February 9, 



1911] 



NATURE 



4«3 



At Aberdeen (where electric clocks on the magneta system 

 are already installed, in which case it is, of course, only 

 necessary to synchronise the master clocks) the synchro- 

 nising system has been extended by open wires to the 

 clocks at certain branch post oflices. Further, at Sheffield 

 an electric-clock system driven by a synchronised master 

 clock, which controls (in addition to the ordinary public 

 clocks referred to above) a large double-dial bracket clock 

 fixed outside the building, has been erected. A similar 

 system is about to be installed at Taunton. It is hoped 

 that before very long the post office will be in a position 

 to offer facilities to the public for the synchronisation of 

 clocks at such rental rates as should remove the main 

 objections which have been urged to the general adoption 

 of the principle. 



In connection with the subject of the synchronisation of 

 public clocks, it is of interest to record that a time ball 

 4 feet in diameter has been provided on the summit of the 

 dome of Messrs. S. H. Benson's building on the west side 

 of Kingsway, and the ball is dropped at each hour by 

 electric current. Unlike time balls which only work once 

 a day, and require to be set up by hand daily before their 

 fall, this one is wound up quite automatically by an electric 

 motor shortly before each hour of daylight, and is released 

 precisely at every hour by the Greenwich time signal. It 

 was laid down as a condition by the architects that there 

 should be no shock or jar occasioned by the fall, and this 

 has been overcome by a system of counterbalancing, 

 whereby the acceleration due to gravity is neutralised just 

 befcre the ball reaches the bottom. The installation was 

 designed by Mf. Hope-Jones, and carried out by the 

 Synchronome Company, of 32-34 Clerkenwell Road, E.C. 



.\ DEFINITE step towards the reorganisation of the irriga- 

 tion of Mesopotamia, so long neglected, has been taken by 

 the signing of a contract between the Turkish Government 

 and the firm of Sir John Jackson (Ltd.), contractors and 

 engineers, Westminster, for the construction of a large 

 dam at the head of the Hindia canal, as reported in daily 

 papers on January 31. This is a portion of the compre- 

 hensive scheme put forward by Sir William Willcocks, and 

 has for its object the turning back of the waters of the 

 Euphrates into its own bed instead of flowing down the 

 Hindia canal, whereb}- a large area of country has become 

 waterlogged. By this scheme water will be restored to 

 the Euphrates channel, which is now dry in summer, and 

 prosperity both on its bank and in the present marshy 

 tracts along the Hindia canal will be greatly increased. 



Of the four quarter days of the old May year, Candle- 

 mas Day, February 2, has become less marked than the 

 rest. It would appear, however, from the following com- 

 munication to The Daily Mirror that it is yet observed in 

 Holland : — " Scheveningen (Holland), Thursday. — To-day 

 is. Woman's Day in Holland. Her slipper is in the 

 ascendant. Your Dutch ' vrouw ' is no believer in 

 suffragette dreams of equality, no clamant seeker after 

 votes for her sex. Only on one day in the year, 

 February 2, she claims absolute autocracy. For that one 

 day she is lord and master (baas). On awakening, 

 mynheer' discovers his wife's slippers hanging conspicu- 

 ously and ominously over his head. Throughout the day 

 she flaunts her brief spell of emancipation in his face, and 

 m the evening she gives a * feast,' and then coquettes and 

 contradicts and teases the very life out of him. At the 

 end of the evening he gets his reward. The slipper 

 domination is at an end. She acclaims him her king, her 

 all-in-all baas, and crowns him with flowers and gladly 

 slips back into her position as wife and lover." 

 NO. 2154, VOL. 85] 



The port of Hull is shortly to have a fisheries museum, 

 which will be appropriately situated in the western 

 division of the city, where the population and manufactures 

 are closely connected with the steam-trawl fishing indus- 

 try ; the cost of the building will be defrayed by Mr. C. 

 Pickering. .\ suitable site has been granted in the new 

 Pickering Park, and the Hull Museums Committee hope 

 for the cooperation of the owners of fishing vessels, &c. 

 The nucleus of the collection will be the fine collection 

 of models of fishing methods and appliances, and pre- 

 served specimens, recently presented to the Hull Corpora- 

 tion by the Japanese Government. These specimens are 

 all excellently made and are of great interest. It is sug- 

 gested that the museum should illustrate the growth and 

 evolution of the fishing and shipping industries at Hull, 

 and fishes, both from a natural history and an economic 

 point of view. Mr. Pickering has undertaken to help with 

 regard to models of various types of trawlers, specimens of 

 representative fish, &c. Such an institution should be of 

 great educational value to Hull. 



A COMMLNICATION from Sir Harry Johnston, published 

 in Nature of December 15, 19 10, to the effect that three 

 living okapies were then on their way to New York, is 

 stated in the Field of January 28 to be incorrect. In 

 answer to an inquiry from that journal, the acting director 

 (Dr. H. Townsend) of the American Museum of Natural 

 History — to which institution the specimens were reported 

 to belong — states that no live okapies have been secured 

 by the museum collector in the Congo. We submitted the 

 note in the Field to Sir Harry Johnston, who replies as 

 follows : — " I have nothing to add to my original state- 

 ment or to the remarks on it in the Field of January 28 

 except to say that Dr. Bumpus, of the Natural History 

 Museum, New York, did in a letter of last October give 

 me the information regarding the capture of living okapis, 

 which I quoted textually in my review in Nature. I am 

 sure Dr. Bumpus made the statement on good foundation. 

 My review did not appear immediately it was sent in, con- 

 sequently the announcement when published was a little 

 old. What is really wanted by science is not any more 

 mounted skins of okapis, but the whole carcase preserved 

 for the careful dissection of the soft parts. This is even 

 more important than the exhibition of live okapis as a 

 curiosity." 



The Lord Mayor presided over a public meeting, held 

 in the Guildhall on February 6, to consider the desirability 

 of the systematic destruction of rats and other vermin in 

 the interests of the public health as well as in those of 

 agriculture and commerce. In moving a resolution to this 

 effect. Sir James Crichton-Browne referred to the danger 

 from plague-infected rats, and remarked that while there 

 is no cause for panic, on account of the outbreak in 

 Suffolk, there is cause for anxiety so long as any rats 

 carrying the plague bacillus remain in the land. The 

 following resolution was also adopted upon the motion of 

 Sir Charles McLaren, seconded by Prof. G. H. T. 

 Nuttall : — " That urgent representations be made to the 

 Government as to the necessity for the immediate appoint- 

 ment of a Royal Commission for the purpose of inquiring 

 into (i) the increase of vermin and the steps to be taken 

 for their destruction ; (2) the question of what creatures 

 are or are not harmful to man and his industries ; and 

 (3) the safety and efficiency of the various viruses on the 

 market and other means advocated for such destruction." 

 It was decided to ask the council of the Royal Institute of 

 Public Health to take steps to give effect to the resolu- 

 tions adopted by the meeting. 



