378 
IVA TROT 
| FEBRUARY 14, 1907 
In an illustrated article on ‘‘ Recent Progress in Wire- 
less Telephony,’’ by Prof. the Scientific 
Imerican of January 19, an account appears of a public 
Electric Signalling 
Fessenden, in 
demonstration given by the National 
Company at its Brant Rock and Plymouth stations, which 
are approximately eleven miles apart. During the demon- 
stration, not only speech, but also phonographic talking 
records and music were transmitted, and were all success- 
No 
extraneous noises of any kind were heard in the receiver, 
fully received with perfect clearness and distinctness. 
the wireless telephone being so far an advance on the 
The National Electric Signalling Com- 
pany has for some years past been working on various 
usual wire lines. 
devices to get rid of the extraneous noises which have until 
lately attended any system of wireless telephony. In the 
recent demonstration a specially designed dynamo was 
used in these tests capable of giving 80,000 alternations 
per second, but the usual number employed is from 50,000 
to 60,000. It is claimed that, as developed at present, the 
system is capable of maintaining communication between 
ships 100 to 150 miles apart, and wireless telephone 
messages are now being printed on their reception at the 
receiving station. A new telephone relay is said to have 
been invented for use in connection with the above system 
of wireless telephony, and a diagram of connections for 
this for talking between local exchanges is given, but no 
details of the relay itself are published. We can only 
hope that a fuller account of these experiments will shortly 
appear, and that further improvements will follow which, 
combined with the recent work of Mr. Poulsen and Prof. 
Slaby, will make wireless telephony of practical value. 
Messrs. Renan, Ltp., have published a translation, by 
Mr. H. W. Armit, of the fifth German edition of Prof, 
August Forel’s ‘‘ Hypnotism or Suggestion and Psycho- 
therapy.’’ The book is described in a subtitle as “A 
Study of the Psychological, Psycho-physiological and 
Therapeutic Aspects of Hypnotism,” and its price is 7s. 6d. 
net. 
A TRANSLATION, by Mr. F. Legge, of Dr. Gustave 
le Bon’s ‘‘ L’Evolution de la Matiére ’’ has been published 
by the Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd. The original 
volume was reviewed at length in our issue of September 
21, 1905 (vol. Ixxii., No. 1873), and reference may be 
made to that notice for information as to the subjects 
dealt with by the author. 
TRAVELLERS to the East will welcome the new guide- 
book by Mr. A. G. Plate, which Mr. Edward Stanford has 
published for the Norddeutscher Lloyd Company, of 
Bremen, under the title ‘“‘ A Cruise through Eastern Seas, 
being a Traveller's Guide to the Principal Objects of 
Interest in the Far East.’? The volume, with its profusion 
of illustrations and its interesting text, should soon become 
popular. Its price is 6s. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
_ Tne Frenca Ecripse Expepition.—From a message pub- 
lished in No. 5 (1907) of the Comptes rendus we learn 
that the French eclipse expedition under the direction of 
M. Milan Stefanik was unsuccessful owing to the fact 
that the sky was covered with clouds during the whole 
eclipse. It would thus appear that none of the official 
expeditions dispatched from Europe for this eclipse 
cbtained any photographs, for, as we noted previously, the 
German and Russian observers were equally unsuccessful. 
_THE SPEcTROscopic Binary o Lronis.—An_ interesting 
discussion of the system of o Leonis is published in No. 
4151 of the Astronomische Nachrichten by Herr W. 
NO. 1946, VOL. 75 | 
Zurhellen. The discussion is based on observations made 
with the spectrograph of the Bonn Observatory during 
April, 1905, and April, 1906. The results obtained from 
numerous lines of each of twelve plates measured are given 
separately, and then discussed as a whole. The apparent 
semi-axis of the relative path of the two components is 
found to be 0-15884 of the sun’s distance, whilst the masses 
of the components relative to the sun’s mass are 1-358 and 
1-185 respectively. 
Stars with Vartas_eE Rapiat VeLocities.—Licl Obsery- 
atory Bulletin No. 107 contains a number of radial-velocity 
results obtained at the Lick Observatory and by the D. O. 
Mills expedition to the southern hemisphere. The former 
set includes the discovery of eight spectroscopic binaries, 
the latter the discovery of four. 
The radial velocity of Antares is also discussed in the 
same bulletins A comparison of the earlier with the more 
recent spectrograms of this star afforded a strong indica- 
tion of variable velocity, which has been confirmed by new 
observations and the re-measurement of the old plates. 
A faint superimposed spectrum is indicated on some of 
the plates, but this is supposed to be due to the telescopic 
companion of Antares. 
Tue Recent Maximum oF Mira.—In the February 
number of Knowledge and Scientific News Mr. P. M. 
Ryves discusses a number of magnitude observations of 
Mira made during the rise to maximum brightness which 
took place in the latter part of 1906. The observational 
results, obtained on forty-two days between July 30, 1906, 
and January 10, 1907, showed that the magnitude on the. 
former date was about 9-0, whereas by October 17 it had 
reached 7-0. A more rapid rise in brightness then set in, 
so that by December 2 the second magnitude was attained, 
that is to say, the light was increased about one hundred- 
fold in less than fifty days. For the nineteen days between 
October 26 and November 14 the rise in brightness was 
particularly abrupt, the star passing from the sixth to 
the third magnitude. From Mr. Ryves’s results the actual 
maximum appears to have taken place about December 10, 
1906 (J.D. 2417555), when the recorded magnitude, on the 
Harvard scale, was 1-85. 
Tue Uniteo States Navat Orservatory.—The report of 
the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory, for the 
year ending June 30, 1906, follows the usual lines of its 
predecessors. Rear-Admiral Asa Walker succeeded Rear- 
Admiral Chester as director in March, 1906. In many 
departments the ordinary routine work was greatly hindered 
by the preparations for the eclipse of August, 1905, and 
the absence of a number of the observers with the eclipse 
expedition. The final plans for a self-registering right- 
ascension micrometer, for use with the 6-inch transit 
circle, have been adopted, and the instrument is being 
made. Solar photographs were obtained on 168 days, and 
showed spots and faculze on all but two days. With the 
meridian and equatorial instruments, observations of the 
normal character were made, and the usual chronometer 
and time services were well maintained. 
Sun-spots IN 1905.—The results of the Greenwich 
measures of sun-spots for the year 1905 appear in No. 3, 
vol. Ixvii., of the Monthly Notices (R.A.S.). The increase 
in spotted area during the year, as compared with 1904, 
was 144 per cent.; the mean daily area, 1191, was greater 
than that of 1883, but less than the corresponding areas 
for 1892, 1893, and 1894. The increase in area of 
the faculaze was about 48 per cent. The mean latitude 
of the spots during the year, about 13°, points to 1905 as 
being the year of maximum in the present spot-cycle, 
although the continued preponderance of the spotted area 
in the northern hemisphere corresponds with the condition 
obtaining some two years before maximum in the two 
preceding cycles. The outstanding feature of the year 1905 
was the great number of abnormally large spots, one spot 
seen from January 29 to February 11 exceeding in area 
any other spot as yet measured at Greenwich. 
No. xevii. of the Astronomische Mitteilungen contains 
Dr. Wolfer’s annual summary, for 1905, of sun-spot fre- 
quency and heliographic distribution, with which he com- 
pares the results obtained from the measures of magnetic 
declination. 
