278 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 432 



world, reaching as low as 27.4 inches. The observations for four 

 years, 1884 to 1887, have just reached this country. During the 

 four years sixty-eight storms and twenty-four high-areas have 

 crossed over or very near the summit. As far as studied, the re- 

 sults have shown very materially different conditions here from 

 those at Mount Washington. This is due in part to the lowness 

 of the mountain, and in part to the proximity of the ocean on the 

 west or on the side from which the storms advance. A compari- 

 son between Mount Washington and Ben Nevis shows, if any thing, 

 that temperature and moisture have little or nothing to do with 

 the generation of storms. At Ben Nevis the most extraordinary 

 depressions are accompanied by only the slightest change in tem- 

 perature, while at Mount Washington most remarkable changes 

 in temperature are accompanied by much smaller changes in 

 pressure. These facts would seem to show the extreme need there 

 is of confining ourselves to the certainties of our own studies and 

 conditions, and also the absolute impossibility of making and 

 comparing any except the very broadest generalizations regarding 

 weather conditions in Europe and America. H. A. Hazen. 



Washington, D.C., May 8. 



Flying-Machines. 



The communication from Mr. H. A. Hazen in the issue of 

 Science for May 1, and his quotation from Le Conte, already 



familiar, I presume, to many readers, suggests the following 

 " deadly parallel : " — 



(1) We cannot devise a method of utilizing fuel or a source of 

 energy that shall equal the bird (land-animal, or fish). 



(3) We can never build a machine which shall be as perfectly 

 adapted to its purpose of self-transportation as the bird (the land- 

 animal or the fish). 



(3) There is a limit of weight, say fifty pounds, beyond which 

 the bird cannot fly (one at which the animal cannot run, the fish 

 live and swim). 



Ergo, we can never build a flying-machine to carry a man [a 

 railway train to excel the trotter at a mile in two minutes, the 

 whale of a hundred feet length, swimming fifteen miles an 

 hour]. 



Remembering what the first century of the operation of man's 

 unimpeded inventive jjower has accomplished, with steam, with 

 electricity, and with the infancy of his machinery, may it not be 

 just as well to cease the attempt to define the impossible ? T. 



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