April 24, 19 13] 



NATURE 



199 



Palazzo, and Stupart as members, it being- understood 

 that the commission would coopt additional members. 

 The second day's sitting was devoted to the con- 

 sideration of the report of the Commission on Weather 

 Telegraphy, which had held a meeting in London in 

 September last, and of the comments which had been 

 received from the various institutes concerned on the 

 proposals of the commission. Apart from a few 

 minor modifications, the committee approved the 

 recommendations of the commission, which have been 

 already referred to in a previous number of Nature 

 (vol xc, p. 107). The institutes are invited to intro- 

 duce the suggested modifications in the present 

 arrangements'" "for exchange of telegraphic meteoro- 

 logical reports within the European system on May I, 

 1914. From that date onwards a uniform telegraphic 

 code will be adopted throughout Europe, though the 

 differences between the units adopted in this country 

 and on the Continent will persist. Arising out of the 

 report of the commission was the question of the 

 receipt of information from ships at sea by wireless 

 telegraphy. Up to the present this country stands 

 alone in 'having a system for obtaining wireless re- 

 ports from liners. Our geographical position invests 

 such reports with special importance to us. It is now 

 hoped that the regulations connected with weather 

 radio-telegrams adopted at the International Radio- 

 telegraphic Conference, held in London in the summer 

 of last year, will result in a considerable curtailing 

 of the time which these messages occupy in trans- 

 mission. Should this anticipation be realised, it is 

 probable that other countries would also desire to avail 

 themselves of this means for securing information 

 from the Atlantic Ocean, and the president was there- 

 fore requested to make inquiries regarding the matter. 

 At this meeting the committee also considered a 

 report on the velocity equivalents of the numbers of 

 the Beaufort scale of wind force in use in different 

 countries drawn up by Messrs. Palazzo, Koppen, and 

 Lempfert, by request of the Commission on Weather 

 Telegraphy. The report showed that the equivalents 

 used^in different countries differ considerably, but they 

 all have one feature in common, viz., that they are 

 based on comparisons of estimates of wind force with 

 hourlv means of wind velocitv as measured on Robin- 

 son cup anemometers. The last few years have wit- 

 nessed a considerable advance in our knowledge of 

 wind structure in consequence of demands which 

 have been put forward by aviators, and thus the 

 question arises whether the velocity in gusts should 

 not find a place in any specification of the velocity 

 equivalents of the Beaufort numbers that may be 

 recommended for general international use. For this 

 and other reasons the committee considered it in- 

 expedient at the present juncture to recommend a 

 definite scale of equivalents for general use, and con- 

 tented itself with suggesting that if any meteoro- 

 logical service wishes to make a change in the hourly 

 equivalents which are now in use, the new values 

 should be so selected that they do not fall outside 

 the limits set by the scales adopted in Germany and 

 in this countrv. The gentlemen referred to above 

 were requested to prepare a further report, on which 

 the committee might base a more definite recom- 

 mendation on some future occasion. 



At the next meeting questions arising out of the 

 investigation of the upper air were considered. M. 

 Hergesell gave an account of the past work and 

 future plans of the commission of which he is pru- 

 dent. In connection with future plans, he stated that 

 upper-air investigation would form an important part 

 of the scientific "work proposed by Capt. Amundsen 

 in his projected drift across the polar basin in iqiS, 

 and it thus was very desirable to organise other 

 NO. 2269, VOL. 91] 



' observations in polar latitudes simultaneously with 

 Capt. Amundsen's expedition. In connection with 

 this subject, M. Rykatcheff stated that Russia con- 

 templated carrying out soundings of the upper air 

 at Jakoutsk and Verkhoyansk, and that there was 

 also some prospect of expeditions being sent to Nova 

 Zemlya and to the mouth of the Lena at the time of 

 Amundsen's expedition, if other countries were pre- 

 pared to cooperate in other parts of the polar basin. 

 Inquiries elicited the fact that prospects seemed 

 favourable for such cooperation. Thus M. Hergesell 

 hoped to be able to arrange for the German station 

 on Spitsbergen to remain in operation, and Mr. 

 Stupart thought that he might be able to arrange 

 for some work of the kind contemplated by the 

 Stefansson expedition which the Canadian Govern- 

 ment is sending out. The committee warmly sup- 

 ported the proposal, and appointed MM. Hergesell, 

 Rykatcheff, Ryder, and Stupart a small subcommitt. ,■ 

 to deal with the question. 



A second question of importance arising out of the 

 upper-air work concerned the units to be adopted in 

 the international publication in which the results of 

 ascents made in all parts of the world are collected. 

 A proposal brought forward by Prof. Bjerknes had 

 led 1 he commission responsible for this work to adopt 

 at its meeting in Vienna in 1912 a resolution recom- 

 mending that pressure values should Se given in 

 absolute units, millibars, instead of in millimetres of 

 mercury, with the proviso, however, that the recom- 

 mendation should only become effective when it 

 received the approval of the International Meteoro- 

 logical Committee. The proposal has given rise to 

 acute controversv in meteorological periodicals during 

 the past year. "Absolute pressure units are in many 

 wavs particularly suited to upper-air measurements, 

 and no one would oppose their use if it were possible 

 to start afresh without reference to the material 

 which has been already collected and published in 

 other units. Actually opinion has been sharply 

 divided between those who trust that the temporary 

 inconveniences associated with all changes will soon 

 be outweighed by the advantages accruing from the 

 new system, and those who deprecate any departure 

 from established practice. After considerable discus- 

 sion, the committee met the difficulty by requesting 

 the commission to print pressure values in absolute 

 units, millibars, as well as in millimetres of mercury. 

 The committee further recommended that this practice 

 should be adopted in all publications giving the re- 

 sults of observations in the free atmosphere. Thus 

 a very difficult question has been settled for the pre- 

 sent at the expense of a slight increase in the number 

 of figures to be printed. A further proposal, originat- 

 ing with Prof. Bjerknes, to give heights in" dynamic 

 meters," or rather to give geopotential instead of 

 height in units of length, was referred back to the 

 commission for further consideration, at M. Herge- 

 sell's request. 



At the following meeting the report of M. Maurer, 

 the president of the Radiation Commission, was re- 

 ceived. A letter from Mr. Hunt, the meteorologist 

 of the Commonwealth of Australia, directed the atten- 

 tion of the committee to the Campbell-Stokes sunshine 

 recorder. Instruments of this type are widely used 

 for recording the duration of bright sunshine, and 

 their indications are generally regarded as reasonably 

 comparable inter se. It appears, however, that the 

 British Meteorological Service alone has adopted a 

 definite specification for the instrument, but there is 

 no similar provision in other countries. The Radia- 

 tion Commission was therefore requested to take_ into 

 consideration the question of instituting comparisons 

 between instruments of different form. 



