December 1, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



769 



thirty-four papers of popular interest on vari- 

 ous branches of science, also biographies of a 

 number of prominent scientific men who have 

 recently died. Some of the papers are orig- 

 inal, while others are reprinted from foreign 

 and domestic scientific and technical period- 

 icals. The following statement of the con- 

 tents has been sent from the institution. 



A review of modern progress in aviation is 

 ably recorded by the late eminent aeronautical 

 authority, Mr. Octave Chanute. His paper 

 covers the principal advances made in avia- 

 tion, beginning with the experiments of Hiram 

 Maxim in 1894, and including Langley's ex- 

 periments, 1898-1903, the author's own inves- 

 tigations, the work of the Wrights, Dumont, 

 de Lagrange, Farman, Bleriot, Bell, Curtiss 

 and others, bringing the subject down to the 

 close of the year 1909. Altogether it is a 

 most interesting review, illustrated with 19 

 plates and several text figures. 



Mr. F. H. Newell, director of the Reclama- 

 tion Service, sets forth the recent progress in 

 the reclamation of the arid lands in the west- 

 ern states. The work of reclamation includes 

 all the western states and territories, where 

 nearly 10,000 families are being supplied with 

 water. Through this great undertaking, the 

 waste waters of the west are being conserved, 

 destructive floods prevented, apparently value- 

 less lands converted into productive farms, 

 and thousands of families settled in newly 

 opened territory where they are maintaining 

 homes on reclaimed land. Besides engineer- 

 ing with its business and financial problems, 

 the article deals with many other subjects, 

 such as the character of settlers, the size of 

 farms, crops, etc., and the individual projects 

 which together furnish water for about 1,000,- 

 000 acres, nearly one half of which is already 

 settled. 



A kindred topic is the great electric power 

 plant at Keokuk, Iowa, with its 4,278-foot con- 

 crete dam across the Mississippi Eiver between 

 Keokuk, Iowa, and Hamilton, HI. This sub- 

 ject is treated by Mr. Chester M. Clark, in 

 a well-illustrated article entitled, " Electric 

 Power from the Mississippi Eiver." The 

 paper shows the development of the largest 



single hydro-electric plant in existence, through 

 the construction of what is undoubtedly the 

 greatest bank-to-bank dam in the world. 



Under the heading of physics. Dr. T. Thome 

 Baker has written an account of experiments 

 and researches in the telegraphy of photo- 

 graphs, transmitted by both the wire and the 

 wireless systems; Mr. Jean Becquerel, pro- 

 fessor at the Museum of Natural History of 

 Paris, has permitted the translation of his 

 valuable paper on " Modern Ideas on the Con- 

 stitution of Matter," comparing the old the- 

 ories of matter with the newer ones recently 

 confirmed by experiments ; and Professor E. A. 

 Millikan has abridged his treatise on " The 

 Isolation of an Ion," which deals with the 

 exact measurement of an elemental electrical 

 charge and several analogous problems. 



On the testing of explosives. Dr. Charles E. 

 Munroe, professor of chemistry at George 

 Washington University, and a well-known 

 authority on explosives, has written an inter- 

 esting paper on the " Modern Developments in 

 Methods of Testing Explosives." 



Charles G. Abbot, director of the Astro- 

 physical Observatory of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, contributes an article on the re- 

 cently developed subject of astrophysics, which 

 is a study of celestial physics, but pertains 

 principally to the heat and other physical 

 properties of the sun. The paper relates to 

 " The Solar Constant of Eadiation," a topic 

 on which Mr. Abbot is well informed, having 

 pursued studies in that direction for nearly 

 sixteen years, at the Smithsonian observatory 

 in Washington, and on Mount Whitney and 

 Mount Wilson, California. In this article the 

 author deals with the problem of measuring 

 the amount of solar heat received by the earth 

 and that lost in transit to it, and the reader 

 finds himself amazed at the obvious facts and 

 reasonable possibilities depending upon the 

 heat from the sun. The subject of astro- 

 physics is further treated by Messrs. Curtiss, 

 Deslandres and Bosler, in three timely articles. 



Under the title " What is Terra Firma ? " 

 Mr. Bailey Willis, of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, attacks the old, yet modern, problem 

 of the construction and balance of our globe, 



