98 



NATURE 



{Dec. 5, 1878 



Wale>, which it has been our duty to publish in Kemfs ALrcan 

 tile Gazette during the past eleven years : — 



Year. 

 1867 

 1868 

 1869 

 1870 

 1871 

 1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1877 



Total for 1 1 years 



122,260 



' ' The question occurs : Does the number of failures in a year de 

 pend upon natural causes ? that is to say. Would the number rise 

 and fall periodically according to the state of trade (or national 

 prosperity) if the Bankruptcy Law remained constant ? When- 

 ever failures have become frequent, complaints have been made 

 against the Law, and not without reason, but many who com- 

 plain ignore the existence of any other cause. We compared 

 the foregoing figures with the scientific tables recently published 

 in Nature, from the pen of Prof. Balfour Stewart,^ and, being 

 struck with the coincidence in their fluctuations, we further com- 

 pared them with the statistics published by Messrs. Dun and Co., 

 of New York, of the failures in the United States during the 

 past eight years,^ which period, being that of the existence of 

 our present Bankruptcy Law, affords us a fair opportunity for 

 making a comparison. Messrs. Dun and Co. report the follow- 

 ing as the total failures in the United States during this period : — 



"Evidently the same causes which were at work in England 

 to depress trade and overwhelm the struggling and improvident 

 classes, were equally effective in other countries — similar com- 

 plaints of depression come to us from every part of the globe. 



"The discussion which has arisen out of Dr. Hunter's sugges- 

 tion of a ' famine period ' in India, has brought to the public 

 some knowledge of the existence of natural periods or cycles, of 

 an average duration of 1 1 "9 years each. The suggestion that 

 England is affected with the same regularity is but reasonable, 

 and although fortunately for us as a nation the e fleets do not 

 produce famine, it appears evident that some degree of suffering 

 is caused, and that the number of failures is thereby materially 

 increased — the commercial panics which have occurred with 

 about the same regularity furnish further evidence that this is 

 the case. 



"If we make due allowance for the excessive number in the 

 last quarter of 1869, caused by the change in the Law, we find 

 that the maximum number of failures in the last cycle occurred 

 in the year 1868, which was the year succeeding the natural 

 minimum ; hence we may conclude that about a year is required 

 for the full effect of the natural depression to be reproduced in 

 commerce. The twelve months from October I, 1867, to Sep- 

 tember 30, 1868, appear to have been more serious to commercial 

 men than either of the complete years, according to the number 

 of failures : — 



" In the 4th Quarter of 1867 there were 4,233 failures. 



Total 



16,594 



" These data indicate that we have not yet reached the worst 

 of the present period — assuming that it runs an average length, 



' Vide Nature, vol. xvi. pp. 9, 26, 45. 



* Messrs. Dun and Co.'s Annual Circular, January, 1S78. 



we have to endure an increasing number of failures which will 

 not reach its maximum until the fourth quarter of 1879." 



John Kemp and Co. 



Since this was written I have hod counted the number of failures 

 gazetted since January i, 1878, and I find that they are 2,042 in 

 excess of the corresponding period (January i to November 19) 

 in the preceding year. J. K. 



Strange Properties of Matter 



The following are two experiments which will, perhaps 

 interest some of your readers : — 



Experiment No. I. — The " Welding" 9/ Metals at Low Tem- 

 peratures 



Some time ago, [in order to estimate the'samount of 

 hydrocyanic acid in a solution, I precipitated it with silver 

 nitrate. After having filtered and washed the precipitate, I 

 reduced it to the metallic state by heating to the required tem- 

 perature. Just as I was about to allow it to cool, I noticed a 

 small piece of dirt among the reduced silver. In order to 

 separate them, I took a thin platinum wire, and pushed the 

 silver to one side, but on attempting to take the wire away the 

 silver remained in contact with it. As I thought this curious, 

 I tried the following experiment. I took a piece of silver foil 

 about one centimetre square, placed it in an inverted porcelain 

 crucible lid, and heated it to about 500° C, ; then I brought into 

 contact with it the extremity of a thin platinum wire, and to my 

 astonishment the wire raised the silver from the lid, and it re- 

 mained in contact when cold, as the silver was so very much 

 below its melting-point ; the above fact caused me some surprise, 

 and I could not satisfactorily account for it. 



I wrote to Sir W. Thomson, F.R.S., giving him a description 

 of the above experiment, and in return I received a reply asking 

 me to come and show him the experiment at his laboratory. I 

 accordingly went up to the Glasgow University, and repeated it 

 before him. He was very much interested, and advised me to write 

 to Nature, giving a description of the experiments. Sir W. Thom- 

 son gave the following explanation — That it was a remarkable 

 case of "cohesion," the two metals, in fact, "welding," although 

 the temperature was far below the melting-point of silver. The 

 above experiment can be performed successfully at lower tem- 

 peratures than 500° C, if smaller pieces of foil are taken. 

 Other metals, for instance, copper and aluminium, cohere to 

 silver in the same manner as platinum, but less strikingly. 



Experiment No. 2. — A Curious Resonator 

 Some months ago I made the following experiment : — I took a 

 small tuning-fork and struck it on the table. After the note had 

 died away, so that it was no longer audible, I held the fork in 

 the tip of the flame of a Bunsen bm-ner, when the note was given 

 out, so that it could be heard at some distance. I showed Sir 

 W. Thomson this experiment, who gave the following explana- 

 tion — That owing to the difference in density of the gases in 

 the flame, the flame acted as a resonator, and so the note was 

 emitted. 



It seems to me that experiment No. I could be made the subject 

 of an interesting research, but as I am wholly engaged in com- 

 mercial pursuits, I am unable to take it up. 



Charles A. Fawsitt 

 Glasgow, November 12 



Galvanometer for StrongT Currents 

 I must "confess that I was surprised by Mr. R. E. Baynes' 

 communication, in Nature, vol. xix. p. 33, that the galvano- 

 meter I have proposed in Nature, vol. xviii. p. 707, has 

 already been described. Before writing my article I have 

 searched a good many books and journals relating to the subject 

 without finding an allusion to any such instrument. • Since Mr. 

 Baynes drew my attention to "The Elements of Physical 

 Manipulation," by Prof. Pickering, of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology, U.S., I have procured this book and find 

 that it certainly does contain the theory of a galvanometer like 

 mine, with the coil moving round a horizontal axis. As far as I 

 know, such an instrument has, however, not been practically 

 employed either in this country or on the Continent before I 

 introduced it, though its want must have been much felt for some 

 time past. This seems to show that Prof. Pickering's descrip- 

 tion of the instalment has not been brought to the general 



