Sept. 6, 1883] 



NA TURE 



445 



sensitiveness and trustworthiness of the relay that it became 

 practicable for the first time to work from London to Edinburgh 

 direct — a feat impossible in the conditions of insulation pre- 

 viously existing. Mr. Varley was associated with Robert 

 Stephenson, Sir William Fairbairn, and others in devising the 

 first Atlantic cable which may be said to have achieved success 

 By means of a working model apparatus he demonstrated 

 approximately the speed of electricity when on its travels. 



Mr. V. T. Chambers, an entomologist well known for his 

 studies on Tineina, died at his residence in Covington, Ky., 

 U.S., on August 7. 



During the past year, we learn from Scitnce, original investi- 

 gations in the following subjects, among other-, have been 

 carried on in the physical laboratory of Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity under the direction of Prof. Rowland and Dr. Hastings : 

 on the photography of the spectrum by means of the concave 

 grating ; on the determination of the B. A. unit of electrical 

 resistance in absolute measure ; the determination of the specific 

 resistance of mercury ; the variation of the specific heat of water 

 with the temperature ; the relative wave-lengths uf the lines of 

 the spectrum by means of the concave grating ; the effect of 

 difference of phase in the harmonics on the timbre of sound ; 

 and on the variation of the magnetic permeability of nickel by 

 change of temperature. 



Mr. Thomas Plant, the well-known meteorologist of Bir- 

 mingham, died suddenly last week. Mr. Plant was sixty-four years 

 ot age, and Has a native of Lowmoor, York-hire. From early 

 manhood he had a passion for the study of the wind and the 

 weather. This passion took a very systematic shape in the c >m- 

 pilationof regular records of rainfall, windage, and leaiperature ; 

 and, to the student of meteorology, these records, the result of 

 Mr. Plant's life-long study, will doubtless prove valuable. They 

 are said to be omplete for upwards of forty-six years. In 1S62 

 he read a paper before the British Association at Cambridge on 

 " Osier's Anemo neter at the Birmingham and Midland Institute," 

 and described the working of the instrument by means of litho- 

 graphed drawings H hich he had himself prepared. Three years 

 later he read another paper before the same Association at 

 Birmingham on the "Anomalies of our Climate." A paper on 

 the "Health of the Borough of Birmingham" was read in 1S6S 

 by Mr. Flam before the Social Science Congress at Birmingham. 

 He frequently lectured on meteorology, and was a constant 

 contributor to the local press on the same subject. 



The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres has been elected an 

 honorary member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. 



Dr. Hicks is reported to have made an interesting discovery 

 in a cave at the back of the Ffynnon Beuno, Flintshire. The 

 cave is a waterworn cave in the limestone rock, similar, though 

 on a smaller ^ale, to the celebrated Cefn bone caves on the 

 other side of the Vale. Dr. Hicks, after a general inspection of 

 the interior, determined to examine beneath the floor of the cave 

 at the entrance. 'I he removal of a few inches of surface debris 

 disclosed a virgin floor of stalagmite, so well known to cave 

 explorers. Below this were found pieces of bone belonging 

 most evidently to the mammoth or rhinoceros. One piece was 

 embedded in the stalagmite floor. The largest piece — nearly six 

 inches by four— must have formed part of a bone some eighteen 

 inches in circumference. Below was another floor of stalagmite 

 covering a quantity of drift gravel which rested on the bottom of 

 the cave. 



Mr. Floyd Delafield of Noroton, Conn., has brought ou* 



new dynamo, the novel feature being that the armature is a 



tube of copper. One of the field magnets is terminated at either 



end by a tubular pole piece ; vt ithin this pole piece rotates a 



tubular armature. On either side of the central magnet runs an 

 auxiliary magnet, which is attached to the axle of the armature. 

 Thus the tubular armature has one pole as its axle, whilst the 

 other pole completely surrounds it. The current is drawn off at 

 either end of the cylinder by brushes. The machine is so 

 arranged that one armature can be used to excite the magnets, 

 whilst the other is used for the main circuit, which gives a good 

 current for plating purposes, or, when required for incandescent 

 lighting, the magnets may be excited by a small high tension 

 dynamo, and then the two armatures may be used for main 

 circuit purposes. 



Scientific authorities are not at rest with giving Philipp Reiss 

 the merit of inventing the telephone. The latest claimant put 

 forth is Charles Bourseul, a Frenchman, who is said to have 

 invented the telephone in 1854. This invention is said to have 

 been c .mmunicated in 1854 to the French Academy, and to 

 have appeared in the Dictaskalia, a supplementary paper to the 

 Frankfurter Journal, for September 28th, 1854. M. le Comte 

 du Moncel is advocating the claims of Bourseul. 



M. Berthelot has been investigating the speed of gaseous 

 explosions. For this purpose he used an iron tube 16 inches 

 long and ^ inch bore. The gases were exploded l>ya spark, and 

 the explosion registered at the centre and end of the tube. The 

 gases he used were carbonic oxide and oxygen, their rate of 

 explosion he observed to be 2500 metres per second. This is a 

 far greater speed than was expected. 



In the experiments which have been made at Grenoble for the 

 transmission of electric force from a distance of 14 kilometres, 

 the wire was of silicated bronze 2 mm. diameter, instead of iron 

 as on former occasions. According to V Electrieite the results 

 have been very poor, a motive power of 45 hor^e- having been 

 required to convey 7J horse-power. 



Thf. o^ervatory at Montmartre, Pari-, which belongs to Dr. 

 Gruby, has been reorganised, and M. Casse has been appointed 

 director. It is a private establi-hment devoted to meteorology, 

 the results being published in a number of the Paris daily papers' 

 It is built in the vicinity of the Moulin de la Colette, and is now, 

 except the latter establishment, the most elevated point in Paris. 



MM. Tissandier have completed the co istruction of their 

 apparatus for preparing hydrogen by a continuous process for 

 filling large balloons. It was tried with a balloon of 300 cubic 

 metres, which c mveyed the two brothers to some distance from 

 Paris. This system is a simplification of the apparatus which 

 was used by M. Giffard in his large captive balloon. It will be 

 used for filling the electric balloon nowbeing built by MM. 

 Ti-sandier. 



Dr. Liebscher of Jena University sends us some remarks 

 in reply to Mr. B. Koto's article on " Agriculture in Japan " in 

 Nature, vol. xxviii. p. 231. With regard to Mr. Koto's s'ate- 

 ment that in describing the climate of Japan Dr. Liebscher 

 enirely disregarded the fact that the empire "is surrounded on 

 all sides by a large body of water," he refers to his map of 

 Japan and to p. 8 of his work, where he says : " The summer 

 or south-west monsoon, which on its way from the tropics sweeps 

 over the warm Pacific and is saturated with steam ..." With 

 regard to what Mr. Koto says concerning Lake Hakone, Dr. 

 Liebscher maintains that the Hakone Pass is situated not at the 

 foot of the Fuji San, but at a distance of thirty-three nrles from 

 its foot, or about fifty miles from the summit, on quite a differen 

 range of mountains. Moreover, Dr. Liebscher points out that 

 Fuji San is not an active volcano " which sends out an enormous 

 quantity of scoria? " like Vesuvius ; nobody, Dr. Liebscher 

 states, has ever seen any trace of scoria or smoke about it since 

 the year 1707. As to Mr. Koto's statement that " the climate of 

 Japan is not so ineffective as Dr. Liebscher has depicted in his 



