572 



NA TURE 



[April i i, 1901 



The dispute between the London United Tramways Company 

 and the authorities of Kew Observatory has at last been settled. 

 The tests made at the Board of Trade trial, referred to in our 

 issue of March 21 (p. 499), having shown that the electrical 

 working of the tramway from Hammersmith to Kew will inter- 

 fere with the magnetic work done at the Observatory, the Tram- 

 ways Company have agreed to pay a considerable sum towards 

 the cost of removing the instruments to some more suitable site. 

 The electric cars have in the meantime started running. The 

 cars, which are much superior to the old horse trams in comfort, 

 run smoothly and rapidly, taking about five and twenty minutes 

 over the journey from Hammersmith to Kew. The overhead 

 wires, though they certainly do not improve the appearance of 

 the street, cannot be said to be excessively ugly ; even at 

 Young's Corner, Chiswick, where the branch line runs off to 

 Shepherd's Bush, and where, consequently, the number of wires 

 is considerable, the effect is not so bad as to be an eyesore. The 

 route, leading direct to Kew Gardens, is a popular one with 

 Londoners anxious to get into the country, and they seem already 

 to appreciate the benefit of the electric trams ; it is to be hoped 

 that the system will undergo rapid expansion and extension and 

 give Londoners a cheap, quick and easy method of getting 

 really out of the town. 



We have received a copy of Traction and Transmission, a 

 monthly supplement to Engineering, which makes its first 

 appearance this month. Although the multiplication of technical 

 journals is not a thing to be indiscriminately encouraged, the 

 possibility of keeping pace with all the modern papers becoming 

 daily more difficult to the engineer, there can be no doubt there 

 is ample room at the present time for a magazine devoted to 

 these subjects. England has been at last obliged to set itself 

 seriously to the consideration of the means of relieving the over- 

 crowding and congestion of traffic in the large towns, and the 

 appearance of this paper, at a moment when the attention of every 

 one is being directed to big schemes for traction and the trans- 

 mission of power, is therefore very opportune. The first number, 

 which is almost wholly devoted to electric traction, contains, 

 amongst many others of great interest, articles on the standard- 

 isation of electrical apparatus, by Mr. H, F. Parshall, on the 

 conveyance of goods on electric trolley lines, by Mr. A. H. 

 Gilbings, and on the much vexed question of the education 

 of the electrical engineer, by Mr. R. A. Raworth. The paper 

 is got up in sumptuous style, being printed in very large 

 type on extra thick paper and illustrated by a number of 



capitally-executed plates and diagrams. 



• 



The U.S. Mottthly Weather Review for December last 

 contains the report of an interesting investigation by Dr. O. L. 

 Fassig on the relation between summer and winter tempera- 

 tures, with the view of finding, for instance, whether an ex- 

 tremely hot summer precedes a cold winter. The basis of the 

 investigation was an accurate daily record of weather from 

 181 7 to the present time. The investigation shows that neither 

 warm nor cold summers have any more relation to the suc- 

 ceeding winter temperatures than the normal summers have, 

 and that, generally speaking, there is no regular alternation or 

 period in atmospheric temperatures. 



The Summary of the Weekly Weather Report for the year 

 1900, published by the Meteorological Council, contains the 

 mean values of rainfall and temperature for the principal wheat- 

 producing and grazing districts of the British Islands for each 

 five years of the thirty-five yearly period, from 1866 to 1900. 

 The rainfall for the British Islands generally in the year 1900 

 was 37 inches above the average for the whole period. The 

 greatest excess was 16 "3 inches in the west of Scotland ; in the 

 north of Scotland the excess was I0"2 inches, and in the south 

 NO. 1 64 1, VOL. 63] 



of Ireland 7 '9 inches. The only districts in which there was a 

 deficit were the east and south of England, being i "3 inch in 

 both cases. The driest year, for the whole kingdom, was 1887 

 (25 '8 inches), and the wettest 1872 (49'i inches). The mean 

 temperature during 1900 was, on the whole, o°*4 in excess of the 

 average, the greatest departures being + 1° in the east and south 

 of England. The coldest year was 1879 (46° •2) and the 

 warmest 1868 (50°'4) for the British islands generally. 



At South Pasadena, California, the large reflector shown in 

 the accompanying illustration, from the Scientific Atnerican^ 

 has been erected, and the solar rays concentrated by it are utilised 

 to produce steam in a boiler at 150 lbs. pressure and drive a 

 motor of fifteen horse-power. The reflector is 36 feet 6 inches 

 in diameter at the top and 15 feet at the lower part. The inner 

 surface is made up of nearly eighteen hundred small mirrors, all 

 arranged to bring the sun's rays to one focus, at which spot a 

 boiler 13 feet 6 inches in length and holding one hundred gallons 

 of water is suspended. The reflector is mounted upon the same 

 principle as that adopted for large telescopes, and is kept facing 



the sun by a driving clock. The steam from the boiler is carried 

 to the engine by means of a flexible phosphor-bronze tube, and 

 returns from the condenser to the boiler, so that the water supply 

 in the boiler is kept up automatically. The temperature at the 

 focus of the reflector is sufficient to melt copper, and a pole of 

 wood thrust into it burns like a match. The motor is used to 

 pump water from a well and appears to work satisfactorily. As 

 the skies of Southern California are remarkably free from clouds, 

 and millions of square miles of arid lands are only awaiting the 

 flow of water to be converted into fertile tracks, the solar motor 

 may provide a practicable means for pumping the water and thus 

 leading to the development of the country. 



For sixty-seven years the Royal Observatory of Belgium has 

 published an Annuaire dealing both with astronomy and 

 meteorology, but from the present year each of these services 

 has its own Annuaire. Twenty years ago M. Houzeau made a 

 separation of these sciences, so far as the .<4««a/£5 are concerned ; 

 the division is now complete in everything except the adminis- 

 tration.* The Annuaire Meteorologique for 1901 contains a large 



