6S 



NATURE 



[September 27, 19 17 



the orthodox theory in Turkey to-day, and to 

 prove it, the national emblem of the Crescent 

 shows a star shining- through the moon; and 

 Coleridge, in the first draft of " Christabel," is 

 reported to have seated a star in the horns of the 

 crescent. 



The sun and moon go round like the hands of 

 a clock, hour and minute, on the old Chaldaean 

 estimate of a year of twelve lunations of thirty 

 days. Full moon would occur when the two 

 hands are in lines directly opposite. 



A sundial, marked to serve as a moondial, 

 like the old dial at Queens' College, Cambridge, 

 will give forty-eight minutes added to moonlight 

 time for every day of the moon's age, to give 

 the corresponding sun time on the average. 



A moon clock of greater accuracy and varia- 

 tion is required to mark the time when the' moon 

 is down longer than usual, drawn down in the 

 legend by Thessalian arts, when the witch loves 

 to ride through the air in the dark. 



In "All for Love; or, The World Well Lost," 

 Dryden writes : 



Her eyes have power beyond Thessalian charm 

 To draw the moon from heaven, 

 and this was considered just the time for 

 us to be most on our guard, during the 

 coming winter; although this expectation has not 

 been realised of late. 



In ancient astronomical lore as well as in 

 poetry, the sun and moon were pictured as living 

 bodies, and an eclipse could be described as 

 drawing them down to earth, the moon and sun. 



Prior information of an eclipse was of great 

 service to counteract superstitious fear, and to 

 claim the magic power as on your own side; as 

 in the case of the solar eclipse predicted by 

 Thales, related by Herodotus, occurring in the 

 middle of an important battle. 



A lunar eclipse is so common as to attract 

 little attention to-day; the frequent occurrence 

 compared with a solar eclipse attracted the 

 attention of Aristotle. But the lunar theory 

 involved could be utilised by the Thessalian 

 magician, and would have proved valuable to the 

 Athenian general Nicias in his disastrous retreat 

 from Syracuse. G. Greenhill. 



THE RESOURCES AND PRODUCTION OF 

 IRON AND OTHER METALLIFEROUS 

 ORES. 

 T N order to meet what has apparently been a 

 -*■ want both to those engaged in the iron 

 and steel industry and to those who are 

 interested in obtaining knowledge of the mineral 

 resources on which the industry mainly depends, 

 the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial 

 Research has thought it desirable that a report ' 

 should be compiled summarising the latest infor- 

 mation available regarding the iron-ore resources 

 of the United Kingdom, as well as those of other 

 countries. Although a vast amount of informa- 

 tion has been published from time to time, it exists 



■• Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Advisory Council. 

 (London: H.M. Stationery Office.) Price ^s. net. 



NO. 2500, VOL. 100] 



mostly in the form of reports and monographs 

 scattered throughout the Proceedings of technical 

 and scientific societies and in the very valuable 

 publications of the Geological Surveys and Mines 

 Departments of this country and of the principal 

 Dominions of the British Empire; also in those 

 of other countries, particularly the United States. 

 Consequently much time and labour have to be 

 spent in searching for the literature on the subject. 



The aim of the report, therefore, has been to 

 collect and present in a summarised form the 

 main facts concerning the resources of iron ores 

 and of other metalliferous ores accessory to the 

 metallurgy of iron and steel, and to indicate their 

 composition and character, giving as many 

 analyses as possible of the minerals in every 

 locality, with indications as to their geographical 

 position and accessibility. The report is the work 

 of Mr. G. C. Lloyd, the secretary of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute, and it has been revised, and added 

 to by Prof. Henry Louis, of the Armstrong 

 College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 



The report is divided into three main parts, of 

 which Part i. deals with the iron ores of Great 

 Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions. 

 It is known that large resources of iron ores 

 exist in the United Kingdom, but in certain dis- 

 tricts, owing to their mode of occurrence, as well 

 as the low percentage of iron which the ores 

 contain, it has been difficult to work some of them 

 profitably. Foreign ores, especially those of 

 Scandinavia, which are of high-grade quality, 

 have been imported so cheaply into this country 

 that the native lean ores could no longer compete 

 with them. Native ores have therefore to a great 

 extent been disregarded, and expenditure upon 

 their development has not been worth while on 

 account of the ease with which cheap supplies of 

 much superior ore could be obtained from abroad. 

 The ores of the United Kingdom are described 

 in approximately the following order : — 



(a) Red and brown haematites and magnetites 

 (Cumberland, Lancashire, Cornwall, Devonshire, 

 and the Forest of Dean), and the aluminous ores 

 of Co. Antrim^ Ireland. These are estimated 

 at about 500 million tons, 



(b) Carbonate ores or ironstones (Cleveland, 

 Northamptonshire, Rutlandshire, and Leicester- 

 shire), and the calcareous ores of the Lower and 

 Middle Lias (Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, 

 and Somerset). Reserves of these are esti- 

 mated at about 5000 million tons, but it 

 is thought that probably this figure is too low. 

 Both in Cumberland and Northamptonshire new 

 developments in iron-mining are now taking place 

 on a considerable scale. Some attention has also 

 been lately directed to the Cornish iron ores, but 

 it is extremely doubtful whether these can be 

 worked again upon any important scale. 



(c) Stratified iron ores of the Coal Measures 

 (Scotland, Northumberland, Staffordshire, Derby- 

 shire, Shropshire, and South Wales). Reserves 

 of these are estimated at about 34,000 million 

 tons. In normal times by far the largest propor- 

 tion of the above quantities cannot be worked 

 with profit. 



