November i, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



305 



— Thomas Whittaker has just published a new edition, with 

 some changes, of Miss Anne Ayres ' " Life and Work of William 

 Augustus Muhlenberg.'' 



— Mr. Warren K. Moorehead announces a new work on Ohio 

 Valley earthworks. This work contains 41 full page illustrations 

 made from photographs taken in the field, and a detailed account 

 of exploration in the mounds and graves of Fort Ancient. 



— Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce as ready, " Elementary Mathe- 

 matical Tables," by A. Macfarlane, D.Sc, LL.D., professor of 

 physics in the University of Texas. This collection of tables con- 

 tains logarithms, antilogarithms, addition logarithms, subtraction 

 logarithms, logarithmic sines and cosines, logarithmic tangents and 

 cotangents, natural sines and cosines, natural tangents and 

 cotangents, natural secants and cosecants, arcs, reciprocals, squares, 

 cubes, square roots, cube roots, circumferences, circular areas, 

 spherical contents, powers, constants, hyperbolic logarithms, ex- 

 ponentials, divisors, least divisors, interest tables, first nine multi- 

 ples of numbers up to 1000, with a large number of auxiliary tables. 

 The tables are mostly four-place : they have a uniform decimal 

 arrangement similar to that of seven-place logarithmic tables ; they 

 are mostly synoptic, are provided with differences and proportional 

 parts, and are arranged so that the function may be read off for 

 any position of the decimal point in the argument. The tables are 

 designed to be useful not only in computing and in the graphic 

 method, but also in the teaching of arithmetic and in the illustra- 

 tion of the theorems of algebra. 



— Mr. Gordon L. Ford of Brooklyn has in press a number of 

 interesting unpublished agreements between Washington and his 

 overseers and workmen, throwing much light upon the manage- 

 ment of his estates, as well as on the " labor question " of colonial 

 Virginia. The agreements are copied from the originals in Wash- 

 ington's writing, and all date before the Revolution. In this vol- 

 ume will also be included a correspondence that Washington had 

 in 1774 with a number of merchants and others, concerning a 

 scheme he entertained of importing German Palatines to settle 

 upon his western lands, and one of Washington's advertisements 

 for runaway servants. Very little of this material has been pub- 

 lished heretofore, and " Washington as an Employer and Importer 

 of Labor " will present a new phase of his character. The edition 

 will be limited to five hundred copies. 



— 'M. R6nan is at work on the fourth volume of his " History of 

 Israel." He is also correcting, says the New York Trihme, the 

 proof-sheets of a new book to be entitled " The Future of Science." 

 It is an essay entirely written as long ago as 1848, and deals, 

 among other topics, with the theory of development subsequently 

 enunciated by Darwin. In various other matters M. Renan is 

 shown to have anticipated subsequent discoveries in the fields of 

 knowledge, and to have indicated the general direction to which 

 science was tending. He has neither added to nor excised a single 

 passage from his earlier essay, the only alterations introduced 

 being those of style. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*^*Corresp07ide7jts are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name is 

 in all cases required as proof of ^ood faith. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of 

 the journal. 



On rCQuest, twenty copies of the number containing his cotnmunication will be 

 furnished free to any correspondent . 



Electric Eccentricities. 



During the great fire that raged over northern Wisconsin in 

 1871, and which wiped out not only the prosperous village of Pes- 

 tigo, but, in the aggregate of farmhouses, half a dozen villages 

 like Pestigo, there were many evidences of electrical phenomena 

 present. The flames were seen to possess that sudden rapidity of 

 action which only electricity can impart. They would leap over 

 wide spaces with the greatest rapidity, leaving many objects in the 

 rear that one would suppose could not escape, and striking others 

 beyond, and least exposed, in the most unaccountable manner. 

 The details of that great disaster would disclose many curious and 



instructive facts. People were found dead without any apparent 

 injury, though lying out in the open fields, and far from the burnt 

 woods. Of course, it is popularly supposed that these suffocated 

 in the superheated atmosphere. However that may be, one cir- 

 cumstance coming under my own observation proves conclusively 

 the presence ol electricity, and a very curious action of the subtle 

 fluid, too. Shortly after the fire, the editor of the Green Bay Ad- 

 vocate exhibited a copper coin taken from the pocket of one of the 

 victims found dead in the middle of a large clearing. The coin 

 'fias fused, but no sign of injury whatever was discovered on the 

 man's person. GEO. Gibson. 



Hudson, Wis., Oct. 22. 



[Is it not possible that the coin was fused before it went into the 

 unfortunate man's pocket ? — Ed.] 



A Lightning Discharge in Quebec. 



As you request observations of lightning, I take occasion to send 

 you some made by myself. On the 29th of June, 1887, a violent 

 thunder-storm broke over Quebec about six o'clock in the evening. 

 The wind was blowing from the west.' At Levis, opposite Quebec, 

 a church was being built at that time, and the wood-work of the 

 tower had just been finished. The roof was finished, and it was 

 covered with galvanized iron. This sheathing was connected by 

 lightning-rods with the earth. The first fall of rain wet the west 

 portion of the tower ; and, in an instant after, the lightning struck 

 the tower, leaving intact tjje east portion, but shattering completely 

 all those parts of the wood rendered semi-conducting by the rain. 

 After reaching the metallic covering of the roof, the electricity was 

 probably conducted by the rods to the earth, as no further trace of 

 it could be found. The great beams of the wood-work had been 

 broken by the discharge, and the wood in great part splintered. 

 The annual rings had separated one from another without any 

 trace of carbonization. J. C. K. LaFLAMME. 



Quebec, Oct 20. 



INDUSTRIAL NOTES. 



The Victor Type-Writer. 



A FEW years ago there was only one type-writer on the market ; 

 but such has been the activity of inventors, that there are now a 

 score or more to be had, so that the most varied tastes in type- 

 writers may easily be satisfied. The older and better-known key 

 machines, familiar in all business-offices, still maintain theirleader- 



ship. though they are closely followed by machines of more recent 

 invention. The most recent of these key type-writers was de- 

 scribed in these columns a few weeks ago. 



In some of the key-board machines there is a key for each char- 

 acter, as the Caligraph, the Yost, and the Automatic. In others 

 a shifting or changing device gives two or three characters for 

 each key, as the Remington, the Hammond, and others. The 

 keys on these machines, therefore, range in number from thirty to 

 eighty or more. 



There is another class of type-writers in the market, without a 

 key board, in which the character to be printed is first sought out 



