June 23, 1904] 



NA TURE 



189 



the chief gas examiner (Lord Rayleigh), and unless the 

 appeal is sustained the case is referred bacli to the magistrate 

 for the assessment of the amount to be paid. The gas 

 companies have always strongly objected to these police 

 court proceedings, and the committee recommends a modifi- 

 cation of the existing provisions whereby, in future, police 

 court proceedings will not be required when the chief gas 

 examiner shall certify that the default is not substantial, or 

 that it is not due to careless conduct at the works, the for- 

 feitures in all such cases being left for assessment to the 

 chief gas examiner. The committee also recommends that 

 in the case of any disputes arising between the gas referees 

 and the gas companies, they should be referred to the chief 

 gas examiner, and that his decision should be conclusive 

 and binding on both parties. 



Important concessions to the companies are recommended 

 bv the committee with regard to the amount of sulphur 

 impurity allowed. In addition to a relaxation of the 

 stringency of the tests to be applied for the detection of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, it is suggested that the standards 

 for the amount of sulphur present in the gas, other than 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, should be abolished. The com- 

 mittee has been influenced in this decision by the consider- 

 ation of the nuisance created near the worlts by the use 

 of lime purification, and the danger to the men employed 

 in connection with the process. At the same time, how- 

 ever, it is proposed that the official tests should continue 

 to be made, and that the amount of impurity in each form 

 contained in the gas should be ascertained and recorded. 



In view of the increasing amount of gas used in in- 

 candescent burners and for heating and power purposes, it 

 is considered desirable that the calorific value of the gas 

 should be determined and recorded, but no standards are 

 proposed, and photometrical data with flat flame burners, 

 in addition to those already made with the standard Argand, 

 are also suggested as desirable. 



The report has been issued within five months of the 

 date of appointment of the committee, and it is to be hoped 

 in the interests of the public that the legislative action 

 necessary to carry these suggestions into effect may be 

 made with equal promptness. 



SEISMOLOGICAL NOTES. 



T N the Bollettino della Societd Sismologica Italiana, vol. 

 ix.. No. 7, Dr. A. Ricco gives an interesting paper on 

 the relative values of gravity in the vicinity of Etna, Sicily, 

 the .-liolian Islands, and southern Italy. The results are 

 shown in two sketch maps, on which a series of lines having 

 the appearance of isomagnetics pass through places at 

 which the difference between the expected and the observed 

 values for g are equal. The smallest values for the anomaly 

 or ^ — 7. are found round the summit of Etna, whilst 

 maxima occur in the proximity of deep water about 80 km. 

 to the south-south-west and 150 km. at Stromboli to the 

 north. A similar but not so marked gradient is found 

 in the vicinity of the Bay of Naples. Along the Apennines 

 and in central Sicily the anomaly is small, and the gradient 

 is gentle. These observations are discussed in relation to 

 volcanic and seismic activity, orographic and geotectonic 

 conditions. An obituary notice of Dr. Mos^ Contarini, who 

 died at the early age of twenty-eight, at the commencement 

 of a promising career, and a catalogue of disturbances for 

 July, 1902, complete the number. 



In vol. ix., No. 8, of the same publication, Dr. A. Cancani 

 describes and analyses five seismograms relating to earth- 

 quakes with known origins. The peculiarity of these 

 seismograms, copies of which are given, is that they were 

 -obtained on a high speed {72 to 97 mm. per minute) smoked 

 paper record receiving surface. 



The diagrams are therefore sufficiently open to read 

 periods of half a second, which periods refer to the pre- 

 liminary tremors. From the interval in time between the 

 commencement of these first movements and the commence- 

 ment of the large waves, the distances of origins from Dr. 

 Cancani 's station in Rome are calculated. The accuracy of 

 the results obtained therefore depend upon the accuracy 

 with which these two phases of motion can be identified 

 upon the seismograms. In the first earthquake considered 

 these identifications are clear, but if the figures for the re- 



NO. 1808, VOL. 70] 



mainder are exact reproductions of the original seismo- 

 grams, it seems extremely likely that very different results 

 might be arrived at by different investigators. For writing 

 pointers with a minimum of friction. Dr. Cancani uses 

 the hanging aluminium indices of his colleague, Dr. 

 Grablovitz. The cost per annum for the recording materials, 

 which include 730 sheets of paper, gas or oil for smoking, 

 and varnish for fixing the same, &c. , is about 3Z. 15s. At 

 the end of the number the earthquake registers are brought 

 up to the end of August, 1902. 



The Austrian Earthquake Commission publish in No. 22 

 (new series) observations made by Dr. W. Ldska in 1902 

 in Lemberg. They refer to records obtained from Reubeur- 

 Ehlert horizontal pendulums. 



In the Memoires of the Geological Committee of St. 

 Petersburg, No. 9 (new series). Dr. V". Weber gives a de- 

 tailed account of the earthquake which on January 31, 

 1902, destroyed Chemaka. The epifocal area appears to 

 lie along the major axis of a series of elliptical isoseists, 

 and a map on which these are shown also indicates the 

 different degrees of destruction in various villages within 

 the disturbed district. 



The phenomena observed are similar to those noted with 

 many large earthquakes. 



Another publication received from Russia is the Bulletin 

 de la Commission Centrale Sismique Permanante. It 

 refers to records obtained in the months April, May, and 

 June at Tiflis, Taschkent, Irkutsk, Dorpat, and Krasnoi- 

 arsk, at each of which stations there are one or more 

 seismographs. 



The contributions to seismological knowledge received 

 from Japan are as usual both varied and interesting. 



Following in the footsteps of Dr. C. G. Knott, Mr. A. 

 Imamura, in the reports of the Physico-Mathematical 

 Society of Tokyo, vol. ii., No. 8, discusses certain earth- 

 quake registers, with the result that he finds that seismic 

 disturbances have not only been most frequent at the times 

 of conjunction and opposition of the sun and moon, but 

 also at the times of quadrature. The extent to which 

 barometrical pressure may effect seismic frequency is to be 

 found in the same journal, the author being Dr. F. Omori. 

 Another note by the same writer describes a horizontal 

 pendulum controlled by an inverted pendulum. The former 

 is I m. in height, and has a boom i m. in length which 

 carries 50 kg. With its control a period of one minute is 

 obtained without difficulty. 



Dr. Omori's most important work is contained in No. 15 

 of the Publications of the Earthquake Investigation Com- 

 mittee. It relates to the measurement of the vibrations 

 of railway carriages as recorded by seismographs. For 

 years past the balancing of locomotives and the state of 

 the permanent way have in Japan been determined by 

 means of these instruments, and the practical advantages 

 leading to the saving- of fuel and the detection of faults 

 which have accrued are generally known. Here we have 

 an elaborate extension of previous work which railway 

 engineers may read vifith advantage. 



At the end of this number an index is given to the contents 

 of the si.xty-three profusely illustrated series of volumes 

 and parts which, since 1893, have been issued by the Tokyo 

 Earthquake Investigation Committee. Unfortunately for 

 European readers, forty-seven of these publications are in 

 Chinese idiographs. Amongst the latter we find reports upon 

 seismographs, observations made in deep bore holes, notes 

 upon magnetic disturbances which have preceded certain 

 large earthquakes, many observations made for the purpose 

 of determining the transit velocity of earthquake motion, 

 observations relating to subterranean sound phenomena, 

 observations upon sea waves, investigations relating to 

 seismic frequency, reports upon faults, landslips and 

 volcanoes, and a mass of material, all the result of patient 

 investigation, which is of great importance to modern 

 science. Many of the papers are of immediate value to 

 those who have to construct in earthquake countries. Not 

 only has the Japanese Government encouraged its engineers 

 to study the effects of earthquakes upon structures within 

 its own territory, but lengthy reports upon the damage 

 which took place in Assam in June, 1897, indicate that it 

 was considered advisable to derive lessons from misfortunes 

 in foreign countries, and for this reason missions of 



