370 



NATURE 



[July io, 19 19 



great weight of fuel carried. Atmospheric dis- 

 turbances were great at the mouth of the Clyde, 

 near high hills. The weather was cloudy during 

 the whole crossing, and only occasional glimpses 

 of the sea were obtained to estimate the drift of 

 the airship. Near Newfoundland the weather was 

 very bad, and two electric storms were encoun- 

 tered, during which the wind varied rapidly from 

 10 to 50 miles an hour, and the airship was so 

 tossed about that the crew gave her up for lost. 

 It was after this trying period that Major Scott 

 wirelessed for help, saying that his petrol was 

 running short. Two destroyers were at once sent 

 to render assistance, but Major Scott decided to 

 attempt the completion of the journey under the 

 airship's own power. His decision proved a wise 

 one, and the great airship safely reached her 

 mooring-ground m Long Island, but with only 

 sufficient petrol remaining for a further ninety 

 mxinutes' flight. The voyage was a very trying 

 one for all concerned, and none of the crew had 

 more than a few hours' sleep durin^^T the crossing. 

 The commander and crew are to be heartily 

 congratulated on their great feat, and we can but 

 admire the splendid pluck with which they carried 

 on in the face of such great difficulties.. It is 

 obvious tliat in fair weather the R 34 would make 

 the crossing with perfect ease, but it is also clear 

 that we have a long way to go before the com- 

 mercial use of trans-Atlantic airships is a reason- 

 able proposition. The time taken when adverse 

 winds are met is not very much less than that 

 occupied by the fastest liners, while the useful 

 weight which can be at present carried is ex- 

 tremely small. It is likely that larger airships will 

 overcome the latter difficulty, since the gross lift 

 of an airship varies as the cube of its length, j 

 while the power required for a given speed varies 

 as the square. It follows that the larger ship 

 has the greater percentage of its total lift avail- 

 able for useful merchandise. The great endur- 

 ance of the airship is well brought out by the 

 present flight, for it is almost certain that no 

 existing aeroplane could have made the crossing 

 under the same conditions. It is scarcely fair to 

 attempt to form general conclusions as to the 

 future of the airship from a pioneer flight made 

 in circumstances of exceptional difficulty, and it 

 would be wiser to wait until the feat has been 

 repeated several times, when the possibilities of 

 a commercial service and the directions in which 

 improvement is to be sought should become 

 apparent. 



NOTES. 



In reply to a question in the House of Commons 

 on July 8, Mr. Cecil Harmsworth stated that the 

 appointment of Major C. E. Mendenhall, professor 

 of physics in the University of Wisconsin, as Scientific 

 Attach^ to the United States Embassy has been 

 notified to the Foreign Office by the United States 

 Ambassador. No steps have as yet been taken bv his 

 Majesty's Government to appoint a Scientific Attache 

 to Washington. We believe the appointment of Prof. 

 Mendenhall was a war measure, and that it has vet 

 NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 



to be decided whether the post will be made per- 

 manent now that peace has been restored. It would 

 be a progressive act on the part of our own Grovern- 

 ment to appoint Scientific Attaches to our chief 

 Embassies. 



Mr. J. W. Simpson, corresponding member of the 

 Institute of France, has been elected president of the 

 Roval Institute of British Architects in succession to 

 Mr'. H. T. Hare. 



The Animals (Anaesthetics) Bill, which would make 

 it an offence to perform certain operations on horses,, 

 dogs, cats, and bovines without the use of anaesthetics, 

 was read a second time in the House of Lords on 

 July 7, and was referred to a Select Committee. 



Mr. E. S. Goodrich, Aldrichian demonstrator of 

 comparative anatomy in the University of Oxford, 

 has been elected membre-correspondant of the Soci^t6 

 de Biologie of Paris, and also associe of the Acad6mie 

 Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts 

 de Belgique. 



Two John Foulerton studentships for original re- 

 search of medicine, the improvement of the treatment 

 of disease, and the relief of human suffering will 

 shortly be awarded b}' the Royal Society. The 

 studentships are each of the annual value of 400Z. and 

 tenable for three years, with, the possible extension to 

 not m.ore than six years. Thev are open to men or 

 women. Further particulars and forms of applica- 

 tion may be obtained from the Assistant Secretary of 

 the Royal Society, Burlington House, W.i. 



The John Fritz medal of the four national societies 

 of civil, mining, mechanical, and electrical engineer- 

 ing has been awarded, says Science, to Major-Gien. 

 George W. Kjoethals for his achievement in the build- 

 ing of the Panama Canal. The presentation was 

 made on May 22 by Ambrose Swasey, past president 

 of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 

 Among those to whom the medal has been awarded 

 in former years are : — Lord Kelvin, for his work in 

 cable telegraphy ; Alexander Graham Bell, for the 

 invention of the telephone ; George Westinghouse, for 

 the invention of the air-brake ; Thomas A. Edison, 

 for the invention of the duplex and quadruplex tele- 

 graph and other devices ; and Sir William H. White, 

 for achievements in naval architecture. 



Having held its meetings at Taunton during the 

 period of the war, the Somersetshire Archaeological 

 and Natural History Society had hoped to hold' its 

 seventv-first annual meeting and excursions aw-ay 

 from headquarters, but this has been found impossible 

 owing to the difficulty of hotel accommodation. How- 

 ever, long excursions will be taken into Devon on 

 this occasion, viz. to Hembury Fort, Cadhay House 

 (1545-87), and Ottery St. Mary Church on July 30, 

 and tO' Exeter on July 31. The annual meeting will 

 be held at Taunton on July 29 under the presidency 

 of Mr. Henrv Balfour, curator of the Pitt Rivers 

 Museum at Oxford, and past-president of the Royal 

 Anthropological Institute. The subject of his presi- 

 dential address will be "The Doctrines of General Pitt 

 Rivers and their Influence." The outgoing president 

 is Dr. F. J. Haverfield, who addressed the society 

 last year on " The Character of the Roman Empire 

 as Seen in West Somerset.'" The society now con- 

 sists of between 900 and 1000 members, and owns a 

 large librarv and the Somerset County Museum at 

 Taunton Castle. 



By the death, at the age of seventy-two, of Sir 

 William Macgregor, G.C.M.G., the Empire has lost 

 a great Colonial Governor and science an ethnologist 



