July 21, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



93 



by the company at the cost of fifty cents. 

 The ordinary Hammond machine furnished 

 with a back-spacing key can be used for 

 manuscript diagrams up to about eight inches 

 in diameter, but the machine No. 6, fitted 

 with a sixteen-inch roll, permits of the prepa- 

 ration of diagrams fourteen inches in diam- 

 eter. The usual silk ribbon gives a ' woolly ' 

 line and is far less satisfactory than the 

 carbon ribbon. A highly calendered and high 

 grade linen paper of medivini to heavy weight, 

 or a thin Bristol board may be recommended. 

 Often more than one impression of the key is 

 necessary to obtain the required depth of tint 

 for photography; such repeated impressions 

 can be made at great speed by employing the 

 back-spacing key. Care must be taken not 

 to smudge the carbon of the completed print- 

 ing. 



The accompanying cuts serve to show some- 

 thing of the method as applied to geological 

 diagrams. The diagram of alphabets and 

 legends has been reduced to three fourths of 

 its original diameters. The legends are in- 

 tended to represent a few examples of those 

 possible with the machine. They can be in- 

 definitely increased in number and varied in 

 design by the engraving of new characters on 

 the shuttle and by using various permutations 

 and combinations of the existing characters. 

 The map is reduced to two thirds of its orig- 

 inal diameters. It was copied from Harker's 

 sketch map of the Carrock Fell District, pub- 

 lished in the Quarterly Journal of the Geo- 

 logical Society of London, Vol. 51, 1895, 

 PL IV. Here the geological formations could 

 have been yet more clearly differentiated by 

 cross-hatching with the ruling pen for one of 

 them, but this particular drawing was made to 

 illustrate the neatness and clearness of the 

 machine-made production rather than to illus- 

 trate an ideal diagram. So far as the type- 

 written part of the ' drawings ' is concerned, 

 the use of the machine in preparing these 

 illustrations represents a saving of from 

 seventy-five to ninety per cent, of the time 

 required by a draughtsman to duplicate the 

 * drawing.' E. A Daly. 



ils^ternattonal boundary commission, 

 Ottawa, Can. 



MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 IN SOUTH AFRICA.' 



The arrangements for the forthcoming meet- 

 ing of the British Association in South Africa 

 have now been completed, and Mr. Silva 

 Wliite, the assistant secretary of the associ^.- 

 tion, sailed for Cape Town in the Walmer 

 Castle, on Saturday last, July 1. The num- 

 ber of members who will proceed to South 

 Africa to attend the meeting is 385, and of 

 these no less than 276 members have intimated 

 their intention to visit the Victoria Falls at 

 the conclusion of the ordinary work of the 

 association. The official party, consisting of 

 leading representatives of science and guests 

 of the association, with the general and sec- 

 tional officers for this meeting and the presi- 

 dent, numbers 140 in all, and will sail by the 

 Saxon on July 29. Most of the other mem- 

 bers will proceed to the meeting by the Dur- 

 ham Castle and the Kildonan Castle, both of 

 which sail on July 22. 



There will be receptions and social func- 

 tions, excursions, etc., at Cape Town, Durham, 

 Pietermaritzburg, Johannesburg, Kimberley 

 and Bulawayo. The central organizing com- 

 mittee for South Africa (chairman. Sir David 

 Gill, K.C.B., P.R.S., hon. secretary. Dr. Gil- 

 christ) has carried out the coordinating work 

 of the program. The lists of local committees 

 and subcommittees contain nearly one thou- 

 sand names, from which it may be concluded 

 that much interest is taken in the meeting. 



Lectures of a popular character will be de- 

 livered at the chief towns visited. These lec- 

 tures have now been definitely arranged as 

 follows : 



Cape Town: ' W. J. Burchell's Discoveries 

 in South Africa,' Professor Poulton ; ' Some 

 Surface Actions of Fluids,' Mr. C. V. Boys. 

 Durban: 'Mountains: the Highest Himalaya,' 

 Mr. D. Freshfield. Pietermaritzburg : ' Sleep- 

 ing-sickness,' Colonel D. Bruce. Johannes- 

 burg : 'Distribution of Power,' Professor Ayr- 

 ton ; ' Steel as an Igneous Rock,' Professor 

 Arnold. Pretoria : ' Fly-borne Diseases, Ma- 

 laria, Sleeping-sickness, etc.,' Mr. A. E. Ship- 

 ley. Bloemfontein: ' The Milky Way and the 

 Clouds of Magellan,' Mr. A. R. Hinks. 



^ From Nature. 



