October 8, 1908] 



NATURE 



575 



France. — M. Lippniann, member of Iht: Institute and 

 professor at the Sorbonne. 



Gcnnatiy.^Dr. Warburg, president of tlie Imperial 

 IMly^i^;o-technical Institute ; Dr. Jaeger, member of tlie 

 Imperial Pliysico-tectinical Institute; Dr. Lindecl-c, member 

 of the Imperial Physico-teclinical Institute. 



Great Britain. — I'fie Riglit Hon. Lord Rayleigh, presi- 

 dent of the Royal Society ; Prof. J. J. Thomson, Cam- 

 bridge; Sir John Gavey, C.B. ; Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 

 director of the National Physical Laboratory ; Major 

 \V. A. J. O'Meara, C.M.G., Engineer-in-Chief, General 

 Post Office; Mr. A. P. Trotter, Electrical .Adviser to the 

 Board of Trade. 



Guatemala. — Dr. Francisco de Arce, diplomatic repre- 

 ~ ntative, London and Paris. 



Italy. — Prof. Antonio Roiti, of Florence. 



Japan. — Mr. Osuke .\sano, doctor of engineering, 

 official expert of the Department of Communication, 

 Tokyo ; Mr. Shigeru Kondo, official expert of the Depart- 

 ment of Communication, Tokyo. 



Me.Ktco. — Don .Alfonso Castello ; Don Jose Maria Perez. 



Netherlands. — Dr. H. Haga, professor at the University 

 of Groningen. 



Paragtiay. — M. Maximo Croskey. 



Spain. — Don Jose Maria Madariaga, professor of elec- 

 tricity and physics at the School of Mines, Madrid. 



Switzerland. — Dr. F. Weber, professor at the .Swiss Poly- 

 technic School at Ziirich ; Dr. Pierre Chappuis, of Bale ; 

 Dr. J. Laudry, professor of electricity in the School of 

 Engineers, Lausanne. 



British Colonies: Australia. — Mr. Cecil Darlev ; Prof. 

 Threlfall. 



Canada. — Mr. Ormond Higman, chief electrical engineer, 

 Inland Revenue, Ottawa. 



Crown Colonies. — Major P. Cardew, electrical adviser. 



India. — Mr. M. G. Simpson, electrician of the Indian 

 Telegraph Department. 



MR. BEXXETT H. BROUCH. 



A LL members of the Iron and Steel Institute, and, 

 -^*- in fact, all those engaged either directly or in- 

 directly in the manufacture of steel, were shocked 

 by the sudden and unexpected death of Mr. Bennett 

 Brough, the general secretary of the Iron and Steel 

 Institute at Xewcastle-on-Tyne, on Saturday last, 

 after an operation for peritonitis. He had been at- 

 tending the autumn meeting of the Institute in Mid- 

 dlesbrough, and up to Thursday appeared to be in 

 n^irmal health, and was taking his usual active part 

 in making' the meeting a success. 



Mr. Brough was born in i860, and was educated 

 at the City of London School, and after graduating 

 at the Royal School of Mines was for some time a 

 student at the Mining School at Clausthal. Some 

 time after the completion of his student career at 

 Clausthal, he was appointed instructor in mine sur- 

 veying at the Royal School of Mines, and only re- 

 signed on his appointment as secretary to the Iron 

 and Steel Institute in 1893. 



As early as 1SS5 he acted as a juror at the Inventions 

 Exhibition, was a member of the Mining and Metal- 

 lurijical Committees of the British Section of the Paris 

 Exhibition of 1889, and of the St. Louis Exhibition of 

 U)04, and the success of the Iron and Steel Section at 

 the Franco-British Exhibition is in no small degree 

 due to his great organising ability and untiring efforts. 



Mr. Brough was not only a sound technical man, 

 but a brilliant linguist, and a man of very wide cul- 

 ture and extensive travel. His well-known book on 

 mine surveying and numerous contributions to the 

 various technical and learned societies are known all 

 over the world, and he was an accepted authority on 

 mining matters. 



He acted as examiner in mining at the Roval School 

 of Mines, the Glasgow L'niversity, and the University 

 of Wales, and he was a member of the council of the 

 Institution of Mining Engineers; he served on the 



NO. 2032, VOL. 78] 



council of the Institute of Chemistry and the Chemical 

 Society, and was also a Knight of 'the Swedish Order 

 of W'asa. 



As general secretary of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 there were few men more widely known in the metal- 

 lurgical world, and none more' universally esteemed 

 and respected. He was equally accessible to the 

 youngest as to the oldest member of the institute, 

 extending the same courtesy and consideration to all. 

 He was a man of few words, but many kindly deeds, 

 and not only those who were privileged to number 

 him amongst their friends, but all who knew him, have 

 suffered an irreparable loss. 



NOTES. 



.\ SPELL of exceptionally brilliant and hot weather for 

 so late in the year occurred over the whole of the British 

 Islands during the last three days of September and the 

 first four days of October, and in nearly all parts of the 

 country previous records fail to show any shade tempera- 

 tures as high for the corresponding period. At Greenwich 

 the maximum readings exceeded 70° each day, and on the 

 six days from September 29 to October 4 it was 75° or 

 above, the absolutely highest temperature being 79°-9, on 

 September 30. An examination of the Greenwich records 

 from 1841 shows a temperature of 79°-2, on October 4, 

 1886, but there is no other reading higher than 78° so 

 late in the season. At Nottingham 78° occurred on 

 October 3, whilst the previous highest temperature during 

 the month in the last thirty-five years is 75°, in 1895. At 

 Bath 77° was registered on October i and 2, and the 

 highest previous record for the month is 73°, in 1873. 

 At Shields the reading was 77° on October 3, and the 

 previous highest reading in October is 69°, in 1898. All 

 previous records were also broken by 77° at Aberdeen, 

 76° at Jersey, Nairn, and Valencia, 75° at Holyhead, and 

 73'' at Leith, between October i and 4. A feature of 

 especial interest during the hot spell was the exceptionally 

 warm nights, the thermometer commonly not falling below 

 60°. The Weekly Weather Summary for the period end- 

 ing October 3, issued by the Meteorological Office, shows 

 that the mean temperature was more than 11° in excess 

 of the average in the north-east and north-west of England 

 and in the Midland counties, whilst the sheltered thermo- 

 meter registered 80° in all these districts. Much fog 

 or mist occurred at night, and the air throughout the hot 

 spell was exceedingly humid, the ground remaining damp 

 all day where screened from the sun's rays. The primary 

 cause of the hot weather was a quiet drift of southerly 

 air from off the heated land in Spain and France, due to 

 the prevalence of a region of high barometer readings over 

 Germany. At Rochefort and Biarritz the sheltered 

 thermometer registered 86° on October 2. 



We learn from the observatory department of the 

 National Physical Laboratory that highly disturbed mag- 

 nex,"^ conditions prevailed there on September 29-30. A 

 magnetic storm commenced suddenly about 1.32 a.m. on 

 September 29. After 7.30 a.m. the curves were only 

 slightly disturbed during a period of fully six hours, when 

 fresh disturbance appeared. Considering the length of the 

 interval, it was probably a case of two distinct magnetic 

 storms. On this view, the first storm lasted about six 

 hours, during which time the declination showed a range 

 of 54', while the ranges of horizontal force and vertical 

 force were respectively, about 2257 and 1607 (17 = 0-00001 

 C.G.S.). The second storm, commencing suddenly about 

 1.45 p.m. on September 29, continued until 7 a.m. or 



