64 



NATURE 



[May 15, 1890 



have accomplished the first object of the constitution— 

 namely, the purchase of the necessary land. 



The site selected for the Zoological Park is about two 

 miles from the centre of Washington. It contains an 

 area of 166 acres, traversed by the stream called Rock 

 Creek, and is stated to possess most attractive features 

 which render it well adapted for the purpose. 



There is already a Zoological Garden at Philadelphia in 

 good working order, and there is a smaller establishment 

 at New York, in the Central Park, under the charge of 

 Mr. W. A. Conklin, who is well known to many 

 naturalists on this side of the Atlantic. The new institu- 

 tion at the metropolis of the United States, to be 

 inaugurated and carried on by the Central Government 

 for the "recreation and instruction" of the American 

 people, will evidently be on a much larger scale. It will 

 also have the advantage of the unlimited support always 

 accorded by the Americans to their great national 

 undertakings. If the Commissioners are inclined to take 

 advice from Europe — and we have no reason to suppose 

 the contrary — ^we should recommend that, before planning 

 and commencing the necessary buildings, they should 

 visit the Gardens of the Zoological Society in London, and 

 the principal institutions of a like nature on the Continent, 

 and take advantage of the experience gained by previous 

 workers in the same field. No amount of plans and 

 estimates, which, we are told, they are now asking for 

 from the older institutions, will give them the advantages 

 to be derived from a personal examination of these estab- 

 lishments and a few weeks' study of the mode in which 

 they are worked. 



JAMES MAS MYTH. 



EVERYONE was sorry to hear of the death of Mr- 

 James Nasmyth, the great engineer. His name is 

 familiar to the entire English-speaking world, and there 

 can be no doubt that he stands in the front rank of those 

 who have advanced the material interests of mankind by 

 the application of science to industrial methods. 



So far as outward events were concerned, there was 

 nothing very remarkable in his career. The real history 

 of his life is the history of his inventions. He was born 

 at Edinburgh on August 19, 1808, and was the youngest 

 child of a family of eleven. His father was Alexander 

 Nasmyth, who achieved considerable distinction as a 

 painter. In a good summary of the facts of his life, 

 printed in the Times of May 8, it is said that the boy 

 gave very early evidence of a decided taste for mechanical 

 pursuits. At school this taste was strengthened by 

 intimacy with the son of an ironfounder, wliose works 

 young Nasmyth was never tired of visiting. He dis- 

 played so much aptitude for model-making that when he 

 began to attend scientific classes at the University of 

 Edinburgh he was able to pay his own fees by the sale 

 of models of steam-engines, and other mechanical con- 

 trivances. 



In 1829, Mr. Nasmyth came to London, and the two fol- 

 lowing years he spent in the service of Mr. Maudslay, the 

 founder of the well-known firm of engineers. He then 

 returned to Edinburgh, where he devoted himself for a 

 short time to the construction of a set of engineering 

 tools. With these tools, and a very small capital, he 

 ventured to begin business on his own account in Man- 

 chester ; and so many orders for work were received that 

 new prernises soon became necessary. He accordingly 

 secured a plot of ground, 12 acres in extent, at Particroft, 

 near Manchester ; and this site he covered with the col- 

 lection of workshops known as the Bridgewater Foundry. 

 It was at this establishment that Mr. Nasmyth invented 

 and perfected the mechanical tools with which his name is 

 associated. The most important of them is the steam- 

 hammer, the power and delicacy of which are universally 



known. It was invented in 1839, when he was still a 

 young man. The Times says: — "The first idea of the 

 hammer occurred to its inventor when he was asked by 

 the Great Western Railway Company to construct a 

 wrought-iron intermediate paddle shaft for a proposed 

 ship called the Great Bf-itain. Other firms had declined 

 to undertake the construction of a shaft with a size and 

 diameter never before attempted. The paddle shaft was 

 never forged, as the screw was invented about this time. 

 But meanwhile Nasmyth had invented a means of raising 

 an enormous block of iron to a sufficient height and of 

 regulating and directing its descent upon the anyil below." 



Among Mr. Nasmyth's other inventions we may men- 

 tion his " reversing direct-acting rolling mill." 



In 1857, at the age of 48, he retired from business ; and 

 from that time he lived at Penshurst, where he found an 

 outlet for his energies in the enthusiastic study of 

 astronomy — a study which led to the publication of " The 

 Moon considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite," 

 written by him in conjunction with Dr. James Carpenter. 

 Mr. Nasmyth wrote also " Remarks on Tools and 

 Machinery," in Baker's " Elements of Mechanism " 

 (1858). An autobiography, edited by Dr. Smiles, was 

 published in 1883. He inherited to some extent his 

 father's artistic faculty, and the exercise of his talent for 

 drawing was a constant source of genuine pleasure. 

 .: Mr. Nasmyth used to say that he had never known 

 what it was to be ill. For some time, however, his health 

 was manifestly failing ; and several weeks ago he came to 

 town. He stayed at Bailey's Hotel, Gloucester Road ; 

 and there, in his eighty-second year, he died, on Wednes- 

 day, May 7. 



NOTES. 



Mr. Alfred Gilbert, A. R.A., has been commissioned to 

 execute the Joule Memorial at Manchester. 



Prof. W. K. Sullivan, President of the Cork Queen's 

 College, and well known as a chemist, died on Monday at the 

 College. He was 68 years of age, and had held the position 

 of President since 1872, in succession to the late Sir Robert 

 Kane. 



It is announced that Sir Frederick Mappin, M.P., has 

 handed over to his co-trustees of the ShefReld Technical School 

 ;^iooo for the purpose of founding two scholarships, each of the 

 value of ;,fi5 per annum, in perpetuity. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences has offered a prize of 3000 

 francs for the best essay on the phenomena of fertilization in 

 Phanerogams, especially in reference to the division and trans- 

 lation of the nucleus, and the relation between these phenomena 

 and those which occur in the animal kingdom, to be sent in 

 before June i, 189 1. 



Prof, von Nordenskioi.d lately announced to the Stock- 

 holm Academy of Sciences that a scientific expedition would 

 start during the summer for Spitzbergen. Ariiong the party will 

 be his son, M. G. Nordenskiold, and MM. Klinckowstrom and 

 Bahaman. The expenses of the expedition will be defrayed by 

 Baron Dickson and M. F. Beijer, the publisher. 



The ethnological collections made by Prof. Bastian during his 

 journey through Russian Central Asia, have been brought ta 

 Berlin by the Professor's companion, Herr A. Dsirne. Prof. 

 Bastian is at present at Madras. 



Dr. Thoroddsen, of Reikjavik,to whom the Linne Memorial' 

 Medal has been given by the Stockholm Academy of Sciences 

 for his collection of fossil plants, has received 1200 kronen (^65)- 

 from Baron Dickson to enable him to investigate the Icelandic 

 peninsula of Sneefieldness. Dr. Thoroddsen hopes soon to con- 

 clude his geological researches concerning this ancient Norse 

 settlement. 



