July II, 1889] 



NATURE 



251 



desired size. A coarse fibre may have a dozen or more, 

 while such fibres as I find most useful have only two 

 dark bands. Much finer ones exist, showing the colours 

 of the first order with one dark band ; and fibres so fine 

 as to correspond to the white or even the gray of Newton's 

 scale are easily produced. 



Passing now from the most scientific test of the 

 uniformity of these fibres, I shall next refer to one more 

 homely. It is simply this : the common garden spider, 

 except when very young, cannot climb up one of the 

 same size as the web on which she displays such activity. 

 She is perfectly helpless, and slips down .with a run. After 

 vainly trying to make any headway, she finally puts her 

 hands (or feet) into her mouth, and then tries again^ with 

 no better success. I may mention that a male of the same 

 species is able to run up one of these with the greatest 

 ease, a feat which may perhaps save the lives of a few of 

 these unprotected creatures when quartz fibres are more 

 common. 



It is possible to make any quantity of very fine quartz 

 fibre without a bow and arrow at all, by simply drawing out 

 a rod of quartz over and over again in a strong oxyhydro- 

 gen jet. Then, if a stand of any sort has been placed a 

 few feet in front of the jet, it will be found covered with 

 a maze of thread, of which the photograph on the screen 

 represents a sample. This is hardly distinguishable from 

 the web spun by this magnificent spider in corners of 

 greenhouses and such places. By regulating the jet and 

 the manipulation, anything from one of these stranded 

 cables to a single ultra -microscope line may be developed. 



And now that I have explained that these fibres have 

 such valuable properties, it will no doubt be expected that I 

 should perform some feat with their aid which, up to the 

 present time, has been considered impossible, and this I 

 intend to do. 



Of all experiments the one which has most excited my 

 admiration is the famous experiment of Cavendish, of 

 which I have a full-size model before you. The object of 

 this experiment is to weigh the earth by comparing 

 directly the force with which it attracts things with that 

 due to large masses of lead. As is shown by the model, 

 any attraction which these large balls exert on the small 

 ones will tend to deflect this 6-foot beam in one direction, 

 and then if the balls are reversed in position the deflec- 

 tion will be in the other direction. Now, when it is con- 

 sidered how enormously greater the earth is than these 

 balls, it will be evident that the attraction due to them 

 must be in comparison excessively small. To make this 

 evident the enormous apparatus you see had to be con- 

 structed, and then, using a fine torsion wire, a perfectly 

 certain but small effect was produced. The experiment, 

 however, could only be successfully carried out in cellars 

 and underground places, because changes of temperature 

 produced effects greater than those due to gravity.^ 



Now I have in a hole in the wall an instrument no 

 bigger than a galvanometer, of which a model is on the 

 table. The balls of the Cavendish apparatus, weighing 

 several hundredweight each, are replaced by balls weigh- 

 ing 1 3 pound only. The smaller balls of i| pound are 

 replaced by little weights of 15 grains each. The 

 6-foot beam is replaced by one that will swing round 

 freely in a tube three-quarters of an inch in diameter. The 

 beam is, of course, suspended by a quartz fibre. With 

 this microscopic apparatus, not only is the very feeble 

 attraction observable, but 1 can actuilly obtain an effect 

 eighteen times as great as that given by the apparatus of 

 Cavendish, and, what is more important, the accuracy of 

 observation is enormously increased. 



The light from a lamp passes through a telescope lens, 

 and falls on the mirror of the instrument. It is reflected back 

 to the table, and thence by a fixed mirror to the scale on the 

 wall, where it conies to a focus. If the mirror on the table 



' Dr. Lodge has been able, by an elaborate arrangement of screens, to 

 make this attraction iust evident to an audience.— C. V. 15. 



were plane, the whole movement of the light would be only 

 about 8 inches, but the mirror is convex, and this magni- 

 fies the motion nearly eight times. At the present moment 

 the attracting weights are in one extreme position, and 

 the line of light is quiet. I will now move them to the 

 other position, and you will see the result — the light 

 slowly begins to move, and slowly increases in movement. 

 In forty seconds it will have acquired its highest velocity, 

 and in forty more it will have stopped at 5 feet 8* inches 

 from the starting-point, after which it will slowly move 

 back again, oscillating about its new position of rest. 



It is not possible at this hour to enter into any calcula- 

 tions ; I will only say that the motion you have seen is the 

 effect of a force of less than one ten-millionth of the 

 weight of a grain, and that with this apparatus I 

 can detect a force two thousand times smaller still. 

 There would be no difficulty even in showing the attrac- 

 tion between two No. 5 shot. 



And now, in conclusion, I would only say that if there is 

 anything that is good in the experiments to which I have 

 this evening directed your attention, experiments con- 

 ducted largely with sticks, and string, and straw and 

 sealing-wax, I may perhaps be pardoned if I express my 

 conviction that in these days we are too apt to depart from 

 the simple ways of our fathers, and, instead of following 

 them, to fall down and worship the brazen image which 

 the instrument-maker hath set up. 



A NEW SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES. 



'T^HE Imperial Institute has taken a most important 

 -*• step towards the organization of higher commercial 

 education in London, by effecting an arrangement between 

 University and King's Colleges for the establishment of 

 a new School for Oriental Studies. The close connection 

 between the mercantile interests of this country and of 

 India, Turkey, China, South Africa, and other lands, 

 renders it very desirable that travellers and traders should 

 have full facilities for acquiring, not only a knowledge of 

 the languages of those countries, but also some acquaint- 

 ance with the habits and customs of the inhabitants. 

 In France and Germany, we find that the wants of this 

 class of students have been fully recognized by the State. 

 The French School of Oriental Languages has been in 

 existence over 100 years, and has recently been recon- 

 structed at an annual expense, for maintenance alone, of 

 ^6000; and in 1887 a new school was opened in Berlin, 

 as a special department of the University, which receives a 

 subvention from the Government of over ^3000 a year. 

 In England, the economy to the nation of adequately sup- 

 porting institutions for higher education is not yet under- 

 stood, and consequently private effort has to step in and 

 relieve the State of a duty which in other countries 

 is discharged in no niggard spirit. The new School of 

 Oriental Studies promises to supply a distinct want. 

 Instruction will be given in the principal Indian languages, 

 in Persian, Burmese, IMalay, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, 

 Modern Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Swaheli. The 

 students will be taught not on'y to read and write, but 

 also, as far as is possible, to speak those languages ; and 

 to this end the Committee contemplate the appointment 

 of native readers and teachers of conversation. It has 

 already been arranged that some of the Professors will 

 preface their courses of linguistic teaching by lectures 

 on the history, the physical and commercial geography, 

 and the economic condition of the countries in which the 

 various languages are spoken. It is hoped that by such 

 means our mercantile and official classes may have the 

 opportunity of acquainting themselves with the life and 

 thought of the different Eastern peoples with whom they 

 may be brought into communication. 



The Imperial Institute is to be congratulated en having 

 succeeded in bringing into harmonious working the two 

 London Colleges, to each of which has for many years 



