November 13, 1919] 



NATURE 



299 



the People of England from Earliest Times to the 

 Norman Conquest," N. Ault. The new list of Messrs. 

 George RotUledge and Sons, Ltd., and Kegan Paid 

 and Co., lAd., includes: — "The Social Maladies: 

 Tuberculosis, Syphilis, Alcoholism, Sterilit}'," Dr. J. 

 H^ricourt, translated, with a final chapter, by B. 

 Miall; "Agriculture and the Farming Business," 

 O. H. Benson and G. H. Betts; "Wonders of Insect 

 Life," J. H. Crabtree; "Germination," A. E. Baines; 

 and "Bakery Machinery," A. W. Matins; "The Clay- 

 working Industries," A. B. Searle ; "Direct-current 

 Dynamos and Motors," Prof. W. B. Griffith; "Elec- 

 tric Cooldng and Heating," VV. A. Gillott; "En- 

 gineering Instruments and Meters," E. A. Griffiths; 

 " Manufactiue and Installation of Electric Cables," 

 C. J. Beaver; "Reproduction and Utilisation of 

 Sound," H. O. Merriman ; "The Turbo-Alternator," 

 Dr. S. F. Barclay; and "The Utilisation of Natural 

 Powers," E. L. Burne (in Routledge's Industrial 

 Supremacy Books). 



Arrangements have been completed for the amal- 

 gamation of the business carried on by Mr. Robt. W. 

 Paul at New Southgate, London, with the Cambridge 

 Scientific Instrument Co., Ltd. Mr. Paul will join 

 the board of directors, and the manufacture of instru- 

 ments will be continued both at Cambridge and at 

 New Southgate. On January i, 1920, the name of 

 the company will be altered to the Cambridge and 

 Paul Instrument Co., Ltd., and as soon as possible 

 the head office and showrooms will be transferred to 

 London. 



The South-Eastern L'nion of Scientific Societies was 

 established in i8g6, and includes more than seventy 

 affiliated societies. A correspondent writes to point 

 out that the union was omitted from the list given 

 last week. The list was not intended, however, to 

 include unions or federations of societies, but rather 

 individual societies which meet periodicallv throughout 

 the vear. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Leonid Meteors. — Though no special display 

 of these objects is to be expected this year, the skv 

 should be vigilantly watched on the " nights frorn 

 November 13 to 16, and particularly during the hours 

 following midnight. The moon will be at the last 

 quarter on November 14, being visible in the 

 morning hours, but her light will be feeble and cannot 

 materially interfere with the aspect of the shower. 

 The radiant point in Leo does not rise until about 

 10.20 p.m. If any of the usual bright, streaking 

 meteors are observed from this system, their apparent 

 paths amongst the stars should be carefully recorded. 

 There is no doubt, from the observations obtained in 

 past years, that the stream of November Leonids is 

 continuous in all sections of the orbit, and that there 

 are considerable differences in the apparent strength 

 of the shower witnessed from year to year. The 

 maximum may be expected on the morning of 

 November 15 or 16. 



The shower of meteors connected with Biela's comet 

 is due to return a few nights later than the Leonids, 

 and, as the moon will then have waned to the crescent 

 shape, observations may be favourably made should 

 the atmosphere be suitable and free from the clouds 

 and fogs so common to our climate at this season of 

 the year. 



The Group of Helium Stars in Orion. — ^Tliere has 

 for long been a natural curiosity to find the distance 

 of the great nebula in Orion. The problem became 

 more hopeful when it was found that the group of 

 helium stars was probably connected with the nebula, 

 NO. 261 1, VOL. 104] 



as appeared both by their configuration and by identity 

 of radial motion (about +22 km . / sec). Dr. Bergstrand, 

 of Upsala, has published (Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Scient. 

 LIpsal., ser. iv., vol. v., No. 2) an attempt to find this 

 distance. First, he made a careful re-examination of 

 proper motions in order to find the rate of closing in 

 on 8 Orionis, owing to increasing distance from us ; 

 he found for the parallax 00044', with probable error 

 00049". fhe second method was based on the 

 assumption that the scattering of individual proper 

 motions is comparable with that of the radial veloci- 

 ties; he thus obtained 00076', with probable ' error 

 less than 0-002". It will be seen that the two deter- 

 minations are of the same order of magnitude, and 

 are also comparable with some other values ; thus 

 \ Dr. Charlier, in his memoir on the B stars, gave 

 I figures for the Orion group of which the mean is 

 001 18', and Prof. Kapteyn by another method found 

 00058'. Also four of the stars are binaries, and the 

 mean of their hypothetical parallaxes, as given by 

 Messrs. Hertzsprung and Stebbins, is 00078". 



From the large area that the group covers in the 

 sky there is reason to expect a corresponding range 

 in the individual distances. Hence we may look on 

 the various determinations as satisfactorily accordant, 

 and conclude that in putting the distance of the 

 nebula as 400 light-years we are not very far from the 

 truth. 



The Secular Acceleration of the Moon.— In a 

 recent paper Mr. Nevill claimed to have shown that 

 the observations of the last three centuries prove that 

 the acceleration does not differ from its theoretical 

 value. Prof. E. W. Brown, in the Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society (Series A, vol. xcvi.), shows that, 

 by making suitable changes in initial longitude and 

 mean motion, a change as great as 54" in the 

 acceleration will make changes in the longitude that 

 are less than i-6' for the whole interval between 1620 

 and 1950. Quantities so small as this cannot be 

 evaluated from the observations, so long as the large 

 inequality with period of the order of three centuries 

 remains unexplained by theory. Hence, apparently, 

 the ancient eclipses, unsatisfactory as the records of 

 them are, supolv the onlv material available for deter- 

 mination of the acceleration. 



THE GL.ASS RESEARCH ASSOCIATION. 



IT is now widely known that among the industries 

 which have been profoundly influenced by the war 

 the glass and glassware industry of the United King- 

 dom occupies a foremost place. Not only have the 

 pre-war products of this industry, as they existed 

 in this country before the war, been found essential 

 for a wide range of national purposes during war- 

 time, but the necessity has also been forcibly realised 

 of creating certain special sections of this industry, 

 previously non-existent in the country, to supply glass 

 and glassware, glass instruments, and glass apparatus 

 directly necessary for the prosecution of the war, as 

 well as similar articles equally vital as being indis- 

 pensable for the efficient operation of other industries. 

 The importance of the glass industry to the economic 

 life of the nation is to be measured largely by its 

 effect upon, and indispensability to, other industries. 

 This has been fully recognised by the Government in 

 the inclusion of scientific glassware and illuminating 

 glassware, as well as optical glass, in the schedule of 

 unstable "key" industries. 



But the revolutionising effect of the war upon the 

 glass industry is not alone manifest in the creation 

 of these "key" sections which previously were mono- 

 polised by Germany and Austria, whose glass manu- 

 facturers had attained great strength and reputation, 



