52 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1071 



fessor Albrecht begins Iiis usual preliminary 

 report on the international latitude service 

 with the following words : " Although interna- 

 tional undertakings in nearly all fields were 

 subject to far reaching disturbances in 1914 

 from the circumstances of the war, the inter- 

 national latitude service happily suffered no 

 interruption, and was carried out quite in the 

 usual manner at all six stations. Further- 

 more, since there were no appreciable delays 

 in sending in the observing books [to the cen- 

 tral office at Potsdam] , the preliminary deriva- 

 tion of the orbit of the pole could be under- 

 taken in precisely the same maner as in previ- 

 ous years." It should perhaps be added that 

 the six observing stations, on the parallel of 

 latitude N. 39° 8', are at Mizusawa, Japan; 

 Tschardjui, Russia; Carloforte, Sardinia, and 

 in the United States at Gaithersburg, Md.; 

 Cincinnati and Ukiah, Cal. 



The total production of explosives in the 

 United States during the year 1914, exclusive 

 of exports, according to figures compiled by 

 Albert H. Fay, of the United States Bureau 

 of Mines, was 450,251,489 pounds or 225,126 

 short tons, as compared with 500,015,845 

 pounds or 250,008 short tons for 1913. The 

 production for 1914 is segregated as follows: 

 black powder, 206,099,700 pounds ; " high " ex- 

 plosives other than permissible explosives, 

 218,453,971 pounds; and permissible explos- 

 ives 25,697,818 pounds. The figures represent 

 a decrease of 23,839,831 pounds of black pow- 

 der; 23,932,573 pounds of high explosives, and 

 1,987,952 pounds of permissible explosives, as 

 compared with 1913. Mr. Fay says : " As ex- 

 plosives are essential to mining, and the use 

 of improved types of explosives tends to lessen 

 the dangers attending this industry, the Bu- 

 reau of Mines undertook the compilation of 

 information showing the total amoimt of ex- 

 plosives manufactured and used in the United 

 States, its first report dealing with the year 

 1912. The report for 1914 is therefore the third 

 technical paper issued by the bureau relating to 

 the production and distribution of explosives. 

 In the year 1902 only 11,300 pounds of per- 

 missible explosives were used in coal mining, 

 whereas in 1913 the quantity so used was 21,- 



804,285 pounds, as compared with 19,593,892 

 pounds in 1914. The quantity of permissible 

 explosives used in the United States is larger 

 than in a number of foreign countries. In 

 1912 it represented about 5 per cent, of the 

 total quantity of explosives produced, and in 

 1914 5.7 per cent. The total amount of ex- 

 plosives used for the production of coal in 1914 

 was 220,622,487 pounds, of which about 8.9 

 per cent, was of the x>ermissible class as com- 

 pared with 9.5 per cent, in 1913. 



The United States Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey, Department of Commerce, has issued as 

 Serial No. 3, Special Publication No. 25, a 

 quarto pamphlet of 69 pages entitled " Re- 

 sults of Magnetic Observations made by the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 

 1914," by D. L. Hazard. This publication con- 

 tains the results of magnetic observations made 

 on land and at sea during the calendar year 

 1914, together with descriptions of the stations 

 occupied. Results are given for 385 stations 

 in 289 localities, including an investigation of 

 areas of marked local disturbance in Iowa and 

 Minnesota. There is presented in tabular form 

 a comparison of the declination results at 76 

 repeat stations with the results of earlier ob- 

 servations in the same localities. The results 

 have been corrected to reduce them to the pro- 

 visional international standard of the Depart- 

 ment of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington. The stations de- 

 scribed are located in thirty-three states and 

 territories, including Arizona, Alabama, 

 Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Dela- 

 ware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, 

 Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, 

 Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hamp- 

 shire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, 

 North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsyl- 

 vania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Ver- 

 mont, Washington and Wisconsin. Besides 

 the scientific value of these observations, this 

 work is of practical utility to engineers and 

 surveyors, and particularly to those interested 

 in retracing old property lines. In the early 

 days and even more recently these lines were 

 run with the compass almost exclusively and to 

 rerun them a knowledge of the variation of the 



