June 6, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



541 



Dr. Benjamin Palmer Caldwell, formerly 

 of Tulane University, New Orleans, and for 

 the past three years professor of chemistry iu 

 Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, has accepted 

 the professorship of analytical chemistry in 

 the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and 

 will beg-in his work there in the autumn. 



At the University of Saskatchewan, Assist- 

 ant Professor L. L. Dines has been promoted 

 to a full professorship of mathematics. 



Dr. Alexander McPhedran has resigned 

 the professorship of medicine- in the Univer- 

 sity of Toronto medical department, and Dr. 

 Duncan A. L. Graham has been appointed his 

 successor. The Journal of the American Med- 

 ical Association states that recently Sir Wil- 

 liam Osier invited professors of medicine in 

 the United Kingdom to a dinner in Dr. Gra- 

 ham's honor, at which it was stated that Dr. 

 Graham was the first whole-time professor of 

 medicine appointed in the British empire. 

 The appointment was made possible by the 

 munificence of Sir John Eaton, Toronto. As 

 a result all physicians in the service of the 

 medical department at the university will re- 

 sign, so that Dr. Graham will have a free hand 

 in selecting his own stafiF. 



Dr. F. a. Lindemann has been appointed to 

 succeed Professor Clinton in the chair of ex- 

 perimental philosophy at the University of 

 Oxford. 



Dr. S. W. J. Smith, F.R.S., assistant pro- 

 fessor at the Imperial Collie, South Kensing- 

 ton, and for many years secretary of the Physi- 

 cal Society of London, has been elected to the 

 Poynting chair of physics in the University of 

 Birmingham. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE CUMBERLAND FALLS METEORITE 



On April 9, last, a brilliant meteor was seen 

 at mid-day to fall in a northwesterly direction 

 across northeastern Tennessea Though the 

 sun was shining in this section, observers de- 

 scribe the light from the meteor as exceeding 

 the sun in brightness. Passing over south- 

 eastern Kentucky, where the sky was obscured 



by clouds, the meteor made its presence known 

 by violent detonations, accompanied by the 

 spalling off of fragments. The first of these 

 fell near Sawyer P. 0., not far from the Falls- 

 of-the-Cumberland. 



The concussions produced by the bolide 

 were terrific, causing buildings to rock, and 

 producting the impression on some that the 

 region was being visited by an earthquake. 

 The first news of the phenomenon printed in 

 the local papers so recorded it. Realizing 

 that the detonations heard and shocks felt 

 were due to the concussions produced by a 

 falling meteorite the writer through the me- 

 dium of these local papers, and by correspond- 

 ence with postmasters and telegraph operators 

 throughout the district affected has succeeded 

 in determining the path of the meteor and has 

 secured a number of the fragments. The 

 main mass appears to be yet undiscovered. 

 Falling in the most rugged and sparsely 

 settled portion of southeastern Kentucky the 

 prospects of thi? nmin mass being found are 

 not promising. 



The general azimuth of the meteor in its 

 fall seems to have been about north 30 degrees 

 west. Over Kentucky it paralleled roughly 

 the line of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. 

 An interesting incident in this connection is 

 the record of the progress of the meteor kept 

 b.v the telegraph and telephone operators in 

 the railroad stations and signal towers. They 

 actually put it on a schedule something like 

 an " extra," and heralded to operators ahead 

 the arrival opposite them to the east of this 

 mysterious visitor. The operator on another 

 branch of the Southern Road at Coal Creek 

 Tennessee saw the meteor disappear to the 

 northwest at 12 :21 p.m. The tower man at 

 Tatesville, Ky., heard violent detonations to 

 the east, and felt his tower rock at 12 : 27. 

 Telephoning ahead to the Danville, Ky., opera- 

 tor, while yet talking to him he heard him re- 

 ply at 12 : 30 "I hear it coming now." The 

 distance from Tatesville to Danville in an air 

 line is 48 miles. It took the meteor sounds, 

 therefore, 3 minutes to travel this 48 miles. 

 How much of this is due to the rate of sound 

 traveling in air and how much to the north- 



