June 28, 1917] 



NATURE 



349 



The Bulletin is sent out to all botanic and agricul- 

 tural departments in correspondence with Kew, and 

 much of its contents is usually reprinted in local 

 journals. It affords the best evidence of the many 

 activities of the Royal Gardens, in advising upon the 

 possible development of the natural resources of our 

 Colonies and Dependencies. Almost every issue con- 

 tains a number of plain statements of attempts made 

 to introduce new and commercially profitable plants in 

 suitable districts, of improved methods of cultivation, 

 and df work that men trained at Kew are doing in 

 the various parts of the world to which they have 

 gone from the Royal Gardens. By suspending the 

 publication of the Bulletin, the link connecting Kew 

 with the whole of the botanic stations of the Empire 

 is broken, and the means of communicating informa- 

 tion to them all is removed at a time when the in- 

 formation afforded is no less valuable than in pre-war 

 periods. 



Without knowledge of the functions fulfilled by the 

 Bulletin, and an intimate acquaintance with what it 

 has accomplished in providing information not access- 

 ible in any other form in regard to the capabilities of 

 the various parts of the Empire for the cultivation of 

 plants of economic importance, no Government official 

 is capable of deciding justly whether the Bulletin is 

 an essential publication or "not. The British Science 

 Guild urges, therefore, in the interests of Imperial 

 development, that the decision be submitted to a com- 

 petent tribunal, which will take into consideration, not 

 onlv the shortage of paper, but also the value of what 

 is printed upon it. It is confident that the result of 

 such an inquiry would be a judgment in favour of the 

 continued publication of the Bulletin. 



Sydenham (President, British Science Guild). 



Norman Lockyer (Chairman of Committees). 



Bov'ERTON Redwood (Deputy-Chairman, Execu- 

 tive Committee). 



WM P. BEALeI ,y;^^.p^g5Jdg„ts) 



W. Mather J ^ 



Hugh Beli. (Vice-Chairmm of Committees). 



John Cockburn. 



JVvEBURY (Hon. Treasurer). 



Alex. Pedler (Hon. Secretary). 



W. H. Cowan 



R. A. Gregory 



A. Liversidge 



W. A. J. O'Meara 



F. MoLLWo Perkin 



John Perry 



Ronald Ross 



A. A. C'. SWINTON 



''ARAB ! D Shaw 

 Carmichael Thomas 



R. MULLINEUX WaLMSLEY 



Howard S. Willson 

 J. S. Young 



PROF. KR. BIRKELAND. 



WE regret to learn from the Morning Post that 

 Prof. Kr. Birkeland, ofChristiania, died in 

 Tokyo on June i8. He was one of the few specu- 

 lative physicists of the dav the value of whose 

 work would be generally admitted in commercial 

 circles. He w^as the co-inventor with Mr. Sam 

 Eyde of the Birkeland-Eyde direct process 

 for the manufacture of calcium nitrate by the ex- 

 traction of nitrogen from the atmosphere. In the 

 Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, May, 1912, 

 Mr. E. Kilburn Scott records how, starting with 

 a 25-h.p. experimental plant in 1903, the company 



NO. 2487, VOL. 99] 



(Other members of the 

 Executive Committee). 



controlling- the Birkeland-Eyde patents had 

 200,000 h.p. at work in 191 2, and was likely to 

 add a further 300,000 h.p. before the end of 1916. 

 This was by no means the only successful patent 

 in which Prof. Birkeland was interested. 



As a theorist Prof. Birkeland was extra- 

 ordinarily bold in his speculations. He had 

 theories on the internal constitution of the sun and 

 the nature of sunspots, on the sun as a magnet and 

 as a source of electricity, on the origin of the 

 planets and their satellites, on the nature of vajious 

 celestial phenomena, especially the zodiacal light, 

 on the production of aurora and magnetic storms, 

 and on the past geological histor\- of the earth. 

 The wealth acquired by his practical gifts enabled 

 Prof. Birkeland to experiment and arrange for 

 solar and magnetic observations on a large scale. 

 He made many striking exp>eriments with an artifi- 

 cially magnetised terella in a high vacuum, direct- 

 ing towards it electrical discharges, intended to 

 represent the discharge of corpuscles from the sun. 

 In some of his experiments the vacuum chamber 

 had a capacity of 70 litres, and the supply of elec- 

 trical energy required a 6-h.p. engine. He 

 obtained phenomena closely resembling various 

 forms of aurora, which he believed to represent 

 the conditions under which magnetic storms ap- 

 pear on the earth. 



Prof. Birkeland was largely responsible for the 

 institution of special magnetic observatories in 

 Arctic regions in 1900, in 1902-3, and again dur- 

 ing the last few years. His two large volumes in 

 English, "The Nonvegian Aurora Polaris Expedi- 

 tion, 1902-3," besides much speculation as to the 

 causes of magnetic storms, contain much impor- 

 tant information as to the simultaneous progress 

 of magnetic disturbance at different parts of the 

 earth. Since 1910 he had lived a good deal abroad 

 for observational purposes, and numerous com- 

 munications to the Comptes rendus of the French 

 Academy of Sciences describe his various conclu- 

 sions and speculations. In one dated July, 1914, he 

 expressed his intention of devoting the next three 

 years to the study of the Zodiacal light in Natal, at 

 Helwan, and in Uganda, and he was working in 

 Egypt in 191 5 and 1916. Presumably the con- 

 tinuation of his quest had taken him to the Far 

 East. At the time of his death Prof. Birkeland 

 was only about fifty years of age ; but when last in 

 England, in 1913,' he had aged considerably in 

 appearance and become very deaf. He was, how- 

 ever, as animated as ever when discussing his 

 theories. 



C. Chree. 



NOTES. 



On June 20 Lord Montagu of Beaulieu gave an 

 interesting lecture before the Aeronautical Society of 

 Great Britain on the wo-ld's air routes and their regu- 

 lation. He pointed out how favourably placed the 

 British Empire was in this matter, inasmuch as its 

 many possessions were so scattered about the globe 

 tha<- suitable landing and halting places could be pro- 

 vided without the necessity of asking for concessions 

 from other nations. Lord Montagu based his calcu- 

 lations upon an assumed speed of 120 miles an hour. 



