March i6, 1905J 



NA TURE 



465 



(.: a gale such as would just blow a kite line from 

 ship to shore needs reconsideration. 



Little has been published about Prof. Langley's 

 experiments beyond a reference to the accident which 

 gave Prof. Manley a premature bath in the Potomac. 



The idea of combining a glider and boat was tried 

 initially with success and ultimately with failure by 

 Herr Kress on a reservoir a few miles out of Vienna, 

 near the main railway line from Germany. Major 

 Baden-Powell has adopted the same plan at the 

 Crystal Palace. The machine descends a kind of 

 chute from a height of about thirty feet, and is shot 

 off into the air about six feet above the water. With 

 this small height it is not unlikely that successful 

 glides might be made even if the steady motion were 

 longitudinally unstable, for by careful projection 

 several wave-lengths might safely be described in 

 the air before the pitching became dangerous. 



It is probable that a motor driven machine 

 travelling at high speed would be much more stable 

 than a gravity machine, but to understand the 

 management of the machine is a necessary condition 

 of success, and the more this can be made the subject 

 of mathematical study the easier will the task be for 

 an aeronaut who is perfectly familiar with the equa- 

 tions of motion. In regard to the effect of speed on 

 stability, the pretty butterfly-like " helicoptera " 

 driven by elastic must not be quoted as instances. 

 They raise themselves nearly vertically ; we are 

 concerned with machines moving nearly horizontally. 

 From all that has been said above it will be seen 

 that there is plenty of work to be done in connection 

 with aerial navigation. At the present time, careful 

 quantitative measurements of the coefficients of 

 stability of actual machines by attaching them to 

 whirling tables are even more needed than further 

 balancing e.xperiments in mid-air. 



G. H. Bryan. 



PHAISTOS AND HAGIA TRIADA, CRETE. 



IN the south of Central Crete, a day's journey from 

 Candia on a good horse, lies the scene of dis- 

 coveries no less important than those of Dr. A. J. 

 Evans at Knossos. The;' consist of the ruins of two 

 palaces, one large and one small, but both built on 

 the same general plan and with the same materials 

 (stone and concrete) as that which has made Dr. 

 Evans famous. There can be no doubt that all three 

 belong to one age and one social system ; that they 

 were under one Government is clear from the fact 

 that none of the three were fortresses. Crete was, 

 in fact, as Thucydides told us long ago, a sea-power 

 which had no fear of assault by land. With the 

 architectural or historical interest of these remains 

 we need not concern ourselves at present, nor with 

 the general character of the articles found in them. 

 In all three we meet with vessels of use and ornament, 

 painted frescoes, inscribed blocks or tablets, seals, 

 human and animal figures, and articles of domestic 

 or religious character. But in or near Hagia Triada 

 there came to light a number of objects of special 

 interest which distinguish that palace, smallest of 

 the three, above the others. 



First there is a sarcophagus of stone, painted upon 

 all four sides. Each of the two ends bears a chariot 

 in which are two female figures ; a pair of horses 

 draws one, a pair of griffins the other. The two sides 

 bear a representation of sacrifice to the dead. Men 

 leading animals — bull, goat, or sheep — women with 

 baskets of fruit, others with bowls apparently full of 

 wine or some other liquid, which is being poured 

 into a large jar; a flutist and a harper, playing upon 



NO. 1846, VOL. 71] 



a lyre of seven strings (which are therefore older 

 than Terpander by a thousand years); men carrying 

 animals in their arms ; and lastly the dead man 

 himself, standing beside a tree before his own tomb 

 and receiving the pious offerings. .\ most noteworthy 

 fact in this representation is that the men wear 

 women's skirts. 



Next come three vases of steatite, each bearing a 

 scene carved in relief. The workmanship of these 

 carvings is astonishing for its finish, and the designs 

 are full of life, reminding us not distantly of good 

 .Vttic work. On one vase a couple of youths stand face 

 to face, one leaning upon a spear or staff, the other 

 bearing over his shoulders a staff and a whisk of some 

 sort. Both are naked, save for the familiar loincloth 

 of the Mycenajans (which the Greeks never wore, ex- 

 cept in the very earliest times at the Olympian games), 

 and high boots of the same kind which are still worn 

 in Crete and always have been. The second vase repre- 

 sents several pairs of men, some wrestling and some 

 boxing, and a bull-hunt or bull-baiting. The boxers 

 have their hands bound about with straps of leather, 

 or something like a fingerless glove. Some of these 

 men wear helmets, which in part at least seem to be 

 made of metal; and helmets hitherto have been un- 

 dreamt of at this period. 



But the last vase is the most striking of all. It 

 bears a procession of men marching two and two, led 

 bv a personage clad in a stiff bell-shaped tunic covered 

 with scales. He is bareheaded and carries a long 

 staff or sceptre resting upon his shoulder. The men 

 behind him wear flat caps something like to a turban, 

 and loincloths, and each carries over his left shoulder 

 a long pole branching out into three long flexible 

 wands at the end. In the middle of the procession 

 are four men singing, one bearing the sistntm of 

 Isis; these have no wands. Some see in this a 

 triumphal procession of soldiers after war. The lack 

 of arms or shields makes this unlikely; the three- 

 pronged objects can hardly be weapons, for they seem 

 to be flexible, but what they are it is impossible to 

 say. Those are more likely to be right who believe 

 it to be a harvest festival of some kind, and the three- 

 pronged implement an implement used in some 

 harvesting process. If we may assume that these 

 objects have no use at all, but are ornamental (which 

 is not likely), the whole might be a religious procession 

 without regard either to war or husbandry. 



NOTES. 



The Bakerian lecture of the Royal Society will be 

 delivered by Dr. Horace T. Brown, F.R.S., on March 23, 

 upon the subject of " The Reception and Utilisation of 

 Energy by the Green Leaf." 



It is proposed to erect in Jena a memorial to Prof. Ernst 

 Abbe, so that all who see it may be reminded of his great 

 services to optical science and industry, and his sterling 

 qualities as a .man. Abbe's work and influence are ap- 

 preciated wherever physical science and sociology are 

 studied, and there should be no difficulty in obtaining 

 sufficient funds to raise a noble monument to his memory. 

 The committee organised for this purpose includes the 

 names of Dr. Czapski, Dr. Eggeling, Dr. G. Fischer, 

 Prof. Rosenthal, and Prof. Winkelmann. Subscriptions for 

 the memorial should be sent to the treasurer. Dr. Gustav 

 Fischer, Jena. 



Science states that the Prussian .Academy of Science has 

 awarded its Helmholtz medal to Prof. Ramon y Cajal, 

 professor of neurology at Madrid. 



