io8 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 4, 1 884 



as usual. Some of the new series of Christmas and New Year's 

 cards have also a scientific side to them, as they refer to flowers 

 and birds, form and colour being carefully studied, and perhaps 

 even more carefully given than they are in many books of botany 

 and natural history. The series which gives us the story of a 

 fox hunt by monkeys on dogs contains some very masterly 

 drawing. 



Mr. Newall has forwarded to us a sketch of the face of one 

 of several watches which he designed and had made some years 

 ago by Mr. D. Glasgow, of Myddleton Square, President of the 

 Horological Institute. The " hours " are replaced by a large 

 round dot, which is easily seen even on a dark night in the 

 Observatory, and there is no need for figures or a double row 

 of them to count up to 24 o'clock, as has been suggested. 



We have received vol. xx. of the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Victoria, being a record of the work of the Society 

 for last year. The longest paper in the number is one by Mr. 

 Howitt, on the rocks of Noyang ; two communications by 

 Messrs. Blunt and Jamieson deal with the influence of light on 

 bacteria, while Mr. Ralph discusses the occurrence of bacteria 

 (bacilli) in living plants. In a paper on modern fireproof and 

 watertight building materials, Mr. Behrendt refers specially to 

 Tragerwellblech (" bearing corrugated iron plates ") and 

 asphalte. Mr. Ellery, the President of the Society, communi- 

 cates mtes on the recent red sunsets, which he attributes to the 

 prevalence of vapour in the higher regions of the atmosphere ; 

 on the rainfall map recently issued by the Government of Vic- 

 toria ; and on the early history of telegraphy, the invention of 

 which he attributes to Mr. Edward Davy, at one time of the 

 Assay Office in Melbourne. Mr. MacGillivray gives the fifth 

 and sixth instalments of his lists and descriptions of new or 

 liitle-known Polyzoa. The remaining papers printed in the 

 volume (although many more were read before the Society) are : — 

 On the caves perforating marble deposits, Limestone Creek, by 

 Mr. Stirling ; incandescent lamp; for surgical and microscopical 

 purposes, by Mr. Joseph ; electric lighting for mines, by the 

 same author ; notes on the dressing of tin ore, by Mr. New- 

 berry ; and notes on hydrology, by Mr. Steane. 



A project which, if executed, would render the Paris Exhi- 

 bition of 1SS9 for ever memorable, has been published by M. 

 Eiffel, the French engineer, and is described in La Nature. It is 

 to erect in the grounds of the Exhibition an iron tower 300 metres 

 in height, that is, twice as high as the Great Pyramid, and more 

 than twice the height of the Strasburg Cathedral ; 160 metres he 

 considers as the limit of height possible in a structure of which 

 stone is the principal material, and hence iron is proposed. 

 The base of the tower is of pyramidal shape, and is to be 70 

 metres high, and the superficial area at this height will be 5000 

 square metres ; above this there are to be three other stages, or 

 stories, in which will be rooms which it is proposed to use for 

 various purposes, scientific and other. The towers of Notre 

 Dame will be mere pygmies beside this colossal structure, and 

 will not reach to its first floor. The projector points out that, 

 in addition to its monumental character, the structure will be 

 useful for strategical purposes in war time, on account of the 

 vast range of view, for meteorological and astronomical observa- 

 tions, for at such a height the clearness of the air and the absence 

 of fogs would render observations possible which cannot be made 

 on the ground. The tower might also be used for the electric 

 light. The whole exhibition and the surrounding neighbour- 

 hood might thus be lighted from a central point. Many scien- 

 tific problems may, it is suggested, be investigated from the 

 tower, such as the resistance of the air to different weights, 

 certain laws of elasticity, the study of the compression of gas or 

 vapours, of the oscillation of the pendulum. In shape it is to 

 resemble an enormous lighthouse, gradually tapering from a wide 

 base to the summit. 



We learn from Science that the Norwegian bark Loveid, 

 recently arrived in Philadelphia, reports a very peculiar squall 

 experienced October 18, in lat. 39° 49' N., long. 69° 5' W. 

 During fine, clear weather, with a light breeze from the north- 

 west, heavy banks of clouds of most threatening aspect suddenly 

 appeared, driving in every direction. Almost immediately a 

 heavy squall of wind and rain struck the vessel, the wind shifting 

 quickly all around the compass. In the midst of this disturb- 

 ance, which lasted about an hour, a single peal of thunder was 

 heard, and simultaneously a bolt of lightning struck the fore- 

 royal mast-head, and ran down the mast to the royal yard, 

 which was almost destroyed. The lightning, which looked like 

 a ball of fire, then ran out on the horn of the cross-trees, and 

 "burst" with a loud report, scattering sparks all over the 

 vessel. The barometer fell suddenly from 30 to 28 60, and 

 then rose as rapidly, the weather becoming pleasant immediately 

 afterwards. This is rather a peculiar squall, considering the 

 locality and the season. 



The New York Financial and Mining NeT.es contains an 

 account of the extraordinary effect of an explosion of a large 

 quantity of nitro-glycerine in what appeared to be an extinct 

 oil-well in the Pennsylvanian oil-fields. A careful examination 

 of the soil in the shaft failed to reveal any trace of oil or gas, 

 and at length, as a last resource, it was decided to try the effect 

 of an explosion of a shell containing fifty quarts of this explosive. 

 First a column of water rose eight or ten feet and then fell back ; 

 a few moments later the burnt glycerine, mud, and sand rushed 

 up the derrick in a black stream, the blackness gradually changing 

 to yellow. Then, with a roar, the gas burst forth in a cloud 

 which for a moment hid the derrick from sight, and as it cleared 

 away revealed a solid golden column half a foot in diameter 

 shooting from the derrick floor eighty feet through the air, till it 

 broke into fragments on the crown pulley and fell in showers of 

 golden rain for many yards around. This column of oi! con- 

 tinued for an hour rushing in a torrent into the air. The 

 branches of the trees around were like huge yellow plumes, and 

 a large stream ran down the hill to a road, where it nearly filled 

 the space beneath a small bridge. In two hours the neighbour- 

 ing flats were covered with a flood of oil, and the hillside looked 

 as if a freshet had passed over it, while heavy clouds of gas hung 

 low over the woods. Dams were built across the stream in 

 order that the production might be calculated, but they were 

 borne away almost as soon as erected. The people living near 

 the flats fled to the hills ; fires had to be extinguished in the 

 district to prevent a conflagration. The outflow was estimated 

 at 8000 barrels in twenty-four hours. Ultimately the stream 

 was diverted into the banks, after much labour and some danger. 

 It was noticed that all the wells in the neighbourhood declined 

 as soon as the outflow here mentioned commenced, the gauges 

 in some of them showing at the end of three days a fall to half 

 their previous depth. 



M. J \min, Perpetual Secretary of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, has been elected a member of the Societe francaise de 

 Navigation aerienne. He will take his seat next Thursday, the 

 nth inst., and is to deliver a speech on the occasion. He is at 

 present engaged in writing an exhaustive article on aerial direc- 

 tion, which will very shortly a]. pear in the Revue da deux 

 Mondes. 



On Saturday night Mr. H. M. Stanley, on leaving Berlin 

 after attending the West African Conference, was entertained at 

 a banquet by the Central Society for Commercial Geography. 

 A peculiar feature of the banquet was an ethnological study in 

 the shape of a group of mummers representing some races of 

 Africa, presumably those of the Cameroon and Angra Pequena 

 regions. 



An earthquake was felt on Sunday and Monday, November 

 23 and 24, near Briancon, in the valley of Queyras on the banks 



