December 15, 1923] 



NA TURE 



873 



IT 



greater accuracy indispensable with achromatic 

 objectives (invented by Chester Moor Hall in 1733 

 and put on the- market by John DoUond after 1758) 

 placed the London spectacle maker proper on a much 

 better footing than his Nuremberg competitor working 

 •th bad tools and to a very small degree of accuracy. 



Mr. a. Bachellery, the Chief Engineer of the 

 French Midi Railway, read a very interesting paper 

 on the electrification of this railway at a joint meeting 

 of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the 

 Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France (British 

 Section) on November 22. The Midi Railway of 

 France extends in the southernmost part of that 

 country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean 

 along the snow-covered Pyrenees, sending oti branch 

 lines up most of the valleys of that chain of mountains- 

 In France the standard type of traction current is 

 direct current at 1500 volts, and the standard type 

 of primary current is three phase at 50 frequency. 

 The electric energy is produced at two hydro-electric 

 stations, in one of which the water has a fall of 

 2300 ft. The pressure is generated at 60,000 volts, 

 but for long-distance transmission it is converted to 

 150,000 volts, which is the highest pressure used in 

 Europe at the present time. The economies effected 

 by the use of electric traction are notable. The 

 hydro-electric energy is much cheaper than the 

 corresponding energy obtained from coal. Sub- 

 stantial economies on engine shed and repair shop 

 expenses have been effected by electrification. The 

 steep grade on the Bayonne to Toulouse line which 

 took a steam locomotive 34 minutes to climb is now 

 climbed in 13 minutes. The railway company also 

 finds it very profitable to supply electric energy to 

 villages in the neighbourhood of the transmission 

 lines. It intends to electrify 2000 miles of road. 

 The Paris-Lyons-Mediterranean and the Paris-Orleans 

 companies are also electrifying 3800 miles of line. 

 The latter company is constructing a 300 mile 

 150,000 volt line from the Dordogne power plants to 

 Paris. It will be seen that main line electric traction 

 is making satisfactory progress in France by standard- 

 ised methods. The English traction engineers who 

 spoke in the discussion agreed practically with the 

 author's conclusions. We have reasons for believing 

 that, before long, main line electric traction in Great 

 Britain will make considerable advances. 



As a result of the fire which followed the great 

 earthquake in Japan on September i, nearly the whole 

 of the collection, amounting to 700,000 volumes, in 

 the library of the Tokyo Imperial University was 

 destroyed. We are glad that an organised effort is 

 to l)e made by the British Academy to repair this loss. 

 At a meeting of representatives of learned societies, 

 publishing houses and other bodies concerned with the 

 publication and use of books, held on Monday, 

 I )ecember 10, at the Royal Society, with Lord Balfour, 

 as president of the British Academy, in the chair, an 

 executive committee was appointed to organise the 

 (( Election of works for the restoration of the Library. 

 In a letter to Sir Israel Gollancz, secretarv' of the 

 l^ritish Academy, the president'of the Tokyo Imperial 

 University states that most of tlx- works destroyed 



NO. 2824, VOL. 112] 



belong to the domains of literature, philosophy, com- 

 merce, statistics, and similar departments of the 

 humanities and social science. The Institutes of 

 Physiology and Pharmacology have also lost nearly 

 all their books, but no reference is made by the 

 president to the position of other science libraries, so 

 that we hope it may be assumed that they have, in 

 the main, escaped damage. The vice-chancellors of 

 British universities have already taken some steps 

 towards the supply of books for the Tokyo Imperial 

 University Library, but the appeal to be made by the 

 British Academy will no doubt reach a much larger 

 circle of sympathisers, and we are sure that all British 

 learned institutions, as well as numerous individuals, 

 will respond generously, in money or suitable literary 

 gifts, to the effort to be made to repair- the immense 

 losses which the University has experienced. 



During the coming season the work of the British 

 School of Archaeology in Egypt at Qau will be 

 continued. In particular, search will be made for 

 the source of the ancient human remains, found last 

 year by Mr. Brunton, which are held to belong to 

 the Palaeolithic Age. Further explorations will be 

 carried out in the cemetery in which the oldest 

 Coptic MS. of St. John's Gospel was discovered, and 

 the prehistoric cemeteries to the north will be worked 

 in the hope of further discoveries of the ripple pottery 

 and its associated styles. The papyrus of the Gospel 

 of St. John has now been completely opened, photo- 

 graphed, and mounted. It is not only the oldest 

 Biblical Coptic MS., but it is older than any Greek 

 MS. of the Gospel with the exception of the Vatican 

 MS. It is to be edited as a publication of the School 

 by Sir Herbert Thompson, while the manuscript 

 itself is to be placed in the collection of the British 

 and Foreign Bible Society. 



News from the Norwegian expedition in the Maud, 

 which is drifting across the Arctic Ocean, has appeared 

 in the Times. The reports were sent out by the 

 Maud's wireless installation and received by the 

 Spitsbergen Radio station. In March 1923 the Maud 

 was in lat. 74° 2' N., long. 170° 20' E., and was 

 drifting north-west. In September its position was 

 lat. 76° 16' N., long. 163° 30' E., when a long-con- 

 tinued north-west gale set in and drove the ship and 

 pack-ice towards the south, with a result that in the 

 end of October it was in lat. 75° 10' N., long. 159° 30' E. 

 The current in that part of the polar basin is reported 

 to be from the north-north-east, thus disposing of 

 the likelihood, which was never strong, of extensive 

 land to the north-east of the De Long islands. The 

 Maud would appear to be drifting towards the New 

 Siberia Islands, and if it should succeed in passing to 

 the north of that group, will traverse an interesting 

 and unknown part of Arctic Seas, but there is little 

 prospect of the drift taking her to a high northern 

 latitude. Conditions proved unfavourable for the 

 use of the aeroplane. Throughout the summer, there 

 was much mist and the temperatures were low. 

 The floe offered few safe landing-places. Several 

 trial flights were disappointing, and the last one 

 resulted in serious damage to the aeroplane. Scientific 



