March 25, 1920] 



NATURE 



U3 



Sir Joseph Larmor has been elected a correspond- 

 ing member of the French Academy of Sciences in 

 the section of geometry. 



At the meeting of the Royal Irish Academy on 

 Tuesday, March i6, the following were elected 

 honorary members in the section of science : — 

 M. Henri Louis le Chatelier, Prof. George Ellery 

 Hale, Prof. Augustus Edward Hough Love, and Sir 

 Ernest Rutherford. 



A Committee has been appointed to consider and 

 report to the Minister of Transport on the question 

 of the electrification of railways. The Committee is 

 constituted as follows : — Sir Alexander Kennedy (chair- 

 man), Sir John Aspinall, Mr. A. R. Cooper, Mr. Philip 

 Dawson, Sir Alexander Gibb, Mr. C. H. Merz, Sir 

 Philip Nash, Sir John SnoU, Sir Henry Thornton, and 

 Major Redman. 



The Recording Secretary of the Nova Scotian 

 Institute of Science has been good enough to inform 

 us that at a meeting of the institute held at Halifax 

 on March 8, on the motion of Mr. H. Piers, seconded 

 by Dr. D. Eraser Harris, it was " resolved that the 

 Nova Scotian Institute of Science convey to the pub- 

 lishers and Editors of Nature, London, its con- 

 ifratulations on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary, 

 of the establishment of that well-known scientific 

 journal, and wish them continued success in the 

 future." On behalf of the publishers, and for our- 

 selves also, we thank the institute for its kind resolu- 

 tion of appreciation and trust'. 



A project • for systematic exploration in Mediter- 

 ranean oceanography was started at an inter- 

 national conference recently held at Madrid. Accord- 

 ing to ha Gdographie for January (vol. xxxiii., No. i), 

 the States represented were France, Italy, Spain, 

 Greece, Monaco, Egypt, and Tunis. A commission 

 was founded, with headquarters at Monaco and the 

 Prince of Monaco as president. This commission will 

 consider the methods to be adopted. Ships for the 

 work are under construction or being planned by 

 France, Italy, Spain, and Monaco. A beginning will 

 be made this spring, France and Italy working in the 

 Dardanelles and Monaco and Spain in the Straits 

 of Gibraltar. The secretary of the central commission 

 is Dr. J. Richard, Mus6e Oceanographique, Monaco. 



Col. van Ryneveld and Capt. Brand arrived at 

 Cape Town on March 20, and thus accomplished a 

 flight along Africa from north to south. Three 

 machines were used. The first left Brooklands on 

 February 4 and was wrecked at Wadi Haifa on 

 February 11. A new start was made from Cairo on 

 February 22 with an aeroplane fitted with the engines 

 from the first machine, and a flight was made so far 

 as Bulawayo, where the machine crashed on March 6. 

 On March 17 a machine was supplied by the Union 

 Government to replace this, and with it Col. van 

 Ryneveld and Capt. Brand completed their African 

 air route of more than five thousand miles. Though 

 not associated with scientific observation during the 

 journey, the flight is a notable feat in the history of 

 aviation. 



NO. 2630, VOL. 105] 



Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, in cablegrams from Dar- 

 es-Salaam, published in the Times of March 15 and 

 16, graphically summarises his impressions on the 

 physiography of the Nile basin as seen in his 

 flight from Cairo to Tabora. His despatch depicts 

 the unity of the processes which have moulded the 

 surface of north-eastern Africa. The dominant features 

 due to earth movements are being slowly smothered 

 by sheets of sand and silt deposited in river deltas, 

 in the marginal lakes formed where tributaries are 

 barred entrance to the main river by the raising of its 

 bed and banks, and in wide basins slowly being con- 

 verted to plains by wind-borne dust. Dr. Chalmers 

 Mitchell represents East Africa as having been 

 cracked, whereas most other lands have been folded, 

 and its vastest plains as due more to wind than to 

 water. The lowlands are being filled by sub-aerial 

 drift which buries the lower irregularities, and leaves 

 the peaks rising abruptly out of the plains like reefs 

 through the sand upon a shore. In the second part 

 of his report Dr. Chalmers Mitchell refers to the 

 beauty of the country, despite its aridity, and offers 

 strong testimony to the progress which has been 

 achieved in the Tanganyika territory, owing to 

 "much ingenuity and vast expenditure of money, well 

 laid out." His remarks on the elephants, giraffes, 

 and antelopes observed during the flight, show that 

 the aeroplane would be of great service to, sportsmen 

 in the search for big game. . _ . 



It has frequently been suggested that the very heavy 

 cylinders used for compressed gases are how out of 

 date, and that the advances made during recent years 

 in the science of metallurgy, particularly in connec- 

 tion with steel and its alloys, should enable a vessel 

 to be produced which is lighter as well as safe. In con- 

 sequence of these suggestions the Department of Scien- 

 tific and Industrial Research formed a Gas Cylinders 

 Committee in 19 18, the members of the Committee 

 being Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter (chairman), Prof. 

 C. V. Boys, Prof. E. G. Coker, Dr,^ J. A. Harker, 

 Major Cooper-Key, Prof, F. C.LmI 6rig.-Capt. J. 

 McLaurin, Sir Charles Parsons, Major C. J. Stewart, 

 and Prof. J.F.Thorpe. Compressed gases were much 

 used during the war for various purposes, such as, 

 for example, in supplying oxygen for airmen flying 

 at high altitudes and for poison-gas warfare. Indus- 

 trially also, in war, as in peace, there has been an 

 immense development in the use of oxygen and 

 acetylene for welding, of carbon dioxide and amnipnia 

 for refrigeration, of hydrogen for ballooning, etc., which 

 no doubt will be maintained. Arising from the neces- 

 sity of war, very light cylinders have been manufac- 

 tured for the purposes above mentioned, and slightly 

 heavier cylinders were made to an Admiralty specifica- 

 tion. The Gas Cylinders Committee, in conjunction 

 with the leading tube manufacturers, has made a 

 number of . tests of cylinders based upon these war 

 specifications, and it is hoped that as a result of this 

 work it may be possible to recommend the adoption 

 of cylinders considerably lighter, than those now in 

 general use. 



The first engineering school to be established in 

 London was that at University College. Since 1828 



