September 29, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



415 



To mark the centennial of the trip of Robert 

 Fulton's first steamboat in the Hudson River, 

 in October, 1807, the committee on plan and 

 scope of the Fulton Centennial Commission 

 has recommended the construction of a me- 

 morial arch in Battery Park and the establish- 

 ment of a marine museum, on a basis similar 

 to that on which the Metropolitan Museum 

 of Art and the American Museum of Natural 

 History were founded. 



General Isaac J. Wistar, of Philadelphia, 

 founder of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy 

 and Biology of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, formerly president of the American 

 Philosophical Society, died on September 18, 

 at the age of seventy-eight years. 



Tobias-Robert Thalen, professor emeritus 

 of physics in the Royal University of Upsala, 

 died on July 27. 



The superintendent of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey has received a 

 report from Mr. W. F. Wallis in charge of 

 the Magnetic Observatory, Cheltenham, Mary- 

 land, that the recent disastrous earthquake in 

 Italy was recorded by the seismograph at this 

 observatory, on the night of September 7. 

 The principal phases in seventy-fifth meridian 

 mean civil time counting the hours continu- 

 ously through twenty-four hours, from mid- 

 night to midnight are as follows: 



Beginning 



Second preliminary tremor.. 

 Beginning principal portion. 



End principal portion 



End 



Maximum amplitude 



Multiplying ratio 



Average period of waves : 



Beginning -. 



Principal portion 



End 



Period of pendulum 



East-West 

 Component. 



h m s 

 21 03 07 

 21 07 43 

 21 23 23 

 21 42 04 

 21 57 55 

 21 24 13 

 10 

 s 

 15.2 

 16.4 

 16.9 

 About 18 



The Carnegie Institution sent professors F. 

 Elster and H. Geitel and Herr F. Harms, to 

 Palma to make observations of the electric 

 conditions of the atmosphere during the recent 

 solar eclipse. Nature states that by means of 



a self-registering electrometer, the variation 

 of atmospheric electricity was photographically 

 recorded, and a series of points of the same 

 curve was taken simultaneously by eye-read- 

 ings. The ionization of the air was studied, 

 and exact measurements of the intensity of the 

 solar radiation within the short wave-lengths 

 were carried out. The observations, like all 

 others in Spain, suffered from the bad weather 

 conditions. On the day of the eclipse rain 

 fell during the morning; consequently it can 

 not be considered as undisturbed with regard 

 to atmospheric electricity. The measurements 

 of the solar radiation were possible in a con- 

 tinuous series only from the first contact to 

 the end of totality; the decrease of illumina- 

 tion, therefore, was determined in a satisfac- 

 tory manner and without any gaps. On the 

 other hand, clouds prevented any reading be- 

 ing taken during the increase of light after 

 totality. 



The U. S. Geological Survey has in hand 

 the investigation of curious phenomena known 

 as ' blowing ' or ' breathing ' wells. In the 

 course of collecting well records, the hydrol- 

 ogists of the survey have observed many wells 

 that emit currents of air with more or less 

 force, sometimes accompanied by a whistling 

 sound which can be heard for a long distance. 

 The best-known examples of this type of well 

 are found throughout the state of Nebraska. 

 Blowing wells are also known to occur in 

 Rapides Parish in southern Louisiana. The 

 force of the air current in one of the Louisiana 

 wells is sufficient to keep a man's hat sus- 

 pended above it. The cause of such phe- 

 nomena is mainly due to changes in atmos- 

 pheric pressure or to changes in temperature. 

 During the progress of a low-barometer storm 

 over these regions, the air is expelled from the 

 blowing wells. With a rising barometer, the 

 blowing becomes rapidly less until the current 

 is finally reversed. Differences in the tem- 

 perature of the surface air and the air in the 

 soil also produce similar effects. When the 

 interstices between the grains of sand, gravel, 

 etc., in which the wellis driven are filled with 

 water, the phenomena of blowing is much less 

 noticeable. The survey will welcome any in- 



