?62 



NA TURE 



[July i i, 1901 



grants of money to its various scientific and technical bureaus. 

 Of the total sum granted to these departments during the fiscal 

 year igoi, more than 400,000/. or about 25 per cent, of the 

 grant is available for scientific and research work and for higher 

 education. The city of Washington possesses vast resources for 

 work of this kind, and Congress has lately enacted that all the 

 collections and museums in the city shall be available for higher 

 education and research. The Washington Memorial Institution, 

 which will begin work in three or four months, under the 

 direction of Dr. Oilman, will suggest lines of investigation and 

 coordinate the work that is being done by Government officials 

 and private students. 



As already announced, the British Congress on Tuberculosis 

 will be opened at St. James's Hall on July 22. The Duke of 

 Cambridge will inaugurate the congress on behalf of the King, 

 who is patron. The work of the congress will be divided among 

 four sections, viz. : (i) State and municipal — president. Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell, F. R. S. ; (2) medical, including climatology 

 and sanitaria — president, Sir R. Douglas Powell ; (3) pathology, 

 including bacteriology — president, Prof. Sims Woodhead ; (4) 

 veterinary (tuberculosis in animals) — president. Sir George 

 Brown. On Tuesday, July 23, the sections will begin their work, 

 and at the second general meeting on the afternoon of this day 

 Prof R. Koch, of Berlin, will give an address. The chair will be 

 taken by Lord Lister. On July 24, there will be, in the morn- 

 ing, a joint meeting of the medicine and pathology sections for a 

 discussion on tuberculin. Prof. Brouardel, of Paris, will address 

 the third general meeting in the afternoon. At this meeting 

 Mr. Henry Chaplin, ^L P., will be the chairman. The fourth 

 general meeting, to lie held on Thursday, July 25, will be ad- 

 dressed by Prof. McFadyean, of the Royal Veterinary College, 

 and Lord Spencer will preside. The following are among the 

 officers of the congress : — President of organising council, the 

 Earl of Derby ; chairman of organising council. Sir William 

 Broadbent, F.R.S. ; chairman of general purposes committee. 

 Prof. Clifford AUbutt, F. R.S. ; chairman of reception committee, 

 Sir James Crichton-Browne, F.R.S. ; hon. secretary-general, 

 Mr. Malcolm Morris ; hon. assistant secretary, Sir Arthur 

 Trendell. 



We have received from the Deutsche Seewarte part x. of their 

 colonial observations. This number contains a very valuable 

 series of meteorological observations made in German East 

 Africa, collected and discussed by Dr. Hans Maurer. Regular 

 observations were begun there in 1S91, but were not continuous 

 owing to some unfortunate mishaps to the observers and to the 

 difficulty of controlling the work at such a distance. Dr. Maurer 

 was therefore dispatched by the German Government in 1895 

 to establish and superintend a network of stations, with the 

 result that a very valuable series of hourly observations, from 

 November 1S95 to March 1S99, have been obtained at several 

 stations, and have been carefully collated and published in 

 part i. of the work, including the harmonic constituents of the 

 daily barometric oscillation for the monthly means. The second 

 part of the present volume also contains some observations made 

 before 1S95 but not yet published, and a list of the works which 

 contain observations previously published. The work is a most 

 useful contribution to the climate of German East Africa. 



It has often been said that the study of electrochemistry is 

 very much neglected in this country, and, indeed, until quite 

 recently there was not, we think, to be found in any of our 

 technical colleges a laboratory purposely designed for electro- 

 chemical and electrometallurgical work. Now, however, Owens 

 College, Manchester, possesses in its new Physical Institute a 

 laboratory thoroughly equipped for these purposes. Two rooms 

 have been set apart for electrochemical work, the rooms chosen 

 NO. 1654, VOL. 64] 



being in close proximity to the dynamo-room, from which cur- 

 rents up to 1000 amperes are obtainable. In addition to the 

 ordinary equipment of a chemical laboratory leads have been 

 run round the benches, so that every student has ready to his 

 hand a supply of current at 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 volts pressure. The 

 apparatus requiring heavy currents, such as furnaces or large 

 electrolytic tanks, is arranged on a bench at the end of the roonj 

 at which the main leads from the dynamo-room enter. Bare 

 copper wires are used for the conductors, the film of oxide 

 and sulphide which forms on them protecting them sufficiently 

 from too rapid corrosion. Now that Owens College has set so 

 good an example, it is to be hoped that it will not be long 

 before the otiier technical colleges recognise the need of efficient 

 means of training students in this very important subject. Con- 

 sidering that a supply of cheap electric power is scarce, England 

 may not be perhaps the most suitable country for electro- ' 

 chemical industries, but its backwardness in their development 

 is undoubtedly aggravated by the lack of opportunity for young 

 engineers to study the principles of electrochemistry and electro- 

 metallurgy. 



Newcastle-on'-Tyxe may be congratulated on being the 

 first place in the United Kingdom to see the inauguration of 

 the practice of supplying electricity " in bulk.'' The large 

 power station of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Electric Supply Co. 

 was formally opened by Lord Kelvin on the iSth of last month, 

 and the credit for the successful starting of the system must be 

 shared jointly by this company and the Walker and Wallsend 

 Union Gas Co. This latter company are taking a large supply 

 from the Newcastle company and distributing it throughout the 

 area under their control, which includes a number of big engineer- 

 ing and other works which require a supply of electricity for 

 motive power or lighting. Many of these works make use of 

 so much power that it has been found necessary to erect a 

 separate substation in each case, power being supplied at high 

 pressure to the substation and thence, after the pressure has 

 been reduced, being distributed throughout the works. Supply 

 is obtainable on either the continuous-current or three-phase 

 systems. For the purpose of supplying the three-phase current, 

 there are to be at the Neptune Bank station four 700 kw. sets 

 generating at 5500 volts, and a 1500 kw. Parsons turbo-alter- 

 nator. The continuous current is supplied by four 100 kw. 

 dynamos generating at 240 volts ; there is also a 150 kw. motor 

 generator taking three-phase current at 5500 volts and gene- 

 rating continuous current at 240 volts, but designed so that it 

 can be used in the opposite direction — that is to say, being 

 driven by the continuous current and generating three-phase 

 currents. A site has been obtained for the erection of another 

 generating station in which to put up new machinery when the 

 present station becomes fully loaded. 



We have received from the Meteorological Reporter to the 

 Government of India a report on cloud observations and 

 measurements in the plains of the North-Western Provinces of 

 India during the period December 189S to March 1900 (Indian 

 Meteorological Memoirs, vol. xi. part iii.). The observations 

 were taken and discussed under the superintendence of Mr. 

 E. H. Hill ; they include both the heights and movements, 

 measured by means of two photogrammeters and a Fineman's 

 nephoscope. In the fifteen months under review about 900 

 p.airs of plates were exposed, and from these nearly 1000 calcu- 

 lations of heights of clouds have been made. The measure- 

 ments have been arranged according to two seasons — June to 

 October (the wet season, including the monsoon months) and 

 November to May (the dry season). In the wet season the 

 mean height of the cirrus was 35,000 feet, and the mean velocity 

 17-4 miles per hour ; in thedry season 41,963 feet, and the mean 

 velocity varied from 79 to 89 miles per hour. The mean height 

 of the cumulus in the wet season was 5450 feet, and in the dry 



