NA TURE 



[May 50, 1 901 



as some little help towards the memorial. Even now I am 

 giving beyond my means, as I am merely a casual dock labourer, 

 living from hand to mouth, and often hardly able to make both 

 ends meet. But I never let my mind get rusty, and from my 

 boyhood have had a keen partiality for ' Nature's leading lights ' 

 and their works. Among the brightest of these, and of whom 

 any nation might be justly proud, flashes out Thomas Henry 

 Huxley." 



The Prods-vcrbaux of the meeting of the International Com- 

 mittee of Weights and Measures at Paris in September last have 

 been received. The Committee had under their consideration 

 the reports of the director on the work of their bureau for 

 1 899- 1 900, by which reports it would appear that besides the 

 ordinary verification work of the bureau (standard metres, 

 kilograms and thermometers for various Governments, Uni- 

 versities and scientific authorities) important researches have 

 been carried out as to alloys of nickel and steel (Dr. Guillaume) ; 

 as to comparisons of platinum and hydrogen thermometers 

 (Dr. Chappuis and Dr. Harker), and the determination of the 

 mass of a cubic-decimetre of distilled water. Dr. Benoit reports 

 that the latter mass may be taken as equivalent to 999 936 

 grammes ; but it does not appear that the true value of a cubic- 

 inch of water is to be derived from the cubic-decimetre. The 

 best ordinary alloy for measures of length (as bars, line-measures, 

 survey ribands, &c.) appears from Dr. Benoit's report to be one 

 of 64 '3 per cent, of steel and 357 per cent, of nickel. 



We note that the Committee referred to in the foregoing note 

 propose to take up the vexed question of an international series 

 of sizes of screw-threads, based on the millimetre. The annual 

 expenditure of the Committee amounts at present to 75,000 

 francs, but it would appear that at the genera! conference to be 

 held at Paris in October next, under the Metric Convention 

 1875, a proposal is to be made to raise the annual budget to 

 100,000 francs, at which sum it was formerly fixed, so as to 

 meet necessary expenditure on the instrumental equipment and 



ing instruments, the standards being read five times dail)', com- 

 mencing with 6h. a.m. A Dines' pressure tube anemometer, 

 probably the most satisfactory instrument for recording the vary- 

 ing strength of the gust of wind, was erected in February 1897, 

 and a Milne's seismograph in September 189S. In addition to 

 the tables of results obtained from the automatic instruments 

 and from the direct eye observations, the volume contains the 

 following valuable appendices : — (a) Hourly means of the 

 magnetic elements, as determined from quiet days, for the years- 

 1894-9 ; {b) Notes on the harmonic analysis of temperature 

 and pressure for 1876-1895, with plates; (i) Hourly and daily 

 normals of the several meteorological elements, and their varia- 

 tions expressed by Bessel's formula. 



We have received from Mr. J. Baxendell, meteorologist tO' 

 the Southport Corporation, the report and results of observa- 

 tions at the Fernley Observatory and allied stations for the year 

 1900. With a small amount of means at their disposal, Mr. 

 Baxendell and his staff perform a large amount of very useful 

 work, much of it of an experimental kind, in addition to the' 

 routine work of a well-equipped observatory. Special attention, 

 is given to the results of various anemometers of the most 

 modern construction, and it is stated that the highest pressure 

 yet recorded by a pressure plate anemometer is 207 lbs. per 

 square foot. Another useful investigation is the comparison! 

 between the amounts of bright sunshine recorded by the 

 Campbell- Stokes and the Jordan sunshine recorders. The 

 monthly percentages of three years show that the Fatter instru- 

 ment records somewhat higher values, except in the winter 

 months. The falling off at this period appears to be traceable 

 to increased relative humidity and to greater prevalence of fog. 

 The report contains useful tables of rainfall and sunshine values 

 at a considerable number of stations — mostly sea-side resorts. 



The third sheet of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean 

 Pilot Charts published by the Meteorological Council is devoted 

 to the month of June. Being the midsummer month, the atmo- 



maintenance of the bureau. Towards this annual expenditure spheric conditions are usually of the quietest description, the 



each High Contracting State contributes a sum based on its 

 population, and on the extent to which the metric system may be 



region in which the gale frequency exceeds 10 per cent, being, 

 now limited to the far north, beyond the 55th parallel. Dis- 



in force within each country; Great Britain contributes about | turbances of a cyclonic character are, however, of frequent oc- 

 5000 francs. Some effort appears to have been made in 

 September last by the Decimal .\ssociation (London) to induce 

 the Committee to lay before the French Government a pro- 

 position to invite the attention of the Governments of Great 

 Britain, Russia and the United States to the desirability of 

 making the metric system compulsory in these countries ; but 

 the Committee do not appear to have approached the French 

 Government on this delicate proposition. From the communi- 

 cations addressed to the Committee by Prof. A. Michelson 



currence on the more frequented shipping routes, but as most 

 of them are of slight intensity severe gales seldom result. At 

 this season, the conditions begin to assume a less steady appear- 

 ance in the doldrums oft the African coast, developing later 

 into conditions which give birth to hurricanes moving westward 

 towards the West Indies. Similar local features of the windfr 

 on the American coasts and in the Mediterranean are dealt 

 with. Fog is very frequent, above 50 per cent., from the coast 

 of Maine eastward across the Newfoundland Banks, and even 



(Chicago), Mr. Chaney and Prof Mendeleeff-, it seems that the ! the 10 per cent, frequency extends, with only a narrow break 

 metric system is, however, makmg way m the three great 



countries above mentioned. 



Die Umschan contains a short account of HoiTmann's model 

 flying- machine. The peculiarity of this model (which weighs 

 3i kilogrammes) is that it is supported on three long legs, by 

 the aid of which it runs on wheels on a track or on the ground 

 till it has gained sufficient velocity to rise in the air, when the 

 legs fold up automatically and the model flies somewhat after 

 the manner of a stork. It is claimed that such an arrangement 

 applied to a man-lifting machine would obviate the difficulties 

 connected with the starting and landing. 



We have received a copy of the magnetical, meteorological 

 and seismological observations made at the Government Obser- 

 vatory, Bombay, for the years 1898 and 1899, under the direc- 

 tion of Mr. N. A. Y. Moos, which extends the record of this 

 important series to a period of fifty-four years. The observatory 

 is very completely equipped both with ordinary and self-record- 

 NO. 1648, VOL. 64] 



about 20° W. , from Sandy Hook to the Severn and the Bay 

 of Biscay. Fogs as dense and as wet as those of the Banks 

 now visit the Straits of Gibraltar, but, fortunately, they last only 

 a few hours. With the exception of a berg and some field ice 

 sighted on March 16 last, there has been no report of ice at 

 sea this year, though at various times the pack in some of the 

 Newfoundland and Cape Breton bays has been driven out by- 

 high winds. The eastward drift of the Gulf Stream, which the 

 May chart showed was interrupted in 47° N. 27° W., continues 

 across the ocean to our south-western shores in June, there being, 

 a good deal of easterly and north-easterly current in the space 

 between Ireland and the north-west of Spain. The equatorial 

 counter-current of the doldrums is met with as a prevailing set 

 as far west as the 42nd meridian ; the equatorial west-going 

 current attains a high velocity, 60 to 85 miles a day ; and in, 

 Florida Strait the Gulf Stream may reach too miles in a day. 

 In every way the June chart is as interesting and valuable as 

 its predecessors. 



