June i, 191 i] 



NATURE 



465 



again that the Standard Time Co. has offered the public 

 time service in London for many years. Then many of 

 the electric clock firms, notably the Silent Clock Co., 

 the Synchronome Co., and the Aron Time Distribution 

 Co., have for a considerable time offered trustworthy 

 synchronised Greenwich clocks to the public at rates which 

 are, we believe, lower than those quoted by the new com- 

 pany. We wish every success, however, to a laudable 

 endeavour to ensure accuracy in time-keeping, 



ARCTIC TIDES."- 



"X* HE Coast and Geodetic Survey of the United States 

 has just published the summarised account of the 

 tides of the Arctic Ocean, based on the observations made 

 by Peary's expedition and on those by Messrs. Mikkelsen 

 and Leffingwell at Flaxman Island, to the north of Alaska. 

 The recent Russian observations at Taimur Bay and on 

 one of the New Siberian Islands are not yet available for 

 inclusion. Peary's observations were made at Cape 

 Sheridan, Port Aldrich (near Cape Columbia), Cape 

 Bryant, Cape Morris Jesup, and Fort Conger for periods 

 ranging from seven and a half months, November 12, 

 1908, to June 30, 1909, at Cape Sheridan, to fourteen 

 days at Fort Conger ; and hourly heights of the tide are 

 given, as well as for Flaxman Island in 1906. These are 

 followed by a table giving the principal harmonic constants 

 for all stations north of the sixtieth parallel where such 

 constants are at present available, and fifty-four of these 

 have been collected. Besides this, however, the same 

 region furnishes a long range of data from many points 

 which have been obtained by successive explorers, and 

 these have been brought together to show the intervals, 

 ranges, tidal hours, &c., from all published sources, and 

 to deduce from them the mean ranges of the semi-daily 

 tide and the mean tidal hours. 



A co-tidal chart from the Pole to latitude 65° shows the 

 results arrived at by means of lines giving the Greenwich 

 lunar time of mean high water, and on this chart a 

 large area of about half a million square miles between 

 Alaska and the Pole is represented as being land but 

 slightly submerged. The following facts are quoted as 

 showing the necessity for such land or shoals : at Point 

 Barrow the flood stream comes from the west ; the range of 

 the semi-daily tide at Bennett Island is 2-5 feet, whereas it 

 is but 0-4 foot at Point Barrow and 05 foot at Flaxman 

 Island ; the observed tidal hours and ranges of tide show 

 that the semi-daily tide is not propagated to the Alaskan 

 coast directly across a deep and uninterrupted polar basin. 

 Not only the position of such a land area is indicated, but 

 its aoproximatc shape is given as roughly trapezoidal, for 

 certain points are suggested by velocity and direction of 

 currents, by Peary's Crocker's Land, and by some of his 

 soundings. 



This paper provides a useful and instructive summary 

 of the tidal movements of the Arctic Ocean so far as they 

 are known, and makes a very suggestive addition to our 

 knowledge of the distribution of north polar lands. 



AVIATION NOTES. 



lyr R. WINSTON CHURCHILL has wisely amended his 

 iVX II Aerial Navigation Bill," and transformed a 

 measure which, in its original form, promised to kill aerial 

 navigation into one of comparatively small importance. 

 The Bill as it now stands provides that if any person 

 navigates any kind of air vessel over any area prescribed 

 by order of the Home Secretary, unless he can prove that 

 he was compelled to do so by stress of weather or other 

 uncontrollable circumstances, he shall be guilty of an 

 offence, and be liable to six months' imprisonment or a 

 fine of 200I., or both. 



The prime object of the Bill is to prevent any daring 

 or reckless aviator from flying over the Coronation pro- 

 cessions. It is, however, an open question whether it 

 would succeed in its aim were it not that the Royal Aero 

 Club has requested aviators not to do so, and has provided 

 a penalty for disobedience — the suspension of the certifi- 



1 "Arctic Tides." By Rollin A. Harris. (Washington : Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, iqii.) 



NO. 2170, VOL. 86] 



cate of proficiency. It will be perfectly obvious that an 

 aviator could pass high over the processions without in- 

 curring any penalty whatsoever. At a height of 1500 feet 

 and upwards the identity of the pilot would be unrecog- 

 nisable. 



M. Jules V^drines has performed an extraordinarily fine 

 feat in flying from Paris to Madrid, a distance of 660 

 miles, in i2h. 15m., thus winning the prize offered by the 

 Petit Parisien. The flight was accomplished on a Morane 

 monoplane fitted with a 50 horse-power Gnome motor and 

 an " Integrale " propeller. M. V^drines started frorn Issy- 

 les-Moulineaux on May 22, reaching AngoulSme, 250 miles 

 away, in 3h. 42m. i8s. The second stage, to San 

 Sebastian (193 miles), took 3h. 43m. 19s., and the final 

 stage, on May 26, to Madrid (220 miles), took 4h. 48m. 42s. 

 The times given are those of actual flight ; but it is satis- 

 factory to note that the first two stages were flown with- 

 out a stop, and only one halt made in the last stage, owing 

 to the breaking of a valve spring in the motor. 



The most notable advance recently made in the improve- 

 ment of aeroplanes has just been successfully tested near 

 Versailles. M. Henry Farman has fitted a silencer to 

 the motor of his military-type biplane, which was already 

 furnished with a wireless telegraphy transmitter. The 

 motor — a Renault — worked without a hitch. 



A meeting of the Aerial League of the British Empire 

 was held at the Mansion House on Wednesday of last 

 week to promote a special Coronation appeal for 250,000/. 

 for the establishment of a National Institute and School 

 of Aeronautics. The following motion (moved by Sir E. 

 Shackleton) was put to the meeting and carried 

 unanimously : — " That this meeting of the citizens of 

 London and the Empire supports the principles laid down 

 in the circular issued by the Aerial League of the British 

 Empire, and pledges itself to do all in its power to assist 

 the League in its efforts on behalf of the advancement of 

 aeronautics," as was also the following (proposed by Mr. 

 Joynson-Hicks, M.P.) : — " That a Coronation fund be 

 raised for tlTe purpose of inaugurating a National Institute 

 and School of Aeronautics." 



NEW ORGANIC COMPOUNDS OF NITROGENS 



T N the diversity of behaviour exhibited by its derivatives, 

 nitrogen is unrivalled by any other element. This is 

 illustrated not only by the contrasting properties of 

 ammonia, hydrazine, and azoimide, substances composed 

 solely of nitrogen and hydrogen in different proportions, 

 but also by the chemical, physiological, and aesthetic 

 variations displayed by organic compounds of nitrogen, 

 such as nitrocellulose, indigo, azo-dyes, alkaloids, enzymes, 

 and proteins. 



Azoimide or hydrazoic acid, HN,, discovered by Curtius 

 in 1890, is the parent of a series comprising numerous 

 highly reactive organic compounds, the first of which — 

 phenylazoimide — was brought to light by Peter Griess in 

 1866, after which date the subject lay dormant for more 

 than twenty years. Two methods are applied commercially 

 to the production of sodium azide ; the first, described by 

 W. Wislicenus (1892), consisting in passing nitrous oxide 

 over heated sodamide ; the second, due to Stolid and Thiole 

 working independently (1908), depending on the interaction 

 of hydrazine, sodium ethoxide, and an ethereal nitrite. In 

 consequence of these, the salt, originally a chemical 

 curiosity, may now be purchased at 40s. per pound, 

 largely owing to the simple and inexpensive preparation of 

 hydrazine devised by Raschig (1908). The principal 

 methods by which organic derivatives of azoimide may be 

 obtained are : — 



(i) Action of nitrous acid on a substituted hydrazine, 

 applied by Curtius to the production of numerous 

 acyl azoimides. 



(2) Addition of hydrazoic acid to a diazonium sulphate, 

 found by Noelting to yield aromatic azoimides quanti- 

 tatively. 



(3) Interaction of organic halides and sodium azide, as 

 practised at the Royal College of Science in preparing 

 aliphatic azoimides. 



• Abstract of b discourse j'elivered at the Roj.iI Institution on Friday 

 May 5. by Prof. M.irtin O. ForMer, K.R.S. 



