July i i, 1901] 



NA TURE 



RECENT REPORTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN 



INSTITUTION} 

 T^llE field of operations of the Smithsonian Institution is so 

 extensive that it is impossible to survey adequately the 

 work carried on in it. The liberality of the Institution has 

 made many students of science acquainted with the researches 

 and results of others, and has placed the whole world of scientific 

 activity under an obligation. In addition, each of the depart- 

 ments under the direction of the Institution is a living centre of 

 investigation, from which contributions to natural knowledge 

 are continually emanating. These departments are the United 

 .States National Museum, the Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 the International Ex-changes, the National Zoological Park and 

 the Astrophysical Observatory. 



Following the precedent of several years, Prof. Langley gives, 

 in the body of his report referred to in the footnote, a general 

 account of the affairs of the Institution and its bure.ius, while 

 the appendix presents more detailed statements by the persons 

 in direct charge of the different branches of the work. Inde- 

 pendently of this the operations of the National Museum are 

 fully treated in a separate volume of the Smithsonian Report, 

 and the Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology constitutes 

 a volume prepared under the supervision of the Director of that 

 Bureau. 



Parts of Prof. Langley's report are given below, together with 

 references to some of the contents of the Smithsonian Report 

 for 1S99, and the Annual Report of the National Museum, 

 recently received. Two recent reports of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology will be noticed separately. 



Astrophysical Researches. — Experiments in the solution of 

 the problem of mechanical flight have been continued, and the 

 Astrophysical Observatory has been active in the investigation 

 of the solar spectrum. The first \olume of Annals of the 

 Observatory has been issued. It is devoted primarily, though 

 not exclusively, to the investigation of the infra-red solar 

 spectrum, its absorption lines and its variations in terrestrial 

 absorption. This research, and the development of the sensitive 

 holographic apparatus with which it has been carried on, have 

 largely occupied the Astrophysical Observatory since its founda- 

 tion, and are a continuation of researches in which Prof. 

 Langley was engaged for many years at the Allegheny Ob- 

 servatory. 



As readers of Nature are aware, successful observations 

 were made of the solar eclipse of May 28, 1900. A consider- 

 able number of photographs of the corona were secured, some 

 of which are upon an unprecedentedly large scale, and these, it 

 is believed, will be of value in investigations of the nature of 

 this still enigmatical solar appendage. A photographic search 

 for hitherto unrecognised objects near the sun developed the 

 fact that even in an ordinary sky, in an eclipse in which the 

 reflected sunlight was brighter than usual, .stars as small as the 

 8'3 magnitude could be secured. 



The apparatus employed was designed, not so much for this, 

 however, as lor the obtaining evidence of possible intramercurial 

 planets, but upon this latter point no final opinion can be given. 

 Certain suspicious objects are found on the plates, but unfortu- 

 nately observations of the same kind at other stations were 

 unsuccessful, so that there is nothing with which to compare 

 them. Studies are still going on, however, and it is possible 

 that this part of the observations may yet yield results of 

 interest. 



The delicate and difficult observations upon the heat of the 

 inner corona were made by means of the bolometer, and appear 

 to have been quite successful, being perhaps the first trustworthy 

 observations of the kind ; they lend some additional weight to 

 the view that the corona is something analogous to an electric 

 phenomenon. 



The Hodgkins Fund. — The different branches of research 

 now progressing under grants from the Hodgkins fund are 

 making .satisfactory advances. 



Prof. William Hallock, of Columbia University, New V'ork, 

 has supplemented his report of last year by a summary of the 

 further progress of his investigation of the motion of an air 



1 Report of Prof. S. P. Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 for the yclr ending June 30, igoo. Pp. iv -t- 117. 



.Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 

 for the year endme June 30, 1899. Pp. Ixiii -t- 67a. 



Report of the U.S. National Museum for the year ending June 30, 1899. 

 Pp .w -I- 598. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1901.) 



NO. 1654, VOL. 64] 



particle under the influence of articulate speech. The instru- 

 ments which Prof. Hallock has invented, and is now perfecting, 

 have proved a great aid in this research, and will, he states, 

 enable him to settle definitely the question of phase differences 

 in the components of a complex sound. 



Prof. A. G. Webster, of Clark University, reports the com- 

 pletion and successful application to the use for which it was 

 designed of the new apparatus, perfected with aid from a 

 Hodgkins grant, by means of which it is now po.ssible to mea.sure 

 the intensity of rapidly varying sounds with an accuracy not 

 hitherto attained. A grant has been made to Prof. Louis 

 Bevier, of Rutgers College, for an investigation of vowel- 

 timbre on the basis of the phonographic record. 



The meteorological investigations with kites have been suc- 

 cessfully continued at Blue Hill under the direction of Mr. 

 Rotch with the assistance of a grant from the Hodgkins fund. 

 In addition to these investigations, a Hodgkins grant has been 

 made to enable Mr. Rotch to carry on a series of experiments 

 in space telegraphy, it being thought that the unprecedented 

 heights attained by kites might materially extend the range of 

 communication by this method. In the preliminary experi- 

 ments, however, kites were not used, sufficient elevation being 

 attainable without them, but when the difference between the 

 stations was increased from one mile to three, kites were em- 

 ployed to raise the transmitting and receiving wires. In the 

 later experiments it was found, not unexpectedly, that the long 

 wires, carried up and supported by kites, collected so much 

 electricity as to interfere with and greatly complicate the 

 inessages sent from station to station. These interruptions 

 seem to show that the limit of elevation for the receiving wire 

 was under these conditions less than 500 feet. The greatest 

 distance covered in the experiments was approximately twelve 

 miles, from a wire supported by a kite about 200 feet above 

 Blue Hill to the tower of Memorial Hall in Cambridge, which 

 was used as the receiving station. These experiments draw 

 attention to the fact that electrification increases with the alti- 

 tude to which the wire is carried, and that it is always present, 

 although varying with the meteorological condition of the 

 atmosphere. 



Dr. Carl Barus has been given a grant from the Hodgkins 

 fund in aid of his experiments on atmospheric condensation. 

 This research is supplemental to the experiments already con- 

 ducted by Dr. Barus, as described in Bulletin No. 12, of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and will be (i)a study of the origin, 

 activity and growth of the condensation producing dust 

 particles ; their reactions on each other, their relation to electric 

 radiation, ii:c. ; (2) a study of the growth, &c., of water cor- 

 puscles after condensation; the reaction of corpuscles of different 

 sizes on each other, &c. 



A grant has been approved on behalf of Prof. Dr. R. von 

 Lendenfeld, of the University of Prague, for a study of the 

 motion of birds in actual free flight, a subject to which, although 

 primarily known as a zoologist and meteorologist, Dr. von 

 Lendenteld's attention has been directed for years, and for the 

 better understanding of which he has made numerous anatomical 

 preparations, physiological observations, &c. The investiga- 

 tions of Dr. von Lendenfeld have been aided by the Society 

 for the Advancement of Scientific Research in Bohemia, and 

 also by the Austrian Government. 



A grant from the Hodgkins fund has been made to Dr. V. 

 Schumann, of Leipzig, for the prosecution of researches in con- 

 nection with the spectral relations of atmospheric air. The 

 apparatus by means of which Dr. Schumann has heretofore 

 secured such noteworthy results being chiefly of his own inven- 

 tion, he has been permitted to apply the present grant to the 

 further perfection of his instruments before entering upon his 

 special experiments, which will be definitely reported upon as 

 they progress. 



Standards of Colour. — Mr. Robert Ridgway, curator of orni- 

 thology in the National .Museum, published a number of years 

 ago, for the use of naturalists, a handbook on colour, and he 

 requested a grant from the Institution for a new edition. It 

 appeared to Prof. Langley that a work upon a more extended 

 scale and a somewhat different plan would be 0/ value primarily 

 to naturalists, but also in every department of science, to artists, 

 and in many branches of industry. 



At the present time there is practically no uniformity in the 

 common use of colour names, one nauie designating, as a rule, as 

 many as half a dozen different shades ; nor is there any absolute 

 method commonly available by which a person in one place can 



