January i, igoj] 



NA TURE 



20; 



perseverance and endeavour in the face of difficulties, 

 opposition and adverse criticism that would have daunted 

 many. Great indeed as the advances in wireless tele- 

 graphy have been when regarded simply as advances in 

 applied science, few things are more remarkable than 

 the rapidity with which they have been made. It is less 

 than ten years since the first experiments were made in 

 the application of Hertz waves to signalling. Mr. 

 Marconi himself began work a few years later— in 1896. 

 In that year he was able to transmit signals over a dis- 

 tance of a mile or so, and ever since he has been steadily 

 increasing the limit until, about one year ago, it was 

 announced that the signal " S " had been transmitted 

 from Cornwall to America. Many who were sceptical 

 of this result at the time must have been convinced of 

 its genuineness when a little later (last March) messages 

 were transmitted to the Philadelphia up to a distance of 

 1551 miles from land and the signal "S " transmitted to 

 a distance of 2099 miles. Following on this came the 

 cruise of the Carlo Alberto during July, August and 

 September last, when extremely successful results were 

 obtained over great stretches of land and water. Finally, 

 at the close of 1902, we have the inauguration of a com- 

 plete Transatlantic system with transmission of messages 

 in both directions. No one can consider this as other 

 than a splendid record for six years' work. 



Little need be said of the stations on either side of the 

 Atlantic, since both have been already described and 

 illustrated in Nature (see vol. lxv. p. 416, and vol. lxvi. 

 p. 485). It is to be hoped that before long we shall be 

 able to record that both have been in continuous and 

 successful commercial working without producing any 

 ill effects on other installations. When this has been 

 accomplished, the problem of syntony remains to be 

 solved, and we wish Mr. Marconi the same complete 

 success in dealing with this problem as has crowned 

 his other efforts. Maurice Solomon. 



A SUB-TROPICAL SOLAR PHYSICS 

 OBSERVATORY. 



\A/E have received from a correspondent in America 

 ** the following letter by Prof. S. P. Lang ley, 

 secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, suggesting the 

 establishment of a great solar observatory in or near the 

 tropics. Referring to the practical value of such studies 

 of the sun as are suggested by Prof. Langley, our cor- 

 respondent remarks : — " It is an amazing thing that the 

 enormous utility of recent work on the sun's connection 

 with the conditions which bring famine or plenty to 

 India, for instance, is lost sight of by almost all 

 astronomers. Astronomers and astrophysicists, even, 

 are apt to look at it in its purely scientific interest, as if 

 it had none other than what it might share with the 

 discovery of the motion of a nebula." 



The letter sent by Prof. Langley to the Hon. Charles D. 

 Walcott, secretary of the Carnegie Institution, is given 

 in the report of the executive committee to the trustees 

 of the Carnegie Institution, published November 26, 

 1902, and reads as follows : — 



February 28, 1902. 



Dear Mr. Walcott, — You were saying to me that you 

 knew of some persons who might be desirous of aiding, through 

 the Smithsonian Institution, some large object, and I was led to 

 write you what is in substance the following letter : 



I learn from yours of February 14 that you would like to call 

 it to the attention of the executive committee of the Carnegie 

 Institution, and, as I have written, I shall be very glad to have 

 you do so, asking you to make it clear that it is in no way a 

 request from the Smithsonian Institution, but a suggestion from 

 me of a great object which Mr. Carnegie himsell may care to 

 take up. 



I do so the more readily because, considering the Institution 

 wholly apart from its own needs, it would be the glad means of 

 indicating to those who wish some worthy aim for expenditure, 



no. 1 73 1, vol. 67] 



some specific object, which may be undertaken if desired in 

 their own name and through any worthy medium they prefer. 



One of these is the determination of the heat the sun sends 

 the earth and the causes of its probable variation. The progress 

 of solar physics has been such in the last few years as to make 

 it of interest to every inhabitant of the planet that this progress 

 should be carried further, not only in scientific, but in economic, 

 and in even humanitarian interests. 



The establishment of a great observatory in the tropical or 

 sub-tropical regions at a high altitude would advance our know- 

 ledge of the heavenly bodies in a degree more than could be 

 done by all the physical observatories in the world united. To 

 the founder of such an observatory there would be enduring 

 fame, but it is an affair of a very great deal of money, possibly 

 to be reckoned only in millions. The establishment and 

 maintenance for eleven years of a distinctly solar observatory 

 under these conditions would enable us to study the sun as it 

 has never yet been studied, and through an entire solar cycle, 

 for much less cost. 



While this latter research, then, is to be pursued at less cost 

 than the foundation of a great general observatory, it has a 

 specific object of literally world-wide importance and interest. 



The determination of the heat the sun sends the earth 

 annually is the determination of that through which everything 

 on the planet lives and moves, and almost unknown slight 

 variations of this heat are the probable, if remote, cause of the 

 changing character of the seasons and of the lack or plenty in 

 the crops upon the earth as a whole. 



It has seemed possible within the last few years that if we 

 had this knowledge, the years of plenty and of famine could be 

 forecasted as we now forecast a coming storm through the 

 advices of the Weather Bureau. It is possible, I say, but I do 

 not wish to say more than that it is possible. 



I do not know any greater or more worthy object for the 

 expenditure of 500,000 dollars than the settlement of this latter 

 great question would be. It is, with our present knowledge, 

 almost a question of money ; but no Government is prepared to 

 spend such a sum except for its own interest. This is for the 

 interest of all the people in the whole world, and I entirely 

 concur with the recommendation of its importance from the 

 chief of the United States Weather Bureau, which I enclose. 

 I should gladly see it undertaken, whoever does it. 

 Very truly yours, 



S. P. Langley. 



The Honorable Charles D. Walcott. 



In a further letter, sent on October 20 to Prof. G. E. 

 Hale, who asked for details of the proposed scheme of 

 work and equipment, Prof. Langley described the 

 principal objects of inquiry of a distinctly solar obser- 

 vatory, the plan of observations, and apparatus and 

 accessories required. 



NOTES. 

 The management of the Imperial Institute will from 

 January 1 be vested in the Board of Trade, assisted by an 

 advisory committee representing various Government Depart- 

 ments and the Indian and Colonial Governments. The Board 

 of Trade has appointed Prof. Wyndham Dunstan, F.R.S.fnow 

 director of the scientific and technical department of the Insti- 

 tute), to be Director of the Imperial* Institute. Prof. Dunstan 

 will continue in charge of the scientific investigation of economic 

 products, and will supervise any other branches of work carried 

 on by the Board of Trade in the building at South Kensington, 

 including the collections of products of the Empire so far as 

 they will be under the control of the Board. These arrange- 

 ments do not affect the parts of the collections and the in- 

 formation offices under the special charge of representatives of 

 the India Office and of certain Colonial Governments. 



In consequence of the presentation of a memorial in favour o. 

 the admission of women to the fellowship of the Linnean 

 Society, the council issued a circular in March last inviting an 

 expression of opinion on the part of the whole body of fellows. 

 The result has been that 301 fellows have pronounced in favour 



