RESULTS OF A METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL, FOR SEPTEMBER, 1825.*

14

Kept at the Observatory of the Royal Academy, Gosport, Hants.

30.33, September 28th-Wind S

29.43,

0.90.

14th

S.E.

N.

Range of the Mercury..

Mean Barometrical Pressure for the Month

Inches.
29.895

for the Lunar period, ending the 12th inst. ......30.003 for 15 days, with the Moon in North declination.. 29.924 for 14 days, with the Moon in South declination..30.082 Spaces described by the rising and falling of the Mercury.. 4.190 Greatest variation in 24 hours..

....

0.360

Range.

Mean temperature of the external air...

Greatest variation in 24 hours......

.47

.31

63.62

..22.00

for 31 days, with the Sun in Virgo..64.66

A clear sky, 3; fine, with various modifications of clouds, 15; an overcast sky, without rain, 6; rain, 4-Total, 30 days.

CLOUDS.

Cirrus, Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus, Stratus, Cumulus, Cumulostratus, Nimbus.

*The Report for the preceding month was transmitted to us by Dr. Burney, but unfortunately miscarried. We hope to be able to continue them regularly in future.

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL FOR SEPTEMBER,

The first nine and the last five days of this month were dry, the other part was generally wet, yet the weather has been remarkably warm for the season, frequently sultry in the evenings and throughout several nights, insomuch that the mean temperature of the air this month is only 11-10th degree less than that of last month. The mean temperature of the external air this month is 34 degrees higher than the mean of September for the last nine years. The temperature of spring water arrived at its maximum at the time of the autumnal equinox ; and, in consequence of the dryness of the summer, and the unusually high temperature of the ground, its maximum for the present year is one-third of a degree higher than the mean of the maxima for the last five years. The steadiness of the mercury in the barometer at this period, arising from the gentleness of the atmospherical tides, as they are termed, is a proof the calmness of the weather. Should it be asked what this unprecedented mean temperature of the air is attributable to, we would answer,with deference, that it may have been influenced partly by the great heat of the ground, as ascertained by the temperature of spring water, and partly by the conjunction of the planets, as hereafter mentioned, and the recent appearance of the comets that are said to be pervading the solar system. For we have particularly observed, that the temperature of the air is comparatively higher when a comet is present, than when it has receded from the sight; and by admitting the theory of attraction of the planetary bodies, and the diffusion of light and caloric to them as well as to our earth, it is not irrelevant to suppose, that the conjunction of an inferior with superior planets may have a tendency to increase, in some measure, the heat of our atmosphere. Such a suggestion is certainly deserving the attention of the philosophic mind, though we admit it to be a subject hitherto uninvestigated.

The atmospheric and meteoric phenomena that have come within our observations this month, are

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three parhelia, one paraseline, two solar and two lunar halos, one rainbow, and one lunar iris on the 25th, the latter at 9 P. M.; twenty-four meteors, lightning in the nights of the 11th, 14th, and 20th; and thunder in the afternoon of the 14th; three strong gales of wind, namely, one from S.E. and two from S.W., the first of which came on the day preceding the autumnal equinox.

Singular Appearances of Meteors. In the evening of the 4th instant, a large meteor passed from the star Alpha, in the constellation Aries, to the Pleiades nearly, and showed itself in this direction, mostly behind a wane-cloud.

In the evening of the 13th, at a quarter past nine o'clock, a brilliant meteor, of a whitish colour, in its descent from the star Atair, in Aquila, divided in two distinct parts just before it disappeared.

Conjunction of the Planets, &c.→→→ Soon after four o'clock in the morning of the 28th, a conjunction of the planets Mars and Venus, and the star Regulus was observed here. These celestial objects were about 15 degrees above the eastern horizon, in the prime vertical, and the sky being cloudless at the time, made this interesting phenomenon very conspicuous. The distance of Venus from Mars was 44 minutes of a degree, and from Regulus 39′ 5′′, all of them forming an isosceles triangle. Jupiter was 6° 33′ to the eastward of Venus; an occultation of Regulus behind Venus took place at six o'clock in the evening of the same day, and at 10 P. M. Mars and Venus were in their nearest conjunction, namely, two-thirds of a degree distant from each other.

At four o'clock in the morning of October the 4th, a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter was also observed here, when the former was distant from the latter 40 minutes. Venus, in this position, certainly appeared the most brilliant of the two, and reflected a greater light upon the Earth than Jupiter did. In the evening, Venus, when passing the southern side of Jupiter (although invisible to us), was only a few minutes distant from him.

$438

BURSTALL AND HILL'S NEW PATENT STEAM-COACH.

The engines are what are called high-pressure, and capable of working to 10-horse power, and the steam is purposed to be let off into an intermediate vessel, that the sound emitted may be regulated by one or more cocks.

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From the Repertory of Patent Inventions. The patentees seem to have taken great pains to render this steam-carriage as perfect as the knowledge as yet acquired, relative to this mode of conveyance, would permit; and the evident improvement which it exhibits on some of its predecessors, gives great hopes that the desirable object of making steam-carriages capable of moving effectually on common roads, will be attained at no distant period.

The great impediment to the application of steam-carriages to common roads, is their enormous weight, which, in few cases yet made public, has been much less than eight tons; to which, if the usual load of goods put on an eight-horse waggon were added (to supply the place of stagewaggons being one of the objects of the patentees), no common road yet made could support them. It would therefore be an object well worth that ingenuity which the patentees have shown in the construction of their steam-carriage, to contrive means for lessening the weight of those vehicles in every possible way, as well as to pursue the plan already used on railways, of having carriages for conveying the mercantile goods, or the passengers, quite distinct from that of the steamengine, which, for the latter purpose, would also be desirable for other obvious reasons; for, exclusive of the idea of danger, which sitting close to a caldron of boiling water, subject to be precipitated on them by an unlucky stone or rut in the road, might give to people, otherwise not very timorous, the great heat of the furnace and boiler would be very objectionable, at least during the warm months. In this way the steam-carriages would serve the purpose of horses to draw other carriages (which they so far resemble, that on the railroads where they are used they are called, we are informed, iron horses,

by the workmen); and for common roads this separation of the weight on separate carriages would be even much more necessary than for railroads, on account of their being formed of materials so much less hard and durable. Among the me thods proposed for making engines more light, that of using boilers constructed of small pipes seems very worthy of attention, several modes of which have been already made public; among the more recent of which, that for which Mr. Theodore Paul has lately obtained a patent, seems in some respects to deserve a preference; but requiring, in order to complete it, the addition of Mr. Perkins's patent principle, of confining the heated water in the pipes by a weighted valve, till the instant of its being let off to act on the piston of the engine in the form of steam; as the water without this would be blown totally out of the pipes by the steam formed in its lower extremities.

The method of forcing the water into the boiler by the pressure of air, in an engine where no condensation is required, which is the case in that of the patentees, can do no injury to the general effect, and may be of some service on the principle applied in M. Latour's air-engine (for which see Nicholson's Phil. Journal, vol. xxix., p. 175), who caused a wheel to revolve by the expansion which the air received in passing from cold water into that heated to the boiling point; and as some of the air pressed into the patentees' water reservoir will be absorbed by the water, and pass over with it into the boiler, it will so far have a similar effect. It is also probable that the air-pumps will keep longer and better in order than small water forcing-pumps, both from air having less action on metal, and not being so liable to carry along with it extraneous substances.