i84 



NA rURE 



[DeCEMHKK 22, 1904 



statistics relating to British colonies and dependencies, and 

 replies to numerous meteorological inquiries from all 

 sources ; (4) the discussion of automatic registers received 

 from the observatories and other stations in connection with 

 the office. The library contains weather maps and other 

 publications received from all parts of the world, and these 

 are available to all persons wishing to consult them. 



Part x. of the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture 

 of Jamaica contains an interesting article by Mr. H. H. 

 Cousins, the Government chemist, on the possibility of 

 manufacturing starch from cassava on such a scale as to 

 undersell German potato starch in the English market. 

 The high proportion of starch in cassava makes the latter 

 twice as valuable as the potato as a raw material, and 

 cassava has the additional advantage that it is not liable 

 to fungoid diseases such as produce extraordinary variations 

 in the annual potato crop in Germany. The seasons of its 

 growth and harvest are, moreover, perfectly unrestricted. 



Some apparatus left by the late M. F41ix Worms de 

 Romilly has been offered by the French Physical Society 

 for distribution to its members. 



The Association of Engineers of the School of Li^ge is 

 organising, under Government patronage, a congress of 

 mining, metallurgy, applied mechanics and geology, to be 

 held at Li^ge from June 26 to July i, 1905, on the occasion 

 of the Universal Exhibition. 



In the Physikalische Zcitschrift for December i Mr. 

 Hermann Bonin contributes an interesting report on steam 

 turbines, based on the writings of Stodola, Feldmann, 

 Gutermuth, and Boveri. In it the Laval, Curtis, Rateau, 

 Zolly, and Parsons turbines are figured, and their peculiar 

 features discussed. 



Prof. R. W. Wood contributes a paper on n-rays to the 

 Physikalische Zeitschrift for December, and suggests that 

 those experimenters who obtain positive and those who 

 obtain negative results should arrange to make a series of 

 joint experiments in the way that has been done in a similar 

 case by Cr^mieu and Pender. 



We have received a thesis by Messrs. H. C. Crowell and 

 G. C. D. Lenth on the " Doble " needle-regulating nozzle 

 for fire hoses and other jets. This nozzle is furnished with 

 a convergent mouth-piece in the centre of which is a 

 peculiarly shaped "needle," the effect of which on the 

 stream lines is to obviate the spraying noticeable with 

 ordinary jets, and thus to increase the efficiency. The paper 

 is printed by permission of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology. 



Prof. N. Umow contributes to Terrestrial Magnetism 

 and Applied Electricity an ingenious method of constructing 

 magnetic charts. It consists in developing the magnetic 

 potential in a series of spherical harmonics, and represent- 

 ing on a Mercator's chart the poles of the various harmonics 

 and curves showing their zeros and so forth. The advantage 

 of this system is that instead of drawing a large number 

 of magnetic curves, it is possible to convey more exact 

 information by drawing a comparatively small number of 

 curves indicating the various terms in Gauss's expansion. 



In a paper read before the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers on November 18 Messrs. A. E. Seaton and 

 A. Jude emphasise the need of testing materials which are 

 to be subjected to rapidly repeated or to alternating loads 

 by other methods than by merely determining the tensile 

 strength and elastic limit. A form of apparatus is described 

 by means of which the ability of a notched bar of the 

 NO. 1834, VOL. 71 J 



material to withstand impact can be measured, and it is 

 shown that although a high tensile strength may be accom- 

 panied by a small resistance to shock, a bar which responds 

 satisfactorily to the impact test always has sufficient tensile 

 strength and elasticity. The best results as regards resist- 

 ance to shock are obtained with those steels which contain 

 only a small proportion of carbon, an extraordinarily rapid 

 increase of brittleness occurring with an increase in the- 

 percentage of carbon. The line of fracture of the metal 

 follows the direction of the ferrite and avoids the perlite. 

 Oil quenching has the effect of increasing the shock strengtlv 

 of steel to a value which is 500 per cent, to 600 per cent, 

 greater than that of the natural steel in its best condition. 



.\ NEW and revised edition of stage iii. of Mr. Vincent T. 

 Murch^'s " Object Lessons in Elementary Science based 

 on the Scheme issued by the London School Board " has- 

 been issued by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. 



In the November, 1904, issue of the Central, the magazine 

 of the Central Technical College Old Students' Association, 

 Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S., continues his papers on the- 

 mechanism of combustion, and there is an illustrated de- 

 scription of the Manhattan railway power station of New 

 York, contributed by Mr. W. A. Del Mar. 



In addition to the enumeration of classes and other 

 administrative matter, the Johns Hopkins University 

 Circular for November, 1904, contains one or two original 

 papers. Among these may be mentioned one by Prof. 

 W. B. Clark on the Matawan formation of Maryland, 

 Delaware, and New Jersey, and its relations to overlying- 

 and underlying formations. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction 

 for Ireland has issued a pamphlet entitled " Notes for 

 Manual Instructors." Manual instruction is comparatively 

 new in Ireland ; the conditions are different from those in 

 other countries, and there are initial difficulties to be over- 

 come. For these reasons the notes here brought together 

 should be of real assistance to teachers of the subject. 



A COPY of an almanac for the year 1905, compiled at the 

 offices of the Egyptian Survey Department, and published 

 by the National Printing Department at Cairo, has been 

 received. The almanac provides full particulars of the dates 

 of all the important meetings of the various Government 

 departments, and gives information on points in connection 

 with the Government regulations which should be of service 

 to tourists and residents. 



In view of the largely increased facilities provided within 

 the past few years by the publication departments of various 

 institutions, and more especially by the Carnegie Institution, 

 for the promotion of original research with its incident 

 publications, the Wagner Free Institute of Science, Phila- 

 delphia, has decided to discontinue for the present its work 

 in this department, and to devote its energies more ex- 

 clusively to other purposes indicated by its founder. 



We have received a copy of the " Guide to the Archives 

 of the Government of the United States in Washinigton," 

 just published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 

 The guide was begun by Mr. C. H. Van Tyne and Mr. 

 W. G. Leland, and completed by the newly organised Bureau 

 of Historical Research. The original purpose of the guide 

 was to gather information of the whereabouts of important 

 historical materials, but as the work proceeded it was found 

 desirable carefully to deal with all administrative records. 

 The work, in fact, developed into a survey of all the 

 branches, bureaus, and divisions of the Federal Government 

 in Washington. 



