Fan. 26, I 882] 
NATURE 
209 
road along which a water-pipe is laid. These springs 
yield 850 gallons per day in the dryest time, and in the 
wet season as much as 5000 gallons per day. Thus a 
very serious problem is solved. 
The decision of the general plans for the Observatory 
has fallen largely to the President of the Lick Trustees, 
Capt. R. S. Floyd. He has given to these questions 
an amount of time which few persons could possibly 
bestow on a matter outside of ordinary professional life. 
Since 1876 he has personally visited most of the observa- 
tories of Europe and Americaand has corresponded with 
astronomers all over the world. In 1879 he visited 
Washington, and together with Profs. Newcomb and 
Holden, of the Naval Observatory, he prepared a series 
of drawings from which the Observatory was to be built, 
and ordered the first of the instruments. The general 
plan of the Observatory is to give the place of honour to 
the large dome (some seventy-five feet in diameter). This 
is to contain a refracting telescope by Alvan Clark and 
Sons, of Cambridgeport, who have made not only the 
largest, but the best telescopes in the world. Their first 
telescopes were six inches in aperture and of exquisite 
definition. Without losing in precision, they have suc- 
cessively made object glasses of 84, 94, 12, 154, 18, 23, 
and 26 inches. They are now engaged on an objective 
of 30 inches for the Russian Government, and will soon 
commence the Lick telescope of 36 inches aperture, for 
which they have served so magnificent an apprenticeship. 
This is to occupy the whole of the south end of the 
plateau of the summit. At the northwest corner stands 
a dome (completed in November, 1881) which contains a 
12-inch telescope by Alvan Clark, one of his very finest. 
Connecting the two domes is to be a one-story building 
containing a clock room, workshops, a library, offices and 
bedrooms for observers. A transit house of iron (com- 
pleted in 1881) stands a few feet east of the smaller dome, 
and just south of this is the photo-heliograph, with its 
house. A few feet east of this the six-inch meridian 
circle (by Repsold of Hamburg) is to stand, which, with 
the four-inch transit (by Fauth of Washington) completes 
the list of meridian instruments. A four-inch comet- 
seeker, by Clark, occupies a small dome. The main 
building will be built of brick. The bricks of clay, found 
close to the Observatory, are made under a centract which 
saves the Observatory some fifty per cent. of the usual 
cost. About 2,000,000 bricks are now made and ready to 
deliver,and these will just about suffice forthe constructions 
agreed upon. 
It will be seen that an observing station of impor- 
tance is already established on the mountain, containing 
an equipment of which many European observatories 
would be proud. It may be said that the whole of the 
fundgexpended to date is less than the cost of the road to 
the summit, and this includes all expenses. This equip- 
ment has recently been utilised in the observation of the 
transit of Mercury on November 7, 1881, by Prof. Holden 
and Mr. Burnham, who were invited by the trustees to 
set up their first instruments. In 1879 Mr. Burnham spent 
three of the summer months on the mountain, and used 
his six-inch telescope in regular observations, the object 
being to compare the conditions of vision at this high 
altitude with those at lower levels. His conclusions were 
extremely favourable to the Mount Hamilton site,and from 
his report there is little doubt that during the summer 
months this site is more favourable than that of any ob- 
servatory now established. During the winter, storms 
prevail, but the snow is not very deep, and does not lie 
long, and the temperature is not very low. When it is 
clear, in the rainy season, it is perfectly so, and the vision 
compares favourably with the average conditions at 
Eastern observatories. It is obvious that if the manage- 
ment of the Observatory affairs remains in the same able 
control, we shall have in a few years one of the most ad- 
mirably equipped observatories in the world, on a site 
it appeared, an efficiency of 71 per cent. 
far superior to any; and without being too sanguine, it 
will be safe to expect much from such an institution in 
proper hands. 
NOTES 
Mr. MAcLeop (Assistant Secretary, Education Department, 
Whitehall) having resigned, will be succeeded by Col. Donnelly, 
R.E., now Director of the Science Division, who, while retain- 
ing his present post, will, as Assistant Secretary of the Education 
Department, be the chief officer of the Science and Art Depart- 
ment at South Kensington. 
THE death is announced of Prof. Theodore Schwann of 
Liége, the eminent biologist, at the age of seventy-two years. 
We hope to refer to Prof. Schwann at length next week. We 
also learn of the death of Hermann Schlagintweit, well known 
as a naturalist, and in conjunction with his brother Emil, as an 
explorer of the Himalayas. 
THE death is announced of Signor Carlo Piaggia, who has 
done some good exploring work in the region to the south of 
Abyssinia. Signor Piaggia was proceeding from Khartoum to 
Fadassi to join Herr Shuver, to whose journey -we referred 
last week. 
Weregret to learn that Mr. Joseph Thomson is daily expected 
home. It may be remembered that he was engaged for two 
years by the Sultan of Zanzibar to geologise along the Rovuma, 
and in other districts of the Sultan’s dominions. We give else- 
where some of the results of his great excursion along the 
Rovuma, where he failed to find coal, which the Sultan was 
anxious he should do. We are informed that the Sultan is so 
disappointed at the result that he has abruptly broken the 
engagement, and sent Mr. Thomson home with payment only 
for the time he has been out. This is disappointing, as much 
good work would certainly have been done by Mr. Thomson 
had he been allowed to pursue his explorations. Evidently the 
Sultan has much to learn. We trust Mr. Thomson will soon 
find suitable employment for his exceptional ability as an 
explorer. 
SoME very important experiments have recently been carried 
out at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, upon the accumu- 
lating power of Faure’s secondary battery. A committee con- 
sisting of MM. Tresca, Potier, Joubert, and Allard conducted 
operations. Thirty-five accumulators of the spiral form, each 
set in a cylindrical stoneware pot about 35 centims. high and 25 
centims. diameter, were charged in series by the current from a 
Siemens’ dynamo-electric generator worked by a steam-engine. 
The working electromotive force of an accumulator was found 
to be from 2°15 to 2°5 volts. For twenty-two hours the battery 
was charged with a current whose average strength was 8°5 
amperes, the total work expended in charging being 6,020,000 
kilogrammetres. The total work of the steam-engine was also 
measured by a dynamometer, the Siemens’ generator having, as 
The battery was then 
discharged through eleven Maxim lamps, the potential and 
current being accurately measured from time to time, and 
although the discharge lasted eleven hours there appeared to be 
70 per cent. of the original energy given out in the discharges 
A complete report is promised by the committee. 
THE umbrella trade (according to the Scéentific American) 
threatens the existence of the pimento (pepper) plantations of 
Jamaica. It was shown by an official estimate made at Kingston 
last autumn, that more than half a million umbrella sticks were 
then awaiting export ta England and the United States. These 
sticks were almost without exception pimento, and it is not sur- 
prising that owners and lessees of pimento walks are becoming 
alarmed at the growth of a trade which threatens to uproot, in a 
