320 



NATURE 



[November 20, 1919 



In continuation of the excellent work left unfinished 

 by the late Major Bendire on the life-histories of 

 North American birds, there has recently been issued 

 by the United States National Museum (Bulletin 107, 

 Washington : Government Printing Office) an instal- 

 ment devoted to the Nearctic diving birds of the rrder 

 Pygopodes, prepared by Mr. Arthur Cleveland Bent 

 with the co-operation of numerous well-known 

 ornithologists. This volume affords much valuable 

 and up-to-date information relating to the courtship, 

 nesting, eggs, period of incubation, young, olumages, 

 food, behaviour, breeding range, winter range, migra- 

 tions, egg-dates, etc., of thirty-six species, one-thiid 

 of which are members of the British avifauna. 

 .\mong the mass of important and interesting in- 

 formation afforded only a few items can be referred 

 to. It may be mentioned that the comparatively little 

 known large-billed puffin, the haunts of which are con- 

 fined to a limited portion of the Arctic Ocean, has 

 recently greatly increased in numbers on the north- 

 west coast of Greenland, which is regarded as being 

 the westerly limit of its range. Welcome particulars 

 are given relating to the life-history of the vellow- 

 billed loon or .Adam's diver, the eggs and nest of which 

 are figured. There is also an excellent summarised 

 history of the extinct great auk, and a figure 

 of the egg, now in .\merica, which was formerly in 

 the collection of the late Sir William Milner, Bart. 

 The author is to be congratulated on the able manner 

 in which he has presented the results of his studies 

 of the extensive and valuable material at his dis- 

 posal, and also on the interesting series of pictures 

 of bird-life, about eighty in number, from photographs 

 taken direct from Nature. The volume is further 

 enriched by thirteen coloured plates of eggs. 



Messrs. M.acmillan .wd Co., Ltd., have in pre- 

 paration a " Dictionary of .\pplied Physics," to be 

 issued probably in four volumes, under the editorship 

 of Sir Richard Glazebrook, who will have the assist- 

 ance of a number of distinguished contributors. The 

 work is intended to include the range of physical 

 science in its application to engineering and manu- 

 facture; it will cover, therefore, a wide ground, and 

 needs the co-operation of many writers. It should 

 appeal to many workers, for the fact that scientific 

 investigation and inquiry form the foundations of 

 new methods of manufacture and are required before 

 any marked advance is possible is now very fully 

 realised. It is hoped, in the various sections of the 

 Dictionary, not only to supply up-to-date information 

 as to what has been done in the past, but also to give 

 some indication of pioneering directions for further 

 progress. The present is a suitable time for such a 

 work; new industries are springing up, old industries 

 are being reconstructed, and there are few which do 

 not involve some process or processes based on the 

 discoveries of physics. Pure science, as the president 

 of the Royal Society stated some little time back, 

 may cause a revolution in an industry. It will be 

 the object of the Dictionary to indicate in a concise 

 form the application of the most recent advances of 

 phvsics to trade and manufacture. 



We have received a catalogue of X-ray and electro- 

 medical apparatus from Messrs. Watson and Sons, 

 Ltd., comprising 369 pages, well illustrated. The 

 whole range of appliances, radiological and electrical, 

 now in use for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes is 

 covered, together with numerous parts of apparatus 

 suitable for research purposes. Prominent among 

 the latter are high-tension transformers which the 

 ■modern investigations in radio-metallurgy have de- 

 manded. Useful information is also to be found in 

 these pages as to the careful use and appropriate 



NO. 2612, VOL. 104] 



technique of many of the appliances, as witness the 

 remarks upon intensifying screens and the manage- 

 ment of the various types of Coolidge tubes now- 

 available. A considerable section is devoted to stereo- 

 scopy ; fluoroscopic examinations embodying stereo- 

 scopic vision are now possible with comparativelv little 

 addition to the installations generally found in a hos- 

 pital department. 



Mr. Roger T. Smith gave his presidential address 

 to the Institution of Electrical Engineers on Novem- 

 ber 13. As the railways of this country are shortly 

 to be subjected to fresh legislation, the choice of a 

 railway electrical engineer as president was a happy 

 one. Mr. Smith considered the question of super- 

 seding the steam locomotive by the electric locomotive 

 both for passenger and goods services. The coal 

 necessary to produce a given hauling effect on the 

 railway by means of an electric locomotive is at the 

 most 40 per cent, of the coal burnt in the furnace of 

 a steam locomotive to produce the same result. This 

 would mean a saving of between 7,000,000 and 

 8,000,000 tons of coal each year. It has been estimated 

 that to electrify all the railways in Great Britain 

 would cost 30o,ooo,oooZ. If coal ever rose to ^^$. 

 per ton, the saving of fuel would itself pay 5 per cent, 

 on the investment. The average cost of running a 

 locomotive in 1913 was 1240!., the cost of coal and 

 water being about 37 per cent, of the total cost. 

 The average capital cost of a steam locomotive this 

 year is 7000Z., but the average cost of an electric 

 locomotive, including electric equipment of line, but 

 exclusive of power-house and high-tension lines, would 

 be about 35,000/. Mr. Smith calculated that to en- 

 able the electric train to earn the present revenue per 

 train-mile, the passenger electric train would have to 

 weigh more than half as much again as the steam train, 

 and the electric goods train would have to be at least 

 1000 tons in weight, which is much heavier than the 

 average steam train for goods. He considered only 

 main-line electrification, and he admitted that some of 

 his data are controversial. He emphasised the im- 

 portance of standardisation in main-line electrification, 

 and, judging from our present knowledge, he sug- 

 gested that the direct-current system, working at 1500. 

 or possibly 3000, volts, would be the most economical 

 for use over the whole country. The problem is of the 

 greatest national importance. In the future the 

 demand for scientifically trained traction enginee:rs 

 will be very great. 



The annual report of Lloyd's Register of Shipping 

 for the vear ending June 30 last is discussed in the 

 Engineer for October 31. During the year 1251 vessels 

 of 3,801,221 tons gross were classified by the com- 

 mittee, including 294 vessels for Governmen,t service. 

 The United States headed the list with 470 vessels of 

 1,883,759 tons. Included in the total were 156 vessels 

 oif 943,487 tons built upon the Isherwood system of 

 longitudinal framing, of which 35 were intended for 

 carrying oil-fuel in bulk. It is of interest to note that, 

 owing to the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient number 

 of cylindrical boilers, the greater portion of the vessels 

 built in America and all the wood vessels built in 

 Canada during the war were fitted with water-tube 

 boilers. Also a large proportion of the vessels built 

 in America were fitted with geared turbines, most of 

 them being of the double-reduction type. Besides their 

 ordinary work, the surveyors rendered great assistance 

 to the Admiralty in the design, construction, and pro- 

 duction of special types of vessels, and also to the 

 French Government in the inspection of shell steel, 

 of which 1,401,114 tons were passed by the society's 

 surveyors. More than 200 German vessels taken over 

 under the peace terms have been surveyed by the 



