February lO, 1921] 



NATURE 



759 



not been accorded adequate attention or weight. Nor, 

 ifter studying the discussion of it in Nature, can 1 

 -ce anv material difference between the views of Sir 

 Ray Lankesler and those of Sir Archdall Reid. 



H. Bryan Donkin. 

 London, February i. 



The Scientific Glassware Industry. 



I HAVE read with very ^riat interest the article on 

 the optical glass industry published in Nature of 

 January 20, and should like to direct attention to the 

 < ondition of the scientific and illuminating branches 



>f the glass industry, which are in the same 

 position as the optical section and of equal import- 

 ance to the nation. The manufacture of scientific 

 L;lassware, practically non-existent in the country 

 urior to 1914, was undertaken by several glass- 

 makers at the urgent request of the Government, 

 which, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, dis- 

 covered that the prosecution of the war was in danger 

 of being impede*! owing to the lack of supplies of 

 these articles. The progress made in the manufac- 



ure of this apparatus has been very remarkable, 



speciallv when taking into consideration the com- 

 paratively short time it has been in existence in this 

 country and the great difficulties with which the 

 manufacturers had to contend. The latter have, how- 

 ever, succeeded in producing glass which is in many 

 ' as<'s superior to German or .Austrian pre-war glass, 

 .ilthough it is freely admitted that in the early days 

 the glass produced was in some cases of extremely 

 bad Quality. This has now been remedied, and one 

 may fairly claim that, as regards both the quality of 

 the glass and the t<Hhnique and workmanship, British- 

 made scientific app.-iratus now is among the best that 



.in be productKi anywhere. 



The industry is, however, in grave danger of being 

 ■igain completely lost to this country. Owing to pre- 

 vailing conditions Germany, Austria, and Czecho- 

 slovakia are trading under conditions which make it 

 impossible for British manufacturers to compete, and 

 the factories have no alternative but to cease work 

 almost immediately unless the Government gives some 

 ver^■ definite assurance that the promises it made 

 when it asked the manufacturers to undertake this 

 work will be very shortly redeemed. The industry 

 has not been in existence sufficiently long to enable 

 the manufacturers to create reserves to fight and 

 meet this competition in the ordinary way. On the 

 contrary, the present loss to those engaged in the 

 industrv is extremely large, and it is mainly for this 

 reason that they cannot continue production without 

 the assistance of the Government, the most suitable 

 form of which would be legislation on the lines of 

 the Dyes Bill. The large majority of users of indus- 

 trial and scientific apparatus have considered this 

 question, and have joine<l with the manufacturers in 

 urging upon the Government the necessity for imme- 

 diate action in order that they shall not again have 

 to relv upon foreign countries — and possible future 

 enemie!« — for supplies of glass which is so vital, not 

 only to the scientific and industrial worlds, but also 

 to the very defence of the nation. 



T. Lbstbr Swain. 

 The British Chemical Ware Manufacturers' 

 Association. Ltd., 51 Lincoln's Inn Fields, 

 London. W.C.2, January 31. 



Greenland In Europe. 



With refen-nci- to the leiler liv "T. R. R. S." in 

 Nati RF of January a7, p. 6<)4, I mav t>e allowed to 

 add some explanntor\' remarks which could not bo 

 included in the very condensed synopsis of my Cardiff 



NO. 2676, VOL. 106] 



paper. The map showing Spitsbergen as " Green- 

 land" appears in ".An Easy Introduction to the Arts 

 and Sciences," by R. Turner, jun., LL.D., late of 

 Magdalen Hall, Oxford, author of "An Easy Intro- 

 duction to Geography," etc. The copy cited is the 

 fifteenth edition .of that work, and it was issued in 

 1812 by Longman and other London booksellers. The 

 first edition may be assumed to have been printed 

 about twenty years earlier, with or without that map. 



It is difficult for us to determine how far the nomen- 

 clature of the 1812 edition was then regarded as old- 

 fashioned. To this very day we call the ocean that 

 stretches from the west coast of Spitsbergen south- 

 ward to the -Arctic Circle "the Greenland Sea." For 

 what length of time that expanse of water has borne 

 that name is an interesting question ; at any fate, 

 there is no room for doubting that our seventeenth- 

 centurv whalers and mariners regarded the Spits- 

 bergen region as specially "Greenland." 



As for the passage from Goldsmith's Geography, 

 quoted by "T. R. R. S." as indicating another point 

 of view, he will find, I think, on fuller consideration, 

 that it does not conflict with the map of 1812, because 

 Goldsmith's statement that icebergs or ice-floes "are 

 to be met with on the coasts of Spitzbergen, to tlve 

 great danger of the shipping employed in the Green- 

 land fishery," clearly implies that the scene of "the 

 Greenland fishery " lay off the western seaboard of 

 Spitsbergen. That the latter name was given in the 

 first place to the mountain peaks is manifest ; indeed, 

 an .Arctic voyager of 1653 illustrates the different 

 application of the two terms. On his outward voyage 

 towards Vaigatz his ship sighted the distant peaks of 

 " Spitzbergen " to northward, but when a visit was 

 afterwards paid to the great whaling station in that 

 archipelago he speaks of the land as "Greenland." 

 Probablv the two names have been used interchange- 

 ably for many generations. D.wid MacRitchie. 



Edinburgh, January 29. 



The Mild Weather. 



In continuation of thp letter on the above subject 

 in Nature of January 20, it may be of interest to 

 give a few facts for the calendar month of January, 

 since high temperatures were so persistent throughout. 

 From the beginning to the end of the month there 

 was a neck-to-neck race for record temperature 

 between the Januarys of 1916 and 1921. The tem- 

 perature at Greenwich for the civil day as published 

 by the Registrar-General's weekly returns shows the 

 supremacy for warmth to be claimed by January of 

 the present year, when the mean for all the maximum 

 readings was 500° F., the minimum 40-8°, and the 

 mean of the mean maximum and minimum 45-4°. 

 For January, 1016. the corresponding means were 

 .So-4°, 40-1°, and 453°. There is only a triflingdifference 

 between the results for the two Januarys, which are 

 the warmest during the last eighty years. In January, 

 1016, the davs were slightly warmer than in 1921, 

 whilst in January, 192 1, the nights were appreciably 

 warmer than in 1916. 



The two years 1916 and 1921 are the only instances 

 with the January mean maximum temperature 50° 

 or above, and they are also the onlv instances with 

 the mean minimum temperature 40° or above. In 

 January, iqifi, there were nineteen davs with the 

 shade temperature ^0° or above, and eighteen such 

 warm davs in Januarv, 192?; whilst in T916 there 

 were three nights with the temperature? 45° or above, 

 and in 1921 nine correspondingly warm nights. In 

 both years the mean temperature for January was 7° 

 above the normal. Ciias. Harding. 



65 Holmewood Gardens, S.W.J, February 4. 



