April 7, 1887] 



NA TURE 



541 



apart only by the interposed rolling pin, cause it to 

 revolve, and the angle through which it has moved can 

 then be read ofl' with the help of the pointer and dial. 

 The best results have been obtained with a wire which 

 was drawn, and which measures exactly '015 inch in cir- 

 cumference. The dial is divided into fifteen equal parts, 

 and their decimals, so that one division represents one- 

 thousandth of an inch, and variations as small as a twenty- 

 thousandth of an inch can be detected. 



The above instrument is the outcome of another 

 instrument invented by Mr. Stromeyer, of still greater 

 sensitiveness, and which is based on the production of 

 Newton's rings. Its extreme sensitiveness and certain 

 practical difficulties, however, make it unsuitable for the 

 use of the engineer or naval architect, to whom the 

 present instrument is of great value, and by whom it can 

 be very conveniently used. 



The strains of a ship in a sea-way have always been 

 very difficult to deal with. Agur and Solomon of old 

 frankly admitted they were "too wonderful" for them, 

 and although the same ingenuousness has not always 

 been practised by naval architects since, the fact remains 

 that the present state of knowledge in this subject is 

 extremely meagre. Methods of calculation have, it is 

 true, been in use by naval architects which have given 

 results most useful for comparative purposes, but which 

 in absolute units frequently indicated forces that ships 

 could not bear. These methods therefore, except for the 

 comparative purposes they were primarily designed to 

 serve, threw no light whatever on the actual conditions of 

 stress on the various parts of the structure in a sea-way. 

 One able investigator showed that the dynamic constitu- 

 tion of sea-waves was such as to make the effective varia- 

 tion of buoyancy enormously less than the apparent 

 variation, and that this difference meant a reduced varia- 

 tion of stress in large ships from, in some cases, 170 to 

 100. This investigation cleared up many pre-existing 

 difficulties. Mr. Stromeyer, however, by means of his 

 beautiful and simple apparatus, enables the variation of 

 stress on any part of any structure, ship, or anything else 

 under the action of any forces to be arrived at with 

 certainty by direct experiment. 



The invention of this little apparatus constitutes an era 

 in the science of the strength of complicated structures 

 such as ships, boilers, &c. 



WILLIAM BABCOCK HAZE.V 



'PHE sudden death of Brigadier-General William B. 

 1 Hazen, Chief Signal Officer of the United States 

 .•Xrmy, which occurred on Sunday, January 16, 1887, 

 deprived the country of one of its most distinguished 

 officers, and the Signal Corps of a chief who took a broad 

 view of its duties and relations to the world of business 

 and science. 



General William B. Hazen was the great-grandson of 

 Thomas Hazen, who was born 1719. Thomas Hazen 

 was himself great-grandson of Eduard Hazen, who emi- 

 grated from England before 1649, ^nd settled at Rowley, 

 Mass., where he died in 1683. 



The descendants of Edward Hazen include many 

 names eminent in business, theology, and war : energy, 

 industry, and strong convictions characterise the members 

 of the family on all sides. 



General Hazen was born at West Hartford, Vermont, 

 September 27, 1830. While he was a child his parents 

 removed to Hiram, Portage County, Ohio. In 1851 he 

 jvas appointed from Ohio as a cadet to the United States 

 Military Academy, at West Point, from which he gradu- 

 ated on July I, 1885. He was assigned to the 8th U.S. 

 Infantry, and spent the next five years in frontier service, 

 more especially against the Indians in California, Oregon, 

 and Texas, in which service he displayed an energy and 



bravery that have been characteristic of his life. His 

 record during these years embraces constant fights and 

 pursuits. He was twice severely wounded, and by virtue 

 of the latter he was, in January i860, by the surgeon's 

 order, granted a leave of absence as being unfit for duty. 

 In consequence of this he was at the north while his 

 regiment was in Texas at the breaking out of the Rebel- 

 lion. The regiment having been captured and its officers 

 released on parole, he alone was unembarrassed by the 

 parole and was able to offer his services to the Union 

 Army ; he was at once assigned as temporary instructor 

 at West Point. In May 1S61, he became captain of the 

 Sth Infantry of the regular army, and in October was 

 made colonel of the 41st Regiment of Ohio Infantry in 

 the volunteer army. During the war he distinguished 

 himself on many occasions, and his commission as major- 

 general was granted him December 13, 1864, for " specific 

 distinguished services," i.e. " for long and continued 

 services of the highest character, and for special gallantry 

 and service at Fort McAllister." This placed him fifth in 

 a list of twenty-four officers who had received commis- 

 sions for distinguished service. 



He continued serving on the frontier territories north 

 and west, and was especially active in Indian affairs until 

 1870, in which year he was allowed leave of absence to 

 visit the seat of war in Europe. The results of his obser- 

 vations and studies during his six months' absence are 

 embraced in a volume entitled " The School and the Army 

 in Germany and France, with a Diary of Siege Life at 

 Versailles" (New York, 1S72). This volume contains a 

 very interesting sketch of Bismarck, and an account of 

 the state of affairs in Europe. It contains especially a 

 fair criticism of the relative excellencies of the German 

 and French systems, both civil and military ; in a special 

 chapter on that subject he incidentally brought out more 

 prominently some weak points in our own military organ- 

 isation. It would seem that the courage displayed so 

 brilliantly on the battle-field frequently nerved him to 

 utter not only these but other fearless criticisms of things 

 that were palpably wrong, and some of which have since 

 been corrected. 



He was married, February 15, 1871, to Millie, daughter 

 of the Hon. Washington McLean, of Cincinnati, who, with 

 one son, survives him. 



On his return from Europe in 1871, he returned to duty 

 in the Indian Territory, and was with his regiment in 

 Kansas and Dakota, except for a short absence, until 

 December 15, 18S0, when he was, by President Hayes, 

 appointed Brigadier-General and Chief Signal Officer, 

 and has since then been stationed at Washington. The 

 absence just referred to was occasioned by his again visit- 

 ing Europe as Military Attachd to the United States 

 Legation at Vienna, for the purpose of studying the 

 operations of European armies during the Turko-Russian 

 War. He was absent on this service from December 1876 

 to June 1877, and the results of his observations were 

 published subsequently in a highly interesting popular 

 volume. 



The general account of his activity during the \yar of 

 the Rebellion was published by him in his " Narrative of 

 Military Service" (Boston, 1885). 



His letters and pamphlets on the "Bad Lands" show 

 that for many years General Hazen had been studying 

 the relations' of meteorology and agriculture. After 

 his appointment as Chief Signal Officer, he was inde- 

 fatigable in his efforts to improve the military a.nd 

 departmental relations of the Signal Service, its scientific 

 character, its practical usefulness to farmers and herders, 

 and its popular influence. His labours in Washington 

 stirred up most virulent opponents, first when it became 

 necessary for him to expose and prosecute the corruption 

 of Capt. Howgate ; again, when it became necessary in 

 self-defence to expose the true reasons of the failure 

 of the War Department to properly support and 



