April 22, 1909J 



NA TURE 



:27 



villager?." He goes on to illustrate the connection of these 

 remains with the migratory movement through Spain 

 which civilised Europe in the early prehistoric period, 

 France forming the chief highway from north to south. 

 The same tomb-types characteristic of pre-Gallic France 

 recur in the British Islands in the case of New Grange, 

 and the Mediterranean types exhibit special analogies with 

 the horned cairns of Caithness. Excavations in Sardinia 

 and Malta are thus likely to throw much light on the 

 ethnology and prehistoric past of western Europe, and it 

 may be hoped that this appeal will result in liberal aid 

 to a most important investigation, which will continue in 

 the competent hands of Dr. Mackenzie. 



The U.S. Monthly Weather Review for November, 1908, 

 contains a suggestion, by Prof. A. G. McAdie, for the re- 

 form of meteorological methods, by the gradual adoption of 

 metric and centigrade measures in the records and work of 

 the Weather Bureau. For atmospheric pressure a distinctly 

 new proposition is advanced ; the author thinks that if 

 pressure changes were charted in percentages of a standard 

 atmosphere, the result would be more satisfactory to both 

 meteorologists and the public. " Instead of 29-92 inches 

 or 760 mm. we should have the value 1000, meaning 

 thereby the pressure of the atmosphere at sea-level reduced 

 to standard temperature and gravity. Then on any given 

 weather map, in place of 303 inches we should have 1012. 

 . . . The great advantage of this is that pressure gradients 

 can be read at a glance, and the average man can readily 

 understand the significance of pressure variation." Prof. 

 McAdie considers this method as much superior to the 

 metric system as that is to the one now in use. The 

 editor of the Monthly Weather Review points out that the 

 publication of the paper does not imply the approval of the 

 chief or other officials of the Weather Bureau, but he 

 invites discussion thereon. 



The Weather Bureau of the Philippine Islands has pub- 

 lished part i. of its annual report for igo6 ; this volume 

 occupies 153 quarto pages, and contains the hourly 

 meteorological observations made during the year at the 

 central observatory at Manila. Each of the tables shows 

 also the hourly, daily, and monthly means ; the extreme 

 daily values of the various elements, together with the 

 times of their occurrence, are given in a separate table. 

 All the observations are expressed in the metric system, 

 according to the practice adopted at the time of the re- 

 organisation of the Weather Bureau by the United States 

 Government. This detailed publication of observations and 

 means, which began with 1S85, is of great value for the 

 purpose of scientific inquiry, and complies with an inter- 

 national understanding that each country should publish 

 such data for one or more of its principal stations. From 

 the general summary we note that the normal annual 

 duration of sunshine (1S90-1906) is 2266 hours ; rainfall 

 (1865-1906), approximately 76 inches, on 139 days; shade 

 temperature (1880-1906), 8o°-4 F. A statement printed in 

 the English edition of the report of the International 

 Meteorological Committee (Paris, 1907) gives the absolute 

 extremes of temperature (1885-1907) as 100° F. and 59° F. 

 The observations at outlying stations of this important 

 organisation form separate parts of the annual report. 



Drawings and photographs of a 40-feet gas-driven 

 launch are given in the Engineer for April 9. This launch 

 has been built for cruising purposes by Maclaren Bros., of 

 Dumbarton, and is fitted with a 30 horse-power four- 

 cylinder Crossley gas engine and suction gas-producers 

 using anthracite. The gas is cleansed and cooled in a 

 wet scrubber charged with coke ; the ascending gas meets 



NO. 2060, VOL. So] 



a spray of sea-water supplied at the top, and then passes 

 downwards through a dry scrubber also charged with 

 colce. The maximum speed of the engine is about 800 

 revolutions per minute, and with a compression of 120 lb. 

 per square inch combustion is so complete that there is 

 an entire absence of smoke and smell both in the engine- 

 room and at tlie funnel. The engine when cold is started 

 on petrol, and runs with this fuel until the producer has 

 settled down to supply the necessary quality of gas. At 

 the trial runs of the launch, under unfavourable weather 

 conditions, a speed of 9 knots was attained, the cost of 

 running being about aSd. per hour. 



Attention is directed in a leading article in Engineering 

 for .^pril 9 to the extent and special character of the plant: 

 necessarv in warship construction, and to the fact that 

 much of this plant is kept idle during prolonged periods 

 owing to the method of the Admiralty in placing orders. 

 Protective decks, armour, guns, and gun mountings re- 

 quire special plant involving very heavy capital charges 

 without any possibility of return except in naval work. At 

 present, armour for ten or twelve battleships per annum 

 can be produced in this country, but in the past three 

 years armour for eight ships only has been ordered. The 

 time required from casting the ingot until completion of 

 the plate is seventy-seven days, and, of this time, thirty- 

 five days' work may be done before any dimension other 

 than the thickness has been specified. It is therefore 

 urged that armour could be ordered early in the pre- 

 liminary design of a ship. A 12-inch gun takes ten 

 months to construct, and eighteen months are required for 

 the completion of the latest type of barbette mounting 

 for two 12-inch guns. The Dreadnought gun mountings 

 were ordered six months before the ship, and took nine 

 months longer to construct than the ship itself. This plan 

 of ordering gun mountings long before the detailed design 

 of the ship is completed might usefully have been adopted 

 with the ships at present contemplated. Woolwich is not 

 adapted for modern gun mountings, and, in the absence 

 of some guarantee of steady work, it is unreasonable to 

 expect private firms to increase their plant to meet a 

 rush. W'e have sufficient armour and ordnance plant at 

 present to meet all needs if they are utilised with judg- 

 ment. 



Both the Electrician and the Electrical Review in their 

 issues of April 9 direct attention to two new systems of 

 electric wiring which seem destined to do much in the 

 near future to popularise the electric light amongst those 

 to whom the cost of an installation has hitherto been an 

 obstacle. The new systems are the " Stannos " and the 

 " Kuhlos," and both use a conductor encased in a thin 

 brass or copper tube about a fifth of an inch in diameter. 

 The tube can readily be bent by hand, and is attached 

 to the wall by means of a small clip nailed to the wall and 

 bent over the tube. The cost of wiring is thereby greatly 

 reduced, and the wires are of so small a diameter as to be 

 inconspicuous. 



In the Physikalische Zcitschrift for April 1 Dr. O. 

 Kriiger describes an addition he has made to the .'\twood 

 machine in order to show experimentally that the time of 

 swing of a pendulum depends on the acceleration of its 

 point of support. One of the falling weights of the 

 machine carries the pendulum, and is guided in its fall 

 by two vertical wires, so that the swing of the pendulum 

 will not drag it out of its path. The bob of the pendulum 

 carries a fine brush kept inked by means of a tube in the 

 bob, and this brush writes on a vertical strip of paper 

 during its fall. By regulating the two falling weights 



