178 



NA TURE 



[December 23, 1897 



ways." The Council have decided to increase the number and 

 vahies of the annual premiums commencing with the Session 

 1897-98 The Willans premium, the value of which the 

 Council have increased to 25/., has been awarded to Mr. Mark 

 Robinson (member) for his paper entitled "On the Recent 

 Development of the Single-Acting High-Speed Engine for 

 •Central Station Work." 



Mr. G. E. Brown writes upon a proposed memorial to Henry 

 Fox Talbot, in the British Journal of Photography. All photo- 

 graphers are aware of the value of Fox Talbot's researches ; in 

 fact, modern photography would have no existence but for the 

 labours of ithe inventor of the calotype process. Yet, as Mr. 

 Brown points out, no mark of appreciation of his services has 

 'been made. At Bry-sur-Marne stands a monument to Daguerre ; 

 Chalons can show one to Nicephore Nepce ; but Lacock, in 

 Wiltshire, the home of the Talbots, can display no sign of 

 public gratitude. The memorial proposed is the restoration of 

 the chancel of Lacock Church, where Fox Talbot's father and 

 many of his ancestors, as far back as the sixteenth century, lie 

 iburied. It is probable that a more distinctly commemorative 

 <:haracter may be given to some definite feature in the chancel, 

 such as a window, but the whole chancel will be com- 

 memorative. Subscriptions are invited, and may be sent to the 

 "Fox Talbot Memorial Fund," Capital and Counties Bank, 

 Chippenham. 



The report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the 

 Home Secretary to inquire into the testing of explosives for use 

 in coal mines has just been issued as a Parliamentary paper. It 

 is recommended that explosives be tested in a highly explosive 

 mixture of coal gas and air only, and^the Committee feel con- 

 fident that any explosive which shows itself superior in this 

 mixture would exhibit the same increase in safety in the presence 

 •of a coal dust mixture. Taking into account the general results 

 -of the experiments, the Committee have drawn up a test, and 

 recommend that this should be applied to all explosives which 

 are submitted for inclusion in the permitted list. The full de- 

 'tails of this test are given in an appendix. The amount of the 

 •charge which it is proposed to fire will be the equivalent of 

 2 ozs. of dynamite and of 6 ozs. of gunpowder. In order to 

 ipass the test an explosive must not cause more than two failures 

 •in forty shots, a failure being defined as either an ignition of the 

 .gaseous mixture or an incomplete explosion. After most careful 

 consideration it has been decided to recommend that the test be 

 carried out with a stemming of nine inches of dry powdered 

 •clay of good quality well rammed over the charge. 



The Trustees of the British Museum have decided to dis- 

 continue the opening of the Exhibition Galleries on week-day 

 evenings from 8 to 10 p.m. after the close of this year; and, 

 instead, to keep them open until 6 p.m. all the year round. The 

 .evening opening commenced in February 1890, on the instal- 

 lation of the electric light ; the galleries, however, being opened 

 only in sections, as the electric plant is not powerful enough to 

 light up the whole building. At first the eastern and the western 

 portions of the Museum were opened on alternate week-day 

 evenings ; but the number of visitors so rapidly declined, that 

 the galleries were afterwards further subdivided into three 

 sections. The numbers, however, have still continued to 

 decline. The experiment of evening opening, having thus had 

 .a fair and patient trial, will now be abandoned ; and a 

 lengthened exhibition by day will be substituted, during the 

 months when the Museum has hitherto been closed at 4 p.m. or 

 5 p.m., according to the season of the year. On and after 

 Monday, January 3, the Exhibition Galleries will be kept open 

 throughout the year from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is believed that 

 ithe extension of time will be appreciated by visitors, particu- 

 .larly during the winter months, when hitherto the closing hour 



NO. 1469, VOL. 57] 



has been 4 p.m. The arrangements for opening on Sunday 

 afternoons will not be altered ; visitors being admitted at hours 

 i varying between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., according to the season of 

 the year. 



The severe gale of November 28 and 29, which caused such 

 serious damage all along the south-east coast of this country, 

 had the effect of raising the tide to an abnormal height, the tide 

 of the following day being considerably depressed. Writing in 

 the Engineer, Mr. W. H. Wheeler says the wind appears to 

 have had the greatest effect in increasing the height of the tide 

 along the part of the coast extending from the Humber to the 

 east end of the English Channel. The wind on the previous 

 days had been blowing strongly from the south-west, a condition 

 favourable to increasing the height in the Channel ; it then flew 

 round to the north-west, a quarter which always raises the tide 

 in the North Sea. The combined influence of the winds from 

 these two opposite quarters would therefore tend to concentrate 

 the full effect of the tide along the south-eastern coast, and the 

 records of the damage done to the cliffs and in flooding, owing 

 to the water breaking through or flowing over the banks, and 

 doing other damage, show that this was the case. Fortunately 

 the gale occurred five days after the new moon, or the effect 

 would have been even more serious. The amounts by which 

 the water at a few places rose above the proper tide- mark on 

 Monday, November 29, are as follows: — Grimsby, 5 feet 11 

 inches ; Hull, 5 feet 3 inches ; The Wash (Boston Dock), 5 feet 

 3 inches ; Lynn, 7 feet ; Yarmouth, 8 feet ; Ipswich, 6 feet 6 

 inches ; Dover, 6 feet i inch ; Gravesend, 3 feet 4 inches ; New- 

 haven, 2 feet 4 inches ; Portsmouth, i foot 8 inches. 



The last published Annaii of the Italian Central Meteoro- 

 logical Office contains particulars of the activity of that depart- 

 ment in various directions. One section deals specially with 

 agricultural meteorology and the distribution of thunderstorms, 

 and publishes a monthly review containing ten-day means for a 

 considerable number of stations. A regular discussion of the 

 mean weekly and annual frequency of thunderstorms and hail 

 has been undertaken, and the results for some provinces have 

 been laid before the Royal Academy. Another section deals 

 specially with earthquakes, and the observations are regularly 

 published in a monthly Bulletin. Dr. Agamennone, to whom 

 we are indebted for many researches in this subject, has estab- 

 lished a geodynamic observatory at Constantinople, with instru- 

 ments similar to those in use at Rome. Considerable atten- 

 tion is paid to terrestrial magnetism, and the present volume 

 contains an account of the absolute measurements of the different 

 magnetic elements made in Italy in the years 1888-9. Among 

 the purely meteorological discussions we may mention one on 

 the anemometrical records at Vicenza for the fifteen years 

 1875-90. The author states that the diurnal velocity curve is 

 far from showing the simplicity of a single diurnal wave. 



The properties of algebraic curves, classified on the basis of 

 their gonality, have been studied by Prof. Amadeo, and a paper 

 on the subject — the third of a series — is published in the Rendi- 

 conto of the Naples Academy (iii. 3a, 8-10). After dealing at 

 length with the /^-gonal curves of the first and second species, 

 the author passes on to consider those of species s. The most 

 noteworthy feature is the proof that a ^-gonal curve of species s 

 can be referred uniquely to a .^-gonal curve of the first or second 

 species, according as s is odd or even. 



The Botanical Gazette for November prints a very interesting 

 history of the public gardens and plantations in Jamaica, con- 

 tributed to the Proceedings of the Botanical Society of America 

 by Mr. W. Fawcett, the Director. The first Botanic Garden 

 in Jamaica was formed about 1 50 years ago by a private indi- 

 vidual, Mr. Hinton East, on his property near the present 

 village of Gordon Town, nine miles from Kingston. It was 



