July 13, 1882] 



XATURE 



245 



printed, and of distributing a few others. It contains an account 

 of experiments for the purpose of testing the action of sun and 

 air on dried bacteria, which have some interest, but which the 

 fear of trespassing unduly on your space prevents me from 

 entering on here. James Jamieson 



Melbourne, May 22 



Fireballs observed in the Netherlands 



In the well-known "Meteoric Astronomy" of Dr. D. Kirk- 

 man, p. 67, is to be found the following note, on the occasion of 

 the interesting shower of dust and aerolites in Calabria on the 

 13th and 14th of March, 1813. "The date of this remarkable 

 occurrence is worthy of note, as a probable aerolite epoch. 

 From the- 12th to the 15th of March we have the following falls 

 of meteoric stones. . . ." &c. (7 cases). 



In reference to this note it may interest your readers that on 

 the night of 12-13 March last two great meteors were observed 

 in two different places in the Netherlands. The first observation, 

 made near the village of Haren (four and a half kilom. S. of 

 Groningen), by the schoolmaster, Mr. H. Bos, at l a.m., refers 

 to a bright fireball, shining with a splendid "bluish red" light, 

 illuminating the night, leaving a violet train, which lasted some 

 moments. The path seems to have been from a point not far 

 beneath the zenith, in an azimuth of 115° to another at 108 s 

 azimuth, and had a length of 45 , which was traver.-ed by the 

 phenomenon in 4 or 5 seconds. After 85 seconds — measured 

 afterwards by means of a watch and by the distance of the objects 

 which the observer had passed, going with a known velocity — a 

 full detonation, like a distant cannon-shot, was heard in the same 

 direction. 



On the same night, and at the same hour, another fireball was 

 seen near the village of Bergen, in North Holland. The school- 

 master, J. Francken, gives me the following indications of its 

 path, found by him after having interviewed the observer. It 

 went from N.E. in altitude of 50 to S.E. in an altitude of a 

 little less than 40° It is therefore impos-ible that this pheno- 

 menon should be the same as the former, the direction of the 

 course being opposite. A second observer gave nearly the same 

 direction. 



It is worthy of remark that another violet meteor had been 

 seen near Haren on March 12 at 8 p.m. in the S.W. 1 



A fourth meteor of the greatest size, described as being as 

 great as the full moon, was seen by three policemen, from whom 

 I have received tolerably harmonising records, though they were 

 standing in different positions in the town. The time of ap- 

 pearance was May 1, at 4 a.m. precisely, or perhaps three 

 minutes afterwards, and the direction of the course was S.S.E. 

 to N.N.E. It was described by one of the observers as beginning 

 like a shooting star (though already lightening the sky), falling 

 downwards and rising again in a curve from S.S.E. to N.N.E., 

 increasing in the meanwhile to a great ball of a splendid purple 

 light, and showing a train of a silvery colour. The phenomenon 

 lasted 50 seconds (?) measured by a watch. No sound was heard. 

 The disappearance was instantaneous. It is uncertain if an ex- 

 plosion was really observed. The altitude seems to have been 

 at the beginning, and at the end point perhaps 10°, some- 

 what higher in the middle, as I have attempted to determine ;'/; loco. 

 The second observer estimated the duration of the phenomenon 

 to be 13 seconds. Even when this is accepted, the body must have 

 been very distant, and of a great volume, though increased 

 apparently by irradiation. 



The same morning, at 3I1. 45m. a.m. there was also seen a great 

 meteor, going from W. to E. near Enumatil (8 kilom. W.), and 

 at Assen (S. from Groningen). It seems not to be identical with 

 the former. At Assen there was heard a buzzing sound. The 

 Enumatil observers compare the phenomenon, whose colour was 

 white with a red train, to a drum-major's staff. The As*en 

 observers speak of a bluish train or tail, which seemed to be 

 smoke. The same was seen by the sluice-keeper, G. Mulder, 

 at Veenhuizen (W. of Assen), who heard also the buzzing sound, 

 and gives also the direction, W. — E. The ball passed S. of the 

 zenith (Assen). 



Still another great fireball was observed at Bourtange (S.E. 

 of Groningen) at 5h. 12m. (local time) a.m. on the same 

 morning. It had a quick motion from S.W. to E. It gave the 

 impression of being very near the earth, only some meters 



1 In the German journal, Sit-ins, edited by Dr. H. J. Klein, Bd. x. 

 (1882), p. 40. is mentioned likewise a fireball of [he full moon size, from 

 March 13, 1875, by Mr. T. Kohl. 



above the houses. It seems to me uncertain whether it was a 

 globulous lightning or a true fireball. The phenomenon showed 

 a fiery tail and exploded without any sound. 



Recapitulating, there seems to have been observed the fol- 

 lowing fireballs of great size : — 



March 12, 8 p.m. (Groningen M.T.) at Haren. 

 ,, 13, I a.m. ,, „ ,, 



,, 13, „ „ Bergen (N. Holland). 



May 1, 3.45 ,, ,, „ Enumatil. 



n >i >> » Assen ) Probably 



,, ,, ,, ,, Veenhuizen j the same. 



,, 4, ,, ,, „ Groningen. 



Finally a fireball or a globulous lightning. 



May 1, 3 45 a.m. (Groningen M.T.) at Bourtange. 



Groningen, June 19 H. J. H. GRONEMAN 



Aluminium for Movable Coils 



At the Oxford meeting of the Physical Society, after Dr. W. 

 H. Stone's interesting description of an electrodynamometer 

 designed for medical purposes with the movable coil, made of 

 aluminium wire for the sake of lightness, I took the liberty to 

 remark that about eight years ago Dr. Werner Siemens had 

 made use of aluminium wire for the movable bobbin of his 

 dynamo-relay. 



I was then under the impression that this fact was probably 

 not known in this country ; a friend has, however, since called 

 my attention to a short paragraph in the Telegraphic Journal of 

 1S7S, p. 53, in which it is already mentioned. 



One of these dynamo-relays was shown working at the Paris 

 Electrical Exhibition, and Messrs. Siemens and Halske have 

 made use of the same principle in their so-called soot-recorder 

 (see Telegraphic Journal, 1878, p. 90), an instrument well 

 suited for the registration of currents of varying direction and 

 strength. 



At the meeting I further said that in some of the coils made 

 of very thin aluminium wire, I had found an increa-e of resist- 

 ance after the lapse of some time, and that this increase was 

 proved to exist at the place where two lengths of wire had been 

 joined by twisting them round each other. 



Some experiments were afterwards made to coat the ends of 

 the wire with an electn lytic deposit of copper, and then -older 

 them together ; but the best and most natural way to overcome 

 the difficulty is to make the coil all of one length of wire, and 

 thereby dispense with all internal joints. 



A similar increase of resistance at the place of contact between 

 aluminium wire and mercury I had already observed several 

 years previously ; the cause of it seems to be the formation of a 

 very thin film of aluminium oxide on the surface of the wire. 



I have teen led to make the above remarks after perusing the 

 closing paragraph of Dr. Stone's article in Nature, vol. xxvi. 



p. 201 



Woolwich, July 3 



Eugene Obach 



The Recent Weather 



The article published in Nature, vol. xxv. p. 225, entitled 

 "Recent Weather," attracted attention from meteorologists in 

 China from the fact that the extraordinary character of the 

 season therein discussed was observable in China also In my 

 Report on the Health of Wenchau, I referred to the unprece- 

 dentedly high reading of the barometer in this part of the world, 

 at the same time that a like phenomenon was observed in 

 Western Europe. 



Nature records that November last showed the highest 

 thermometrical range that has been known since thermometers 

 came into use. On referring to the tables of Dr. Zrightsche 

 (director of the Belgian Observatory at Peking), I find that the 

 mean temperature at Shanghai of that month for a period of 

 twelve years falls considerably below that of the record for 

 November last ; and finally we learn from Nature that the 

 winter of 1SS1-S2 in Western Europe was an "open one," 

 which was the case in Eastern Asia ; the port of Tientsin, for 

 example, having been closed by ice later, and opened to naviga- 

 tion earlier than usual. When the meteorological reports are all 

 gathered in, it will be found that the abnormalities which cha- 

 racterised last winter were coincident with like phenomena in 

 this part of the world. D. J. Macgowan 



Wenchau, May 17 



