26 



NATURE 



[March 14, 1918 



in stained glass and tessellated pavement, as well 

 as sculpture and bas-relief. 



The book used at school has the powerful influ- 

 ence in moulding the mind, and providing asso- 

 ciation of ideas familiar to all. A quotation from 

 a school book is sure of acceptation and compre- 

 hension. 



Horace, in his ode on Archytas, mentions the 

 flying machine among his mechanical achieve- 

 ments, if we may interpret so his "aerias tentasse 

 domos — Tithonusque remotus in auras." But he 

 mixes up Archytas and Archimedes in " numeroque 

 carentis arena? mensorem," both authors being in 

 use in his schooldays for mathematical and cos- 

 mographical instruction. The curtain goes up on 

 Antony and Cleopatra engaged in an amatory 

 disputation on the Psammites Arenarius of 

 Archimedes. 



And here we, too, are quoting ourselves from 

 the ode of Horace as familiar to all from school- 

 boy days. 



Interpretations of this ode are various, but we 

 may imagine Horace has arrived at the last stage 

 on the Appian Way to the terminus at Brindisi, and 

 employs the waiting time to visit the sights of 

 Tarentum, where he comes across the tumulus of 

 Archytas — "that old beast," he would call him in 

 schoolboy terms, as the author of the text-book 

 of arithmetic, geometry, harmonics, spherics. 

 The epitaph then tells him the tomb is a ceno- 

 taph, and the real site of burial is away far 

 to the north on the other sea, in a small memorial. 



Another school author was Aratus, for instruction 

 in astronomy, and so could be drawn on as familiar 

 to all. Ovid is full of allusions from Aratus, and 

 Cicero contemplated a translation into Latin verse. 

 Aratus is quoted also by St. Paul as familiar to 

 his audience, as Newton reminds us in the 

 " Principia." 



The mathematical fragments of Archytas, col- 

 lected in "Melanges Graux " (Paris, 1884), will 

 trace his influence on the young minds of the Latin 

 poets, Virgil, Ovid, Horace. They give the history 

 of the problem of the two mean proportionals, 

 generalisation of the Delian problem of the dupli- 

 cation of the cube, and incidental to angle trisec- 

 tion, among famous problems of antiquity, such 

 as squaring the circle. And in his "Harmonics" 

 Archytas was the first to direct attention to the 

 harmonic progression shown in the divisions on 

 - the musical chord where it must be touched to give 

 the successive overtone notes of frequency i, 2, 

 3, etc. But the graphical and mechanical methods 

 of Archytas drew down the scorn of Plato, pioneer 

 of Rigour, as contaminating the purity of Geo- 

 metry with material contact. 



And what would Plato have said — originator of 

 the sentiment, "Here's to Mathematics, and may 

 they never be of use to anybody ' ' — if he had fore- 

 seen the latest development of the harmless flying 

 toy of Archytas, described with such prescience 

 by the artist-mechanic in "Rasselas" (1759)?' 



If men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity 

 teach them to fly. But what would be the security of 

 NO. 2524, VOL. lOl] 



the good, if the bad could at pleasure invade them 

 from the sky? Against an army sailing through the 

 clouds, neither walls, mountains, nor seas could afford 

 security. A flight of northern savages might hover 

 in the wind, and rush with irresistible violence upon 

 the capital of a neighbour region. 



G. Greenhill. 



METEOROLOGY IN NORWAY.^ 



THE volume before us, published in celebration 

 of the fifty years' existence of the Norwegian 

 Meteorological Institute, commences with brief 

 sketches of the lives of Prof. Henrik Mohn and 

 Director Aksel Steen, to both of whom the insti- 

 tute, to a large extent, owes its development. A 

 very interesting account is given of the history of 

 meteorology in Norway. Owing to the peculiar 

 geographical position of the country, meteorology 

 was early found to be of special importance, and 

 observations were taken from the end of the seven- 

 teenth century ; but it was not until the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century that regular observations 

 in the modern sense of the word were commenced. 

 In 181 1 Prof. Esmarck began them in Christiania, 

 and in 1837 Prof. Hansteen took daily observations 

 of pressure, temperature, wind direction and force, 

 cloud amount, and appearance of the sky. A 

 scheme was then put on foot for organising daily 

 observations in the different parts of the country, 

 but these gradually fell off, until in 1850, with the 

 exception of the unbroken records at Christiania, 

 meteorological work in Norway was almost at a 

 standstill. 



It was the great storm of 1854, which overtook 

 the French and English fleets on the Crimean 

 coasts, that gave a new impetus to meteorology in 

 Europe, and in 1855 Le Verrier made proposals 

 for an international weather service. Norway was 

 greatly interested in the new movement, and in 

 i860 C. Nielsen, Director of Telegraphs in Nor- 

 way, established five stations along the coast — 

 Christiansund, Aalesund, Skudenes, Mandal, and 

 Sand0sund — with the necessary instruments and 

 staff. At these stations observations were made 

 three times daily of pressure, temperature, humid- 

 ity, wind, weather, and cloud. A short time later 

 an inland station was established at Dombaas, and 

 reports were exchanged between these stations and 

 Sweden, and also, after a few years, with Paris. 



The six stations were soon found to be insuffi- 

 cient for the proper development of meteorological 

 work in Norway, and in 1865 it was resolved to 

 erect a meteorological institute and to appoint a 

 professor of meteorology. The institute was com- 

 menced, and in 1865 Henrik Mohn was appointed 

 professor of meteorology and director of the 

 Meteorological Institute. New instruments were 

 installed at the existing stations, and on Decem- 

 ber I, 1866, the Norwegian Meteorological Insti- 

 tute began its operations, with the co-operation of 

 the six stations mentioned, and also of Bergen and 

 Christiania. 



Prof. Mohn's initiative soon resulted in great 

 developments : the number of climatological sta- 



1 Meteorologien i Norge i 50 aar. (Christiania : Gr<|>ndahl and Sons.) 



