April 17, 19 13] 



NATURE 



171 



diminishing the amplitude of the vibrations. Lashing 

 or shrouding is therefore a palliative against vibra- 

 tion, and not a cure. It is the practice of the West- 

 inghouse firm to lash all reaction blades above i in. 

 in length, and very long blades may have three or 

 four rows of lashing wire. 



As is well known, air in excess of that which is 

 required to ensure complete combustion of the fuel 

 under a boiler carries away heat wastefully to the 

 chimney, and the boiler and its flues are less efficient 

 in absorbing the heat which has. been produced. 

 Engineers, therefore, test flue gases for carbonic acid, 

 as an unduly small proportion of this corresponds to 

 unnecessary excess of air. This is generalb- done by 

 ascertaining the reduction in volume of the flue gas 

 after treatment with a solution of caustic soda. These 

 wet chemical methods, of course, work well enough, 

 but the lower-grade type of engineer does not take 

 kindly to them. The Underfeed Stoker Co., Ltd., of 

 Coventry House, South Place, E.C., however, has put 

 on the market, at a cost of five guineas, an extremely 

 neat pocket apparatus, called the CO, thermoscope, in 

 which no liquids are used. A measured charge of 

 the gas is passed through a charge of powdered 

 caustic soda contained in a copper cap looking- like 

 a detonator, but sealed at both ends. The ends are 

 first pricked and then the cartridge is placed within 

 the hollow bulb of a mercurial thermometer contained 

 within the instrument. The zero of a sliding scale 

 is then set to the mercury index and the piston of the 

 instrument is pushed home so as to drive the gas 

 through the cartridge of caustic soda. This heats up 

 the cartridge, and the thermometer, acting as a calori- 

 meter, shows directly on the scale the proportion of 

 CO, present. Provision is made for eliminating the 

 effect of temperature on the volume of the gas taken. 

 As in the wet process, SO, counts as CO,, but in 

 this case in a higher degree in consequence of the 

 greater heat of combination. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Question of Radium in the Chromosphere. — 

 Bulletin No. 27 of the Kodaikanal Observatory con- 

 tains an important statement by Mr. Evershed re- 

 garding the recent communications concerning the 

 presence of radium and the elements of the inactive 

 group in the chromosphere. One of the recent com- 

 munications concerned a comparison made by Mr. 

 Dyson of the lines of radium and the emanation with 

 the bright lines in the chromospheric spectrum as 

 observed at eclipses ; this comparison indicated many 

 apparent coincidences of wave-length, and he sug- 

 gested that these elements may be revealed by their 

 emission lines, although not by their absorption lines, 

 as is the case of helium. In the first part of the 

 paper Evershed deals with the comparison of the 

 chromospheric lines with those of radium and the 

 emanation. He employs for the chromosphere the 

 spectra he obtained during the eclipse of 1900 for the 

 ultra-violet region of the spectrum and the spectra 

 (glass positives from the original) secured by Dr. 

 Mih hell at the eclipse of 1905; these latter are, as he 

 states, "the finest that have ever been obtained in 

 the less refrangible region." In the second portion 

 he devotes his inquiry to the question of the presence 

 of neon or argon in the chromosphere, using the 

 NO. 2268, VOL. 91] 



wave-lengths of the chromospheric lines as obtained 

 by himself, Lockyer, and Dyson, and discusses the 

 spectra thoroughly. 



The result of his inquiry, to use his own words, 

 is to show " that with the best eclipse material now- 

 available and the most recent measurements of the 

 lines of the elements in question, the evidence is of a 

 distinctly negative character as regards radium and 

 the emanation, as well as neon and argon, and the 

 probability is that not one of these elements can be 

 recognised in the sun by a study of the emission 

 spectrum of the chromosphere any more than by a 

 comparison with the solar absorption spectrum." He 

 further states that he has also examined the spectra 

 of krypton and zenon, and also finds no evidence for 

 their presence in the chromosphere. 



Dedication of the New Allegheny Observatory. 

 —The corner-stone of the new buildings for this ob- 

 servatory was laid by Mr. John A. Brashear on 

 October 20, 1900. The director at that time was Prof. 

 F. L. O. YVadsworth. The work of building and 

 transference has been completed, and the observatory 

 dedicated with religious solemnity and handed over 

 to the trustees of the University of Pittsburgh. We 

 have lately received (Misc. Sci." Papers, Alleg. Obs., 

 N.S., vol. ii., No. 2) an account of the dedicatory 

 exercises and presentation which took place on August 

 18 of last year, and were referred to in Nature of 

 September 19, 1912 (vol. xc, p. 89). It is a pity that 

 such stimulating scenes do not mark the history of 

 astronomy in England. The various speeches are 

 given in full, and in an appendix is given the speech 

 made when the corner-stone was laid. Happily, Mr. 

 John Brashear, to whose personal endeavours the new 

 observatory owes so much, has lived to see crowned 

 the works he then put in progress. 



General Index to the Memoirs of the Society of 

 Italian Spectroscopists. — The fortieth anniversary of 

 the above society and the completion of forty volumes 

 (1872-1911) of the memoirs have been celebrated in a 

 manner _ "modesta ed utile" by the preparation and 

 publication of an Indice Generale delle Memorie. The 

 index is made "per Airtori e per Materia." The 

 latter part is not an alphabetical list of titles juggled 

 on the change-ringing system adopted in some cata- 

 logues, but consists of a number of natural divisions 

 of the subject forming heads of lists of papers 

 arranged chronologically under author's names. Prof. 

 A. Ricco is responsible for the grouping. Other 

 members of the staff of the Astrophysical Observatory 

 of Catania have assisted. 



NATIONAL ASPECTS OF EDUCATION. 

 C EVERAL notable utterances relating to our 

 "-' national scheme of education have recently been 

 made by Lord Haldane and other members of the 

 Government. Apparently the intention of the Govern- 

 ment is to introduce a measure which will organise 

 our educational institutions and forces on a national 

 basis, and in the spirit worthy of a great modern 

 State. Among the developments adumbrated are the 

 raising of the leaving age of compulsory attendance 

 at primary schools, the abolition of the " half-time " 

 system, compulsory attendance at continuation schools, 

 the correlation of primary an,d secondary schools, im- 

 provement of the status of teachers, increased number 

 of provincial universities and of facilities for enter- 

 ing them. 



_ The development of national education along such 

 lines as these signifies a substantial increase of 

 expenditure; and as the contributions from rates for 

 educational purposes have reached breaking-point in 



