Nov. 25, 1875J 



NATURE 



73 



the i8-pounder, the howntzer, and the mortar, resembled 

 noiseless jets of steam, projected, "so to speak, at our 

 elbows." John Tyndall 



Royal Institution, Nov. 17 



CHARLES BLACKER VIGNOLES, F.R.S. 



T^ HIS celebrated engineer died on the 17th instant at 

 -*- Hythe, at the age of eighty-three years. Although 

 he won his fame mainly as an engineer, yet his ser- 

 :s to science were of considerable importance. Mr. 

 ^noles was descended from an ancient French family 

 V, hich had taken refuge in England after the repeal of the 

 Edict of Nantes. His father, Capt. Vignoles, was an 

 officer in the 43rd Regiment of the Line, and his mother 

 was a daughter of Dr. Charles Hutton, the celebrated 

 mathematician and professor at the Royal Military 

 Academy, Woolwich. When young Vignoles was only 

 twelve months old. his father lost his life at the storming 

 of Pointe-k- Pierre, Guadaloupe, when Sir Charles Grey, 

 the commander of the British forces, gave the former a 

 commission in the army. Thus his career has been an 

 unprecedentedly long one. His grandfather. Dr. Hutton, 

 undertook his education, and the pupil certainly turned 

 out a credit to his teacher. For a short time before the 

 conclusion of the great war which ended in 1815, Vignoles 

 served under the Duke of Wellington on the Continent, 

 and after visiting America about 1822, he returned to 

 England and threw himself enthusiastically into the 

 engineering profession. The railway movement was just 

 then gathering strength, and Vignoles was associated with 

 some of the earliest eflforts to establish lines in this 

 country. After the Liverpool and Manchester Railway 

 Bill was thrown out of Parliament in 1824, he was, in 

 1S25, selected by Messrs. Rennie to take charge of the 

 new surveys which the Liverpool Committee ordered. 

 From this time forward Vignoles was ever in the van of 

 the railway movement, and had the foresight to predict, 

 amid some incredulity and ridicule, to what gigantic 

 results it would lead. In 1826 he was employed by 

 Messrs. Rennie to make surveys for a line from Nine 

 Elms, Vau.xhall, Dorking and Shoreham, to Brighton ; 

 and in 1834 he escorted M. Thiers over the railways 

 which had been built under his superintendence. The 

 great French Minister's dictum was, " I do not think rail- 

 ways are suited for France." In England, in Ireland, on 

 the Continent, and in America, Mr. Vignoles took a 

 prominent part in the canning out of great railway and 

 other engineering works. Probably one of his greatest 

 works was the magnificent suspension bridge over the 

 Dnieper at Kieff, commenced in 1848 and finished in 

 1853, at a cost of 432,000/. A fine model of this is now 

 in the Crystal Palace. 



Mr. Vignoles became a member of the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers in 1827, and was elected President in 

 1870, when he gave a very able address on the progress 

 of engineering. In 1842 he gave a series of remarkable 

 lectures as Professor of Civil Engineering at London ' 

 University College. In 1855 he was elected a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society ; he was also a Fellow of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society, and was for long a regular atten- 

 dant at its meetings. The Echpse party of i860 was 

 to a great extent indebted to him for all the local arrange- 

 ments, and its success was mainly due to his exertions. 

 He^was also Honorary Treasurer of the Expedition of 

 1870, was on board the Psyche when she struck, and was 

 afterwards indefatigable in aiding the necessary arrange- 

 ments. In the early part of its career he took an active 

 part in the meetings of the British Association, contri- 

 buting several papers to the Mechanical Section. 



As might be expected, Mr. Vignoles was a man of great 

 energy and strong physical constitution. On the Thurs- 

 day before his death he attended the annual inspection, 



in his capacity of Lieutenant-Colonel, of the Engineers 

 and Railway Volunteer Staff Corps. On the Saturday 

 following he was struck with paralysis, and remained 

 unconscious till his death on the following Wednesday. 

 He was buried yesterday at the Brompton Cemetery. 



THE GERMAN COAfMFSSION ON ARCTIC 

 EXPLORATION 



■pURTHER details concerning the work of this Com- 

 ^ mission appear in a recent number of the Karlsniher 

 Zeitung. 



The Commission cannot recommend another Arctic 

 expedition. The task of special geographical discovery, 

 to whose solution previous expeditions have contributed, 

 must, since the polar regions have been opened up at 

 many points, give place to the task of exploring in detail 

 the region of which we now have a general knowledge, 

 and on the results thus attained to construct a sure basis 

 for wider researches. " Without such an established basis, 

 every new Arctic expedition might, according to the cir- 

 cumstances, accomplish mofe or less good results, but for 

 this a considerable expenditure of public means would be 

 the less advisable, that we may have a sure expectation, 

 by following a different course from that hitherto pursued, 

 of accomplishing, more slowly perhaps, but all the more 

 surely, the exploration of the Arctic zone, and at the same 

 time solve very important problems in science." 



The Commission unanimously agree that the explora- 

 tion of the Arctic region should be undertaken. The last 

 part of the Report, without pretending to be complete, 

 discusses verj' important questions in all departments of 

 science, the solution of which is to be obtained by Arctic 

 exploration. The majority of meteorological and hydro- 

 graphic problems, many questions in the regions of terres- 

 trial magnetism and physical astronomy, a number of 

 questions in the department of natural science, in other 

 words, the discovery of the laws of periodical phenomena 

 and of the variations from these laws, cannot be accom- 

 plished by an Arctic expedition of the kind hitherto sent 

 out. Such an expedition cannot remain for any length 

 of time at a number of points, and can therefore furnish 

 observations bearing only on time and place, which do 

 not in the least enable us to conclude what would be the 

 condition at another time. 



It is otherwise with those scientific problems in which 

 the establishment of facts is of importance, as in the 

 majority of problems in natural history, and in many of 

 the other regions of natural science and geography. For 

 such problems an expedition of the usual kind would 

 accomphsh very valuable results. For the solution of 

 other problems the establishment of observing stations is 

 desirable, from which, through as long a period as possible, 

 observations of periodical phenomena should be under- 

 taken. But in order to be able to generahse the results, 

 corresponding observations should be made from time to 

 time at intermediate stations and in regions lying in the 

 neighbourhood. A German expedition would thus erect 

 observing stations on particular points, and then would 

 make such arrangements that, according to the special 

 circumstances of the stations, or to accomphsh special 

 scientific objects, exploring journeys could be made from 

 the stations as a basis, by land and water, in sledges, 

 ships, or boats. This combined system of fixed stations 

 and exploring journeys would give us at least the pros- 

 pect, by the minute exploration of any particular region 

 in which it might be employed, of enriching cur knowledge 

 with a plentiful supply of facts. 



The problems indicated by the Commission for Arctic 

 exploration can only be fully solved by means of a con- 

 nected system of stations and exploring joiu-neys in the 

 Arctic region, and thus the way be opened up to the 

 hitherto entirely unexplored portion. Explorations must 

 thus^ be carried on by the three great water approaches. 



