524 



NATURE 



[March 31, 1898 



atmospheres. The resulting liquid is very light and has a high 

 coefficient of expansion. Although this is a convenient method 

 of storing a large quantity of gas in small bulk, it is unsafe, 

 because of the ease and violence with which it explodes. The 

 gas is extremely soluble in acetone ; it has been suggested that 

 this property might be used for its storage, but it has been shown 

 that acetylene does not, even when thus dissolved, lose all its 

 explosive properties. 



Numberless devices for generating acetylene have been in- 

 vented ; its application, however, is more dependent upon the 

 cost than upon the apparatus used in the manufacture. With 

 calcium carbide at i6/. per ton, it can compete with coal gas at 

 2.9. dd. per thousand cubic feet, when flat flames are used for 

 the latter, and a light of not less than 30 candles is required. 

 This renders the gas peculiarly suited for buildings in which 

 coal gas is not obtainable. It has been used for lighting a 

 station on the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland, 

 and at the Salford Docks of the Manchester Ship Canal. In the 

 latter case, special portable generators are used which can be 

 carried to any part of the docks, and which may be placed on 

 the quay side and the gas led away to lamps placed in the holds 

 of vessels. Amongst many other uses suggested are the lighting 

 of lighthouses, lightships, buoys, military signals, &c. , as a 

 standard of light, &c. The price prevents its use for gas-engine 

 driving. This reason also prohibits its use as an enricher cf 

 coal gas, as with low percentages the increase is not above I 

 candle-power for i per cent, of acetylene. With "blue" water- 

 gas it is even less applicable, as more than 10 per cent is required 

 before any illumination is obtained. Methane and nitrogen are 

 claimed to carry the gas without affecting its illuminating 

 power. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Mr. R. T. GLAy.EBROOK, F.R. S. , has accepted the post of 

 Principal of University College, Liverpool. 



Dr. H. W. M. Tims has been appointed professor of 

 zoology in Bedford College, in succession to Dr. Benham. 



Mr. Amos R. Eno, the New York multi-millionaire, who 

 died a few weeks ago, left 50,000 dollars to Amherst College. 



Miss Catherine W. Bruce, of New York, will give to 

 the Yerkes Observatory, Chicago University, a photographic 

 telescope of 10 inches aperture and 60 inches focal length. 



The bequest by Catherine M. Garcelon, of California, to 

 Bowdoin College, Maine, amounting to several hundred thousand 

 dollars, has been confirmed by the Supreme Court of the 

 United States. 



The proposal to establish a chair of Anthropology and 

 Anatomy, and also a chair of Physiology, in the University of 

 St. Andrews, has been sanctioned by the University Court, and 

 a scheme will be prepared. 



The proposal to create a special degree of Doctor of the 

 University of Paris (as distinct from doctor of a particular 

 faculty) has been approved by the Superior Council of Public 

 Instruction, and will shortly be carried into effect. 



Among the degrees conferred at the annual graduation cere- 

 mony of the University of St. Andrews on March 25, was the 

 honorary degree ofLL.D., upon Prof. G. B. Howes, F.R.S., 

 and the degree of D.Sc. upon Mr. A. T. Masterman. 



The recent decision of the Government, abolishing building 

 grants from Imperial funds to schools and institutions under the 

 Department of Science and Art, has created dissatisfaction. A 

 joint deputation of the County Councils Association, the 

 Association of Municipal Corporations, and the Association of 

 Technical Institutions waited upon Sir John Gorst at the Privy 

 Council last week to point out the inconvenience caused by the 

 withdrawal of the grants without previous notice ; and Sir John 

 Gorst promised to bring the views of the deputation before the 

 President of the Council. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The Journal of Electricity, published in San P'rancisco, 



contains accounts of several large schemes for the electrical 



transmission of power in California. In one of these the water 



furnishing the power required for lighting Blue Lakes City, and 



NO. 1483, VOL. 57] 



several neighbouring townships, is conducted from the Blue 

 Lakes, situated near the summit of the Sierra Nevada Moun- 

 tains ; while another installation at Bakersfield derives its 

 power from the Kern River canyon. The "Wild West" is 

 certainly making great strides in the practical applications of 

 electricity. 



In the current number of the Physical Review, Miss Isabelle 

 Stone writes on the electric resistance of thin films ; Mr. Ed- 

 ward B. Rosa describes a new form of electric curve-tracer ; and 

 Mr. C. H. Wind propounds a new theory of magneto-optic 

 phenomena, the paper being a translation of one published by 

 the Amsterdam Academy of Science. — ^Prof. C. Barus de- 

 scribes a method of obtaining pores or capillary canals of 

 specified diameter; and Mr. C. P. Matthews discusses the 

 methods of measuring mean horizontal candle-power of glow 

 lamps, considering more especially the plan of rapidly whirling 

 the lamp. 



The latest number of the Mathematical Gazette, published 

 under the auspices of the Mathematical Association, contains 

 papers by Mr. E. Budden, on the conic through any five 

 points ; by Prof. Lloyd Tanner, on a class of algebraic func- 

 tions ; and a notice, by Dr. F. S. Macaulay, of an article 

 by Miss C. A. Scott on Cayley's theory of the absolute. 

 The functions to which Prof. Tanner's paper refers are those 

 which involve only the differences of their arguments, and to 

 which the same diaphoric was given by Cayley ; and the object 

 of the note is to suggest that an elementary discussion of these 

 functions would be a valuable addition to the usual school course 

 in algebra. 



Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, March. — West of 

 England snowstorm, February 21. The fall commenced, roughly 

 speaking, about 5h. p.m., and lasted until noon on the 22nd. 

 The heaviest storms occurred in Hants, Dorset, Devon and 

 Somerset. The fall reached, or exceeded, 12 inches over the 

 area contained between two lines, the northern one running 

 about E.S.E. from Watchet, through Yeovil to Lymington, and 

 the southern one from Portlock, through Tiverton to Bridport ; 

 say about sixty by twenty miles. The greatest depth, about 24 

 inches, occurred nearly centrally in this belt, between Milverton 

 and Crewkerne. — Results of meteorological observations at 

 Camden Square for forty years (for February). It is interesting 

 to note the exceptional temperature and rainfall of last February 

 in connection with the mean of 1858-97, at Camden Square 

 (N.W. London) : maximum temperature in 1898, 56''"2 ; mini- 

 mum, 24° 3. Mean of all highest maxima of previous forty 

 years, 55°'2 ; mean of all lowest minima, 24°!. Rainfall in 

 1898, i"o8 inches ; mean of forty years, i 61 inches. 



The y otirnal de Physique for March contains papers on the 

 following subjects : — On the magnetic torsion of iron and steel, by 

 M. G. Moreau, in which the following laws are established : 

 (i) at a point of a twisted wire outside the magnetic field the mag- 

 netic torsion is proportional to the torsion of the wire, to the 

 square of the intensity of the field if the latter is weak, and inde- 

 pendent of the diameter of the wire ; (2) for points situated 

 on different sides of the • field the magnetic torsion has equal 

 and opposite values if the ends of the wire are symmetrically 

 placed with regard to the field ; (3) along the length of 

 the wire the torsion increases in proportion to the distance 

 from the nearest end; it attains a maximum at the edge of 

 the field, and vanishes at points inside the latter. The field in 

 question is supposed to be a uniform field bounded by two 

 parallel planes, beyond which the magnetic force vanishes. — M. 

 Marage contributes a paper on ear-trumpets studied by the use 

 of Koenig's flames. — M. G. Weiss describes an ingenious method, 

 due to Hermann, of expanding any periodic curve in Fourier's 

 series up to the first forty terms. The curve being drawn, forty 

 equidistant ordinates are taken and measured, and correspond- 

 ing to each ordinate a series of products is obtained from a table 

 prepared by Hermann ; and these are entered in columns on 

 qiiadrilU paper. Finally a series of perforated cards are placed 

 on the table thus formed ; and to read off any coefficient in the ' 

 expansion it is only necessary to algebraically sum the numbers 

 seen through the openings in the corresponding card. — M. G. 

 Charpy discusses entectic alloys, his paper being illustrated by 

 figures showing their microscopic structure. — M. Gerrit Bakker, 

 writing on perfect gases, gives a simple mathematical proof of 

 the theorem that of the three characteristic laws of such gases, 

 Boyle's, Charles's, and Joule's ; any one is deducible from the 

 other two. 



