686 



NATURE 



[February 17, 19 16 



months' running. On the other hand, the installation 

 at the works of Messrs. Guest, Keen, and Nettlefolds, 

 Cardiff, shows a saving in fuel of 134 to 184 per cent. 

 Most of the American plants have effected notable 

 economies, varying from 10 per cent, saving in fuel 

 and 12 per cent, increase in output > up to 20 per cent, 

 saving and 20 per cent, increase. The explanation of 

 these divergent results is to be found either in the 

 variation in local conditions, or in differences of prac- 

 tice. In practice refrigeration is the system almost 

 universally used. The desiccation of the blast by 

 calcium chloride, which is the only alternative, is less 

 costly as regards initial outlay, but it is probable that 

 the running costs would be much higher. Typical 

 refrigerating plants are described in the article. 



Ol'R ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



CoMKT 1915c' (Taylor). — The following preliminary 

 elliptic orbit has been calculated by F. J. Neubauer 

 and H. M. Jeffers, of the Berkeley' Astronomical De- 

 partment (Lick Observatory Bulletin No. 276) : — 

 Perihelion, 1916, January 27-906 G.M.T., a) = 342° 54', 

 ^=114° 52', 1=14° 30', log' fl = 0-48282, period 5-299 

 years. 



The Copenhagen ephemeris for this comet proves tc 

 represent its positions very accurately. The large cor- 

 rections given in this column on January 27 were in 

 error; actually the differences were insignificant. An 

 observation made at Bergedorf on February i, and 

 forwarded by Prof. E. Stromgren, shows that the 

 corrections then required were only —3s. in R.A. and 

 o' in declination. 



Secondary Nuclei of Comet 1915a (Mellish). — 

 A series of photographs taken with Ihe Franklin- 

 Adams star camera at Johannesburg are reproduced in 

 Circular No. 31 of the Union Observatory. The 

 subsidiary nuclei were found to lie on a line almost 

 tangential to the coma and not axially. On June 10 

 the brightest secondary was 82" distant, and another 

 about 154". The line joining these nuclei was in 

 position angle, 228-8°. Other measures of the nuclei 

 are given by Mr. Melotte in the Observatory for 

 January. 



Ox THE Mean Distances and Luminosities of 

 Stars of Different Spectral Types. — Prof. C. V. L. 

 Charlier has investigated statistically {Meddelande, 

 Lunds Astronomical Observatory) the mean parallax 

 of stars according to spectral type in relation to mean 

 distances and luminosities for all stars down to mag. 

 6-0. It is found that the ^ stars deviate only 

 slightly from the mean absolute magnitudes of these 

 stars, whereas the K — and still more the M — stars are 

 characterised by great fluctuations about their mean 

 absolute magnitudes. 



Anomalous Dispersion in the Sun. — The sugges- 

 tion advanced by Julius that anomalous dispersion 

 could be the cause of small alteration in wave-length 

 of neighbouring Fraunhoferic lines was followed by 

 a notable research leading to confirmatory results 

 (Nature, September 2, 1915). This work is now 

 sharply criticised by Mr. Evershed in a letter to the 

 January number of the Observatory, and by Dr. Royds 

 (Kodaikanal Observator}' Bulletin, No. xlviii.) Small 

 wave-length shifts between sun and laboratory sources 

 have been the subject of much minute investigation at 

 Kodaikanal during the past few years by direct 



XO. 2416, VOL. 96] 



measurement on large-scale spectrograms, and data 

 derived from these studies now enable Dr. Royds to 

 state that when the actual sun-minus-arc displacements 

 are substituted for Albrecht's residuals the relative 

 shift between the two groups of solar lines having a 

 close companion on one side or the other is too small to 

 establish anomalous dispersion in the sun. Evershed 

 considers the case of close solar doubles. The effect of 

 anomalous dispersion should be to increase the separa- 

 tion to a measurable degree as compared with the 

 arc, but this is not found to be the case. Nevertheless 

 it is recognised that it is difficult to explain away the 

 grouping according to sign of the residuals in 

 Albrecht's investigation. 



BRITISH PRODUCTION OF SYNTHETIC 

 D YES. 



TN the Times of February 11 a Leeds correspondent 

 ■■■ comments on current developments of the problem 

 of increasing the production of synthetic dyes. What- 

 ever criticisms may be advanced against the Govern-' 

 ment scheme, it cannot be denied that the appointment 

 of Prof. W. H. Perkin, the eldest son of the discoverer 

 of mauve or aniline purple, to be head of the research 

 department of British Dyes, Limited, is a most wel- 

 come augury of future progress. It is, however, a 

 debatable point whether this department, endowed by 

 the State to the extent of ioo,oooZ., ought in the public 

 interest to be the monopoly of a single company, which 

 under a new name and with the aid of a large Govern- 

 ment subsidy is carrying on the business of one only 

 of several competing firms. 



The burning question of a year ago as to the desir- 

 abilit}'' or otherwise of having chemists on the direc- 

 torate of a colour works has now received a striking 

 practical illustration in the less advertised develop- 

 ments recently effected in the firm of Messrs. Levin- 

 stein, Limited, of Blackley, near Manchester. In 

 accordance with the best traditions of the Manchester 

 school of economics, this firm of colour-makers, which 

 practises the doctrine of self-help, has made very con- 

 siderable extensions of its old-established works under 

 the skilled guidance of their director. Dr. H. Levin- 

 stein, a college-trained chemist, a double graduate in 

 science of the Universities of Manchester and Zurich, 

 and a former pupil of Profs. Bamberger and W. H. 

 Perkin. Without extraneous help, the Manchester 

 firm has now to compete for home and foreign trade 

 and for scientific assistance against a commercial 

 rival enjoying preferential treatment from the State. 

 It is obvious that the latter firm anticipates a further 

 extension of favours from the Government, otherwise 

 it would not be practicable to develop so large an 

 area as a 250-acre site with the existing capital and 

 with the comparatively small sum paid up by share- 

 holders who are dye-users. A continuance of this 

 policy of subsidies to one firm will handicap still fur- 

 ther the meritorious efforts now being made by other 

 less favoured undertakings. 



The research work on dye production carried out in 

 the dj-eing department of the University of Leeds, 

 under the auspices of the Board of Trade, by Prof^. 

 Green and A. G. Perkin and Dr. Oesch, formerly of 

 the Berlin Aniline Company, is of the utmost import- 

 ance in regard to the progress of the dye industry in 

 this country. But if the effort to recover our lost 

 supremacy in dyes is to be truly national the benefits 

 of this university research should, at least to some 

 extent, be at the disposal of other dve-producing works 

 besides the exceptionally favoured successors of the 

 old Huddersfield firm. 



