128 



NATURE 



[November 24, 19 10 



level, the water outlets being generally indicated by schorl 

 and quartz veins. The nature of the products" of the 

 alteration was discussed. — Prof. W, J. Lewis : Wilt- 

 shireite, a new mineral from the Binnenthal. The crystals 

 were tin-white in colour, russet-brown when tarnished ; 

 small, but aggregated in parallel position, with mono- 

 clinic symmetry a -.h : c= 1-587 : i : 1070 ; 3= 100° 44'. 

 Paucity of material prevented a chemical analysis, but no 

 doubt it is a lead sulpharsenite. Named after the late 

 Rev. Prof. T. Wiltshire. — Arthur Russell : A new locality 

 of phenakite in Cornwall. A single specimen showing 

 numerous colourless prismatic crystals of phenakite was 

 found by the author at Wheal Gorland, Gwennap, Corn- 

 wall, this year. The specimen was obtained from a lode 

 at present worked for wolfram and traversing the granite 

 close to its junction with the killas. 



Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, November 16. — 

 Mr. Edgar Taylor, president, in the chair. — A. MoncriefT 

 Finlayson : Secondary enrichment in the copper deposits 

 of Huelva, Spain. This paper embodies the results of an 

 investigation of variations in the ore-content of the lodes 

 in the mining district named, with subsequent microscopic 

 examination of the ores, with the view of determining the 

 paragenesis of the minerals and the nature and extent of 

 alteration. The following general conclusions were arrived 

 at : — that the copper in the pyrites occurs primarily as a 

 definite mineral (chalcopyrite), and is not chemically com- 

 bined with the pyrite ; that the order of deposition of the 

 primary minerals was pyrites, chalcopyrite, blende, galena ; 

 that the processes of secondary enrichment consist, in lean 

 ores, in a change from chalcopyrite to chalcocite, and in 

 richer ores in a gradual aggregation of secondary chalco- 

 pyrite accompanied by chalcocite ; that the preliminary 

 changes due to enrichment extend to considerably greater 

 depths than is indicated by the percentage composition of 

 the ore. The characteristic process is undoubtedly the 

 formation of chalcocite from chalcopyrite, chalcocite being 

 formed, in part at least, during the oxidation of the leached 

 heaps. — J. Bowie Wilson : Notes on the Mount Morgan 

 ore deposits, Queensland. This paper is a brief account 

 of the development of these deposits, brought up to date, 

 the latest of previous technical papers on the subject being 

 at least ten years old. Considerable space is devoted to a 

 consideration of the geology of the deposit. The author 

 considers that the deposit was formed in an area of country 

 rock much shattered by intrusive dykes, which has allowed 

 free circulation of ascending mineral-bearing solutions, the 

 mineralisation occurring simultaneously with meta- 

 morphism of the original sedimentary rocks forming a 

 background to the deposit. He admits, however, that 

 there are several phenomena which do not absolutely fit 

 in with his theory. — D. M. Levy : The successive stages 

 in the bessemerising of copper mattes as indicated by the 

 converter flame. This paper, which is accompanied by 

 four coloured plates reproduced from Lumi^re photographs, 

 deals with the two main stages in the process of bessemer- 

 ising copper mattes, the "slagging" stage, during which 

 the iron-sulphide is eliminated, and the second stage, 

 during which the sulphur is finally eliminated, the slag 

 being poured off and the white metal blown up to blister 

 copper. The colours of the flames at these two stages 

 are characteristic, and there are other points, at first 

 blowing and at the end of the slagging stage, when the 

 flame colour is equally indicative of the stages reached in 

 the complete operation. The author follows out the process 

 in detail, and appends observations made during a typical 

 "blow." S -H 



Roval Meteorological Society. November t6.— Mr. H. 

 Mellish, president, in the chair.— Miss M. White : Results 

 of the hourly balloon ascents made from the Meteorological 

 Department of the Manchester University. March 18-19, 

 1910. Twenty-eight small rubber balloons carrying 

 Dines 's meteorographs were liberated hourly, and of these 

 twenty have been recovered. The balloons left Manchester 

 going^ at first in a southerly, and later south-easterly, 

 direction, and were found in the Worcester, Hereford, and 

 Monrnouth districts, one reaching North Devon. The 

 direction of the upper wind was constant during the period 

 over which the ascents extended, and did not vary with 

 height. The average height of the stratosphere was 



NO. 2143, VOL. 85] 



107 km. Whereas at the ground level the temperature 

 was remarkably constant throughout the course of the 

 experiments, showing a maximum variation of fewer than 

 2° from the mean, the isothermals at the higher levels 

 show a well-marked rise throughout the first fifteen hours ; 

 e.g. a temperature of -40° C. was at first encountered at 

 a height of 6 km., but continued to recede, until at the 

 end of twelve hours it was not met with until 8 km. 

 height. — W. H. Dines : Results obtained from the 

 registering balloon ascents carried out during the two 

 international weeks, December 6-1 1, 1909, and August 

 8-13, 1910. Balloons on each occasion were sent up from 

 Manchester, Pyrton Hill, Ditcham Park, Crinan in Scot- 

 land, and also in the west of Ireland. Seventeen records 

 were secured in the December ascents, and these show 

 that the value for the height of the isothermal column or 

 stratosphere are some of the lowest ever observed, and 

 the temperatures are perhaps the lowest ever recorded, at 

 a height of 5 miles. Of the balloons sent up in thr 

 August week seventeen were found. The average height 

 attained was about 10 miles. The inversion of tempera- 

 ture at the commencement of the isothermal layer was 

 larger than usual. — C. J. P. Cave : Pilot balloon observa- 

 tions made in Barbados during the international week, 

 December 6-1 1, 1909. These observations, which were 

 undertaken at the request of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society, were carried out by Mr. Radcliffe Hall and several 

 other gentlemen associated with him. The prevalence of 

 clouds during the daytime interfered with the ascents, 

 many of the balloons being lost to sight after a few 

 minutes. It seems that the wind behaves like an east 

 wind in this country, increasing to a maximum and then 

 falling off above. — W. Marriott : Three registering 

 balloon ascents carried out at the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Show at Liverpool on June 21-23. — Captain 

 C. H. Ley : The irregularities of the wind at mooerate 

 altitudes. 



Cambridge. 

 Philosophical Society, October 31. — Prof. Hobson, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Sir J. J. Thomson : A new 

 method of investigating the positive rays. In this method 

 the rays are received on a photographic plate inserted 

 inside the discharge tube, and placed in a light-tight case 

 until it is wished to photograph the rays, when the plate 

 is lifted from its case by a mechanism worked from the 

 outside, and the rays are allowed to fall upon it. It is 

 found that a photographic plate is very sensitive to the 

 rays ; a pencil of these only one-third of a millimetre in 

 diameter gave a good photograph in less than five minutes. 

 The photographic plate, besides being much more sensitive 

 than the willemite screen hitherto used by the author, has 

 the advantage of giving a permanent record and allows 

 of greater accuracy of measurement. Using this method, 

 the author has detected in the positive rays, in addition to 

 the atom and molecules described in his paper in ^ the 

 October number of the Philosophical Magazine, positive 

 rays of a secondary nature having values of mle, 1-5, 

 2-5, &c., that for tlie hydrogen atom. Photographs taken 

 by this method were exhibited at the meeting. — R. 

 Whiddingrton : Preliminary note on the properties of 

 easily absorbed Rontgen radiation. — R. T. Beatty : The 

 ionisation of heavy gases by X-rays. When X-rays pass 

 through matter their energy is absorbed in the production 

 of 5, jS, and y rays. X-rays the absorption of which in 

 aluminium ranged from A. = 230 to X = 4 Were passed 

 through AsH, and SeH,, and the absorptions in these gases 

 were measured. It was found that ;3 and 7 rays occurred 

 together when the characteristic y radiation of SeH, was 

 excited. On subtracting the increase in ionisation due to 

 these rays, the ionisation due to the direct formation of 

 5 rays, relatively to the ionisation in air, remained con- 

 stant for all the radiations used. It thus appears that the 

 processes which go on when the characteristic radiation 

 is produced do not alter the rate at which direct ionisation 

 takes place in the gas. Incidentally, Lenard's law of 

 absorption of corpuscular rays is confirmed to a few per 

 cent. — S. G. Lusby : The mobility of the positive ion in 

 flames. The mobility of the positive ions due to salt 

 vapours in a flame was determined in these experiments. 

 It was found that for all salts of all metals of the alkali 

 and the alkaline earth groups this mobility was a constant 



