December 27, 1900] 



NATURE 



209 



with the instrument in the works at Ober Schonweide. The 

 experiment was a great success, especially in view of the fact 

 that the greater part of Berlin separated the conference room 

 from one of the stations with which messages were exchanged. 

 The German Emperor displayed the greatest interest in the 

 experiments, and afterwards conversed for some time with Prof. 

 Slaby and Count Arco. 



We much regret to announce that Lord Armstrong, F.R.S., 

 died this morning (December 27), at his seat, Cragside, Roth- 

 bury, Northumberland. 



Lord Kelvin, Master W the Clothworkers' Company, has 

 accepted an invitation to dine with the governors of the York- 

 shire College on February i, on the occasion of their annual 

 gathering at Leeds. He is expected to deliver an address on 

 textile industries. 



In answer to Lady Warwick's appeal for a millionaire to 

 continue and develop the work of her '^Women's Agricultural 

 College at Reading, a wealthy gentleman has since come forward 

 with an offer of 50,000/. for the hostel. 



Prof. F. E. Nipher, of' Washington University, Saint 

 Louis, Missouri, announces that, after many months of failure, 

 he has succeeded in developing a fine reversed photographic pic- 

 ture with the developing bath fully exposed to direct sunlight. 

 The operation lasted a full half-hour, with no trace of fog. 

 The developer was a modification of the hydrochinone, the 

 formula for which is given in every box of "Cramer" plates. 

 The bromide was left out, and the sodium carbonate solution 

 was made up at half the strength used for negatives. The 

 mixed developer was diluted with water in the proportion of one 

 part to nine. 



Mr. W. Ernest Cooke, Government Astronomer of 

 Western Australia, sends us an account of observations of 

 November meteors, made by Mr. W. C. Best near Newcastle 

 (W.A.), on November 10, at about 9.30 p.m. Mr. Best says : — 

 "The meteors appeared to come from a north-easterly direction 

 and went toward the north. They all seemed to come from one 

 point and spread out as they travelled, each one leaving a streak 

 of light to mark its course. From the point where they started 

 to where they disappeared seemed about 5" or 6°. The display 

 lasted about 30 sees., during which time I saw from 100 to 200 

 stars shoot." 



Mr. Sowerby Wallis, who was for nearly thirty years 

 associated with the late Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., and has 

 since the latter's death carried on the British Rainfall Organisation, 

 will, from the beginning of next year, be joined in the work by 

 Dr. H. R. Mill, who has resigned the librarianship of the Royal 

 Geographical Society for that purpose. 



The Paris correspondent of the Chemist and Druggist states 

 'chat at the Paris Natural History Museum a laboratory has 

 recently been opened for biological studies applied to the French 

 colonies. The work of the new laboratory will be to reply to 

 inquiries relating to biology, geology and mineralogy, and to 

 prepare precise instructions for foreign correspondents regarding 

 the rearing of animals and cultivation of plants in the respective 

 countries. 



Our attention has been directed to the following surprising 

 announcement, made by the Pekin correspondent of the Times : 

 " In pursuance of their regrettable policy of appropriation, the 

 French and German generals, with Count von Waldersee's 

 approval, have removed from the wall of Pekin the superb 

 astronomical instruments, erected two centuries ago by the 

 Jesuit fathers. Half of them will go to Berlin and the rest to 

 Paris. The explanation of this act of vandalism is that, inasmuch 

 as the return of the Court is so improbable, such beautiful 

 instruments should not be exposed to the possibilities of injury 

 when Pekin is no longer the capital." 



NO. 1626, VOL. 63] 



An exhibition of photographs by Mr. F. M. Sutcliffe, of 

 Whitby, will be opened on Wednesday next, January 2, in the 

 rooms of the Royal Photographic Society. Admission can be 

 obtained on the presentation of a visiting card. 



A new meteorological observatory was opened at Aachen 

 (Aix-la-Chapelle) in September last and placed under the super- 

 intendence of Dr. P. Polis. From all points of view this 

 establishment is well fitted for carrying on, not only the usual 

 climatological observations, but various researches in atmo- 

 spherical physics. The last volume of the observations has just 

 been published, for the year 1899, and contains the records for 

 six subsidiary stations, in addition to the records of about thirty 

 rainfall stations, and several valuable discussions, including one 

 on the climate of Aachen. Observations were first commenced 

 in the year 1838 by Dr. Heis, and since 1873 the observatory 

 has formed one of the official stations of the German network. 

 Dr. Polis is a constant contributor to meteorological science in 

 various German periodicals, and we congratulate him upon the 

 establishment of his new observatory and the means now at his 

 disposal for increased usefulness. 



The recent attempts to disperse hail storms by the firing of 

 cannon or mortars, and the suggestion that vortex rings pro- 

 jected by the explosion may be the actual cause which disturbs 

 the storm-cloud, have led Dr. G. Vicentini and Dr. G. Pacher to 

 carry out a series of experiments on the velocity of these so-called 

 "gaseous projectiles." The general conclusions agree with those 

 of Pernter and Trabert, according to which the velocity of these 

 vortices is much smaller than was supposed in the earlier investi- 

 gations, and this velocity gradually decreases in consequence of 

 viscosity. The authors find that in experiments on a small . 

 scale, pistols with a conical barrel give the best results. Some. ■> 

 interesting laboratory experiments are described in which a small 

 smoke ring was projected against a target formed of a thin capil- 

 lary liquid film stretched on a circular frame. The different 

 effects observed, according to the energy of the vortex, include 

 the following : (i) the film bulges out, but returns to its original 

 position, the vortex being arrested ; (2) the ring destroys the 

 film and proceeds on its way with diminished velocity ; (3) the 

 film is destroyed and the vortex, including most of the smoke, 

 is imprisoned in a bubble which soon falls to the ground ; 

 (4) the vortex is imprisoned in a bubble, but the film behind 

 returns to its original position ; (5) the bubble which imprisons 

 the vortex remains attached to the film and slowly sinks ; (6) the 

 film is destroyed, but the bubble rebounds in the opposite 

 direction to that in which the vortex was projected. These 

 experiments and observations are described in the Atti del R. 

 Istituto Veneto, lix. Ix. 



The much debated doctrine of partition of energy among the 

 molecules of a gas is once more attacked by Mr. Burbury in the 

 Philosophical Magazine for December. The paper consists 

 mainly of an examination of the proofs of the law of equal par- 

 tition, based on the two alternative methods of Maxwell and 

 Lord Rayleigh, and of Boltzmann respectively, and the con- 

 clusions enunciated by Mr. Burbury are as follows : ( i ) The law 

 of equal partition of energy among the translation velocities is 

 not proved by the Maxwell-Rayleigh method ; (2) It is not proved 

 by Boltzmann's method, because the fundamental assumption on 

 which that method is based is not proved; (3) Subject to any 

 proof that may be given hereafter of Boltzmann's assumption, . 

 which, however, Mr. Burbury thinks can be disproved, the law 

 is not generally true in any sense whatever. When, however, 

 the density is very small, the mean translational kinetic energies 

 of two molecules of unequal mass will differ only by small 

 quantities of the second order. The law may, therefore, be 

 asserted for the limiting case of an infinitely rar gas. 



