June 4, 1914] 
Fleming on recent scientific research in telephony. 
It is a description of the practical developments 
which have been the outcome of mathematical inves- 
tigations (originated in the first place by Mr. Oliver 
Heaviside) into the effect of inductance in telephone 
circuits, followed much later by painstaking 
experiment and trials on a _ large scale. A 
quarter of a century ago, Heaviside’s insistence 
that the solution of the problem of long-distance tele- 
phony lay in the distribution of inductance throughout 
the line met with a cold reception by the engineering 
department of the Post Office. Heaviside would do 
no more than expound his theory in his own way, and 
with his own mathematical notation, leaving its de- 
velopment to the “practicians’’; but the practicians 
of those days were lacking either in the ability or 
the inclination to study his writings. It is one of the 
saddest things in the history of British science that 
Heaviside’s work should then have been regarded as 
possessing no more than an academic value, and that 
his suggestions did not take practical effect in this 
country until they had been revived by an American 
many years later, and sent back to us as a new in- 
vention. Prof. Fleming clearly explains the present 
application of distributed inductance in enabling us 
to telephone over enormous distances; he describes 
the ‘‘phantom”’ circuit which permits two pairs of 
lines to be employed for three conversations simul- 
taneously; he has remembered to mention the effect of 
reflection at junctions between overhead and under- 
ground lines, and concludes with a plea for further 
systematic investigation; but he has forgotten one 
thing : Oliver Heaviside’s name does not appear once 
in the article. 
Tue June issue of the catalogue of Mr. Francis 
Edwards, 83 High Street, Marylebone, London, W., 
is concerned with miscellaneous literature, and gives 
a clearance list of second-hand books in a great variety 
of subjects. The sections dealing with alpine studies, 
birds, and general natural history are of special 
interest. 
Pror. WALTER RIPPMANN, who has been for some 
time actively associated with the movement for spell- 
ing reform, asks us to state that though he could 
subscribe to most of what is said in the review of 
Mr. Archer Wilde’s ‘‘Sounds and Signs,” signed 
“W. R.,” in Nature of May 28, the review should 
not be attributed to him. 
The following are among the forthcoming books of 
science announced by the Cambridge University 
Press :—The Royal Society’s Catalogue of Scientific 
Papers, vol. xili., covering the letters A and B; The 
Life, Letters, and Labours of Francis Galton, com- 
piled by Prof. Karl Pearson, 2 vols; The Philosophy 
of Biology, by Dr. J. Johnstone; Ancient India, by 
Prof. E. J. Rapson; English Follx-Song and Dance, 
by F. Kidson and M. Neal; Perception, Physics, and 
Reality, by C. D. Broad; Philosophy: What is it? 
by Dr. F. B. Jevons; Mechanical Drawing, by 
J. 'H: Dales.;’ Household. Seteaee,-by .C.:W. Hale; 
The Place-Names of Sussex, by R. G. Roberts; 
Geography of the British Isles, by Dr. Mort; Pond 
NATURE 
361 
| W. P. Westell; the Oxford University Press will pub- 
lish shortly The Oxford Survey of the British Empire, 
in six 8vo volumes, edited by Prof. A. J. Herbertson 
and Mr. O. J. R. Howarth, in collaboration with 
seventy-three contributors; and Messrs. Rivingtons 
give notice of A Course of Geometry—Theoretical and 
Practical, by A. H. Bell, and a cheaper edition of 
Machine Drawing and Design, by Dr. W. Ripper. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
Roratinc Nevut#.—In the Daily Mail of May 27 
the following cablegram addressed to Prof. Lowell 
was published :—“ Flagstaff, Arizona. Spectrograms 
show Virgo nebula rotating. Slipher.’’ Up to the 
time of writing no further information is at hand, and 
it is not certain which is the nebula in question. The 
discovery is one of extreme importance, because, 
although the majority of nebule are of the spiral 
form, and such shape suggests a motion round a 
centre, a direct determination of the velocity of move- 
ment puts this question of movement beyond doubt. 
The observation is a most delicate one and requires all 
the resources of modern instrumental equipment and 
the best of observing conditions. 
CottateD List oF Lunar Formations.—Seleno- 
graphers will welcome the issue of the collated list of 
lunar formations, named or lettered in the maps of 
Neison, Schmidt, and Madler, which has been com- 
piled and annotated by Miss M. A. Blagg, under the 
direction of the late Mr. S. A. Saunder. It was due 
to Mr. Saunder’s energy that a lunar nomenclature 
committee of the International Association of 
Academies was formed. Finding that lunar nomen- 
clature was in an unsatisfactory state he desired to 
remedy the defect by having a nomenclature adopted 
once and for all by universal assent. This publication 
therefore forms the basis on which the names of the 
formations can be adopted. The preparation of an 
accurate map of the moon in mean libration was also 
undertaken by Messrs. Saunder and Franz, and it is 
hoped that this chart will soon be completed. Prof. 
Turner, in the introduction to the volume, directs 
attention to the severe losses by death of the com- 
mittee, namely, Loewy, Newcomb, Saunder, and 
‘Franz, necessitating the nominal direction of it being 
placed in his hands. 
Tue Licut or Srars.—The March number of Le 
Radium, which reached us a few days ago, contains 
a paper by Dr. A. H. Pfund, of Johns Hopkins 
University, in which he describes some preliminary 
tests he has made of a new apparatus for measur- 
ing the light of a star. The work was done at the 
Allegheny Observatory, the Keeler 3o-in. reflector 
being used. In the focus of the telescope, either of 
two small blackened discs which formed the junctions 
of a thermo-circuit could be placed. The wires used 
for the thermo-element were alloys of bismuth and 
tin, and of antimony and bismuth respectively. They 
| were enclosed in an evacuated capsule closed at one 
end by a plate of fluorite and substituted for the eye- 
piece of the telescope. The thermo-current was 
measured by a moving-coil galvanometer. The sensi- 
tiveness of the arrangement was such that a candle 
at a distance of eight miles would give a deflection 
of one millimetre. The deflections obtained from 
celestial objects were: Vega, 7-5; Jupiter, 3:0; Altair, 
2.0 mm. The author hopes by using a more sensitive 
galvanometer and other materials for his thermo- 
elements, to increase the sensitiveness considerably, 
and in this way to open up a new field of astrophysical 
Problems, by E. E. Unwin, and Bird Studies, by | research. 
Nies2 327, VOL. 93) 
