114 



NA TURE 



[May 31, 1894 



explorer, are seldom to be found except in the service of a 

 government with a wide range of selection. Still he would 

 encourage all enterprise and ever>' carefully planned expedition, 

 on however small a scale. Without expressing any confidence 

 in the correctness of Nansen's theories, he felt no doubt as 

 to the great scientific results which must accompany his journey. 

 With regard to Mr. Tackson's projecled exploration in Franz- 1 

 Josef Land, Mr. Maikham did not favour .\ustria Sound as the \ 

 best approach lo I'etermann Land, and he pointed out the draw- 

 back of the winter quarters of the expedition being so far south 

 as Eira Harbour, between which and the point where really new 

 ground can be broken, there intervenes a space of nearly 200 

 miles to be traversed each season ; but with wise management 

 and favourable conditions of ice and weather, a good measure 

 of success appe.ired quite possible. In his scheme for retracing 

 Parry's footsteps norlh of Spitzbergen, Mr. Wellman trans- 

 gresses the best established canon of .A.rclic travel, which is 

 never to enter the driflini; pack away from land ; but as he has 

 started early, Mr. Wellman mayposs'ibly enough beat the record 

 of the farthest norlh, a motive which was deprecated by the 

 Austrian explorer, Weyprecht, as the bane of good .Vrctic 

 work. Little service to geography is to be looked for from 

 this expedition, unless there are islands north of Spitzbergen 

 which may be explored. In speaking of Mr. Peary's journeys 

 in the norih of Greenland, .Mr. Markham said : " For my own 

 part, I look upon Peary as an ideal explorer. He chose one of 

 the greatest and oldest of the geographical problems that 

 remain to be solved, and he set lo work as if he really intended 

 to find the solution. Every detail of equipment was thought- 

 fully considered, gear was tried and tested before being used, a 

 brilliant preliminary journey over the inland ice was made. 

 All was done in the workmanlike style of a true discoverer. I 

 therefore believe that Peary will .succeed. I am sure that he 

 deserves success." There is, in Mr. Markham's opinion, 

 ground to hope ihat Bjorling and Kalstenius may be still alive ; 

 "the two Swedish lads are the stuff of which heroes are made,^ 

 and every civilised people must be interested in their rescue " 

 Want of funds has prevented a search expedition from being 

 sent out, and the two Swedes who have left for Elle-mereland 

 trust lo be landed there by the good offices of whalers. No 

 efforts on the part of the Council were spared lo inaugurate a 

 great Antarctic expedition, ihe prooioiion of which is now 

 under consideration by the Royal Society. 



In the evening the anniversary dinner of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society was held in the Whitehall rooms of the Hulel 

 Mttropole. 



the observing tube be kept constant, while that in the discharge 

 tube is varied, a marked influence on the position of the deflected 

 spot is at once observable. Thus, if the pressure is altered so 

 that Ihe sparking distance in the discharge tube changes 

 from 2 cm. to 4 cm. there is an alteration in the deflection 

 of from I2'2 m.m. to 85 m.m. Thus it would appear that 

 the diflerence in the deflection observed with varying gas 

 pressures in the ordinary form of tube is not caused by 

 diflerence of the medium in which the deflection is observed, but 

 in the difference of the rays themselves, which are produced with 

 varying pressures of gas. A curious deformation in the shape 

 of the deflected phosphorescent spot was observed, for while the 

 undeflected spot was always circular in form, the distribution of 

 light being dependent on the turbidity {i.e. density) of tlie gas 

 in the tube, in very turbid gases ihe edge of the spot is unde- 

 fined. If the gas becomes rarer there appears in the centre of 

 ihe spot a more or less sharply defined kernel, surrounded by a 

 less bright penumbra. After deflection the spots become ellip- 

 tical in shape, which may be due to the fact that the rays no 

 longer met the screen at right angles, but when the gas w.is so 

 rarefied that there was a central bright spot and a penumbra, 

 the appearance of the spot was subject to sudden changes. 

 While the position and shape of the centr.il spot remained 

 constant, the penumbra changed both in shape .and position, 

 sometimes even being quite separate from the bright spot. The 

 penumbra w.is in every case more deflected than the bright spot, j 

 thus showing that the penumbra contains rays of greater de- I 

 flectibility than the core, but never of less. This is borne out by 

 previous experiments, which had shown that it is the rays that 

 are most easily diffused that are most deflected. 



THE MAGNETIC DEFLECTION OF CATHODE 

 RA VS. 



THF. current number of the Electrician contains a translation 

 of a very iniercsting paper by Herr P. Lenard, on the de- 

 flection of the cathode rays by a magnet. It is well known that 

 when the cathode rays traverse a magnetic field ihey are de- 

 flected from their otherwise reclilincal path, and in the form of 

 tube ordinarily emplo)ed this deflection increases with an in- 

 crease in the pressure of the residual gas in the tube. In this 

 particular the cathode rays behave just like a current of 

 negatively charged panicles projected from Ihe c.ithode. The 

 paths of such panicles would be curved in a magnetic field, and 

 the curvature would increase with a decrease in the speed with 

 which the panicles travel, i.e. they would be more curved in a 

 denser and more resisting medium. The above cxplanalion is 

 not in accord wilh the results of the experiments the author has 

 made, and which have led him to consider the cathode rays .as 

 phenomena in Ihe ether. In fact, the author finds that when 

 the observation lube and the tuhe in which the rays are gene- 

 rated, arc scparalcd by a gasproof aluminium partition, so that 

 the gaseous pressure can lie varied in the two tubes indepen- 

 dently, ihat the above cxplanalion entirely fails, and that every- 

 thing confirms his previous view that these rays are phenomena 

 in the ether, and not electrically charged pailicle.s. For instance, 

 if the pressure of Ihe gas in the diicharge-lube be kept constant, 

 while that in Ihe observing tube be lowered from 33 m.m. lo 

 o 021 m.m. it is found that Ihe dcficction produced remains 

 constant. Higher pressures than 33 m.m. could not be cm- 

 ployc'l, as under these ci/cumslances the medium became so 

 turliid to these rays as lo entirely destroy all definition in the 

 phosphorescent spot. If, however, the pressure of the gas in 



NO. I 2S3, VOL. 50] 



SOME LONDON POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTES} 

 IL 



ON account of a mistaken idea as to the true end of education, 

 Ihe object of technical instruction is often defeated. Many 

 young operatives take up courses of study in order thai they may 

 become clerks in manufactories where technical knowledge is 

 desirable. This notion causes the ranks of the mechanic class 

 to lose many of their brightest men, while the supply of clerks 

 increases. What has to be impressed upon the minds of 

 students in trade classes is that the object of the instruction is to 

 enable them to perform their duties in a more eflicient manner, 

 not to remove them from one sphere of lile lo another. This 

 point was very well expressed by Sir Benjamin Haker at the 

 beginning of this year, in presenting the prizes and certificates 

 to students at the People's Palace. " It is necessary," he said, 

 "for leachers and students alike to remember that a certain 

 amount of scientific or theoretical knowledge in the future, still 

 more than in the present, must be considered as an indispens- 

 able elcmcnl of success in the great battle of life, but not as a 

 thing having necessarily any more market value in itself than a 

 knowledge of reading and writing, nor must the facilities in 

 acquiring knowledge now enjoyed by students be carried losucli 

 an extent as to incapacitate them from acting in an emergency 

 promptly and reliantly without help from books or professors, 

 or the lienefils of scientific and technical education would be looj 

 dearly bought, and Ihe self-education system of our i>redecessoi5| 

 would turn out the better men." I 



The People's Palace owes its existence almost entirely lo| 

 the Drapers' Company. In the year 1890 this company look 

 the entire management of the educ.ilional work, which was 

 carried on under the supervision of Mr. William I'hillipsi 

 Sawyer, the clerk to the Company. Two years later, on tht| 

 Drapers' Company having ofl'ered an annual contriliution ol^ 

 /■7000 to the Palace, a new scheme was drawn up by lh<; 

 Charity Commissioners, which provided for an annual grant 

 of Z3500 from Ihe City and Parochial Charities' Funds, 

 in addition to the Drapers' Company's c()nlril)ution, and a new 

 body of Governors was formed, of which the Master "f''" 

 Drapers' Company acts as chairman. This body, besideii 

 representatives of the Drapers' Company, consists of member!; 

 appointed by the London University, the London Count) 

 Council, the London School Hoard, Ihe Trustees of the City am 

 Parochial Charities' Funds, and the Lord I'resident of Ihi 

 Council. . ' 



The educational work consists of (l) the day lechnica 



' Continued from p. lyo. 



