December 28, 1905] 



NA TURE 



209 



it was the hope of all present that support would 

 .soon be forthcoming to enable the plans to be completed. 

 as another kind of support equally essential for 

 the progress of the institution — the appreciation of its 

 benefits by those who enjoyed them. They had a guarantee 

 for that in the manner in which the management controlled 

 and guided the affairs of the college ; for the governors 

 were assisted by committees having a practical knowledge 

 of the different trades affected, committees consisting of 

 employers and employed, of masters and men. He was 

 sure all those who had the privilege of knowing anything, 

 however little, of this institution would have confidence 

 that in the future as in the past it would meet with that 

 public recognition which it so truly deserved. In closing, 

 he declared the new buildings open. 



The memorial stone of the new buildings of the Glasgow 



Compk 



the Newouildingsofthe 



and West of Scotland Technical College was laid on May 

 14, 1903, by His Majesty King Edward, and in Nature, 

 vol. lxviii., pp. 63, 64, a notice was given of the ceremony 

 and also a sketch of the history of the college and an 

 outline of the proposed scheme of new buildings. These 

 will ultimately consist of five large wings, two parallel to 

 George Street and three at right angles to them and 

 parallel to Montrose Street ; of these all except the prin- 

 cipal portion of the front wing to George Street have been 

 completed. The frontage to George Street will be 346 feet 

 long, more than 100 feet in height, and will contain five 

 floors and a semi-basement ; the frontage to Montrose 

 Street, 300 feet 'ong, is shown in the annexed photo- 

 graph. The plan of confining each department to one 

 floor has been followed in nearly every case, and the 

 interna] arrangements generally are believed to be well 



NO. T887, VOL - 7i] 



adapted to efficient working. The figures given in 

 vol. lxviii., p. 64, for the space allotted to each principal 

 department represent very closely the dimensions in the 

 completed part, and the equipment already provided has 

 cost about 24,000/. ; but additions to the buildings and 

 equipment are urgently required, because, large though 

 the premises are, they are inadequate for the accommoda- 

 tion ill all the students of the college, and additional 

 1 -till to be rented. G. A. G. 



RECENT STUDIES OF PERIODS IN 



METEOROLOGY. 

 1 N Symons's Meteorological Magazine for November 

 1 (No. 478, vol. xl.) Mr. A. P. Jenkin contributes an 

 interesting note on periodicity of rainfall. Dealing with 

 the Greenwich data commencing in 

 1843, he find- that there is a three- 

 year period of rainfall, which, how- 

 ever, at times suffers reversal. Thus 

 for a series of years we shall have 

 two wet years followed by a dry one, 

 and for a subsequent series two dry 

 years followed by one wet one. Mr. 

 Jenkin finds that this result van be 

 'iied by transforming an actual 

 period of 32 years into a period of 

 30 years, reversals taking place at the 

 end of eight periods, and he compares 

 the values thus obtained with the 

 Greenwich rainfall figures. The resull 

 is interesting. As regards the origin 

 of this three-year period, he sa\ s the 

 " apparent period of three years with 

 reversals is a real period of between 

 three and four years, which is just 

 what Sir Norman and Dr. Lockyer 

 have observed in meteorological pheno- 

 mena in India and other widel) 

 separated parts of the earth. ..." 

 Mr. Jenkin has apparently not seen 

 the article which appeared in these 

 columns in June last (vol. lxxii. 

 p. 180), in which the relation between 

 British pressure and rainfall changes 

 and the Thames flow was discussed. 

 The short-period British pressure 

 variations (and consequently rainfall, 

 since the latter is inverse to the 

 pressure) were there shown to be 

 intimately associated with the two 

 main world-pressure types of those 

 authors, as the following extract will 

 show : — " During some years the 

 British area is enveloped in the 

 pressure system that extends over the 

 large area in which India is about the 

 centre, while for another series of 

 years it is dominated by the antipodal 

 pressure system of which South 

 America is the middle portion." 



" It is possible that it is this 



alternate reversion from one type t" 



the other that prevents the 3-8-year 



change of the Indian and Cordoba 



curves from occurring in the British 



curves, and substitutes for it an apparent slwrter period of 



about tlirec years, which is very noticeable for some series 



of years in the British 1 urves." 



It will thus be seen that Mr. Jenkin has practically 

 arrived independently at a similar conclusion. In the 

 same note Mr. Jenkin deals with the Cape Town rainfall, 

 which, as he says, shows the same result, though the 

 number of periods in a series is six, and the time of 

 reversal does not coincide with that of Greenwich. 



In a series of important articles on the forms of cirrus- 

 clouds, the last of which appeared in the Meteorologische 

 Zeitsehrift for October (vol. xxii., No. 10), Prof. Oslhoff, 

 of Cologne, sums up his observations, extending over 

 twenty years, as follows: — The ordinary origin of different 

 cirrus forms are air currents of various kinds, which 

 either cause existing cloud material to rend itself, or 



Technical College 



