49Q 



NA TURE 



[March 26, 1885 



any badly tuned piano, differing probably from performer 

 to performer, and, as shown by the above comparison, 

 often out by a quarter of a Tone. 



Mr. Ellis's conclusion was that there is not anything 

 approaching to a single "natural" music scale. That, on 

 the contrary, the systems, where systems can be said to 

 exist, are very diverse, and often very capricious, and are 

 always very imperfectly carried out. This arises probably 

 from harmony proper being unknown, though ensemble 

 playing is common. In the latter case unisons are the 

 rule, the effect being produced by diversity of quality of 

 tone ; but certain effects are produced by admitting 

 Octaves, and rarely Fourths and Fifths — no more. 

 Also a kind of polyphony may be remarked, some 

 instruments, especially those with tones of very short 

 duration, being allowed to discant while the others go on 

 with the air. 



On the whole, Mr. Ellis considers his work has only 

 commenced an investigation which will have to be pursued 

 for many years, principally by physicists with a slight 

 knowledge of music, not by European musicians, whose 

 thoughts are biassed by the system of music in which they 

 are accustomed to think. 



NOTES 

 The Anniversary Meeting of the Chemical Society will be 

 held on Monday, March 30. 



The Mercers' Company have made a contribution of 52/. 10s. 

 to the fund on behalf of the family of the late Henry Watts, 

 F.R.S. 



We are glad to see from the recent -letter of Sir Spencer 

 Robinson, in the Times, that the Admiralty are at last taking 

 to experiment to decide the question as to the best form of war- 

 ship. This is as it should be, and we hope the Admiralty will 

 continue their experiments until they have obtained a solid 

 scientific principle to guide them. 



Our readers may be interested in the following remarkable 

 and well-authenticated instance of the effect of atmospheric in- 

 fluences in varying the distance at which lights are visible at 

 night, communicated to us by a correspondent. The para- 

 graph is taken from the Aberdeen Journal of March 21. 

 The steamship referred to was on her weekly voyage from 

 London to Aberdeen, being one of a well-known line of 

 passenger steamers trading within these ports. "Singular 

 Phenomenon. — Capt. Marchant, of the s.s. City of Aberdeen, 

 reports that owing to the peculiar condition of the atmosphere 

 yesterday morning he saw, quite clear and bright, the Girdleness 

 Light (Aberdeen Bay) at I a.m., when his vessel was a little to 

 the south of Montrose, a distance of over thirty-six miles, and 

 when two miles north of Stonehaven he could distinctly see the 

 Buchanness Light (about twenty miles north of Aberdeen and 

 three miles south of Peterhead), at a distance of fully thirty-two 

 miles. The lights are laid down on the Admiralty chart as 

 visible at nineteen and seventeen miles respectively." 



The half-yearly general meeting of the Scottish Meteorolo- 

 gical Society was held on March 23. The business before the 

 meeting was : — Report from the Council of the Society ; Report 

 oftheworkof the Scottish Marine Station, by the Scientific 

 Staff of the Station ; Anemometrical observations at Dundee, 

 by David Cunningham, C.E., Harbour Chambers, Dundee; 

 Diagram to facilitate hygrometric calculations, by David Cunn- 

 ingham, C.E. ; Formation of snow crystals from fog, by R. T. 

 Omond, Superintendent of Ben Nevis Observatory ; Meteorology 

 of Ben Nevis, to February 1885, by Alexander Buchan, 

 Secretary. 



A TELEGRAM from Fort William reports that the Rev. John 

 M'Kintosh, Free Church minister, and Mr. Colin Livingstone, 

 of Fort William, made the ascent of Ben Nevis on Monday. 

 The weather was fine, but, owing to the quantity of snow on the 

 higher part of the mountain, footing in some parts was obtained 

 with considerable difficulty. This was particularly the case for 

 about 1 200 feet above the Red Burn, and crossing steps had 

 frequently to be cut in the frozen snow. The occupants of the 

 observatory at the top of Ben Nevis were found in excellent 

 health and spirits. The buildings, with the exception of the 

 chimneys and tower, are buried in the snow, access to the rooms 

 being obtained through the tower by means of a ladder. But, 

 once reached, the rooms are very comfortable. The junior assis- 

 tant was found amusing himself with a kind of raft, which was 

 carried over the snow by means of a sail. 



At a special meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engin- 

 eer , held on the 20th inst., was read, amongst otherpapers, one 

 by Mi. R. Heenan on the Tower spherical engine. As its name 

 betokens, it consists of a system of parts contained within a 

 sphere, so united as to enable them under the action of steam 

 pressure to impart rotatory motion to a shaft. Considered kine- 

 matically, the three elementary moving parts of which the 

 engine is composed are : a pair of quarter spheres, having a 

 circular disk of the same diameter as the sphere interposed 

 between them. The straight edges of the spherical sectors are 

 hinged on opposite sides of the disks along diameters at right 

 angles to each other. Each sector rotates upon an axis of its own, 

 upon which it is fixed symmetrically ; these two axes lie in the 

 same plane, meeting in the centre of the disk at an angle of 135°. 

 The two sectors thus correspond with the two bows of an ordinary 

 universal joint, the disks replacing the crosspiece connecting the 

 bows. Throughout each revolution there are consequently two cavi- 

 ties simultaneously,^ process of opening and two others in process 

 of closing, all four alike changing at the same mean rate of 

 increase and diminution. If, therefore, the disk with its pair of 

 sectors be encased within a hollow sphere of the same diameter, 

 and, if steam be admitted into the two opening cavities, and 

 exhausted from the two that are closing, continuous rotatory 

 motion will be produced, driving the two shafts represented by 

 the axes of the two sectors. When one of the two opening 

 chambers is only just commencing to open, the other is half open ; 

 so that, while the one is making no effort, the other is in the 

 position of best effort. Although the whole of the engine may 

 be said to be contained within the sphere, it is an interesting 

 feature in the system that the capacity of the engine is no other 

 than the full capacity of the sphere itself, inasmuch as four 

 quarters of the sphere are filled and emptied in one revolution. 

 The Tower spherical engines have been used for the electric 

 lighting of trains on the Great Eastern Railway ; they have con- 

 tinued running since October 26, 1884, with perfectly satisfactory 

 results. The engine is coupled directly to a dynamo specially 

 made, the two being together on one bed-plate. The whole is 

 mounted on the top of the locomotive-boiler behind the dome, 

 so that it occupies no space on the foot-plate, and the steam can 

 be taken direct from the dome. The construction of the engine 

 was illustrated by means of twenty-six diagrams. 



We have received the Report of the City and Guilds of 

 London Institute for Technical Education for the past year. 



M. Albert Gaudry, Professor of Paleontology in the 

 Museum of Natural History, has reproduced as a pamphlet a 

 note read by him before the Academy of Sciences on the ne.v 

 gallery of Palaeontology added to the Paris Natural History 

 Museum. This is a provisional gallery for the large skeleton 

 of fossil animals ; but M. G.iudry has the vision of a far more 

 perfect and elaborate gallery before his eyes. The new gallery, 



