134 



NA TURE 



[JuwE 8, 1905 



the present issue contains a very valuable series of twenty- 

 three tables prepared by the secretary (Mr. C. M. Stewart) 

 showing the characteristic features of the winds at the 

 Cape Observatory during the five years 1896- igoo, arranged 

 under sixteen points of the compass, and referred to various 

 elements, e.g. temperature, humidity, &c., and giving the 

 percentage of relative wind-frecjuency and wind-fnrce at 

 various hours. 



We have received a copy of the report of the director of 

 the Philippine Weather Bureau for the year ending August 

 31, 1904 (reprinted from the report of the Philippine Com- 

 mission, part ii.). We have frequently had occasion to 

 refer to the useful work of this organisation, and the 

 valuable researches and publications of the Rev. J. Algu^, 

 S.J., particularly in respect of the cyclones in the Far East. 

 The central office performs a large amount of work 

 gratuitously for' observers on land and sea, by adjusting 

 and comparing instruments ; this is generally only known 

 to those benefited. The director states that the weather 

 bureau is never closed ; the chief ofHcials live at the observ- 

 atory, and are ready to attend any call at all hours, 

 especially inquiries by officers of ships, if they wish for 

 information as to the conditions of weather. In addition 

 to the regular work, telegrams are constantly exchanged 

 between the provinces, China, Formosa, and Japan, and 

 when bad weather is impending special warnings are dis- 

 patched to the points threatened. 



The annual summary of the Monthly Weather Rr-vlew 

 of the U.S. Weather Bureau for 1904, containing a useful 

 subject, author, and title index of the papers published 

 in the monthly parts, and an annual tlimatological 

 summary of the observations made at the Weather Bureau 

 stations, has just reached us. Weather forecasts 

 for thirty-six and forty-eight hours in advance have been 

 made daily throughout the year for each State, and special 

 warnings of gales on the sea coasts have been issued 

 when necessary. In a number of instances, the chief of 

 the Weather Bureau states, European shipping interests 

 were notified of the character and probable course of severe 

 storms that were passing eastward from the American 

 coast. The warnings and indications of the movements of 

 West India hurricanes have evidently been the means of 

 saving a large amount of property and a number of lives, 

 and their value has been acknowledged by the Press, and 

 also by the President of the Jacksonville Board of Trade, 

 who states that the warnings to vessels not to leave port 

 prevented serious disasters. Prof. W. L. Moore expresses 

 the hope that the time will come when it will be possible 

 to forecast the weather generally for coming seasons, but 

 that time has not yet arrived. \"aluable researches are 

 being made at Mount Weather Observatory, Virginia, 

 where it is proposed, inter alia, to discuss meteorological 

 observations from the point of view of their relations to 

 solar physics, and to .select meteorological and magnetic 

 elements and compare them with solar observations. 



In the current number of the Coniptcs i-eiulus of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences M. (iuyou gives an interesting 

 account of the utilisation of the telephone system for the 

 exact transmission of time. The experiments were undcr- 

 talven by the Observatory of the Bureau des Longitudes 

 at the request of the Chambre syndicale de I'Horlogerie, 

 and after a preliminary trial in the Paris area were ex- 

 tended to the whole French system. The transmission of 

 the time by a verbal signal not being sufficiently exact for 

 the purpose, by means of a specially arranged microphone 

 each beat of the pendulum of the standard clock in ihe 

 NO. 1858, VOL. 72] 



observatory could be heard in the telephone receiver, the 

 operator at the sending end merely counting one or two 

 beats. On May 25 the destroyer Escopettc, whilst at Brest, 

 was able to regulate its chronometers directly against the 

 standard clock of the. Observatory of Montsouris with an 

 accuracy of about o i to 02 second. As M. Guyou points 

 out, owing to the wide extent of the telephone system at 

 the present time, this mode of trtmsmitting the time ought 

 to be of considerable service. 



In Kiingl. .SVcns/ca Jeteusk. Akad. Haiidl. (Band 38, 

 No. 5) Dr. Hasselberg gives the results of an investigation 

 of the arc spectrum of tungsten. The region he has studied 

 extends from X 3477 to A 5892. This is a continuation of 

 the very useful series of publications by the same spectro- 

 scopist relating to the arc spectra of metals. The elimin- 

 ation of lines due to impurities was done by comparing the 

 tungsten spectrum with those of other metals taken under 

 similar conditions. In cases of close agreement between 

 tungsten lines and those of other metals a special study 

 was made of the lines with the object of establishing their 

 coincidence or non-coincidence, and in the former case the 

 probable origin of the common line was determined from 

 a consideration of the relative intensities in the two spectra. 

 In a comparison column are given the lines recorded by 

 Messrs. Exner and Haschek for the same element. The 

 strongest lines of this metal have been carefully compared 

 with the Fraunhoferic lines, and cases of coincidence and 

 probable identity noted. 



In our issue of July 28, 1904, we noted that Dr. H. M. 

 Reese, of Yerkes Observatory, had published the results 

 of some observations of " enhanced " lines in the Fe, Ti, 

 and Ni spectra, wherein he supposed that he had dis- 

 covered some enhanced lines not included in Sir Norman 

 Lockyer's lists. In the current number of the Aslro- 

 physical Journal Mr. F. E. Ba.xandall comments on Dr. 

 Reese's results, and shows that in a great number of cases 

 there is no evidence of enhancement in the Kensington 

 photographs. For e.xample, the comparative tables given 

 show for each element that of the seventy enhanced lines 

 discovered by Dr. Reese for iron, fifteen are actually 

 stronger in the arc than in the spark spectrum, twentv- 

 five are equally strong in both spectra, twenty do not occur 

 in either spectra on the Kensington grating spectrograms, 

 whilst six are so slightly " enhanced " as to leave it 

 doubtful as to whether they should be included in this 

 category. It seems probable that Dr. Reese was misled 

 by comparing two spectra of which the spark was generally 

 the stronger, for he especially remarked that only one lim 

 was stronger in his arc than in his spark spectrum. 



We have received from the Bureau of Mines of Ontario 

 im interesting memoir on the limestones of the province 

 by Mr. Willet G. Miller, the provincial geologist. It 

 covers 143 pages, and contains a number of excellent 

 photographs of the principal quarries. It shows clearly 

 where limestones of various chemical compositions are to 

 be found, and gives a concise account of the uses of lime- 

 stone and lime at the present time. Hitherto it has hardly 

 been realised that limestones form an important part of 

 the mineral resources of Ontario, and this well arranged 

 collection of analyses of limestone and of descriptions of 

 quarries cannot fail to prove of value to all interested in 

 the important industries that depend upon limestone as a 

 base. 



Messrs. Iliefe .and Sons, Ltd., have published a little 

 book on practical frame-mak'ng by Colonel W. L. Noverre ; 

 the price is i.s. net. 



