;84 



NATURE 



[January 19, 191 1 



paper entitled " The Measurement of Boiler Deformations." 

 The author described a novel and ingenious method of 

 ascertaining the deformation and corresponding stress by 

 means of a mirror attached to the point on the shell to be 

 examined and a telescope sighted on to the mirror, the 

 reflected reading of a graduated scale being observed and 

 the angular deflection thereby ascertained. 



We learn from a note in the Builder for January 13 

 that M. Knauth, in reporting on the settlement in Strass- 

 burg Cathedral, states that the chief cause is the defective 

 condition of the foundations beneath the north tower. The 

 foundations consist of two walls running north to south 

 and east to west, and are constructed of rubble and cement 

 on argillaceous soil, in which some timber piles had been 

 driven. The piles are badly decayed, and the interior 

 pillar of the tower is said to be virtually unsupported for 

 a length of 2 metres, as a layer of vegetable earth is inter- 

 posed between the foundations and the base of the pillar. 

 Like many fabrics of the same class in this and other 

 countries, Strassburg Cathedral was built in different 

 epochs, one result being that the foundations have now 

 to carry loads greater than those contemplated by the 

 original designer. This point is illustrated by the state- 

 ment that the present foundation load is upwards of 

 25 tons per square foot. The remedy proposed is the 

 underpinning of all defective foundations. 



A Blue-book has just been issued giving account of 

 the engine trials at the National Physical Laboratory for 

 the award of the prize of loooZ. offered by Mr. Patrick 

 Y. Alexander. These trials form the subject of an article 

 in Engineering for January 13, from which we gather 

 that six engines were entered, but only three arrived 

 before the date fixed. These were : — (i) the Wolseley Tool 

 and Motor-car Company, Birmingham ; (2) Messrs. 

 Humber ; and (3) the Aster Engineering Company, 

 Wembley Park (entered by Green's Motor Patents 

 Syndicate). Not one of these engines was able to fulfil 

 the conditions of the test fully. The first was pulled up 

 by a leak in the copj>er oil pipe leading from the pump 

 to the oil well, a defect which led to other mishaps. The 

 Humber motor ran steadily at 37 brake-horse-power at 

 1224 revolutions per minute for 113 hours, and then stopped 

 suddenly with one of the cylinders broken off and two 

 connecting rods buckled. The Green engine was more 

 fortunate. It had to stop for a new sparking plug, and 

 then ran, making approximately 31-5 brake-horse-power at 

 12 13 revolutions per minute, until the completion of the 

 twenty-four hours' run. In a special test of seven 

 minutes, the motor developed 36-4 brake-horse-power at 

 1390 revolutions per minute. The prize has not been 

 awarded, but we understand that the donor has generously 

 presented a cheque for 200I. to the makers of the Green 

 engine, which came nearest to the conditions of award. 



Messrs. J. and A. Churchill have just ready for publi- 

 cation a new edition of another volume of " Allen's Com- 

 mercial Organic Analysis." It is vol. iv. under the new 

 arrangement, and has been rewritten under the editorship 

 of Mr. W. A. Davis and Mr. S. S. Sadtler. 



Messrs. Williams and Norgate announce for earlv 

 publication a translation into English of Prof. Wilhelm 

 Ostwald's work entitled "Natural Philosophy." This 

 work, the translation of which will be revised bv the 

 author, gives a resumd of modern natural philosophy, based 

 not upon metaphysics, but upon the sciences ; and it aims 

 at providing a complete synthesis of the results of. the 

 specialisation of last centurv. 



NO. 2 15 1, VOL. 85] 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Nova Lacert^e. — A brief note in No. 4464 of ili 

 Astronomische Nachrichten announces that Prof. Max 

 Wolf has found a twelfth- or thirteenth-magnitude star in 

 the position of Nova Lacertae on plates taken some year- 

 ago at the Konigstuhl Observatory. The previous preseni 

 of a faint object does not, of course, necessarily preclud 

 the star discovered by Mr. Espin from being of th 

 " novae " type, although in most cases the pre-existem 

 of matter in the identical position is assumed rather tha 

 demonstrated; before the catastrophe which produces th 

 extraordinary outburst of light, the object is usually too 

 faint to be detected on our photographs. 



'More precise spectrum observations than those yet pub- 

 lished will permit us to determine whether the outbur- 

 was of the catastrophic nature which produces typical 

 " novae " or whether it is simply a case of a peculiar 

 variable ; up to the present, the unfavourable English 

 skies, combined with the faintness of the object, hav 

 prevented definitive observations. Seven or eight brig! 

 lines have been observed at the Cambridge Observator\ . 

 and it is worthy of note that they have not the broad 

 appearance of lines seen in the spectra of novae. 



It is to be regretted that the " nova " was not dis- 

 covered earlier, for we understand that Prof. Pickering 

 has found images of it, on plates taken about the end < ■ 

 November, 19 10, showing it to be of approximately th 

 same photographic magnitude (about 5-0) as the star 

 9 Lacertae shown on the chart which we gave in last 

 week's issue ; on December 30, 1910, its magnitude was 

 about 7-0. Referring to these facts, at the Newcastle 

 Astronomical Society, Mr. Espin pointed out that for some 

 three weeks the star was visible to the naked eye, yet no 

 one observed it. It was not visible on the Harvard plates 

 on November 19, so that its rise to the fifth magnitude 

 must have been rapid. Mr. Espin suggests that these 

 observations conclusively prove the object to be a rea' 

 nova. A plate taken at Harvard in December, i8<S7. 

 although it shows faint stars, shows no trace of the nova. 



Mr. Bellamy estimated the visual magnitude on 

 January 2 as 75, and recorded the colour as orange. It 

 will probably be found, as with other novae, that there is 

 a certain difference between the photographic and visual 

 magnitudes, due to the presence of radiations visually 

 inert, and this is suggested by the fact, stated by th 

 Astronomer Royal, that the photographs taken at Green- 

 wich show the image of the nova to be different in appear- 

 ance from the other star images shown on the same plates. 



The Orbits of Several Spectroscopic Binaries. — Nos. 

 5-8, vol. ii., of the Publications of the Allegheny Observa- 

 tory contain the discussions of the orbits of variou- 

 spectroscopic binaries under investigation at the observa 

 tory. 



In No. 5 Mr. R. H. Baker discusses the measures of 

 the spectrum of 30 H. Ursae Majoris as shown on fift\ 

 plates taken with the Mellon spectrograph in 1908-10. 

 He finds that the observations are not so w'ell satisfied 

 by the preliminary curve computed on the assumption of 

 simple elliptic motion, but the agreement is improved by 

 the introduction of a secondary oscillation. As there is n*"' 

 trace of the secondary component on any of the plate?, 

 the resulting orbit must be accepted as preliminary ; the 

 period is 11-5832 days. 



Thirty spectrograms of 57 Cygni are discussed by the 

 same observer in No. 6 of the Publications. These wef^- 

 taken in 1909, and a comparison of the results with earlier 

 ones secured in 1903 establishes the period as 2-8546 day.«. 

 The orbits of both primary and secondary components ar- 

 given separately and then combined, and it appears that 

 the masses are not very different. 



Mr. Baker also reverts to the discussion of Aquilae, 

 in No. 7, which, from a comparison of observations made 

 by M. Deslandres in 1901-2 with later ones made in 

 1907-8 by Mr. Baker, appeared to have a variable period. 

 The latter observer now finds that the two observation^ 

 of 1901 are probably erroneous, and that the period of 

 6 Aquilae (17-1245 days) is constant. The orbit as pub- 

 lished is derived from single-prism plates, where the line? 

 are confused, and can be only an approximation to the 

 true elements ; the star is bright enough, however, for 



le ^ 



