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NA TURE 



[August 2, 1888 



tion. Accordingly, he had thought it right to take an opportunity 

 of stating that the problem was receiving close attention. The 

 University was anxious to study it, and would bring to the 

 work its high sentiment of duty, and its passion for the public 



On Monday Mr. Howorth asked the Under-Secretary of State 

 for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the continuous and de- 

 plorable destruction of the ancient monuments of Egypt by 

 travellers and other?, and of their incomparable value and 

 interest, it would be possible to appoint some Engineer officer to 

 make a survey of those monuments and to have custody of them 

 in future. Sir J. Fergusson replied that it rested with the 

 Egyptian Government to take the necessary measures. A 

 Special Committee had been appointed to consider what ought 

 to be done in the matter, and it had been decided to levy a 

 small fee for seeing the antiquities. This would to some 

 extent increase the sum which it was possible to devote to the 

 preservation of ancient monuments. 



There is no difference of opinion as to the great variety of 

 uses to which aluminium might be applied if it could be pro- 

 duced in sufficient quantities at a reasonable cost. Hitherto it 

 has been produced, almost entirely in France, by the Deville 

 process ; and this process involves so considerable an expendi- 

 ture that the results have been by no means satisfactory. About 

 seven years ago, Mr. H. Y. Castner, of New York, began 

 experiments in that city with a view to improve the Devdle pro- 

 cess and cheapen the cost of aluminium by reducing the cost of 

 producing the sodium from which it is obtained. Two years 

 since, Mr. Castner erected experimental works at Lambeth, 

 where he succeeded, after nearly eighteen months of further 

 experimentation, in satisfying a number of men of science and 

 others that he could produce sodium at one-fifth and aluminium 

 at one-third of the cost previou>ly incurred. A company was 

 thereupon formed in order to take up and work the Castner 

 patents. In October last the foundation-stone was laid of new 

 works at Oldbury, near Birmingham, for the production of both 

 sodium and aluminium on a large commercial scale ; the works 

 were virtually completed, and the successful manufacture of these 

 products was begun about a fortnight ago ; and a large number 

 of gentlemen were invited to visit the works on Saturday last, 

 and witness the processes in actual operation. Among those 

 who accepted the invitation to be pres ent were the Right Hon. 

 A. J. Balfour, M,P., a trustee for the debenture-holders ; Sir 

 Frederick Abel, C.B., F.R.S. ; Sir Henry Roscoe, M.P., 

 F.R.S. ; Lieut. -General Sir Andrew Clarke, G.C.M.G., 

 C.B. ; Prof. C. Roberts-Austen, F.R.S., of the Mint; Prof. 

 Dewar, F.R.S. ; Dr. Crookes, F.R.S. ; Dr. Hugo Muller, 

 F.R.S. ; Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. ; Prof. Huntingdon, and 

 others. According to the Times, only one opinion was expressed 

 by the gentlemen who visited the works — some of them among 

 the highest authorities on the subject — as to the practical 

 success of all the operations witnessed, and the admirable 

 arrangement of the plant employed. Mr. Castner was freely 

 complimented on the skill and success with which he had 

 developed his system. 



Dr. Hans Reusch, of the Norwegian Meteorological In- 

 stitute, who is engaged in collecting particulars of the earth- 

 quakes which occur in Norway yearly, has issued his report for 

 1887, from which it appears that earthquakes are far more 

 frequent in Norway than has hitherto been imagined. Reports 

 were received of twenty-three, all of which were faint, except 

 three. One occurred on the night of May 7 in the Bommel 

 Islands, on the west coast, and was accompanied by subterranean 

 detonations, another in the Islands of Vsero and Rost, at the 

 extreme point of the Lofodden Group, where doors and win- 

 dows clattered and the slates on the roofs were pitched off. 

 Again, on November 5, a severe shock of earthquake was felt at 



Bodo, on the north-west coast. Of the minor shocks those which 

 frequently occurred on the Yttero are particularly remarkable, as 

 this island lies far out in the ocean, off the coast of Sondfjord. 



The International Meteorological Committee will hold its 

 fourth meeting at Zurich on September 3. This will be the 

 final meeting of the Committee as so constituted. For various 

 reasons it has been found impracticable to organize an Inter- 

 national Meteorological Congress, more than one Government 

 having declined to take part in such an assemblage. It is prob- 

 able that, in future, occasional meetings will be held of a body 

 to be composed of the chiefs of the various existing meteoro- 

 logical services, to whose meetings nothing of a diplomatic 

 character will attach. The arrangements connected with such 

 Conferences have yet to be made. 



In the American Meteorological Journal for June, Mr. A. L. 

 Rotch describes the meteorological organization of Austria and 

 the independent observatories in connection with the Central 

 Institute (not including those of the Hungarian service). There 

 is a regular telegraphic weather service, but no storm warnings 

 are issued ; an agricultural service, however, exists in the 

 summer season. The pressure at the high mountain stations is 

 reduced to the level of 2500 metres. Mr. G. E. Curtis con- 

 tributes an article on the trans-Mississippi rainfall, with 

 reference to the popular belief that the rainfall is increasing in 

 the Middle and Western States, the increase being attributed to 

 the building of railroads and the extension of cultivation. 

 Whether the amount of rainfall has actually increased or not 

 does not appear to be proved ; the author points out, however, 

 that the breaking-up and tillage of the soil have increased its 

 moisture, and with the growth of vegetation there have come an 

 increased humidity of the atmosphere and a more general 

 diffusion of rainfall. As an evidence of this result it is stated 

 that the streams have a much more even flow than formerly. 

 Dr. A. Woeikof offers an explanation of the different views of 

 Mr. A. Hazen and.Dr. Hann as to the general "inversion of 

 temperature " in areas of high and low pressure. Mr. Hazen 

 objects that the statement that, during the passage of anti- 

 cyclones, the temperatures on high mountains are high in winter,. 

 is not applicable to Mount Washington, and thus no law at all. 

 Dr. Woeikof supports Dr. Hann's views, and explains that the 

 exception pointed out by Mr. Hazen may be due to the different 

 type of weather in the Eastern States and in Europe, and to 

 the greater rapidity of the passage of anticyclones in the former 

 locality. 



Another contribution to the chemistry of the rare earths,, 

 by Drs. Kriiss and Kiesewetter, will be found in the current 

 number of the Berichte. The somewhat startling results pub- 

 lished a year ago by Drs. Kriiss and Nilson, involving as they 

 did the announcement of the existence of a large number of 

 new chemical elements, appear to receive additional confirma- 

 tion by this subsequent work undertaken by the two former 

 chemists. They are not yet in a position to announce the com- 

 plete isolation of any one of these new elements, but so much 

 progress has been made in this direction that a mixture contain- 

 ing only two of them in any quantity has been arrived at. The 

 task of separating these elementary constituents from the minerals 

 which have hitherto been examined appears, in the face of the 

 fact that their properties are so similar — their known salts being 

 almost equally soluble, and the basicities of their oxides so 

 nearly alike — well-nigh impossible. But the results of the exam- 

 ination of a large number of Scandinavian minerals show that 

 Nature herself, with her infinite resource of time and circum- 

 stance, has partially, possibly in some yet unknown instance 

 completely, performed this long and laborious operation for us. 

 Different minerals from the same place, and even the same 

 mineral from different localities, are shown by the absorption- 

 spectra of their nitrates to consist of different constituents 



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