598 



NATURE 



[May 6, 1922 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



May 4, 1879. William Froude died. — " The greatest 

 of experimenters and investigators in hydrodynamics," 

 Froude began his researches on the motion of ships 

 among waves in 1856. They were made at the re- 

 quest of I. K. Brunei, who was then engaged with 

 the building of the Great Eastern. Froude had been 

 employed under Brunei on the Great Western Rail- 

 way. His work led to the construction by the Ad- 

 miralty of the experimental tank at Torquay, the 

 first of its kind ever built. He carried out experi- 

 ments on the effects of bilge keels and on the re- 

 sistance and propulsion of ships, and he is also known 

 as the inventor of a dynamometer. 



May 4, 1886. James Muspratt died. — After an ad- 

 venturous youth, a part of which was spent in the 

 Navy, Muspratt settled in Liverpool and began the 

 manufacture of soda according to the Leblanc pro- 

 cess. Six years later he was joined by Gamble and 

 new works were erected at St. Helens. Afterwards 

 he had works at Widnes and Flint. He has been 

 called the father of the alkali trade in Lancashire. 

 He was a great friend of Liebig. 



May 4, 1908. Gustav Friedrich Herman Wedding 

 died. — A distinguished writer on metallurgy. Wedding 

 studied at the Mining Academies of Berlin and Frei- 

 burg and ultimately became professor of metallurgy 

 at the Technical High School at Charlottenburg. His 

 works were regarded as of exceptional value and in 

 1896 he was awarded the Bessemer Medal of the Iron 

 and Steel Institute. 



May 5, 1909. Bindon Blood Stoney died. — For 

 many years chief engineer to the Dublin port authority, 

 Stoney attracted attention by his use of huge concrete 

 monoliths of 350 tons weight. He made an elaborate 

 study of stresses in girders, contributed many papers 

 to the scientific societies, and in 18 71 was president 

 of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland. 



May 6, 1897. Jedediah Strutt died.— A Derbyshire 

 farmer, Strutt in 1758 and 1759, with his brother-in- 

 law, took out successful patents in connection with 

 stocking machines. He also suggested improvements 

 in the spinning frame of Arkwright. 



May 7, 1890. James Nasmyth died. — An eminent 

 mechanical engineer and inventor, Nasmyth in 1829 

 became the personal assistant of Henry Maudslay, 

 and four years later set up in Manchester as a maker 

 of machine tools. To him we owe the steam hammer, 

 the steam pile driver, the nut making machine, a 

 hydraulic punching machine, and the coiled spiral 

 wire flexible shaft now so largely used. 



May 8, 1916. John Edson Sweet died. — The re- 

 cipient of the John Fritz medal for his " achievements 

 in machine design, and pioneer work in applying 

 sound engineering principles to the construction and 

 development of tlie high-speed steam engine," Sweet 

 was at one time professor of mechanical engineering in 

 Cornell University. To him was due the initial step 

 leading to the founding of the American Society of 

 Mechanical Engineers, of which he became the third 

 president. 



May 9, 1914. Paul Herault died. — Born in 1862, 

 Herault studied at the Paris School of Mines and at 

 the age of twenty-four brought out his electrolytic pro- 

 cess for the production of aluminium, a discovery made 

 independently in America by C. M. Hall (1863-1914). 



May 10, 1864. Alphone Rene le Mire de Normandy 

 died. — A pioneer in the modern practice of distilling 

 fresh water from salt water, Normandy brought out 

 his invention in 185 1. A native of France, he became 

 a practical chemist and settled in England in 1843. 



E. C. S. 



NO. 2740, VOL. 109] 



Societies and Academies. 



London, 



Geological Society, April 12. — Prof. A. C. Seward, 

 president. — F. W. Edwards : Oligocene mosquitoes 

 in the British Museum, with a summary of our present 

 knowledge concerning fossil Culicidae. All the 

 specimens are from the Oligocene of the Isle of 

 Wight. The genera appear to be inseparable from 

 those of the present day, and some of the species 

 suggest a fauna similar to that of Ethiopian and 

 Oriental regions. No peculiar forms occur. The 

 genus Anopheles has not been found, probably because 

 of its comparative rarity. Three species from the 

 Oligocene of the Isle of Wight, described by Prof. 

 Cockerell, are referred to the genus Aedes ; and two 

 new species, one of Culex and one of Ta^niorhynchus, 

 are described. No fossil that can be positively 

 referred to the Culicidae is yet known from the 

 Mesozoic— A. C. Seward : On a collection of Car- 

 boniferous plants from Peru. The plants described 

 were collected by Mr. J. A. Douglas in 191 1 from coal- 

 bearing strata on the south side of the Peninsula of 

 Paracas, a few miles south of Pisco on the coast of 

 Peru. They are mostly fragmentary ; whether they 

 are of an Upper or a Lower horizon is not certain. 

 Hitherto no fossiUferous Palaeozoic rocks have been 

 recorded from the Peruvian coast. — Miss M. E. J. 

 Chandler : The geological history of the genus 

 Stratiotes : an account of the evolutionary changes 

 which have occurred within the genus during the 

 Tertiary and Quaternary eras. Stratiotes, a mono- 

 typic genus of European and West Asian water- 

 plants, can be traced back to the Eocene. The recent 

 seed was described and an account given of the 

 modifications which have occurred in the genus since 

 the Eocene period. Of nine species described, S. 

 aloides alone is still living. Seven appear to be direct 

 ancestors of the recent plant, while two perhaps 

 represent a branch-line of evolution. The fossil 

 species occur in great abundance, are widespread 

 geographically, and each seems to have a limited 

 range in time. They may therefore serve to correlate 

 isolated freshwater deposits in Europe. 



Royal Meteorological Society, April 19. — Dr. C. 

 Chree, president, in the chair. — W. T. Russell : The 

 relationship between rainfall and temperature as 

 shown by the correlation coefficient. The tempera- 

 ture of any two successive months over a series of 

 years is correlated to the extent of approximately 

 + 0-3. Since the mean monthly temperatures for 

 the twelve calendar months follow very closel>' a 

 sine curve, the coefficient of correlation should be 

 unity. Rainfall in alternate months shows some high 

 correlation coefficients, e.g. the coefficient between 

 the rainfall in June and August in London is +0-55. 

 There is a negative correlation of 0-5 between rain- 

 fall and temperature in the same month in summer — 

 evidence of the effect of solar radiation — while positive 

 coefficients are found for the winter months. The 

 change is attributed to the influence of the ocean in 

 maintaining a temperature in excess of that due to 

 latitude and season. — R. A. Fisher and Winifred A. 

 Mackenzie : The correlation of weekly rainfall. The 

 weekly rainfall for the past forty years at York, 

 Aberdeen, and Rothamsted has been examined with 

 a view of exploring the main features of weather 

 localisation. Probably simple laws connect these 

 quantities over considerable areas, which will give 

 an idea of the accuracy of meteorological estimates 

 based on a limited number of stations. A well- 

 marked annual periodicity in the rainfall correlations 

 rises relatively slowly in the autumn, and the autumn 



