August 25, 1910J 



NATURE 



born at Market Bosworth, August 20, 1710. He was 

 brought up as a weaver, and the Httle learning he obtained 

 as a boy was gained in spite of many disadvantages and 

 obstacles. Indeed, the opposition he received from his 

 father at last drove him from home, and he went to 

 Nuneaton, where, at about the age of twenty, he married 

 his landlady, a widow of fifty. 



His acquaintance with mathematics began at the age of 

 ■twenty-four with " Cocker's Arithmetic," the study of 

 which he combined with that of astrology, his tutor being 

 a fortune-telling pedlar. Simpson's astrology, however, 

 brought him more trouble than credit, and on the charge 

 of frightening a girl into fits by " raising the devil " he 

 had to leave the district. He spent some time at Derby, 

 and in 1735-6 he went to London, worked as a weaver in 

 Spitalfields, and taught mathematics in his spare time. .\ 

 year or two afterwards, with the sole assistance of Edmund 

 Stone's translation of L'Hopilal's " Analyse des Infini- 

 ments I'etits," Simpson wrote "A New Treatise on 

 Fluxions," which was considered a ■ notable contribution to 

 the literature of that comparativelv new suhiort. Oilirr 



ELECTRICAL AND OTHER I'ROI'ERTIES OF 



5.1.VD.' 

 'PHIS material, which flows so freely through my fingers 

 and may be poured in the manner of a liquid 

 Irom one vessel to another, is common sand. Specimens 

 from various parts of the world are here e.xhibited ; 

 there are sands from the Sahara Desert, from New 

 Zealand, France, Scotland, and several parts of England. 

 There are also bottles of the coloured sands from .-Mum Bay, 

 in the Isle of Wight, and Redhill. It may be pointed out 

 at once that this coloration is merely due to the presence of 

 an adherent layer of oxides or hydroxide of iron, for even 

 varieties which appear under the microscope to contain 

 little or no coloured particles generally have a trace of 

 iron clinging to the grains. 



For instance, a small quantity of white sand from 

 Charlton, having been wetted with strong sulphuric acid 

 before the lecture, will yield on the addition of water a 

 solution containing iron. A few drops of ferrocyanide of 

 polassiuin give a strong blue characteristic precipitate. 







L^ 



publications followed, his pupils increased, and he gained 

 a considerable reputation. 



In 1743, through the influence of William Jones, the 

 mathematician, Simpson obtained a post as professor of 

 mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 

 and two years later he was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, having already been made a member of the 

 Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, .\fter holding his post 

 at Woolwich for eight years he was seized with illness, 

 caused, it was thought, by overwork. Advised to try his 

 native air, he journeyed to Bosworth in February, 1761, 

 and died there on May 14, in the fifty-first year of his age. 

 He was buried in the churchyard of Sutton Cheney, a 

 parish a short distance from Market Bosworth, where in 

 1790 the Leicestershire antiquarian John Throsby plaeed a 

 tablet over Kis grave. Simgson had one son, who became 

 a captain in the Royal .Artillery, and one daughter. His 

 wife survived him many years, received a pension from 

 the Crown, and died in 1782 at the great age of 102. 



Edgar C. Smith. 



NO. 2130, VOL. 84] 



Further, the so-called black iron sand from New Zealand 

 consists almost entirely of magnetite. If some of it is 

 poured out upon a sheet of paper and brought near to a 

 powerful magnet, you see that the grains fly eagerly to 

 the poles and form large clusters there. This powder, on 

 account of the regularity of its grains, their highly mag- 

 netic character and freedom from dust, is particularly 

 useful in the laboratory for tracing lines of magnetic force. 

 It is interesting to compare this with the black oolitic sand 

 from Compton Bay, in the Isle of Wight, for that is a 

 silicate of iron, and therefore non-magnetic. 



I wish now to direct your attention to some of the pheno- 

 mena connected with sand in large quantities, such as are 

 met with iipon wide stretches or drifts. 



Blown sand, having been stopped by hedges and grass, 

 gradually accumulates to a mound (Fig. i) — in some cases 

 with serious consequences. Dr. Vaughan Cornish, who 

 has made a special study of this subject, has clearly proved, 



1 Pi-cours- deliveiel at 'he Roy.-il Institution on Friday, February 11, 

 bv Mr. tharlts E. S. Ph Hip-;. 



