326 



NATURE 



\_yuly 31, 



'111 



NOTES 



Prof. Tacchini has been appointed Director of the Central 

 Office of Meteorology and of the Observatory of the CoUegio 

 Romano. 



We are requested to announce that during the months of 

 August and September, the apartments of the Geological Society 

 will be closed on Saturdays at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. 



We are glad to hear that there is a likelihood of the late Prof. 

 Rankine's papers being republished in a collected form. Mr. 

 W. J. Millar, of Glasgow, has been asked to act as editor, and 

 is at present drawing up a list of papers which it might be 

 advisable to reprint. 



The French Association for the Advancement of Science will 

 hold its next session at Montpellier, as we announced some 

 time ago. One of the two lectures will be on the " Electric 

 Light," of which there will be a splendid display. The meeting 

 of the Association will take place on August 28, so that the great 

 heat will be no obstacle to the excursions, which will be attractive, 

 as every effort will be made to take advantage of the excep- 

 tional position of the city. Montpellier being one of the oldest 

 universities in the world, a number of historical relics will be 

 exhibited for the first time to strangers, of high interest in the 

 development of science. 



The meeting of the Swiss Association of Naturalists will take 

 place at St. Gallen on August I0-I2 next. The committee 

 invites foreign naturalists to attend the meeting. The detailed 

 programme may be had upon application to the secretary, Herr 

 Stein, at St. Gallen. 



During the^lastdaysof June^shocks of earthquake of moderate 

 intensity were felt on the south-east side of Mount Etna, par- 

 ticularly in the vicinity of the little town of Zafferana. The 

 great crater at the time was sending forth a mighty thick black 

 column of smoke. On the southern slope of the mountain the 

 earthworks for the erection of the great astronomical observatory, 

 for which Prof. Tacchini drew the plans, have been begun. 

 The observatory will stand at an elevation of 3,000 metres above 

 the sea; the largest telescope will measure 33 centimetres in 

 diameter. The Commission appointed by the Italian Govern- 

 ment to study the phenomena accompanying the recent eruption, 

 hav proposed the establishment of a Cabinet for Vulcanology, 

 of which Prof. O. Silvestri is to be the director. 



Three violent shocks of earthquake occurred at Athens on 

 July 3 at 4.15 P.M. The centre of the oscillations seems to have 

 been at Xylokastron, near Corinth. On Mount Parnassus and 

 at Thebes the phenomenon was also noticed. At Athens another 

 shock was felt on the 6th shortly after midnight. 



Mr. W. Lant Carpenter describes in the Bristol Mercury 

 a visit he recently paid to Mr. Edison's laboratory at Menlo 

 Park. The laboratory, workshops, &c., he states, as well as 

 some isolated buildings for delicate electrical measurements, are 

 spread over an acre of ground, railed in, admission to which is 

 only given to privileged visitors. While waiting for Mr. 

 Edison, Mr. Carpenter was conducted by a messenger through 

 all the physical, chemical, and private experimenting labora- 

 tories, and then through the workshops, the machinery cf which 

 is driven by a beautiful, high-pressure, eighty-horse engine, also 

 used to drive the electric-light machinery, most of which is in 

 the same shop. About a dozen workmen were engaged, some 

 in electrical test measurements, &c., but chiefly in manufacturing 

 Mr. Edison's latest form of telephone, constructed for the electric 

 and hygrometric conditions of our English atmosphere. Mr. 

 Edison admitted that he was not doing very much at present 



at the problem of domestic electric lighting. He appeared to 

 consider the question of its economical subdivision a solved 

 problem (he had sixteen lamps in the workshop, each with its 

 small coil of platinum wire, in a glass globe, three to four inches 

 diameter), and was now giving attention to the details of lamp 

 construction. This new form of lamp is to be a minute cylinder 

 of compressed pure zircon, a rare earth allied to magnesia, 

 which is to be heated to whiteness by the surrounding coil of 

 platinoiridium wire. A chemist was engaged in purifj'ing zircon 

 for this purpose. The newest thing in the shop was a dynamo- 

 meter, the last and best of several invented by Mr. Edison, with 

 the result of which he was perfectly satisfied, and he stated that 

 with this instrument he had been able to show that, after de- 

 ducting the necessary amount for friction in the machinery, more 

 than 95 per cent, of the mechanical force employed was obtained 

 in the form of light. Mr. Carpenter informs us that in conse- 

 quence of a circular addressed by Mr. Edison to miners in 

 Colorado (whence Mr. Carpenter has just returned) and else- 

 where, platinum is being widely discovered in these district-s 

 now attention is directed to it. 



The summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engi- 

 neers will be held in Glasgow, by the invitation of the Institution 

 of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, commencing Tuesday, 

 August S- The foUoviing papers will be read and discussed : — 

 "On the Pneumatic Marine Governor," by Mr. W. J. Dunlof, 

 of Port Glasgow. — "On the 'Velometer' Governor," by M;. 

 F. W. Durham, of London. — " On the Maintenance of Constant 

 Pressure in Water Service Pipes," by Mr. Stephen Alley, of 

 Glasgow. — "On the Barton Water Regulator, or Reducing 

 Valve," by Mr. W. H. Thomas, of London. — "On the Forging 

 of Crank Shafts," by Mr. W, L. E. McLean, of Glasgow. — 

 "On Water-pressure Engines with Variable Stroke," by Mr. 

 John Hastie, of Greenock. — "On the Working of Traction 

 Engines in India," by Mr. R. E. B. Crompton, of London. — 

 "On the Construction and Working of a Vertical Action Steam 

 Dredger," by Mr. R. B. Buckley, of the Public Works Depart- 

 ment, Bengal.— "On Plate-rolling Machinery," by Mr. Edwan! 

 Hutchinson, [of Darlington.—" On Barton and West's Wate- 

 Meter," by Mr. W. H. Thomas, of London. A number o:f 

 interesting visits and excursions have been arranged. 



We are requested by the Committee of the Sunday Society to 

 publish the following: — "Through the kindness of Sir Coutts 

 Lindsay, the proprietor and director of the Grosvenor Gallery, 

 the members of the Sunday Society have to day (Sunday, July 27). 

 been favoured with admission to the Summer Exhibition, between 

 the hours of 6 and 8. 30 p.il.,and nearly 500 have availed themselves- 

 of the privilege. Next Sunday the Gallery will be opened to the 

 public, free by tickets, which will be issued by the Society to all 

 persons making written application and sending stamped and 

 addressed envelope, for reply, to the Honorary Secretary, 19, 

 Charing Cross, S.W. A special catalogue has been published 

 by the Society, price 41/. ; this must be obtained before Sunday, 

 as no catalogues will then be on sale." 



An exhibition somewhat similar to the one we described at the 

 Royal Aquarium, but on a larger scale, of plans, diagrams, 

 models, apparatus, and all appliances illustrative of the various 

 subjects that have to be considered in planning water-supplies, 

 and the domestic arrangements for making them in the best way 

 available, is to be held at the Alexandra Palace. The Exhibi- 

 tion will be arranged in fifteen section as follows : — Section I. 

 Physics and Chemistry ; Section II. Rainfall, &c. ; Section III. 

 Rivers ; Section IV. Geology and Hydro-Geology ; Section V. 

 Waterworks ; Section VI. Distribution of Water ; Section VII. 

 Statistics ; Section VIII. Water Examination ; Section IX. 

 Filtration; Section X. Hardness; Section XI. Disease; Sec- 

 tion XII. Antiquarian ; Section XIII. Pollution; Section XIV. 



