7o8 



NATURE 



[February 25, 191 5 



Norway to Iceland and thence to New York in 1914. 

 The published charts of the South Atlantic all show 

 the westerly deviation too small by a degree, or in 

 one or two cases nearly two degrees, in the region 

 30° S., 24° W. Between Norway and Iceland the 

 charts show deviations to the west 2° or 3° too small, 

 between Greenland and Labrador they are 1-5° to 2° 

 too high, and the British chart is nearly 3° too low 

 at 55° N., 52° W. Along the east coast of America 

 there are no serious errors in the charts as at present 

 issued, although the U.S. chart is the least accurate 

 of the three available. 



Scientific Paper No. 231, issued by the Bureau of 

 Standards, is devoted to a determination of the specific 

 heat of copper over the temperature range 10° to 

 50° C, by Mr. D. R. Harper, of the bureau. The 

 specimen of copper consisted of 50 metres of very 

 pure annealed wire of 25 millimetres diameter wound 

 Into a compact coil 10 cm. diameter and 10 cm. long, 

 with thin sheets of mica to maintain the insulation. 

 The coil was suspended by silk threads in a vacuum 

 vessel, and heated bv an electric current sent through 

 it. The current and potential difference at two points 

 near the ends of the wire were determined by a 

 potentiometer method. The standardisation of the 

 wire as a resistance thermometer was carried out by 

 the bridge method with the help of two standard 

 platinum resistance thermometers. During the deter- 

 mination of specific heat the copper wire served as 

 test specimen, as calorimeter, and as thermo. 

 meter. The final result for the specific heat is 

 o-09i7 + o-oooo48(i — 25) calories per gram degree. 



A COPY of a "Biographical Sketch of James Smith- 

 son " has been received from the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion at Washington. It is an abridgment of a 

 chapter on James Smithson by the late Dr. S. P. 

 Langley in "The Smithsonian Institution, 1 846-1 896 : 

 the History of its first Half Century." The founder 

 of the institution was born in 1765. He graduated at 

 Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1786. At a time when 

 the study of physical science was almost unknown 

 in the University, he appears to have conceived 

 already that devotion to scientific research which 

 characterised all his future life. He was admitted 

 as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1787, his recom- 

 mendation being signed, among other men of science, 

 by Cavendish, who became an intimate friend. Arago, 

 too, was added to his friends later, and he was a 

 correspondent of Black, Banks, and Thomson. 

 Smithson died at Genoa in 1829. His will provided 

 that in the event of the death of his beneficiaries, his 

 property should pass to the United States of America 

 "to found at Washington, under the name of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." 

 Thus his dearest wish that "my name shall live in 

 the memory of man when the titles of the Northum- 

 berlands and the Percys are extinct and forgotten " 

 seems likely to be accomplished. 



An electric tramway — described in Engineering for 

 February 19 — has been constructed recently to connect 

 Osaka, which is the foremost industrial and commer- 

 NO. 2365, VOL. 94] 



cial centre of Japan, with the town of Nara. The line 

 is 19 miles long, and the steepest gradient is i in 30. 

 The cars, which accommodate 100 passengers, and 

 weigh 32 tons when fully loaded, are mounted on two 

 trucks equipped with 160 horse-power motors. It was 

 desired to keep the line as straight as possible, and 

 the route selected for this reason involved the con- 

 struction of four tunnels, the most important of which 

 is the Ikoma tunnel. In cross-sectional area, this 

 tunnel is the largest in Japan, and its length, which 

 is 11,088 ft., is only exceeded by that of the Sasago 

 tunnel on the Imperial Japanese Government Rail- 

 ways. The tunnel penetrates the Ikomayama Moun- 

 tains, which rise to a height of 1500 ft. above sea- 

 level. No shafts were used in the construction ; work 

 was commenced from both ends simultaneously in 

 July, 191 1, and the tunnel was completely finished 

 in April last. 



The publishers of the Revue genirale des Sciences 

 pures et appliquees (Librairie Armand Colin, 103 

 Boulevard Saint-Michel, Paris, 5e), have issued 

 general indexes of the contents of the first twenty- 

 five volumes (1890-19 14) of our contemporary. There 

 are two indexes ; one is a subject index arranged 

 under twenty headings according to the branch of 

 science with which the articles are concerned, the 

 other is an index arranged under authors' names. 

 These excellent indexes will save readers much time 

 and trouble when anxious to trace an article published 

 several years ago. The price of the publication is 

 3.50 francs. 



Messrs. G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., announce the 

 publication at monthly intervals of sets of "Test 

 Papers in Mathematics " for use in secondary schools. 

 The series will be begun in May, and the first three 

 sets to be issued will be compiled respectively by Mr. 

 G. W. Palmer, Prof. T. P. Nunn, and Mr. H. C. 

 Beaven. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Comet News. — A telegram from Prof. Stromgren, 

 dated February 19, announces the discovery of an 

 object by Miss Leavitt as Metcalf's periodical comet 

 (1906 VI.). The discovery was made on February 9 

 at I2h. 33-7m. Harvard mean time, the position of 

 the object being given as R.A. 8h. 30m. 37s., declina- 

 tion — 1° 38' 42". No idea of the brightness of the 

 comet is given, but as perihelion was passed last June 

 the object may be considered very faint. 



With regard to Mellish's comet, a further telegram 

 gives details of an observation made at the Tashkent 

 Observatory, Russia. On February 15, at I7h. 310m. 

 Tashkent mean time, the comet's position was R.A. 

 I7h. 9m. IIS., declination +2° 47' 43". 



A numerous and interesting series of observations 

 of Delavan's comet (1913/) is contained in the latest 

 issue (November) of L'Astronoinie. M. Quenisset 

 contributes several photographs taken in August and 

 September last illustrating the development of the 

 tail. Of special interest perhaps are the observations 

 of M. H. Law, of Horsholm, Denmark. This ob- 

 server made a number of estimations of the bright- 

 ness of the comet, and found a distinct fluctuation in 

 magnitude in a period of about three weeks. The 

 magnitude of this change is illustrated in a table and 



