Dec. 8, 1887] 



NATURE 



137 



The Siemens regenerative flat-flame burner, as will be 

 noticed from the accompanying illustration, is a lamp of 

 a quite different character from the one just described, 

 burning as it does within an inclosing glass, the previous 

 lamp being quite open to the air. The lamps exhibited 

 consumed from 7 to 8 feet of gas each per hour, and are 

 of various ornamental forms. It consists simply of an 

 ordinary bat's-wing burner supplied with hot air through 

 perforated plates, which are heated by the waste heat 

 from the products of combustion, and by radiant heat 

 communicated to the perforated plates. The advantages 

 of this form of lamp are those of construction, applica- 

 tion, and economy. The principal parts of the regene- 

 rator consist of simple castings, whilst the only wearing 

 part is the tip or burner, which is, as already stated, of 

 the ordinary kind, and may be easily replaced at trifling 

 cost. It can be fitted to the ceiling of a room like any 

 other gas-lamp, or may be connected up to a chimney, so 

 that the products of combustion may be withdrawn from 

 the apartment. There is a provision for lighting this 

 lamp without removing the glass globe, the glass being 

 sufficiently far removed from the flame not to receive any 



Fig. 3. 



deposit upon its surface. With a consumption of 72 

 cubic feet of gas per hour, this lamp has been found to 

 give without reflector a light equal to 72 sperm candles, 

 or 10 candles per cubic foot, being more than three times 

 the light produced by ordinary gas-burners, whilst if three 

 flames are inclosed in the same lamp the efficiency 

 obtained is still higher. 



A third form of burner is Siemens's improved argand. 

 This is not a regenerative gas-burner properly so called, 

 and hence the economy is not so great as in either of the 

 burners previously described. Instead of utilizing the 

 waste heat of the products of combustion, in this burner 

 the heat of the lower or non-luminous portion of the 

 flame is applied for the purpose of heating up the air 

 which is supplied to the burner. Tlie sketch shows the 

 arrangement in half-section. It consists of gas-chamber, 

 G, and tubes, R, from which the gas issues and is burnt ; 

 a metal stem, N, rises a certain height above the top of 

 the gas-tubes, serving the double purpose of improving 

 the form of the flame and conducting a certain amount of 



heat down to assist in heating the air supplied to the 

 burner. The air enters through the slots T, in the lower 

 portion of the cylindrical case L, which surrounds it, a 

 hot chamber being thus formed, from which the heated 

 air passes to the flame. A glass chimney, x, incloses the 

 flame as in the ordinary argand burner. 



By means of this lamp an intense white light is pro- 

 duced with some economy of gas, the light produced with 

 6 cubic feet of gas being 26 candles, or 4-33 candles per 

 cubic foot per hour, as compared with 3*2 in the ordinary 

 form of argand burner. When an opal glass shade or 

 reflector is used, throwing down a portion of the light, 

 this burner gives a light of 6-33 candles per cubic foot. 

 Its applications are various, but it is mainly applied for 

 reading and desk purposes. 



Mr. Siemens, in reply to a vote of thanks, said that the 

 only economical way of burning gas was with the applica- 

 tion of regenerators. This had already been proved by 

 both the late Sir William Siemens and Mr. Frederick 

 Siemens as regards furnaces for industrial purposes, and 

 it is now being exemplified by Mr. Frederick Siemens in 

 the domestic applications of gas. 



NOTES. 



The University of Cambridge has sustained a severe loss by 

 the death of Mr. Coutts Trotter. He died on Sunday morning 

 last. Next week we shall give some account of his services to 

 his University and to science. 



The United States Chief Signal Ofiice has suppressed both 

 its mountain stations, Pike's Peak and Mount Washington. The 

 latter was suppressed at Michaelmas. The grounds alleged are — 

 the reduction of the grant by Congress, which has been very 

 serious, and, further, inability to use the reports in forecasting. 



The Chief Signal Officer (Washington) has issued a circular, 

 dated November 10 last, stating that, in view of the large num- 

 ber of letters he has received deprecating the discontinuance on 

 January i, l888, of the International Meteorological Observa- 

 tions (see Nature, vol. xxxvi. p. 545), he has decided to con- 

 tinue to receive such observations, made at noon, Greenwich 

 time, after that date. He does not promise to publish them as 

 regularly as heretofore, but he will do what he can to give 

 observers some return for their labours in the interests of the 

 science of meteorology. 



The Annalen der Hydrographie und Maritimen Meteorologie 

 for November contains the first part of the explanatory text of 

 the daily synoptic charts of the North Atlantic Ocean for the 

 winter quarter of 1883-84, together whh charts showing the 

 positions of the principal barometric maxima and maxima (see 

 Nature, vol. xxxvi. p. 159). The depressions of January 22-31 

 are of especial interest, as they include the lowest barometrical 

 reading ever recorded in Europe, viz. 27*332 inches at Ochter- 

 tyre, near Crieft", N.B., on January 26, 1884. The readings 

 nearest to this are 27-33 inches, about d" further south in the 

 Atlantic, on February 5, 1870, and even 27-245 inches in Ice- 

 land on February 4, 1824. A still lower reading has lately been 

 quoted for False Point (Nature, November 17, p. 68). The 

 storm of January 26-27 was also remarkable for the rapid fall 

 before, and the rapid rise after, the minimum pressure. 



The Monthly Weather Ch.arts of the Bay of Bengal and 

 adjacent sea north of the equator, recen'ly published by the 

 Meteorological Department of India, very clearly illustrate the 

 distribution of pressure, wind, and currents, as well as the 

 changes of the monsoons, in those parts. The charts have been 

 prepared from data for the years 1855-78, and supplied by the 

 Meteorological Council, at the expense of the Indian Office. 

 Each chart is accompanied by explanatory text. 



