May io, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



359 



in ten years cost at least $10,000: the sum of $25,000 will provide 

 permanently a handsome building (furniture and all), which will 

 accommodate about fifty persons. The Ramabai Association, 

 with its headquarters in Boston, has the following officers: presi- 

 dent. Rev. Edward E. Hale, D.D.; vice-presidents, Rev. Phillips 

 Brooks, D.D., Rev. George A. Gordon, Miss Frances E. Willard, 

 Mrs. Mary Hemenway, Dean Rachel L. Bodley, M.D. ; treasurer, 

 Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge, jun. ; advisory board of India, Dr. 

 Ramakrishna G. Bhandarkar, Rao Bahadur M. Ranade, Rao Saheb 

 Deshmukh ; corresponding secretary, Miss A. P. Granger, Canan- 

 daigua, N.Y. At a meeting held March 14, 1888, The Ramabai 

 Circle of New York was organized, with the following officers : 

 president, Mrs. Courtlandt Palmer ; secretary, Miss L. S. Cham- 

 bers ; treasurer, Mr. Richard A. Anthony. 



— Hengst's powder, as we learn from the Engmee.rmg and Min- 

 ing Journal, is manufactured from straw properly prepared and 

 chemically treated, and finally converted into a gunpowder of gran- 

 ular form. Its special use lies in the direction of military and 

 sporting purposes, although in its compressed form it will probably 

 be found applicable to blasting operations, inasmuch as, weight 

 for weight, it possesses about 150 per cent greater strength than 

 gunpowder, and it appears to be impossible to explode it by con- 

 cussion. Its action, however, is more rapid and local than that of 

 gunpowder, so that a greatly reduced charge only is required to 

 produce results equal to those produced by that explosive. But, 

 notwithstanding the rapidity of its action, so far as present investi- 

 gation has gone, it would appear to be peculiarly suitable for the 

 two main purposes which Mr. Hengst had in view when inventing 

 it ; namely, military and sporting. In order to test the merits of 

 the powder, a series of trials was recently carried out by Mr. Perry 

 F. Nursey, C.E., at the testing ranges of Messrs. Cogswell & Har- 

 rison, at Harrow. The experiments were made comparative with 

 black powder, and in the trials having reference to military use 

 the government pattern Martini-Henry rifle and ammunition were 

 used. The charge in the case of the black powder was 85 grains, 

 as against 35 grains of Hengst's powder, all other details remain- 

 ing the same. Considering that the latter powder was only pro- 

 duced experimentally and in small quantities, the results were very 

 satisfactory. The velocities, which were taken by chronograph, 

 appear to have been a little lower and a little less uniform than 

 those of the black powder. As regards smokelessness, flameless- 

 ness, non-heating, and non-fouling with the Hengst powder, these 

 points appear, says Iron, to have been set at rest by Mr. Nursey 's 

 experiments. Smoke there was none, says that gentleman's report ; 

 only a puff of light vapor (carbonic gas), which rapidly condensed 

 and disappeared from sight. Flame there was none, so far as the 

 eye could detect in a darkened rifle range, only a faint pale-blue 

 glow being visible at each discharge. Fouling there was none, in 

 the ordinary sense of the word, while a number of rounds fired in 

 rapid succession failed to do more than warm the barrel. An 

 equal number of rounds of black powder similarly fired from the 

 same rifle, cold, heated it considerably. As regards the nature of 

 the report, it appears that in every case there was distinctly less 

 noise with the Hengst than with the black powder. 



— The work of cutting through the Isthmus of Corinth is re- 

 ported by The Builder to suffer under the same financial difficul- 

 ties as the Panama Canal work. A German technical journal 

 states that when the subscription was opened for the carrying-out 

 of the scheme in 1882, estimated to cost thirty million francs, and 

 to be finished in six years, the money was subscribed five times 

 over. In 1887, however, this sum had been expended, and a 

 further sum of thirty million francs was invited. However, up to 

 the present, only a third of this sum has been obtained, and, if no 

 further funds can be obtained, the work on the canal will soon have 

 to be stopped. Hitherto about two-thirds of the earthworks have 

 been executed, but there still remains a great deal to be done ; and 

 it is now stated, that, as the canal will cost twice as much as origi- 

 nally estimated, no profits can be anticipated. 



— At the monthly meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society, 

 on April 17, the following papers were read: "On the Deaths 

 caused by Lightning in England and Wales from 1852 to 1880, as 

 recorded in the Returns of the Registrar-General," by Inspector- 



Gen. R. Lawson, LL.D. The total number of deaths from light- 

 ning during the twenty-nine years amounted to 546, of which 442 

 were of males, and 104 of females. In consequence of their greater 

 exposure, the inhabitants of rural districts suffer more from light- 

 ning than those of towns. It appears, also, that vicinity to the 

 west and south coasts reduces the chances of injury by lightning, 

 and that distance from the coast and high land seems to increase 

 them. " The Diurnal Range of the Barometer in Great Britain and 

 Ireland," by Mr. F. C. Bayard, F. R. Met. Soc. The author has 

 reduced the hourly records of the barometer at the nine observa- 

 tories, Aberdeen, Armagh, Bidston, Falmouth, Glasgow, Green- 

 wich, Kew, Stonyhurst, and Valencia, during the years 1876-80. 

 The curves of inland places are smoother than those of places on 

 the seacoast, and the curves of places to the westward are more 

 irregular than those of places to the eastward. As we go from 

 south to north, the general tendency of the curve is to get flatter 

 with a lessened diurnal range. " Note on a Working Model of the 

 Gulf Stream," by Mr. R. W. Clayden, M.A., F. R. Met. Soc. The 

 author showed this interesting model at work. It has been con- 

 structed to illustrate the formation of ocean-currents in general, 

 and of the Gulf Stream in particular. " On the Rime Frost of 

 Jan. 6 and 7, 1889," by Mr. C. B. Plowright, F.L.S. The author 

 gives an account of the very heavy rime which occurred in the 

 neighborhood of King's Lynn on these days, when the fringe of 

 crystals upon twigs and branches of trees was about two inches in 

 length. The weight was so great that nearly all the telegraph- 

 wires were snapped, and an immense number of branches of trees 

 broken off. 



— We regret to have to record the death of Mr. Warren De la 

 Rue, F.R.S. He was born in 1815, according to Nature, and died 

 on Good Friday, after a short illness from pneumonia. Mr. De la 

 Rue was a most devoted observer and munificent patron of astron- 

 omy, and in him and Balfour Stewart solar physics has lost its chief 

 founders. 



— During the past few years, much attention has been given to 

 the subject of economy in heating greenhouses, and the manufac- 

 turers of steam-heating apparatus have made great efforts to sup- 

 plant the long-established system of hot-water heating. In order 

 to get some facts in regard to this subject, so important to the 

 grower of plants under glass, and gain some positive knowledge as 

 to the relative value of the two systems, two houses were con- 

 structed at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass., 

 during the summer of 1888, 75 by 18 feet, as nearly alike as pos- 

 sible in every particular. Two boilers of the same pattern and 

 make (F. W. Foster, manufacturer, 51 Charlestown Street, Boston, 

 Mass.) were put in, — one fitted for steam, and one for hot water 

 (the steam, for heating the east house ; and hot water, for the west 

 and most exposed one). The boilers were completed and ready 

 for work in November, and were tested until Jan.' 9, 1889, when 

 these experiments began. Records of the temperature of each 

 house were made at 7.30 and at 9 a.m., and 3, 5, and 9 p.m. Suf- 

 ficient coal was weighed out each morning for the day's consump- 

 tion, and the balance not consumed deducted the next morning. 

 The two boilers and fittings were put in so as to cost the same 

 sum, and were warranted to heat the rooms satisfactorily in the 

 coldest weather. As far as could be determined by close examina- 

 tion and weighing, there was about the same proportion of uncon- 

 sumed coal as of that consumed in the ashes from each boiler. 

 The hot-water boiler consumed 720 pounds less coal than the 

 steam-boiler in February, and 688 pounds less in January, — a 

 saving of nearly 20 per cent. At the same time the temperature of 

 the room heated by hot water averaged 1.7° higher than that heated 

 by steam. The temperature was more even where heated by hot 

 water, and consequently there was less danger from sudden cold 

 weather. This was strikingly shown on the night of Feb. 22. The 

 average outside temperature for the day was 34°. At 9 p.m. it was 

 above 32°, and, proper precautions not having been taken for so 

 sudden a change as followed, at 6 o'clock on the morning of the 

 23d the temperature of the room heated by steam was 29°, while 

 in that heated by hot water it was 35°. While this test is con- 

 clusive for the two boilers employed in these two houses as con- 

 structed, and for this unusual winter, in a larger house, and in a 



