536 



NA rURE 



[April i8, 1895 



optimistic account of the fire, and accompany it with a 

 view of the Observatory buildings and house. 



"It came at last. On Sunday morning, the 17th 

 February-, at 7.30 a.m., I was alarmed by the cry of fire, 

 and at S o clock I was looking at smoking ruins in 

 the midst of my two armsful of salvage (which I took 

 good care should include my last year's photographic re- 

 cords), receiving cards of condolence fromhigh personages 

 and presents from the neighbouring shop-keepers — like 

 bottles of beer, bo.xes of eggs, and oranges — and all this 

 while the fire engines were vigorously pumping. 1 saw 

 that nothing more was to be saved, but before the flames 

 were out, my colleague, Mr. C. D. West, set to work to 

 take a series of snap-shots with his hand-camera. The 

 results look like fogged plates, but they show amongst 

 other things the effects of heat upon my big stone column. 

 On Tuesday, I used some of the pieces as illustrations to 

 a geological class as illustrative of the action of lava 

 streams upon rocks they occasionally flow over. The 

 President of the University, who very kindly had hurried 

 from his house to see me and my ruins, had a new house 

 ready for me before my own had done smoking, and I am 

 now in it arranging furniture I have hired, sorting through 

 heaps of charred paper, and getting ready to set up two 

 new pendulums. These latter, if they work well, I hope 

 to bring with their records to England, to show as a type 

 of instrument which may be able to record movements 

 which go round the globe and possibly through its 

 interior. When earthquakes are recorded throughout 

 Great Britain, it will not be necessary to always intro- 

 duce a conversation with remarks about the weather. 



" .\s nearly all the Transactions of the Seismological 

 Society were packed up to go to Europe, a few that had 

 middle places in the boxes may be saved, but I doubt if 

 even out of 2500 copies I shall get more than two or 

 three hundred. All my old earthquake books, some of 

 which even dated from 1500 and 1600, but which were 

 perhaps more curious than useful, seem to have gone. 



" Instruments were fused or vapourised. Sixteen 

 specially constructed clocks, which would turn drums 

 once a day, once a week, or drive a band of paper for two 

 years, together with seismographs and horizontal pendu- 

 lums, self-recording thermometers and barometers, micro- 

 scopes, and a museum of old and new contrivances, are 

 now on the scrap heap. Until to-day, I felt that I had 

 the observatory I intended to put up in England 

 completely furnished, and 1 was proud of the furniture. 



" The fire broke out in the midst of a pile of wood in 

 an out-house, and this with a nice wind blowing on a 

 Sunday morning when there was no one near to help. 



"And now I have next to nothing — decorations, 

 medals, diplomas, clothes, manuscripts, extending over 

 twenty-five years, and everything else has gone to smoke ; 

 still it is not altogether a misfortune. 



" Looked at in the right way, like an earthquake, a fire 

 may after all be a blessing in disguise ; but, of course, it 

 is sometimes pretty well wrapped up. 



" Dies irae, dies ilia, 

 Solvel saeclum in favllla." 



" This letter arrived exactly the very day one of my 

 pupils, Mr. Langlett, tried to get the gas of Cleveite in 

 my laboratory. The gas given off from my mineral did 

 not contain a trace of argon. The spectrum has been 

 examined by Tbalon, who found an exact coincidence of 

 the line of the gas with the helium line and besides some 

 others : — 



TEURES TRIA L HELIUM ? 



T HAVE received the following letter and enclosure 

 ■'■ from Prof. Thorpe :— 



" University of Glasgow, April 16. 

 " My dear Lockver,— The enclosed extract from a 

 letter just received from Cleve of Upsala may be of in- 

 terest to you. '' Ever yours, 



"T. E. Thorpe." 



Wave-length. 

 6677 



5875-9 



5048 



5016 



4922 



47135 



Intensity. 



half-suong 



strong : helium 



half-strong 



strong 



half-strong 



weaker 



" I have got from Mr. Crookes a letter in which he 

 informs me that the gas in Cleveite contains the long- 

 searched for helium. 



NO. 1329. VOL. 51] 



" I have sent a letter about it to Berthelot. If you like, 

 you may communicate the result to the Chemical 

 Society, Mr. Ramsay, Crookes, and other friends. . . . 

 An experiment to determine the specific gravity did not 

 give trustworthy results, but seems to indicate that it is 

 a very light gas, still more heavy than hydrogen. Will 

 this gas fill the gap between hydrogen and lithium ? It 

 will become very interesting to see. What makes me 

 much curious is that our helium gas was free from argon, 

 and that Mr. Ramsay's (according to Comptcs rendus) 

 did contain that curious stufi". Is there any relation 

 between argon and helium, and are we facing a new 

 epoch in chemistry?" 



Although my results are not yet complete for publica- 

 tion, the foregoing communication makes it desirable that 

 I should state at once that immediately on the publication 

 of Prof Ramsay's statement, by the kindness of Mr. L. 

 Fletcher I was enabled to study the gases given ofil' by 

 Cle\eite by heatirg in vacuo, a method 1 have used for 

 metals and meteorites. 



A very small quantity of Cleveite is all that is necessary 

 to obtain a considerable volume of the new gas, which 

 comes off associated with hydrogen. 



1 have now examined several tubes. I have found no 

 argon lines ; I have not found the lines, other than the 

 yellowone,given by Crookes ; but lines have been recorded 

 near some of the wave-lengths given by Thalcn, especially 

 the one at 6677, near a line I discoveicd in the chromo- 

 sphere in 1F68. So far the sky has not been clear 

 enough to enable me to determine by direct comparison 

 with the ihromospheie the position of the line in the 

 yellow with great dispersion. 



J. Norman Lockyer. 



NOTES. 



In honour of M. lierthelot, and as a demonstration of the 

 power and progress of science in France, a banquet was held it 

 Paris a few days ago. Nearly eight hundred guests were 

 present, among them being M. lirisson, President of the 

 Chamber of Deputies, and M. Poincare, Minister of Public 

 Instiuclion. Upon the invitation cards were printed the 

 words: " Ilommage a la science, source de raffranchissement 

 de la peni-ce." M. Poincarc made an eloquent speech in praise 

 of the work done by the eminent Secretary of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, and M. lierthelot, in his reply, dwelt, at 

 some length, upon the beneficial influence of science on social 

 and moral, as well as material, progress. Science, he said, 

 had for its only guide the love of truth, and confidence in il- 

 final triumph. Proved under all circumstances, and strengthened 

 every day by success, the scientific method had become the 

 principal .source of the moral and material progress of society. 

 In fact, science was the source of all progress accomplished 

 by the human race. Kvery one knew that, during this century 



