June 29, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



991 



ence points for Greenwich time and for ter- 

 restrial longitudes, indicate a state of constant 

 vibration while the engines are running, which 

 will be greatly increased if the full proposals 

 of the London County Council are carried 

 out. By the invitation of the Astronomer 

 Eoyal, I paid a special visit to Greenwich on 

 Tuesday and was able to compare for myself 

 the state of matters during the running of 

 the engines and after they had been stopped 

 (i. e.j after midnight). The observations left 

 no room for doubt as to the seriousness of the 

 disturbance." 



Nature states that Messrs. E. B. Woosnam, 

 D. Carruthers and A. F. E. Wollaston, three 

 members of the zoological expedition sent to 

 Africa under the auspices of the Natural His- 

 tory Museum, South Kensington, have made 

 the following ascents in the Euwenzori range. 

 On April 1 they ascended Duwoni, the peak 

 rising to the northeast of the Mubuku Glacier. 

 This peak has two tops of apparently equal 

 altitude ; the southern top, which was reached, 

 was found to be 15,893 feet. On April 3 they 

 ascended Kiyanja, the peak at the western end 

 of the Mubuku group of peaks. The altitude 

 was found to be 16,379 feet. (The altitudes 

 were taken by aneroid and by the boiling-point 

 thermometer.) Both these peaks have been 

 thought by different explorers to be the highest 

 points in Euwenzori, but from the summit of 

 Kiyanja a still higher peak with two tops 

 was seen in a northwesterly direction. The 

 weather at this season of the year is very un- 

 favorable, the mountains being almost con- 

 stantly buried in clouds with frequent snow- 

 storms, which prevented the party from ma- 

 king further explorations. 



The advance made during the last five years 

 in the manufacture of various forms of appa- 

 ratus for lighting purposes has developed a 

 use for metals and metallic oxides such as 

 tantalum, cadmium, zirconia, thoria, yttria, 

 and cerium, lanthanum -and didymium oxides. 

 With the exception of cadmium, all these ma- 

 terials are now used commercially in the man- 

 ufacture of different lamps and are obtained 

 from the following minerals: monazite, zir- 

 con, gadolinite, columbite and tantalite. A 



brief report on the production of these min- 

 erals during 1905 has been written by Dr. 

 Joseph Hyde Pratt and will be published in 

 the forthcoming volume of the U. S. Geolog- 

 ical Survey, entitled ' Mineral Eesources of 

 the United States, 1905.' Monazite is the 

 mineral which contains the oxides used in the 

 manufacture of mantles for the Welsbach and 

 other incandescent gaslights. Although mon- 

 azite has been found sparingly at many locali- 

 ties throughout the United States, the Caro- 

 linas are still the only states that are pro- 

 ducing this mineral commercially. During 

 1905, however, a probable new source of supply 

 of this mineral has been worked out by the 

 investigations that have been carried on at 

 the concentrating plant of the United States 

 Geological Survey at Portland, Ore., which 

 has been testing systematically the black 

 sands of the Pacific slope as to their mineral- 

 ogical contents. The results of this investi- 

 gation have shown the presence of some mon- 

 azite and more zircon in many of these sands, 

 especially in those from Oregon and Idaho. 

 By using the Wetherill magnetic separator an 

 almost perfect separation can be made of both 

 the zircon and the monazite. The production 

 of monazite, zircon and columbite during 

 1905 amounted to 1,352,418 pounds, valued at 

 $163,908, as compared with 745,999 pounds, 

 valued at $85,038 in 1904, an increase of 606,- 

 419 pounds in quantity and of $78,870 in 

 value. From one sixth to one fourth of the 

 monazite mined in 1905 was exported to 

 Germany. 



VNrVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

 At the commencement of Brown University 

 it was announced that $162,000 had been sub- 

 scribed for the John Hay memorial library, 

 thus securing the additional gift of $150,000 

 by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. 



Mr. D. W. Goodspeed, secretary of the 

 board of trustees of the University of Chicago, 

 has announced a gift of $260,000 from Mr. 

 John D. Eockefeller for current ' expenses for 

 the year beginning July 1. 



At the recent commencement of Olivet 

 College gifts aggregating $265,000 were an- 



