March 2, 191 1] 



NATURE 



23 



at 20° C. This result, according to a paper by Dr. S. 

 Lindeck, of the Reichsanstalt, which appears in the 

 January number of the Verhandlungen der Deutschen 

 Physikalischen Gesellschaft, is confirmed and extended to 

 very impure coppers and to aluminium and iron by the 

 tests made at the Reichsanstalt during the past five years. 



According to notices to hand from the Soci^t^ fran^aise 



de Physique, the Journal de Physique is in future to be 



published by the society, and the three-monthly Bulletin 



des Seances is no longer to be issued. The increased cost 



:is to be met by an increase of the subscriptions to 25 



j francs for resident and 20 francs for non-resident members. 



!The first issue of the Journal de Physique under the new 



iconditions, which appeared early in January, contains a 



^rSsume by Messrs. Cotton and Mouton of their work on 



Ithe magnetic double refraction of pure liquids, to which 



'we referred in these columns in November last. The 



, abstracts of papers which have appeared in other 



'periodicals occupy about twenty pages, and seem 



^thoroughly good, but as they nearly all relate to papers 



published in the early months of 1909, it is evident that 



much requires to be done before the journal can claim 



that it is placing the present state of the various branches 



of physical science before its readers. 



With reference to an offer recently made to the Calcutta 

 University by the Hon. the Mahardja of Cassimbazar of 



j 20,000 rupees, for the purpose of editing and translating 

 Sanskrit texts dealing with astronomy and mathematics. 

 Dr. G. Thibaut stated, at the meeting of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal on February i, that he will shortly explain the 

 present state of knowledge of Indian astronomy and mathe- 



[ matics, and point out what remains to be done in the way 

 of publishing and translating. In this connection he will 

 deal shortly with the following points : — the successive 

 stages of the development of astronomy and mathematics 

 in India ; the characteristic features of each stage ; the 



. question whether the astronomical and mathematical know- 

 ledge possessed by the ancient Hindus originated in India 

 or was borrowed in part or in its entirety from some other 

 nations (Greeks or Babylonians) ; the use which has been 

 made of certain data of an astronomical nature met with 

 in the Veda, for determining the age of the Veda or of 

 Indo-Aryan civilisation. 



Commenting on the Waratah wreck inquiry. Engineer- 

 ing for February 24 states that the most important point 

 which emerges from the finding of the Court appointed 

 by the Board of Trade is the recommendation that a com- 

 mittee of experts should be appointed to arrive at some 

 conclusion concerning the minimum stability requirements 

 of different types of vessels at sea. Curves showing these 

 requirements might be utilised for preparing rules for the 

 guidance of shipowners in the stowage of cargo in each 

 ship with greater precision than is now possible. Our 

 contemporary states that it has been the practice with 

 experienced builders, among whom should be classed the 

 builders of the Waratah, to supply owners with full 

 information regarding the stability of the ship under all 

 conditions of loading, and with instructions as to the 

 disposition of the ballast, in order to ensure the continu- 

 ance of satisfactory conditions. But there is no certainty 

 as to whether or not these conditions are scrupulously 

 fulfilled by the officers responsible for the ship. The pro- 

 |>osal to institute a committee for the formulation of rules 

 is satisfactory in itself, but something more is required in 

 order to ensure that the rules will be carried out most 

 carefully. 



NO. 2157, VOL. 86] 



A CONTRIBUTION from the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, 

 Harvard University, appears in the Proceedings of the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences for January, 

 giving an account of some experiments on the action of 

 mercury on steel at high pressures. Amagat in 1893 

 described a case in which mercury was forced by a pressure 

 of 3000 atmospheres in a fine spray through 8 cm. of cast 

 steel, in which no flaw could be afterwards detected with 

 the microscope. In the experiments now described, twelve 

 similar test cylinders were cut from a bar of Krupp's 

 special chrome nickel steel. Six of these were tested under 

 mercury pressure, and the others were tested with a 

 glycerin and water mixture, with ether, and also CS^. 

 Five of the cylinders tested with mercury burst at pressures 

 from 3000 to 4750 kilograms per square cm. ; one burst 

 at 10,250 kilograms per square cm. None of the cylinders 

 tested with other fluids burst, even under pressures of 

 24,000 kilograms per square cm. Soft steel cylinders show 

 this effect hardly at all, owing to the interference of the 

 lower yield point of the material. Examination of the 

 fracture seems to establish the fact that the lower strength 

 of hard steel cylinders under mercury pressure is owing to 

 amalgamation. Amalgamation once started, it spreads 

 with great rapidity throughout the metal. Two causes 

 hasten the rapidity of the action : one is the natural 

 affinity of mercury and steel, the other is the straining 

 action of the pressure, tending to open the jx)res. The 

 latter view is strongly supported by the fact that, in the 

 fractures, amalgamation was observed to be most rapid in 

 the direction in which the pores were most distended. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Astronomical Occurrences for March : — 

 March 2. Sh. 58m. Venus in conjunction with the Moon 

 (Venus 2° 20' N.). 

 4. loh. 22m. Saturn in conjunction with the Moon 



(Saturn 1° 39' S.). 

 9. i7h. 23m. Neptune in conjunction with the Moon 



(Neptune 5° 22' S.). 

 ID, 2ih. 40m. Mars in conjunction with Uranus (Mais, 



0° 23' S.). 

 18. I4h. 8m. Jupiter in conjunction with the Moon 

 (Jupiter i°47' N.). 



20. ih. om. Mercury in superior conjunction with the 



Sun. 



21. 5h. 45m. Sun er'ers sign of Aries. Spring equinox. 



24. i6h. 49m. Uranw in conjunction with the Moun 



(Uranus 4" 39' N.). 



25. I2h. 3m. Mars in conjunction with the Moon 



(Mars 4° 15' N.). 

 28. 17b. 50m. Venus in conjunction with Saturn (Venus 



2° 25' N.). 

 ■30. I2h. Neptune stationary. 

 ,, i8h. 51m. Mercury in conjunction with the Moon 



(Mercury 2° 22' N.). 

 31, 23h. 1501. Saturn in conjunction with the Moon 



(Satuin 1° 58' S.). 



A Remarkable Meteor. — Mr. W. F. Denning writes : — 

 " On February 19, at 9h. 24m., a brilliant meteor was 

 seen by Mr. and Mrs. Wilson from Reigate, Surrey, and 

 by Mr. Peecock from Stowmarket. The object was a very 

 exceptional one for its slowness of flight. At Stowmarket 

 the meteor is described as having a bright reddish-yellow 

 head, with a glowing tail about 1^ degrees long streaming 

 behind. It was traced from low in the south-west to low 

 in the north-east. It was in full view for thirty seconds 

 or more. 



" At Reigate only the last 27 degrees were observed from 

 just north of Coma Berenices to close to Arcturus. It 

 was the slowest meteor ever witnessed by the observers, 

 who counted sixty, equal to about thirty seconds, while 

 it descended. It showed a bright head, and a yellow tail 

 marked its path. 



