Transcriber’s note: Table of Contents added by Transcriber.
CONTENTS
Established by Edward L. Youmans
APPLETONS’
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY
EDITED BY
WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS
VOL. LVI
NOVEMBER, 1899, TO APRIL, 1900
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1900
Copyright, 1900,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
APPLETONS’
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.
JANUARY, 1900.
ADVANCE OF ASTRONOMY DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
By Sir ROBERT BALL,
lowndean professor of astronomy at the university of cambridge, england.
One of the most remarkable chapters in the astronomy of thepast century was commenced on the very first night withwhich that century began. It was, indeed, on the 1st of January,1801, that the discovery of a new planet was announced. The fivegreat orbs—Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, and Venus—had beenknown from the earliest times of which we have records, and th