September 21, 1905] 



NA TURE 



517 



The Geological Survey continues its work of unravelling 

 the complex structure of the Highlands, and has lately 

 published a memoir on the region of the Upper Tay 

 and Tummel valleys (Sheet 55, Blair Atholl, Pitlochry, 

 and Aberfeldy), a region where the newest and the oldest 

 of geological formations alone are found. Most of the 

 memoir is occupied with the field relations and petro- 

 graphy of the crystalline schists and igneous intrusions, 

 but glacial and alluvial deposits are also described. Chief 

 among the illustrations are seven very fine photographic 

 plates. One of the most interesting is a view of the rocky 

 bed of the Garry, with the curious " water-pipe " struc- 

 ture, due to unsymmetrical folds in the Moine gneiss. An 

 example of the practical utility of the survey is given in 

 the fact that the basalt quarries near Aberfeldy, which 

 supply the best road-metal in the district, were started 

 at the suggestion of a survey officer. 



The Geological Survev of Ireland has recently been 

 transferred from the charge of the Board of Education 

 to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion, and in connection with the transference an interesting 

 article describing the survey's history and work has been 

 contributed by Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole to the depart- 

 ment's journal. In this article mention is made of the fact 

 that so long ago as 1837 a laboratory for the examination 

 of soils was established in Belfast, and a soil survey was 

 projected. Unfortunately, however, the authorities were 

 unsympathetic, and Ireland has not the credit of the first 

 soil survey. " It was left," writes Prof. Cole, "for 

 Germany, the United States, Japan and other countries 

 to develop agricultural geology as a branch of organised 

 research." Under the care of Sir Horace Plunket's 

 vigorous department, it is safe to predict that the survey 

 will now make amends to Irish agriculture for the neglect 

 of 1837. 



We have received the report of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey on the results of primary triangulation and 

 primary traverse for the fiscal year 1903-4, by Mr. S. S. 

 Gannett. Prefixed to this is a valuable chart showing the 

 " condition of astronomic location and primary control " 

 in the United States up to April 30, 1904. 



The new number (vol. xviii., part i.) of the Milleihingeit 

 ails den deutschcn Schutzgebieten contains a paper of 

 interest to surveyors on a method of measuring a base- 

 line, in sections of about 40 metres, by means of a 4-metre 

 subtense rod and theodolite, by Herr H. Bohler. The 

 reduction of the observations is dealt with in detail, and 

 Captain Kurtz contributes a separate note on a special 

 method. The general result points to an error of about 

 + 7-4 mm. per kilometre. 



We have received No. 8 of the " Current Papers " pre- 

 sented to the Royal Society of New South Wales. Nearly 

 two years have elapsed since the last of these papers was 

 communicated by Mr. H. C. Russell, F.R.S., and on 

 account of his illness the present number has been drawn 

 up by Mr. H. A. Lenehan, the acting Government astro- 

 nomer for the State. The Federal postal regulations 

 having done away with the system of " franks " for 

 Government documents, the number of observation records 

 received diminished by about 60 per cent, in 1904 as 

 compared with the average for the period 1899 to 1903. 

 Several records arc, however, of great interest, notably 

 that of a float cast adrift off the coast of California, and 

 picked up on the island of Boillon in the Java Sea, after 

 a journey of 11,350 miles. 



NO. 1873, VOL. 72] 



Standard sections for rolled iron were used first in 

 Germany in 1879 and in the United States in 1897. In 

 Great Britain the Engineering Standards Committee was 

 appointed in April, 1901, by the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the 

 Iron and Steel Institute, and the Institution of Naval 

 Architects to inquire into the advisability of standardising 

 rolled iron and steel sections for structural purposes ; and 

 although the time has not yet been sufficient for the 

 standard sections to be adopted as widely as they are in 

 Germany, the committee has done admirable work, and 

 with the support of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 

 important developments are being made in other fields. 

 The latest reports received, namely, No. 16, " British 

 Standard Specifications and Tables for Telegraph Material " 

 (London : Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1905, price los. 6d. 

 net), and No. 23, " British Standards for Trolley Groove 

 and Wire " (London : Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1905, 

 price IS. net.), are striking examples of the wisdom dis- 

 played by the committee in not going too far in the 

 direction of standardisation. In the case of telegraph 

 material it is not considered necessary to issue a specifi- 

 cation for copper wire. No attempt has been made to 

 standardise submarine or underground tables, nor tele- 

 graphic or telephonic apparatus ; and in the case of trolley 

 wire it has not been deemed advisable to go further in 

 the direction of standardisation than the recommendation 

 of certain figures for the minimum tensile breaking strength 

 for the gauges of wire in general use. No attempt is made 

 to standardise any particular design of trolley wheel, the 

 committee having confined itself to recommending 

 a groove of a certain section. In short, these standard 

 specifications are so reasonable that they cannot fail to 

 meet with general adoption, as economy in production is 

 ensured without any revolutionary change or any restraint 

 on originality of design. 



At the last meeting of the Faraday Society (held on 

 July 3) a paper was presented by Prof. E. Wilson upon 

 "Alternate Current Electrolysis." The author has carried 

 out a long series of experiments with alternating currents, 

 using various metals as electrodes, and various metal salt 

 solutions as electrolytes. The loss or gain in weight of 

 the electrodes during the experiments was recorded, and 

 accurate measurements of the potential difference and of 

 the current intensity were also made. The exact potential 

 difference between the electrodes was obtained by use of 

 an exploring electrode placed between the plates and a 

 quadrant electrometer. The following metals were experi- 

 mented with : — lead, zinc, iron, copper, tin, and aluminium. 

 The frequency of the alternating period, the density and 

 character of the electrolyte, and the current intensity were 

 varied during the experiments with each metal. The 

 results obtained are gathered together in tabular form in 

 the original paper, and these show that the loss of weight 

 was greatest in the case of lead in a dilute sulphuric acid 

 solution, and least in the case of copper. The discussion 

 on this paper has' been adjourned until the meetings of 

 the society are resumed in November next. 



The Cambridge University Press has just published an 

 index to the volume containing Lord Kelvin's " Baltimore 

 Lectures on Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of 

 Light," reviewed in Nature of May 5, 1904. 



A fourteenth edition of " Mineralogy," by the late Mr. 

 Frank Rutley, has been published by Messrs. Thomas 

 Murby and Co. The book has been revised and corrected, 

 and a brief notice of the radio-active elements, contributed 

 by Mr. Ernest H. Adye, has been added. 



