JUNE 6, 1912] 
NATURE 
Sot 
and an open competition for designs was organised. 
As a result, Messrs. Smith and Brewer, of Gray’s 
Inn, were successful, and their design was subjected 
to careful criticism with the aid of such experts as 
the late Dr. A. B. Meyer, of Dresden, and Dr. F. A. 
Bather. In September of last year the work of 
excavation was begun on the site, and the walls are 
now up to the level of the ground. It is expected 
that the ceremony will be attended by representatives 
of the more important museums in the northern 
hemisphere, including delegates from the American 
Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan 
Museum of New York. The Treasury has promised 
to contribute half the cost of the building condition- 
ally on the other half being raised by the council. 
It is confidently hoped that the wealthy men of the 
Principality will rise to the occasion. 
Tue death of Mr. Wilbur Wright from typhoid on 
May 30, at the early age of forty-five, will be deplored 
by all who are interested in the science or art of 
aviation. 
shared the distinction of being the first to make 
successful flights with a motor-propelled aéroplane. 
This feat was accomplished in 1903, when a distance 
of 260 yards was covered by dynamic flight. Two 
years later the brothers Wright had improved their 
machine to such an extent that they were able to 
make a flight at Dayton, Ohio, of 24 miles at a 
speed of 38 miles an hour. Since then the progress 
of aviation with machines of various types has been 
very remarkable, and a flight of 462 miles has been 
made without alighting in about eleven hours. The 
Wrights commenced their experiments about the year 
1900 with gliders, the first machine being a biplane 
with horizontal rudder in front, and having about 
172 square feet of surface. Their longest glide was 
622 ft., in October, 1902, at Kitty Hawk, North 
’ Carolina. 
the knowledge and confidence required for the 
successful construction and manipulation of a power- 
driven machine. Though without technical training, 
Mr. Wilbur Wright and his brother attacked the 
problem of flight in a scientific manner, and mastered 
the few works available upon the subject before con- 
structing a machine of their own. The only exact 
information they could find as to the resistance of the 
air to machines driven at different velocities was that 
obtained by Prof. S. P. Langley, secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution. Several years before the 
Wrights commenced their experiments Langley had 
successfully flown his model power-driven biplane for 
a distance of half a mile, which was traversed in 
one and a half minutes. It is pleasant to remember 
that when the 
Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1910, they acknow- 
ledged that Langley’s belief in the possibility of 
human flight was ‘one of the influences that led us 
to undertake the preliminary investigations that pre- 
ceded our active work.” 
Pror. E. RurHerrorD, F.R.S., has been elected a 
corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of 
Sciences in Vienna. 
NO. 2223, VOL. 89] 
Langley medal was presented to | 
With his brother, Mr. Orville Wright, he | 
THE annual meeting of the Société helvétique des 
Sciences naturelles will this year be held at Altdorf 
on September 9-10. 
We regret that news has just reached us of the 
death of Mr. J. Bernard Allen at Perth, Western 
Australia, on March 13. Mr. Allen was lecturer in 
mathematics and physics at the Technical School in 
that city, and his death occurred very shortly after his 
return from a holiday spent in England and 
Germany. 
Tue Milan correspondent of The Daily Chronicle 
reports that Prof. Lanfranchi, of the University of 
Parma, who has been engaged for several years in 
the study of sleeping sickness, has been infected by 
the disease in a severe form, and has been talxen to 
the Pasteur Institute in Paris for treatment. 
Tue well-known phenomenon of the green flash at 
sunset was observed at Morecambe on May 24 by Mr. 
J. W. Scholes, of Grimscar, Huddersfield. About one 
or two seconds after the sun had set, Mr. Scholes 
noticed some ‘‘blue-beads”’ above the point where 
the rim had been; these remained visible for two or 
three seconds, and the green flash was seen when 
they disappeared. 
Mr. James Means, writing from Boston, U.S.A., 
urges that methods of visual aérial signalling should 
not be neglected, as, in the event of war, the enemy 
may deliberately disturb or prevent communication 
by wireless telegraphy. For aérial scouting and 
other purposes Mr. Means suggests that puff- 
signalling is a simple and trustworthy method. ‘ By 
this method colouring matter is intermittently in- 
jected into the exhaust pipe of the flying-machine 
motor. From the pipe this is ejected in large and 
small puffs resembling very black smoke, and these 
| correspond to the dashes and dots of the Morse tele- 
The experience gained with gliders gave | 
graphic code.” 
Ar the anniversary meeting of the Linnean Society 
on May 24 the following officers were elected :— 
President, Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S.; treasurer, 
Mr. Horace W. Monckton; secretaries, Dr. B. 
Daydon Jackson, Dr. Otto Stapf, F.R.S., and Prof. 
G. C. Bourne, F.R.S. Dr. D. H. Scott, the retiring 
president, delivered his address, devoting the greater 
part of it to a review of the paleobotanical work of 
the late Sir Joseph Hooker. The president then 
addressed Captain C. F. U. Meek, and handed to 
him the bronze medal of the Crisp award for micro- 
scopical science, and a cheque for the balance of the 
fund, this being the first presentation from the fund 
founded in 1910 by a donation from Sir Frank Crisp. 
The president handed to Prof. E. B. Poulton the 
Linnean medal for transmission to Dr. R. C. L. 
Perkins, who is abroad. 
Tue problem of improving the illumination of the 
debating chamber of the House of Commons appears 
to have been taken in hand, and, according to a 
| report from the Office of Works, dated May 24, it 
| is proposed to substitute incandescent electric lighting 
| for the present gas lighting. 
Members on the back 
| benches have been unable to read, the lighting having 
