Sept. 6, 1883] 



NATURE 



447 



from Ceylon ; specimens of figure or picture writings on palm 

 leavts from the Nicobar Islands. Some of these hints may be 

 found useful by English travellers and others « illing to promote 

 anthropological work in the lndo Pacific regions. 



Mr. J. T. Last contributes a paper 01 unusual interest to the 

 September number of the Proceedings of the Ro)al Gtogtaphical 

 Society; he desciibes a visit to the little known Masai country, 

 the region through which Mr. Jtseph Thomson had to pass. 

 Mr. Thomson himself sends a long letter giving an account of 

 the first part of his journey and his forced return to the coast. 

 He was to set out again on July 8, via the ninth side of Kili- 

 manjaro for Mosera, far on the way to the south shore of Victoria 

 Nyanza. Meantime it is announced that Dr. Fischer, the Ger- 

 man explorer who preceded Mr. Thomson on the same route 

 and excited the hostility of the people, has returned to the 

 coast. It seems impossible that he can have reached his pro- 

 posed goal, ami probably, like Mr. Thomson, has been com- 

 pelled to turn back. 



On August 2S the gunboat Urd arrived at Tromso with the 

 member* of the Swedish Circumpolar Expedition on board, who 

 have wintered at Spitzbergen. I tiring the Vrd's voyage to the 

 island she eiicountered a fog off Beeren Island, which continued 

 to Spitsbergen, but only a small quantity of ice was seen, viz. at 

 South Cape. 'J he vessel arrived at Cape Thordsten on August 

 10. The observations were continued until 12 midnight on 

 August 23, in order to have a full year's magnetical observations. 

 On the 24th the houses were cleared, the windows nailed up, 

 and the doors locked, and on the 25th the Urd steamed out of 

 the Icefjord. In Green Harbour ihe post was taken on board 

 from the Norwegian hunters, and steering west of the Beeren 

 Island the coast of Norway was sighted on the 28th. No ice 

 wa- encountered. The ship is expected in Gothenburg on the 

 6 h inst. 



We are glad to learn that both the Dutch International Polar 

 Expedition ai.d the Danish Expedition ui.der Lieut. Hovgaard 

 are safe. A Renter's telegram from Vardoe says : — The steamer 

 Obi, belonging to M. Sibiriakoff, has arrived here. The captain 

 picked up on the 25th ult., near VVaigatz, the members of the 

 Dutch Polar Expedition steamer Varna, which foundered on 

 July 24 in lat. 71, long. 63. The captain further states that the 

 Danish exploring vest el Dijmphna had been ice-bound in that 

 region throughout the winter. All was however, well on board, 

 and the captain of the Dijmphna felt confident of getting into 

 open water. The crew of the Varna, which left the Dijmphna 

 on the 1st ult., will be brought to Harnmerfest by the steamer 

 Noraenskjbld. The Varna had on board the Dutch section of 

 the International Polar Expedition. She left Amsterdam on 

 July 5, 1882, bound for Dickson's Harbour, at the mouth of the 

 Yenisei. The Danish Polar steamer Dijmphna, under command 

 of Lieut. Hovgaard, left Copenhagen on July 18, 1SS2, al.o 

 bound for the Arctic Seas, and the A'ordenskjold, Swedish ex- 

 ploring steamer, left Tromso about Ju y 3, 1882, bound for 

 Novaya Zemlya. 1 he Louise is a trading steamer which left 

 Bremen of June 27 last, and Hammerfest on July 17, bound for 

 the Yenesei. 



ELECTRICAL UNITS 



r 



'HE following is the Report (omitting the appendix) to the 

 Lords of the Committee of Council on Education by the 

 Commiitee of Advice 1 with respect to the International Congress 

 for the Determination of Electrical Units to be held at Paris in 

 October, 1S83. 



The first International Electrical Exhibition was held in Paris 

 during the months of August, September, and October, 1SS1, 

 under the auspices of the French Government, w ho supplemented 

 it by calling togeiher a Congress of the leading scientific and 

 practical electricians of all countries. England was repre;entcd 

 by the following official delegates : — 



The Ambassador to France, Sir F. Abel, C.B., F.R.S., Prof. 

 \V. G. Adams, F.R.S., Lieut. K. W. Anstruther, R.E., Prof. 

 \V. E. Ayrton, F.K.S., Prof. W. F. Barrett, Sir Charles 

 Bright, M.I.C.E., Commissioner at the International Electrical 

 Exhibition, Paris, Prof. Chrystal, F.K.S., Mr. Latimer Clark, 

 M.I.C.E., Prof. R. B. Clifton, F.R.S., the Earl of Crawford 



1 The President of the Royal Society, the late Mr. W. Spottiswoode, was 

 a member of the Committee, but his illness and death prevented his taking 

 part in its proceed. ngs. 



and Balcarres, F. R.S., Commissioner-General at the Inter- 

 national Electrical Exhibition, Paris, Mr. W. Crookes, F. K.S , 

 Mr. Warren de la Rue, D.C.L., F.R.S., Prof. I. Dewar, 

 F.R.S ., Prof. J. D. Everett, F.K.S., Prof. G. Fitzgerald, 

 F.R.S., Prof. G. Carey Foster, F.R.S. , Dr. J. II. Gladstone, 

 F.K.S., Mr. J. E. H. Gordon, Mr. E. Graves Engineer-in- 

 Chief, Postal Telegraphs, Dr. J. Hopkinson, F.R.S., Prof. 

 Hughes, F.R.S., Commissioner at the International Electrical 

 Exhibition, Paris, Prof. Fleeming Jenkin, F.R.S., Mr. J. F. 

 Moulton, F.R.S., Mr. W. H. Preece, F.R.S., Lord Rayleigh, 

 F.R.S., Sir W. Siemens, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., Prof. H. 

 Smith, F.K.S., Mr. Willoughby Smith, Mr. C. E. Spagnoletii, 

 Mr. W. Spottiswoode, D.C.L., LL.D., P.R.S., Mr. A. Stroh, 

 Prof. P. G. Tail, F.R.S. E., Sir William Thomson, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., Prof. J. Tyndall, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., Mr. Crom- 

 well Varley, F.R.S., Mr. C. V. Walker, Lieut. -Col. Webber, 

 R.E., Commissioner at the International Electrical Exhibition, 

 Paris. 



Many very important electrical questions were fully di-cu-sed, 

 and a universal and international system of units for expre-sing 

 the results of electrical measurements and observations w as 

 determined upon. All parts of the globe being now connected 

 together by a great netwoik of telegraphy, constructed and 

 maintained by every civilised nation, it has become a matter of 

 great commercial as well as scientific importance that uniformity 

 should be introduced in modes of woiking, measurii g, and 

 obetving throughout the world. The Paris Congress of 1S81 

 has laid the foundation of such a desirable result. 



The Congress of 18S1 referred certain questions to a second 

 Conference, held in the month of October, 1882. 



Thi- second Conference was divided into three Sections («' e. 

 Commissions); the first dealing with "Electrical Units"; the 

 second with "Earth Currents and Lightning Protectors" ; and 

 the third with the question of " A Standard of Light." 



Lord Rayleigh, Sir William Thomson, Prof. Carey Foster, 

 Prof. Fleeming Jenkin, and Dr. Hopkinson were nominated as 

 delegates from England, but Sir William Thomson was the only 

 one present, and he devoted his time principally to the first 

 question. 



First Commission. — The Electrical Congress of iSSi 

 adopted, as the fundamental system of units for scientific pur- 

 poses, a system founded upon the employment of the Cen'imetre, 

 the Gramme, and the Second as units of length, mass, and time 

 re-pectively, and hence known as the C.G. S. system of units. 

 The Congress also defi.ied, and adopted a nomenclature for, a 

 system 01 electrical standards of such magnitudes as to be as far 

 as p ssible generally convenient f r practical use, each practical 

 standard being a decimal multiple or submultiple of the cotrc- 

 sponding C.G.S. unit. 1 Of these standards, those to which 

 reference is most frequently required aro the following, 

 namely : — 



The Ohm, defined as one thousand million C.G.S. units of 

 electric resistance. 



The Volt, defined as one hundred million C.G.S. units o r 

 electromotive force. 



The Ampere, defined as one-tenth of a C.G.S. unit of electric 

 current, being the current maintained by an electromotive force 

 of one volt in a conductor of resistance one ohm. 



It was further agreed by the Congress that, with a view espe- 

 cially to facility of reproduction, the resistance denoted by the 

 ohm should be stated as being the resistance of a column ot 

 mercury at the temperature of melting ice, of one square milli- 

 metre in cross-section, and of a length to be ascertained by 

 experiment. 



Accordingly the princi[ al question referred to the first section 

 of the Conference of 18S2 was the determination of the length 

 of a column of mercury, of the above-mentioned cross-section 

 and temperature, which had an electrical resistance of one thou- 

 sand million C.G.S. units. In reference to this question the 

 Conference adopted the following resolutions, namely ; — 



First Resolution. — "The Conference considers that the de- 

 terminations hitherto made do not present the necessary degree of 

 concordance for fixing the numerical value of the ohm in terms 

 of a column of mercury. 



1 It is satisfactory to your Commiitee to be able to say that the C.G S. 

 System of units was widely used ammg English physicists before its adi p- 

 tion by the Electrical Congress in 18S1. it having been recon mended by a 

 Committee of the British Associatien in 1S75 ; and also that the svstem of 

 practical standards adopted by the Congress is nearly identical wiib that 

 previously 111 use in England and first suggested in a paper bv Mr I atip-er 

 Clark and Sr Charles i right read before the British Atscdatirn in Man- 

 chester 111 1E61. 



