February 21, 1901] 



NA TURE 



40: 



dents : Mr. J. E. Marr, F.R.S., Mr. H. W. Monckton, Prof. 

 H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. and Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S. Secre- 

 taries : Mr. R. S, Herries and Prof. W. W. Watts. Foreign 

 Secretary : Sir John Evans, K.C.B., and Treasurer : Dr. W. T. 

 Blanford, F.R.S. The following awards of medals and funds 

 were made :— The Wollaston Medal to Dr. Charles Barrois, of 

 Lille, the Murchison Medal to Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne, of 

 Torquay, the Lyell Medal to Dr. R. H. Traquair, of Edinburgh, 

 and the Bigsby Medal to Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, of the Geological 

 Survey. The Wollaston Fund to Mr. A. W. Rowe, the 

 Murchison Fund to Mr. T. S. Hall, of Melbourne, and the Lyell 

 Fund to Dr. J. W. Evans and Mr. A. McHenry. The president 

 delivered his anniversary address, which dealt chiefly with the 

 evolution of ideas during the nineteenth century as to the 

 genesis and classification of igneous rocks. 



During the last fortnight an interesting series of letters on 

 the audibility of the minute-guns at Spithead has appeared in the 

 Standard, and several correspondents refer to other instances of 

 the reports of guns being heard at great distances. The firing at 

 Waterloo is said to have been heard at Heathfield (Sussex), as 

 well as at Sandgate, Hythe and Ripple Court (between Dover 

 and Deal), at Sandgate very heavy firing being heard through- 

 out the day to the eastward. Heathfield is about 184 miles 

 from Waterloo, Sandgate 144, Hythe 147 and Ripple Court 

 135 miles. Accounts are also quoted from Pepys' Diary on 

 the sounds of the battle of Solebay being heard in London 

 (about 100 miles), and, from the Gentleman's Magazine, of 

 almost incessant heavy firing from Tournay being audible at 

 Brean, Waltham, Brabourne and on -other high lands in Kent 

 (about no miles), and from the bombardment of Valenciennes 

 at Dover (about no miles). 



We have received from Messrs. Lever Bros., Ltd., a trans- 

 lation of a report (which appeared in the Strassbiirger Post) of a 

 lecture on wireless telegraphy, delivered by Prof. Braun at the 

 Institution of Physics of the Emperor William University. 

 Prof. Braun, after giving a short account of the history of the 

 subject, proceeded to describe a system of wireless telegraphy 

 which he had himself worked out. Instead of having a spark 

 gap in the vertical wire, this wire is coiled at its lower end and 

 oscillations are set up in it by induction from another coil 

 containing the spark gap in which the oscillatory discharge 

 takes place. This method, the lecturer claimed, is in many 

 ways superior to that adopted by Marconi, and enables messages 

 to be sent with more certainty and to a greater distance. The 

 results of experiments that had been made were quoted, in 

 which messages were transmitted a distance of about seventy- 

 five miles, using masts ninety feet high at each end. Experi- 

 ments on the Marconi system are compared with these, in 

 which the results are certainly not so good as those obtained by 

 Prof. Braun. We may, however, call attention to the announce- 

 ment made by Prof. Fleming to the Liverpool Chamber of 

 Commerce last week (p. 381) that Mr. Marconi had succeeded 

 in transmitting messages a distance of 200 miles, and that 

 messages could be sent simultaneously in both directions, and 

 two or move could be received at once at each station. These 

 results are extremely good, especially as they show that the 

 difficulties of interference of one message with another have 

 been partially, if not wholly, got over. We do not learn from 

 the report of Prof. Braun's lecture whether he has succeeded 

 in avoiding these difficulties in like manner. 



The Government of New South Wales knows how to appre- 

 ciate scientific information, and use it for the good of the 

 Colony better than some Governments nearer home. A number 

 of excellent pamphlets on the natural resources and industries 

 in New South Wales have been prepared by Mr. T. A. Coghlan, 

 Government Statistician, and distributed by the Agent-General 

 NO. 1634, VOL. 63] 



for the Colony. A pamphlet on the timber resources shows 

 that few countries have such a wealth of timber as New South 

 Wales. Its woods are as varied as they are valuable, ranging 

 from the ironbarks, unsurpassed for work requiring hardness and 

 durability, to the kinds suitable for the most delicate specimens 

 of the cabinet-maker's art. Forestry is, however, as yet only 

 in its initial stages in New South Wales, though it is hoped that 

 a School of Forestry will be established in the Colony before 

 long. The importance attached to the diffusion of knowledge 

 of agriculture is evidenced by the existence of a special Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The central establishment possesses an 

 experimental farm having a total area of 3430 acres, in addition 

 to which there are several other large experimental farms and 

 plantation trial stations. The agricultural position and outlook 

 of the Colony are described in a separate pamphlet. Another 

 pamphlet, on the climate of New South Wales, contains a 

 large map of Europe having upon it the names of towns in the 

 Colony placed beside European towns of corresponding mean 

 temperature. Bourke, for instance, is placed by the side of 

 Messina, Bathurst with Bordeaux, Cooma with Ventnor, and 

 Kiandra with Edinburgh. Two other pamphlets deal respec- 

 tively with the fauna and the mining industry of New South 

 Wales. The whole series is commendable, and New South 

 Wales is certainly to be congratulated upon the publication of 

 so much valuable information concerning its resources and 

 progress. 



The Nilgiri Railway is notable as being the first Abt-rack 

 railway constructed in India, and, at present, the longest of its 

 class in the world. It is, moreover, the first for which all the 

 plant and material was manufactured in England. An account 

 of the permanent way and rolling stock was given at the meet- 

 ing of the Institution of Civil Engineers, on February 12, by 

 Mr. W. J. Weightman. The railway was chiefly designed to 

 serve the important towns of Ootacamund, the summer head- 

 quarters of the Madras Government, Coonoor, . Kotageri and 

 Wellington, the latter being the military sanatorium for South 

 India and Burmah. It is 16} miles long, and from its starting 

 point at Mettapollium on the Madras Railway, ascends nearly 

 5000 feet to the plateau on the Nilgiri Hills. The first 4f miles 

 are adhesion-line with gradients not exceeding i in 40 ; the 

 remaining 12 miles are built on the Abt-rack system, and have 

 a ruling gradient of i in izh. The formation-width is every- 

 where 16 feet, and as the rainfall is frequently 6 inches in as 

 many hours, the greatest possible care has had to be taken to 

 see that it is effectually drained. The locomotives are of the 

 type known as "combined" Abt engines, that is, they can run 

 either on rack or on ordinary line. Before the line was opened 

 for traffic a series of brake experiments was made with a fully 

 loaded train of 100 tons gross weight. With an ascending train 

 at speeds of 6, 8 and 10 miles per hour on a i in I2| gradient, 

 stops were made in 24, 36 and 60 feet respectively ; with a 

 descending train at various speeds ranging from 4 to 12 miles 

 per hour, relative stops were made in 54 feet, increasing to 425 

 feet. 



A number of designs of flying machines have recently 

 appeared in the illustrated papers. The Graphic for January 12 

 contains a figure of a kind of combination of ice boat and flying 

 machine, attributed to an Austrian engineer named Kress. The 

 arrangement of the aerocurves one behind the other would 

 appear, according to Chanute's experiments, to detract from 

 the lifting power of the hind ones. In the Black and White 

 Budget for January 26 occurs the figure of a so-called "auto 

 aviator," due to M. Firman Boussan. It is said to be sur- 

 mounted by a vertical oblong balloon, thus resembling Dr. 

 Danilewsky's balloon, to be provided with curved wings and 

 propellers, and to be provided with wheels by which it can run 



