354 
Him who is the truth Himself. Let us have confidence in the 
supremacy of truth. Such has hitherto been the guiding lamp 
of the Johns Hopkins University. May it ever be the beacon of 
the future.” 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
A LARGE space in the June number of the Yournal of Botany 
is occupied by a long biographical notice, by the editor, of the 
late Rev. W. W. Newbould, of whom an excellent portrait is 
also provided. The other articles are almost entirely of local 
interest. 
THE Fournal of the Franklin Institute, vol. cxxi. No. 724, 
April 1886.—Lieut. J. P. Finley, tornado study: a useful 
summary of the principal facts scientifically known respecting 
tornadoes.—F. KE. Galloupe, rapid transit and elevated rail- 
roads. This concludes the discussion on this topic.—G. E. 
Waring, Jun., mechanical appliances in town sewerage ; dis- 
cusses the systems employed in several American cities.—Prof. 
Kk. H. Thurston, construction of a large Prony brake. Gives an 
account of a brake capable of absorbing 540 horse-power.— 
Dr. W. H. Wahl, summary of engineering and industrial pro- 
gress for 1885.—Report of Committee on Delany system of 
multiplex telegraphy. 
No. 725, May.—J. M. Hartman, the blast-furnace: a very 
concise summary of present methods of construction and theories. 
—Lieut. A. B. Wyckoff, hydrographic work of the U.S. Navy. 
J. Shinn, the cultivation of flax in the United States,—L. 
D’Auria, the law of cylinder condensation of steam-engines. 
The new formulze indicate that the proper way to decrease 
cylinder condensation is to increase piston speed.—C. J. 
Kintner, history of the electrical art in the U.S. Patent Office. 
An interesting account, in which two early forms of storage 
battery are described. The author, however, appears to think 
that nothing can be called an invention unless it has been 
patented in the United States. There were secondary batteries 
prior to Kintner’s, electric motors prior to Davenport’s, and 
telephones prior to Graham Bell’s.—Report of examiners of 
electrical exhibition on applications of electricity to art pro- 
-ductions. 
No. 726, June.—Chief Engineer Isherwood, an account of 
experiments made by Chief Engineers Zeller and Hunt to 
ascertain the economic effect of using in a non-condensing engine 
saturated steam alone, and of using it mixed with compressed 
hot air. No economic saving was effected by this process, as 
there was not sufficient time for the steam and hot air, which 
were delivered into the cylinder in separate masses, to become 
mixed, and the air failed to prevent condensation.—S, L. W., 
on the Oram system of marine propulsion. This system has 
iwin screws placed forward at about 1/5 of the vessel’s length 
from the bow, in recesses in the sides.—G. W. Chance, the 
South Street Bridge. —W. Lewis, experiments on the transmis- 
sion of power by gearing. Valuable researches on the causes of 
loss of power in worm-gearing and spur-gearing. 
No. 727, July.—C. Sellers, Jun., Oliver Evans and his inven- 
tions. A biographical notice of this remarkable man, whose pre- 
diction of the future of the steam-engine is well known.—O. E. 
Michaelis, the applications of electricity to marksmanship. This 
is the first part of the paper, and treats rather of mechanical 
methods of measuring speed of projectiles, such as Robins’s 
ballistic method. —H. M. Dubois, tests of vehicle wheels. — 
F. E. Ives, colour-sensitive photographic plates. A compound 
sensibilisator of fresh blue myrtle chlorophyll with a little eosin 
is found to be the most sensitive to yellow and green.—Report 
of Committee on the Phelps induction telegraph. The Com- 
mittee praise highly this invention for telegraphing to and from 
a moving train.—Report of Committee on the process and 
furnace for the reduction of refractory ores and the production 
of metals, alloys, and compounds, invented by E, H. and A. H. 
Cowles. Cowles’s electric furnace, for reducing ore by means of 
the voltaic arc between carbon poles, is merely a development of 
the electric furnace devised by the late Sir W. Siemens. It 
appears to be eminently suitable for the production of aluminium 
compounds.—Prof. E. J. Houston, some additional facts con- 
cerning the Reis articulating telephone. Gives an account of 
some recent experiments transmitting speech with the identical 
apparatus manufactured by Reis and used by him in his lecture 
before the Physical Society at Frankfort in 1861. 
NATURE 
1 
[August 12, 1886 
7 
» 
Annalen der Physik und Chemie, vol. xxviii. No. 5, May.— 
R. Colley, on some new methods for observing electric oscil- 
lations, and some applications of them. ‘This paper gives 
certain relations between the time of oscillation of discharges 
through a shunt having a great coefficient of self-induction and 
the capacity of the conden er. Using a standard coil the co- 
efficient of self-induction of which could be determined by its 
geometrical form, and a normal guard-ring condenser made of 
three sheets of silvered glass, the capacity of which could equally _ 
be determined, the author made experiments from which he de- _ 
duces a new value of the ratio v, which he gives as 3015 x rol0 
centims. per second.—Hans Jahn, on the relation of the chemical 
energy and the current energy of galvanic elements. A dis- — 
cussion of Helmholtz’s expression for the secondary heat, 
together with some determinations made on Daniell’s and | 
De La Rue’s cells.—E. Riecke, on the pyro-electricity of tourma- _ 
line. The first part of this paper summarises the previous re- 
searches of Gaugain and others upon the electricity of the 
tourmaline in relation to its section, length, rate of cooling, &c., 
and gives an account of some new and careful observations made _ 
upon three tourmalines. The second part of the paperis devoted 
to the development of a mathematical theory of the electricity 
of the tourmaline, based on the physical hypotheses that the 
molecules possess an initial electric polarisation, measurable in 
terms of the electric moment per unit of volume, and dependent __ 
upon the temperature, and that there is a surface-conductivity of 
a certain value. The formule appear to agree very well with 
the observed facts.—T. Ihmori, on the absorption of mercury 
vapour by spongy platinum, A quantity of platinum, deposited 
from chloride by formic acid, was found to increase in weight in 
presence of mercury. The author uses this increase of weight 
to inve tigate the figures given by Hertz and by Hagen, for the 
pressure of mercury vapour at different temperatures. His — 
results are considerably lower than those of Hagen, and a little 
higher than those of Hertz.-——C. Pulfrich, on the elastic reaction 
of a caoutchouc tube.—A. Konig, on a new method of determin- 
ing the modulus of elasticity. Errors of observation are avoided _ 
by using two mirrors, the inclination of which altered by the 
loading of the bar under examination.—Karl Exner, on sense-— 
formule : lenticular action of non-homogeneous bodies. Dis- 
cussion of lenticular action of cylindriform disks with parallel 
plane faces made of materials which, on being cast in moulds, 
cool non-homogeneously with refractive indices that increase 
or diminish from point to point below the surface. The formule 
deduced coincide with ordinary lens formule when the variation 
of refractive index is proportional to the square of the depth 
from the surface. This appears to be nearly the case in disks of — 
cast glue.—W. Wien, researches on the absorption-phenomena 
occurring in the diffraction of light. This paper discusses — 
diffraction in relation to the colours of metallic reflection. 
Incidentally it brings out an additional proof that the vibrations 
are perpendicular to the so-called plane of polarisation.—H. W. 
Vogel, on some colour-experiments, and on photography in 
natural colours. Two solutions, one of chrysanilin, the other of — 
anilin blue, in alcohol, are respectively yellow and blue ;- but 
when superposed give red, not green. The violet of the spec- — 
trum appears to play a very unimportant partin colour-sensa- 
tions ; methyl-violet, and nearly all the so-called violet pigments 
and dyes owe their tint to mixtures of red and blue rays, not to 
rays of spectrum violet. For colour-printing at least six tints 
are found requisite, and in general sufficient. Hence the author 
thinks that all requirements of colour-photography would be met 
by six printings from six blocks produced by photography from 
plates of bromide emulsion, to which the following six sub- 
stances have been used as ‘‘sensibilisators”: ve¢, naphthol 
blue; orange, cyanin; yellow, eosin; green, saffranin; green- 
biue, fluorescein; é/ue, chrysanilin or aurantin. The author 
further points out that as the actual tint of any colouring-matter 
is the complementary colour to that absorbed by the colouring- 
matter ifself, it follows that each of the six plates ought to be 
printed off in the same dye-stuff that has served as photographic 
“sensibilisator.”— P. Volkmann, note on Prof. Quincke’s 
remarks on the determination of capillary constants of liquids.— 
R. Schultze, on a small improvement in Wiedemann’s pykno- 
meter. 
No. 6, June.—A. Kundt and E. Blasius, remarks on some 
researches on the pyro-electricity of crystals. A convenient 
apparatus for heating crystals is described; also some observa- 
tions on the amethyst. The effects of cracks in the crystals are — 
also studied.—K. Mack, pyro-electric and optical observations 
