.^.26 



NATURE 



[February 4, 1892 



and later on, when the true nature of the object was recognized, 

 to Kiel for general distribution. The star was photographed 

 last night at Greenwich. 



Its place for 1892*0 is 5h. 25m. 3s. + 30° 21'. It does not 

 occur in the Bonn Maps. Ralph Copeland. 



Observations of Mars. — Publikationen des Astrophysikal- 

 ischen Observatoriums zu Potsdam, No. 28, contains the results 

 of some observations of Mars, made by Dr. Lohse during the 

 oppositions of 1883-84, 1886, and 1888. A series of measure- 

 ments of the position-angle of the northern snow-cap has been 

 made with the idea of accurately determining the direction of 

 the polar axis of the planet. On February 8, 1884, the mean 

 value obtained differed from Dr. Marth's ephemeris by o°"2i6, 

 being identical with that deduced from the corrected elements of 

 the axis employed after 1884. In 1888 the distance of the centre of 

 the northern snow-cap from the Pole was found to be 2° "39, and 

 the mean correction of position-angle o°'896. Reproductions of 

 thirty-six sketches of Mars made in 1884 and 1886 accompany 

 the paper. These show the principal markings, but not the 

 canals and minute details seen by that perspicacious astronomer 

 SchiaparelH, although the instrument used was an ii-inch re- 

 fractor. The sketches are combined to form a map, on which 

 the position determined with special accuracy is indicated. 



At the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter, in October 1883, a 

 determination was made of the comparative intensities of the 

 actinic rays emitted by the two planets. A series of photo- 

 graphs of these bodies was taken with exposures varying from 

 one to twelve seconds, and these were compared with a scale 

 derived from a series taken with an artificial source of light at 

 various distances, and another derived from Vega. The actinic 

 intensity of Jupiter's southern hemisphere was found to be 

 2 •176 times greater than that of the Martian surface, which, 

 when the distances of the two planets from the sun are taken 

 into account, gives 24*4 : i as the relative albedos. The ratio 

 of the amount of light emitted by the southern hemisphere 

 of Jupiter to that emitted by the northern hemisphere was 

 incidentally found to be as I'I92:0'597. 



Solar Prominence Photography. — Some interesting 

 recent results in the photography of solar prominences are stated 

 by Prof G. E. Hale in the first nwvahQX o{ Astronomy and Astro- 

 Physics. In the first place, the line a little less refrangible than 

 H, which Prof Hale suggested was probably due to hydrogen, 

 has been proved by M. Deslandres to have its origin in this 

 element, by direct comparison with a Geissler tube. Prof. 

 Young has also succeeded in photographing this line, which was 

 first visually observed by him in 1880. With regard to the line 

 at A 388873, which forms a double with the hydrogen line 

 a (A 388914) of the stellar series, Prof. Young has not found the 

 duplicity which very o''ten distinguishes the Kenwood Observatory 

 photographs. The hydrogen line o occurs on eighteen plates, 

 but it is only certainly >ingle on two of them. And it is a sig- 

 nificant fact that in one of these cases only the upper part of 

 the prominence lines was photographed, the light from a short 

 distance above the sun's limb being cut off by a diaphragm. 

 There seems little doubt that the line is a true one, and not a 

 false appearance brought about by the reversal of the hydrogen 

 line on account of which it is apparently duplicated. Its origin, 

 however, is unknown. Prof. Hale thinks that both H and K 

 in prominences are due to calcium, the absence of the strong 

 line at A 4226-3 being said to follow from its different appear- 

 ance and behaviour in the arc, as compared with H and K. By 

 a remarkable coincidence an eruption on July 9, 1891, was 

 simultaneously photographed at Kenwood Observatory and ; 

 visually observed by Herr Fenyi at Kalosca, Hungary. Copies \ 

 are given of the drawing and photograph, and the general agree- ' 

 ment in the form of the prominence is very striking. I 



Re-discovery of Brooks's Comet (i8go II.).— A tele- j 

 gram from M. Perrotin to Prof Krueger announces that j 

 Brooks's comet was found by M. Javelle, of Nice Observatory, 

 on January 6 {Astr. Nach. 3074). 



ELECTROTECHNICS} 

 T BEG to thank yon for the great honour you have done me in 

 -•■ electing me your President for this year — a year which the 

 need for a new complete index of this Society's Journal marks 



I Inaugural Address of Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., President of th 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers, delivered on January 28, 1892. ^ 



NO. 1162. VOL. 45I 



out as closing the second decade of its life ; a year which sees 

 the second thousand added to our roll of members ; and a year 

 which the Electrical Exhibition at the Crystal Palace distin- 

 guishes as inaugurating the second decade of electric lighting in 

 Great Britain. 



It has gradually become the custom for your incoming Pre- 

 sident to select, as the subject of his address, some investigation 

 that has been engaging his attention. Following this custom, I 

 purpose to-night to discuss an experiment in which, for the last 

 nineteen years, I have taken some part — an experiment which, 

 of all others, has been the one I have had most at heart — and 

 that is, how best to train the young electrical engineer. 



To some it may appear that I am treading on well-worn 

 ground ; but as the problem is one that is as yet by no means 

 solved, and as it involves the preparation of the machine that is 

 daily used alike by the dynamo constructor, the cable manu- 

 facturer, the central station engineer, and the lamp maker — 

 viz. the human machine — the problem of fashioning this tool so 

 that it may possess sharpness, an even temper, moral stiength, 

 and a mental grain capable of taking a high polish, is one that, 

 in truth, deeply concerns every member, every associate, every 

 student of this Society. 



It is only fifteen years ago since I wrote from Japan to my old 

 and valued master. Dr. Hirst, then the Principal of the Royal 

 Naval College, Greenwich, asking whether he thought that the 

 time had come for starting in this country a course of appHed 

 physics somewhat on the lines of that given at the Imperial 

 College of Engineering in Japan. He replied that England 

 was not yet ripe for such an innovation — an opinion which 

 appeared to be borne out by the fact that after the authorities at 

 University College, London, had in 1878 actually advertised for 

 applications for a new chair of " Technology," they decided that 

 it would be premature to take the responsibility of creating such 

 a Professorship. 



But matters were advancing more rapidly than was imagined 

 by collegiate bodies ; for in that same year this most valuable 

 report on technical education which I hold in my hand was 

 issued by a Committee of the Livery Companies of London, 

 based on the opinions expressed by Sir W. (now Lord) Arm- 

 strong, Mr. G. C. T. Birtley, Colonel (now General) Donelly, 

 Captain (now Sir Douglas) Galton, Prof. Huxley, and Mr. (now 

 Sir H, Truman) Wood. And although it is twelve years since 

 this book was published, I can recommend it to your notice, 

 for it supplies most interesting reading even at the present 

 day. 



Under the guidance of three joint honorary secretaries, Mr. 

 John Watney, Mr. Sawyer, and Mr. (now Sir Owen) Roberts, the 

 City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of 

 Technical Education started, with a name that was very [long, 

 but in a way that was very modest, to develop a " Trades 

 School " in accordance with this report. They borrowed some 

 rooms, but for use in the evening only, from the Middle Class 

 Schools in Cowper Street, Finsbury, and decided to erect 

 ultimately a chemical laboratory in that neighbourhood. 



But neither the building of a physical nor even of a mechani- 

 cal laboratory formed any part of the scheme for this " Local 

 Trades School." For at that time the teaching of the applications 

 of physics to industry hardly existed, and certainly not its appli- 

 cation to any electrical industry other than telegraphy. To 

 make a start, however, in such teaching was most desirable, and 

 therefore Dr. Wormell, the enlightened head master of the 

 Cowper Street Schools, consented to give up the use of some 

 rooms not merely during the evening, but also during the day, 

 to enable Dr. Armstrong and myself to carry out our plan of 

 fitting up students' laboratories with a small amount of apparatus 

 kept permanently ready in position. 



For the devotion of these rooms to the carrying out of this 

 new experiment we must always feel grateful to Dr. Wormell, 

 for it was necessarily accompanied by a reduction in the size of 

 his school, and consequently by a pecuniary loss to himself. 



The first laboratory course of the City and Guilds Institute 

 was then advertised, and on January 9, 1880, three students 

 presented themselves — a little boy, a gray-haired lame man, 

 and a middle-aged workman with emphatic but hazy notions 

 about the electric fluid. 



In order to further utilize these rooms, the Institute sanctioned 

 laboratory teaching during the day, and one of the cellars of the 

 Cowper Street Schools was borrowed in order to fit up a gas- 

 engine, coned shafting, and a transmission dynamometer, ob- 

 tained out of the funds of the Institute ; an A Gramme dynamo 



