Atigust 24, 1882] 



NATURE 



4i5 



in an equatorial direction. The rays from the stars are received 

 by a reflecting mirror movable with the object-glass and rotating 

 at will, so that it may reflect any celestial object placed in the 

 same R. A. circle. The two motions of the tube in declination 

 and of the mirror in R.A. are given by special handles at the 

 disposition of the observer. 



On Monday night there was an important installation of the 

 Edison electric light in the "Press Department" of the Tele- 

 graph Office, St. Martin's-le-Grand, and the work thus carried 

 out solves what have hitherto been considered some difficult 

 problems in the question of electric lighting. The first Interest- 

 ing fact is that the lighting is part of a "system" supplied at a 

 distance from the place lighted, the Edison Electric Light 

 Company having its centre on Holborn Viaduct. The exten- 

 sion to the top room of the General Post Office, which was 

 accomplished la^t night, is the greatest yet made from one centre, 

 the distance from the dynamo-room of the company's office to 

 the "Press Room" of the General Post Office being 1950 feet. 

 The " Press Room" to which the Edison electric light has thus 

 been supplied is a very busy part of the telegraph department 

 (1200 persons being employed there), which occupies the whole 

 upper floor of the western building in St. Martin's-le-Grand. 

 The Post Office authorities have long been alive to the necessity 

 of replacing gas by electricity, and have tried more than one 

 so-called "sy.-tem." Under the advice of Mr. Preece, the 

 electrical engineer of the Post Office, the Edison system was 

 attached, and last night commenced its working. The first 

 lighting was soon after 8 o'clock, and when the gas in the Press 

 Room was extinguished, a turn of the switch lighted up fifty- 

 nine incandescent lamps of the well-known pear-shaped pattern, 

 « ith the carbon of the shape of an elongated horse-shoe. The 

 effect of the change was very marked. In the telegraph room 

 the atmosphere was heavy and heated. In the room lighted by 

 the Edison lamps an even light without any shadow was thrown 

 all over the tables, while the atmosphere, previously heated by 

 gas, sensibly diminished, even in the .hort space of about twenty 

 minutes. 



The Italian Minister of Public Instruction has agreed to the 

 proposal made to the Government to participate in the inter- 

 national scientific expedition to the Marquesas Islands, in 1883, 

 to observe the solar eclipse which will lake place in May of that 

 year. Prof. Tacchini, director of the Astronomical Observatory 

 of the Collegio Romano, has been entrusted with the necessary 

 preparations, and will go to London to purchase various instru- 

 ments for the study of the important phenomenon. 



The arrangements for opening the new Univer-ity College of 

 Dundee are so far forward that Mr. William Peterson, B. A. 

 Oxford, assistant to the Professor of Humanity in the University 

 of Edinburgh, has been elected Principal. It is expected that 

 the College w ill be opened in January next. 



The Marquess of Ripon has telegraphed his acceptance of 

 the Presidency of Yorkshire College. 



The Bollcltino of the Italian Geographical Society, alluding 

 to the wreck of the vessel hired by Lieut. Bove for the purpose 

 of exploring the channels of the Archipelago of Terra del Fuoco, 

 calls attention to the fact that it was only a ship temporarily 

 hired, and not the vessel fitted out for the Antarctic Expedition. 

 Lieut. Bove left Punta Arenas on April 25, and three of the 

 members of his expedition remained behind to undertake various 

 excursions on land. 



Whilst Western Europe and Western Siberia have been 

 complaining of a cold summer, Russia has been grumbling over 

 very hot weather ; and the remarks on this subject which the 

 Central Physical Observatory at St. Petersburg has just published 

 'n the Golos (August 15) are very interesting. The temperature, 



noticed during July last at St. Petersburg, by thermometers in 

 shade, were certainly above the average, but not so much as 

 might have been supposed from the painful impression produced 

 by the hot weather. The average diurnal temperature from 

 July I to 2S was 28° - 6 Cels. (I7°'3 at 7 a.m.), and as high as 

 23°- 2 during July 16 to 26. It reached its maximum, 27° - i 

 on July 18, the thermometer showing 32° at 1 p.m. Now, 

 the average temperature of July, as deduced from 137 years' 

 observations at St. Petersburg, being I7°'7i, it does not differ 

 very much from that observed in July last. It is true that such 

 continuous hot weather as in July last occurs very seldom, but it 

 was experienced in 1761, 1763, and 1774. In 1757, the average 

 diurnal temperature of thirty-two consecutive days was above 

 20 with one single interruption, when it was but io°'3. The 

 maximum for July last being 32° o, it also does not much exceed 

 the average maximum for July, which reaches 29°, whilst there 

 were years when it was noticed at St. Petersburg as much as 

 36°'I. As to such days as July 18, when the average diurnal 

 temperature reached 27*-j, they are rare indeed, as such days 

 have occurred only five times since 1757. On the contrary, the 

 temperatures measured by the radiation-thermometer exposed to 

 the sun's rays were exceedingly high if compared wi'h those 

 measured during the last few years. Their averages for July I 

 to 28 were, 33°'4 at 7 a.m. ; 44°'3 at I p.m. ; and I7°'9 a' 

 9 p.m. ; that is, I2°"5, 7°'o, and l°'9, respectively, higher than 

 the averages for preceding years. There were in July last nine 

 consecutive days when the radiation-thermometer showed more 

 than 40 Cels. at so early an hour as 7 o'clock in the morning, 

 reaching as much as 42°'8 on July 26 ; and eight days when the 

 temperature shown by the same thermometer at 1 o'clock was 

 more than 50 3 , reaching even 57°'8 on July 18. In consequence, 

 the temperature of the surface of the earth rose as much as 

 23°*6 instead of lS°'7, which is the normal average ; it reached 

 even 45°'3, and the average for July 16 to 26 was as high as 

 41 2. The evaporation was accordingly great, reaching an 

 average of 2^46 millimetres per day instead of the normal 

 average of 1 '89. The average cloudiness in July was only 50 

 percent, instead of 56 per cent., and on July 16 to 26 it was 

 only 36 per cent. During these ten days an anti-cyclone was 

 blowing through Russia, its centre being above Northern Russia, 

 and the prevailing winds being from east and south-east. With 

 the appearance, on July 26, of a cyclone in North Western 

 Europe, the temperature immediately fell, and at many places 

 there were rain and thunder. 



The dynamo-magnetic engines which killed two young men 

 in the Tuileries Garden on the occasion of Fete de la Jeunesse, 

 were not fed by the Brush system as was mentioned not only by 

 us, but also by the several Paris electrical papers. The fact is, 

 we are informed, that during the fete of July 14, the light had 

 been given by the Brush system, and that the magneto which 

 had done splendid service had been replaced by others of 

 another system, the Brush Company having declined to accept 

 the terms proposed for the Fete de la Jeunesse. But the actual 

 cause of the catastrophe was the nakedness of the wires used. 



In the sitting of the Paris Academy on August 21 delailswere 

 given, by an observer who chanced to be on the spot, of an 

 earthquake which was felt at Dijon on August 13. The duration 

 of the commotion was only 1 second, a slight noise for -^ second 

 was heard previously. The direction of the shock was south- 

 west to north-east, the area was only 200 metres in breadth, 

 but it could be followed along a distance of more than 12,000 

 metres in length. 



Mr. Stanford sends us a useful map of Lower Egypt, on 

 the scale of 14 miles to an inch. 



In reference to our recent article on Frederic Kastner, a cor- 

 respondent informs us that his father was not merely an Alsacian 



