Sept. 15, 1 881] 



NATURE 



467 



gaseous form, are subject to a disturbance of a tidal character as 

 a matter of course. Tiie author argued that a disturbing body 

 would therefore raise a tide on the sun more than one hundred 

 times greater thin the same force would raise it if acting on a 

 globe the size of the earth, the other circumstances being the 

 same. Lojl-;ing at the jun-spot numbers as a record of spring 

 tides and as a first approximation, recognisinij only such tides as 

 would be due to the c mjunctiou and opposition of Venus and 

 the earth, it remain :d to establish a relation between these tides 

 and the tide due to Jupiter in the form of special tides varying 

 in magnitude with the sun-spot number-. 



On a New Integrating Anemometer, by H. S. Hele Shaw and 

 Dr. Wilson. — An ordinary Robinson's cup anemometer is used 

 to drive a train of wheels and thus ultimately a serrated roller, 

 which moves a board in the direction of, and with a velocity 

 proportional to, that of the wind. On the board, which is hDri- 

 zontal and about two feet square, is placed a sheet of paper, 

 upon which the roller presses, and in turning leaves the required 

 trace, at the same time moving the paper underneath it. The 

 board is prevented from having a rotary motion by means of a 

 pair of fra nes, the upper moving by means of wheels on the 

 lower, each of which can only move in one direction, and these 

 directions are perpendicular to each other. By a clockwork 

 adjustment the time element is able to be introduced, which, taken 

 in c jnnection with space, gives velocity. A method of performing 

 this was shown, as also a proposed form of the instrument for 

 observatories. 



On a Universal Smuhine Recorder, by G. M. Whipple. — The 

 author gave a description of a new form of card-supporter for 

 the Campbell sunshine recorder. It consisted of a light frame 

 capable of holding the slip of cardboard, to be burned by the 

 sun in any po ;ition. It was arranged so as to receive ordinary 

 parallel strips of card at all times of the year, and to allow of 

 the instrument being employed on any part of the earth's sm-face 

 without detriment to its efficiency. The card-holders themselves 

 are movable, so as to permit of the cards being changed indoors 

 or di-ied, if wet, before removal, in order to avoid mutilating the 

 record of the observation. The instrument also has an appliance 

 for placing the card correctly in position to receive the sun's 

 image. 



On the Calibration of Mercurial Thermometers by Bessel's 

 Method, by Prof. Rucker. — The author stated that the late Mr. 

 Welsh of Kew Observatory described to the British Association 

 in 1S53 the methods which he introduced of making and cor- 

 recting mercuriil thermometers. The conec'.ion with which the 

 author dealt was that due to the variations in the bore of the 

 tube. Mr. Welsh's method of nuking this correction, which 

 is still employed at Kew, is less theoretically perfect than others, 

 and has been unfavourably criticised abroad. The author, in 

 conjunction with Prof. Thorpe, has recently corrected a number 

 of thermometers with great care by Be sel's meth jd, which is 

 the most elaborate and perfect hitherto proposed. One set of 

 three thermometers were made f )r them at Kew, and were cali- 

 brated according to Welsh's method. Afterwards the measure- 

 ments necessary for the application of Bcs el's method were 

 made by the Kew authorities, the calculations being performed 

 by the author and Prof. Thorpe. The Kew thermometers were 

 thus subjected to the most rigorous possible test, and they w ere 

 able to announce that in one instrument the errors left after the 

 application of Welsh's method were n jt greater than four- 

 thousandths of a degree Centigrade, and in no case did they 

 exceed one hundredth of a degree. As it is impossible to read 

 on these therinometers less than a hundredth of a degree with 

 certainty, Welsh's method, as applied at Kew, is practically 

 perfect. 



SECTION B— Chemical Science 

 Oh a Process for Utilising Waste Products and Economising 

 Fuel in the Extraction of Copper, by J. Dixon (Adelaide, South 

 Australia). — This paper contains an account of a process for 

 extracting copper from sulphurous ores, in which the heat 

 generated by the combination of tlie oxygen of the air 

 with the sulphur of the ore is utilised for the smelting of the 

 ore. This process is based upon experiments, which, although 

 the author regards as incoaplete, show (i) that the charge grows 

 visibly hotter by simply blowing air through it ; (2) that the 

 melting of the raw ore or regulus and its reduction can be 

 carried on in the same furnace ; (3) that if the ore is in lumps, 

 and fed at the top whilst the air is admitted by the side, a prac- 



tically clean slagg can be obtained ; but if added in a coarse 

 powder, as it is generally found in the market, it either blows 

 out again or chokes the furnace ; (4) that a rough copper of 

 about 96 per cent, pure metal can be obtained by the successful 

 working of this process. 



On the Chemical Action between Solids, by Prof. Thorpe, Ph. D., 

 F.R.S. — The author drew attention to the extremely rare in- 

 stances of such action hitherto observed, showing how many of 

 these might be explained on the supposition that combination 

 actually occurred between the bodies either in solution or in a 

 state of gas. For example, the formation of cement steel, by 

 the cjmbination of carbon with iron, which had long been 

 adduced as an example of such combination between solids, was 

 now explained by the fact that iron at a high temperature was 

 permealjle to gases, and that in the actual process of cementation 

 oxides of carbon were formed, which were in reality conveyors 

 of carbon to the metal. He then illu trated by experiments the 

 formation of several compoumls by bringing together the com- 

 ponents in solid form, choosing as examples sucii as would mani- 

 fest their formation by characteristic colouring. Thus, as 

 instances, potassium iodide and mercuric chloride, potassium 

 iodide and lead nitrate, and silver nitrate and potassium chromate, 

 were powdered together in a mortar, and in each case evidence 

 of an action was exhibited by the production of characteristic 

 colours of the product of the reaction of these compounds. The 

 author referred to the memoir of the Belgian physicist. Prof. 

 Spring, on the same subject, some of whose experiments he had 

 repeated and in the main confirmed. One of the most remarkable 

 results obtained by the Belgian professor was the formation of 

 coal from peat by subjecting the latter material to a high pres- 

 sm-e. Peat from Holland and Belgium, wlien exposed to a 

 pressure of about 6000 atmospheres, was, according to Spring, 

 changed into a mass which in all physical characters resembled 

 ordinary coal. Experiments of the same nature' made by Dr. 

 Thorpe with various samples of Britisli peat yielded, however, a 

 veiy dissimilar result. These experiments were made with 

 pressures which were considerably less and more than thise em- 

 ployed by Spring. Although solid, compact masses, hard and 

 very much changed in structure, were attained, in no case was 

 any product obtained w hich could be confounded w ith bitumi- 

 nous coal. He said it was higlily improvable, on purely chemical 

 grounds, that mere pressure had been little more than an im- 

 portant factor in the transformation of woody matter into coal. 



Metallic Compounds con'ainin> Bivalent Hydrocarbon Radicals, 

 Part ii., by J. Sakurai. — This is a continuation of the work, an 

 account of which was given at the last meeting (NATfRE, vol. 

 xxii. p. 448, or British Association Report, iSSo). Dimercury 

 mdhyhne iodide, CH2(HgI).v, is o'otained by exposing methylene 

 iodide with an excess of mercury to the action of light. It is a 

 yellowish crystalline powder insoluble in ordinary solvents, but 

 soluble in hot methylene iodide ; it melts at 230° with partial 

 decomposition. Iodine converts this compound into methylene 

 iodine and mercm-ic iodide. Thi^ same compound is eisily 

 obtained by the expo.ure of the mo.io-mercuro-compound de- 

 scribed last year (/lie. cit.), mixed with mercury and mercuric 

 iodide, to the sunlight. Hydric chloride reacts on dimercury 

 methylene iodide, producing mercury iodomethide. The in- 

 soluble compound mentioned in the former publications (he. 

 cit.) the author regards CH(HgI)3, and therefore contains a 

 trivalent hydrocarbon radical. We have thus the follow ing series 

 of organo-mercury compounds : — 



CH3(HgI), CH„(Hgl),, CH„HgI„, and CH(HgI)3. 



On the Occlusion of Caseous Matter by Fused Silicates at High 

 Temperatures, and its Possible Connection with Volcanic Agency, 

 by I. Lowthian Bell, F.R.S. 



On the Siliceous and other Hot Springs in the Volcanic District 

 of the North Island of New Zealand [with Photogi-aphic Illustra- 

 tions), by W. Lant Carpenter, B.A., B.Sc, F.C.S. The [author 

 gives an account of his visit to this district in December, 1880; 

 analyses of the water of many of the springs in the district are 

 aho given. The water of the springs in the neighbourhood of 

 Lake Taupo were found to be chiefly siliceous ; they are all 

 more or less impregnated with free iodine, and po sess a medi- 

 cinal value. The water of one spring w^as found to be strongly 

 impregnated with sulphates of iron and alumina. The water of 

 the springs in the Hot Lake district of Rotona and Rotoma- 

 hana contain large quantities of silica ; the deposits from two of 

 these form large siliceous terraces. The water of the springs in 

 the White Island, which is the summit of an extinct volcano, 



