September 2, 1895. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



213 



accept Dr. Johnstone Stoney's argument* that the former 

 would, in vh'tue of its own proper molecular motion, 

 remove itself from our planet, and emigrate to a celestial 

 body possessing sufficient gravitational attraction to hold 

 it fast. 



But the supreme point of interest still to be determined 

 with regard to argon and helium is, are they elements or 

 only mixtures of elements ? If argou possesses the atomic 

 weight 40, there is no place for it in the periodic system 

 of the elements ; and up to now no exception to this 

 arrangement exists, if the doubtful case of tellurium be 

 excluded. There are various arguments both for and 

 against argon and helium being elementary. If what has 

 just been said about their spectra containing certain lines 

 inconimon turns out, on further investigation, to be justified, 

 then the only conclusion is that the two gases contain 

 some element in common (excluding the extremely improb- 

 able hypothesis, of which there is as yet no instance, of 

 two elements giving spectra containing identical lines). 

 The subject presents many serious difSculties, but these 

 will no doubt be satisfactorily overcome ia time. If the 

 two discoveries of argon and helium had possessed no 

 intrinsic interest in themselves, they would have been 

 invaluable as being the means of bringing home to many 

 chemists, and to others interested in chemistry, a large 

 number of issues of the first importance in the science. 



THE COLDEST INHABITED SPOTS ON EARTH. 



By C.\RL SlEWERS. 



ACCOEDING to all i-ecorda which we possess, the 

 coldest inhabited spot on earth is Werchojansk, 

 in Eastern Siberia, under the Polar Circle, where 

 the ahnual mean temperature is 2-2° F. or thirty- 

 five degrees of frost. During the months of 

 January, February, and March, the thermometer generally 

 remains at 56^ below zero, indicating eighty-eight degrees 

 of frost, and on certain particularly cold days the spirit 

 thermometer — mercury thermometers are useless in such 

 cold — falls to 83'^ below zero, Fahrenheit, or one hundred 

 and fifteen degrees of frost. Spring has a mean tem- 

 perature of 28'4^ or four degrees of frost, and during the 

 '• lovely month of May " the temperature remains at zero. 

 During the " hot " months, July, August, and September, 

 the mean temperature at Werchojansk is ■i2'8°, but in the 

 three following months of the year the mean again declines 

 to 34-6°. 



A striking contrast to this terribly cold climate is 

 furnished by that of the little colony, Angmasalik, on the 

 east coast of Greenland, on the opposite side of the globe, 

 and nearly in the same latitude, about 665°. Tne climate 

 here is, comparatively speaking, "mild," the annual 

 mean temperature being only 26'G'^, or seven degrees of 

 frost. The winter has a mean temperature of 11°, spring 

 a mean temperature of 32^, summer one of 37'4^, and 

 autumn a mean temperature of 24-8°. The changes of 

 temperature here are, however, not nearly so great as at 

 Werehcjansk, as the sea, which is in close proximity, acts 

 as a regulator. However, Angmasalik is far from being 

 a pleasant place of residence, as the weather is invariably 

 "raw cold" and stormy, while the shores are generally choked 

 with drift ice as far as the eye can reach. The shores 

 of East Greenland are, as is generally known, almost 

 unapproachable on account of the drift ice. 



At Angmasalik, whither the Danish Captain Holmpene- 

 tratedforthe first time in 1883, there wasacolony of Eskimo, 



* Chemical Sews, LXXI., 67 (1895). 



numbering some 400, which had never before come into 



contact with 

 civilized people. 

 When Lieu- 

 tenant Kydew 

 reached the 

 colony ten years 

 after, the popu- 

 lation had dwin- 

 dled to 300. 

 There was then 

 established a 

 trading and 

 mission station 

 here, coupled 

 with a meteoro- 

 logical obser- 

 vatory. The 

 Danish Green- 

 land steamer 

 " Hvidbjornen " 

 (White Bear) is 

 now to call every 

 autumn at this 

 colony ; but it 

 may be doubted 

 whether this will 

 be possible on 

 account of the 

 ice. Anyhow, the 

 colony and the 



steamer are pro- ■\Voman of Angmasalik with Baby. 



visionedior 



several years should the latter be blocked in the Polar pack. 



Some iirccnt |iatcnts, 



Johu Lee Osboru, MUlbay Engiaeering Works, Plymouth (a com- 

 munieatiou f.om Carl Neiihaus, Vieuna). Improvements in apparatus 

 for hurning liqiiiil fuel. This inrentiou relates to burning oil for 

 steam boilers and the like. Steam to the atomiser A is taken from 

 the steam chamber and separator B by opening the steam ralve a. 



whieli causes the steam to blow through the fine opening c in the 

 atomiser. Oil is admitted by the cock d. By unscren-inj the cap e 

 the oil enters and is atomised by the steam jet, and, after mixing 

 with air, is thrown into the fire tube / in the form of spray, which is. 



