5i8 



NA TURE 



[April 2, 1903 



Prof. W. P. Ker, Lord Lindley, Sir A. Lvall, Prof. W. R. 

 Morfill, Dr. A. S. Murray, Prof. J. S. Nicholson, Dr. G. W. 

 Prothero, the Very Rev. Dr. J. Armitage Robinson (Dean 

 ol Westminster), Dr. G. F. Stout. The number of the 

 fellows is thus raised from forty-eight to seventy. 



The complimentary banquet given to Sir William White 

 on Thursday last, March 20, by the presidents, vice-presi- 

 dents, and members of council of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the In- 

 stitution of Electrical Engineers, the Institution of Naval 

 Architects, and the Iron and Steel Institute was a function 

 to which we refer with pleasure. The leading representa- 

 tives of engineering science and practice in this country were 

 present, and the assembly showed the high appreciation in 

 which the work Sir William White lias done for the 

 country and the Navy is held by those wdio are best able to 

 judge its value. It is not often that five scientific or en- 

 gineering societies unite to do honour to one of their members 

 in this way, but the example might well be followed more 

 frequently. Men who have devoted their lives to the progress 

 of pure and applied science ought to be made to feel that 

 their fellow-workers respect and admire their labours. The 

 public recognition of Sir William White's services on Thurs- 

 day last has therefore been noticed with satisfaction by many 

 who were not present at the banquet. 



During the past week the British Islands have been vi sited 

 by a succession of the barometric depressions which have 

 been prevalent for some weeks, and have occasioned .1 per- 

 sistent continuance ol mild south-westerly winds, with day 

 and night temperatures considerably above the average. On 

 Wednesday, .March 25, the Metropolis and southern parts of 

 England experienced thunderstorms, and thunder and light- 

 ning occurred on succeeding days in various parts of the 

 country. At Greenwich a temperature of 68° in the shade 

 led, which is the highesl registered in Man li since 

 1894, and the reports issued by the Meteorological Office 

 show that the temperature reached 65° at Oxford, 79° at 

 Paris, and Si° at Biarritz. A peculiar feature of tin- ab- 

 normal temperature was that tin- highest readings occurred 

 during the evening; a correspondent at Cambridge writes 

 that he recorded 63° at 7ft. 30m. p.m. In the neighbour- 

 hood of London, a reading oi 68° was recorded at 8h. p.m. ; 

 this temperature is about 27 above the average, and fully 5 

 above the average evening summer readings. The clouds 

 bore a somewhat unusual appearance, known as mammato- 

 cumulus, or festoon-clouds. 



The following are among the lecture arrangements at the 

 Royal Institution after Easter : — Prof. Allan Macfadyen, 

 three lectures on the blood and some of its problems: Prof. 

 G. H. Darwin, two lectures on the astronomical influence 'it 

 the tides (the Tyndall lectures) ; Prof. E. J. Garwood, two 

 lectures on the work of ice as a geological agent ; Prof. 

 Dewar, three lectures on hydrogen: gaseous, liquid and 

 solid ; Prof. S. 11. Vines, two lectures on proteid-digestion in 

 plants; Prof. J. A. Fleming, two lectures on electric reson- 

 ance and wireless telegraph) ; and Prof. S. P. Thompson, 

 two lectures on the " De Magnete " and its author, (1) the 

 book, (2) the man. The Friday evening meetings will be 

 resumed on April 24, when a discourse will be given by the 

 Hon. R. J. Strutt on some recent investigations on electrical 

 conduction ; succeeding discourses will probably be given by 

 Prof. William J. Pope, Dr. D. H. Scott, the Prince oi 

 Monaco, and other-. 



The Italian Senate has approved a Bill for the construction 

 powerful radiographic station on the Marconi system. 



no. 1744, vol. 67] 



In the House of Commons on Monday, Sir J. Leng asked 

 the Postmaster-General whether, in view of the fact that the 

 Admiralty have come to an arrangement for the adoption of 

 Marconi's system of wireless telegraphy, he would state what 

 hindrance there is, if any, to the Telegraph Department 

 giving the same facilities lor transmitting Marconigrams 

 over the public wires as are given to the cable companies, 

 and can he state the present position of the negotiations. In 

 reply Mr. Austen Chamberlain said : " I am prepared, on 

 proof to my satisfaction that the company are in a position to 

 deal satisfactorily with the business handed to them, subject 

 to their compliance with certain conditions required in the 

 public interest, to give them the necessary facilities for the 

 transmission of telegrams to and from Poldhu station. I am 

 in communication with the company and other departments 

 on the subject." 



The electrification of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Rail- 

 way between Liverpool and Southport is nearly finished, and 

 the lines will be opened on the new system during the pre- 

 sent year. Thirty-two miles of feeders, which are to be 

 worked at a pressure of 10,000 volts, have been made by- 

 Messrs. Glover, of Manchester, and have just passed the 

 factory tests at 60,000 volts. Messrs. Dick, Kerr and Co. 

 are the engineers for the work. 



The first two trains constructed for the electrification of 

 the Metropolitan District Railway have been delivered at 

 South Harrow, and are being fitted with their electrical 

 equipment. The new- line from South Harrow to Ealing is 

 being used experimentally for trial runs and so forth, power 

 being supplied by a small station which has been specially 

 built. The cars of the new trains are built somewhat on 

 the same lines as those of the Central London Railway, the 

 seats being along the sides instead of transversal. Elec- 

 tric. d heating apparatus is installed beneath the seat-. A 

 train will be made up of seven cars, three of which, the two 

 end ones and the middle, will be motor cars; this arrange- 

 ment allows (he trains to be divided into smaller units at 

 periods of light traffic. Each car has a sealing capacity of 

 fifty, so that a complete train will carry 350 passengers in 

 comfort, and probably as many again during busy hours, 

 standing along the central gangway. At present no dis- 

 tinction of class has been made, and it is said that the com- 

 pany proposes to fix a uniform rate of 2UI. for any distance. 

 The large generating station in Chelsea is as yet by no 

 means finished, so it will probably be some time before the 

 electrification is completed. 



Proi . Fleming, in his final lecture on wireless telegraphy 

 at the Society of Arts last week, dealt with the question of 

 interception of messages, and recounted the results of some 

 experiments he had made the week before at Poldhu. Two 

 series of messages were sent out from Poldhu, the one from 

 the large aerial used in Transatlantic signalling, and the 

 other from a small mast used for short distance experimental 

 work. Some of the messages were in cipher, and they were 

 all secret, being known only to Prof. Fleming; they w-ere 

 transmitted simultaneously, and received at the station at the 

 Lizard, where there were two receiving circuits, one tuned to 

 the large and the other to the small aerial. The messages 

 were sorted out perfectly and printed on separate Morse 

 tape-. The remainder of the lecture was devoted to a com- 

 parison between the Marconi and other syntonic systems, and 

 to a consideration of some of the unsolved problems of wire- 

 less telegraphy. The lecturer pointed out that one fault of 

 lh.' receiving apparatus lay in the fact that it was unable to 

 indicate the direction from which the received radiations 

 were coming, or to give anv gauge of its distance, thus 

 making it impossible to localise the source. 



