214 



NATURE 



[May io, 19 17 



culties met with, first in locating, and afterwards in 

 drilling, oil-wells, the latter having been to some ex- 

 tent overcome by the use of the American rotary drill. 

 The petroleum occurs in Assam in intermittent deposits, 

 situated in loose sands; 'the gas pressure is very high, 

 and the oil when first struck gushes out with much 

 violence ; the wells do not produce any very great 

 quantities, but ke^p up a reasonably steady flow for 

 considerable periods. The crude oil is very dark, and 

 has a density of 085^ ; it is distilled in the ordinary 

 way in continuous boiler stills, the products bemg 

 crude benzene, intermediate kerosene, ordinary kero- 

 sene, and a residue which is distilled to dryness in 

 pot-stills. These latter produce "batching" oil, used 

 for softening jute fibre ; some lubricating and other 

 heavy oils ; a large proportion of paraffin wax, this 

 being a hard wax with a melting point of 135° to 

 140° F. ; and a coke, which is nearly pure carbon. The 

 kerosenes supply the local demand, and are shipped 

 also to Bengal, whilst the paraffin wax finds a market 

 in all parts of the world. 



Engineering for April 27 contains an interesting 

 account, with illustrations, of a new machine-gun shop 

 belonging to Messrs. Vickers. This shop had to be 

 erected, equipped, and started up with great rapidity 

 in order to meet the demands of our forces at the 

 front. The floor area is nearly 25 acres, accommo- 

 dating more than 1000 machines of specialised type, 

 driven by electric power transmitted through 6000 ft. 

 of line shafting and 40,000 ft. of machine belting, and 

 yet actual manufacturing work was started within 

 three calendar months of the date when the ground 

 — a potato field — was first taken possession of, while 

 in two months more the factory was in complete work- 

 ing order, and a steady supply of machine-guns was 

 being dispatched to the front. More satisfactory 

 still, the whole of the machining work in tTTe manu- 

 facture of these machine-guns — one of the most intri- 

 cate units of mechanical production— is carried out by 

 women workers. In connection with this, it is of 

 interest to note that many of our women workers have 

 now got beyond the mere operation of automatic and 

 semi-automatic machine tools, and are being trusted 

 with work and machines formerly operated by skilled 

 machine hands. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



A New Comet (Schaumasse). — The second new 

 comet of this year was discovered at the Nice Observa- 

 tory on April 25 by M. Schaumasse. The magnitude 

 at the time of discovery was gc. and the comet is 

 said to be increasing in brightness. A Copenhagen 

 telegram announces that on April 27 the comet was 

 observed at the Lick Observatory by Mr. Shane, its 

 position at i6h. im. 3s., Lick Mean Time, being 

 R.A. 23h. 7m, 40s., decl. -f 11° 36' :;7''. According to 

 the Times of May 9, the following positions for Green- 

 wich midnight have been calculated by J. Braae and 

 J. Fischer-Petersen, Copenhagen : — 



C6MET 1917a (Mellish). — ^The following continued 

 ephemeris for Greenwich midnight has been received 

 from J. Fi.scher-Petersen, Copenhagen : — 



NO. 2480, VOL. 99] 



1917 R..\. Decl 



h. m. s. c ' , 



May 11 I 26 3 —10 31-0 



13 29 45 10 54-6 



15 33 20 II 170 



17 36 48 II 385 



19 40 9 II 593 



21 43 23 12 196 



23 46 30 12 39-6 



25 49 31 12 594 



27 52 26 13 192 



29 55 15 13 390 



31 I 57 57 13 589 



June 2 2 o 33 14 190 



4 234 - 14 39-3 

 Comet 1916b (Wolf). — The following is a conlinua- 

 tion of Prof. Crawford's ephemeris for Greenwich 



midnight, as given in the Lick Observatory Bulletin 

 No. 289 : — 



1917 



May 10 

 II 

 12 

 13 

 14 

 15 

 16 



17 

 18 



19 

 20 

 21 

 22 

 23 

 24 

 25 

 26 



27 

 28 



29 



30 



31 



June I 



R.A. 



h. 

 20 

 20 

 21 



55 38 



58 4 



o 29 



2 54 



5 19 



7 43 



10 7 



12 31 



H 54 



17 17 



19 39 

 22 I 



24 23 

 26 44 



29 5 

 31 26 



33 46 

 36 5 

 3824 

 40 42 

 43 o 

 45 17 

 21 47 34 



+ 15 5-7 

 21-9 

 38-1 



15 54-2 



1 6 loi 



25-9 

 416 



16 57-2 



17 12-6 



27-9 



431 

 17 58-1 



18 129 



27-5 

 41-9 



18 56-1 



19 IO-2 

 24-1 



37-7 



19 511 



20 4-3 

 17-3 



^-2o 30-0 



L0..J A 

 0-1646 



0-1599 



0-1553 

 0-1507 

 0-1462 

 0-1418 



01374 

 0-1330 

 0-1287 

 0-1245 

 0-1203 

 O-I162 



Bright- 

 ness 



363 



3-85 



4-06 



4-28 



4-49 



471 



The Aquarids of Halley's Comet. — These meteors 

 were perseveringly awaited on the mornings between 

 about April 28 and May 7 by a number of observers, 

 including Miss A. G. Cook, Mrs. F. Wilson, the Rev. 

 J. C. W. Herschel, Mr. T. Hargreaves, Miss T. E. 

 Gall, Mr. W. F. Denning, and others. The results 

 were somewhat disappointing, though the weather 

 proved favourable on the whole. Very few meteors of 

 the Aquarid shower were seen. On May i, at i4h., a 

 fireball directed from a radiant at 50° -1-71" was re- 

 corded by Mrs. Wilson and Miss Gall, at Totteridge, 

 and Miss Cook, at Stowmarket. It fell from a height 

 of sixty-three to thTty-eight miles over the Channel, 

 between Boulogne and Sussex. Another fireball was 

 seen on the morning of May 7 from Totteridge, and 

 this proved an Aquarid. From the collected observa- 

 tions it appears that the shower, though unusually 

 scanty in numbers, was visible over the nine morning's 

 from April 28 to May 7. 



OSMOTIC PRESSURE. 

 'T'HE theory that osmotic pressure is due to bom- 

 -»■ bardment of the walls of the containing vessel by 

 the particles of solute has met with considerable criti- 

 cism, both from the chemical and physical sides 

 (compare, e.g., van Laar, Proc. Amsterdam Academy, 

 vol. xvii., p. 1241 ; vol. xviii., p. 184; abstracted in 

 Nature, March 16, 19 16). However, at the discussion 

 on osmotic pressure before the Faraday Society on 

 May I, with Sir Oliver Lodge in the chair, the kinetic 



