Fan. 5, 1882] 
August, distance o°S91 ; No. 80, Sappho, in September, distance 
07847; and No, 27, Euterpe, in December, distance 07980. 
No. 157, Dejanira, comes into opposition and aphelion about 
the same time, and the magnitude descends to 15'7. The last 
of the minors discovered is in opposition in December, mag. 
14°6, but No. 216, also a recent discovery, is as bright as 874 at 
opposition on October 7. There is perhaps not much hope of 
recovering Medusa (which from the best orbit obtainable from 
the short course of observation in 1879 would appear to have 
the least mean distance amongst the small planets) in the present 
year, the magnitude being only 13°5, and the computed places 
necessarily liable to considerable error. Nos, 205, 207, 208, 
210, 212, 216, 218, 219, and 220 are still without names. 
Mr. W. R. Birt.—Mr. Birt, so well known in connection 
with Junar work, died at Leytonstone on December 14 in his 
seventy-eighth year. He had occupied himself some fifty years 
since with the variable stars, and announced in 1831 the varia- 
bility of a Cassiopeize, a difficult case, for the fluctuation in its 
light would appear not to exceed a half-magnitude, and indeed 
has been doubted by no less an authority than Prof. Julius 
Schmidt. Sir John Herschel, however, supported Mr. Birt’s 
conclusion, and we were once shown by the late Prof. 
Heis a series of curves exhibiting the results of several years’ 
observations, which indicated sensible though very irregular 
variability. Much of Mr. Birt’s lunar work was undertaken 
under the auspices of a Committee of the Briti-h Association, 
and his maps of various parts of the moon’s surface, extending 
to great detail, are well known. 
M. ALFRED GAUTIER.—In the death of M. Alfred Gautier, 
at Geneva, on November 30, at the age of eighty-eight years, 
as already announced, the Royal Astronomical Society have 
lost the oldest Associate upon their list ; he died in full posses- 
sion of his faculties after a very short illness. M. Gautier was 
elected into the above Society in January, 1822, or two years 
after its formation. M. Plantamour of Geneva now heads the 
list of Associates. 
THE SMOKE ABATEMENT EXHIBITION 
(PSs Exhibition originated, as explained in the intro- 
duction to the Catalogue, in the action of the 
Committee of the National Health Society, with whom 
the Kyrle Society afterwards joined in appointing a Joint 
Committee to consider how action could be taken which 
should tend to the abatement of the smoke produced in 
the metropolis. In the words of this introduction, “ The 
first proceeding of the Committee was to communicate 
with colliery owners and manufacturers of heating appa- 
ratus as to the means available for the reduction of smoke, 
and next with the metropolitan parochial authorities and 
public bodies, directing their attention to the serious and 
increasing evil, and asking their co-operation in abating 
_ it.” Public meetings were held at the Mansion House 
and other places in different parts of London ; and the 
public interest in the subject appearing to be sufficient to 
justify such an experiment, the Committee determined 
to hold an exhibition of appliances for the reduction of 
smoke both in manufacturing and domestic fires. 
The idea entertained by the promoters of the Exhibi- 
tion has been that, in order to effect a reduction in the 
quantity of smoke poured out of chimneys of different 
kinds in large towns, it was first necessary to convince 
people that appliances exist which will tend to this result, 
and it was therefore determined to invite an exhibition of 
smokeless fuels, and apparatus for burning them, as well 
as of appliances for lessening the amount of smoke 
given off by bituminous coal. The call has been very 
readily responded to, and the catalogue shows a list of 
over 230 exhibitors. . 
Tests are being made by experts of the performances 
of the different apparatus, which, in the case of the 
domestic grates, &c., are carried out in specially con- 
structed rooms ; the fumes passing up the chimneys being 
carefully examined to determine the quantities of carbon 
(other than carbonic acid) and other unconsumed matter 
passing away from the fire ; the consumption of fuel and 
NATURE 
219 
the temperatures maintained being also carefully noted, 
A jury has been appointed to award prizes, medals, &c. 
to those appliances which they consider best adapted to 
fulfil the purposes in view. 
The Exhibition is naturally divided into two great divi- 
sions: appliances for trade purposes, and those for 
domestic purposes. In the first division the economic 
use of gas instead of solid fuel is illustrated in a small 
kiln for burning pottery and glass, and its use, instead of 
steam, is shown in several different kinds of gas-engines. 
The means of producing steam, however, occupies the prin- 
cipal place in this division. Several mechanical stokers 
and other appliances for firing boilers, so as to produce 
no visible smoke, are shown, and those which are at 
work demonstrate that—at least after steam has once 
been got up—it is easy to raise any quantity of steam 
without the production of smoke at the top of the chimney. 
Moreover, as these appliances are stated, on apparently 
good authority, to effect an economy in the expense of 
raising steam, it is to be hoped that their adoption is 
rapidly becoming general. 
It is with the second division, however, that most indi- 
viduals are more particularly interested, and it is from 
fires of this kind that the bulk of the smoke is produced, 
at all events in the west end of London. 
Domestic fires, again, may be divided into two classes, 
those for cooking and those for warming rooms. It is 
with the latter that we propose to deal in this article. 
And first we will consider what it is that we want in our 
living rooms. We are strongly of the same opinion as 
Sir F. Bramwell, that we must have an “open, pokeable, 
companionable fire.” 
We believe that the value of an open fire for warming 
living rooms cannot be too strongly insisted on; Dr. C. 
W. Siemens has lately pointed out why a room in which 
the air is comparatively cool, and the walls, furniture, &c., 
are warmed by rays from the fire, as is the case when an 
open fire is used, is so much more pleasant and healthy 
than one in which the air is warmed by contact with hot 
surfaces of the stove or beating apparatus, and the walls, 
furniture, &c., are at a lower temperature, and we believe 
it is to the use of open fireplaces that the general fresh- 
ness of complexion of the inhabitants of these islands, 
and the absence of the use of spectacles among the 
young, are in a very large measure to be attributed. 
One disadvantage in open fires, which has been much 
dwelt upon—the waste of fuel—is we believe consider- 
ably exaggerated. Doubtless a small proportion of the 
coal used in an open fire-place would be sufficient to 
maintain the temperature of a room if a close stove were 
used. But is the rest so entirely wasted as some would 
have us believe? The greater part of the heat, as they 
say, “goes up the chimney.” Is it therefore wasted? 
We think not. It performs work in ventilating the room, 
and it is at least doubtful whether in an ordinary dwelling 
room the same quantity of vitiated air could be removed 
(and therefore the same quantity of fresh air be intro- 
duced) as cheaply and conveniently by any other means ; 
at all events, the so-called “waste heat’’ could not be 
made use of to any large extent as radiant heat, and open 
grates are shown in the exhibition in which a part 
is utilised in warming air for admission to the room, or 
heating water-pipes, &c. 
The problem of how to have an open fire without 
smoke, or with considerably less smoke than we have at 
present, is one towards the solution of which we hope this 
exhibition will give valuable assistance. Fires are shown 
in which gas, coke, these two together, anthracite, or 
Welsh coal, and bituminous coal, respectively are the 
fuel. Several different kinds, both of gas stoves and 
open gas fires are shown. There seems to be no novelty 
in any of them, and we believe that they are generally so 
well known as to need no description here ; they have the 
merit of being extremely handy and cleanly; they arenot 
