100 
of the Government, and with the removal of the 
Royal Observatory from the Encke Platz in 
Berlin to Neubabelsberg is now being utilised with 
its equipment as an astronomical institute in con- 
nection with the Berlin University. Lectures on 
astronomy are still given at the Observatory by 
the society during the winter months, but only 
The “Urania” building, Tauben-strasse, Berlin. 
a portion of the building is open on special days 
in the week to visitors. The large refracting 
telescope, which has a focal length of five metres 
and an aperture of 314 millimetres, and other 
smaller telescopes and instruments may still be 
inspected by the public, and on the appearance 
of comets and occurrence of eclipses the Observa- 
ND) 
ND. 2291, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 25, I913 
tory is visited by large numbers of the general 
public. 
The new institute in the Tauben-strasse, which 
is under the direction of Dr. Schwahn and Franz 
Goerke, contains a large lecture theatre with seat- 
ing accommodation for 700 people and a smaller 
lecture room to hold 200. It is also provided with 
library and reading-room, 
workshop and_ prepara- 
tion rooms. The scien- 
tific exhibits are placed 
in six galleries, two being 
allotted to physics, two 
to natural science, one 
to chemical technology, 
and one to machinery. 
The apparatus exhibited 
in the physics section has 
been arranged to illus- 
trate an ordinary college 
course in experimental 
physics. It is possible 
for the visitor to perform 
for himself many of the 
experiments he would 
see demonstrated in a 
lecture or carry out in a 
laboratory. Thus, he 
may verify the ordinary 
laws of optics, measure 
ip 
B 
i 
: 
; 
bridge, excite the 
kathode rays and deflect 
them with a magnet, and 
so on. This idea was 
due to Prof. Goldstein, 
who had the arrangement 
of the physics apparatus 
in the smaller building in 
the Ausstellungs- Park. 
A similar plan, wherever 
possible, has been fol- 
lowed in the other depart- 
ments, and no doubt has 
proved extremely bene- 
ficial to many earnest 
students who _ prosecute 
their studies in their 
spare time or lack the 
opportunity of a college 
training. 
During the last sixteen 
years the average annual 
number of visitors to 
Urania has been 200,000, 
and the society has 
arranged on an average 
zoo = lectures __yearly. 
Urania has welcomed the members of the 
various scientific congresses which have held 
their conferences in; Berlin during the past 
few years, and the institution numbers among its 
visitors many of the world’s leading men of science. 
From many of these the society has received gifts 
of various objects of scientific interest. 
a resistance with a metre 
