852 



NA TURE 



[December 23, 1922 



Current Topics and Events. 



Broadcasting has now been carried on for some 

 time at the Trafiord Park works of the Metropolitan- 

 Vickers Electrical Co., Ltd., on behalf of the British 

 Broadcasting Company, and on December 15, repre- 

 sentatives of the Press were invited to inspect the 

 equipment of the station and to listen to a short, 

 typical broadcasting programme. The present ar- 

 rangements are of a somewhat temporary nature, 

 made with the view of gaining experience, and it 

 is expected in course of time to improve both the 

 technique of transmission and reception, and the 

 quality of the programmes. In a short address, Mr- 

 A. P. M. Fleming expressed his view that wireless 

 telephony has an important future as an educational 

 and social feature of daily life, and he hoped that the 

 public would not take the present transmissions as 

 the best the Broadcasting Company expected to be 

 able to give them. Research is being carried on 

 actively to improve the faithfulness of reproduction 

 of music and speech. It has been found necessary 

 to select carefully the kind of voice which is best 

 suited to the vagaries of the microphone, and it was 

 foreshadowed that a special wireless studio technique 

 will have to be developed, for which special training 

 of the performers will be required. There is no doubt 

 that the transmission of some items leaves much to 

 be desired, but if a microphone or a substitute for it 

 could be developed, having no prejudice for any 

 particular sound, a considerable improvement would 

 be effected. The simplest sounds, such as in solo 

 pieces, give the best results, and it would seem that 

 when a number of voices or instruments are operating 

 simultaneously, the microphone is not able to deal 

 faithfully with the various ^sounds. 



The annual exhibition of scientific apparatus organ- 

 ised by the Physical Society of London and the 

 Optical Society will be held on Wednesday and 

 Thursday, January 3 and 4, from 3 to 6 p.m. and 

 from 7 to 10 p.m., at the Imperial College of Science, 

 South Kensington. Mr. W. Gamble will lecture on 

 " Reproduction of Colour by Photographic Processes " 

 at 4 p.m. on January 3 and at 8 p.m. on January 4 ; 

 Prof. E. G. Coker will lecture on " Recent Photo- 

 Elastic Researches on Engineering Problems" at 

 8 p.m. on January 3 and at 4 p.m. on January 4. All 

 the lectures will be illustrated by experiments. More 

 than fifty firms are exhibiting apparatus and a number 

 of experimental demonstrations have been arranged. 

 Invitations to attend the exhibition have been given 

 to the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the In- 

 stitution of Mechanical Engineers, the Chemical 

 Society, the Faraday Society, the Wireless Society of 

 London, and the Rontgen Society. Members of these 

 societies should apply to the secretary of the society 

 to which they belong for admission tickets. Others 

 interested should apply direct to Mr. F. E. Smith, 

 hon. secretary of the Physical Society, Admiralty 

 Research Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex. 



A journey, of more than seven thousand miles 

 from Peking to India was completed early in December 

 when General Sir George Pereira arrived at Calcutta. 



NO. 2773, VOL. 1 IO] 



The Times gives some details of his route. Leaving 

 Peking nearly two years ago, Sir G. Pereira went 

 by rail to Taiyuen. From there he made for Hoyang, 

 crossing the Hoang-ho, and reached Sianfu, the 

 ancient Chinese capital in the Wei valley. The 

 route was thence across the Tsinling mountains 

 to Chengtu, in the Szechwan basin, and up the valley 

 of the Min into the Kansu province. Passing 

 through Siningfu and Tenkar, Sir G. Pereira entered 

 Tibet on a little known route. The track lay at 

 an altitude of about 12,000 ft. through an arid 

 country in which supplies were scanty and the 

 weather conditions somewhat trying. The Yangtse 

 was crossed at Giergundo" and eventually Lhasa was 

 reached in October. From Lhasa to Darjeeling a 

 fairly well known route was followed. One of the 

 most interesting facts mentioned in the Times 

 article relates to the so-called Amnemachin range 

 in the bend of the Hoang river in north-eastern 

 Tibet. This is a solitary snow-capped mountain 

 and not a range. Its height has not been measured, 

 but Sir G. Pereira suggests that it may prove to 

 be the highest mountain in the world. About half 

 the entire journey was done on foot, and even in 

 the most brigand - infested regions the travellers 

 were never attacked. 



The Munro lectures in anthropology and pre- 

 historic archaeology for 1922 in the LTniversity of 

 Edinburgh have been delivered in November and 

 December by Prof. R. A. S. Macalister, of University 

 College, Dublin, on the subject of " Rock Carvings 

 and Inscribed Symbols of the Neolithic and Bronze 

 Ages." Starting with certain Spanish stones present- 

 ing linear devices that could be proved to be degener- 

 ate copies of the human figure and other concrete 

 objects, Prof. Macalister developed the thesis that an 

 explanation of this kind would account for the enig- 

 matical devices, such as concentric rings, found so 

 often in Great Britain and Ireland on exposed rock 

 faces, standing stones, and slabs built into dolmens 

 and chambered cairns. British monuments were 

 brought into relation with similar objects in wider 

 archaeological areas ; by the extended use of the 

 comparative method, much light has been thrown on 

 symbols and devices the meanings of which have been 

 the subject of much vague conjecture. The female 

 figure carved in some French neolithic tomb chambers 

 is a goddess of death, and representations of her, 

 which might degenerate till only two eyes or even a 

 single one remained, can be recognised on stones 

 forming part of funereal structures in our own islands. 

 Such structures, as Irish folk-lore bears witness, were 

 visited for superstitious purposes by the living, and 

 the cup marks common on the stones forming them 

 were intended for real or simulated libations offered 

 to the spirits of the place. Such cup marks on 

 exposed rock faces in the open might be explained 

 on the hypothesis that religious sanctuaries of 

 perishable materials had once existed in their vicinity. 

 The same system of interpretation was applied to 

 other marks and devices of a similar kind. 



