January 30, 1*1 1 » t 



NATURE 



427 



weight is approached by a series of progressive 

 steps in size, there is ever) possibility that it will 

 ultimately prove successful. Given a stead) and 

 well-organised progress, helped forward by the 



technician as well as by the business man, then 

 is fair ground for the belief that aviation will 

 become a very important factor in the world's 

 commerce, and lead to results which would 

 have been impossible with the older and slower 

 means of transit. E. F. R. 



THE ' / / \i; S " WEA1 HER REPORTS. 



METEOROLOGY in this country lias owed 

 much to the enterprise ol the 1'ress. In 



the year 1876 the 'limes inaugurated the service 

 ol evening tele-rams to the Meteorological Office, 

 and for several years it ''ore the expense thereof, 

 at first alone, and afterwards in conjunction with 

 the Standard and the Daily News. It was not 

 until 1SS0 that the cost of this part of our national 

 weather service was taken over by the Govern- 

 ment. After relinquishing its direct connection 

 with the enterprise, the Times continued to stimu- 

 late public interest in meteorology by including 

 in its pages a cop) of the evening weather chart 

 of the Meteorological Office. Upon the outbreak 

 of war publication had to be discontinued, but 

 the issue for January 22 was marked by the 

 revival of this very welcome feature. We are 

 glad also to note that the editor has seen his way 

 to increase the scale of the map, which now occu- 

 pies the width of two columns of the paper, the 

 change making a vast difference to its effective- 

 ness. It is also of interest to note that the 

 isobars are marked in millibars, as well as in 

 inches, the intervals between them being five 

 millibars. We hope that the day may not be far 

 distant when the blank spaces may be filled by 

 observations. Ships' observations from the Atlan- 

 tic should soon be available again by wireless, and 

 it seems not too much to expect that these and 

 the French reports may reach this country suffi- 

 ciently early for incorporation in the map. 



Just as in 1876 the Times inaugurated the 

 evening weather service, so novv it takes the lead 

 in another new departure by publishing a special 

 aviation report. This new section summarises 

 in tabular form the observations of upper winds 

 represented on maps in the special edition of the 

 Daily Weather Reportofthe Meteorological Office, 

 which has only recently been released from the 

 censor's ban, and supplements it with a section 

 on " Flying Prospects for the Day." Civilian fly- 

 ing and commercial aviation will be realities very 

 shortly, and then reports such as these will have 

 a very red practical interest for a considerably 

 circle of readers than the actual aviators. 

 We can imagine would-be passengers scanning 

 the upper air report with an even closer interest 

 than they have in the past bestowed on forecasts 

 'i Channel crossings, and that not merely from 

 the point of view of their comfort or discomfort 

 during the flight, for the velocity and direction of 

 the wind must obviously affect the time required 

 NO. 2570. VOL. I02] 



for a given journey, just as it did in the old days 

 of sailing-vessels. 



Another new and interesting feature of the 

 reports is an adaptation of the forecast for 

 southern England to thi peculiar local conditions 

 of the London area. 



PITCHBLENDE ORE IX DEVON. 



I "UK Times of January is reports the dis- 

 covery of a fine lode containing pitchblende 

 on the Kingswood estate, Buckfastleigh, South 

 Devon, and quotes an analysis of what is slated 

 to be a representative sample of the ore, which 

 shows a uranium oxide content of more than 26 

 per cent. This is the first time that pitchblende 

 ore has been recorded from Devon. The precise 

 location of the lode is not stated, but Kingswood 

 is situated upon shales of Upper Devonian 

 and just outside the area to which the meta- 

 morphism caused by the Dartmoor granite has 

 extended. North of Kingswood there are several 

 copper lodes that course in a general east-to-west 

 direction, underlie south, and contain mixed 

 sulphide ores. These were the only lodes hitherto 

 known in the district. Uranium ores where they 

 exist in Cornwall are associated with copper. 



In Cornwall the ores of uranium have long been 

 worked at South Terras Mine, near St. Austell, 

 and at Wheal Trenwith, St. Ives, the total output 

 since 1884 being nearly 1500 tons. The ore has 

 also been recorded from many other Cornish 

 mines, notably Crow Hill, St. Austell Consols, 

 Egloshellan, Tresavean, Wheals Gorland, Buffer, 

 Unity, and Basset, and at Tincroft, South Crofty, 

 and Dolcoath. 



At South Terras the ores associated with pitch- 

 blende are nickel, cobalt, and bismuth, and such 

 minerals as kaolin and fluorite. Near the surface 

 the phosphates autunite and torbernite occurred, 

 but gave place at depth to pitchblende of two 

 qualities — namely, "green ore" and "dark ore" 

 — which are reported in a prospectus issued by the 

 Radium and Uranium Syndicate, Ltd., to have 

 contained 6' 2 per cent, and 36 per cent, respec- 

 tively of uranium oxide. The lodes trend north 

 and south, but the pitchblende was confined to a 

 leader, and mostly to the walls of the leader. In 

 the mode of occurrence and associated minerals 

 the lodes show a close resemblance to those 

 worked at Joachimsthal, in Bohemia, and it is 

 held generally that the contents of both groups 

 have been derived from emanations given off 

 during granite intrusions. 



It mav be mentioned that the principal sources 

 of uranium oxides lie in Portugal and Bohemia, 

 and that the ores from the former country contain 

 on an average about 1 per cent, of U0 3 . In 

 America 1000 tons of ore recently yielded 70 tons 

 of concentrate, which contained only 3 per cent. 

 ol U 8 O g . 



Further developments at Kingswood will there- 

 fore be awaited with interest, especially in view 

 of the statements made as to the abnormal rich- 

 ness of the ore in uranium oxides. 



