November i, 1894] 



NATURE 



23 



boiler before making the holes, which were then drilled in posi- 

 tion, and were necessarily true. This procedure involved the 

 use of special drilling machines, whilst economy demanded that 

 several drills should work at once in one machine so as to sive 

 time and be under the care of only one attendant. The chief 

 object of Mr. Dixon's paper was to describe the most recent of 

 these machines. The drill spindles are carried on supparts 

 which bring them to the work, and are adjustable to the varying 

 pitches and angles required. There is a cross-slide which can 

 be raised or lowered for carrying the drills for the circular seams, 

 and this is adjustable so as to suit the varying threads required. 

 There are five drills for this purpose, whilst six more are arranged 

 upon a vertical column upon the opposite side of the boiler 

 shell for operating upon the butt seams. One of the chief 

 difficulties in drilling holes in a built-up shell is the flexibility of 

 the work, which causes it to give way and buckle when the 

 pressure of the drills is brought upon it. So great has been 

 this drawback that it has been found more advisable in many 

 cases to use only one drill at a time, although there may 

 have been four spindles on the machine. Mr. Dixon has 

 overcome this objection in an ingenious manner by an 

 internal support which gives great rigidity to the shell, and 

 enables the larger number of drills to be brought into play at 

 once without their accumulated pressure causing deflection. 

 During the discussion an interesting point arose in connection 

 with this feature. It was said that twist drills which, when 

 properly ground, gave very clean holes and great accuracy of 

 work, could not be used on boiler shells, as they so frequently 

 broke in work. The author said this was perfectly true in 

 ordinary cases, but it was due to the springing of the shell 

 referred to. The statement is corroborated by the fact that 

 twist drills can be advantageously employed on work firmly 

 held on the drilling machine-table, whereas the older form of 

 flat drill would have to be used where rigidity could not be 

 obtained. 



A NEW METHOD OF PREPARING PHOS- 

 PHORETTED HYDROGEN. 

 A NEW and extremely simple mode of preparing phos- 

 •^*- phoretled hydrogen is descibed iiy Prof. Relgers in the 

 current Zeitsclirift fiir Anorganischc Chemie. After reviewing 

 the usual mode of preparing the gas for demonstration purposes, 

 by heating yellow phosphorus in an aqueous solution of potassium 

 hydrate, and the other more rarely employed methods of pre- 

 paration — such as by the interaction of calcium phosphide and 

 hydrochloric acid, copper phosphide and potassium cyanide, 

 and phosphonium iodide and waiter — the question of the direct 

 combination of hydrogen and phosphorus is discussed. It 

 appears that the currently accepted idea that ordinary molecular 

 hydrogen does not comliine with phosphorus is founded upon 

 some old experiments of the French chemists Kourcroy and 

 Vauquelin, who state that when phosphorus is melted in 

 hydrogen gas, vapour of phosphorus becomes diffused in the 

 hydrogen, and confers upon it the power of ignition in contact 

 with oxygen without any combination between the phosphorus 

 and hydrogen occurring. In view of the great readiness which, 

 as Prof. Retgers has recently shown, warm hydrogen exhibits 

 to unite with free arsenic, it was considered possible that the 

 reason for the non-combination of hydrogen and melted phos- 

 phorus might be found in the low melting-point (44) of the 

 latter. Experiments were therefore made wiih red phosphorus, 

 which, of course, is capable of being raised to a much higtier 

 temperature. When dry hydrogen is led through a glass lube 

 containing red phosphorus, and afterward-; through a wash- 

 bottle containing water, pr.ictically pure hydrogen i< found to 

 escape. Immediately, however, a gas fla.ne is brought under 

 the part of the tube containing the phosphorus, combination 

 occurs, and the gas issuing from the wah bottle at once infl.imes 

 in the air. The non-spontaneously inflammable gaseous hydri le 

 of phosphorus is also therefore accompanied by a smaller 

 quantity of the spontaneously inflammable liquid hydride, and 

 a sufhcient qu.antity of the latter for demonstration may be 

 isolated by leading the vapours through a U-tube immersed in 

 a freezing mixture. Moreover, the solid hydride is likewise 

 produced as a yellow deposit near the he.ated p iriion of the 

 tube. Upon removing the flame from beneath the tube, the 

 bubbles of escap.ng gas cease to take fire as they emerge into 

 the air, and are found to consist of almost pure hydrogen. The 

 production of phosphoretted hydrogen is consequently entirely 



NO. 1305. VOL. 51] 



dependent upon the elevation of the temperature considerably 

 above the melting point of ordinary yellow phosphorus. The 

 new mode of preparation is recommended by Prof. Relgers as 

 being more convenient and elegant than the old-established 

 method of boiling phosphorus in caustic potash, as forming an 

 excellent example of the direct combination of two elements, 

 and as furnishing ample demonstration of all three hydrides of 

 phosphorus, the gaseous, liquid, and solid. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Oxford. — The Rolleston Memorial Prize has been awarded 

 to M. S. Pembrey, of Christ Church, and E. S. Goodrich, of 

 Merton College, the papers sent in by these two candidates 

 having been judged to be equal. Mr. Pembrey was placed in 

 the first class in the Honour School of Natural Science in 18S9, 

 and is demonstrator in the Physiological Department. Mr. 

 Goodrich is still an undergraduate, and is assistant to the 

 Linacre Professor. At a meeting of the Junior Scientific Club, 

 held on Friday, October 26, Mr. W. J. Waterhouse, of Christ 

 I Church, exhibited some telephone cables, and Mr. W. P. 

 Pycraft exhibited some Natterjack toads. Papers were read 

 by Mr. W. Garstang, of Lincoln College, on some modifications 

 of the Tunicate pharynx induced by the violent ejection of 

 water, and by Mr. C. T. Blanshard, of Queen's College, on the 

 genesis of the elements. 



Sir Henry W. Acland, K.C.B., has announced his resigna- 

 tion of the Regius Professor of Medicine, the resignation to 

 take effect at the end of the present year. Sir Henry is now 

 in his eightieth year, and has long been a leading figure in 

 scientific and medical matters in the University. His resigna- 

 tion will sever the link of many old associations. He has 

 consistently and bravely supported the cause of science in 

 Oxford, and that, too, at a time when scientific studies were 

 regarded in anything but a favourable light by the rest of the 

 University. It wa; largely due to his influence and energy that 

 the University Museum was built, and he has never failed to 

 support any movements for its further extension and for the 

 improvement of the teaching which is carried on there. One 

 of bis latest eflorts secured the building of the new Department 

 of Human Anatomy, and he has had the satisfaction of seeing 

 the medical school for which he worked so hard rise from 

 almost nothingness into considerable dimensions, with every 

 prospect of steady and healthy increase. He will carry with 

 him on his retirement the attection and good wishes of all 

 sections of the University. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

 In the Ntiovo Giomale Bolanico Italiano for October, Sigg. 

 G. Del Guercio and E. Baroni describe the disease of Italian 

 vines caused by a Schizomycete, and known 3.'> ^ommosi bncillan 

 or pelivure. — Sig. C. Massalonga describes a large number of 

 abnormal growths in different plants. — .-Ml the other papers 

 concern the local Italian flora. 



In the Journal of Botany for August, September, and 

 October, Mr. F. J. Hanbury adds seven more 10 the inter- 

 minable list of new species of Hieracium. — Rev. E. S. Marshall 

 describes and figures an apparently new species of CochUarui^ 

 C. micai'ea, fiom Ben La*ers. — Messrs. J. G. and E. G. Baker 

 discuss the botany of an interesting corner of Westmoreland, 

 High-cup Nick. — The liricacce and the .\sclepiadea; of South 

 Alrica are treated of, respectively, by Mr. II. Bolus and Mr. R. 



Schlechier. -tudenls of the local distribution of plants in 



Great Britain will find other papers to interest them. 



Sy/nofts^s Monthly Mcttoroloi^ical Magazim^ October. — Pro- 

 tection from litjhtning, by A. Mc.-Vdie. This is a summary of 

 one of the Circulars of Information issued by the Weather 

 Bureau, Washington. In adiition to a number uf rules for 

 erecting lightning rods, the pamphlet contains siaiis<ical tables 

 of injury to life ami property by lightning in the Uni<ed Slates. 



I Full recognition is given by the author of the Report of the 

 Lightning Rod Conlercnce publi-hed in 18S2, and of the experi- 



j ments made by Pmf. Oliver Lodge. — The recent drought in the 



I Midlands, liy the Rev. (i. T. Ryves. During 26 days ending 

 September 21, only o'o6 inch of rain (ell at Tean Vicarage. 



I Mr. Symons shows that at Barkby, Leicestershire, lio.inch of 

 rain fell. The same record shows that the first nine months of 



