SEPTEMBER 20, 1889.] 



SCIENCE 



195 



out, without a conscious analysis of individual letters. Messages 

 •can be flashed from the rigging of ships with almost the rapidity of 

 telegraph messages over ordinary wires. Take, for example, the 

 message " The uniform of the day will be clean blue." This sen- 

 tence of only nine words, if sent at the rate of nine words per 

 minute according to the regular navy code, could be read by about 

 one officer out of ten. Few officers can read that fast. The 

 average speed of signalling, then, by the "wigwag" system is 

 probably less than nine words per minute. It ought to be more. 

 Mr. Edison has suggested an adaptation of his train telegraph 

 system to the use of ships at sea. If a sufficient area of insulated 

 metallic surface could be exposed somewhere, either on deck or 

 aloft, it might be possible to telegraph from ship to ship by elec- 

 trical induction without the use of connecting wires, just as Edison 

 in a moving train takes messages from the wires along the track. 

 We know of no experiments in this direction as yet, but the field is 

 ■certainly an interesting and promising one. 



An Electric Locomotive. — Will trains eventually be run 

 by electricity .' The electrician is met by this question almost 

 ■daily, and his only reply is that they will if the problem of their 

 commercial success be finally solved. Of course, running ma- 

 chinery of any kind from primary batteries is commercially out of the 

 ■question. Every one with even the most rudimentary knowledge 

 of the science realizes that it takes a certain consumption of zinc 

 or other metal to liberate a certain amount of energy, and that this 

 method is altogether too expensive to be practicable. However, 

 there is now being constructed at the locomotive works, Rome, 

 N.Y., an electric locomotive which is the first engine, we believe, 

 -attempted to be run on regular railroad-tracks from storage-bat- 

 teries. The ordinary rotary type of electric motor will not be em- 

 ployed. Suction-magnets are to be located on either side of the 

 piston, and the current supplied from storage-batteries in the fire- 

 box. The locomotive is smaller than the usual type, and has driv- 

 ing-wheels of less diameter. In a few days the trial trip will be 

 made, and Science will give its readers the result. The question 

 will be asked, " How is it possible to utilize the energy of storage- 

 batteries at such a great loss from the original energy of coal, and 

 still be as economical as the steam locomotive ? " That is the fact 

 that remains to be proved. It should be remembered, however, 

 that it may be possible to generate electricity by means of large 

 economical compound condensing engines with a final loss at the 

 motor not much greater than that which is found in that great 

 ■wasteful gormandizer of coal, the steam locomotive. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Rev. Mr. Frizelle of Bushmills, England, narrates, in Sci- 

 ■ence Gossip, that he witnessed a trial of a rook by his comrades 

 for the act of stealing sticks from other nests. The other rooks 

 assembled round the culprit, and cawed for a considerable time, 

 when the unfortunate bird was condemned to suffer the penalty, 

 and he was then and there set upon and pecked to death. Two 

 magpies were present, who appeared seemingly as witnesses. 



— The University of Jena is going to hold autumn courses for 

 teachers in the various sciences. The course, commencing Sept. 

 23, is to last a fortnight, and comprises the following subjects : 

 psychological principles of education, instruction in chemical ex- 

 periments, the same in physical science, botanical observations and 

 morpho-physiological experiments, animal biology, school hygiene, 

 physical geography, and colonization. 



— Any one who takes a walk abroad in the rural parts of France, 

 when farming operations are going on, says J. W. Slater in Science 

 'Gossip, will often see small children following the plough armed 

 with small pitchers, into which they put all the white, fat grubs of 

 the cockchafer which are turned up. In England the rooks do 

 this work, without young children being withdrawn from school or 

 from play. But the French sportsman has nearly extirpated these 

 useful birds. A recent iniquity, according to a contemporary, is the 

 systematic destruction of the swallows on their return from Africa. 

 Emissaries of the Paris modistes fix up on the shore, about the 

 points where the birds usually land, long wires connected with 



powerful electric machines. The wearied swallows perch on the 

 wires, and are struck dead by scores. Their bodies are then sent 

 off to Paris to ornament women who are a disgrace to human- 

 ity. The saddest feature is that our contingent of martins and 

 swallows arrive by way of France, and will doubtless be cruelly 

 decimated. 



— Professor Beal finds that the peculiar markings in bird's-eye 

 maple do not occur in young trees up to about three inches in 

 diameter, nor very high up in trees which are very much pitted at 

 the base. A specimen taken fifty feet above the ground. Garden 

 and Forest states, showed no trace of bird's-eye, while another 

 from near the base of the same tree was very strongly marked. If 

 the cause of these formations could be discovered and used to pro- 

 duce the marks, it would add greatly to the market value of the 

 timber, for the wood of this maple and of other trees somewhat 

 similarly marked is comparatively scarce and in great demand for 

 veneers. 



— F. W. Galton, the famous writer on the subject of inherited 

 qualities, proposed to the Congress of Psychological Physiology to 

 issue in the form of a document a series of questions intended to 

 draw from scientific observers the world over the results of their 

 experience touching the inheritance of acquired habits, mental, 

 scientific, or social. He laid before the congress a first-rate conun- 

 drum. He told of an aquarium divided into two parts by a plate 

 of glass perfectly transparent, and therefore invisible to the fish. 

 In one division there was a pike, in the other a gudgeon. Every 

 time the pike saw the gudgeon, he rushed to seize him, but every 

 time he was stopped by the plate of glass. He did not learn soon, 

 but for several months made this rush, and bruised his nose 

 against the glass. Finally he came to understand that for some 

 reason inscrutable to his intelligence he could not seize the gud- 

 geon, and then he gave it up. He now swam about, seeing the 

 gudgeon constantly, but paying no attention to it. . Then the plate 

 of glass was removed. This made no difference, the pike did not 

 attempt to take the gudgeon. He had acquired the habit of leav- 

 ing the gudgeon alone. The conundrum was, would his descend- 

 ants inherit that habit, or possess the original impulse of their 

 kind ? Illustrations of this kind, or showing the operation of the 

 principle of acquired inheritance, are what Mr. Galton wants. 



— The great chart of France, showing the geological formations 

 of the country on a scale of 1:500,000, has at length been com- 

 pleted, and a copy deposited with the Academy of Sciences at 

 Paris. It is over fifty years since MM. Dufrenoy and Elie de 

 Beaumont published a geological map of France on the same 

 scale, and since that period the rocks of the different provinces 

 have been more intimately studied. In 1S82 the new general map 

 was begun under the superintendence of the Commandant Pru- 

 dent, and published by the depot of fortifications. It has just been 

 finished, and, according to the Scottish Geographical Magazine, 

 is an example of the most accurate cartography. Local geologists 

 have contributed to the work as well as the government surveyors, 

 and the scale of 1:500,000 has been adopted in deference to the 

 wish expressed at the geological congress of Bologna in 1881, so 

 that different countries can more easily compare the map with 

 their own. The scale of colors recommended at that congress has 

 also been followed, — that is to say, the sedimentary series is rep- 

 resented by the colors of the spectrum in their regular order. Thus 

 the trias is colored violet, the Jurassic blue, the cretaceous green, 

 and the tertiary yellow. Each of these general colors is subdivided 

 into shades, which are deeper according as the rocks are more an- 

 cient. This is the first time the method has been employed on a 

 large work, and it has given every satisfaction, since it allows the 

 systems of rocks and their different gradations to be readily recog- 

 nized. The eruptive rocks have been colored in different shades 

 of red, and the crystalline schists in carmine. As for the primary 

 rocks, on which the congress came to no decision, the authors of 

 the map have been guided by the same principles in choosing their 

 tints. The Silurian has therefore been colored a flesh pink, and 

 the Devonian a red brown. The carboniferous, according to old 

 habit, has been colored black and deep gray, while the Permian is 

 represented by a yellowish gray. No fewer than fifty shades are 

 employed ; but all are easy to distinguish. 



