March 24, 1910] 



NA TURE 



103 



By the death of Prof. J. Edmund Wright, of Bryn Mawr 

 College, a young mathematician of great promise has been 

 lost. Prof. Wright graduated at Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, being senior wrangler in 1900, subsequently taking 

 a first in " part two " and obtaining a Smith's prize. He 

 was in 1903 appointed associate professor in Brjn Mawr 

 College, in succession to Prof. Harkness. He was the 

 author of a " Cambridge Tract " on " Invariants of Quad- 

 ratic Differential Forms," and he also wrote on theory of 

 groups, differential geometry- of space, and Abelian func- 

 tions. 



Sir Frederick Mappin, Bart., whose death at the age 

 of eighty-nine years took place on March 19, was an active 

 friend of higher education in Sheffield. He took a very 

 prominent part in founding the Sheffield Technical School, 

 which later formed an important part of the University 

 College, and is now merged in the University of Sheffield. 

 He contributed generously towards the support of these 

 institutions, and at the time of the foundation of the 

 University gave 15,000/. to its fund. He was one of the 

 Erst two Pro-Chancellors of the Universit>-, and was also 

 chairman of its department of applied science. 



A.N International Hygiene Exhibition is to be held in 

 Dresden next year. At a meeting of members of the 

 British executive committee of the exhibition, held on 

 March 16 at the Hotel Cecil, Prof. Pannwitz, the deputed 

 representative of the scientific department, delivered an 

 address. He explained the aims and objects of the 

 exhibition, the support which is being extended by the 

 German Imperial and State Governments, the efforts which 

 many civilised countries are making to secure an effective 

 representation, and he concluded by expressing his full 

 confidence that the British representation will be in every 

 respect worthy of the country which is the acknowledged 

 birthplace of sanitary science. Offices are to be opened 

 in Victoria Street, S.W., for the accommodation of the 

 British executive and for the general working of the 

 undertaking in this country. 



The sixty-third annual meeting of the Palaeontographical 

 Society was held at Burlington House on Friday, March 18, 

 Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., president, in the chair. 

 The report of the council referred to the progress of the 

 monographs on Pleistocene Mammalia, Cretaceous and 

 Carboniferous fishes, and Cretaceous Lamellibranchia, and 

 recorded the gift of a series of plates of Carboniferous 

 fishes by the Carnegie Trust for the universities of Scot- 

 land. It lamented the death of two members of council 

 during the past year, the Rev. G. F. Whidborne and Mr. 

 C. Fox-Strangways. Miss M. S. Johnston, the Rev. R. 

 Ashington BuUen, Dr. F. L. Kitchin, and Mr. A. W. Oke 

 were elected new members of council. Dr. Henrv Wood- 

 ward, Dr. G. J. Hinde, and Dr. A. Smith Woodward 

 were re-elected president, treasurer, and secretary re- 

 spectively. 



Fro.M the Deutsche Zeitschrift fiir Luftschifjahrt we 

 learn with deep regret of the death of the founder and 

 editor of that journal, Lieut. -General H. W. L. Moedebeck. 

 The name of Moedebeck figures prominently" in the annals 

 of German aeronautics, and even the published records 

 which reach this country afford evidence of the powerful 

 influence of his personality in stimulating aeronautical 

 enterprise. He is described as a man possessing ideas, not 

 only for the requirements of the day, but for developments 

 of the future. Before airships were thought of he devised 

 methods of preventing explosions in motors, and his geo- 

 graphical surveys were also initiated, in the face of con- 

 NO. 2108, VOL. Sz] 



siderable opposition, before the demand for them had arisen 

 in connection with aerial navigation. In 1884 he was first 

 appointed by the German Government to develop the 

 balloon for military purposes. He has published a hand- 

 book and a pocket-book of aeronautics, of which the latter 

 is now well known in this country. His works on " Air- 

 ships : their Past and Future," and on flying men, have 

 done much to popularise aeronautics ; but perhaps the two 

 things which stand out most prominently as his life-work 

 have been the Deutsche Zeitschrift and the aeronautical 

 map brought out in connection with the above-mentioned 

 survey. The part which Moedebeck played in developing 

 the " Zeppelin movement," especially at a time when the 

 Count had few supporters, is also w^orthy of note. 



Nearly thirty years ago, the sanction of Parliament was 

 given to a scheme to obtain an adequate water supply for 

 Liverpool from the Welsh hills. This undertaking was 

 completed on March 16, when the Prince of Wales visited 

 Lake Vyrnwy and turned on into the great artificial lake 

 there the water collected from the Marchnant River. The 

 complete scheme for the water supply of Liverpool out- 

 lined by Messrs. G. F. Deacon and T. Hawksley com- 

 prised the impounding of the rivers Vyrnwy, Marchnant, 

 and Afon Cownwy. The two latter are higher than the 

 former, and the work in connection with them was carried 

 out after the Vyrnwy scheme was finished. In the cases 

 of Afon Cownwy and Marchnant the rivers were dammed, 

 and tunnels cut through the intervening hills so that the 

 impounded water could empty itself into the Vyrnwy. 

 The Afon Cownwy tunnel was 7 feet in diameter and 

 6723 feet in length, and the Marchnant tunnel 7 feet in 

 diameter and 7345 feet in length, and it was at the latter 

 one that the Prince of Wales opened the valve which 

 allowed the water to flow through the tunnel into the 

 Vyrnwy lake, thus completing the whole scheme. The 

 completed scheme as it now stands has a gathering ground 

 of 22,742 acres, and the capacity of Vyrnwy lake is 12,131 

 million gallons ; its greatest depth is 84 feet ; the area of 

 its surface is 1121 acres, and its length 4I miles. The 

 surface-level of the lake above the sea is 825-89 feet 

 Ordnance datum, and the level of the highest point in the 

 watershed is 2050 feet Ordnance datum. The water 

 engineer of Liverpool, Mr. Joseph Parry, has been entirely 

 responsible for the work in connection with the Marchnant 

 and Afon Cownwy rivers. 



The last Bulletin, that for March 10, of the Institution 

 of Mining and Metallurgy contains the annual report of 

 the council, which deals with the work of the year 1909. 

 The gold medal of the institution has been awarded to 

 Prof. William Gowland, F.R.S., in recognition of his 

 services in the advancement of metallurgical science and 

 education during a long and distinguished career. " The 

 Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Ltd.," gold 

 medal has been awarded to Mr. W. A. Caldecott, in recog- 

 nition of his work in the investigation of methods of 

 reduction and treatment of gold ores and of his contribu- 

 tions to the literature of the subject. " The Consolidated 

 Gold Fields of South Africa, Ltd.," premium of forty 

 guineas has been awarded conjointly to Messrs. C. O. 

 Bannister and W. N. Stanley, for their work in the 

 investigation of the thermal properties of cupels and for 

 their joint paper on " Cupellation Experiments — the 

 Thermal Properties of Cupels." Four post-graduate 

 scholarships, each of 50Z. in value, have been awarded. 

 The total membership of the institution at the end of the 

 year under review was 1902, which represents an actual 

 increase of 277 in two years. 



