May 6. 1897] 



NATURE 



15 



. iccasions. It is intended that the business of the Conference 

 should differ from the ordinary proceedings of the Institution, 

 ill that papers descriptive of works executed should give place 

 lo brief statements concerning important debatable matters in 

 engineering science and practice, introduced with a view to 

 elicit discussion on the questions raised. This Conference is 

 fixed for May 25, 26 and 27, the morning of each day (from 

 10.30 to 1.30) being devoted to the consideration of the abcjve 

 statements, and arrangements being made for inspections of 

 engineering woxks in the afternoon. The work of the Con- 

 ference will be carried out under the direction of the Council, 

 with the assistance of seven sectional committees, consisting of 

 members of the Institution, representative of various localities in 

 the United Kingdom, and identified with the several branches of 

 engineering. The sections and their chairmen are :— Railways : 

 Sir Benjamin Baker, K.C.M.G. Harbours, Docks, and Canals : 

 Mr. Harrison Hayter. Machinery and Transmission of Power : 

 Sir Frederick Bramwell, Bart. Mining and Metallurgy : Mr. 

 T. Forster Brown. Shipbuilding : Sir William H. White, 

 K.C.B. Waterworks, Sewerage, and Gasworks: Mr. 

 Mansergh ; [Applications of Electricity, Mr. Preece, C.B, 



English weather is as fruitful a subject for composition as 

 it is a theme for conversation. Like many other people, Mr, 

 C A. Whitmore, M.P., is a devoted student of our meteor- 

 ology, so that what he writes about it in the May number of the 

 National Review is worth reading. Weather fallacies have 

 been exposed times without number, but they are so deeply 

 rooted in the minds of the unscientific that it may be doubted 

 whether they will ever be completely eradicated. Mr. Whitmore 

 throws doubt upon the popular impression that the changes of 

 the moon synchronise with marked changes of weather. The 

 few facts he states as to weather and lunar phases since the 

 beginning of last summer, ought to convince people that their 

 faith in the influence of the moon is misplaced. Another very 

 common idea is that a heavy dew at night presages a fine day 

 on the morrow, whereas it only indicates that the sky is clear 

 and conditions are favourable for the deposition of dew. At 

 certain times of the year a heavy dew is a sign of unstable rather 

 than of stable weather. A luxuriant crop of berries in the 

 autumn is said to forebode a severe winter ; but the people 

 who believe this, forget, or do not know, that the berries tell 

 of conditions which have passed rather than of those to come. 

 The temperature, sunshine, rainfall, abundance of insects, and 

 other past causes which affect the birth and growth of plants, 

 decide whether the berries shall be few or many, and not the 

 future conditions. It is a beautiful sentiment to think that 

 many berries are provided to furnish food for birds in a hard 

 winter ; but, unfortunately, nature does not furnish facts to 

 support it. Having disposed of these and several more items 

 !)f weather-lore, Mr. Whitmore supplies meteorologists with a 

 few weather signs gained by his own observation and ex- 

 perience. 



TrtE International Aeronautical Committee of Paris and 

 Strassburg have proposed Thursday, May 13, at 3.30 a.m. local 

 time, for the third international balloon ascents. This early 

 hour of sending up unmanned balloons is proposed in order to 

 study the true temperature of the air during the first part of the 

 ascent ; while the influence of solar radiation will be from the 

 records obtained during the second part of the time. The 

 results of the experiments of November 14 and February 18, 

 showed that the thermometers were not sufficiently protected in 

 the horizontal part of the trajectory, in which the ventilation is 

 least active ; hence it has been deemed necessary to make an 

 important part of the ascent while the radiation of the sun is too 

 weak to have any serious influence upon the thermometric 

 results. 



NO. 1436, VOL. 56] 



Japan is usually regarded as the country of earthquakes ; 

 but, if we take area into account, it would seem that shocks are 

 still more numerous in Greece and the adjoining islands. Under 

 the able superintendence of Dr. S. A. Papavasiliou, a geodynamic 

 section of the Observatory of Athens was founded in 1893, 

 and, since the summer of 1895, the seisimc organisation of the 

 country has been actively at work. About a year ago, the 

 publication of monthly bulletins was commenced with the 

 number for January 1896, and the number for last December 

 has been issued recently. The notices are nearly always very 

 brief, and it is sometimes uncertain whether they refer to 

 different shocks, or to observations of the same shock at different 

 places. Making allowance for these cases, it would appear 

 that the total number of earthquakes felt in the kingdom during 

 1896 was 529, or very nearly l^ a day. Of this number, no" 

 fewer than 306 were recorded in the island of Zante alone. 



The property acquired by gases, after being traversed by electric 

 sparks, of cooling heated bodies as if the gases had become 

 better conductors of heat, forms the subject of a short note by 

 Prof. E. Villari {Kendiconti della R. Accademia di Napoli). The 

 phenomenon was observed by studying the action of different 

 gases on a platinum spiral heated to redness by the electric 

 current, the sparks being produced by a powerful coil reinforced 

 by large Leyden jars. In some cases, the apparent cooling 

 produced a fall of resistance of 10 per cent. Under similar 

 conditions, the effect was nearly the same for oxygen, nitrogen, 

 and air, but was much less marked in the case of hydrogen. It 

 increases with the energy of the sparks, and also, at first, with 

 the temperature of the spiral ; but after this exceeds a certain 

 limit, the refrigerating power decreases. Experiments made 

 with a similar apparatus, with a vieW of testing whether Rontgen 

 rays modify the thermal conductivity of the gases they traverse, 

 have as yet given negative results. 



Under the title of " Versuche Uber Hyperphosphorescenz," 

 Profs. Elster and Geitel publish an interesting note on the 

 invisible radiations from salts of uranium, discovered by 

 Becquerel. The authors confirm Becquerel's statements as to 

 the physical properties of these rays, and the fact, already 

 noted in these columns (vol. xxxv. p. 119), that the salts maybe 

 kept in the dark for months wfthout the radiation ceasing, so that 

 the source of radiant energy is at present unknown. Uranium 

 sulphate and sulphate of uranium and potassium are photo- 

 electrically inactive, and the radiation is not materially pro- 

 moted by sunlight. On the other hand, aluminium, zinc, 

 luminous paint, and fluor spar, when light falls on them, do 

 not, like these salts, emit dark radiations of sufficient intensity 

 to impart electrical conductivity to the surrounding air. The 

 conclusion is, that the present phenomena cannot be attributed 

 to hyperphosphorescence. Profs. Elster and Geitel's paper is 

 published in iheja/iresberichtdes Verciiisfiir Naturwissenschaft 

 zu Braunschweig, No. 10 (Brunswick, 1897). 



In a note in Nature (December 31, 1896, p. 206) attention 

 was drawn to an essay, by Prof. E. S. Morse, on problematical 

 bronze or iron objects found in Greek, Roman and Etruscan 

 tombs. Prof.. D. G. Brinton {Science, 1897, p. 614) identifies 

 the so-called " bow-puller " with the Greek myrmex (/^iSpMlf) 

 which, in pugilistic encounters, was strapped or chained on the 

 hand over the leathern cestus. 



The large number of interesting Romano-British objects found 

 in Thirst House Cave in Derbyshire, prove that this cave must 

 have been (occupied for a long period. It is unfortunate 

 that, as in so many other instances, this important cave should 

 not have been scientifically excavated. Casual cave-digging 

 cannot be too strongly deprecated, as caves afford most valuable 

 data for relative chronology, and it is a pity to have such 



