4IO 



NATURE % 



[January 24, 19 18 



At an early age Mr. Sellon joined the well-known busi- 

 ness house of Messrs. Johnson, Matthey, and Co., 

 assayers and refiners to the Bank of England and Royal 

 Mint, metallurgists, etc., founded by his uncle, Percival 

 Norton Johnson, in 1822. He played a prominent part 

 in the researches and industrial developments con- 

 nected with the platinum and other groups of rarer 

 metals, with which the name of his firm is closely 

 associated; indeed, the now numerous and important 

 commercial applications of platinum and its allied 

 metals may be said to be chiefly due to the initiative 

 and efforts of himself and his co-workers, George and 

 Edward Matthey. During the concluding quarter of 

 last century he also took an active share, both in the 

 fields of technical discovery and industrial develop- 

 me'nt, in the then new sphere of electrical engineering, 

 and was associated with Faure, Brush, Swan, Lane- 

 Fox, Volckmar, and others in their early work on- 

 electric lighting and storage. 



We regret to note that the death of Mr. Frederic 

 Eliot Duckham is recorded in Engineering ior January 

 18. Mr; Duckham was born at Falmouth in 1841, 

 and his early engineering experience was obtained in 

 the construction of docks. He was appointed engineer- 

 in-chief of the Millwall Dock in 1868, and steadily 

 advanced in the service of the dock authorities, becom- 

 ing general manager in 1899. He held the dual ap- 

 pointment until his retirement in 1905, when he was 

 elected a director, a position he held until the property 

 was taken over by the Port of London Authority. 

 His name is best known on account of, his successful 

 inventions, of which the most important was his pneu- 

 matic grain elevator, which saved the Millwall Com- 

 pany 8000L per annum. Mr. Duckham became an 

 associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1875, 

 and was elected a full member in 1878; he was 

 awarded the Telford gold medal and two premiums 

 for papers read before the institution. 



At the meeting of the Illuminating Engineering 

 Society on January 15 an address was delivered by 

 Mr. L. Gaster on "Ten Years of Illuminating En- 

 gineering: its Lessons and Future Prospects." Mr. 

 Gaster recalled that it was just ten years since the 

 proposal to form an Illuminating Engineering Society 

 was made. A feature of its work had been the oppor- 

 tunities afforded for co-operation with other societies ; 

 for example, in dealing witli such matters as school, 

 library, and street lighting. While the war had natur- 

 ally restricted their activities in some fields, in others 

 they had found new channels of usefulness; he might 

 mention their special work on the illuminating value 

 of star-shells and parachute lights, and researches 

 on the brightness of radium paint for gun-sights, to 

 which allusion had been made in the presidential 

 address. It was desirable that better facilities should 

 be provided for co-operation between scientific and 

 technical societies and the State. Much useful in- 

 formation might be obtained in the present excep- 

 tional circumstances ; fuller data were needed on the 

 effect of inadequate lighting in causing street accidents 

 and the influence of various conditions of lighting in 

 Government factories on the quality and output of 

 work. In order to Illustrate how such data might be 

 obtained, several tables were presented relating to 

 accidents In streets and factories enabling information 

 to be acquired on a uniform and systematic plan so as 

 to trace the relation between such accidents and in- 

 adequate illumination. 



Weather conditions in 1917 were at many times ex- 

 ceptional, although the mean results for the several 

 elements for the whole year were not very different 

 from the normal. At Greenwich the mean temperature 



NO. 2517, VOL. 100] 



was 49°, which is 05° deficient in comparison with the 

 average for previous years. The highest monthly mean 

 temperature was 63-3° in June and July. The warmest 

 day temperatures occurred in June, when the mean 

 was 749, but the warmest nights were in August with 

 a mean minimum reading of 54-3°. The lowest 

 monthly mean temperature was 35-3° in January and 

 February. In April the deficiency of the mean tem- 

 perature was 45°, whilst in May the excess was 4-5°. 

 There were 127 days with ground frost during the 

 year; the greatest number in any month was twenty- 

 seven in December. Rainfall at the national observa- 

 tory totalled to 253 in., which is 1-5 in. more than the 

 average, and 45 in. less than the total in 1916. 

 There was an excess of rain In the spring and summer 

 months, and a deficiency in the autumn and winter. 

 The heaviest monthly fall was 4-3 in. in August, and in 

 July the fall was 4-2 in. February was the driest month 

 with 0-8 in. There was precipitation on 163 days, 

 which Is thirty days fewer than in 1916. August had 

 twenty-three days with rain, whilst June had only 

 seven, and December eight. Snow was unusually fre- 

 quent, falling at Greenwich on fifty-one days. January 

 had as many as sixteen days with snow, and the open- 

 ing month of 1918 bids fair almost to equal It. Dura- 

 tion of bright sunshine for the year amounted to 4-14 

 hours per day, which is In excess of the normal, and 

 Is nearly forty minutes per day greater than In 19 16. 

 June was the brightest month, with an average of 

 75 hours per day of sunshine. January was the least 

 sunny, with a daily average of 05 hour of sunshine. 



In Science Progress for January Mr. J. Reld Moir 

 discusses pre-Palaeolithic man in England. He points 

 out that in East Anglia the greatest facilities exist for 

 recovering evidence of this period. He bases the exist- 

 ence of pre-Palaeolithic man on the following con- 

 siderations : — "(i) The discovery in various parts of 

 England of different kinds of flint implements in 

 deposits which are of greater antiquity than those con- 

 taining the earliest palaeoliths. (2) The discovery at 

 Piltdown, In Sussex, of the remains of a very primitive 

 type of human being in intimate association with cer- 

 tain definite Pliocene mammalian forms, and the 

 earliest kind of flint implements known to science." 

 He adds that " the Neolithic and Palaeolithic stages in 

 this country are fairly well known, but the vast pre- 

 Palaeolithic periods await examination. These periods 

 are fully represented in England, and the flint Imple- 

 ments, etc., contained in the deposits laid down during 

 these epochs must be collected and investigated." 



It Is an indication of Improvement in the political 

 situation of Mexico that, according to the Mexican 

 Review, vol. 11., No. 2, the exploration of the famous 

 ruins of San Juan Teotihuacan, which had been sus- 

 pended during the revolutionary period, has now been 

 resumed under the direction of the Secretary of 

 Fomento, and it is believed that some very Interesting 

 and important discoveries v/ill be made. Prescott de- 

 scribes these ruins, with the possible exception of 

 Cholula, as the most ancient remains on Mexican soil. 

 They were found, it Is said, by the Aztecs on their 

 arrival in the country, when Teotihuacan, " the 

 habitation of the j?ods," now a petty village, was a 

 flourishing city, the rival of Tula, the great Toltec 

 capital. The two principal pyramids were dedicated to 

 Tonatiuh, the sun, and Mezlli, the moon. The former, 

 which has recently been restored, is 652 ft. In length 

 at the base, and 182 ft. in height, thus rivalling some 

 of the kindred monuments In Egypt. There Is at pre- 

 sent no building on the summit, but the photograph 

 accompanying the article shows what seem to be 

 processional roads used for some ceremonial purpose. 



