August 14, 1884] 



NA TURE 



373 



surface at the time of the eruption, but which are now covered 

 by 1 2 or 14 feel of water. Approached from the north Krakatoa 

 seemed wrapped in a whitish smoke, vapours apparently issuing 

 from fissures on this side, and settling on the summit, which is 

 at present 2730 feet high. It was at this point that the great 

 convulsion took place on August 26-27, when about half the 

 island was blown into the air. A closer examination showed 

 that what had been taken for fissures w r ere simply ravines, and 

 the vapours were clouds of dust stirred up by stones incessantly 

 rolling down the steep slope of the mountain. This was accom- 

 panied by a continuous noise like the rattling of distant musketry, 

 while stones of a certain size were seen whirling in the air, then 

 falling and ricochetting down to the sea. Notwithstanding the 

 evident danger, the boats of the expedition succeeded in approach- 

 ing the foot of the volcano and collecting specimens of the rocks 

 at several points. The same afternoon they reached the island 

 of Verlaten, formerly one mass of verdure, now uniformly 

 covered with a layer of solidified ashes about 100 feet thick. The 

 deep crevasses, widened by the erosion of tropical rains, give the 

 aspect of a glacier to this island, which has been doubled in 

 extent by the deposits from the last eruption. Returning next 

 day to Krakatoa the members of the expedition found a safe 

 landing place, where it was possible to study the nature of the 

 rocks and other matter ejected by the volcano. No trace was 

 found of animal or vegetable life, with the exception of a solitary 

 little spider, and the solidified bed of mud and ashes was esti- 

 mated in some places to have attained a thickness of from 200 to 

 260 feet. A black rock rising a few yards above the surface 

 about a mile and a quarter from the present shore, represents a 

 last fragment of the portion of the island engulfed during the 

 eruption. After touching at Lang Island, which presented much 

 the same appearance as its neighbour Verlaten, the expedition 

 concluded its survey of the Strait, landing on the 2Sth at 

 Merak at the north-west extremity of Java. Merak had shared 

 the fate of Anjer, and the coast-line in this district had been 

 considerably modified. The expedition returned to Batavia on 

 the 29th, after determining two new facts — the disappearance of 

 the islands upheaving during the eruption, and the total cessation 

 for the present of all volcanic activity at Krakatoa. 



On Saturday, August 9, M. Renard, Captain of Engineers, 

 and M. Krebs, Captain of Infantry, made an experiment with 

 the directing balloon which they are constructing at the expense 

 of the French Government in the aeronautical works of Chalet 

 Meudon. The balloon, which is about 60 metres in length and 

 10 metres in diameter, carries a long platform of about 40 metres 

 in length and 3 metres in breadth. At one of its extremities sit the 

 aeronauts in a car. The aerial helix and a gramme magneto- 

 electric machine are placed at the other. The voltaic elements 

 and ballast are disposed on the platform. The wind not being 

 strong, the aeronauts ascended and tried first the effect of their 

 rudder, which is a sail of about 10 metres square. The results 

 were very satisfactory indeed, and the steering of the balloon 

 remarkably quick and easy. The balloon was drifted by the 

 wind from Chalet Meudon to Petit Bicetre, above the Meudon 

 woods. Then the aeronauts, wishing to return home, adjusted 

 the rudder and the experiment succeeded wonderfully ; in 

 five minutes the distance, which is about two miles, was run. 

 The balloon landed just before the doorway of its wooden house. 

 This experiment will be tried again in a few days for a longer 

 distance. The system practised by the French officers is a slight 

 modification of the one used by Gaston Tissandier and described 

 in Nature. The French officers were originally adherents of 

 the helix moving round an axis traversing the balloon, but the 

 result of the experiments published by Tissandier seems to have 

 modified their opinion. 



M. F. Lhoste, Secretary -of the Academie d' Aerostation 

 Meteorologique de France, who started in a balloon from Bou- 



logne on Thursday last, descended at Romney, fifteen miles 

 from Folkestone, at half-past eight o'clock the same even- 

 ing. M. Lhoste left Boulogne at seven p.m. He encountered 

 three distinct currents of air, one of which carried him in the 

 direction of the North Sea. The descent was effected without 

 difficulty. 



Already a prospectus has been issued of the International 

 Exhibition of Inventions and of Musical Instruments, to be 

 opened in May 1SS5, in the buildings now standing in the gar- 

 dens of the Royal Horticultural Society at South Kensington. 

 The Exhibition will have all the advantages of royal patronage 

 and support. Her Majesty the Queen becomes patron, and the 

 Prince of Wales assumes once more the duties of president. 

 The Executive Council, appointed by the royal president, 

 having for chairman Sir Frederick Bramwell, F.R.S., vice- 

 president of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and for vice-chair- 

 man the Marquis of Hamilton, is composed of Sir Frederick 

 Abel, C.B., Mr. I. Lowthian Bell, F.R.S., president of the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Mr. Birkbeck, M.P. 

 (honorary treasurer), Colonel Sir Francis Bolton, Sir Philip 

 Cunliffe-Owen, C.B., CLE., Prof. Dewar, F.R.S., Mr. Joseph 

 Dickenson, Sir George Grove, D.C.L., Mr. E. YV. Hamilton, 

 Mr. Henry E. Jones, M.Inst.C.E., Mr. W. H. Preece, F.R.S., 

 Sir E. J. Reed, M.P., F.R.S., Prof. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., 

 Mr. John Robinson, Mr. Warington W. Smyth, F.R.S., Dr. 

 Stainer, and Mr. R. E. Webster, Q.C., with Mr. Edward 

 Cunliffe-Owen as secretary. Mr. J. R. Somers Vine will be 

 the City and official agent. The idea upon which the Exhibition 

 is planned is not to bring together a mere collection of models of 

 inventions, but rather to illustrate the progress which has been 

 made in the practical applications of science during the past twenty 

 years. In order to carry out this intention the Council will, 

 as far as possible, confine the exhibits to processes and appli- 

 ances, products being admitted only where they are themselves 

 novel or where their introduction is required to make the pur- 

 pose or advantages of that which is new in any process more 

 interesting and intelligible. It is not proposed to allot space 

 for manufactured goods unaccompanied by any illustrations of 

 the process of manufacture. Generally it may be said that, as 

 far as is practicable, inventions will be shown by models, with, in 

 the case of models of entire machines, actual specimens of the 

 portions improved under the exhibitor's patent, and when the 

 invention relates to parts only the whole machine will not be ad- 

 mitted unless indeed the improvement effected cannot be suffi- 

 ciently shown without the exhibition of the entire apparatus. 

 The limitations of space which make these restrictions neces- 

 sary, also compel the Council to decline, unless in exceptional 

 circumstances, to receive objects which have already been shown 

 in the Smoke Abatement Exhibition, 1S81, in the Fisheries 

 Exhibition, 1883, or in the present Health and Education Exhi- 

 bition, and it is thought that the annual shows of the Poyal 

 Agricultural and kindred Societies have served so well to 

 exhibit inventions bearing upon agriculture that it will suffice to 

 present a few typical examples (and these models or diagrams) 

 of each class of improvements effected during recent years. 



The U.S. National Academy of Sciences recently received 

 a gift of 8000 dollars from the widow of the late Dr. J. 

 Lawrence Smith. The deed of trust has now been executed, 

 and provides that the interest of the fund shall be used in 

 striking a gold medal of the value of 200 dollars, to be called the 

 " Lawrence Smith Medal," and to be awarded by the Academy, 

 not oftener than once in two years, "to any person in the 

 United States of America, or elsewhere, who shall make an 

 original investigation of meteoric bodies, the results of which 

 shall be made known to the public, such result being, in the 

 opinion of the National Academy of Sciences, of sufficient 

 importance and benefit to science to merit such recognition." 



