May 27, 1920] 



NATURE 



403 



Our Astronomical Column. 



Astronomical Announcements by Wireless Tele- 

 CRAPHY. — Prof. Kobold, editor of Asir. Nachrichten, 

 and director of the Centralstelle, delegated the latter 

 work to Prof. Stromgren, Copenhagen, during the 

 war, but has now resumed it, and announces in 

 Astr. Nach., 5044, that arrangements have been made 

 for the distribution of astronomical information bv 

 wireless telegraphy from the Nauen station. Such 

 messages will bear the signature "Obs.," and it is 

 suggested that institutions that wish to receive them 

 -hould make arrangements with the wireless station 

 arest to them that receives Nauen messages. It 

 hoped that they will make a contribution to the 

 ist of the service. The idea of using wireless in this 

 manner is certainly a good one, and might be of 

 ^reat service in the case of such unexpected pheno- 

 mena as the outburst of novae, where early observa- 

 tions are of special value. 



The Astrographic Catalogue. — This great under- 

 taking, begun a third of a . century ago, is still far 

 from completion, many of the observatories that 

 undertook to collaborate having dropped out, from 

 financial or other reasons. Their zones were after- 

 wards allotted elsewhere, and one of the new ob- 

 vatories (Hyderabad) may be mentioned in par- 

 ular for its praiseworthy energy. The late director, 

 .\ir. R. J. Pocock, unhappily died without seeing the 

 wdrk completed; but thanks to the Nizam's gener- 

 osity the work is continuing under his successor, Mr. 

 1. P. Bhaskaran, who has just published vol. iii., 

 idntaining measures of rectangular co-ordinates of 

 58,743 star-images on plates with centres in deck — 19°. 

 The form of publication is similar to that in the 

 Greenwich and Oxford catalog-ues. 



Tidal Friction and the Lunar and Solar 

 Accelerations. — Dr. H. Jeffreys has a paper on this 

 subject in the Monthly Notices for January, in which 

 he quotes Major G. I. Taylor's result In Phil. 

 Trans., A, ccxx., that tidal friction in the Irish 

 iSea accounts for i/56th of the required dissipation 

 of energy, assuming that the moon's secular accelera- 

 tion is 10-5" per century, which is 44" above the 

 amount calculated from planetary action on the 

 earth's orbit. The accelerations are here measured, 

 as is customary, by the space gained at the end of a 

 century. Dr. Jeffreys uses the more strictly logical 

 system of the velocity gained, and, consequently, 

 doubles the value of the acceleration. He gives a 

 list of the seas that seem likely to contribute to the 

 tidal effect, and concludes that they are capable of 

 producing the whole of it. The tidal acceleration of 

 the moon is the difference of two terms: (i) the 

 apparent acceleration due to the slackening of the 

 earth's rotation, and (2) the actual retardation due 

 to increase of distance. In the case of the sun only 

 (i) is present, though there may be further accelera- 

 tion if the earth is travelling in a resisting medium. 

 Dr. Jeffreys finds for the solar acceleration i-^S" on his 

 system — that is, 078" on the usual system. 



Dr. Fotheringham has rediscussed the accelerations 

 from all available ancient observations. He finds 10^" 

 for the moon, and i", or somewhat more, for the sun. 

 The corresponding period for the large empirical 

 lunar term is 260 years. Prof. Turner finds that this 

 period agrees well with the periods deduced from 

 Chinese earthquake records and from those of Nile 

 floods. He also confirms' it by statistics of tree- 

 growth, derived from a study of their annual rings. 

 He suggests that the earth is pulsating in this period 

 with consequent alteration in its rotation, which pro- 

 duces an apparent fluctuation in the moon's motion, 

 and smaller ones in that of the sun and planets. 

 NO. 2639, VOL. 105] 



The Iron and Steel Institute. 



'p HE annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, 

 ■■• held in London on May 6-7, was rendered 

 noteworthy by the fact that the incoming 

 president was Dr. J. E. Stead. It is somewhat re- 

 markable that Dr. Stead has not been elected to 

 this oftice before. He has been engagfed in metallur- 

 gical work for fifty years, has reached the age of 

 seventy, and no metallurgist in this countrv holds a 

 higher international reputation. He has carried out a 

 considerable number of researches of first-rate import- 

 ance which are remarkable for their suggestiveness 

 and technique, and he possesses in a striking- degree 

 the confidence and respect of those engaged in the 

 industry. The explanation, however, is forthcoming 

 in the opening sentences of his address, from which 

 it is clear that he was invited to fill this office some 

 years ago, but refused as he did not consider he was 

 qualified, to use his own words, " to accept such an 

 exalted position." It is quite safe to say that this mis- 

 giving has never been shared by anyone else. Dr. 

 Stead finally yielded to the strong representations of 

 his fellow-members on the council, and his acceptance 

 of the office of president has been received with wide- 

 spread gratification by the institute. 



His presidential address is an attempt to pass in 

 review the progress made in the ferrous industries 

 during the past fifty years. This proved to be a 

 gigantic piece of work,' and it is not surprising to learn 

 that Dr. Stead found more trouble in condensing than 

 in collecting the voluminous data so as to bring them 

 within the limits of an address. Even so, it turned 

 out that he was not able to read more than one-third 

 of it. The address is divided into a series of sections 

 which deal successively with the blast-furnace, the 

 puddling process, science in the foundry, the basic 

 Bessemer and basic open-hearth processes, electric 

 furnaces, the production of sound ingots, the recog- 

 nition of science, the advent and progress of metallo- 

 graphy, the application of science to the ferrous in- 

 dustries, the encouragement of science, and technical 

 education. Within the limits of this article it is only 

 possible to touch briefly on the subject-matter of three 

 of these sections. 



(i) Blast-furnace Practice. — It appears from the 

 accumulated experience of this branch of 

 the industry that no object is gained by in- 

 creasing the capacity of the furnace above 30,000 

 cubic feet, and that its working is best controlled bv 

 having a separate blowing engine for each furnace. 

 Increased output per furnace can be achieved by 

 widening the diameter of the hearth and increasing 

 the volume of the air blown in. The gases issuing 

 from the furnace-top should be conserved by the 

 adoption of the double bell or some similar system. 

 The maximum proportion of their calorific value 

 should be used by freeing them from dust, controlling 

 the proportion of air for their combustion, and main- 

 taining a low exit temperature. Coke-ovens should 

 be close to furnaces and the coke handled as little 

 as possible after it leaves them so as to avoid the 

 production of "fines," and should be sufficiently hard 

 to resist crushing. Fine coke disorganises the regular 

 working of the furnace and reduces the output of pig- 

 iron. It should, therefore, be sieved off and either 

 used for other purposes or briquetted, if the process 

 be not too costly, and then charged into the furnace. 

 Dr. Stead concludes that there is sufficient evidence 

 to show that given efficient gas-engines it is advisable 

 to use them in preference to steam-engines. One of 

 the still unsolved problems is the utilisation of the 

 heat carried out of the furnaces' in the slag. Inas- 

 much as the gas and the heat obtained from the 



