98 



NATURE 



[September 24, 19 14 



Hydrogen Lines and Series Constant. — Under the 

 heading " Wave-lengths of Hydrogen Lines and 

 Determination of the Series Constant," Mr. \V. E. 

 Curtis recently communicated through Prof. Fowler 

 an important paper to the Royal Society (Roy. Soc. 

 Proc, Series A, vol. xc, No. A 622). The object of 

 the research was first to obtain with the utmost accu- 

 racy the wave-lengths of the lines in the Balmer or 

 series spectrum of hydrogen in order to test the 

 formula and make «:uch modifications of it as were 

 considered necessary. Another part of the research 

 restricted itself to the evaluation of the international 

 system of wave-lengths of the constant occurring in 

 the formula ; the importance of this constant will be 

 appreciated when it is stated that it may be used 

 in all formulae representing series of lines. The de- 

 gree of accuracy which could be obtained with the 

 spectrograph employed (10 ft. concave grating) using 

 the new international standards of wave-length was 

 ne.xt investigated. The results of the research are 

 summed up as follows. The wav'e-lengths in LA. of 

 the first six lines of the hydrogen series were deter- 

 mined with an accuracy of about 000 1 A.U. Balmer 's 

 formula was found to be inexact and the results could 

 be represented by a modified Rydberg formula con- 

 ttiining only two constants. An accuracy of 0001 A.U. 

 was attainable in the third order of the grating 

 spectrograph with exposures of less than half an hour. 

 With longer exposures the determination became less 

 accurate owing to the uncontrolled temperature of the 

 instrument. The tertiarj' iron arc standards deter- 

 mined by Burns were tested in the special regions 

 imder investigation and found very satisfactory. 



A Novel Form of Rowland Grating Mounting. — 

 Dr. A. S. King, in the Contributions from the Mount 

 Wilson Observatory, No. 84 {Astrophysical Journal, 

 vol. xl., 19 14), describes a vertical adaptation of the 

 Rowland mounting for a 15-ft. concave grating which 

 has recently been mounted in the Pasadena laboratory 

 of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatorv'. The general 

 arrangement is as follows : — The plate-holder moves 

 on a horizontal track, at a convenient distance above 

 the floor, supported by a frame of channel iron placed 

 over a slot in the cover of the pit used for the already 

 existing vertical Littrow spectrograph. The slit is at 

 one end of the horizontal track and vertically above 

 the grating, and is contained in a hollow iron casting 

 with a brass collar, which holds the slit tube and 

 permits the adjustment of the height of the slit. The 

 grating is contained in a cast-iron box with an exten- 

 sion which is bolted to the web of a girder connecting 

 with the plate-holder carriage. The grating box is 

 fixed to a carriage which is capable of movement on 

 a vertical track, and an ingenious arrangement is 

 adopted to allow for the variable pull when the grat- 

 ing is being raised by the movement of the plate- 

 holder carriage along the horizontal track. Dr. King 

 describes many interesting details about this variable 

 counterweight system, the plate-holder carriage, photo- 

 graphic plate-holder, etc. While the mounting retains 

 all the good features of the usual Rowland form, there 

 are many distinct advantages. In the first place, 

 there is an excellent temperature control in the pit, 

 the grating and connecting girder benefiting thereby. 

 The mounting requires little floor space, a narrow 

 space against a wall being all that is necessary. No 

 darkening of the room is necessary, and therefore no 

 interference with other work being carried on in the 

 laboratory. For assistance in planning the instrument 

 Dr. King refers to Mr. Pease for designing the main 

 structural features, to Mr, Nichols for numerous 

 devices in convenience of working, and to Mr. Ayers 

 and Mr. Shumway for construction and mounting. 



NO. 2343, VOL. 94] 



Three New Indian Meteorites. — At a meeting of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal held on August 5 Mr. 

 Coggin Brown read an interesting account of the fall 

 of meteorites in India which had been described by 

 Mr. C. A. Innes, the acting collector of Malabar. 

 It seems that meteoric stones fell on April 6 last at 

 Kuttayi, Triprangode, Trikanapuram, and Kuttip- 

 puram, places in the Pounani taluk of the Malabar 

 district. These places are practically in a straight line, 

 Kuttayi being on the coast and Kuttippuram nine or 

 ten miles easterly from the last-mentioned place. Tri- 

 prangode is about three miles from Kuttayi, Trikana- 

 puram about five miles from Triprangode, and Kuttip- 

 puram about two miles from Trikanapuram. Four 

 small stones are reported from Kuttayi, one from Tri- 

 prangode, and six from Trikanapuram. One large 

 stone, weighing 71 lb., fell at Kuttippuram, but it is 

 now in three pieces. The account then describes the 

 appearances of ihe fall at the difi'erent stations. As 

 regards the large stone which fell at Kuttippuram, it 

 is stated " the stone fell in a paddy field which was 

 then dry and penetrated some feet into the ground. 

 A cloud of dust rose into the air, and this cloud 

 attracted people to the spot. But they were apparently 

 afraid to touch the stone, and it was not until some 

 hours later that it was dug out, and then it was quite 

 cold. The people who gathered at the spot say that 

 for some minutes after the fall there was a smell of 

 backwater mud in the vicinity. Backwater mud or 

 silt is black, oozv stuff, which is full of rotting organic 

 matter, and its smell, which is familiar to everyone 

 who lives in Malabar, is most unpleasant." The noise 

 of the first two loud reports is said to have been heard 

 at various places in Malabar. It was heard distinctly 

 at Pounani, 4-5 miles fwam Kuttayi, and was recorded 

 as having been heard at Calicut, a distance of thirty 

 miles north of Kuttayi. 



THE LANCASHIRE SEA FISHERIES 

 LABORATORY A 

 "\X7E have recently received the report for 1913 on 

 '^ * the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory at the 

 University of Liverpool and the Sea Fish Hatchery 

 at Piel, edited by the honorary director of the scien- 

 tific work, Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S. 



It appears that more than one million plaice and 

 twelve million flounders were hatched at Piel and 

 committed to the sea. The usual course of instruction 

 for fishermen was given, and nature-study evening 

 classes were restarted on behalf of the Education Com- 

 mittee of Barrow, both with satisfactory results. In 

 connection with the classes for fishermen, a new 

 edition of the syllabus has been published and brought 

 up to date by Dr. Johnstone, while a section on 

 navigation by Captain Thornber has been included. 

 There is also appended an excellent series of biological 

 photographs by Mr. A. Scott. 



Various observations arising out of mackerel inves- 

 tigations by Mr. Scott are given, particularly with 

 regard to the food of the mackerel, and also a report 

 on the distribution and periods of occurrence of 

 pelagic fish eggs. The seventh annual survey of the 

 work on the intensive study of Irish Sea plankton is 

 submitted by the director, together with some ob- 

 servations on the summer plankton of the west coast 

 of Scotland. The lecords of the work done by Dr. 

 Johnstone in connection with diseases of fishes are 

 incorporated, as is also a continuation of his detailed 

 work on the measurements of plaice, the latter being 

 of particular interest in view of the proposal by the 

 International Fisheries Bureau to impose limits on 



1 Report on the Lan'-ashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory for 1913. No. xxii. 



i 



