422 



NA TURE 



[March 5, 1903 



of about 5 centimetres by means of a Fleuss pump. To illus- 

 trate the differences obtained in measuring the same temper- 

 ature with thermometers filled with different gases, Dr. 

 Travers concluded by giving his results for the boiling point 

 of oxygen and hydrogen on the scale of various thermo- 

 meters : — 



Oxygen B.P. (He) 9 o°'20, (H) 9 o°-io, (N) 8 9 °- 5 , (O) 8 9 °o 

 Hydrogen B.P. (He) 20°'4i, (H) 20°-22. 



These results are in agreement with Prof. Calendar's calcu- 

 lations based on a consideration of the physical properties 

 of hydrogen and helium, according to which the boiling 

 point of hydrogen on the absolute scale should be o°i lower 

 than the boiling point as given by a hydrogen thermometer 

 and o°'i higher than that given by a helium thermometer. 



During the past week the British Islands have been 

 visited by a succession of disastrous gales from the Atlantic, 

 accompanied by tremendous seas. The most destructive 

 storm was that of February 27, the centre of which advanced 

 quickly from the south-westward, and was central over 

 Scotland on the morning of that day. The barometer fell 

 there for nearly twelve hours at the rate of more than a 

 tenth of an inch an hour. It was during this gale that a 

 railway train was capsized on the Leven viaduct, near 

 Ulverston, and the havoc to telegraph wires was so great 

 that the Meteorological Office was unable to issue any 

 weather forecasts. At Southport during a squall the wind 

 reached a velocity of ninety-two miles an hour, and at Green- 

 wich, which was more than 300 miles from the centre of 

 the disturbance, a pressure of 33 lb. to the square foot was 

 registered in the early morning. Other disturbances have 

 followed very quickly from the Atlantic, and a renewal of 

 the gales, with heavy rains, has occurred over the entire 

 kingdom. 



We have received the German Meteorological Yearbook 

 for i 9 oi, issued by the Deutsche Seewarte — the twenty-fourth 

 volume of the new series of the publication — containing 

 daily observations and results for a large number of stations 

 and hourly readings at four normal stations. There is 

 considerable advantage in the German system of publica- 

 tion, which ensures uniformity in the meteorological volumes 

 issued by various States. We are glad to see that the 

 anemometrical values are expressed in terms of the revised 

 and reduced factor, instead of that originally determined by 

 Dr. Robinson, which assumes that the velocity of the wind 

 moves with three times that of the anemometer cups. In an 

 appendix Dr. H. Konig discusses the sunshine records ob- 

 tained from various stations. 



The Journal des Transports reports that the Governor- 

 General of French West Africa has recently sent out a 

 surveying party to trace out a new railway in Senegal, be- 

 tween Thies and Kayes. The line will be about 466 miles 

 in length. 



Messrs. Worms and Co., writing to the Times of Feb- 

 ruary 26, give the translation of a letter which they have 

 received from the French Under-Secretary of State for Posts 

 and Telegraphs, in which it is stated that a fresh Franco- 

 English Telephonic Convention has just been signed which 

 will permit of telephonic communication between the two 

 countries being extended to provincial towns. The existing 

 convention only authorises communications between Paris 

 and London, but as soon as the new convention has received 

 the approval of the authorities in both countries, this limita- 

 tion will be removed. This extension, we do not doubt, will 

 be cordially welcomed by the public on both sides of the 

 Channel. 



NO. 174O, VOL. 67] 



According to the Westminster Gazette a conference on 

 railway electrification is now being held, at which all the 

 great railways are represented. The main object of the 

 conference is to secure uniformity in electrical plant, so that 

 the rolling stock of the various companies shall be able to 

 travel indiscriminately over any of the lines. Such details 

 as the distance between centre and side rails, design of 

 motors and locomotives and so forth are being considered, 

 and in addition many other points in relation to the electrifi- 

 cation of steam railways. It seems that the railways are 

 awakening to the necessity of immediate reform, especially 

 in running their suburban lines. The object of the con- 

 ference is very important, and one which we have empha- 

 sised on several occasions in these columns. 



Sir Oliver Lodge is well known to have been one of the 

 pioneers in wireless telegraphic work, both on the theo- 

 retical and practical side ; to him belongs the credit of 

 having been the first to suggest the use of tuned systems, 

 and he devised, and published many years ago, methods by 

 which syntony might be practically attained. In addition 

 to this his work on the coherer is not likely to be forgotten. 

 We are glad to learn, .therefore, that he has been engaged, 

 in conjunction with Dr. Muirhead, in perfecting his apparatus 

 for both transmitting and receiving, and that the system has 

 now reached a thoroughly practical form. The Eastern 

 Extension Telegraph Co. is experimenting with the Lodge- 

 Muirhead apparatus on its two new cable ships, the 

 Restorer and the Patrol. 



The daily papers last week contained announcements of 

 three new inventions of a revolutionary character in the 

 field of wireless telegraphy. The first relates to an invention 

 by Mr. P. C. Hewitt, the inventor of the vapour lamp 

 recently described in these columns, who, it is stated, has 

 devised a method of setting up powerful and continuous 

 oscillations in the transmitting mast ; no particulars are 

 given. The other two are of a more sensational character, 

 and relate to the transmission of power by ether waves. 

 Prof. Braun, it is said, has declared that he sees no furlher 

 difficulty in principle, and even no serious technical obstacle 

 to the wireless transmission of power, and Mr. T. H. 

 Williams is credited by the Westminster Gazette with having 

 worked out a wireless method of running electric motor- 

 cars which only requires further experiment and more 

 capital to be made commercially practicable. Until more 

 definite particulars are published as to these systems it will 

 be necessary to suspend judgment upon them. 



No. is 9 of the Journal of the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers, which has just been issued, contains several in- 

 teresting papers. These include Mr. Swinburne's presi- 

 dential address, Sir Oliver Lodge's paper on electrons — 

 which is considerably expanded from the spoken address — ■ 

 and Messrs. Hutton and Petavel's paper on high temper- 

 ature electrochemistry ; to these we have already referred in 

 these columns. The greater part of the remaining space 

 is filled by Prof. Fleming's paper on the photometry of 

 electric lamps and the discussion to which it gave rise. 

 Prof. Fleming, in this paper, describes a new form of 

 standard incandescent lamp made by enclosing an " aged " 

 filament in a large bulb, which he states answers very well 

 as a working standard. The paper also deals with some 

 of the many problems which photometry presents, and with 

 the discussion, in which Mr. Harcourt, Dr. Glazebrook, Sir 

 W. Abney, Mr. Trotter, Prof. Ayrton, M. Violle and Mr. 

 J. Petavel took part amongst others, forms a most valuable 

 contribution to the subject from both the theoretical and 

 practical sides. 



