January 28, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



91 



important parts of an interview with Chief 

 Officer V. E. Spencer are here given. 



On Tuesday (October 30) afternoon the weather 

 was clear and bright, although there was little 

 sunshine. Just after one bell, 4.30 o'clock, I saw 

 three meteors fall into the water dead ahead of 

 the ship, one after another at a distance of about 

 five miles. Although it was daylight they left a 

 red streak in the air from zenith to the horizon. 



Simultaneously the third engineer shouted to 

 me. I then saw a huge meteorite on the port 

 beam falling in a zigzag manner less than a mile 

 away to the southward. We could distinctly hear 

 the hissing of the water as it touched. It fell 

 with a rocking motion, leaving a broad red streak 

 in its wake. The meteor must have weighed sev- 

 eral tons, and appeared to be from 10 to 15 feet 

 in diameter. It was saucer-shaped, which prob- 

 ably accounted for the peculiar rocking motion. 



When the mass of metal struck the water the 

 spray and steam rose to a height of at least forty 

 feet, and for a few moments looked like the mouth 

 on a crater. If it had been night the meteor 

 would have illuminated the sea for fifty or sixty 

 miles. The hissing sound, like escaping steam, 

 when it struck the water, was so loud that the 

 Chief Engineer turned out of his berth and came 

 on deck, thinking the sound came from the engine 

 room. 



Captain Buss, of the Hamburg-American 

 steamer Brasilia, which arrived about the same 

 time as the St. Andrew, reported having seen a 

 large meteor at 7 p.m. on October 30, in Lat. 47° 

 N., and Lon. 48°W. This is believed to have been 

 a part of the intermittent meteoric shower ob- 

 served by the St. Andrew earlier in the evening. 



In this account, by an intelligent observer, 

 and one presumably fitted by training and 

 profession to observe rapidly, some points of 

 special interest may be noted: the peltoid 

 form, zigzag path, and rocking motion, it be- 

 ing noteworthy that the irregular path was 

 maintained in spite of the very large size 

 (probably overestimated) and great weight; 

 the probably constant general orientation, 

 (" Brustseite") ; the brilliant light, though it 

 is not stated whether this came from the 

 meteor or from its track; the loudness of the 

 hissing sound when it struck the water, suffi- 

 cient to rouse the Chief Engineer a mile 

 away. One is inclined to think that the 



meteorites were siderolites. It is, of course, 

 purely conjectural whether the meteor re- 

 ported by the Brazilia belonged to the St. 

 Andrew shower; the difference in time would 

 seem to be incompatible with this supposition, 

 which may be put down to a reporter's love of 

 the sensational. 



Henry S. Washington 

 Geophysical Laboeatoky, 



Caenegie Institution of Washington 



MUSICAL NOTATION 



To THE Editor of Science: In the Septem- 

 ber number of The Scientific Monthly Pro- 

 fessor E. V. Huntington describes a new way 

 of writing music, which for simplicity and 

 clearness can hardly be surpassed. It con- 

 sists in using the ordinary staff for the twelve 

 notes of the tempered chromatic scale, in- 

 stead of (as now done) for the seven notes of 

 the diatonic scale. This new " normalized " 

 notation does away with all sharps and flats. 

 Since there are just twelve lines and spaces 

 (including the added line below) in each staff, 

 each letter will have always the same position 

 on the staff, whether soprano, alto, tenor or 

 bass. It is hoped that teachers will take 

 advantage of the normalized notation to 

 smooth out the road for beginners, particu- 

 larly in the grade schools. 



There is another imnecessary musical diffi- 

 culty in the way of piano students, which can 

 be easily removed. The pupil must now be- 

 come familiar with twelve different modes of 

 fingering, one for each of the twelve possible 

 keynotes. This means that for the average 

 pupil so much practise is required in order 

 to become reasonably expert at the piano that 

 he or she becomes discouraged. In any case 

 a great deal of time is wasted in practising 

 the twelve sets of finger exercises. 



A very slight change in the keyboard will 

 reduce the sets of fingering from twelve to 

 two. The change consists in having six 

 white keys and six black (instead of seven 

 white and five black) in each octave. The 

 key C, which would then be black, should be 

 fluted or corrugated on its upper surface, so 

 as to be easily recognizable both by sight and 



