ES, 13, 1870] 
Working Men's Colleges 
TI HAVE only just seen your remarks on Working Men’s Col- 
leges, and your suggestion that ‘‘men and women should be 
treated, not as artizans, mechanics, or gentlemen, but simply as 
men and women.” May I, speaking as a member of the College 
in Great Ormond Street, and also of the younger college here, 
and having an intimate knowledge of both during the whole 
of their existences, assure you that both these colleges were 
_ opened and have been carried on in the spirit you suggest, and in 
_ no other? Certainly, we have never in either college desired to 
treat women as either ‘‘artizans, mechanics, or gentlemen.” 
Secondly, I do not think either college is second, even to the 
_ “Berlin Working Men’s Club,” in ca/holicity. Each college puts 
_ forth a programme of what it can give its members, and there 
is not in either college the slightest effort to induce any mem- 
ber to do anything but what he has a spontaneous desire to 
do. Neither college ‘‘ belongs to any religious or anti-religious 
_ body.” Neither college has any ‘‘Shibboleth of any kind 
whatever.” 
Thirdly, your suggestion that all the colleges and clubs should 
be united into one, would have more value in a small town than 
in London, with its hundreds of miles of streets and its millions 
of inhabitants. 
Lastly, there is an essential difference between a college and a 
club. The one hasa foundation in work, the other in recreation ; 
the chief work of the one is mental, of the other social; in 
both it is moral. Both are necessary, but they need not 
necessarily be carried on in the same building. 
Another point is that working men caznot form a college | 
Jor and dy themselves, except they scarcely need it. The num- 
ber of members needful to defray the expenses is so large, and 
the number of men in London possessing the clementary edu- 
cation requisite to give them an intelligent and persistent desire 
for such a place is comparatively so small, that I do not think 
any college in London can be wholly self-supporting for some 
years to come. 
If any of your readers desire to know what kind of work the 
two colleges are doing, I shall be happy to give them full par- 
ticulars of the work and of its difficulties, and still more of its 
need to be done. I think you are in error in speaking of the 
extension of the scientific programme of Great Ormond Street 
College. Ihave before me the new programme of that college. 
In “his, the younger college, we have put before our students 
a larger number of science classes than we have hitherto done, 
because we are beginning to find that the men who have passed 
through our night schools and elementary classes give us hopes 
of doing good in this way. Possibly itis to this that you 
meant to refer. W. RossrrEer, Hon. Sec. 
October 4 South London Working Men’s College 
[We wrote by the card in speaking of a projected extension of 
the scientific instruction at the Working Men’s College in Great 
Ormond Street.—ED. ] 
Lunar Rainbow 
T HAVE just witnessed this evening (Monday, 10th, 7.30 P.M.) a 
magnificent lunar rainbow, distinctly coloured throughout, and 
with the reflection bright towards the west. The space within 
the bow appeared lit up by a silvery haze, offering a marked 
contrast to the inky appearance of the cloud beyond the bow. 
The moon was shining brightly as the shower commenced 
during which the rainbow was seen. It was observed at dif- 
ferent times during the evening by several persons. 
Cromer, Norfolk J. G. DuTHIE 
ee z = 
NOTES 
WE have great pleasure in announcing that the American 
Government have voted 6,000/. for the expedition which will be 
sent to Spain and Sicily to observe the coming eclipse. It will 
be in the recollection of our readers that our own Government 
have refused to give either a single ship or a single shilling in 
aid of our own observations; as we said before, comment is 
useless, 
WE have also a word to add to another instance of American 
enlightenment which we chronicled last week, namely, the vote 
ef 50,000 dollars towards the construction of a refractor similar 
NATURE 
to that recently erected by Mr. R. S. Newall at Gateshead. The 
Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, has 
written to Mr. Newall a letter which we have been permitted to 
see, irewhich, after referring to the munificence which has en- 
dowed astronomy with such an instrument as the Newall tele- 
scope, he requests permission for Prof. Newcombe to inspect it, 
with a view of judging what devices and mechanical arrange- 
ments are best adapted to secure the successful and easy mani- 
pulation of the American instrument. 
THE death of Prof. Miller has been followed by another heavy 
loss to Chemical Science in that of Dr. Augustus Matthiessen, one 
of the rising chemists of greatest promise in this country. ‘The 
| work which he had already done had acquired for him a reputa- 
tion equalled by few, and exceeded by none of his fellow-workers 
of his own age; to this we hope to refer more at length next 
week. He occupied the position of Lecturer on Chemistry at 
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and was, at the time of his death, 
one of the Examiners to the University of London, He was in 
his 39th year. 
THE “‘fish torpedo” which, as we stated some little time ago, 
has been for some time subjected to various experimental trials 
by a committee of naval officers, under Captain Arthur, R.N., 
was put to a practical proof on Saturday, at Sheerness. The 
Oberon, paddle-wheel steamer, had been specially supplied 
with a 12-horse power engine and air pumps for filling the 
torpedo with compressed air, and fitted with ‘a large discharging 
tube at the bow for launching it under water. ‘The peculiarity 
of the torpedo is that it will maintain its passage at any particular 
depth between five and fifteen feet from the surface ; the propul- 
sion being entirely submarine and effected at the rate of six or 
seven miles an hour by the action of the compressed air on a 
screw propeller. Two torpedoes were run against the A7g/e, a 
large hulk lying in the harbour, both from a distance of 140 yards. 
The first contained a charge of 67lb. of gun-cotton, and hit the 
hulk, exploding on impact, and making a clean hole, 20 feet by 
10 feet in area, and sinking her at once. Nets were placed at 15 
feet from the side of the hulk, and the second torpedo run at 
them, being launched from a framework attached beneath a boat. 
This torpedo, containing a charge of 18lb. glyoxiline, was caught 
in the nets and exploded there, doing no damage whatever to the 
side of the hulk. The machine is the invention of Mr. White- 
head, an English engineer, having works at Fiume, in Hungary. 
We must refer our readers to the October number of the 
Astronomical Register for an account of a discussion on the great 
Melbourne telescope, at the Royal Society of Victoria. The 
colonists mistrust their great reflector, and we do not wonder at 
it, the day for metallic specula is past, and we regret that our 
Royal Society had anything to do with sending out such an 
instrument. 
THE Astronomical Register announces that the post of 
Government Astronomer at Sydney is vacant by the death of Mr, 
George K. Smalley. 
Now that the Government are accused by a tribunal appointed 
by themselves, of having built a top-heavy ship ‘‘in deference 
to public opinion, as expressed in Parliament and in other 
channels” (sze) and ‘‘in opposition to the views and opinions” 
of their scientific adviser, might we be allowed to suggest that 
the more Goyernment attempts to encourage the advancement of 
scientific ideas and studies among members of Parliament and 
other channels, the better? The cost of the Caffain in hard 
cash would have helped to disseminate a yast amount of scien- 
tific education and interest throughout the land had it been 
properly spent ; and now itis quite lost, because the Government 
are Philistines, and do not like Science, and build top-heavy 
ships because ignorant members of Parliament and other ‘* chan- 
nels” clamour for them, 
