634 



NA TURE 



[OCTOBI 



1923 



suecMtcd. Criticisms or alternative suggestions are 



ni\ it«<l. The scale, which is proposed by Capt. H, P. 



l., ,,/la», late Assistant Hydrographer, uses the old 



• ■' f " i iTvl ruVts for a confused 



11 swift of wind, 

 ,,„, ,,<.! M. ■..•■.>.».. .N i..> .^iiwi.K ...iwl. Swell is also 

 liown on a scale of o to <). the main tyi>es of swell 

 Ih iiij,' designated short, long, low, and high. By a 

 , uliinatio!! of the sea and swell scales, the state of 

 .li^iiubanco of the surface waters is expressed by two 

 li^^iii.s. Thus 43 means a rough sea with a high 

 swi 11 : ^7 means a moderate sea with a long heavy 

 swell. The jvdoption of this or some comparable 

 KKle and scale would result in greater precision in 

 records than is now possible. 



Rainfall in Australia. — Kamfall charts ol 

 Australia prepared by the Commonwealth Meteoro- 

 logist from the records of 1280 well - distributed 

 stations show that in the year 1922 there was an 

 excess above the average rainfall in 21 per cent, of 

 the total area of the continent. In 1923 this figure 

 was 63. During 1922 the totals were the lowest on 

 record in several places between the south-west 

 corner of Queensland and the plains of New South 

 Wales. Throughout the interior from the Lake Eyre 

 basin to the inland parts of Queensland, New South 

 Wales, and Victoria, and also in the north-west of 

 Western Australia, the shortage was considerable, and 

 would have been more pronounced were it not for the 

 heavy falls in December. The areas with rainfall 

 above the average were chiefly in the tropical north, 

 and in the centre and south-east of South Australia. 

 The wheat areas in New South Wales and Victoria 

 rxperienced a marked shortage, but the falls were so 

 opportune that in most parts a good harvest was 

 secured. It was the pastoral areas of Australia which 

 suffered most severely. The chart gives annual and 

 monthly rainfall maps and a series of insets showing 

 distribution of rainfall above the average in every 

 year since 1908. 



Cold Air-waves in the United States. — Prof. 

 R. de C. Ward of Harvard University deals with this 

 subject in the Scientific Monthly for May. The 

 author makes reference to cold waves alluded to by 

 past pioneers of weather changes, such as Redfield 

 and Prof. Joseph Henry, who realised the progress of 

 cold periods across the continent, from the Rocky 

 Mountains to Bermuda, prior to the publication of 

 weather maps for the United States. The cold 

 waves were then recognised as associated with the 

 rear segments of cyclonic circulations moving to the 

 eastward. The official definition of a cold wave is a 

 fall of temperature amounting to a certain number 

 of degrees in 24 hours, with a minimum below a 

 fixed standard. Minimum temperatures are not so 

 far below the normal in the north as in the south, 

 and where crops are growing all the year round, frosts 

 are dangerous at any time. For intensity cold waves 

 are practically unique in America, and following as 

 they do warm winds associated with the advance 

 segment of a storm, the sudden drop of temperature 

 is very great, amounting to between 20° F. and 

 40° F. in the 24 hours. The rapidity of advance is 

 determined by the travelling speed of the cyclonic 

 and anticyclonic areas with which the wave is 

 associated. Three or four severe cold waves are 

 generally experienced each winter in the United 

 States, and they commonly last for two or three days. 

 Various activities and interests are seriously affected 

 during the spell of cold. On the Pacific coast cold 

 waves are few and not severe, and in California the 

 occasional frosts are the product of radiation on clear 



NO. 2817, VOL. I 12] 



anticyclonic nights. NortherB and blizzard* are w<ii 

 described. 



Atomic Disintegration.— .A pap<*r or 



graphy of atomic di ;i 



Ryan, appears in the I< al 

 Society for September. 1 .tis 01 

 integration of the atom , the ret 



motion of the colliding ' i\ 



visible. A new type of r.> iiv 



the authors f-rays ; theygu. %<.» ite 



tracks. Their range is very many 1 1 mi 



that of 3-rays, ana thc\- ir.- t,r,,t. >1>! „i.s 



torn out of the atom, ; In 



the course of the expeni : v:e<l 

 that oblique impacts never effect nuclear disintegra- 

 tion. 



Sulphur as a Fungicide, — Mr. Harry Curtis 

 Young has recently published (Annals of Missouri 

 Botanical (Jarden, 9, pp. 403-435, 1922) a valuable 

 contribution to the much-investigated problem as to 

 the reason for the toxicity of sulphur when used as a 

 fungicide for the control of disease upon plants. He 

 finds that sulphur owes its toxic properties to penta- 

 thionic acid, an oxidation compound formed from 

 Sulphur and water. On this account the sulphur 

 needs to be applied in a very finely divided and there- 

 fore easily oxidised form, and he recommends colloidal 

 sulphur liberated in a medium containing buffers so 

 that it is easily maintained at a reaction between 

 Ph 4"o-5*5 ; above or below this hydrion concentra- 

 tion pentathionic acid is not stable. In '' " ' t of 

 this general conclusion there is a brief : of 



the practical problem of producing a suiiciim Miij>hur 

 spray or vapour, but the author's investigations on 

 this side of the problem are still in progress. 



Petroleum and Natural Gas in Ameru: 

 advance chapters on Petroleum (ii. 31) and Natural 

 Gas (ii. 32) of the Mineral Resources of the United 

 States for 1921 appeared recently, and they furnish 

 some interesting data concerning the post-War phase 

 of the oil-industry in that country. Following un- 

 settled conditions for some six months after the 

 armistice, a gradual revival took place culminating 

 in the oil-lx)om of 1920, but giving place later to a 

 period of intense depression characterised by a serious 

 drop in the price of oil and its various products, the 

 chief economic feature of 192 1, In the spring of 

 1922 a definite improvement was manifest, which has 

 progressed steadily until the present time, when, in 

 fact, the industry' is suffering, from a vastly different 

 but equally serious malady from that of 192 1 — over- 

 production — and for this Califoniia is largely to blame. 

 In 192 1 there were produced in the United States 

 472,183,000 barrels of oil and 724,052,000 M cubic 

 feet of natural gas ; while the former figure repre- 

 sents a 33 per cent, increase since the end of the War. 

 the latter shows a significant decrease compared with 

 the two previous years, and it is generally conceded 

 that the natural gas industry in America has reached 

 and is gradually passing its peak of production, so 

 that a steady decline may be anticipated for the 

 future. With petroleum the situation is different, and 

 it is difficult to foresee the trend of events, though 

 once California ceases to produce in the present 

 amazing fashion, the decline-curve for the whole 

 countr>' will undoubtedly be apparent. It is interest- 

 ing to note that the average daily production of oil in 

 the United States at the moment is about 2,400,000 

 barrels, to which California contributes practically 

 one-third ; in 192 1, the year under review, the average 

 daily production for the country was approximately 

 1,300,000 barrels, to which California contributed less 

 than 25 per cent. 



