6o 



NA TURE 



[NorEMBER I/, 1898 



ater type, but it has sterling merit, as is evidenced by the 

 number of years it has been at work continuously, night after 

 night, in the electrically-lit lighthouses of Great Britain, France, 

 and other countries. The last in this country to be so fitted was 

 that at St. Catherine's Point, in the Isle of Wight. This was in 

 l888. M. de Meritens' inventions did not by any means end 

 here. In the early days of storage batteries he was to the front 

 \vith an invention by which he sought to increase the surface of 

 the plates immersed in the liquid by means of a plate of lead, so 

 bent that pockets were formed in it, in which lead shot were 

 placed. He also suggested many other forms of battery. M. 

 de Meritens also invented a motor, and at one time turned his 

 attention to electric welding, being the first to suggest using 

 carbon for one pole and the metal to be welded for the other 

 pole. He also attempted to improve on the original " candle " 

 of Jablochkofr by utilising a third rod of carbon between 

 the two outside rods, instead of the usual plaster of Paris or 

 kaolin. 



The annual meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union has 

 been postponed from Saturday, November 19, to December 17. 



The officers of the Botanical Society of America for the 

 ensuing year are as follows :— President, Prof. L. M. Under- 

 wood ; vice-president. Prof. B. L. Robinson ; secretary. Prof. 

 G. F. Atkinson. 



Dr. G. Ki.ebs has been appointed professor of botany and 

 director of the Botanic Garden at Halle, and Dr. W. Schimper 

 succeeds Klebs as professor of botany at the University of 

 Basel. M. C. Sauvageau has been appointed professor of botany 

 to the Faculty of Sciences at Dijon. 



We learn from the Ameruan Naturalist that the University 

 ■of California has received from the Alaskan Commercial Com- 

 pany of San Francisco a large and valuable gift, consisting of the 

 collections which the company has been accumulating for many 

 years. The ethnological portion of the collection is especially 

 rich, and is probably one of the best in e.xistence. The col- 

 lection also includes fossil remains of mammoth, and many 

 skins and mounted specimens of mammals, birds, and inverte- 

 brates of the Alaskan region. 



The State of Hamburg has, according to the Bolanual 

 Gazette, just established, at Freihafen, a. station for plant pro- 

 tection under the direction of Dr. C. Brick. The station will 

 look after the introduction of injurious insects with the .ship- 

 ments of living plants from abroad, and its duties will include 

 also the combating of plant diseases, the oversight of the .schools 

 of viticulture, and the inspection of vineyards and orchards in 

 the Hamburg region, together with such questions as may arise 

 in the prosecution of the work. 



The winter lecture season at the Imperial Institute opened on 

 Monday with an illustrated lecture on " Trinidad, with some 

 account of the recent hurricane in the West Indies," by Mr. 

 Henry Caracciolo. The lectures are open to the public with- 

 out payment, seats being reserved for Fellows of the Imperial 

 Institute and their friends. The following are among the 

 subjects of lectures before Christmas : — " The stalactite caves 

 of New South Wales," by Mr. F. Lambert ; " Gold-mining in 

 Victoria," by Mr. K. Lidgey ; "A national photographic 

 record," by Sir J. Benjamin Stone, M.P. 



A lEW particulars of Mr. Nikola Tesla's new method of 

 electric power transmission are given in the current uumber 

 of the Electrical Review. From the article it appears that the 

 invention consists in transmitting electrical power without the 

 employment of metallic line conductors, by taking advantage of 

 the conductivity of the rarefied air existing in the upper regions 

 NO. 1516, VOL. 59] 



of the earth's atmosphere. In order to make this practicable, 

 special apparatus has been devised for the production and con- 

 version of excessively high electrical pressure. Heretofore, it 

 has been possible, by means of the apparatus at command, to 

 produce only moderate electrical pressures, and even these, 

 with considerable risks and difticulties. Mr. Tesla, however, 

 claims that he has devised means whereby he is enabled to 

 generate, with safety and ease, electrical pressures measured by 

 hundreds of thousands, and even by millions of volts. He has 

 also, during his investigations with such ajjparatus, discovered 

 certain highly important and useful facts, which are said to 

 render practicable his new system of transmitting electrical 

 energy. Among these are the following : first, that with 

 electrical pressures of the magnitude and character which ho 

 has been able to produce, the ordinary atmosphere becomes, in 

 a measure, capable of serving as a true conductor for the trans- 

 mission of the current ; second, that the conductivity of the air 

 increases so materially with the increase of electrical pressure 

 and the degree of exhaustion, that it becomes possible t* 

 transmit, through even moderately rarefied strata of the atnio 

 sphere, electrical energy up to practically any amount and to 

 any distance. 



Dr. C. Le Neve Foster's general report (Part iii.) and' 

 statistics relating to the output and value of the minerals raised 

 in the United Kingdom, the amount and value of the nieials 

 produced, and the exports and imports of minerals, in 1897, has' 

 been published as a Blue Book. The following interesting factsl 

 are recorded in it. The output of coal last year was 202,1 29, 93l« 

 tons, the highest hitherto recorded. The quantity of coal 

 imported was no less than 37 million tons, and is likewise the 

 highest on record. The output of iron ore reached 133 million 

 tons last year. .-Muminium and sodium appear in the report for the 

 first time. It is pointed out that the production of alumina from 

 alum clay or bauxite, and the extraction of the metal in the 

 electric furnace, form a new branch of industry which was only 

 started in the United Kingdom by the British Aluminium 

 Company a short time ago. The alumina is prepared at 

 works near Larne, County Antrim, and then despatched to 

 Foyers in Inverness, where abundant water-power enables 

 electricity to be generated cheaply. The Foyers installation is 

 so far the largest waler-poiver plant in the United Kingdom. 

 The quantity of alumina extracted at the Larne works I; 

 year was 850 tons, value 15,300'., which produced 310 tons ol 

 aluminium, value 45,880/. With regard to sodium, the 

 Aluminium Company, of Oldbury, near Birmingham, are practi- 

 cally the only makers of this metal in the United Kingdom. 

 The quantity made last year was about 85 tons. At the 

 present market price this output would be worth 12,750/. 

 It is regretted that statistics concerning the quantities of 

 magnesium and potassium are unobtainable. 



The total output of gold ore (auriferous quartz) in the United 

 Kingdom in 1S97 is given by Dr. Foster, in the report above 

 referred to, as 45 1 7 tons, the total value at the mines being 62S2/. 

 Turning to the ores of copper, lead, tin and zinc. Dr. Foster's 

 tables do not iiresent a satisfactory picture. Copper mining is a 

 decaying industry. The output of lead ore is also declining : last 

 year it was only 35,338 tons, being the .smallest recorded during 

 the last half-century. We only now produce one-half the amount 

 of lead ore we did twenty-five years ago, and the same remark 

 applies in the case of tin ore, while the values in both cases have 

 decreased to one-fourth. The output of zinc ore, 19,278 tons, 

 almost the same as it was in 1896, does not reach the average of 

 the last quarter of a century. Of the so-called non-metallic 

 minerals, clay, limestone, sandstone and slate are the most 

 important, the value of the output in each c.ise exceeding one 

 million sterling. .\ new feature in the volume consists of 



