662 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 70. 



International Meteorological Committee at 

 its meeting in Upsala in August, 1S94. 

 Nine countries have promised to cooperate 

 in the work, which includes determinations 

 of the altitudes, directions and relative ve- 

 locities of clouds. These countries are as fol- 

 lows: Batavia, France, Norway, Portugal, 

 Prussia, Roumania, Russia, Sweden and the 

 United States. One or two stations in each 

 country are to furnish observations of alti- 

 tudes, determined by means of theodolites 

 or photogrammeters, while at certain auxili- 

 ary stations records of direction and rela- 

 tive velocity will be kept. In the United 

 States, the chief office of the Weather Bu- 

 reau, in Washington, and the Blue Hill Ob- 

 servatory, in Readville, Mass., will deter- 

 mine altitudes, while the observations of 

 direction and velocity will be made at 

 Washington, New York, Buffalo and De- 

 troit. The records collected during the 

 year will certainly throw much light on 

 certain much-debated questions of cloud 

 movements and of cyclonic action. 



Artificial tornado clouds have recently 

 been produced by Dines in England (Quart. 

 Jorun. Roy. Met. Soc, Jan., 1896, 71-73). 

 The apparatus used was a simple one. Two 

 glass screens, 2 ft. high, each consisting of 

 three leaves, were set upon a table so as to 

 leave a hexagonal space in the middle. On 

 top of the glass plates a wooden panel of 

 the requisite size was placed, with a round 

 hole 7 in. in diameter in the center. In 

 the hole there was a ventilating fan, driven 

 by hand, and in the center of the table, be- 

 tween the screens, a shallow vessel contain- 

 ing water was placed, heated by a spirit 

 lamp, in order that suflBcient vapor might 

 be -obtained to form the funnel cloud. 

 When the fan is turned on in this appara- 

 tus an upward current of air is produced at 

 the center, and a cloud is formed. This 

 cloud has a distinct rotary motion around 

 the center, increasing in velocity as the 



center is approached. There is further a 

 strong updraft, a great decrease of pressure 

 in the center, and the cloud column is dis- 

 tinctly hollow, in all these respects closely 

 simulating the actual tornado funnel cloud. 

 The conditions of the experiment are, how- 

 ever, so unlike those existing in nature dur- 

 ing the occurrence of tornadoes that, al- 

 though interesting, the results cannot be 

 considered as very important. 



Attention has lately been again directed 

 to the matter of Arctic Exploration by 

 reasons of the rumors as to Nansen's voy- 

 age, and the frequent allusions, in scientific 

 papers, to Andree's balloon expedition, 

 which is to start this summer. The recent 

 publication of Gen. Greely's Handbook of 

 Arctic Discoveries (Boston, Roberts Bros., 

 1896) is therefore very timely. Gen. Greely, 

 as is generally known, led the United States 

 expedition sent out in 1881 to take part in 

 the system of international meteorological 

 observations planned by the International 

 Meteorological Conference and the Inter- 

 national Polar Conference in 1879. Fifteen 

 expeditions were sent out as a result of this 

 plan, and they together made up the line of 

 International Circumpolar Stations, whose 

 work has been of such great importance in 

 meteorology. Gen. Greelj' gives a general 

 account of Arctic discoveries, and devotes 

 one chapter to the International Circum- 

 polar Stations. 



A NOTE on a rather unusual meteorological 

 phenomenon appears in the Februai-y Bul- 

 letin of the New England Section of the 

 CHmate and Crop Service. On February 

 19th, on the campus of Trinitj^ College, 

 Hartford, Conn., a southerly wind, blo^\ing 

 over a thin covering of damp snow, caught 

 up little pellets of this snow and, rolling 

 them over and over, made them into muffs 

 or ' rollers.' These ' rollers ' increased in 

 diameter as they were driven on by the 

 wind, until some of them measured 8 inches 



