June 19, 1919] 



NATURE 



307 



The Hardstoft oil was struck at a depth of 

 3077 ft., and at the outset flowed into the bore 

 hole at the rate of about 350 ft. per day. Sir 

 Boverton Redwood's analysis is as follows : — 



A limpid oil of dark brown colour by trans- 

 mitted light, but exhibiting strongly marked 

 green fluorescence and of characteristic odour. 

 The oil contained only a trace of water, and 

 {X)ssessed the specific gravity of o"828 at 60° F. 



Flash point (Abel), 73" F. 



Distilling below 150" C. ; 4'5 per cent, by 

 volume. 



Distilling between i50°-300° C. ; 41*0 per cent. 

 by volume; sp. gr., 0783; and flash point, 105° F. 



Mr. Hackford's percentage analysis is as 

 follows : — 



Motor spirit, 75 Lubricating oils, 30"5 



Kerosene, 39-6 Paraffin wax, 3-0 



Gas oil, 200 Sulphur, o'26 



Specific gravity, o"823. 



Chemical characteristics: Paraffin base con- 

 taining naphthene. 



It is clear that the oil is of high grade, and if 

 the wells yield it in quantity the country will 

 possess an asset of inestimable value. 



During the past week the casing has been 

 fitted with a valve and a line to a receiving tank, 

 into which oil is flowing at about 400 gallons per 

 day. ^ No water at present has been found with 

 the oil. The 8^-in. casing is now at the bottom 

 of the hole, and drilling has been resumed. The 

 evidence so far indicates that a true oil rock has 

 been penetrated, and that the oil is neither a 

 filtrate nor has it migrated. Whether or not the 

 distribution of the oil is local and limited or ex- 

 tensive and in quantity time alone will show. 



Active work is in progress at Brimington, 

 where the hole is 2660 ft. deep, and at Renishaw, 

 ^yhere 2950 ft. have been penetrated. At any 

 time oil may be struck in these localities. 



Drilling may be expected shortly near Newark, 

 where, at Kelham, oil has previously been ob- 

 served, and a licence from the Ministry of Muni- 

 tions has been issued to the Oil Field of England, 

 Ltd. The Kelham show was a somewhat heavier 

 oil than that from Hardstoft, and on being topped 

 it yielded 91-4 per cent, of fuel oil. Provision is 

 being made to drill down to 4000 ft., the first 

 strike having been made at 2440 ft. in 191 1. 



In the Midlothian district Messrs. S. Pearson 

 and Sons, Ltd., are pushing on with the pre- 

 liminaries for drilling down to 4000 ft. through 

 the shale seams. Success in this project would 

 indicate a new lease of activity for the Scottish 

 shale industry. 



FATHER WALTER SIDGREAVES, S.J. 



PATHER WALTER SIDGREAVES, S.J., 

 -*- the director of the Stonyhurst College 

 Observatory, died, after a lingering last illness, 

 at Stonyhurst on June 12 in his eighty-second 

 year. He had been ailing and failing in strength 

 for the last six months, but with indomitable 

 NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 



courage he carried on the routine work of the 

 observatory to within a month of his death. 



Sidgreaves was born on October 4, 1837, the 

 second son of Edward Sidgreaves, of Grimsargh, 

 near Preston; he was educated at Stonyhurst, 

 entered the Society of Jesus in 1855, and was 

 ordained priest in 1871. He was for two periods 

 director of the observatory at Stonyhurst, first 

 during the years 1863-68, while the late Father 

 Perry was engaged in his theological studies, and 

 secondly, after the death of Father Perry in 1889, 

 on the total solar eclipse expedition at Salut Isles, 

 French Guiana. The acquisition and erection of 

 the equipment of the observatory, astronomical, 

 magnetic, meteorological, and seismological, is 

 almost entirely due to his efforts. In 1863 Sid- 

 greaves commenced the regular series of mag- 

 netic observations which has been carried on, 

 and in the last thirty years by himself, ever since 

 that date. His very last observation on May 3 

 was of the magnetic dip. In 1866 he installed 

 all the self-recording meteorological instruments, 

 and in the following year purchased an 8-in. 

 equatorial refractor. This instrument supplanted 

 the 4-in. refractor, which, however, had the dis- 

 tinction of having been the first telescope system- 

 atically used by the famous Father Secchi, when 

 he was an exile at Stonyhurst during the revo- 

 lutionary troubles in Italy in 1848. After the 

 death of Father Perry the equatorial was fitted 

 with a 15-in. object glass, the memorial sub- 

 scribed for by friends of Father Perry. 



Sidgreaves took part in four expeditions as 

 companion to his successor in office — in 1868-69, 

 when they made a magnetic survey of the west 

 and east of France, and in 1874 and 1882, when 

 they observed the transit of Venus across the 

 sun's disc at Kerguelen Island and in Madagas- 

 car. His chief papers communicated to the 

 memoirs and monthly notices of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society dealt with the subjects of solar 

 physics, and more particularly of stellar spectro- 

 scopy. In his memoir, " On the Connection 

 between Sun-spots and Earth-magnetic Storms " 

 he came to the conclusion that the effects 

 observed were attributable to clouds of 

 electrons circulating between the sun and the 

 earth. A long series of observations of the H 

 and K lines in the general light of the sun showed 

 that the sun approximated to the class of stars 

 which exhibit bright as well as dark lines in their 

 spectra. But Sidgreaves 's chief researches dealt 

 with stellar spectroscopy, and with the instru- 

 ments which he devised he took a whole series 

 of remarkably fine spectra of the brighter stars. 

 His published papers are concerned more par- 

 ticularly with the spectra of o Ceti, y Cassiopeiae, 

 and fi Lyrae, and with the Novae of 1892 and 

 1901. He was as an observer most painstaking, 

 methodical, and accurate, and sceptical of all 

 results that could not be thoroughly, substantiated. 

 He had all the dogged grit and perseverance of 

 the typical Lancashire character. Being afflicted 

 with deafness, particularly so in his later years, 

 he avoided public appearances ; but his lecture 



