32< 



NATURE 



[August 4, 



of the health of those engaged, the precautions taken to guard 

 against sickness, and regulations as to those who are sick, and 

 concludes with the following impressions and deductions : 

 (i) Until recently the match-makers in certain of the French 

 factories suffered severely from phosphorus poisoning ; that at 

 the present time there is apparently a reduction in the severer 

 forms of the illness. (2) That the reduction in the amount of 

 illness is attributable to greater care exercised in the selection 

 of the workpeople ; raising the age of their admission into the 

 factory ; medical examination on entrance ; subsequent close 

 supervision ; repeated dental examination ; personal cleanliness 

 on the part of the workers ; early suspension on the appearance 

 of symptoms of ill-health ; improved methods of manufacture. 

 (3) That the French Government, aware of the dangers of 

 match-making, is furthering by all possible means new methods 

 of manufacture, and, with this object in view, retains in its 

 service chemists and inventors who are continually making 

 experiments. (4) That the Government has to some extent 

 already succeeded in manufacturing a match capable of striking 

 anywhere, yet free from white phosphorus, but that until now 

 the manufacture of this match is not an industry. 



Particulars are given in the Times as to a process employed 

 for making wood incombustible, or at any rate incapable of sus- 

 taining and conveying flame. The process may be said roughly to 

 consist of removing the natural juices of the wood and replacing 

 them with certain substances which not only make it fireproof, 

 but also have antiseptic properties that prevent decay. The 

 operation is effected in retorts or cylinders. The wood having 

 been run in on trollies, the air-tight door is closed and the con- 

 tents subjected to heat and the action of a high vacuum. This 

 treatment is continued till the volatile and fermentable con- 

 stituents have been withdrawn, the time required to attain this 

 result varying with the character of the wood. The next step 

 is to fill the cylinder with the fireproofing solution, the exact 

 composition of which is kept secret, and force it into the wood 

 under hydraulic pressure, the amount of which again differs for 

 different woods, but may reach 150 lb. to the square inch or 

 more. When thoroughly impregnated with the salts the timber 

 is taken out of the cylinders, restacked on the trollies, and put 

 into the drying-kiln — a room through which hot air is con- 

 tinually circulated by powerful fans, and which is fitted with 

 apparatus to condense the vapours given off by the wood. Here 

 it remains till it is thoroughly dried — in the case of a load of 

 average thickness about a month. It is then ready for delivery 

 and use. 



We are glad to learn that efforts are being made to secure 

 for the Maidstone Museum and Public Library the collection of 

 prehistoric flint implements formed during the past thirty-four 

 years by Mr. Benjamin Harrison, and illustrating important 

 periods in the early history of man in Great Britain and else- 

 where. It is proposed to select from the specimens in Mr. 

 Harrison's collection the type series chosen from the chalk 

 plateau implements by Sir Joseph Prestwich to illustrate his 

 monographs upon the subject of plateau or eolilhic implements, 

 and other type implements which have been figured and described 

 by other writers ; a series to show variety of form and the 

 probable uses to which these implements have been put ; a 

 collection of paleolithic implements from gravels in the West 

 Kent district ; and type series of neolithic implements found in 

 Kent. No more suitable home could be found for these imple- 

 ments than the Maidstone Museum, situated as it is in the 

 county town, and also in the immediate vicinity of the district 

 in which they were discovered. An appeal for subscriptions to 

 purchase the collection, signed by the Mayor of Maidstone, has 

 been issued by the Museum Committee. The public spirit 

 of the municipality in the cause of science, as shown by the 

 NO. 1 50 1, VOL. 58] 



efforts being made to acquire Mr. Harrison's collection, is as 

 gratifying as it is rare. Nearly 100/. have been raised so far, 

 and there should be no difficulty in increasing this to the amount 

 required. Subscriptions may be sent to the Town Clerk of 

 Maidstone, or to the Harrison Collection Fund, Kentish Bank, 

 Maidstone. 



In the U.S. Weather Review or March, Mr. R. de C. 

 Ward describes an interesting formation of small cumulus 

 clouds over a fire, observed by him at the Harvard College 

 Observatory at Arequipa, Peru. Behind the western flank of 

 Mount Charchani, and about fifteen miles away, a column of 

 smoke was rising from a considerable fire of brushwood, at a 

 probable height of about 14,000 feet above sea-level. While 

 looking at the smoke he noticed the formation of a small cumulus 

 cloud directly over it, and from 30DO to 4000 feet above it, the 

 sky being almost clear and the wind nearly calm at the time. 

 The cloud soon disappeared, and was succeeded by another, 

 which again disappeared within five mmutes. Eight distinct 

 cloudlets were seen thus to form and dissolve within the space 

 of half an hour, at the end of which time the smoke had dis- 

 appeared. Although the smoke column was small, the con- 

 ditions were evidently favourable for cloud formation. Cumulus 

 clouds over fires were described by Espy in his Fourth Meteor- 

 ological Report ; another case was also noted by Mr. Ward in 

 Science of January 8, 1897. 



An interesting installation of electric transmission of water 

 power has, says Engineering, recently been completed by the 

 utilisation of the River Etsch for the benefit of the towns of 

 Bozen and Meran. The sources of the Etsch are at a great height 

 above the Reschen lake, which is situated some 5200 feet above 

 the level of the sea. At the place where the installation in 

 question has been erected, the fall of the river is 630 feet over 

 a distance of about a mile and a half. So far 6000 horse-power 

 have been utilised, and a similar quantity can be made available 

 at the second fall. The power will be used for electric light, 

 at an extremely cheap rate for industrial purposes, probably 

 electric railways, &c. The course into which the water is con- 

 veyed has a length of about 1000 feet ; a tunnel has been made 

 through the rocks of 1730 feet in length, and at the end of this 

 is a reservoir, with a capacity of 1335 cubic metres. From 

 here the power conduit, 12 feet in diameter, has been blasted 

 almost vertically in the rock ; it ends in a chamber, from 

 whence two steel tubes, about 5 feet in diameter, lead to the 

 turbines. The tubes are for a length of no feet inserted in 

 the rock and laid in concrete. From each tube three outlets 

 lead the water to turbines, which are after the Portial Girard 

 system, and of 1000 horse-power each at 320 revolutions, the 

 consumption of water being i -4 cubic metre per second, with a 

 utilised fall of about 230 feet. The dynamos are direct-coupled 

 with the turbines, and generate currents of 10,000 and 3600 

 volts. The connection with Bozen has a length of twenty-two 

 miles, and the one to Meran of three miles. They are over- 

 head, supported by 33 -feet high poles, and with a tension of 

 respectively 10,000 and 3600 volts. On entering Meran the 

 current is conveyed through two cables to the distributing 

 station, from whence it, by means of underground high-tension 

 network, is conveyed to the transformers and reduced to 115 

 volts. The same is tlie case at Bozen, where the current, 

 however, first is reduced from 10,000 to 3600 volts. 



The formulae relating to recurring series have long been 

 studied, but there has always been a certain incompleteness 

 about their synthetic treatment. This want is now to a certain 

 extent supplied by a paper, communicated by Dr. Carlo Pietra- 

 cola to the Atti of the Naples Academy, of which a brief 

 abstract appears in their Rendiconto. Dr. Pietracola deals 

 with the part of the theory regarding the formal relations 



