December i;, 1914] 



XATUME 



431 



fact, coupled with the lack of any evidence that 

 cr\-stalline quartz can be fused by the heat engendered 

 during volcanic action, is regarded as conclusive testi- 

 mony in favour of the impact theor}\ Corroborative 

 evidence is afforded by the fact that intense heat is 

 produced by the impact of big shells fired against 

 armour-plating. The mass to which the origin of the 

 crater is attributed was probably a dense cluster of 

 iron-meteorites, which may possibly have formed the 

 head of a small comet. 



The publications of the Norwegian Meteorological 

 Institute for the year 1913 (Rainfall Obser\-ations and 

 Year-book, both containing actual readings and mean 

 values) are prepared in the usual careful w-ay, and 

 scarcelv call for special remarks beyond those referred 

 to in our previous issues. The year-book contains 

 hourly and other observations at Green Harbour, 

 Spitsbergen; the summary- for 1912 shows that the 

 yearly temperature was —10-4° C. ; January-, —24-4° 

 (Februarj' —26-3°), July, 42; maximum, ^^f on July 

 22; minimum —44-3° on March 31. The yearly rain- 

 fall (or melted snow) was 305 mm., on 124 days. The 

 annual report shows that the success of ordinary- 

 weather forecasts, and notices for herring fisheries, was 

 verv satisfactory-; storm warning telegrams are issued 

 from Bergen. We note that Mr. A. S. Steen, formerly 

 assistant-director, has succeeded Prof. H. Mohn in 

 the directorship of the Meteorological Service, which 

 position the latter held with much distinction from 

 the establishment of the ser\-ice in the )-ear 1866. 



Some time before the loss of the Titanic Prof. 

 Barnes, of Montreal, carried out a series of measure- 

 ments of the temperature of the sea in the neighbour- 

 hood of icebergs, and came to the conclusion that the 

 presence of an iceberg could be detected by a slight 

 rise of temf>erature it produces in the sea-w'ater around 

 it In the summer of 1912 a party^ from the Bureau 

 of Standards took automatic records of the tempera- 

 ture of the water during the patrol of the U.S.S. 

 Chester and Birmingham in the North Atlantic, and 

 their results are published in vol. x. of the Bulletin 

 of the bureau. They show that the changes of tem- 

 perature which occur in the sea far removed from 

 icebergs are at least as great and sudden as those 

 found in the vicinitv of bergs, and that no positive 

 conciusions as to the presence of bergs can be drawn 

 from such changes. They find also that in the neigh- 

 bourhood of a berg the temperature of the water is 

 reduced more often than raised. These conclusions 

 are almost identical with those arrived at during the 

 cruise of the Scotia, sent out to the Ne\v-foundland 

 bank by the Board of Trade in the summer of 19 13, 

 except that on the Scotia small rises of temperature 

 in the neighbourhood of bergs were more often 

 recorded. 



The Bureau of Standards at Washington has issued 

 a circular (No. 47) in which the tables of equivalents 

 of United States customary and metric weights and 

 measures are revised and brought up to date. It 

 contains a useful series of conversion tables giving 

 the equivalents of the metric and customar}- weights 

 and measures from i to 999 units. From the intro- 

 duction and definitions which precede the tables it 

 XO. 2355, VOL. 94] 



would appear that for all practical and most scientific 

 purposes the United States yard and pound are the 

 same as those in the United Kingdom. The United 

 States gallon (which is used for the measurement of 

 liquid commodities only) is, however, only five-sixths 

 of uie imperial gallon, while the United States bushel 

 (used only in the measurement of dr}- goods) is 

 approximately thirty-two thirty-thirds of the imperial 

 bushel. The bushel and gallon of the United States 

 are not connected by the relation 8 to i as are those 

 used in this countr>% The troy pound and the apothe- 

 caries pound are apparently still recognised in the 

 United States as customarv' weights, although they 

 have long died out in Great Britain. It may be of 

 interest to note that the fundamental standard metre 

 established in the United States by Act of Congress 

 and by order of the Treasury is the international 

 prototype metre, whereas the primary- standard metre 

 in the United Kingdom is the national prototype 

 No, 16, which is shorter than the international metre 

 by six-tenths of a micron. 



An important paper on the resins present in hops 

 (Humuhis lupulus, L.) has been published by O. 

 Winge and J. P. H. Jensen in the Comptes rendus 

 of the Carlsberg Laboratory (vol. ii., part 2, p. 116). 

 It is shown that in the past a mistake has been made 

 in considering one of the resins of hops, namely, the 

 so-called 7-resin, as valueless ; on the contrar}-, during 

 the brewing process it both gives taste to the wort and 

 helps in the precipitation of proteins. The total quan- 

 tity of resins extracted from the hops by cold ether 

 and determined by titration is an approximately accu- 

 rate expression of the bitterness value of hops. Other 

 data recorded show- that the anal\-tical methods 

 hitherto used, which are based on the separation of 

 the so-called soft resins from the hard resins, rest 

 upon an insecure basis and give misleading results. 



No. 4 of the Proceedings of the Institute of Chem- 

 istrv' contains an account of the steps taken by the 

 institute in conjunction with the Board of Trade, the 

 Societv- of Chemical Industry, and other bodies, to 

 consider the needs of this country as regards chem- 

 icals, dyestuffs, glass, and porcelain vessels, w-hich 

 have hitherto been manufactured Ln enemy countries. 

 A committee, which was appointed on September 

 22, after taking evidence, has reported that there 

 is ever\- prospect of the chemical glass industry- being 

 taken up and worked satisfactorily in this countr}' 

 provided that the manufacturers can be afforded some 

 guarantee of permanency for their enterprise, and 

 that they may have some reasonable assurance that 

 at the conclusion of the war the newly developed 

 industry will not suffer from foreign competition, 

 hitherto made f>ossible by economic conditions which 

 do not prevail in this country. Several firms have 

 stated their intention to undertake the manufacture 

 of chemical glass ware, whilst others are already 

 experimenting with a view of supplying porcelain, 

 crucibles, basins, and funnels. Later, at a meeting 

 of the council of the institute, held on October 30, 

 it was resolved to appoint an advisory- committee to 

 conduct research on glass, to be carried out in the 

 laboratories of the institute with a view^ to arrive at 



