June 7, 1900] 



NATURE 



35 



locusts everywhere. I send you a sample ; you will notice they 

 are full of worms, and we know from experience than when 

 locusts are found in this state whole swarms die off. Some, you 

 will see, are half eaten ; these were eaten by their fellows. I 

 have seen many clusters of locusts eating dead ones." The 

 feeding upon bodies of dead locusts suggests that diseased locusts 

 may be utilised as a substitute for locust fungus. Tests are being 

 made to determine whether a preparation from diseased dead 

 locusts will infect a swarm in the same way as locust fungus 

 made in the Government laboratory. 



In a paper on " The Standardisation of Electrical Engineer- 

 ing Plant," published in the Journal of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers, Mr. R. Percy Sellon arrives at the follow- 

 ing general conclusions : — (a) Standardisation to a greater 

 degree than at present exists is in the interest of the manufac- 

 turer, as a means of facilitating repetition and production, and of 

 meeting the competition of standardising foreign manufacturers. 

 ((^) Standardisation of "ends" or "performance" as distinct 

 £rom "means" or "constructional details" is equally in the 

 interest of the user, by securing for him low purchase cost, 

 prompt delivery, freedom from the risks of experimental designs, 

 and full manufacturers' guarantees. (<) The relative absence of 

 standardisation in Great Britain, in contrast with other 

 countries, is mainly traceable to the prevailing system wherein 

 the user's engineer specifies "means" or "constructional" 

 details instead of confining himself to "ends" or "perform- 

 ance." {d) The determination of standards by organised effort 

 rather than by the slow and costly process of " trial and error" 

 is desirable, and should be undertaken under the auspices of the 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers, as representing the interests 

 ,of both producer and user. 



If standardisation is important for the electrical engineer, it 

 is none the less urgently needed in connection with scientific 

 literature. Although the pages of a large number of journals 

 and transactions, both in this country and on the Continent, are 

 of uniform sizes, both quarto and octavo, this is by no means 

 the universal rule ; and proceedings, especially of local societies 

 in remote districts, as well as the more popular class of scientific 

 journals, show almost every possible variation in the dimensions 

 of their pages. We have before us a pile of such publications, 

 arranged in order of size, and increasing gradually from 7x4^ 

 inches at the top to 12 x 10 inches at the bottom. They in- 

 clude many papers which it is desirable to bind up with other 

 literature on the same subjects, but which have had to be rele- 

 gated to " the pile " on account of their inconvenient sizes. 

 This is the more unfortunate because journals of this p.irticular 

 character often contain reports on current research, the inclusion 

 of which in bound volumes of reprints, easy of reference, might 

 often save those repetitions of investigations which involve 

 Hiuch loss of time, and only lead to disappointment, accom- 

 panied by unpleasant — not to .say undignified — controversies as 

 to priority. 



The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a Bulletin, 

 No. 74, containing " Organisation Lists of the Agricultural 

 Colleges and Experiment Stations in the United States, with 

 a list of Agricultural Experiment Stations in Foreign Countries." 

 Thirty-six pages are occupied by notes on the courses of study 

 and the names of the boards of instruction at fifty-nine colleges 

 exclusively devoted to agricultural teaching, or with agricultural 

 departments ; while twenty-one pages give the names of the 

 governing board and staff at fifty-six experiment stations. 

 Then follows a list of foreign experiment stations, with the 

 names of the directors, to which is added a most useful state- 

 ment of the more important publications issued in 1899 by the 

 various stations of the United States. Some notes on the 

 relationship of the colleges and stations to the United States 

 NO. 1597, VOL. 62] 



Treasury complete this exhaustive record. Probably, the in- 

 formation, so far as it concerns the United States, is trustworthy, 

 but the same cannot be said in regard to the British stations, 

 for this section of the work is defective alike as regards accuracy 

 and completeness. It would be well to have the British section 

 thoroughly revised in any future issue. 



We have received from Dr. W. van Bemmelen a memoir on 

 the deviation of the magnetic needle from the end of the fifteenth 

 century to the year 1750, with isogonic charts for the epochs 

 1500, and subsequent half centuries down to 1700. The work 

 is published as a supplement to vol. xxi. of the " Batavia 

 Meteorological and Magnetical Observations," and is the out- 

 come of researches made during several years in various libraries 

 and archives in the Netherlands and other European countries 

 prior to the author's appointment to the Batavia Observatory. 

 The work is a laborious compilation of all the most trustworthy 

 observations, commencing with the voyage of Columbus in 1492, 

 and is a most valuable contribution to terrestrial magnetism, 

 containing between five and six thousand observations in all 

 parts of the world, with references to the positions and the 

 sources whence the information has been obtained. The value 

 of the work is much enhanced by numerous critical remarks and 

 by explanatory text ; the language used is German. 



As attention has recently been much directed to the enormous 

 drafts that are being made on the coal supply of the world for 

 power purposes, the following description of one of the most 

 recent attempts to obtain power by utilising the hitherto wasted 

 resources of nature may be of interest. A company called the 

 Saint Lawrence Power Company, composed of English and 

 American shareholders, some time since obtained a tract of 2000 

 acres of land at Massena, adjacent to the Saint Lawrence and 

 Grasse rivers. On this land an electrical installation of con- 

 siderable magnitude is in course of construction. The works, 

 which it is expected will be completed next autumn, are in- 

 tended to develop ultimately 110,000 horse-power. The plant 

 is situated on the River Grasse, a tributary of the Saint Lawrence, 

 from which the water for driving the machinery will be diverted 

 through a canal three miles long, 200 feet wide at the bottom, 

 and 25 feet deep. The bottom of this canal at the river end 

 will be 60 feet above the ordinary water-level in the River 

 Grasse, which will form the tail-race for the turbines. The pre- 

 liminary mechanical equipment will be eight units of 5000 horse- 

 power, each obtained by three twin turbines and dynamos. 

 The land adjacent to the works which is to be utilised for manu- 

 facturing and allied purposes will be accessible by branches 

 of the New York Central Railway and by the canal to the 

 Saint Lawrence, which will be large enough to take vessels 

 of considerable draught. 



The means of overcoming the difference of level of the coun- 

 try through which canals pass is in most cases overcome by locks 

 placed either singly or in flights, depending on the height to be 

 overcome. About twenty-five years ago, the locks between the 

 Trent and Mersey Canal and the River Weaver, where there is 

 a difference of 50 feet, were superseded by the hydraulic lift at 

 Anderton. The boats here are floated into iron troughs which 

 are raised or lowered by hydraulic power, one boat ascending 

 and another descending at the same time. This system was 

 subsequently adopted on other canals in France and Belgium, 

 and, with some modifications, in Germany. What is claimed 

 as an improvement on this system is now being carried out on 

 the Erie Canal in America, at Lockport, by what is termed a 

 "Pneumatic Balance Canal Lock." A description of this lift 

 was given in a paper contributed to the Franklin Institute by 

 Mr. Chauncey N. Duiton. The existing stone locks were erected 

 in 1836, and overcame a lift of 62^ feet by means of five flights. 

 The lock which is being erected to supersede these consists of 



