92 



NA TURE 



[November 23, 1899 



within the sound-area, but the observation above recorded from 

 the north-west quarter of St. Helens is worthy of notice in 

 connection with the easterly elongation of the area of dis- 

 turbance. 



For the sake of comparison it may be worth while to refer 

 briefly to the results obtained from previous explosions. At the 

 conclusion of .Sir John Moore's retreat, a great Spanish powder 

 magazine, containing, it is said, 1500 barrels, was blown up 

 near Corunna. The ground rocked sensibly for miles, and at a 

 distance the shock was felt before the sound was heard (R. 

 Mallet, Irish Acad. Trans., vol. xxi., 1848, pp. 63-64). In the 

 great Erith explosion (October i, 1864) two barges, a large 

 magazine and a small one blew up in succession. They con- 

 tained respectively about 9, 33, and 4 tons of gunpowder. 

 Everything within a distance of half a mile — trees, houses, barns 

 — was utterly destroyed, except two haystacks on the south side 

 of the river. Windows were shattered within a radius of at 

 least five miles. The explosion was heard and felt at Tedding- 

 ton (21 miles), Uxbridge (27 miles), and Windsor (32 miles), 

 and the concussion is said to have been felt near Ashford, which 

 is distant about 40 miles (7i!V«^.f, October 3-6, 8, 1864). The 

 catastrophe in the Regent's Canal (October 2, 1874) was 

 caused by the explosion of about five tons of gunpowder. The 

 shock and sound were observed as far as Chiselhurst (13 

 miles), and the vibrations were felt at Aveley (18 miles) and 

 Gravesend (23 miles) {Times, October 3, 5, 1874). To effect the 

 removal of the Flood Rock in Hell Gate, New York Harbour, 

 about 130 tons of dynamite, lic, were exploded ; and the 

 vibrations were perceived, with the aid of a mercury bath and 

 telescope, at a distance of 183 miles {Times, October 12, 18^5 ; 

 Milne's " Seismology," pp. 98-99). Mr. Fox Strangways states 

 that the blasting operations in the Charnwood Forest quarries 

 can be heard at a distance of 18 miles or more (Nature, vol. liii. , 

 1895, p. 130). The shock caused by the explosion of nearly 

 50 tons of dynamite at Johannesburg on February 19, 1896, 

 was felt at Krugersdorp (19 miles) and Pretoria (33 miles) 

 {Standard, February 21, 22, 1896). The Lagouban naval 

 magazine (near Toulon), which blew up on March 5, 1899, is 

 said to have contained 50,000 kg. of black powder. The 

 country for a radius of nearly two miles was swept almost bare. 

 Houses were razed to the ground, and trees were overturned 

 or bent into the most extraordinary shapes. It is affirmed 

 that the report of the explosion was heard at Nice (84 miles), 

 and even beyond the frontier at Ventimiglia (100 miles) ; but it 

 is obvious that, in the absence of intermediate records, we 

 cannot place much reliance on these accounts ( Times, Daily 

 Chronicle, Daily' Mail, Daily Telegraph, March 6, 1899). 



Charles Davison. 



THE HURTER MEMORIAL LECTURE. 

 'X'HE memorial lecture established by the Liverpool Section of 

 ■*■ the Society of Chemical Industry in memory of Dr. 

 Ferdinand Hurter, and which will be given every alternate 

 year, was inaugurated by Prof. G. Lunge, of Zurich, on October 

 4, before a large and representative gathering at University 

 College, Liverpool. Prof. Lunge's subject was "Impending 

 changes in the general development of industry, and particularly 

 in the alkali industries." After an appreciative review of 

 Hurter's contributions to technical chemistry, in which special 

 reference was made to his remarkable mathematical power and 

 to the manner in which he employed it side by side with the 

 highest branches of chemical science for the investigation and 

 elucidation of technical problems. Prof. Lunge turned to the 

 more immediate subject of his address. In contemplating the 

 general features of chemical industries as carried on to-day, the 

 question of the supply of fuel and of other sources of power 

 was first considered ; it was pointed out that the superiority 

 which many countries, notably Great Britain, enjoy in many 

 industries on account of their wealth of coal is limited in time, 

 and that the increasing consumption of coal with a decreased 

 source of supply as the result, must lead to the employment of 

 other sources of energy. The economical use of coal in the 

 blast-furnace, the adoption of closed coke ovens which, in 

 addition to allowing the recovery of by-products, also increase 

 the yield of coke, and recent improvements in the production of 

 gaseous fuel are likely to postpone the time and force of the 

 competition of those other sources of energy of which water- 

 power stands foremost, but such postponement is restricted 



NO. 



1569, VOL. 61] 



essentially to certain industries. From a general standpoint the 

 total energy of the fossil fuel of the world is an infinitesimal 

 fraction of the energy which the sun expends daily on the 

 evaporation of water, and which is transformed to a great extent 

 into the kinetic energy of falling water. The transformation of 

 water-power into electrical energy, with its easy and cheap 

 power of transmission, is likely to lead to revolutionary changes 

 in chemical industries, not only in respect to the conditions of 

 manufacture, but also in regard to the centres of production. 

 Countries possessing great water-power will in the future carry 

 on all those manufacturing processes in which electricity 

 is either essential or an advantage, subject to certain limit- 

 ations regulated by the cost of carriage of both raw materials 

 and products. Prof. Lunge detailed the present position of 

 electrical processes applied to chemical industries, dealing 

 especially with the alkali trade and the manufacture of bleach 

 and chlorate ; the next generation will in all probability, in his 

 opinion, obtain its chlorine by electrolytic methods, but the 

 accompanying alkali will not form more than one-eighth or 

 one-tenth of the world's demands The bulk of the latter must 

 therefore be derived from other sources — these, in Dr. Lunge's 

 opinion, will be the ammonia-soda process and naturally 

 occurring soda. In regarding the future of these industries the 

 modern developments of the manufacture of sulphuric acid by 

 the catalytic process, in which sulphur dioxide and oxygen are 

 passed over platinised asbestos, were discussed ; the success of 

 this method, especially for the manufacture of strong acid, is 

 thoroughly established, and the lead chamber is threatened 

 with extinction in consequence. Prof. Lunge pointed out, 

 however, that this old apparatus has still certain claims of 

 efficiency in the manufacture of weak sulphuric acid. Incident- 

 ally, in considering the economical use of fuel, Prof Lunge 

 gave a most interesting description of the Dellwik-Fleischer 

 water gas process, the efficiency of which he had himself 

 examined with the result that he found that it gave no less than 

 82 per cent, of the fuel value of the coke against the 45 per 

 cent, of the older processes. The characteristic of the process 

 is the formation of carbon dioxide during the " blow " instead of 

 carbon monoxide, a fact which reduces the time of the blow 

 from 10 minutes to if minutes. 



In looking back upon the industry with which Hurter's life- 

 work was associated. Prof. Lunge dwelt upon the fact that the 

 very processes Hurter had helped so ably and successfully were 

 without doubt doomed, if not to complete extinction, still to 

 a most serious crippling. Like other earnest workers, Hurter 

 had but tilled the soil from which others will reap a harvest ; and 

 although there is a feeling of sorrow in the thought that so 

 much genius, inventive talent and honest labour had been 

 expended in what seemed now a transient aim, still 



Der wer den Besten seiner Zeit genug gethan 

 Der hat gelebt fiir alle Zeiten. 



UNI VE RSI T Y AND ED UCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Mr A. Hutchinson, of Pembroke College, has 

 been reappointed Demonstrator in Mineralogy and Assistant- 

 Curator of the Museum of Mineralogy for a term of five years. 



Sir Walter Gilbey and Mr. Austin Keen have been appointed 

 additional members of the Board of Agricultural Studies. 



Mr. H. Woods, of St. John's College, is to be appointed a 

 University lecturer in Palseozoology. He has hitherto held the 

 post of demonstrator in this subject at the Woodwardian 

 Museum. 



The awards of entrance scholarships have been made at the 

 two groups of Colleges, the first comprising Trinity, Clare and 

 Trinity Hall, the second Pembroke, Caius, King's, Jesus, 

 Christ's, St. John's and Emmanuel. One hundred and seven- 

 teen scholarships and exhibitions have been given ; of these 23 

 are for mathematics, 28 for natural science, and 49 for classics. 

 The value of these scholarships varies from 80/. to 40/. a year, 

 that of the exhibitions from 50/. to 20/. a year. 



Negotiations have been proceeding with the authorities of 

 Mason College and King Edward's Foundation relative to the 

 provision of a remodelled system of commercial education in 

 Birmingham. It is expected that the charter of the new Univer- 

 sity for Birmingham will be granted early next year, and that there 

 will be a faculty of commerce in connection therewith. 



