OcToBER 19, 1916] 
seen adopted in the setting of specimens received 
from my brother entomologists. for large species 
_ the ‘bristle’ should be a true hog’s bristle of the | 
kind obtainable at curriers’; for smaller, a stiff horse- 
hair. The “bristle” is sharpened by a diagonal cut 
with the scissors, and is then inserted between, and 
a little in front of, the mesocoxze, and is run down 
to near the end of the abdomen, care being taken 
not to damage the appendages, and allowing a little 
space over for shrinkage during drying. It is then 
cut off close to the thorax. Even the soft-bodied 
Perlidz can be much improved by this method. 
‘ R. J. Tittyarp. 
Hornsby, N.S.W. 
Early Use of the Word “ Blizzard.” 
In a communication to. Nature of June 22 (vol, xevii., 
P. 341) Mr. Miller Christy states that the first appear- 
ance of the word “‘blizzard” in ‘permanent litera- 
ture’? was in 1885, when he used it in his work, 
* Manitoba Described,” and that the description of the 
phenomenon therein by Mr. Thompson Seton was the 
earliest ever published. 
As one of the American meteorological specialities, 
the blizzard has always received attention by the Cana- 
dian and United States Weather Bureaus. The very 
earliest use of the word has not yet been ascertained, 
but it has been found in current use as the name of 
the storm Mr. Christy describes, at least as early as 
1867. In that year the Dakota Republican published, 
at Vermilion, Dakota, an account of the blizzard that 
suddenly approached that town, and called the storm 
by that name as one in common use when applied to a 
sudden change from warm and balmy weather to a 
blinding snow with cold north-west winds, 
The earliest known description of ‘blizzard’ pheno- 
mena seems to have been that by Henry Ellis in his 
account of his visit to Hudson’s Bay in the California 
in 1746, and his winter at York Factory. However, 
Ellis did not apply the name “blizzard” to the storms 
he described. 
Brief notes on the name “blizzard” will be found 
in the Monthly Weather Review, Washington, Decem- 
ber, ee 562; January, 1899, p. 18; and December, 
1914, p. : 
The name “blizzard”? for “a cold-wave gale with 
very low temperature and fine driving snow”’ is re- 
corded by C. A. Lounsberry as being in use in Dakota, 
Iowa, and Minnesota as early as 1865. The American 
Meteorological Journal, July, 1886, Pp- 112-14, quotes 
an excellent description of the blizzard by Mr. Louns- 
berry in the Northwest Magazine. 
Orro Kuorz. 
Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, October 2. 
THE FUTURE OF THE ZINC-SMELTING 
INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
ie 1913 the world’s production of the metal 
, zinc, or, to give it its trade name, spelter, was 
985,142 English tons (2240 lb.). Of this Great 
Britain produced 58,208 tons, i.e. 5'9 per cent. 
On the authority of Moulden,1 however, it may 
be stated that “probably not more than 31,290 
tons were ‘primary ’ spelter in the sense of being 
extracted from ores, the balance of 27,008 tons 
being the result’ of treatment of by-products, 
galvanisers’ ashes, hard-spelter, etc.” In the 
same year Great Britain imported 145,004 tons of 
spelter, which, at the average ruling price, “ex 
1 Le Neve Foster Prize. Essay. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 
1916, p. 526. 
NO. 2451, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
eee ae 
12g 
ship,” represents a total value of 3,291,772]. In 
other words, this country in the year before the 
outbreak of war was producing—even including 
“secondary ” metal—only 30’1r per cent. of its 
spelter requirements. The galvanised iron in- 
dustry absorbed about 60 per cent. of the above 
production, the manufacture of brass from 20 to 
25 per cent., while the remainder was used for 
the manufacture of sheets, alloys other than brass, 
etc. 
The bulk of the spelter imports was obtained 
from Germany and Belgium, each of them a large 
producer of the metal, and each of them a large 
importer of zinc ore from the most important 
zine _mine in the British Empire, at Broken Hill, 
Australia. This ore consists of an intimate mix~ 
ture of argentiferous galena and blende occurring 
in a gangue chiefly composed of rhodonite, quartz, 
and garnet. It is treated by concentration and 
separation processes so as to give two main pro- 
ducts, a lead ore and a zinc ore concentrate, the 
latter containing about 46-48 per cent. of zinc 
with certain values in lead and silver. The out- 
put of zinc concentrates before the war was about 
500,000 tons annually. Apart from the ore which 
was smelted at Port Pirie, and about 20,000 tons 
which were sent to England and smelted at the 
Sulphide Corporation works at Seaton Carew, 
“the whole of the zinc concentrates in the past 
has been sold under long-term contracts to 
smelters in Belgium and Germany.” 2 The Ger- 
mans had acquired a controlling interest in the 
most important Belgian works, and, according to 
Moulden, utilised this control to make money, 
which they did by passing the greater part of 
their concentrates on to the Belgian works for 
smelting. “Of the total Australian output Bel- 
gium smelted at least 75 per cent. and Germany 
only 14 per cent.” 3 
On the outbreak of war in August, 1914, the 
following situation arose :— 
(1) Germany was unable to take delivery of 
Broken Hill concentrates owing to the command 
of the seas which Great Britain immediately ob- 
tained and has ever since held. 
(2) The Belgian works, which soon fell into 
German hands as a result of the military invasion, 
were equally unable to receive their share of the 
concentrates. 
(3) Australia thus lost nearly all her market for 
zine concentrates. 
(4) Great Britain was deprived of by far the 
greater part of her imports of spelter. 
Great Britain. thus found herself in the 
anomalous and dangerous position that, with the 
command of the seas and an immense supply of 
zinc ore in the Empire, there was, owing to the 
lack of smelting works, no prospect of convert- 
ing it into metallic zinc; and zinc as a constituent 
of cartridge brass is an indispensable munition 
metal. It is, of course, obvious that such a 
situation should never have been allowed to arise, 
and it will naturally be asked why should not all 
2 Smith, ‘*The Development of the Spelter Industry.” Journal of the 
Institute of Metals, No. 2. 1016. 
% Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1916, p. 528. 
