December 26, 1901] 



NATURE 



179 



ber. The absolute extremes by the bright bulb in vacuo — an 

 instrument not in general use — were I05°'4 in July and 22°'5 in 

 January. 



The fifth list of current papers collected and discussed by 

 Mr. H. C. Russell, Government Astronomer of New South 

 Wales, covers a period of thirteen months, from October, 1S99, 

 to November, 1900. No less than 448 papers were thrown 

 overboard, mostly in the southern Indian Ocean, but only eighty- 

 six of these were recovered ; 106 papers were received during 

 the period mentioned, but twenty of them had been more than 

 thirteen months drifting. Three of the papers set afloat near 

 the Cocos Islands landed on Africa and showed the high rates of 

 lS'3, 20'6 and 25 '4 miles a day, the latter being the record 

 drift obtained by Mr. Russell. The following summary of the 

 average drifts obtained in the Indian Ocean during the years 

 '893-1900 is very interesting: — from the equator to 10' S., 

 I3'3 miles a day; from 10^ to 30° S., l6'6 miles ; from 33° to 

 43° S., 7'6 miles; from 43' to 50° S., 9'4 miles. Among the 

 last series of papers, one thrown overboard oflf Cape Horn found 

 its way to the west coast of Africa, in Ashantee, the drift in a 

 straight line being 5350 miles in a N. N.W. direction, the rate 

 per day being lO'i miles. The track and daily position of the 

 s.s. Waikato are shown on a chart and will be useful for other 

 steamers which may have to drift in the same waters. This 

 vessel broke her main shaft on June 5, 1899, in 'at. 37° 30' S., 

 long. 21° o' E., and drifted about in the Indian Ocean until 

 September 15, when her position was lat. 39° 29' S., long. 

 64° 30' E. 



The production of motive power from blast-furnace gases 

 formed the subject of a paper by Mr. Bryan Donkin, read before 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers on December 17. Only 

 within the past few years has it been realised that power can be 

 produced economically and effectively by utilising the gases 

 from blast-fiirnaces to drive gas-engines. As the annual pro- 

 duction of iron from blast-furnaces throughout the world is 

 forty million tons, this new application of motive power is 

 capable of immense development. The gases given off from 

 these furnaces during the process of smelting iron are practically 

 the same as weak producer-gas. Until within about half a 

 century ago they were all wasted. A part was next utilised under 

 boilers to generate steam to drive the blowing engines and part 

 to heat the air-blast ; but after supplying these requirements a 

 considerable surplus was available. Successful efforts have 

 been made, first to use this surplus in gas-engine cylinders, to 

 obtain power, and next to discard steam-engines, boilers and 

 chimneys entirely, and utilise all the gas in this way. A great 

 impetus has been given to the construction of large motors by 

 the discovery that blast-furnace gases can be used to drive 

 them. They are now made in sizes up to looo h.p. and 

 1500 h. p., and still larger powers are in contemplation, while 

 the difficulty of starting these large engines has been success- 

 fully overcome. Mr. Donkin gave some account of the very 

 rapid progress made in this class of work on the continent. 

 Many of the large firms in Germany and Belgium are now 

 busily employed. The Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz has numerous 

 orders for motors from 500 h.p. to 1000 h.p., while at Seraing, 

 in Belgium, an aggregate of 39,000 h.p. has been bespoken. 

 Messrs. Korting, of Hanover, have also supplied several engines, 

 and the Deutsche Kraftgas-Gesellschaft propose to construct 

 motors up to 1500 h.p. and 2000 h.p. It was remarked that 

 England and Scotland seem rather slow to utilise these gases. 



From an article in Transport it appears that oil has been 



very successfully used as fuel for steamers. An inspection of 



the Clam steamer, belonging to the Shell Transport Company, , 



was recently made prior to her departure from the Thames for 



NO. 1678, VOL. 65] 



Philadelphia. It was shown from the vessel's log that for two 

 years the steamer has been using oil instead of coal, and that it 

 was found that eighteen tons of oil gave off more heat than 

 twenty-eight tons of coal, and with improvements recently made 

 it was expected that still better results would be obtained. The 

 employment of liquid fuel also led to a considerable economy 

 of labour, got rid of many of the difficulties attending the 

 stokehold, and allowed a considerable addition to the space 

 available for cargo. The Clam has relied solely upon obtaining 

 a supply of oil from Borneo, and the company claim that from 

 their wells in that country they can supply 100,000 tons of oil a 

 day. The company are so satisfied with the results obtained 

 that they intend to send to sea a fleet of eighteen steamers burn- 

 ing oil as fuel. In the United States oil is very largely super- 

 seding coal for locomotive engines, especially for street railways. 

 In this country the Great Eastern Railway Company have many 

 of their engines fitted for using oil as fuel, the advantage of 

 which was found very great during the late high price of coal. 



The feature of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean pilot 

 chart for January, issued by the Meteorological OlSce, is the 

 introduction of the curves of equal magnetic variation for the 

 whole of the sea space. They are for the year 1905, and are 

 drawn for each 2°. This addition makes the charts far more 

 complete, and it will be greatly appreciated by mariners and 

 others. In some quarters the numerous wrecks occurring on 

 the Newfoundland coast have been attributed to errors in the 

 variation in that locality, but it is pointed out that it is suffi- 

 ciently accurately determined for navigational purposes. The 

 very variable currents experienced in the neighbourhood are the 

 most probable cause of so many disasters, and during the pre- 

 valence of thick weather mariners are therefore urged on no 

 account to neglect the use of the lead, as it is impossible to 

 foretell with certainty how the current has been running, the 

 prevailing southerly set being sometimes replaced by a north- 

 going one, which would tend to drift a vessel up the coast 

 between Cape Race and St. John's. Being midwinter, fog is by 

 no means frequent on the banks, barely exceeding 10 per cent, 

 of the weather observations. It is, however, interesting to 

 notice that the season of least fog in the Newfoundland region 

 is the season of greatest frequency of dense " red dust " clouds 

 on the eastern side of the ocean, off Africa. Four years ago 

 the Cape liners were delayed as much as three days by a thick 

 dust fog, which extended for a distance of about 2000 miles 

 southward from Madeira. The coasts of Trinidad and Guiana 

 are at this season subject to rollers, which are dangerous to 

 heavily laden small craft. There are some notes on the more 

 salient features of the currents in various localities ; the anti- 

 cyclonic type of weather over western Europe is illustrated by 

 an inset chart, the remarks showing that in January the baro- 

 meter may rise as high as 31 '1 in. within the British Isles; and 

 the prevailing winds and the movements of the centres of 

 cyclonic systems in the Mediterranean region during January 

 are explained. 



We have received a copy of the tide table for Halifax, Quebec, 

 St. John (N.B.) and Father Point, issued by the Tidal Survey 

 branch of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, Canada, for 

 the year 1902. This contains extended new information on the 

 tides and currents of the St. Lawrence, based upon investiga- 

 tions made by the Tidal Survey in the season of 1900. 



Herr H. Wiechel contributes to the Proceedings of the 

 "Isis" Natural History Society in Dresden an interesting paper 

 on the ancient roads of Saxony. A sketch-map, elaborated 

 from the " Oberreit'schen " atlas, which ' based on the engineer 

 surveys of about the year 17S0, shows the chief roadways exist- 

 ing during the period- A. D. 800 to 1200, and the paper discusses- 

 the routes, topographical names, &c. , in detail. 



