September 19. 1912] 



NATURE 



89 



regretted. Born in 1864, son of the Rev. Dr. 

 Chalmers, an esteemed missionary in China, Mr. 

 Chalmers in 1889 tool< his diploma as an Associate 

 of the Royal School of Mines, and left the same year 

 to take up professional duties in the Transvaal. There 

 he afterwards became an assistant engineer to the 

 Consolidated Goldfields of South Africa, under J. H. 

 Hammond. Apart from the important work which 

 came to him in this connection upon the Rand, Mr. 

 Chalmers, with Dr. F. H. Hatch, accompanied Mr. 

 Hammond when, in 1894, th's engineer made an im- 

 portant mining reconnaissance into Rhodesia, a land 

 which had not at that time long been under British 

 influence. Later, in the year 1895, he collaborated 

 with Dr. Hatch in the preparation of "The Gold Mines 

 of the Rand," the first important work on the Wit- 

 watersrand Goldfields. Mr. Chalmers was thus by his 

 own good work forced to the front, and during the 

 next ten years important commissions took him for 

 their fulfilment to all parts of the world. Then it was 

 found that a disease, all unsuspected, had taken a 

 hold on him that attention and skill could do nothing 

 to loosen. Slowly but surely Mr. Chalmers sank, 

 Davos put off the day, Bloemfontein the hour, but si.\ 

 weeks after his return to this country death came, at 

 the early age of forty-eight. During all this time the 

 many friends which his modesty had made for him 

 failed not in frequent inquiry, and now that he has 

 gone all mining engineers, even the most self-assertive, 

 will cherish the memory of this man of quiet quality. 



The new Allegheny Observatory, situate in River- 

 view Park, Pittsburg, was dedicated on the afternoon 

 of Wednesday, August 28, in the presence of the mem- 

 bers of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of 

 America and of many of the Pittsburg friends of the 

 institution. The principal instruments of the new 

 observatory are a 13-in. visual refractor, a 30-in. re- 

 flector (a memorial to the late James Edward Keeler), 

 and a 30-in. photographic refractor (a memorial to 

 \\'illiam Thaw and his son, William Thaw, jun.). 

 The last of these telescopes is not quite completed, as 

 the objective remains to be supplied. Addresses were 

 given by Dr. John A. Brashear, chairman of the 

 observatory committee ; by Dr. Samuel Black McCor- 

 mick. Chancellor of the University of Pittsburg, of 

 which the observatory forms the astronomical depart- 

 ment; by Dr. Frank Schlesinger, director of the 

 Allegheny Observatory ; and by Prof. E. C. Pickering, 

 director of the Harvard College Observatory. Mrs. 

 William Reed Thompson, the daughter of William 

 Thaw and the sister of William Thaw, jun., closed 

 the ceremony with the unveiling of the memorial 

 tablet on the Thaw telescope. 



The objections which were indicated some time ago 

 in Engineering to the style of monoplane which is 

 dependent on the rotary type of engine have been 

 illustrated by the death of four army officers in one 

 week, and give occasion for a strong article in our 

 contemporary for September 13. The French Deper- 

 dussin monoplane, in which Captain Hamilton and 

 Lieutenant Stuart lost their lives, broke in the air ; 

 as this machine won the 2000/. prize in the War Office 1 

 NO. 2238, VOL. 90] ' 



competition it is not unreasonable to suppose that it 

 represents the most advanced stage of monoplane 

 construction. Its failure shows that however much 

 care may be exercised in the choice of a monoplane 

 of the ordinary type, it cannot be absolutely trusted 

 to last for a month without breaking in mid-air. The 

 cause of the failure of the Bristol monoplane, in which 

 Lieutenants Hotchkiss and Bettington were killed, 

 was not brought to light at the inquest. The Deper- 

 dussin failure, it seems to be generally agreed, was 

 caused by some part of the revolving engine failing- 

 and wrecking the aeroplane. A real endeavour should 

 be made to secure a supply of engines of other than 

 the revolving type. Where this type has to be used 

 some provision should be made for safety in case oi 

 parts breaking. This might be done by placing a 

 strong shield between the engine and any parts it 

 might otherwise damage. 



At the French Army manoeuvres some portable 

 apparatus for wireless telegraphy on aeroplanes, de- 

 signed by M. Rouzet, is being officially tested under 

 war conditions. M. Rouzet's apparatus, which was 

 described recently by the Paris correspondent of The 

 Morning Post, embodies the novelty — so far as aero- 

 plane work is concerned — of using a rotating spark- 

 gap. This consists of a fixed and a movable disc 

 each carrying a number of metal points between which 

 the sparks pass while the movable disc is rotated 

 rapidly. The disc, and also a small alternator, are 

 driven by the aeroplane motor, and the current, which 

 is generated at a pressure of no volts, is raised to 

 30,000 volts by a transformer, and led to a condenser 

 and to the gaps. By setting the disc properly with 

 respect to the dynamo windings and poles, the sparks 

 can be made to occur when the condenser is just fully 

 charged. The advantages of this mode of operation 

 are, of course, very well known as regards larger 

 units, but it seems that rotating spark-gaps have not 

 been used before in French aeroplane work. The 

 oscillations produced by the discharge of the condenser 

 through the spark-gap are transferred to the antenna 

 by means of a high-frequency auto-transformer of the 

 Oudin pattern. The antenna consists of an aluminium 

 wire 100 ft. long, and can be rolled up or unrolled 

 by the operator by aid of a small winch, while pro- 

 vision is made whereby the pilot can cut the antenna 

 adrift in case of necessity. Instead of the earth con- 

 nection employed in a land or ship station, a wire 

 network is, as usual, spread along the wings of the 

 aeroplane, and thus the antenna and its "electrical 

 counterpoise " constitute a self-contained Hertzian 

 oscillator. The power of the dynamo is 200 watts, 

 and the distance already worked over is between fifty 

 and sixty miles. 



A LECTURE on non-operative methods as applied to 

 cancer was delivered by Prof. V. Czerny, of Heidel- 

 berg, on September 16, before the Association 

 of German Naturalists and Physicians at Miinster, in 

 Westphalia. From a report in The Morning Post, we 

 learn that Prof. Czerny confessed at once that a 

 specific cure for cancer had not yet been discovered, 

 and perhaps never would be found. Every year, he 



