March 12, 1903] 



NATURE 



443 



an editorial committee, consisting of a representative of 

 the Acactemie Franchise ; M. Leopold Delisle, repre- 

 senting the Acad<§mie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres ; 

 M. Berthelot, representing the Acad£mie des Sciences; M. 

 Jules Guiffrey, representing the Acad^mie des Beaux Arts; 

 and M. R. Dareste, representing the Acaddmie des Sciences 

 Morales et Politiques. M. Henri Deh^rain is secretary of 

 the committee. 



Mount Vesuvius is reported to be in a state of eruption 

 and to be ejecting scoriae and incandescent masses which 

 explode. 



Mr. T. H. Holland has been appointed director of the 

 Geological Survey of India, in succession to Mr. C. L. 

 Griesbach, who has retired. 



A severe and prolonged earthquake is reported to have 

 occurred in the island of Dominica on March 7. An earth- 

 quake shock has also been felt at Aquila, sixty miles north- 

 east of Rome. 



A Reuter's despatch from Mexico announces another 

 eruption of the volcano Colima on the morning of March 6, 

 this being the most violent yet recorded. The eruption was 

 accompanied by showers of ash, dense clouds darkened the 

 sky, and there were deep subterranean roars. Shocks of 

 earthquake were felt at intervals along the west coast. It 

 is reported that ashes have fallen in great quantities at 

 Uruapan, a hundred miles distant. 



A Reuter's message reports that earthquake shocks were 

 felt in the Saxon district of Vogtland and the Erzgebirge 

 on March 5 and March 6. At Graslitz, some twenty miles 

 to the west of Karlsbad, the inhabitants left their houses 

 and passed the night in the streets. The tremors were felt 

 as far as Plauen, Reichenbach and Zwickau, situated within 

 a radius of twenty-five to thirty miles to the north of Gras- 

 litz. At Unter-Sachsenberg, in the Zwickau district, the 

 houses trembled for several seconds. Great excitement pre- 

 vailed at Karlsbad and Asch, where shocks were also 

 experienced, although they were of a less violent character. 



On March 4 Dr. M. W. Travers gave a lecture before the 

 University College Chemical and Physical Society on " The 

 Attainment of Low Temperatures." An account of the 

 various methods of liquefying gases was given. The 

 simplest case of all, where a gas such as sulphur dioxide 

 can be liquefied by the' application of pressure alone, was 

 first experimentally shown. Those cases in which intense 

 cold as well as pressure is needed were next considered ; of 

 the methods used in such cases the principle of adiabatic 

 expansion as used by Olszewski to liquefy oxygen and 

 hydrogen was explained and experimentally demonstrated. 

 By this means, however, very little more than a mist of 

 liquefied gas can be obtained. The regenerative cooling pro- 

 cess first successfully applied by Hampson in England and 

 Linde' in Germany was then described, and a brief account 

 was given of its application to the liquefaction of hydrogen 

 by the lecturer. Dr. Travers also described in detail 

 his latest form of hydrogen Iiquefier, in which the regener- 

 ative cooling is practically perfect, and the escaping 

 hydrogen is only one or two degrees below the air tempera- 

 ture. During the lecture the solidification of hydrogen was 

 repeated, and a spectrum tube was filled with helium and 

 neon by solidifying everything but helium and neon from 

 a sample of air by means of liquid hydrogen. 



In December last several gentlemen engaged in various 

 departments of scientific work in Newcastle-upon-Tyne met 

 to consider the possibility of enabling local workers in science 



no. 1 74 1, vol. 67] 



to meet together in a less formal manner than is possible 

 at the ordinary meetings of the various scientific and 

 technical societies, and resolved to establish a club " to 

 serve as a social meeting place for men interested, pro- 

 fessionally or otherwise, in scientific Work." Such a club 

 has now been established under the name of " The Northern 

 Scientific Club " ; a club room has been engaged, and in- 

 formal meetings are held every Saturday evening. At the 

 first annual meeting the Hon. C. A. Parsons, F.R.S., was 

 elected president, Mr. F. T. Marshall chairman of com- 

 mittee, and Messrs. F. C. Garrett and T. Hanning hon. 

 secretaries. Nothing but good can result from such a 

 mingling of the professor and the works manager, and 

 from the bringing into more friendly relationship men 

 connected with different branches of science. The new club 

 should become an important and useful institution in New- 

 castle. 



The Agricultural Organisation Society has arranged a 

 conference on agricultural cooperation to be held at Uni- 

 versity College, Reading, on Saturday, March 21, under 

 the presidency of the Lord Lieutenant of Berks, Mr. J. 

 Herbert Benyon. 



A meeting in commemoration of the tercentenary of the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth will be held at the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society on March 23. Addresses will be delivered 

 by the president, Sir Clements Markham, K.C.B., Mr. 

 Edmund Gosse (Raleigh), Mr. Julian Corbett (Drake), 

 Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S. (William Gilbert and 

 terrestrial magnetism), and others. There will also be an 

 Elizabethan exhibition of portraits, globes, maps, atlases, 

 instruments, navigation books and various relics. 



A Reuter message from Brisbane, dated March 10, states 

 that a disastrous storm has visited Townsville. The damage 

 done by the storm is estimated at 200,000*. The town is 

 practically wrecked. 



The Postmaster-General has appointed the following 

 delegates to represent this country at the International 

 Telegraph Conference to be held in London at the end of 

 May :— Mr. J. C. Lamb, C.B., C.M.G., Mr. John Ardron, 

 Mr. P. Benton, Mr. R. J. Mackay, and Mr. F. W. Home. 



The Post Office authorities have agreed to connect the 

 Marconi wireless telegraph station at Poldhu, Cornwall, 

 with the Post Office station at Falmouth. Though this 

 will facilitate the transmission of ethergrams, it represents 

 but a slight concession to the requirements of Mr. Marconi, 

 inasmuch as the Marconi messages will, at Falmouth, 

 have to take their turn with ordinary messages, which, in 

 the case of commercial communications, might result in 

 serious delay. The company has for some time past been 

 urging the Department to grant it the same facilities 

 which other cable companies enjoy — viz. that a cable may 

 be handed in at any post office and transmitted by the 

 Marconi system at an inclusive charge, and negotiations 

 with this object are still proceeding. 



The use of wireless telegraphy for communication between 

 lightships and lighthouses and the shore was referred to at 

 the annual meeting of the Royal National Lifeboat Institu- 

 tion on March 5 by Lord Charles Beresford. Mr. Gerald 

 Balfour, M.P., in his remarks upon the matter, said it 

 naturally took time to deal with the question of the adoption 

 of wireless telegraphy, owing to the fact of private and 

 other interests being involved, but he assured the meeting 

 that the question was receiving the careful attention of the 

 Board of Trade, and he hoped it would not be long before 

 such communication as that suggested by Lord Charles 

 Beresford would be effected. 



