3 I: 



NATURE 



{July 27, 1S8: 



apprentice; Thomas Cadyle, draughtsman; Alfred J. HiU, 

 draughtsman. 



A technical school is about to be established at Leicester, 

 the main features of which will be to give instruction ,n the 

 technology of spinning, and the technology of framework 

 lnittin°- The governors of the Wyggeston Schools have 

 uiven fooo/. towards this object, the Science and Art Depart- 

 ment South Kensington, has promised 500/., 1000/. has been 

 raised by subscription, and another 1000/. is all that is required 

 to complete the scheme for the present. The movement has 

 been undertaken by the Chamber of Commerce and the Rev 

 Canon Vam'han Mr. Henry Mitchell, president of the Bradford 

 Technical School, has received from the Worshipful Company 

 of Clothworkers, London, an intimation to the effect that they 

 have decided to give 300/. a year towards the maintenance oi 

 the school. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

 Bulletin Je V Academic Royale des Sciences de Bilgique, No. 5.— 



On the coralline origin of Devonian limestones of Belgium; 

 reply to M. Dupont, by G. Dewalque — Photography on the 

 railway and in balloons, by R. Candeze.— On surfaces of involu- 

 tion by E. Weyr.— On the integration of a class of equations with 

 partial derivatives of the second order, by F. G. Teixeira.— 

 Note on a new method for measuring the resistance of batteries, 

 by P. Samuel. 



Journal de Physique, June.— Electrical phenomena of hemi- 

 hedral crystals with inclined faces, by Jacques and Pierre Curie. 

 — Historical researches on the standards of weights and mea- 

 sures of the observatory, and the apparatuses that have served 

 in their construction, by C. Wolf.— Units adopted for absolute 

 measures l,y the International Congress of Electricians, by H. 

 Pellut — Hemodynamic analogy of thermoelectric phenomena 

 and the phenomenon of Peltier, by E. Bouty.— Assimilation of 

 tue experiments of Hall and Faraday to the effects of the gyro- 

 scope, by B. Elie.— Magnetic gyroscope, by A. Crova. 



Alti delta R. Accademia dei Lined : Transunti, vol. vi., fasc. 

 12. — On the pigments of bile, by S. Moreggia. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, July 17.— M. Blanchard in the 

 c l, a ir —The following papers were read :— Report on a memoir 

 by M Ph Gilbert on various problems of relative motion, by a 

 Committee. This memoir is a study of the motion of gyroscopic 

 apparatus, viz. (1) Foucault's gyroscope ; (2) the torse-pendulum, 

 which the author modifies, getting a more sensitive form, the 

 baroeyroseope ; this may be used instead of Foucault s instrument 

 to prove the earth's rotation ; (3) the top. The newest and 

 most original part of the work is that relating to (2).— On a point 

 of the theory of perturbations, by M. Kadau.— Astronomical 

 observations without measurement of angles, by M. Rouget. 

 lie donates them circumtenithal.—O* the shock of a plane 

 elastic plate, supposed indefinite in length and in width, by a 

 solid which strikes it perpendicularly at one of its points, and 

 which re Mains united to it, by M. Boussinesq.— On the variations 

 of gravity by M. Mascart. The idea of measuring variations 

 vit'y'at different points of the globe by the height of the 

 mercury column which balances the pressure of a given mass of 

 -as at constant temperature, M. Mascart has sought to realise, 

 and he finds the method capable of great precision He uses a 

 kind of siphon-barometer with the short branch closed and holding 

 CO, introduced at a pressure sufficient to balance a mercury 

 column of 1 m., when the tube is vertical. The instrument is 

 placed in a metallic cylinder filled with water, which is agitated 

 bv an air-current, and contains a thermometer measuring T jj deg. 

 The divided scale is fixed on the tube ; one sees it by reflection 

 on a gilt surface, which sends the virtual image into the axis of 

 the tube, and the mercury is seen through the gold layer. Thus 

 one can see, with a single microscope, the mercury-level and the 

 corresponding division of the scale. M. Boussingault recalled 

 haviiv used a similar apparatus during his stay at Ecuador, near 

 the mines of Marmato (1,600 m. alt.) Not finding any variation 

 in the mercury column, he inferred there was no perceptible 

 change in the intensity of gravity during the experiment.— On 

 lightning conductors, by M. Melsens. In support of his system 



of multiple conductors forming a sort of cage, he cites the ex- 

 periment in which animals within a metallic cage are unharmed 

 by discharge of a powerful battery of Leyden jars through the 

 cage.— On the hydrate of sulphuretted hydrogen, by M. de For- 

 crand. A claim of priority. — Researches on the use of crusher- 

 manometers for measurement of pressures developed by explo- 

 sive substances, by MM. Sarrau and Vieille. They attached to 

 the piston of the crusher a thin piece of leaf-steel to mark 

 a rotating blackened cylinder ; and the curve, at explosion, was 

 compared with a sinuous trace made by a tuning-fork at the 

 same time. Results are promised soon.— On the limiting degrees 

 of nitrification of cellulose, by M. Vieille. Cotton wadding was 

 put in 100 to 150 times its weight of nitric acid of various 

 degrees of concentration and at 1 1 . The last nitrated product 

 obtainable thus is mononitrated cotton (liberating 10S c.c. of 

 bioxide of nitrogen) ; it is got from nitric acid with 3 eq. of 

 water (density V450). By use of sulphonitric mixtures, the 

 author reached, as upper limit, a liberation of 2 14 c.c. of bioxideof 

 nitrogen, nearly corresponding to the formula C 1 .,H. J ,,(NO 4 ) u O, . 

 —Influence of 'compressibility of elements on compressibility of 

 the compounds into which they enter, by M. Troost. The varia- 

 tion of the coefficient of compressibility of vapour of iodine 

 appears again in the vapour of iodide of mercury.— On the deri- 

 vatives of cupreous sulphites, by M. Etard.— On the gastric juice, 

 by M. Chapoteaut. The aqueous solution of gastric juice (dried 

 and washed previously with ether), treated with alcohol or sul- 

 phuric acid, gives a white precipitate, which appears to be the 

 active principle of the juice ; itscomposition is near that of albumen 

 —On the products of distillation of colophany, byM. Renard.— On 

 anewclassofcyanisedcompoundswithacidreaction; cyanomalomc 

 ether, by M. Hailer.— On two new antiseptics, glyceroborateof 

 calcium and -glyceroborate of sodium, by M. Le Bon. The 

 latter (and better) has the advantage over carbolic acid of being 

 soluble in water in all proportions, and quite harmless. For 

 disinfection, meat preservation, &c, its fitness is established.— 

 On the industrial conditions of an application of cold to destruc- 

 tion of germs of parasites in meat destined for food, by M. 

 Carre With the author's apparatus as applied since 1876 in 

 vessels for importation of meat from La Plata, &c, the cost 

 price is slightly under o-oi franc per kilogramme. The 

 temperature of - 40° or - 50° applied for an hour or so is fatal 

 to germs; this is reached in the domestic apparatus (with 

 ammonia). -On the visibility of luminous points, by M. Char- 

 pentier With equal brightness and distance this visibility is 

 directly proportional to their surface, or the square of their 

 diameter • with equal brightness and dimensions, inversely as 

 the square of their distance from the eye ; with equal dimensions 

 and the same distance, directly as the illuminations. 



CONTENTS Pagb 



Ti. k Modern Applications of Electricity. ... . . • • • • • 2 



A Handbook for Northern and Central Japan. By Htok. 



V. Dickens 



Our Book Shelf:— . . . 291 



Lucas's " Studies in Nidderdaie 



Letters to the Editor:— 



The Sun-spot Period.— F. B. Edmonds • • ■ '»~ 



near London.- Wokthington g. bMlTH .;..• • • • « 



International Polar Observatories (With Chart) -94 



The Lay of the Last Vortex-Atom '. tm 



grPG^^^LBV-MW-S-or-OAOSti Lime/ By William ^ 



Galloway . . . • ■ • • ■illustrated' by 'the British 



^"w7th1u?;»:?io»t By Grant Allen. ..... =99 



Frederic Kastner .304 



The New African Expedition ^ " 



Notes • 



Our Astronomical column . 



The Wedge Photometer ■••-.<; '..'... 3«l 



The Observatory in Yale College, U.b . 307 



The Transit of Venus .' ' . 308 



Physical Notes 309 



Geographical Notes ... ■• • • ^ • ^ ■ ■ Molecular 



Contribution of Astronomy to the r"«"» " JK) 



A P r^METR, B CAL R C U NSTR C U T CTToN GIv'lNC. THE RELATION B.TWHN 



the WaItea N dUsefuTwo R k in a Shunt Dynamometer. By 



Prof. Oliver J. Lodge (With fiaeraiu) . | * 



University and Educational Intelligence ....•••_ 3 i 2 



Scientific Serials '']... 312 



Societies and Academies 



