xciv. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



were observed in England and many parts of Central Europe 

 on June 3oth and July ist and 2nd. These were generally 

 considered to be auroral in their nature, but the absence of any 

 aurora spectrum and the steady nature of the glows point to 

 their being caused by sunlight reflected either on clouds at great 

 heights or on some substance in the form of fine dust in a similar 

 position. 



ELECTRICITY. 



Wireless telegraphy (or radio-telegraphy, as it should now, I 

 suppose, be called, though it seems an inconvenient name for a 

 thing unconnected with radium, when that substance is so much 

 before the public,) and its developments continue to occupy the 

 chief place in the section, and the first regular wireless station, 

 belonging to the Post-office, to be used for communication with 

 ships, was opened at Bolt Head, Devon, on December nth. It 

 has a range of 250 miles. The advantages of this method of 

 communication between ships at sea were strikingly illustrated in 

 a recent collision between the Republic and the Florida, the 

 former ship having a wireless telegraphic apparatus and being 

 able to summon other ships to her aid. From experiments 

 successfully carried out at Dieppe it would appear that the 

 difficulty of sending the radio-telegraphic message in one 

 direction only has been overcome, but the plan does not seem to 

 be yet generally adopted. The transmission of photographs by 

 telegraphy continues to make progress, and two or three new 

 methods have lately been invented by which the time of trans- 

 mission is shortened. The Carnegie Institution is building for 

 purposes of magnetic research in different parts of the world a 

 ship, of which every portion is to be non-magnetic, with one or 

 two small exceptions, which have to be of iron, the hull being 

 of wood, and bronze being largely used. A destructive hailstorm 

 in France was observed to follow the course of a high tension 

 line for 14 kilometres, doing serious damage in its immediate 

 neighbourhood and spreading for 800 to 1,000 metres on either 

 side. Where the storm commenced three large balls of fire were 



