July 9, 1891] 



NATURE 



231 



Faraday transcend all pomp of celebration, all burning 

 words of praise. For whose the pen to weave so bright 

 a glory as that electric fire which glows, through all the 

 ages, round his brow, who first drew lightning from the 

 lodestone, as Frnnklin drew it from the sky? 



In the moment of separation that little spark breaks 

 forth — instantaneous yet eternal. It is but one vivid 

 point of the radiance that encircles his name, yet of itself 

 it is glory enough. 



From that spark a new branch of science has sprung, 

 and under its creator's name, were it mine to carve his 

 epitaph, these three should be the chosen words : — 



FULMEN ERIPUIT FERRO ! 



Ever yours faithfully, 



F, O. Ward. 



NOTES. 

 We print elsewhere an account of the fourth annual meeting 

 of the National Association for the Promotion of Technical and 

 Secondary Education. After the meeting an important confer- 

 ence was held, and it is now hoped that all the influences which 

 are tending towards the establishment of a proper system of 

 technical instruction in England may soon be thoroughly or- 

 ganized. Next week we shall have something to say about the 

 work of the conference and about the Association's report. 



The conversazione given by the President of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers, Prof. Crookes, F. R. S., and Mrs. Crookes, 

 on Monday evening, was brilliantly successful. It was held in 

 the galleries of the Koyal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, 

 Piccadilly. There were about 800 guests, among whom were 

 many eminent men of science. 



On Tuesday evening the Fellows of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society and their friends dined together at the Hoi born 

 Restaurant, to celebrate the entrance of the Society upon its new 

 premises in Great George Street, Westminster. Mr. B. Latham, 

 the President, occupied the chair. Mr. A. R. Binnie (Engineer 

 to the London County Council) proposed " The Royal 

 Meteorological Society," and Mr. G. J. Symons responded. 

 Mr. Latham, replying to the toast of " The President," referred 

 to the enormous amount of records in the possession of the 

 Society. All they now wanted was a few more members. 

 However, they had gone on increasing, and were now in a 

 prosperous state, as they had been able to collect from the 

 members of the Society a considerable sum of money, which had 

 been funded, and the interest on which would meet the expenses 

 of the new establishment. The Society now possessed one of 

 the finest meteorological libraries in the world, and one which 

 would be of enormous value to future generations. 



We are glad to note that the Marine Biological Association 

 \ have now only three unoccupied tables. Many investigators are 

 taking advantage of the facilities offered them at Plymouth. 



The Exhibition Committee of the Photographic Society of 

 Great Britain announce that the annual exhibition of that 

 Society will be held at the Gallery of the Royal Society of 

 Painters in Water Colours, Pall Mall East, from Monday, 

 September 28, until Thursday, November 12 next. The 

 exhibition will be open daily (Sundays excepted) from 10 

 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and 

 Saturday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Medals will be 

 awarded for artistic, scientific, and technical excellence of 

 photographs, for lantern transparencies, and for apparatus. 



The Pacific Postal Telegraph Company had lately a gather- 

 ing of some 500 guests at the opening of a new telegraph office I 

 NO. II 32, VOL. 44] 



in San Francisco. After shortly describing the various instru- 

 ments, Mr. Storrer, the superintendent, said he was often asked 

 how long it took to telegraph to different places and get a reply. 

 He would therefore now send a telegram to Portland, New 

 York, Washington, Seattle, Tacoma, Canso (Nova Scotia), and 

 London, inquiring about the weather. The first reply came 

 from Portland in 3 minutes, " Weather fine " ; the next froca 

 New Y'ork in 3 minutes 10 seconds, "Misty and warm"; 

 Washington in minutes 11 seconds, "Misty and warm" ; 

 Seattle in 3 minutes 21 seconds, "Misty and calm" ; Tacoma 

 in 3 minutes 28 seconds, "Misty, cool, and calm"; Canso, 

 Nova Scotia, in 4 minutes 20 seconds, "Cold and misty" ; 

 while the answer " Misty and cold" came from London in 6 

 minutes 22 seconds. 



The Governors of the Royal Holloway College have ap- 

 pointed Miss M. W. Robertson to the Resident Lectureship in 

 Natural Science. Miss Robertson, who is now a lecturer on 

 the staff of Alexandra College, Dublin, has taken the degrees of 

 B.A. and M.A., with high honours in chemistry and physics, 

 at the Royal University of Ireland, and has also gained the 

 University Studentship m Experimental Science. 



The Education Department has issued a memorandum, by 

 Mr. J. G. Fitch, on the working of the free school system in 

 America, France, and Belgium. 



The death of M. Rodolphe Koeppelin, a distinguished chemist, 

 is announced. He was born at Colmar in 1810, and from 1828 

 to 1859 held the Chair of Physics and Natural History at the 

 College of his native town. For many years he was intimately 

 connected with the Agricultural Society of the Upper Rhine, 

 and, as a chemist, he was able to render great services to the 

 agriculturists of his department. After the Franco-German 

 war, M. Koeppelin quitted Alsace, and settled in Paris, where 

 he was regarded as one of the most eminent members of the 

 Alsatian colony. 



In another part of the paper we print a report, by Herr O. 

 Jesse, of his observations of luminous clouds in the summer of 

 1890. We learn from Herr Jesse that on the night of June 

 25-26 last the luminous clouds were again very visible at 

 Steglitz and Nauen, and that they were photographed eight 

 times simultaneously at these two places. Writing to us from 

 Sunderland on July i, Mr. T. W. Backhouse says there was a 

 fine display of the luminous clouds during the previous night, 

 their motion being, " as usual, from a north-easterly direction." 

 Mr. D. J. Rowan informs us that on the same night, from 

 11.30 p.m. to 12.30 a.m., the clouds, as seen at Kingstown, co. 

 Dublin, "appeared well-developed on a polar arc of 30° and at 

 a mean altitude of 5°." They had been faintly visible at Kings- 

 town on June 3, 7, and 9. It is astonishing that no observer 

 seems yet to have had energy and intelligence enough to lake 

 spectroscopic photographs of these striking phenomena. 



According to a telegram from Melbourne, dated July 4, the 

 Swedish- Australian Antarctic Committee of the Victorian branch 

 of the Royal Geographical Society, which was formed to raise 

 subscriptions in order to take advantage of Baron Nordenskicild's 

 offer to equip an expedition to the Antarctic regions, announces 

 that a sum of ;^3000 only is required to complete arrangements, 

 and that there is every prospect of the expedition starting in 

 about fifteen months' time. It is expected that the expedition, 

 in addition to its geographical and other scientific discoveries, 

 will be the means of opening up extensive whale and other 

 fisheries in the Antarctic seas. 



We learn from the Botanical Gazette that Lieut. R. E. 

 Peary, of the U.S. Navy, proposes to reach the North Pole 

 on foot through Greenland, starting from Whale Sound, and 



