63: 



NA TURE 



[October 24, 1901 



Dr. Koenig was an honorary fellow of the Physical 

 Society of London. He had received few tokens of 

 recognition from academies or learned societies ; and 

 this one, conferred only last February, gave hiin evident 

 pleasure. But his work, so courageously maintained in 

 the true spirit of scientific devotion, will remain as his 

 monument to all time. S. P. T. 



THE McCLEAN TELESCOPE AT THE CAPE 

 OBSERVATORY. 



'SJsJ'E. have on many occasions recorded munificent 

 * ' gifts towards scientific research and education 

 from wealthy Americans and others, and now and again 

 it has been our pleasurable duty to call attention to 

 instances of similar generosity on the part of our own 

 countrymen. Naturally it is more gratifying for us to 

 record the latter than the former, especially, perhaps, as 

 the occasions are less frequent. The weekly edition of 

 the Cape Argus for October z instances a notable 

 example of such a gift in its account of the ceremony 

 'which took place recently of the unveiling, by his Excel- 

 lency the Governor (Sir W. Hely-Hutchinson), of the 

 inscription stone of the magnificent telescope which Dr. 

 Frank McClean, F.R.S., has presented to the Royal 

 Observatory at the Cape. This telescope was offered 

 and accepted some years ago, but many delays have 

 occurred. 



.Says our contemporary : " The pleasant little cere- 

 mony . . . deserves more than passing inention. It 

 gives an opportunity for the cultivation of a virtue which 

 is not too common at the Cape — the virtue of gratitude 

 which Shakespeare knew as a ' noble thankfulness.' And 

 if for the nonce the public should be led to depart from 

 its usual Philistine attitude towards pure science and the 

 higher walks of research, the change may not be un- 

 graceful, and may do it good. The value of Mr. 

 McClean's gift it wduld be hard to overestimate. In 

 mere money's worth it was princely — more than the Im- 

 perial Government could well spare, and more than the 

 Colonial Government could venture to dream of as an 

 encouragement to unapplied science. It was given, too, 

 at the right time and to the right place, there being im- 

 mediate need for a wide development of spectroscopic 

 work, and the southern hemisphere being poorly supplied 

 with astronomical equipment compared with the affluent 

 north. Further, it did not come from a mere millionaire, 

 willing to be moderately fleeced in return for a little 

 notoriety : Mr. McClean was a skilled and assiduous 

 worker in this branch of science, and what he gave was 

 the outcome of a pure heart and a noble enthusiasm. 

 Nor did he stop at the purely material gift, but gave 

 time and thought and trouble to make sure that the 

 telescope and its accompaniments should be fit for the 

 performance of the very best type of work. He came to 

 the Cape and resided for months here, and those who 

 svere privileged to meet him will always remember his 

 unassuming ways and his unflagging interest in his work. 

 He had a double purpose in coming, and by far the 

 greater portion of his time was spent in obtaining the 

 spectra of certain southern stars, in order to supplement 

 his similar work in the north. When this was done, the 

 kindly English gentleman left as quietly as he came. The 

 scientific equipment of the Colony had been handsomely 

 enriched by him, but so far as the general public was 

 concerned he left ' unhonoured and unsung.' . . . The 

 need of scientific and literary endowments at the Cape is 

 well known, and the forgetfulness of those whom the land 

 has made wealthy is occasionally bewailed : it would ill 

 become us, therefore, to be equally forgetful of the far- 

 seeing liberality of a stranger who owed us nothing." 

 The proceedings were opened, in the presence of a 



NO. 1669, VOL. 64I 



distinguished company, by Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S., 

 His Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape, who delivered an 

 address, space for which we regret to be unable to spare, 

 after which Sir W. Hely-Hutchinson, in the course of a 

 brief speech, said that in regard to the magnificent gift 

 which Mr. McClean had made to the Observatory, he 

 ought to say that it was the desire of H.R.H. the Duke of 

 Cornwall and York to have performed the ceremony 

 w'hich he (the Governor) was now inadequately to under- 

 take. The fact that the telescope had been named the 

 " Victoria Telescope " was, doubtless, one reason which 

 had actuated His Royal Highness in this regard, but the 

 fact that so handsome — he might say, so princely — a gift 

 had been made to science deserved the full recognition of 

 the highest in the land. His Royal Highness not havmg 

 been able, however, to unveil the inscription stone, owing 

 to the great number of engagements which were pressed 

 upon him during his recent visit, it had fallen to his (the 

 Governor's) part to do so. 



The whole company then proceeded to the outside of 

 the building, where his Excellency removed the Union 

 Jack which covered the inscription stone. The inscrip- 

 tion was simply as follows : 



1897 : The Victoria Telescope. 

 The Gift of Frank McClean, 



of Rusthall, Kent. 

 David Gill, H.M. Astronomer. 



While assembled round the stone cheers were given, first 

 for the donor of the telescope and then for the Governor, 

 and the proceedings terminated. 



THE NERNST LAMP IN AMERICA. 

 T^HE paper read last August by Mr. A. J. Wurts at 

 •'• the annual convention of the American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers on the development of the Nernst 

 lamp in America is especially interesting as being practi- 

 cally the first to contain any full description of the 

 physical characteristics of the Nernst filament, or 

 "glower" as it is generally called to distinguish it from 

 the carbon filaments of incandescent lamps. It is 

 interesting, too, in that it affords evidence that the lamp 

 is eventually emerging from the laboratory stage and 

 becoming a really trustworthy commercial article. It will 

 be remembered that shortly after Nernst's invention was 

 made public the commercial development of the lamp 

 was taken up by four companies — by the .AUgemeine 

 Elektricitats Gesellschaft in Germany, by the Westing- 

 house Company in America, by the Nernst Electric Light 

 in England and by Ganz and Co. in Austria. The 

 German company, who possess the patent rights for 

 most of Europe, including England, have for some time 

 had the lamp on the market in Germany, and, as their 

 exhibit at the Glasgow Exhibition shows, are now intro- 

 ducing it into this country. The Westinghouse Company 

 have also, to judge by the paper by Mr. Wurts, developed 

 the lamp to a degree justifying its introduction into com- 

 mercial use in America. Three or four years may seem 

 to some a long time to have spent on the improvement of 

 Nernst's invention before it could be considered practi- 

 cally available, but when the great complexity of the 

 lamp as compared with an ordinary incandescent lamp 

 is taken into account it cannot be regarded as excessive. 



We propose to consider briefly some of the electrical 

 properties of the glower as described by Mr. Wurts 

 rather than to give a detailed account of the mechanical 

 construction of the lamp. Those w-ho take an interest in 

 this side of the subject may be referred to the Electrical 

 Review of New York for August 31 and September 7, 

 in which will be found a full reprint of the paper and a 

 short summary of the discussion which it raised. The 



