August 24, 191 1] 



NATURE 



255 



further that this was accomplished without any fusion 

 of the metal under pressure. The fact that the result- 

 ing masses were true alloys he sought to demonstrate 

 bv showing that, if the metallic powders were correctly 

 proportioned, the resulting metal showed the low 

 melting-points of fusible alloys and eutectics. Unfor- 

 tunately the aid of the microscope was not called in 

 for the study of these "alloys," and, indeed, the 

 greater portion of Spring's researches were carried out 

 before the modern methods of metallography were 

 available] but it has since been shown that the com- 

 pressed masses of solid metal produced by Spring 

 consisted of the practically unaltered particles of the- 

 original powder, simply welded together under the 

 action of the pressure, but without the formation of 

 those structural constituents of the corresponding true 

 alloys. The low melting-points of such mixtures must 

 be attributed to local action at the boundaries of the 

 constituents and the rapid diffusion following the 

 appearance of liquid metal at these points. Although, 

 therefore, Spring's original conclusions were not 

 entirely confirmed by subsequent research, his work 

 has borne much fruit ; his demonstration of the possi- 

 bility of extruding bismuth in the form of thin wire 

 shed new light on the whole question of brittleness 

 and plasticity, and has largely contributed to the de- 

 velopment of the modern processes of extruding metals 

 and alloys for industrial purposes. 



Spring's activities were not confined to the physical 

 chemistry of metals, however, but extended to re- 

 searches on the colour of sky and water and on 

 colloidal solutions — to mention only a few of the other 

 sides of his work. It is even claimed for Spring by 

 his friends that in his researches on turbid media he 

 anticipated the "ultra-microscope" in principle to 

 such an extent that the apparatus he describes differs 

 from that now in use only in regard to the power of 

 the microscope employed. 



The sum-total of the late Prof. Spring's researches 

 constitute a monument of a life of intense scientific 

 activity, and it may be hoped that these researches 

 may now be gathered together so as to make them 

 more readily accessible, and thus to secure for them 

 the full recognition which they deserve. 



NOTES. 



The German Emperor has conferred upon Sir William 

 Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., president-elect of the British 

 Association, the order " Pour le Merite." 



We notice with regret the announcement of the death, 

 on August 18, at eighty years of age, of Mr. S. H. Bur- 

 bury, F.R.S., distinguished by his work in mathematical 

 physics, especially in the theories of electricity and 

 magnetism and the kinetic theory of gases. 



A Reuter message from St. Petersburg states that the 

 Minister of the Interior has prohibited for the year 19 11 

 the trade in marmots along the Eastern Chinese Railway, 

 and also the forwarding of marmot skins, flesh, and fat 

 by rail. This measure has been taken as a precaution 

 against pneumonic plague. 



The divisions of vertebrate and invertebrate palaeonto- 

 logy and paleobotany in the U.S. National Museum have 

 been combined, we learn from Science, into a new division 

 of palaeontology, with Dr. R. S. Bassler as curator in 

 charge, Mr. J. W. Gidley as assistant curator of fossil 

 mammals, and Mr. C. W. Gilmore as assistant curator of 

 fossil reptiles. 



It is officially announced that the Governor of British 

 Guiana has reported the adoption, as from August 1, of 

 maritime time, which is standard time four hours slow 

 NO. 2l82, VOL. 87] 



on Greenwich time. The same standard time has been' 

 adopted in the island of Granada, as from July 1, the effect 

 being to put back the local time of that colony by seven 

 minutes. 



It is surprising at the present day, when the system of 

 time-reckoning by reference to standard meridians is being 

 adopted throughout the civilised world, that the city of 

 Canterbury seems determined to maintain its own local 

 time. The Dean and Chapter, in mediaeval spirit, refuse to 

 recognise any such " modern innovation " as Greenwich 

 time, and have recently distributed cards intimating that 

 the time observed in Canterbury Cathedral is 4J minutes 

 ahead of Greenwich time. The post-office and railway 

 clocks are kept to Greenwich time, and the others any- 

 where between that and the cathedral clock. The result- 

 ing confusion has induced Mr. A. Lander, of 17 High 

 Street, Canterbury, scientific instrument maker, and secre- 

 tary of the East Kent Natural History Society, to make an 

 electric clock which is kept to standard time by means of 

 the wireless time signal from the Eiffel Tower. The first 

 of the three time signals is received on Morse tape travel- 

 ling at the rate of half an inch per second, and the half- 

 minute contacts of the electric clock are also recorded on 

 the same tape, so that the rate of the clock can be 

 accurately determined. The second signal is utilised to 

 correct the pendulum of the master clock, and the third 

 signal is again received on the tape to show that the clock 

 is exactly correct. This master clock works a number of 

 clocks and instruments on Mr. Lander's premises, such as 

 a rain-gauge, sunshine recorder, barograph, and also a 

 large dial in the shop window, and drops a time-ball exactly 

 at each standard hour. 



The twenty-second annual general meeting of the 

 members of the Institution of Mining Engineers will be 

 held at Cardiff on Wednesday, September 13, under the 

 presidency of Dr. J. B. Simpson. The following papers 

 will be read, or taken as read : — the reduction, control, 

 and collection of coal-dust in mines, S. Mavor ; a rope- 

 driven coal-cutter, W. Maurice. A number of papers which 

 have already appeared in the Transactions of the institu- 

 tion will also be open for discussion. 



The death has occurred, in his seventy-second year, of 

 Dr. J. P. Schweitzer, who was connected with the Uni- 

 versity of Missouri from 1S72 to 1906 as professor first of 

 chemistry and later of agricultural chemistry. He was a 

 native of Berlin, and after studying at Gbttingen was for 

 a time assistant to Heinrich Rose at Berlin. He went to 

 America in 1865, and held posts at the polytechnic institute 

 of Philadelphia and the Columbia School of Mines before 

 receiving his Missouri appointment. 



A remarkable crystal of aquamarine was described by 

 Dr. G. F. Kunz before the New York Academy of Sciences 

 on April 3. It was discovered by a miner on March 28, 

 19 10, in a pegmatite vein at Marambaya, near Arassuahy, 

 on the Jequitinhonha River, in Minas Geraes, Brazil. Its 

 colour was greenish-blue, its form a slightly irregular 

 hexagonal prism terminated at both ends by flat basal 

 planes, its length 485 cm. and width from 40 to 42 cm., 

 and its weight 110-5 kg., and its transparency was so 

 perfect that it could be seen through from end to end. 

 It is estimated that 200,000 carats of aquamarines of 

 various sizes could be cut from it. 



Mr. J. Allan Thomson, who has been appointed 

 palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of New Zealand, 

 was the first New Zealand Rhodes scholar at Oxford, 

 where he was also Burdett-Coutts scholar. He received 



