226 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 972 



Peofessoe Vladimie Kaeapetoff, professor 

 of electrical engineering at Cornell Univer- 

 sity, has started on a trip for the purpose of 

 visiting hydro-electric developments and high- 

 tension power transmission plants. He es- 

 pects to visit the recent development on the 

 Mississippi Eiver at Keokuk, Iowa, and then 

 go to Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, 

 San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, and to 

 attend the Pacific Convention of the Amer- 

 ican Institute of Electrical Engineers in Van- 

 couver, B. C, September 9-13. 



A French Arctic expedition, headed by 

 Jules von Payer, sailed on August 10 for the 

 purpose of exploring and gathering scientific 

 data in Franz Josef Land. 



Undee the auspices of the Edinburgh Math- 

 ematical Society, a colloquium was held in 

 Edinburgh from August 4 to 9, when courses 

 of lectures were given on " Relativity and the 

 new physical ideas of space and time," by 

 Professor Conway; on "Non-Euclidean geom- 

 etry," by Dr. Sommerville, and on " Harmonic 

 and periodogram analysis," by Professor 

 Whittaker. 



A BRONZE panel has been unveiled at Lugar, 

 Ayrshire, Scotland, in memory of William 

 Murdoch, one of the inventors of coal-gas 

 lighting. The panel, which takes the form of 

 a life-size portrait medallion in bold relief, 

 was placed on the wall of the cottage in which 

 Murdoch was born. 



The last legislature of the state of Pennsyl- 

 vania appropriated $100,000 for the control of 

 the chestunt bark disease during the bienniiun 

 1913-14. Governor Tener, after consulting 

 with the Chestnut Tree Blight Commission, 

 felt that this sum was inadequate for their 

 task, and vetoed the appropriation. It is ex- 

 pected, ' however, that all the research work of 

 the commission will be continued, in coopera- 

 tion with the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



The Independent quotes the following items 

 from its issue of fifty years ago : 



Professor Woleott Gibbs, an able chemist, has 

 been chosen Eumford professor at Harvard Uni- 

 versity. Columbia College a year or two since 

 refused to appoint him to a chemical professor- 



ship. Because he did not understand chemistry? 

 No; because he was a Unitarian! This is as if 

 you should refuse to get your clothes of the best 

 tailor because he did not make jack knives to suit 

 you. 



Mr. Cyrus W. Field has gone to England in 

 furtherance of his favorite Atlantic Telegraph 

 enterprise. Both ends of the proposed telegraph 

 line are to be under the control of England. No 

 American is a real friend of his country who wiU 

 give a cent to help England at present to such a 

 tremendous military engine as that. 



The appointment of Professor C. F. Mar- 

 vin as chief of the weather bureau of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture made by the Presi- 

 dent of the United States was noted in Science 

 last week. Before the secretary of agriculture 

 nominated Professor Marvin for this position 

 he had carefully considered a large number of 

 names suggested from all sources and had 

 sought the advice of a number of university 

 administrators and scientific men and had 

 asked the National Academy of Sciences to 

 make recommendations. A committee of the 

 National Academy gave the matter very care- 

 ful consideration and its opinions were com- 

 municated to the secretary, who since has ex- 

 pressed his appreciation of this assistance. 

 The committee of the National Academy of 

 Sciences unanimously recommended the ap- 

 pointment of Professor Marvin. Meanwhile, 

 the department, through its own sources of 

 information, had come to the conclusion that 

 Professor Marvin was the best man available 

 for the position. Professor Charles F. Marvin 

 was born in Putnam, Ohio, October 7, 1858. 

 He graduated in mechanical engineering from 

 the Ohio State University in 1883. He was 

 instructor in mechanical and physical labora- 

 tory practise at this university for some time. 

 He was appointed on the civilian corps of the 

 signal service in 1884. On July 1, 1891, he 

 was transferred to the Department of Agricul- 

 ture when the weather bureau service was 

 transferred, and was professor of meteorology. 

 Professor Marvin has made important investi- 

 gations of anemometers for the measurement 

 of wind velocities and pressures, and on experi- 

 ments conducted by him the tables used by the 

 weather bureau for deducing the moisture in 



