January 13, 1910] 



NA TURE 



311 



contrary, not cease for perhaps a quarter of a second, 

 a tapering chemical hne trailing after the last correct 

 mark. The balance as shown in Fig. 5 effectually 

 stops this; two secondary cells, F, and F,, are 

 shunted on to the line through variable inductances, 

 Ji and J,, and send a reverse current into the line 

 and variable resistances, VV, and W^, while from the 

 sliding contacts of the latter a variable capacity K 

 is fitted. By carefully observing the character of the 

 image on B during the first two or three revolutions, 

 one can at once counteract the line effects by 

 regulation. In the Thorne-Baker telectrograph 

 there are seventy-five turns of the cylinder per inch 

 travel of the stylus, and the cylinder revolves once in 

 two seconds. A result obtained with it over an arti- 

 ficial line (resistance of 2000 n) is shown alongside 

 one transmitted from Manchester to London (Figs. 

 6 and 7). Fig. 8 shows a photograph transmitted by 

 Korn's telautograph from Berlin to Paris, and Fig. 9 

 a line drawing transrfiitted by that system over an 

 artificial line of resistance 1000 Q. 



Experiments are at present being made to transmit 

 pictures and photographs by wireless telegraphy, but 

 considerable modification of the ordinary arrangements 



'm- 



for their raw material, not among dusty and almost 

 illegible manuscripts, but plainly set out in fair print 

 and duly classified and catalogued by the librarians. 

 Of such materials as this " Life " will future history be 

 made. 



Wilson's career was one of those which are still 

 common in this country, but tend to get rarer and 

 rarer with the advance of democratic ideals, a career 

 devoted to the public service, and of the highest use- 

 fulness, unrecognised by, and almost unknown to, the 

 ordinary world of newspaper readers. We might, if 

 inclined to a satirical vein, say that its very obscurity 

 is the best evidence of the value of such a career, 

 seeing that it is often only on some shortcoming, 

 either actual or supposed, that the outside world 

 becomes conscious of the existence of the man in 

 question. Thus in Wilson's case, were it not for the 

 accusations, long since withdrawn as totally un- 

 founded, of a failure on his part to do all that was 

 humanly possibly to relieve Khartum before its 

 canfure bv the Mahdi, his name would possibly be 

 little known. 



Passing over the period of childhood and adolescence 

 and his entry into the Royal Engineers, the first im- 



FiG. 9.— Telegraphed over an artificial line of looo U by Korn telautograph. 



is necessary, as the number of signals to be sent per 

 second is very much greater than in the case of word 

 telegraphy. The problem is, in tact, comparable with 

 that of wireless telephony, whilst synchronisation has 

 also to be arranged. The later results I have ob- 

 tained with purely experimental apparatus are suffi- 

 ciently good technically to show that the problem is one 

 within the limits of commercial practicability. 



T. Thorne-Baker. 



SIR CHARLES WILSON.^ 

 'T^ HE life of Sir Charles W'ilson, by his friend 

 -*■ Colonel Sir Charles Watson, belongs emphatic- 

 ally to that class of biography which, as' Carlyle held, 

 ought to be written. Whether it is destined to be 

 read by any large circle is another question. We might 

 occupy much space in a discussion as to the exact 

 degree of distinction in the subject that justifies a 

 published biography were it not a question that 

 settles itself automatically. W'e may, at any rate, 

 congratulate the future historians of the Victorian and 

 post-Victorian epochs in that they will have to look 



1 ' ' The Life of Major-General Sir Charles WilliamWilson. Royal Engineers 

 K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S." By Colonel Sir Charles M.Watson, K.C.M.G. 

 Pp. xv+419. (London : John Murray, 1909.) Price 15J. net. 



NO. 2098, VOL. 82] 



portant post that Wilson filled was that of secretarj- 

 to the British Commission for delimiting the boundar'v 

 between the United States and Canada from the Lake 

 of the Woods to the Pacific along the 4gth parallel ot 

 latitude. This line was marked out by astronomical 

 methods, a procedure now known to be liable to the 

 defect that the observations at each station are subject 

 to an unknown error due to the force of local attraction 

 or the deflection of the level. At the present day 

 such a line would be delimited by means of a tri- 

 angulation. In 185S, however, survey methods had 

 not developed enough for this to be practicable, at 

 all events within any reasonable limit of time, and 

 the only possible course was taken. That the line 

 as then marked out, and as it remains to this day, 

 was not a true parallel of latitude, but a wavy line 

 departing from the truth to distances of some hundreds 

 of feet on either side, was of secondary importance. 

 The urgent point was to get some acceptable boundary 

 laid out upon the ground, and so marked that nobody 

 could have any doubt as to which side of the line 

 they were on at any given moment. 



With the technical work of the Commission in 

 the field, Wilson had, however, little to do ; his 

 duties were of a more arduous character. The 



