598 



NA TURE 



[August 27, 1908 



The Oklahoma constitution contains a provision malcing 

 it obligatory upon tlie legislature to establish a geological 

 survey. The first State legislature passed a law placing 

 the survey under the control of a commission consisting 

 of the governor, the State superintendent of public instruc- 

 tion, and the president of the State University. We learn 

 from Science that the sum of 3000I. was voted for the 

 work, and that the commission has now elected Dr. Charles 

 N. Gould, head of the department of geology in the State 

 University of Oklahoma, to be director of the survey. 

 Dr. Gould has been instructed to report on the building 

 stone, road material, and oil and gas of the State. 



Dr. E. F. Armstrong, Recorder of Section B (Chem- 

 istry) of the British Association, informs us that the follow- 

 ing papers have been promised in addition to those already 

 announced (July 30, p. 299) : — the liquefaction of helium. 

 Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes ; anticipations and experiments 

 on the liquefaction of helium. Sir James Dewar, F.R.S. ; 

 note on a volatile compound of cobalt with carbon 

 monoxide. Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., and others. We are 

 also informed that additional papers to be read in Section G 

 (Engineering) are : — a clock-driving mechanism for equa- 

 torial telescopes. Sir Howard Grubb, F.R.S. ; experiments 

 on rotating discs, J. Brown, F.R.S., and M. F. Fitzgerald; 

 strength of solid round-ended columns, W. E. Lilly ; the 

 study of breakages, W. Rosenhain. 



As announced already, the autumn meeting of the Iron 

 and Steel Institute will be held at Middlesbrough on 

 September 28 to October 2 under the presidency of Sir 

 Hugh Bell, Bart. The following are among the subjects 

 of papers offered for reading : — scientific control of fuel 

 supply, Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S. ; metallurgy at 

 the Franco-British Exhibition, H. Bauerman ; gas-producer 

 practice. Prof. W. A. Bone, F.R.S., and Dr. R. V. 

 Wheeler ; the constitution of carbon steels. Prof. E. D. 

 Campbell ; the freezing point of iron. Prof. H. C. H. 

 Carpenter; the production of finished iron sheets and tubes 

 in one operation, S. O. Cowper-Coles ; the chemical control 

 of the basic open-hearth process, A. Harrison and Dr. 

 R. V. Wheeler ; the influence of silicon on the physical 

 and chemical properties of pig iron, A. Jouve ; analysis 

 and synthesis in the foundry, J. E. Stead, F.R.S., and T. 

 Westgarth. 



According to a Times correspondent, Dr. Lee De 

 Forest e.xpects that within two years Paris and New York 

 will be in direct wireless telephonic communication. An 

 apparatus which may ultimately transmit and receive 

 messages to and from the Eiffel Tower is to be installed 

 upon the 700-feet tower of the Metropolitan Life Insurance 

 Company of New York. It is reported that Dr. De Forest 

 estimates the radius of his apparatus, when installed at 

 an adequate height, to be about 1000 miles, but he is now 

 working at certain improvements which he thinks will 

 make possible Transatlantic communication. The installa- 

 tion on the Metropolitan tower will probably be ready by 

 the end of the year, and the first object will be to send 

 bulletins to ships equipped with tlie radio-telephonic and 

 telegraphic apparatus. Dr. De Forest says that the length 

 of the wire which he means to install will admit of the 

 employment of a wave of a length long enough to be 

 inaudible by any ordinary apparatus unless specially tuned 

 to catch it. It is also reported by the Times that com- 

 munication has been established by wireless telephony 

 between the Eiffel Tower and the Pointe Duraz, on the 

 coast of Brittany, south of Brest, a distance of more than 

 500 kilometres. The transmitter used at the Eiffel Tower 

 consists of a Poulsen singing arc producing more than a 



NO. 2026, VOL. 78] 



million waves a second. The receiving apparatus includes 

 the usual aerial wire and Captain Ferr(5e.'s electrolytic 

 detector. 



In the National Geographic Magazine for August, Mr. 

 L. G. Blackman, principal of Alluolani College, Honolulu, 

 describes an ambitious scheme for the organisation of the 

 Pacific Scientific Institution in that island, which has for 

 its object the investigation of the Pacific Ocean, " the most 

 explored and least known region of the globe." It is pro- 

 posed to dispatch from this centre parties of trained ex- 

 plorers in a specially equipped vessel to the various island 

 groups. The programme includes the collection of anthro- 

 pological data ; the languages, religions, laws, mvthologies, 

 legends, and genealogies will be recorded ; technology, arts, 

 and medicine will be studied ; series of mammals, birds, 

 reptiles, and botanical specimens will be collected ; the 

 coral reefs, marine fauna and flora, ocean currents, 

 geology, and meteorology will be investigated. The survey,! 

 it is estimated, will occupy fifteen years, at the end of 

 which reports will be issued, and progress bulletins will be 

 published periodically. The scheme also provides for the 

 establishment of a central museum, zoological garden, and 

 marine biological station. Mr. Blackman, in conclusion, 

 states that " the manner in which the institution has been 

 incorporated and the trustees under whose administration 

 it has been placed assure us that the long-delayed work 

 of Pacific exploration will shortly be commenced." The 

 increasing interest of America in the future of the Pacific 

 will doubtless encourage her to detail for this work the 

 many trained explorers at her disposal. The results of 

 this important scientific survey will be awaited with 

 interest. 



A RECENT issue of Science contains particulars of the 

 appropriations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 

 the ensuing year. The grand total of grants amounts to 

 3,132,021!., which is an apparent increase over the previous 

 year of 480,163!., or about 15 per cent. A large part of 

 this increase, however, is only nominal, since for the 

 present year more than 2oo,oooZ., derived from receipts 

 from forest reserves, is .available. The net increase is dis- 

 tributed through all sections of the department, and notably 

 larger sums are available for the management of the 

 national forests, the pure food and drug inspection, the 

 campaign against the gipsy moth and cattle tick, and for 

 additional buildings and equipment on the forest reserves 

 and for the Weather Bureau. Provision is made for new 

 investigations, and among these may be mentioned the 

 inauguration of evaporation investigations and of studies 

 of the prevalence and extent of tuberculosis among da'ry 

 cattle, the inspection of foods intended for export under 

 certain conditions, and the manufacture of denatured 

 alcohol in small amounts under farm conditions. Among 

 the appropriations, we notice 14,000!. for purchasing, 

 fencing, &c., some 12,800 acres of the Flathead Indian 

 Reservation in Montana for a permanent national bison 

 range, for a herd of bison to be presented by the .American 

 Bison Society. The Weather Bureau is to receive 332,452!., 

 an increase of 49,744!. Of this amount, 12,000!. is for 

 the erection of a main observatory building at Mount 

 Weather, Va., to replace that destroyed by fire on October 

 23, 1907. The Bureau of Animal Industry is to benefit by 

 216,172!., an increase over last year of 9660!. The 

 emergency appropriation for the eradication of the cattle 

 tick in the south is increased from 30,000!. to 50,000!. 

 The Bureau of Plant Industry receives an apparent net 

 increase of 57,900!., and the Bureau of Chemistry an 

 increase of 25,760!., chiefly for additional expenses incident 

 on the enforcement of the National Food and Drug Act. 



