504 



NATURE 



[February 8, 191 2 



number of degrees of freedom. A theory of the former 

 type of galvanometer when used in circuits containing 

 inductance and capacity is worked out, and the conditions 

 of maximum sensibility are determined. The same theory 

 is applicable to the string type of galvanometer provided 

 that the damping is small. The results are applied in the 

 case of a general inductance bridge : (a) Anderson's bridge, 

 (6) a modified Rimington's bridge, (c) Heydweiller's 

 modification of the Carey-Foster bridge, and (d) a bridge 

 for measuring frenuency. The best conditions for work- 

 ing Anderson s bridge with the vibration galvanometer as 

 detector are obtained. Kxperimental results for methods 

 (6) and (d) are quoted. — Dr. P. E. Shaw : Sealing- 

 metals. The established method of fixing quartz fibres 

 for accurate tors'on experiments is due to Prof. C. V. 

 Boys. It involves considerable trouble, which can be 

 avoided by the means given, while the resulting joint is 

 in some cases stronger. Prof. Threlfall used Margot's 

 solder to fasten glass, aluminium, or quartz surfaces to 

 any other. This material acts perfectly, and is simple, 

 the bit being of aluminium, and there being no flux. 

 Investigation shows that there is no special merit in 

 Margot's formula. In place of Margot's solder the follow- 

 ing act very well : — (a) tin ; (6) zinc ; (c) alloys of tin 

 and zinc; (d) tinman's solder; (e) aluminium. Lead does 

 not stick well. Then there is a variety of materials with 

 melting point ranging from i8o° to 660°. For all materials 

 which act in the same manner as sealing-wax the term 

 sealing-metals is suggested. They have the advantages 

 over any wax in (a) high melting point, (6) non-emission 

 of vapour when temperature is raised. There are applica- 

 tions other than for tension fibres where joints to with- 

 stand temperature are required. — Dr. J. H. Vincent and 

 A. Bursill : A negative result connected with radio- 

 activity. Specimens of iron, antimony, and bismuth were 

 subjected to a high-frequency alternating magnetic field. 

 The air in the neighbourhood was tested for any ionisation 

 that might have been tlius produced. The results were 

 negative. — Prof. \. Anderson : A copper-zinc uranium 

 oxide cell and the theory of contact electromotive forces. 

 A uranium oxide cell with copper and zinc plates is 

 described, and reference is made to the temperature 

 coefficient of its E.M.F. A difficulty connected with the 

 energetics of the cell is pointed out, and a possible explana- 

 *«on put forward tentatively. 



Royal Anthropological Institute, February 6.— D. 

 ^acRitchie : The kayak in north-western Europe. The 

 kayak, or skin canoe of the Eskimos, was in use on the 

 coast of northern Russi.^ two or three centuries ago. 

 Evidence of this is obtained from statements made by 

 Burrough in 1556, and from the chronicles of a Danish 

 expedition to Vaigatz in 1653. It appears that the natives 

 of that coast not only used the ordinary kayak, constructed 

 to hold one person, but also built kayaks capable of hold- 

 ing two occupants, a variety of this canoe which is nowa- 

 days specially associated with western Alaska and the 

 Aleutian Isles. It was further shown that three kayaks 

 were captured off the northern shores of Scotland about 

 the end of the seventeenth century. One of these is still 

 preserved in the museum of Marischal College. Aberdeen. 

 An important fact is the occasional presence of a kayak- 

 using race of " Finns " or " Finnmen " in the Orkney 

 Islands during the last twenty years of the seventeenth 

 century, as testified to by three writers of that period. 

 The Orkney people being of Norse stock, the word 

 " Finn " would bear to them the meaning of the Swedish 

 " Lapp." It is consequently worthy of note that the 

 mountain Lapps have a tradition that their ancestors 

 crossed into Sweden from Denmark in small skin boats, 

 and that the only Lapp name for a boat denotes a skin 

 canoe, propelled by paddles, and devoid of rowers' seats 

 and steering place. The comparatively recent survival of 

 Lapp communities in southern Norway was also referred 

 to. After considering the theories of castaways from 

 Greenland, and of Eskimos brought captive to Europe who 

 had subsequently regained their freedom, the lecturer ex- 

 pressed himself in favour of the hypothesis that the Orkney 

 " Finnmen " of the seventeenth century, like their kayak- 

 using contemporaries on the north Russian coast, were the 

 unasslmilated remnants in Europe of people of Eskimo type, 

 whose range in earlier times had been wholly circumpolar. 



NO. 2206, VOL. 88] 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, January 23 

 Prof. F. E. Weiss, president, in the chair. — Thou is 

 Thorp: A crossed transparent grating. The second --v 

 spectra produced by the crossing of the gratings are ( 

 pure and free from all "scatter." — J. R. Qwrythar : 

 modes of rupture of an open hemispherical concrete 

 under axial pressure. The author gave an account of 

 carried out with nine specimens he had prepared. ni;i 

 concrete in the proportion of 1 : ij : 2, the aggre;. 

 i-inch chippings, and the results obtained by - 

 these shells in the ordinary wav to compression in a 

 zontal testing machine. " Longitudinal " cracks 

 meridional planes first appeared, spreading gradually, 

 the shells ultimately broke by an irregular crack roi; 

 along a parallel of " latitude," the mean height 1 

 approximately 06 the height of the shell. The vert- 

 the cone of fracture roughly coincided with the centi 

 the base. In the plain specimens the '* longitudi: 

 cracks began at the base ; in the specimens reinforr. 

 the base they commenced at the top; and in the - 

 reinforced both at the base and the top they f' 



around the middle of the shell. Mr. Gwyther 



that the " ring tension " was comparatively small, 

 the fracture depended on the load and not the stress, 

 that the final rupture was due to an excessive " bending 

 moment." He gave a table he hnd prepared showing the 

 vertical breaking loads in tons and breaking ^■ 

 pounds per square inch. — R. F. Qwryther read 

 the mechanical- conditions involved in t' • 

 question 



Dublin. 



Royal Irish Academy, January 23. — Rev. Dr. M,i' 

 president, in the chair. — H. Ryan and T. Dillon: H 

 tertiary alcohols derived from palmitic and stearic e- 

 Some discrepancies between theory and experiment ir 

 analysis of beeswax suggested an examination of 

 properties of higher tertiary alcohols, but as substanr 

 this class have been, with one exception, hitherto unknown, 

 it was necessary to attempt their synthetical preparat" 

 Good yields of higher tertiary alcohols were obtained 

 the action of alphyl and aryl magnesium halides on || 

 esters of palmitic and stearic acids. By dropping 

 centrated sulphuric acid into a hot solution of a h' 

 fatty acid in alcohol a second liquid phase, consist! r, 

 the nearly pure esters, forms, and hence, rapidly 

 quantitatively, the fatty acid is converted into its • 

 The method is an extremely convenient one for the 

 paration of such esters. The tertiary alcohols U 

 esters with acetyl chloride, but with acetic anhydrid- 

 sodium acetate mixtures of esters and unsaturated h 

 carbons were obtained. Phenyl isocyanate did not 

 urethanes with them, and when they were heated 

 potash-lime to 230° C, unlike the corresponding pri: 

 alcohols, they underwent no change. — A. McHen^y 

 Report on the Dingle Bed rocks. It is suggested b\ 

 author that the seeming conformable succession or 

 south is due to inversion and overthrusting of the f 

 and that the true position of the " Dingle Beds " ii 

 geological succession is at the bottom of the I 

 Silurians, and that they are probably of Llandoverv 

 while on the north and north-east sides of the fossilif 

 Silurian inlier, the rocks there, called " Smerwick F 

 on the Survey map, are the equivalents in age ti 

 " Dingle Beds." and come in their true and regular 

 below the Wenlock division of the Silurians. The 

 similarity of the " Dingle Beds " and " Smerwick F 

 in all their characters is very apparent in the field, 

 was even noticed by Du Noyer when surveying the di>..v. 

 more than fifty years ago. The author has no doubt of| 

 their being the one set of strata, and probablv of 

 Llandoverv age. — Rev. Canon Lett: Mosses and he; 

 (Clare Island Survey). A total of 272 mosses and 

 hepatics were found in the district, of which 27 mosse-; 

 22 hepatics occurred on the island only, and 05 mosse* n " 

 42 hepatics on the mainland only. Eight hepaiici 

 were hitherto unknown in Ireland, while Scapania 

 nimhosa and Riccia serccarpa had previously only one 

 station in the countrv (South Kerrv). — Miss G. Lieter: 

 Mycetozoa (Clare Island Survey). In the Clare Island 

 district 31 species were found during a visit last November. 



town, 

 CtHP 



