December i6, 1920] 



NATURE 



515 



The Journal of the British Science Guild for 

 November contains an account of the annual meeting 

 held in June last, when addresses were delivered by 

 Lord Sydenham (the retiring president), Lord Mon- 

 tagu of Beaulieu (his successor), and others. 

 Since then the Guild has lost by death its 

 founder, Sir Norman Lockyer, and a past- 

 president, Sir William Mather. In the account of 

 the administrative activities of the Guild attention 

 mav be directed to the contribution by Dr. J. W. 

 Evans, chairman of the Committee on the Utilisation 

 of Science in Public Departments. Some interesting 

 evidence of the results of undue centralisation in 

 various Departments has been collected, and the reed 

 for a Royal .Army Scientific Corps, with w'hich should 

 be associated a special research institution, is strongly 

 emphasised. It is interesting to observe that the 

 Admiraltv now possesses a Scientific Research Depart- 

 ment, and a specially contributed account of this new 

 organisation appears in the Journal. Among recent 

 papers on the Guild's objectives reference may be 

 made to "The Human Factor in Industry," by 

 Mr. Alexander Ramsay. .An account is given by 

 Prof. C. S. Myers of the work of the Insti- 

 tute of Industrial Psychology, which he repre- 

 sents as a liaison member on the Guild's execu- 

 tivf committee. It is stated that the catalogue 



of British scientific and technical books in preparation 

 by the Guild is now complete, and contains about 

 6000 titles. The scheme of forming provincial groups 

 of the Guild appears to be making progress, the first 

 local committee having been already set up in Aber- 

 deen, with Prof. .Mex. Findlay as secretary. 



K COMPREHENSIVE and valuable catalogue (No. 408) 

 of works relating to South Africa has just been cir- 

 culated by Mr. F. Edwards, 83 High Street, Maryle- 

 bone, W.I. It contains upwards of 700 titles. Many 

 of the volumes are rare and difticult to obtain. Among 

 the items offered for sale is the Godlonton corre- 

 spondence^Sir Harry Smith : " .\ Collection of 

 Fifty-one .Autograph Letters, Signed, to the Hon. R. 

 Godlonton," mostly markeil "Private" or "Confiden- 

 tial," and wholly unpublished. The catalogue is one 

 to be seen by librarians and others interested in the 

 des-elopment of South .Africa. 



Prof. J. F. Dobson, professor of Greek in the 

 University of Bristol, and Dr. S. Brodetsky, lecturer 

 in applied mathematics in the University of Leeds, 

 have nearly completed their translation of the " De 

 revolutionibus orbium celestium " of Nicholas Coper- 

 nicus. The translation will be accompanied bv a 

 Life of Copernicus and some account of his influence 

 and the history of the views connected with his name. 



Our Astronomical Column. 



TioAL Friction and ihk Linar .\cceleration.— 

 Mr. G. I. Taylor contributed a paper to Phil. Trans., 

 A, vol. ccxx., on tidal friction in the Irish Sea, from 

 which it appeared that fifty Irish Seas would provide 

 sufficient dissipation of energy to account lor the 

 secular acceleration of the moon. Dr. II. Jeffreys 

 returns to the subject in Phil. Trans., A, vol. ccxxi., 

 examining the various seas where such action is 

 probable, and obtaining details of tides and currents 

 from Admiralty publications. The seas that contri- 

 bute most are largely enclosed, but an opening is 

 >|uire<i sufficient to admit the tide. The M(di»er- 

 nean. Red, and Baltic Seas are thus excluded, 

 ring .Sea is by far the largest contributor. It is 

 ncluded that two-thirds of the total action takes 

 K-e there. The Yellow Sea, Malacca Strait, and 

 . .American North-West Passage come next. The 

 i.iinous tides of the Bay of Fundy contribute some- 

 what less than the Irish Sea. 



Ihe total rate of dissipation of enerpv is 22x10" 

 _,'s per second. Taking the excess of the moon's 

 . (ular acceleration above the portion due todiminution 

 of eccentricity of the earth's orbit as 0' per century per 

 century (equivalent to 4J' on the usual erroneous 

 method of measuring bv spare gained instead of velo- 

 city gained), the equivalent dissipation is 1-4x10" ergs 

 per second. It is noted, however, that several of the 

 data used were spring-tide values. .Allowing for this, 

 the ajrreement is quite as good as could be expected. 

 It is the first time that a satisfactory estimate of 

 the tidal friction has been made, and the author notes 

 that it seems capable of satisfying all Ihe quantitative 

 demamls made on it. He had previously expressed 

 doubts on this fwint, but he had not then reali-ii-d that 

 the land-lnrke<i seas, not the open ocean, were the 

 chief contributors. 



Dr. Jeffreys also notes that the diurnal tides have a 

 slight effect on the obliquity of the ecliptic, n-during 



NO. 2668, VOL. 106] 



it to i/e of its original value in about 10" years. The 

 effect within historic times would be quite in- 

 appreciable. 



The Solar Spectrum from 6500 .A. to 9000 A. — 

 Vol. vi., No. 3, of the Publications of the Allegheny 

 Observatory contains an investigation of the red and 

 infra-red region of the solar spectrum made by Mr. 

 W. F. Meggers using plates stained with dicyanin 

 and a large plane grating lent bv the Johns Hopkins 

 University; it was ruled by Pi-of. J. A. Anderson, 

 and has 15,000 lines to the inch. The spectra of the 

 opposite limbs of the sun were photographed in juxta- 

 position, the Doppler effect thus prcxluced serving to 

 distinguish solar and telluric lines. .A large number 

 of the latter are assigned (some tentatively) to water- 

 vapour. The region 6500 to 7300 overlaps' Rowland's 

 table, the two tables being printed side bv side. This 

 region contains 473 solar lines and 596 telluric lines, 

 while the_ region 7300 to 0000 contains 495 solar and 

 838 telluric lines. The infra-red spectra of manv of 

 the elements are still uninvestigatwl, but more than 

 half of the solar lines in this region have been 

 identified. In particular, the evidence for the presence 

 of potassium in the sun is strengthene<l ; besides the 

 line at 4044 already known, lines are found at 7664 

 and 7609. The former partiv overlaps a strong line in 

 the .A band of oxygen (telluric), but the Doppler effect 

 pi-rmits it to be .seen separatclv. There is a general 

 absence of elements with high atomic weights ; In 

 explanation of this a sentence is quoted from .Abbot's 

 "Sun" (p. 253) stating that these elements would 

 probably lie at too low a level for their lines to be 

 seen at the limb. Seven elements (rhodium, 

 ruthenium, pall.idlum, gallium, europium, helium, 

 and oxygen) are added to the thirty-six solar elements 

 in Rowl.ind's list. Oxygen is shown by the lines 

 77"'« 7774' 777S. ""'' ^44" (doublet); the^ir line's have 

 Doppler displacements. 



