July 25, 1918] 



NATURE 



413 



To which country is the advance of seismology 

 chiefly indebted? M. de Montessus de Bailore en- 

 deavours to answer this question in an interesting 

 paper published in the last Bollettino of the Italian 

 Seismological Society (vol. xx., 1916, pp. 263-72). 

 His estimate is based on a bibliography of seismo- 

 logical memoirs now being published by the Sociedad 

 chilena de historia y geografia. This bibliography 

 contains the titles of about 9000 articles, of which 

 2002 are written in Italian, 1768 in French, and 

 1185'in German. Great Britain is credited with 

 911 articles, the United States with 636, and Japan 

 with 352. The number of papers per million in- 

 habitants since the year 1840 is 40 in Italy, 30^ in 

 France, 12^ in Germany and Austria, and 10^ in 

 Great Britain. Tnese figures take no account of the 

 v-alue of the individual works. Omitting purely 

 descriptive papers, the author estimates that of papers 

 of a general nature 129 per cent, are contributed by 

 French writers, io-6 per cent, by German, 102 per 

 cent, by English, and 77 per cent, by Italian writers. 

 A more satisfactory conception of the relative value 

 of national contributions would perhaps be furnished 

 by the number of references in some standard treatise 

 on seismoio^. Taking, for instance, M. de Mon- 

 tessus de Bailore 's "La Science Seismologique," and 

 including only those authors quoted more than five 

 times, we find that there are 103 references to Eng- 

 lish writers, 65 to Italian. 61 to German and Austrian, 

 49 to Japanese, 35 to French, and 21 to American 

 (United States). 



A NOTICE in Metall und Erz for May 8 states that 

 the important Bavarian establishments for the produc- 

 tion of nitric acid from the air are to undergo con- 

 siderable extension, in which some 200,000 h.p. of 

 water-power will be used. A strong syndicate of 

 bankers and others has been formed to carry out the 

 scheme, which will involve a capital of 150 million 

 marks. 



Following upon the establishment of the Kaiser 

 Wilhelm Institute for Research on Iron and Iron-ores 

 comes- the news from the German daily Press of some 

 preliminary steps that have been taken to found a 

 similar institution for researches on all other generally 

 useful metals. A committee composed of eminent 

 engineers and university professors has been formed 

 to consider the establishment of a metal research 

 institute for the benefit of the German metallurgical 

 industry. 



New sources of mineral wealth are to be found in 

 European Turkey. According to Metall und Erz for 

 May 8 last, copper-ore exists in great quantities in 

 Turkish Rhodope, in the neighbourhood of Yardimli. 

 In the Turkish Balkans ores of nearly all the metals 

 occur, while gold occurs in Markova Reka, south of 

 Uskub. In the neighbourhood of Kratova gold and 

 galena containing a fairly high percentage of gold 

 have been discovered. Chromium-ore in abundance 

 has been found near Niausta, on the Saloilika-Monastir 

 railway. The mountain range of southern Macedonia 

 is especially rich in chromium-ore, and there are iron, 

 antimony, and lead ores. 



In the Schweizerisclie Elektrotechnische Zeitschrijt 

 for January 5 lasi is given a summary of the results 

 obtained from tests of \arious lamps with ortho- 

 chromatic plates and silver-eosin plates prepared by 

 two German firms. The tables show wattage and 

 candle-power of various lamps and their actinic values, 

 absolute and per wait and per Hefner candle-power 

 for both kinds of plates with and without yellow filters. 

 The lamps tested in this way were the Hefner lamp, 



NO. 2543, VOL. lOl] 



vacuum and gas-tilled tungsten-wire lamps, arc lamps 

 with solid carbons and yellow and white tiame-carbons, 

 enclosed arcs, and quartz-enclosed mercury arcs. 



We note in the Chemical News of June 21 an 

 account of the preparation and properties of fibres 

 made from fused steatite or soapstone (a magnesium 

 silicate), which resemble fused quartz in their elastic 

 properties. It was desired to obtain threads of 

 01 to 02 mm. in diameter and a metre long; such 

 threads are somewhat difficult to prepare from fused 

 quartz on account of the presence of air-bubbles. The 

 material in question was found by Prof. Guthe 

 (Bureau of Standards, Washington, Bulletin i.. 

 No. i) to answer admirably; it had all the charac- 

 teristic properties of fused quartz with the additional 

 advantage that thick fibres do not break so readily. 

 In the oxyhydrogen flame the substance fuses to a 

 clear glass, and can be formed into threads of the 

 requisite dimensions. The elastic fatigue of such 

 fibres is very small — about one-third that of steel or 

 phosphor-bronze. The linear coefficient of expansion 

 was found to be -00000045. 



An article on coal-saving by the scientific control of 

 steam-boiler plants appears in Engineering for July 12. 

 The author, Mr. D. Brownlie, gives average figures 

 for 250 typical steam-boiler plants, covering the period 

 from 19 10 to the present time. It is estimated that 

 58,500,000 tons of coal per annum are used in this 

 country for steam-raising purposes (in normal times), 

 exclusive of 15,000,000 tons used in railways. The 

 250 plants had a total of 1000 boilers, principally of 

 the Lancashire type. With hand-firing the average 

 net working efficiency is 578 per cent., as against 

 mechanical firing with an average net working effi- 

 ciency of 61-4 per cent. Both varieties receive very 

 little scientific attention and supervision ; efficiencies 

 from 75 to 82^ per cent, can be maintained with both 

 types. The author's experience is that in normal times 

 the average firm could save 7 to 10 per cent, in the 

 fuel bill alone by buying on scientific lines. The 

 author estimates that there are 45,000 to 60,000 steam 

 boilers at work in Great Britain, calculated in terms 

 of average-sized Lancashire boilers, and considers that 

 all the steam produced in the country to-day could be 

 obtained much more economically with 25 per cent, 

 fewer boilers. 



Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Son announce 

 " Plane Surveying," by Prof. J. K. Finch, and " How 

 to Become a Wireless Operator : A Practical Pre- 

 sentation of the Theory of Electrical Waves, their 

 Propagation, and their Adaptation to W'ireless Com- 

 munication," by C. B. Hayward. Messrs. Longmans 

 and Co. have in preparation a new edition — the second 

 — of Sir R. A. S. Redmayne's "The Ventilation of 

 Mines," containing additional notes relating to the 

 Coal Mines Act of 191 1. The fifth volume of the 

 same author's " Modern Practice in Mining " is also 

 in preparation. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., will 

 issue shortly "A Small Book on Electric Motors for 

 Continuous and Alternating Currents," by the late 

 W. Perren Maycock, 



Messrs, J. Wheldon and Co., 38 Great Queen 

 Street, W.C.2, have just issued, at the price of 2d.. 

 a very full and well-arranged Botanical Catalogue 

 (new series, No. 83), which should be of interest and 

 value to many of our readers. It is conveniently 

 divided into eight sections, dealing respectively with 

 general botany, geographical botany, and the floras of 

 Britain, Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Aus- 

 tralasia. Many first and rare editions are included; 



