November 23, 1899] 



NATURE 



79 



The Grande Diichesse accompanied the yachts over the 

 course, and the momentary details of the race, as 

 observed from her decks, were flashed to the cable ship, 

 from which they were sent over the cable to New York, 

 and thence telegraphed throughout the world." 



Before leaving the United States Mr. Marconi gave 

 some demonstrations of his system to naval officers and 

 technical experts appointed to report upon its value in 

 naval warfare. With the instruments he had available, 

 perfect communication was kept up between the cruiser 

 New York and the battleship Massachusetts when the 

 vessels were thirty-five miles apart ; and messages were 

 exchanged over a distance of ten miles with a torpedo 

 boat travelling at full speed. 



An even more striking demonstration of the utility of 

 wireless telegraphy was given as we went to press last 

 week. It appears from a letter communicated by Major 

 Flood Page to the Times., that when Mr. Marconi left 

 New York he cabled to the office of his company in 

 London that he would speak to the Needles from the 

 steamship St. Paul on their arrival in English waters. 

 The vessel was expected to pass the Needles about lo or 

 II o'clock on Wednesday morning, and Major Flood 

 Page arrived there on the previous evening, when all 

 arrangements for communication were made. On 

 Wednesday morning, he writes : 



•' We sent out our signals over and over again, when, in the 

 most natural and ordinary way, our bell rang. It was 2.45 p.m. 

 'Is that you, Si. Paul?^ 'Yes.' 'Where are you?' 

 ' Sixty-six nautical miles away.' Need I confess that delight, 

 joy, satisfaction swept away all nervous tension, and in a few 

 minutes we were transcribing, as if it were our daily occupation, 

 four cablegrams for New York, and many telegrams for many 

 parts of England and France, which had been sent fifty, forty- 

 five, forty miles ' wireless,' to be despatched from the Totland 

 Bay Post Office." 



Upon the vessel itself a Transatlantic Times was 

 printed by the ship's compositor, and the subjoined ex- 

 tract from this novel newspaper is of interest in connec- 

 tion with that given above : 



"Through the courtesy of Mr. G. Marconi, the passengers on 

 board the St. Paul are accorded a rare privilege— that of receiv- 

 ing news several hours before landing. Mr. Marconi and his 

 assistants have arranged for working the apparatus used in re- 

 porting the yacht race in New York, and are now receiving 

 despatches from their station at the Needles. War news from 

 South Africa and home messages from London and Paris are 

 being received. The most important despatches are published 

 on the opposite page. As all know, this is the first time that 

 such a venture as this has been undertaken. A newspaper 

 published at sea with wireless telegraph messages received and 

 printed on a ship going 20 knots an hour I This is the 52nd 

 voyage eastward of the St. Paul. There are 375 passengers on 

 board, counting the distinguished and extinguished. The days' 

 runs have been as follows : — November 9, 435 ; November 10, 

 436; November 11,425; November 12, 424; November 13, 

 431; November 14, 414; November 15, 412; 97 miles to 

 Needles at 12 o'clock, November 15. Bulletins :--l. 50 p.m. 

 . . . — . First signal received, 66 miles from Needles. 2.4O. — 

 'Was that you, St. Paul' ? 50 miles from Needles. 2.50. — 

 Hurrah! Welcome home I Where are you? 3.30.-40 

 miles. Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking holding out well. 

 No big battle. 15,000 men recently landed. 3.40 — At Lady- 

 smith no more killed. Bombardment at Kimberley effected the 

 destruction of one tin pot. It is felt that period of anxiety and 

 strain is over, and that our turn has come. 4.0. — Sorry to say 

 the U.S.A. cruiser Charleston is lost. All hands saved." 



In addition to the messages above-mentioned, the 

 Ti?nes states that passengers availed themselves of the 

 instruments to send greetings to friends in England and 

 America, and when the St. Paul was forty miles from 

 shore in one case arrangements were completed by a 

 passenger for a supper party in town upon the night of 

 the arrival of the American Line express at Waterloo 

 Station. 



This interesting development of wireless telegraphy 

 solves the problem of the communication of a ship with 

 the shore, so far as ocean^liners are concerned ; for there 

 should be no difficulty in installing the necessary ap- 

 paratus, or in training officers to work it. Now that 

 such results have been obtained, advantage should be 

 taken of the system as a means of communication when- 

 ever opportunity affords. 



SOME RECENT WORK OF THE MARINE 

 BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. 



ONE of the most important tasks which can be under- 

 taken by the staff of a sea-side laboratory is the 

 exact description of the relations between the fauna of 

 the neighbourhood and the external conditions. Excel- 

 lent anatomical work can be performed, as it is habitually 

 performed in all the various marine stations which now 

 exist, by naturalists who are unable to live continuously 

 at the sea- side. In many cases a short visit to a suitable 

 locality will enable an anatomist, aided by the knowledge 

 and experience of skilled residents, to collect in a short 

 time material for the most complete study of a species 

 from the anatomical point of view. But many compli- 

 cated problems connected with the breeding of marine 

 animals, and others, equally complex, which arise from 

 even the most superficial study of their distribution, 

 can only be solved by continued observation extending 

 in many cases over years ; and such observations can 

 only be conducted by resident naturalists, with the 

 resources of a properly equipped laboratory at their 

 command. 



It is well known that officers of the Marine Biological 

 Association have for years been engaged in the study of 

 questions connected with the breeding of fishes and other 

 marine animals. The last number of the Association's 

 Journal contains a report of some 1 80 pages, illustrated 

 by sixteen charts, which shows that Mr. Allen, the 

 Director of the Plymouth Laboratory, is fully alive to 

 the need for continuous and careful study of the way in 

 which the fauna of the neighbourhood is distributed. 



The report deals with the strip of sea-bottom which 

 runs from a point just west of the Eddystone Lighthouse 

 to the Start, at a depth of from about 28 to about 35 

 fathoms. 



A careful description of the nature of the sea-bottom 

 throughout this area is given, and a useful suggestion is 

 made as to the possibility of a uniform nomenclature, by 

 which descriptions of the character of a sea-bottom 

 may be made more clearly intelligible than they are at 

 present. 



The bottom deposit is washed through a series of sieves, 

 with apertures varying from 15 millimetres to o'5 mm. ; 

 and a distinct name is given to the material which rests 

 upon each of these sieves, if the deposit is washed through 

 them in order. Six kinds of material are thus recognised, 

 from "stones," which will not pass through a sieve with 

 perforations of 15 mm. diameter, to "medium sand" 

 which remains on a sieve with a mesh of o"5 mm. The 

 material which passes through apertures of o'5 mm. 

 diameter is separated into two portions by being shaken 

 up in sea-water. Anything which settles in one minute 

 is spoken of as " fine sand," anything which remains in 

 suspension after one minute is spoken of as "silt." 



When a deposit has been separated in this way into 

 constituents of different degrees of fineness, the various 

 constituents are dried and weighed, and the weight of 

 each, expressed as a percentage of the total weight of the 

 sample of deposit, is given for each locality. 



This method of describing the texture of a sample of 

 the sea-bottom is simple, and not very laborious. The 

 general adoption of such a method would certainly make 

 it easier than it is at present to compare descriptions by 

 various writers. 



NO. 1569, VOL. 61] 



