434 



NA TURE 



[August 29, 1901 



pressure, by Prof. W. Ramsay, F.R.S. ; comparison of constant 

 volume and constant pressure scales for hydrogen between o°and 

 - 190° C, by Dr. M. W. Travers and Mr. G. Sentor ; and the 

 laws of electrolysis of alkali salt vapours, by Dr. H. A. Wilson. 

 Mathematical papers are promised by Major P. A. MacMahon, 

 F. R.S., Lieut. -Colonel A. Cunningham, Prof. A. G. Greenbill, 

 F.R.S., Mr. C. V. Boys, F.R.S., and others. There will also 

 be papers on astronomical subjects by Prof. H. H. Turner, 

 F.R.S., Rev. A. L. Cortie, and Prof. D. P. Todd. 



The death-rates from accidents of various kinds in mines in 

 the United Kingdom are dealt with in detail, both numerically 

 and graphically, by Dr. Le Neve Foster, F. R.S. , in his latest 

 report, published as a Blue-book. The improvement which has 

 been made may be judged from the fact that, whereas, in the 

 early fifties, the underground death-rate was more than five per 

 thousand, the average death-rate of the underground workers 

 in 1900 was only I '445. In 1S51 about nineteen persons were 

 killed per million tons of coal raised from mines, but last year 

 the death toll on the same quantity of coal was reduced to four 

 persons. Naked lights are still the principal cause of the 

 accidents, more than seventy-five per cent, of the total number 

 of deaths being ascribed to their use. In connection with the 

 description of miscellaneous accidents we notice with interest the 

 remark that during a severe thunderstorm in Staffordshire 

 electricity passed down a shaft, and two men received a severe 

 shock. Flashes of light were seen about pipes near the shaft. 

 The following is a complete list of explosives which have passed 

 the special test for use in mines, under conditions far more strin- 

 gent than those of the ordinary list: ammonite, amvis, aphosite, 

 cambrite, carbonite, electconite (second definition), kynite, Nobel 

 Ardeer powder, Nobel carbonite, roburite (No. 3), saxonite, 

 special bulldog, thunderite, and virite. As to electric safety 

 lamps Dr. Le Neve Foster says the Sussmann Company have 

 informed him that three or four thousand of their lamps are 

 employed in collieries in the United Kingdom. It is of interest 

 to notice that the total number of mechanical coal-cutters in use 

 in the United Kingdom in 1900 was 311, of which 240 were 

 driven by compressed air and 71 by electricity. The quantity 

 of coal got out by these cutters was 3,321,012 tons. Gold 

 mining is being successfully carried on in North Wales ; 

 19,463 tons of quartz crushed at St. David's mine yielded on 

 an average about I4dwts. of gold to the ton, and the net profits 

 for the year amounted to nearly 40,000/. 



The Meteorological Office pilot chart of the North Atlantic 

 and Mediterranean for the month of September shows that 

 West Indian hurricanes have a tendency to keep further out on 

 the ocean in this month than in July and August, the mean 

 point of curvature being in about 28° N., 72° W., and indi- 

 vidual cases have been known to curve in the same latitude as 

 far as 52° W. Comparatively few of the centres enter the 

 Caribbean Sea, and of those that do nearly all keep to the 

 northern side. The origin of some of these storms is attributed 

 to shallow disturbances moving westward in the vicinity of the 

 Cape Verde Islands, associated with unsettled weather and 

 strong winds. Hurricanes are rarely experienced on the north 

 coast of South America, Curai;oa island being visited in 

 September 1877, the only instance in seventy )ears. Local 

 peculiarities in the winds on the African and American coasts 

 are referred to, and there is a summary of the features of the 

 winds of the Grecian Archipelago and also of the currents of 

 the same region. An inset chart represents the third type of 

 thunderstorm conditions over the British Isles, namely those 

 which appear as secondaries to depressions in the north. The 

 ice reports show that in July there was a diminution in the 

 number of bergs seen on the Banks of Newfoundland, few 

 being reported south of the latitude of St. John's. In the strait 

 NO. 1 66 1, VOL. 64] 



of Belle Isle and to a distance of about 200 miles north-eastward 

 of Belle Isle itself, the steamer route was infested with great 

 quantities of ice, heavy field ice and large bergs rendering 

 navigation very difficult and tedious. One steamer was detained 

 four days in the ice, another was obliged to retreat and make 

 for the gulf of St. Lawrence by the south coast of Newfound- 

 land. The most southern ice was in 41° N., 47° W., a very 

 small piece, 20 feet by 40 feet, and only 4 feet out of the water. 



Some further particulars are given in Sy mom's Meteorological 

 Magazine for August of the severe thunderstorm which occurred 

 in London on July 25. It was in many respects similar to that 

 which occurred on July 27 last year ; both storms occurred 

 after a period of great heat, and after an absolute drought of 

 nearly three weeks. The barometric trace showed distinct 

 disturbance at the two periods of greatest intensity, but there 

 was an absence of the typical thunderstorm curve. The rain- 

 fall {2 '85 inches in about four hours) has been exceeded on only 

 one day in the forty-four years since the commencement of the 

 Camden Town record, viz. in the great thunderstorm of June 23, 

 1878, when 3"28 inches of rain fell in an hour and a half. The 

 greatest intensity of rainfall in the recent storm was '23 inch 

 in two minutes, being at the rate of 6'90 inches per hour. It 

 is remarkable, considering the vividness of the lightning and its 

 great frequency, that so little damage was done. 



We have received the Report of the Director of the Govern- 

 ment Observatory, Bombay, for the year ending March 31, 

 1901. The labours of the observatory are directed in the first 

 place to observations in magnetism, meteorology and seismology, 

 and the discussion and publication of the results ; and secondly 

 to astronomical observations for the purposes of timekeeping 

 and navigation. The Dines' pressure-tube anemometer gives 

 very satisfactory results, and serves as a valuable check upon 

 the Robinson velocity anemograph. The seismograph registered 

 twenty-nine earthquakes during the year, besides 447 small and 

 local movements. Among the various important duties per- 

 formed at the observatory may be mentioned the rating of the 

 chronometers of merchant ships which arrive at the port, and 

 the transmission of weather and other reports to various news- 

 papers and public bodies. 



The Electrical Review states that experiments are about to 

 be made on the River Lea with the view to the adoption of a 

 system of electric haulage of barges similar to that in use in 

 France. A power station has been erected at Hertford, from 

 which the current will be supplied by wires supported on poles 

 to a trolley running on a narrow-gauge track along the towpath. 

 It is anticipated that the barges will be towed at a speed of 

 from three to four miles an hour at le-ss cost than by horse 

 traction. The system is to extend to Walthamstow, a distance 

 of eighteen miles. 



The improvements in the locks and bridges, and the deepen- 

 ing of the waterway of the Aire and Calder Navigation, which 

 have been carried out in recent years, have enabled for the first 

 time in the history of the undertaking a sea-going steamer to 

 navigate the canal from Goole to the middle of Yorkshire. The 

 Pioneer, after a voyage of 500 miles from Fowey in Cornwall, 

 delivered a cargo of 1 30 tons of china clay at Leeds. This vessel 

 is 984 feet long, 17J feet beam and draws ^\ feet of water. After 

 the inception of the Manchester Ship Canal, several schemes 

 were proposed for making a ship canal from the Humber 

 to the centre of the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire. A 

 proposal to establish a port at Wakefield was enthusiastically 

 received at a meeting of representatives of the West Riding, the 

 estimated cost of the scheme being six million pounds. The 

 financial results of the Manchester Ship Canal have not given 

 encouragement to the further prosecution of these schemes. 



