ZIO- 



NATURE 



[May 1 6, 191 8 



% 57 P^^ cent., although ,jt is^ .«nl^ufa^v,t(^ ©ay tJhc^t 

 fj4iKi«fo««at4©ftais. lacking Tegartpng-nis pit;r|id|rmarSc«i", 

 ^d hence strict comparrson ' is" riot;- p'Ossrole'". 'A*^ note 

 in the Times of May 15 states, that Farraijt's repprd 

 of 427(5 Kriyt'ts has been beaten by a workman in 

 Messrs, Beardmore's yacd at Dalmuir. Working th(v 

 usual shift of nine hours on ship's' plates, the man 

 throve 4452 rivets, 176 more than Farrant's total. 



The first instaltnfcnt of an interesting article on the 

 Larderello natural steam power plant, by Ugo 

 Funaioli, director of the electrical department of the 

 Societa Boracifera di Larderello, appears in Engineer, 

 itig for May 10. ^ Reference. has already been made in 

 Nature to the utilisation of volcanic heat in Tuscany, 

 and the present article gives an account of the method 

 employed , in boring, for steam.. Heavy steel chisels, 

 are .attarhed to a rigid systern of iron rods, ■ and the 

 whole system is lifted by an electric winch and then 

 released, the fall causing the -chisel to penetrate the 

 soil. Steam and water are found generally at a depth 

 of 20 m., and the work from that point proceeds with 

 increasing difficulty and requires specially trained 

 workmen. Diameters of bore of 40 cm. have been 

 attained, and experiments are being made to arrive> 

 at still larger diameters" in orderi to augment: the out- 

 put of steam The holes ate lined with iron tubes 

 so as to prevent crumbling of the sides, and the tubes 

 are welded together with oxy-hydrogen f!ame ; . the 

 oxygen and hydrogen required are produced locally by 

 the electrolysis ot water. When it is judged by signs 

 known to the practised eye of the foreman that the 

 hole has reached a sufficient depth, a curious opera- 

 tion termed locally " sfulmiqazione " (explosion) is 

 sometimes performed, which clears the hole from all 

 remaining debris and of the water which balances the 

 pressure of the steam. A sort of rough piston is 

 introduced into the hole, and is afterwards withdrawn 

 as rapidly as possible by means of the electric winch. 

 If all necessary conditions are fulfilled this provokes 

 a small volcanic eruption, and the hole emits violently 

 mud, stones, and boiling water. This eruption lasts 

 for some minutes, and is followed by the steady emis- 

 sion of dry steam. 



The inaugural meeting of the Soci^te de Ghimie 

 Industrielle was held recently at Paris under the presi- 

 dency of M. Cl^mentel, Minister of Commerce, who 

 was introduced by M. P. Kestner, president of the 

 society. An important paper was read by M. Matignon 

 on the problem of the production of synthetic am- 

 monia before Haber. M. Matignon pointed put that 

 the first steps in this direction were due to an English 

 chemist, Perman, who shbwed in 1904 that the com- 

 bination of nitrogen and hydrogen to form ammonia 

 and its resolution into these elements form reversible 

 reactions depending upon certain- conditions of equili- 

 brium. These conditions and the amount of am- 

 monia producible thereunder were studied in - the fol- 

 lowing year by Haber and one of his pupils. Van 

 Ordt, and as a result of these studies a works for 

 the annual production of 36,000 tons of ammonium 

 sulphate was erected at Oppau, near Ludwigshafen. 

 The first patent, however, bearing on this subject is 

 dated so far back as July 11, 1865, being an English 

 patent taken out by Dufresne in the name , of Charles 

 Tellier for the preparation of oxygen, in which he 

 claims the utilisation of the nitrogen eliminated in 

 his process by passing it .over spongy iron heated to 

 redness, and afterwards passing hydrogen ipver the 

 combination of iron and nitrogen thus formed, when 

 a large quantity of ammonia is at once jgener^ted. A 

 'French patent was taken out by.Tessi^ du Motay- in- 

 1871 for similarly employing nitrides of titanium. .Tri 

 tSSi "Charles TeJlier- took-, out , .furthftp .tFiteDteh bnd 



NO. 2533, VOL. lOl] 



j'Qeynan pajtents fo^,the production of ammonia from.' 

 |atin!ospherie^itrogeh jt)y me^ns of icen^aad-litaoifer^it^ 

 '^ifon. Ftifther work in this direction was done bji 

 Ramsay and Young in ,1884, and patents were takerl 

 out by Hlavati in Austria in 1895, and in .iFrancp bjt 

 the Christianla Mifiekompani iq 1896, afid again sby Mi] 

 Le Chatelier in 1901. Perrhan had, moreover, pointec^ 

 out the effect of numerous metals as catalytic agents 

 in the combination of nitrogen and' hydrogen, also 

 th6 advantage of employing high pressures.; It wouldj 

 therefore, appear probable that the monopoly of the 

 rights in the production of synthetic ammonia, which 

 the Badische Company lays claims to, is likely to be 

 invalidated by the publication of th'e above list of 

 patents. 



In an article entitled " Psychology in Riglatidn to 

 the War," in the Psychological Review for March last, 

 Major R. M. Yerkes, of the United States Army, and 

 president of the American Psychological Association, 

 reports upon the organisation of American psycho- 

 logists for military service during the year 1917. In 

 April, 1917,' twelve committees were aippointed from 

 the members of the American Psychological Associa- 

 tion "to render the Government of- the United States 

 all possible assistance with psychological problems 

 arising from the present military emergency." The 

 subjects allotted to these various committees included 

 the psychological examination of recruits, the selec- 

 tion of men ;for tasks requiring special aptitudes 

 {e.g. artillery service, signalling, etc.), psychological 

 problems of. aviation, problems of "incapacity" (shell- 

 shock, re-education, etc.), recreation in the Army and 

 Navy, psychological and pedagogical problems of mili- 

 tary training and discipline, and visual and acoustic 

 problems in relation to military service. For obvious 

 reasons a detailed report upon the later activities of 

 some of these committees cannot be given, but the 

 account of the work of the committee for the psycho- 

 logical examination of recruits well repays study. The 

 purposes of the psychological tests applied were : — 

 "(a) To aid in segregating the mentally incompetent; 



(b) to classify men according to their mental capacity ; 



(c) to assist in selecting competent men for responsible 

 positions." It is important to notice that of the 

 number so tested, the lowest (10 per cent.) and the 

 highest (5 per cent.) were subjected to a more search- 

 ing individual examination, on the basis of which a 

 report was made by the psychological examiner to the 

 medical officer. As a result of an examination of 

 5000 officers and 80,000 men, the Medical Department 

 recommended the extension of psychological examin- 

 ing to the entire Army. In December, 1917, this re- 

 commendation was approved hy the General Staff, and 

 the section of psychology in the Surgeon-General's 

 Office is engaged in the preparation of a plan^ for this 

 work. We are now informed that a division of 

 psychologists has been organised, consisting of twenty, 

 seven majors, fifty-two captains, and sixty-two lieu- 

 tenants, with six hundred assistants. 



Two forms of "Githathi," or magic stones, in use 

 among the AKikuvu are described and figured by 

 Mr. H. R. Tate in the Journal of the East Africa and 

 Uganda Natural History Society, vol. vi.. No. iz. 

 The larger of these is circular, the smaller cylindrical, 

 in sihape, and both have been drilled through the 

 centre. The use of such stones seems to have fallep 

 into desuetude; but. Mr. Tate has been, able to shoj^ 

 that they were us6<i to invoke vengeance, or to obtaijji 

 coniipensation for offences against tribal law. Mf. 

 Hobley, some' years ago, was fortunate enough to 

 witness a trial by ordeal as practised among tl^ 

 Akamba of KilimaNjaro, in which 6ne of these stones 

 t\\<as- acfiially ^used., , In vlhe- sarpe;,is^H«.^fif-**hi« jowrvdl 



