Se[>temi3eu 30, 1909J 



N^ TURE 



405 



Prof. Wolf states that the comet is already a fairly bright 

 object, of about the sixteenth magnitude, appearing as a 

 nebulous mass of 8"-io" diameter having a central con- 

 densation. 



Photographs were also secured by Mr. Knox Shaw at 

 the Hehvan Observatory on September 13 and 15, and by 

 Dr. H. D. Curtis, with the Crossley reflector at the Lick 

 Observatory, on .September 12, 13, and 14. 



.'\nother Laroe Sun-spot. — During last week another 

 large sun-spot was to be seen on the solar disc. It was 

 tirst observed, at South Kensington, on September 18 near 

 to the limb and a few degrees south of the sun's equator. 

 Developments took place until on Saturday last, when just 

 past the central meridian, it consisted of one large nucleus 

 and several smaller ones, and was visible to the naked 

 eye. It is perhaps worthy of note that .a magnetic storm, 

 of sufficient magnitude to interfere seriously with the 

 transmission of telegrams, took place on Saturday. 



Observ.^tioxs of Mars. — In a telegram to the Kiel 

 Centralslelle (Circular No. 112), Prof. Lowell aniiounces 

 that the Martian antarctic canals are disappearing, and 

 that the general pallor of the various features continues. 

 He also states that the Soils Lacus is double. 



Regarding the naked-eye appearance of the planet, Mr. 

 J. H. Elgie recently directed attention to the apparent 

 nearness of Mars as compared with the neighbouring stars 

 of Pegasus. He suggests that this sense of nearness might 

 be due to the propinquity of a wooded ridge over which 

 the planet was rising, the Pegasus stars being well above 

 the ridge, and therefore beyond this influence. At the 

 same time, the brilliant irradiation of the planet seems 

 quite sufficient to account for a phenomenon which must 

 appeal to anyone seeing the planet on a clear evening. 



Observations of Saturn. — .\ telegram from Prof. 

 Lowell to the Kiel Centralstelle, published in Circular 

 No. 113, announces that a dark medial streak has been 

 observed on Saturn's equator, and that there is an appear- 

 ance of lacings similar to those seen on Jupiter. Further, 

 an intense white spot, in saturnian latitude 50° S., was 

 detected by Mr. Sliphcr and transitted at i^h. sm. 

 (Washington time) on September 23. 



The Future of Astronomy. — In an address delivered at 

 the Case School of .Applied Science, Cleveland (U.S.A.), in 

 Mav, Prof. E. C. Pickering took as his subject the future 

 development of astronomy, paying special attention to the 

 methods whereby the limited financial resources and 

 personnel may be used with the greatest advantage to the 

 science. After a review of the several past epochs of 

 astronomy, and some rather amusing remarks as to how 

 monetary gifts are made and used at present, he outlined 

 the general scheme, to which he has previously referred 

 on various occasions, and the principle of which underlies 

 the splendid organisation of resources built up at the 

 Harvard College Observatory. The central feature of the 

 scheme is one large, and perforce international, observatory 

 employing, say, 200 or 300 assistants, and maintaining 

 three stations. Of the latter, one would be in latitude 

 about 30° N., and another the same distance south ; 

 western America is suggested as a suitable locale for the 

 former. South Africa for the latter, and each would be 

 selected wholly for its climatic conditions, which premises 

 fairly great altitudes and desert regions. Each observing 

 station would have instruments of the largest size, such 

 as the 7-foot reflector previously suggested for South Africa, 

 and would do practically no reductions or measuring. 

 These would be carried out at the third station, situated 

 where living and labour are cheap, where the photographs, 

 tvc, would be stored. Such an organisation would exist 

 for the benefit of all serious astronomers ; anyone wishing 

 to engage on any piece of work would simply requisition 

 the raw material, e.g. sets of special photographs, from 

 the central bureau. If not in stock, the required pholo- 

 graohs would be secured at the earliest convenient oppor- 

 tunity. By thus centralising and organising astronomical 

 resources, Prof. Pickering claims that the science would 

 benefit immensely, because the waste at present resulting 

 from overlapping, or from being forced to use inadeciuate 

 raw material, would thereby be eliminated (Popular Science 

 Monthly, vol. Ixxv., No. 2). 



I NO. 2083, VOL. 81] 



THE INSTITUTE OF MET.iLS. 



'T'HE publication of the first volume of the Journal of 

 the Institute of Metals marks the completion of a 

 full year's work. The institute has been formed to advance 

 and disseminate knowledge in connection with the manu- 

 facture and properties of the non-ferrous metals and 

 alloys. The members are fortunate in having for first 

 president Sir Wm. White, who delivered an excellent 

 address, in the course of which he dealt in a very able 

 manner as well with the delicate subject of " trade secrets " 

 as witli the important one of the relationships between 

 manufacturers and users of metals, although his oft- 

 reiterated special pleading for the National Physical 

 Laboratory during the meetings must have been rather 

 wearying to the other important workers represented. 



The paper by Mr. J. T. Milton, chief engineer of 

 Lloyd's, on some points of interest concerning copper and 

 copper alloys, is mainly about troubles experienced by 

 users, and is valuable for members of all types ; but the 

 statement on p. tiS that the temperature of pouring the 

 white metal into bearings is left to the ordinary workman 

 is not the case in at least one of the great Shetlield-Clyde 

 firms, as for many years this has been done with the aid 

 of a suitable pyrometer, and probably is so still. The 

 paper drew a very long and good discussion, in which 

 Prof. Gowland's remarks that ancient bronzes were very 

 impure, so that their hardness could not be due to excep- 

 tional purity, and that by careful hammering modern 

 bronzes can be made as hard as ancient, were of interest 

 to those who are often being met by the statement that 

 the method of hardening bronze tools is a lost art. 



The mechanism of annealing in the case of certain 

 copper alloys, by Messrs. G. D. Bengough and O. F. 

 Hudson, is of a very theoretical nature as a whole, but 

 gives several practical hints on the treatment of brass. 

 Mr. J. T. W. Echevarri's paper, on aluminium and some 

 of its uses, is most interesting, although his reasons for 

 its efficacy in preventing blow-holes in steel (p. 130) — that 

 if combines with the gases and produces an innocuous slag- 

 would hardly be accepted. In the discussion the president 

 remarked that not only had aluminium proved unsatis- 

 factory for shipbuilding because of serious corrosion 

 (p. 156), but that, though suitable aluminium alloys might 

 yet be obtained, they had to be discovered. Notes on 

 phosphor-bronze, by Mr. A. Philip, is thoroughly practical, 

 and contains- several tables of tests with corresponding 

 analyses, with a full discussion as to the most suitable 

 compositions and tests for different purposes. 



In metallographic investigations of alloys Mr. W. Rosen- 

 hain gives a good critical summary of methods, but, un- 

 fortunately, attempts to bolster up the discredited differ- 

 ential method of taking cooling curves. On p. 213 he 

 recommends that " the slowest possible rate of cooling 

 should be adopted in cooling-curve experiments "; but long 

 experience teaches that the rate of cooling must be chosen 

 according to the nature of the alloy and the objects of the 

 investigation. In Dr. Desch's paper, on inter-metallic 

 compounds, surelv the complicated " broken solidus curve 

 MBNPQRESTUG " for an institute of metals might 

 have been better chosen from a real example than an 

 imaginary one, so that such members as waded through 

 it all would have a reward of facts as well as principles. 

 Dr. Shepherd in the discussion endeavoured to explain to 

 the members what the present writer has tried to impress 

 on several investigators, namely, that though a pyrometer 

 b? capable of great accuracy, it does not follow that the 

 phenomena are observed to the same degree of accuracy, 

 and also that though the phase rule is a guide, it must 

 be remembered that it was deduced for ideal conditions, 

 and takes no account of the time factor or of the rate 

 of diffusion or viscosity. Dr. Shepherd favours the use 

 of heating curves, but his remark that " in the case of 

 transformations in the solid phase he had found no satis- 

 factory results with cooling curves " must sound strange 

 to investigators on steel — the pioneers in this type of work 

 — the well-known An, Ar2, Ar3 being all points on cool- 

 ing curves. For demonstration purposes cooling curves are 

 generally taken because more convenient, but for a com- 

 nlete investigation both heating and cooling curves must 

 be studied. Had this not been done, the important effect 



