Aprit 18, 1912] 
NATURE 
171 
isolated by closing the watertight doors, the beneficent 
use of wireless telegraphy in summoning assistance 
to a vessel in distress, and the means of detecting the 
presence of icebergs at a distance. The Titanic, w hich 
was making her maiden voyage from Southampton 
to New York, was the largest vessel in the world, 
miles by day and treble this distance by night. The 
bing through the ether and was detected by 
wireless telegraphy operators on several vessels. The 
on essage was: “Have struck an iceberg 41°46 north, 
50°14 west. Are badly damaged. Rush aid.” This 
time). Several vessels 
the disaster, but 
Monday, Greenwich 
hastened to the place of 
“nearest ship appears to have been 170 miles 
distant from the Titanic when the message of 
| distress was received, and none of them was 
able to reach her before she foundered at 
2.20 a.m. (New York time) on Monday morning—four 
pathia reached the Titanic’s position at daybreak, 
“and found boats and wreckage only. In the boats 
were 868 survivors of the crew and passengers—mostly 
women and children—the remainder of the human 
f freight of 2200 souls having found a grave with the 
"vessel in the Atlantic. 
No more terrible disaster at sea than this has 
ever occurred; and that a vessel which was said 
_ to have been designed with all the precautions which 
engineering science can provide should meet with 
such a calamity on her first voyage is almost un- 
believable. It was claimed that the vessel was prac- 
tically unsinkable, yet she was only able to keep 
afloat a few hours after crushing against the iceberg. 
The existence of immense fields of ice and great ice- 
 bergs, the visible parts of which are only about one- 
eighth the mass of the portions submerged, consti- 
tutes a danger in the North Atlantic against which 
“no satisfactory safeguard has yet been devised. A 
| vessel which represented the best work of science 
applied to marine engineering has disappeared with its 
Geils of human lives beneath the waters of the 
Atlantic as the result of a catastrophe which could 
only have been avoided by following a course south 
of the danger zone caused by ice. Until science has 
suggested a practical means of detecting masses of 
floating ice at a distance sufficiently great to enable 
“vessels to avoid them, and thus prevent calamities such 
a that which the nation now mourns, it is to be 
hoped that the steamship track across the Atlantic 
will be more southerly than that hitherto recognised. 
Tue Memorandum on Naval and Military Aviation 
ssued on April 12 provides for seven aéroplane 
“squadrons of twelve machines each, one airship and 
kite squadron of two airships and two flights of kites, 
_ and one line of communication flying corps workshops 
—the total number of flyers required being 182 officers 
and 182 non-commissioned officers. It sounds the 
. -knell of the airship, in that it specifically states 
hat the only advantage that this type of aircraft 
NO. 2216, VoL. 89] 
and the most juxuriously equipped. She was installed 
with Marconi wireless telegraphy instruments having | 
sphere of influence with a radius of about 500 | 
first news was the appeal for help which went throb- | 
the | 
the | 
hours after the collision with the iceberg. The Car- | 
possesses over that of heavier-than-air lies in its 
ability to receive and transmit wireless messages 
over a large area. “It is hoped, however,’ says the 
memorandum, ‘‘that means will be found for over- 
coming difficulties in this respect, and experiments in 
this direction are now being conducted which give 
prospects of success.” The other scientific aspect of 
this scheme is the desire to subsidise flying grounds 
or aérodromes, where safe landing places are avail- 
able, all over the kingdom in order that cross-country 
flying—an essential for practice in military work—may 
be carried out in comfortable circumstances. This 
practically amounts to mapping out the whole country 
into air-ways, and from the meteorological point of 
view is of the greatest importance. From a settled 
system of cross-country flying, most valuable data 
will be obtained as to general wind direction and to 
the existence of ‘‘remous,’”’ or eddies, and what are 
now termed ‘tholes in the air.’’ No coordinated in- 
formation: is at present available as to where such 
aérial phenomena may be expected or as to their actual 
cause. The whole science in this respect -is lament- 
ably deficient, and the hiati may be filled up by the 
system of cross-country flying proposed. It is to be 
hoped that ample funds will be allotted to this new 
and important branch of both services, not only for 
the defences of the country but also on account of 
increased knowledge of meteorology. 
WE regret to learn of the death of Mr. A. Lawrence 
Rotch, director of the Blue Hill Meteorological 
Observatory, Mass., U.S.A. ; 
Tue sixth annual meeting of the British Science 
Guild will be held at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 17, at 
the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Victoria Em- 
bankment, W.C. The dinner will be held on the 
evening of the same day at Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly. 
A REuTER message from Mobile, Alabama, U.S.A., 
states that the captain of a steamer which arrived 
there on April 10 reports the destruction of thousands 
of people and a number of Indian villages by an 
eruption of Chiriqui Peak, near Bocas del Toro, 
Panama, on April 5 
A course of four lectures on some mathematical 
subjects will be delivered at the University of London, 
South Kensington, on May 3, 4, 10, and 11, by Prof. 
Henri Poincaré, professor of mathematical astronomy 
in the University of Paris. Two of the lectures will 
deal with the philosophical aspects of mathematics, 
one with a subject in pure mathematics, and one 
with a subject in applied mathematics. Further in- 
formation and tickets of admission may be obtained 
on application to the Academic Registrar, University 
of London, South Kensington, S.W. 
Tue Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has been 
informed that the Lords Commissioners of his 
Majesty’s Treasury, on the recommendation of the 
Development Commissioners, have sanctioned the 
payment from the Development Fund of a sum of 
2,500l. per annum for three years to be distributed 
by the Board as grants to certain institutions in 
England and Wales to enable them to supply tech- 
