4 -'8 



NA TURE 



[March i, 190b 



42 miles, and probable velocity of the object 24 miles 

 per second. 



The radiant point in the right hand of Bootes is very 

 little known as a centre of meteoric divergence in the 

 month of January. The only shower conformable with it 

 was observed at Bristol in 1887-9 January 25-29, 



In recent years fireballs have been very numerous in 

 this month, and especially at the epochs about January 

 9 to 13 and 24 to 29. They appear, however, to have 

 belonged to a great many different systems, and have 

 not supplied evidence of any rich individual display of 

 bright meteors at this time of the year. 



VV. F. Denning. 



METHOD OF PRODUCING WAVES OF FRE- 



QUENCY INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN HEAT 



WAVES AND HERTZIAN WAVES. 



'"FHERE is at present a considerable gap of unexplored 



wave-lengths intermediate between those of Hertzian 



waves and what is commonly known as heat. The shortest 



Hertzian waves which have heretofore been produced are 



of the order of one millimetre length. 



Some years ago the writer discovered a method of pro- 

 ducing the heretofore unknown waves above referred to. 



It is based on the phenomenon discovered by the writer 

 and published by him in a paper on insulation and con- 

 duction read before the American Institute of Electrical 

 Engineers in 1894. 



In the accompanying figure, AA are copper rods, bb are 

 plano-convex lenses. The distance between the surfaces of 



the lenses depends upon the wave-length which it is desired 

 to produce. 



If bb were metallic terminals, the discharge passing at 

 c would have a 1'hil; wave-length on account of the capacity 

 of bb. It is impossible to make metallic terminals small 

 enough to get very short wave-lengths. But, in the 

 apparatus shown in the sketch, if aa are connected to the 

 terminals of a high-voltage machine sparks will be found 

 to pass at c, and the oscillating conductor is merely the 

 small column of incandescenl gas, c. 



If the distance between bb is very short, the wave-length 

 w ill also I"- very short. 



Waves may be produced in this method having a wave- 

 length certainly not longer than a few ten-thousandths of 

 an inch, and there would appear to be no necessary limit 

 to the frequency. It sometimes happens that the discharge 

 tends to pass at a point outside the axis, and hence to give 

 1 longer wave-length than desired, but this can be avoided 

 by properly proportioning the curvature of the lenses and 

 the diameter of the rods AA. 



Inert gases of the helium type seem to give the best 

 results, but very good results are obtained by using quartz 

 lenses in air, the use of quartz having been suggested to 

 me by Prof. F.lihu Thomson. Quartz does not seem to 

 beci me conducting on being heated by the passage of the 

 'li-i harge to anything like the same extent as glass, and 

 hence the wave-length remains more constant. 



Owing^to pressure of other work, the writer has been 

 unable to continue these experiments, but the apparatus 

 would seem to be of interest as offering a means of 

 obtaining waves of any desired high frequency. 



Reginald A. Fessenden. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — The statement of the income and expenditure 

 of the Common University Fund for 1905, published in 

 last week's Gazette, shows that the income was 

 iiSoti/. <is. Sd., to which the colleges contributed 

 6197Z. iqs. 4d. under the statute concerning college con- 

 tributions for university purposes, and the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society 400/. towards the support of the 

 department of geography. The total expenditure was 

 6260^. 14s. 1 id., of which sum 3662/. 19s. $d. was devoted 

 to scientific purposes, partly in the payment of the salaries 

 of university readers and professors, and partly in assisting 

 various laboratories and providing demonstrators and 

 assistants. 



At a meeting of the Junior Scientific Club, held at the 

 Museum on February 23, .Mr. M. II. Godby (Christ Church) 

 read a paper on " The Place of Natural Science in 

 Education." 



Cambridge. — The Vice-Chancellor has been authorised to 

 convey to Lord Rayleigh the grateful thanks of the Uni- 

 versity for his magnificent gift of 7733!. 12s. Sd., being 

 the amount of the Nobel prize awarded to him in 1904. 

 Lord Rayleigh desires that 5000/. of this should be 

 employed in erecting a new building in connection with the 

 Cavendish Laboratory, and that the remainder should be 

 devoted to the purchase of scientific books and periodicals 

 for the University Library. 



Sir George Darwin, K.C.B., Plumian professor of 

 astronomy, will represent the University at the celebration 

 of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin 

 at Philadelphia in April. 



The Special Board of Biology and Geology recommended 

 that the agreement between the University and Dr. Dohrn, 

 director of the Zoological Station at Naples, be renewed 

 for a further period of five years by the payment to him 

 of 100/. per annum out of the Worts travelling bachelors 

 fund. 



The General Board of Studies has nominated the follow- 

 ing gentlemen as members of the Board of Electors to the 

 professorships named below : — Dr. B. C. A. Windle, to 

 the professorship of human anatomy ; Prof. F. W. Oliver, 

 to the professorship of botany : Lord Walsingham, to the 

 professorship of zoology and comparative anatomy; Mr. J. 

 Hutchinson, to the professorship of surgery; the Earl of 

 Carrington, G.C.M.G., to the professorship of agriculture. 



The following have been nominated examiners by the 

 General Board of Studies for the special examination in 

 agricultural science and for the diploma in agriculture : — 

 Mr. J. B. Peace, Mr. H. Woods, Mr. T. B. Wend, Mr. 

 R. n. Biffen, Prof. Middleton, Dr. Shore, Mr. T. A. 

 Dickson, and Mr. A. E. Shipley. 



At Gonville and Caius College the triennial Thruston 

 prize of 54/., open to a member of the college of not more 

 than fifteen years' standing who has published in the 

 course of the preceding three years the best original in- 

 vestigation in physiology, pathology, or practical medicine, 

 lias been awarded to Mr. W. S. Perrin, research student 

 of the college. Mr. Perrin is an expert on protozoology, 

 and has published papers on a so-called trypanosome in the 

 oyster and on Pleistoplwru periplanetae. 



Lord Rayleigh has promised to lay the foundation-stone 

 of a new science school at Dulwich College on Saturday, 

 March 3. 



To the new buildings of the Sorbonne it has been 

 decided to add a new university chemical laboratory, the 

 Institut de Chimie, on a site between la rue Saint-Jacques 

 and la rue d'Ulm, that is, in the neighbourhood of the 

 Sorbonne. 



Prof. R. J. Harvey Gibson writes from the Hartley 

 Botanical Laboratories, University of Liverpool, to point 



NO. 1896, VOL. 73] 



