March 7, 1918] 



NATURE 



■ February 15, 1917, with the same base, ("hristiania- 



It seems, then, that the cosmic rays causinj^ the 

 mora have the same penetrability as those causing 

 ilic aurora in the aurora zone, and that the southern 

 -iluation is due to systems of corpuscular currents out- 

 ride the earth, currents which are also the principal 

 «ause of the accompanying magnetic storms (see mv 

 Memoir in the Archives des sciences pliysiqites et 

 1 1 ui;eUes,- Geneva, 1911-12). 



ihe photographs were taken with plates' only sensi- 

 \f [o blue and violet ra\ s. As red ravs occurred 



Fig. 3.— Corona, December i6, 1917, 2ih. iim. G.M.T. in Christiania. 

 Stars of ttie cjnstellation Perseu> are seen near the centre, and 

 Capella appears near the left bordtr, though its image is deformed 

 owing to the short focus lens used. 



during the aurora, no measurements of these interest- 

 ing phenomena were obtained. I have written to 

 i'ngland for red .sensitive plates, and if I succeed in 

 curing them further important results may be ob- 

 ined. 



The illustrations represent a pair of photographic 

 \ lews of aurora rays, and photographs of the corona, 

 -liowing that the rays are curved a little in their upper 

 parts, which extend to about 400 km. above the earth. 



Carl Stormkr. 

 University of Christiania, January 2S. 



Eastern and Western Asymmetry of Solar Prominences. 



Rkc.ardi.no the suggested physical origin of a seem- 



Mg predominance of solar prominences seen on the 



1st limb as compared with the west limb, referred to 



1 Nature of January 31, p. 425, allow me to direct 



tention to numerous observations 1 have, made which 



ive no doubt as . to a predominance of deflection 



ilects on and near the east limb being mostjy to the 



olet, whereas west of the central meridian and on the 



<st limb they are mostly towards the red. This 



iture is confirmed by the ob.servations of M. Des- 



tndres, and an illustri'.ted account is given by him in 



nt- Paris Comptes rendus, tome 155, p. 1573 (stance 



u 30 decembre, 1912). 



The deflection effects recently reported in the Astro- 



■ liysical journal by Mr. F. Ellerman are, in my 



i>inion, the spectroscopic disc representation of the 



jrilliant, and in most cases radially set, sharp ''.spikes " 



whjch an active area invariably exhibits when passing 



NO. 2523, VOL. lOl] 



the limbs. 1 have seen the short-lived brilliant effect ^ 

 on the disc very often and their quick subsidence into 

 dusky and dark forms, the brilliant initial outburst 

 and its dusky sequence being distinctly punctujrte<i 

 by a very brief interval of partial or entire invisibility, 

 owing to the luminosity passing the stage of that of 

 the general disc itself. The life of the " spikes," 

 when seen on the limb, is of the same brevity, and 

 the identity of the two phenomena has long since 

 been recognised by me from these observations and 

 tht'ir interpretation. Albert Alfred Blss. 



22 Egerton Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 

 Manchester, February 26. 



.1 GRAHAM BELL TELEPHONE MEMORIAL. 



THE Uuke of Devonshire, Governor-General of 

 Canada, on behalf of the Bell Memorial 

 Committee, presented on October 24, 1917, to the 

 town of Hrantford, Ontario, a public park which 

 will be known as the .Alexander (jraham Bell Gar- 

 dens, the house in which the invention of the tele- 

 phone was made, and a memorial monument i<> 

 the inventor himself. For the accompanying 

 photog-raph of the memorial we are indebted to the 

 courtesy of Mr. G. H. Grosvenor, editor of the 

 Xaiiottal Geographic Magazine of Washing^ton. 

 It is by the sculptor, W. S. AUward, and is alle- 

 gorical. The figure on each side, one representing 

 the speaker and the other the listener, is in bronze, 

 and mounted on a granite f>edestal. The panel on 

 the crest of the memorial represents " Humanity 

 in communication," the three shadowy figures 

 being Knowledge, Joy, and Sorrow. They are 

 bound together by lines representing telephone 

 wires, the curved outline of the upper part of the 

 monument representing the curvature of the earth. 

 On the right and left are two circular panels in- 

 scribed as follows : , " Opus Telephonica Patri 

 Dedicatum Est " and " Mundus Telephonica Usu 

 Recreatus Est." Underneath the central panel are 

 the words : " To commemorate the invention of the 

 telephone bv .Alexander Graham Bell in Brantford 

 in i«74." ' . 



- We congratulate the Canadians on having 

 acquired such an interesting memorial of the great 

 inventor. Dr. Bell's invention laid the foundation 

 of a great and flourishing industry, which employs 

 many hundreds of thousands of men and women, 

 and in which many hundreds of millions of pounds 

 are invested. He is one whom every man of 

 science and engineer delights to honour. 



It is interesting to remember that Dr. Bell'^ 

 father, Mr. .Alexander Melville Bell, the inventor ol 

 a well-known "visible speech" system, was for 

 many years a lecturer on elocution in Edinburgh. 

 His mother was a daughter of Surgeon Symonds, 

 R.N. He him.self was born in 1847, and educated 

 at the Royal High School, Edinburgh. \\'hen 

 fourteen years old he came to London, and was 

 instructed by his grandfather, .Alexander Bell, in 

 elocution and the mechanism of speech. He was a 

 teacher at Weston House .Academy, Elgin, for a 

 year, and then entered Edinburgh University, where 

 he studied Latin under Sellar and Greek under 

 Blackie. .After being a .schoolmaster again at Elgin 



