478 



NA rURE 



[Septeajber 17, 1908 



ol the apparatus of Otto von Guericke, Galileo and 

 Volta. Passing: on to the technological group, one 

 notices the original lithographic press invented by 

 Sencfelder in 1797, and reproductions of Hargreaves's 



museum was that it is a consultative library of 

 objects. The German Museum is a consultative 

 library for the engineer and the man of science, and 

 it is something more. It is an effective agency for 



the enlightenment and education 



of the masses. 



Bennett H. Brough. 



Fig. 2. — Model of electric winding plant. 



spinning jenny and of the first Jacquard loom. The 

 chemical section is of special interest. There are four 

 completely equipped laboratories of different epochs— 

 an alchemist's laboratory (Fig. 3), with portraits of 

 Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, Agricola, Van Hcl- 

 mont and other investigators of the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries; an eighteenth-century labora- 

 torv ; Liebig's laboratory as installed at Giessen in 

 1839; and, lastly, a modern laboratory illustrating the 

 latest developments of chemical 

 apparatus. 



The Court of Honour contains 

 portraits in oils of Josef von Fraun- 

 hofer (1787-1826), K. F. Gauss 

 (1777-1855), G. W. Leibniz (1646- 

 1716), Otto von Guericke (1602-86), 

 and Justus von Liebig (1S03-75); 

 and busts of Werner von Siemens 

 (1816-92), .Alfred Krupp (1812-87), 

 Robert Mayer (1814-78), Hermann 

 von Helmholtz (1821-94), Robert 

 Bunsen (181 1-99'), and Henne Gens- 

 fleisch, known as Gutenberg (died 

 1468). There is also a collection of 

 medals of scientific interest, includ- 

 ing the Bessemer Gold Medal of the 

 Iron and Steel Institute, and other 

 medals awarded by British societies. 

 Framed on the walls is a collection 

 of historical documents, letters of 

 Ampere, Berzelius, Faraday, Ohm 

 and others. There is also a volume 

 recording in chronological order the 

 gifts received by the museum from 

 all parts of the world. 



The museum is keenly appre- 

 ciated. The number of visitors 

 averages 3000 on .Sundays and 1000 

 The detailed information given on 

 scribing the objects has been compiled with scru- 

 pulous care, and adds greatly to the educational 

 value of the collections. Huxley's definition of a 

 NO. 2029, VOL. 78] 



THE NORTH-WESr 

 PASSAGE.' 



STRICTLY speaking, the north- 

 west passage was accom- 

 plished in 1847, when Franklir* 

 and his men, retreating from theii 

 .ibandoned ships to the north-west 

 of King William Land, passed 

 through Simpson Strait to th« 

 mouth of the Great Fish River , 

 and so crossed the tracks of Dease 

 and Simpson, who in 1839 had 

 reached Castor and Pollu.x Bay 

 from the west. The existence cl 

 channels at least continuous, and 

 possibly navigable, from east to 

 west was thus proved. Later, in 

 1853, McClure and his men, aban- 

 doning the Ini'esti_i;ator in .Mercy 

 Bay, Banks Land, which point she 

 had reached from the Pacific, re- 

 treated to the ships of Belcher's 

 squadron, then wintering on the 

 south-east of Melville Island, and ultimately reached 

 home. This was the first party to complete 

 the traverse of the American Arctic regions from 

 ocean to ocean. Technically, McClure did the north- 

 west passage, but he proved at the same time 

 that his route was quite impracticable. The 

 Enterprise under Collinson, the Investi^^ator's com- 

 panion ship, did more towards the discovery of 

 the passage by reaching Cambridge Bay from the 



Fig. 3 — An alchemist's laboratory of the sixteenth century. 



on week-days, 

 the labels de- 



west. Consequently, the only part untraversed by a 

 ship was from the north of King William Land to 



1 " The North-West Passage." Being a Record of a Voyage of E.vplora- 

 lion of the .Ship Cjoa, iQo.^-7. By Roald Amundsen ; with a Supplement 

 hy Lieut. Hansen. 2 vols. Pp. xiii.f335 and pp. ix + 397 ; illustrated. 

 (London ; A. Constable and Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price 315. 6</. net. 



