59S 



NATURE 



[April 24, 1902 



of Prague, are still in progress, and it is anticipated that his 

 final report, which is now awaited, may furnish data available 

 for greatly improving the construction of the meteorological 

 kites now in constant use, and thus be the means of adding 

 materially to our knowledge of atmospheric conditions at high 

 altitudes, the practical application of which is of such general 

 interest and usefulness. 



The interesting experiments in connection with kites and with 

 air currents at varying altitudes, which have been prosecuted for 

 some time at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory by Mr. 

 A. Lawrence Rotch, are still in progress, an additional grant 

 having been approved this year on behalf of Mr. Rotch. It 

 will be remembered that the original grant mentioned was made 

 for the purpose of securing automatic kite records at a height of 

 more than 10,000 feet, an altitude which so lately as four years 

 ago had never been attained. Successive grants have since been 

 made, and the persistence and skill of Mr. Rotch and his 

 assistants have enabled him to surpass his 

 own extraordinary record of 14,000 leet. 



Dr. Carl Barus, of Brown University, has 

 completed his research on ionised air, and 

 his report is now in course of publication in 

 the Smithsonian Contributions to Know- 

 ledge. This research on atmospheric con- 

 ditions, in investigating the production of 

 nuclei, determining their number per cubic 

 centimetre, their velocity, their association 

 with ionisation, the efl'ect of the presence of 

 the electric field, &c., proves interesting, not 

 only in its own methods and results, but 

 because of its agreement with the data ob- 

 tained by other investigators from different 

 experiments and theoretically different points 

 of view. 



The research of Prof. Louis Bevier, of 

 Rutgers College, in connection with the 

 analysis of vowel sounds, is steadily pro- 

 gressing. During the year detailed studies 

 of several vowel sounds have been made with 

 results which agree well with the conclusions 

 arrived at through an entirely different me- 

 thod by von Helmhollz in his analysis of 

 German vowels. The lower resonance de- 

 tected in our vowel sounds by Dr. Bevier, 

 and not recorded by von Ilelmholtz save for 

 "<z," will later be the subject of detailed dis- 

 cussion which will endeavour to establish and 

 explain these facts. 



Dr. Marey, of the French Institute, has 

 received a grant in aid of his experiments on 

 air currents. This research has been mate- 

 rially furthered by the successful application 

 of chrono-photography, a field in which Dr. 

 Marey's experiments have heretofore been 

 changes^'fronf The noteworthy. By this means it has not only 

 United St.ites to been possible to analyse the movements of 

 foreign countries waves and Currents of liquids which are in- 



yMr"^ending W ^'^"^'^ '° ^^^ ^^"^^^ '^^^' ''"' ^^'^^ '*>« '^'s- 

 30,' 1901, as com- placements of molecules. From reports so 

 pared with the far submitted, but as yet necessarily inconi- 

 heightoftheWash- piete, it is believed that this research will aid 

 ington Monument. . • ,, • ti 1 .- c • ui 



Height of monu- materially m the solution ot variotis problems 

 ment, 555 feet; Connected with the mechanics of propulsion 

 height of boxes, jn fluids, at the same time rendering service 

 2.77S feet. j^^ solving practical questions of ventilation, 



&c. The reader, if he has not noticed the 

 rare experiment of successful machine flight of heavy bodies 

 through the air, has probably had his attention called at times 

 to the extraordinary difference between the performance of 

 small steam vessels like yachts or tugs, where with equal power 

 one glides through the water almost as though it ofl'ered no 

 resistance, while another labours in rolling a formidable wave 

 before it. The same diflerences occur in still more subtle 

 form in the air. We cannot with the naked eye see separ- 

 ately, in either case, the currents that produce the efl'ect, but 

 by Dr. Marey's ingenious experiments photographic records 

 can be obtained from which the forms which offer the least 

 resistance can be studied. 



The experiments of Prof. A. G. Webster, of Clark University, 

 on the propagation, reflection and diffraction of sound, have 



Fig. I.— Dia- 

 gram iUustrating 

 height of packing 

 boxes, resting one 

 upon another, used 



I transi 



achieved a result of practical value in the construction of an 

 instrument capable of emitting an accurately measured sound. 

 It is thus possible, in treating persons of defective hearing, to 

 decide with exactness as to the degree of deafness in a subject, 

 and to say if the power of hearing varies .at different times. 

 An instrument which furnishes the means of accurately 

 determining these points should prove of value in medical 

 treatment. 



I'rol. William Mallock, of Columbia University, New York, 

 is conducting a research on the motion of a particle of air under 

 the influence of articulate sound. General investigations allied 

 to this subject, which are carried on in the laboratory of 

 Columbia Univer.'^ity, although in no way aided by the Hodgkins 

 fund, have contributed helpfully to a knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples underlying these experiments, and especially to certain 

 parts of the investigation referring to the relation between the 

 amplitude of vibration of an air particle and the amplitude of 

 vibration of a film, or dust particle, suspended in the air. Dr. 

 Hallock's research will be continued during the present year, 

 when a final report is expected. 



Inlenialioiuit Exchanges. — The importance of the work ac- 

 complished by the International Exchange Service is now well 

 understood among men of science, and the benefits derived from 

 it in the interchange of the publications of the civilised world 

 are appreciated. The liberality of the American people in 

 gratuitously supplying their scientific literature to appreciative 

 students of it, wherever they may be, and the provision for its 

 transmission at the expense of the United States Government 

 and of the Smithsonian Institution jointly, are highly valued in 

 the scientific world. 



The term " International Exchanges " is now applied to the 

 mutual exchange between Smithsonian correspondents every- 

 where of printed books on subjects of interest to the student in 

 any branch of human knowledge. ' 



The field covered by correspondents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution and the contributors and recipients of its exchanges 

 is now represented by one hundred and forty-eight countries, 

 covering every part of the civilised world and extending to 

 several countries where enlightenment has only commenced to 

 manifest itself. In the latter are some of the most appreciative 

 correspondents of the service. Outside the United States the 

 Smithsonian correspondents now number 27,556, and including 

 the United States there is a grand total of 35,705, an aggregate 

 increase of 1754 during the year. The parcels received for 

 transmission in 1900 numbered 121,060 (many of which con- 

 tained several separate publications), representing an increase 

 over the previous year ot 7497 (Fig. i). 



In his last report Dr. Langley presented an account of his 

 visit to London and Berlin during the summer of 1900 for the 

 purpose of impressing upon the British and German Govern- 

 ments the desire of the Institution that they should each 

 establish an international exchange bureau, cr at least arrange 

 for the transmission and distribution of exchanges so far as the 

 United States is concerned. This work has been carried on 

 between the United States and Germany and Great Britain 

 from the beginning at the expense of the Institution, which has 

 paid all expenses, even to the employing of a salaried agent in 

 both countries. As yet no definite action has been taken by 

 either Government. 



Astrophysical Observatory. — It will be remembered that the 

 observations of last year's eclipse by the Smithsonian expedition 

 raised interesting questions as to the existence of intramercurial 

 planets and as to the nature of the coronal radiations. So far 

 did the interest in these problems extend that it was thought 

 worth while to send an expedition from the Astrophysical Ob- 

 servatory to Sumatra to observe the total eclipse of May 18, 

 I got, and to repeat and extend the bolomelric observations on 

 the coronal radiation and the photographic observations for 

 possible intramercurial planets. Solok, Sumatra, was the point 

 selected for the observations. But, unfortunately, at the time 

 of the eclipse the whole sky, excepting a perfectly clear belt 

 around the horizon, was overcast with a sort of checkerwork of 

 clouds, so thick that the corona could barely be distinguished. 

 During the latter part of totality the very position of the sun 

 was doubtful. Merely to have something to show to prove that 

 the expedition h.id observed an eclipse, the programme for the 

 intramercurial-planet apparatus was carried through, and the 

 plates were developed. Those exposed in the first half of 

 totality showed the corona faintly, extending out possibly a 

 quarter or half a diameter, and showed the planets Mercury 



NO. 1695, VOL. 65] 



