372 



NATURE 



[Feb. 20, 1879 



third, a system of land-parcelling surveys adapted to the 

 economic uses of the several classes of lands ; and, 

 fourth, such recommendations as they may deem wise in 

 relation to the best method of disposing of the public 

 lands of the western portion of the United States to 

 actual settlers. 



" The publications of the Coast and Interior Surrey 

 shall consist of the annual report of operations, such 

 geographic and topographic maps, and geodetic and 

 coast charts, and such discussions and treatises con- 

 nected therewith, as the superintendent shall deem of 

 value. The publications of the Geological Survey shall 

 consist of the annual report of oj>erations, geological 

 and economic maps illustrating the resources and classi- 

 fication of the lands, and reports upon general and eco- 

 nomic geology and palaeontology. The annual report of 

 operations of the Coast and Interior Survey and of the 

 Geological Survey shall accompany the annual report of 

 the Secretary of the Interior. All special memoirs and 

 reports of both surveys shall be issued in uniform quarto 

 series. The style and scale of the cartographic publica- 

 tions shall be determined by the head of each organisa- 

 tion, so as to express the scientific results in the most 

 effective manner. Three thousand copies of each shall 

 be published for scientific exchanges by the heads of the 

 surveys and for sale at the price of publication ; and all 

 literary and cartographic materials received by the heads 

 of the surveys in exchange shall be the property of the 

 United States, and form a part of the libraries of the two 

 organisations ; and the money resulting from the sale of 

 such publications shall be paid into the Treasury of the 

 United States." 



HEINRICH GEISSLER 



A YEAR since we were called upon to chronicle the 

 death of Ruhmkorff, whose name is so closely iden- 

 tified with the history of electricity. In recording the 

 death of Dr. Heinrich Geissler at Bonn, January 24, we 

 regret the loss to the world of science of an equally im- 

 portant and esteemed worker. He was bom in the village 

 of Igelshieb, in Central Germany, in the year 1814. At 

 an early age he mastered the art of glass-blowing — an 

 industry which has long flourished in his native duchy of 

 Sachsen-Meiningen — and for a number of years he led 

 the life of a German Handwerksbursch, rambling from one 

 place to another, accepting employment wherever it was 

 offered. The German University towns offered to him 

 the chief attraction, the preparation of the articles requi- 

 site for scientific research having for him a peculiar 

 fascination; and his wandering life finally ended in a 

 permanent settlement at Bonn. Here he developed 

 rapidly. In the treatment of glass before the blowpipe 

 he attained a degree of perfection hitherto unknown, and 

 in his day unsurpassed. Despite the disadvantages of his 

 early life, and the demands of his occupation, he suc- 

 ceeded in making rapid acquisitions in various depart- 

 ments of the natural sciences ; and favoured by associa- 

 tion with numerous leading celebrities, in physics and 

 chemistry, he soon attained a remarkably comprehensive 

 and intimate familiarity with scientific facts and principles. 

 The union of this knowledge with his constructive ability 

 and manual accomplishments was productive of the happiest 

 results, and the past thirty years have witnessed a constant 

 succes sion of novel and ingenious devices for the furtherance 

 of scientific discovery, issuing from his atelier. Not only 

 was he able to accomplish the practical realisation of the 

 designs submitted to him, but in a multitude of cases, 

 when simply the end in view was proposed to him, 

 Geissler planned and produced apparatus of the most 

 delicate construction, and exact precision, involving a 

 mastery of physical laws to be expected only in one who 

 had devoted his life to the solution of scientific problems. 

 The impulse thus given by him to the march of original 



investigation is not easy to measure, for his name is rarely 

 associated with the numerous discoveries where his fruit- 

 ful ideas have contributed in a greater or less degree to 

 the successful result. One of his earliest direct investi- 

 gations was in companionship with the distinguished 

 physicist, Pliicker, in 1852. By means of a delicate 

 apparatus, in which the expansion of the glass was 

 exactly compensated by the introduction of mercury, they 

 made a series of accurate observations on the expansion 

 of water, and established the maximum of density at 

 3"8°. With an equal degree of accuracy the coefficient of 

 expansion for i of ice between — 24° and — 7° was 

 established at 0*0001585, and the coefficient of expansion 

 for water Avhen freezing at o", was ascertained to be 

 0'09I95. In 1869, Geissler, in company with Vogelsang, 

 demonstrated in an ingenious manner the presence of 

 liquid carbonic acid in the cavities of topaz and quartz. 

 The minerals were decomposed by means of a galvanic 

 current, the resultant gases were collected in a vacuum, 

 and the presence of CO2 was shown by the electric arc. 

 They succeeded, likewise, in producing a precipitation in 

 lime-water, and established beyond doubt the character 

 of the liquid present. Shortly after Geissler succeeded 

 in changing ordinary phosphorus into the amorphous 

 state by the action of the electric current. 



The apparatus with which Geissler' s name 'is most 

 popularly associated consists in the famous ttibes arranged 

 for the exhibition and study of the phenomena accom- 

 panying the electric discharge in various gases and 

 vapours. Their ingenious disposition has contributed 

 much to the progress of research on the nature of the 

 electric light and the condition of matter in the gaseous 

 state. Scarcely less important are his inventions of the 

 vaporimeter, the mercury air-pump, as well as the 

 balances, normal thermometer, and normal areometer, 

 and other instruments of precision devised by him, which 

 have rendered such incalculable service to those engaged 

 in exact research. A few years since the University of 

 Bonn rendered a fitting tribute to the varied merits of 

 Geissler by bestowing on him the honorary title of Doctor 

 of Philosophy, 



The career of Geissler was in many respects similar to 

 that of Ruhmkorff. Both advanced from the lowest ranks 

 of life to positions of honour in the scientific world, both 

 gave, in a quiet and almost unrecognised manner, an im- 

 portant impulse to the cause of physical investigation, 

 and both have left their names as " household words " in 

 the nomenclature of the science to which they were so 

 faithfully devoted. T. H. N. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



Lieut. Weyprecht informs us, with reference to his 

 proposed scientific expedition to Novaya Zemlya that the 

 statements which have appeared are very inaccurate, 

 nothing having as yet been decided. He and Count 

 Wilezek certainly intend to go there and make one year's 

 thorough scientific observation in some place on the 

 northern coast ; special attention will be given to cosmical 

 physics. They would prefer, however, if in other places 

 of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, others would make 

 observations simultaneous with them. Before the war 

 broke out they had the best hopes of seeing their pro- 

 posals nearly everywhere accepted, but the disturbed state 

 of Europe during the last two years has prevented them from 

 taking further steps. In April the International Meteorolo- 

 gical Congress, which was to have met in 1877, will meet 

 in Rome. One of the questions to be decided there will 

 be, in what manner the Congress can contribute to the 

 realisation of the proposals of Count Wilezek and Lieut. 

 Weyprecht. On the decision come to at that meeting 

 will theirs mainly depend. The programme which it is 

 intended to carry out will be found described in NATURE, 

 vol. xvii. p. 29. 



