September 6, 1906] 



NA TURE 



47 1 



ujraiume of igod, a n'sutne of which was given in Nature 

 (vol. Ixxlii., p. 164). The compelilion is open to all 

 iiaiionalities. 



A Reuter telegram received at Copr-nhagcn from Nome, 

 Alaska, on September 3, announces that the Cjoa, the 

 vessel of the Norwegian Polar Expedition, has arrived 

 there, having completed the navigation of the North-West 

 Passage in a westerly direction. The expedition sailed in 

 May, 1903, in charge of Captain Amundsen, and letters 

 recording observations made in the neighbourhood of the 

 north magnetic pole weie summarised in Nature of 

 November 16, 1905 (vol. Ixxiii., p. 5(1). 



During the past few days the following earthquake 

 shocks have been recorded in the daily papers : — 

 Aiiiiust 29. — A violent earthquake was felt at Tacna and 

 .\riia, and was followed by sixteen further shocks. 

 Ii/,i,'iii"( 30. — Bodi), Norway. A violent earthquake shock 

 was felt at midnight. August 31. — An earthquake shock 

 lasting two seconds was felt at San Juan at g.45 a.m. 

 Svjilfinber 2. — Valparaiso. Slight earlhquake shocks were 

 again felt. 



Herr O. Wentzki, of Frankfurt a. M., has been 

 .iwarded the 300-marks prize of the Berufsgenossenschaft 

 der chemischen Industrie for the discovery of the best 

 means of purifying hydrogen which contains arsenic. 

 .According to Wentzki 's method, the impure gas is led up 

 into a cylinder containing two parts of dry calcium chloride 

 to one part of moist sand or other similarly indifferent 

 substance, the bottom end of the cylinder being made of 

 wire gauze of fine mesh ; the capacity of the cylinder should 

 be about one-third that of the hydrogen generator. 



Tme opening session of the International Congress on 

 Methods of Testing was held in the P,ilais des Academies, 

 Brussels, on September 3, under the presidency of Mr. 

 F. Berger (Vienna). Five hundred members were present 

 from eighteen different countries. .Addresses of welcome 

 were delivered by Count de Smet de Naeyer, the Belgian 

 Prime Minister, and by Mr. H. Raemai-ckers, .Secretary 

 of the Department of Railways. .An address was then 

 given by Prof. F. Schiile (Zurich) in memory of the de- 

 ceased president, Ludwig von Tctmejer. A report on the 

 work of the executive council since the last congress was 

 presented by Mr. Berger, and interesting papers on the 

 iron and steel industry of Belgium and on the Belgian 

 cement industry were read by Baron E. de Laveleye and 

 Mr. ¥,. Camerman. The mornings of September 4, 5, and 

 (1 were devoted to the work of the sections and the after- 

 noons to excursions. Excursions to the works of the 

 Cockerill Company at Seraing and to Ostend have been 

 arranged for September 7, 8, and q. The congress is held 

 under the patronage of the King of the Belgians, who on 

 September 2 received the members of council. 



The agenda programme of the seventeenth annual general 

 meeting of the Institution of Mining Engineers has just 

 been issued. The meeting will take place at Hanley from 

 September 12-14, ^"d 'he following papers will be read 

 or taken as read : — The Courri^res explosion, by Messrs. 

 W. N. Atkinson and .A. M. Henshaw ; gypsum, with special 

 reference to the deposits of the Dove Vallev, by Mr. T. 

 Trafford Wynne. The following papers will be open for 

 discussion : — Commercial possibilities of electric winding for 

 main shafts and auxiliary woric, by Mr. W. C. Mountain ; 

 electrically driven air-compressors combined with the work- 

 ing of Ingersoll-Scrgeant heading machines, and the sub- 

 sequent working of the Busty Seam at Ou^ton Colliery, 

 NO. 1923. VOL. 74] 



by .Mr. A. Thompson ; practical problems of machine 

 mining, by Mr. S. Mavor ; the strength of brazed joints in 

 steel wires, by Prof. H. Louis; by-product coke and 

 Huesscncr by-product coke ovens, by Dr. J. A. Roelofsen ; 

 considerations on deep mining, by Mr. George Farmer ; the 

 education of mining engineers, by Prof. J. W. Gregory; 

 the capacity current and its effect on leakage indications 

 on three-phase electrical power service, by Mr. S. F. 

 Walker ; petroleum occurrences in the Orange River Colony, 

 by Mr. .A. R. Sawyer ; and development of placer gold 

 mining in the Klondike district, Canada, by Mr. J. B. 

 Tyrrell. 



.According 10 a recent report of the United Stales Consul 

 at Brussels, a laboratory museum of electricity in that 

 town will be opened to the public in October next. The 

 museum has been built and equipped by Mr. R. Gold- 

 schmidt, of Brussels, whose object in presenting the 

 museum is the development and extension of the use and 

 application of electricity in Belgium by practical experi- 

 mental instruction. The institution will contain all kinds 

 of electrical models and appliances, which may be freely 

 handled for study and experiment. Models and apparatus 

 will be conveniently placed at the disposal of the public 

 upon separate tables, and may be connected with Ihe electric 

 supply at will. The museum is divided into four large 

 rooms, one of which will be devoted to machines serving 

 to produce phenomena due to magnetism and to electricity 

 and chemical reaction ; another room will be given up to 

 the demonstration of electrical laws. -A circular gallery 

 round the room is designated as the second hall ; here wilt 

 be found machines of all sorts, lamps, bells, agricultural 

 and dairy implements, conveniently exhibited, w'hich may 

 be worked by simply adjusting the electric appliances sup- 

 plied to each table. There will also be free telegraph, 

 wireless telegraph and telephone offices. The third hall 

 is subdivided into reading-rooms, where the latest scientific 

 publications will be displayed. In the fourth hall will be 

 found all kinds of large motors, dynamos, Src, with which 

 the public are at liberty to study and experiment. 



The ancient town of Nuremberg appears to be one of 

 the most popular places for the annual meetings of many 

 German scientific and technical societies ; for example, 

 mention may be made of the twenty-ninth Hauptversamm- 

 lung des Vereins zur Wahrung der Interessen der 

 chemischen Industrie Deutschlands, September 20-22 ; the 

 third Hauptversammlung of the Verband konditionierender 

 .Apotheker fiir das deutsche Reich, September i and 2 ; the 

 A'crband deutscher Gewerbevereine, September g-12 ; the 

 seventeenth deutsche Mechanikertag, .August 17 and iS. 



Other meeting places and times fixed for this year's meet- 

 ings of foreign societies, &c., include : — the international 

 congress for cork manufacturers at Eisenach, September i ; 

 the conference of pharmaceutical faculties (founded in 1900 

 for the furthering of pharmaceutical instruction in America) 

 at Indianapolis, September 5 ; the eighth general meeting 

 of the Internationaler Verein der Lederindustrie-chemiker 

 in Frankfurt a. M., September 17—20; the International 

 Tuberculosis Conference, .Amsterdam, .September 6-8 ; the 

 Orzagos Iparegyesiilet (a national industrial society), 

 Budapest, October 20-22 (a congress to consider questions 

 connected with the acetylene industry) ; the fifth Hauptver- 

 sammlung des deutschen Medizinalbeamtenvereins, Stutt- 

 gart, September 13 ; the Hauptversammlung des Verbandes 

 selbstandiger offentlicher chemiker in Dessau, September 

 23-25 ; and the fourth delegates' meeting for the Inter- 

 national Union for the Protection of Workmen's Interests, 

 Geneva. September 26-29. 



