P. — Like other public bodies, school committees have power to regulate their own proceedings, and the matter of erasing an unseconded proposal from the minutf^ is a mattei with which the committee should deal. The mover alone has no power to order the erasure of anything from the minutes. That can only be done by the committee. Mars. — E. Horton and Co., seedsmen, etc.,

Haymarket, Sydney. Mrs A. — Your question is somewhat indefinite, but we should think the answer should be No. Subscribes. — Mr Henton M. Davey, engineer, • etc., Moray place, is a patent agent. Wager. — "We don't understand what the dispute is. The line must have been inspected before it was taken over by the department.