OCTOBEK It!. 1!I03. 



SCIENCE. 



511 



The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company 

 and Dr. Reginald Fessenden, are defendants 

 in two suits for infringement instituted in the 

 United States Circuit Court at Trenton, N. 

 J., on October 5, by the International Wireless 

 Telegraph Company. The plaintiff claims to 

 have purchased from Professor A. Emerson 

 Dolbear, Tufts College, patents for a system 

 of wireless telegraphy granted on October 5, 

 1886. Professor Dolbear in an aiBdavit sets 

 forth that he was the original inventor of the 

 system. He charges that the Marconi Com- 

 pany has been aware of his patent rights and 

 has been repeatedly warned that it was infring- 

 ing them. The International Company seeks 

 an injunction and damages. 



The Stockholm correspondent of the Lon- 

 don Times writes that on September 14 the 

 Swedish expedition in the Frithjof met the 

 French expedition in the Frangdis under Dr. 

 Charcot at Funchal. A letter from a member 

 of the Swedish expedition states that the 

 French ship is very adequately fitted and that 

 the laboratories are extremely well furnished 

 with the best modern instruments. Dr. 

 Charcot has placed himself and his ship at 

 the disposal of Captain Gylden, who is in 

 charge of the Frithjof. and as there is some 

 prospect that the Argentine vessel Uruguay 

 may do the same, the relief expedition will be 

 undertaken with three ships in constant com- 

 munication with each other. Thus there 

 seems every chance of bringing the expedition 

 to a happy and expeditious issue. The 

 Frithjof and the FraiiQais left Funchal to- 

 gether on the evening of September 16 en 

 route for Buenos Ayres. 



A Reuter telegram from Rio de Janeirci 

 states that the Brazilian chamber has adopte<l 

 the third reading of the bill to establish an 

 international stecrable balloon competition to 

 be held at Rio in 1904, for a prize of 200 

 contos of rcis. The scheme has been submit- 

 ted to the senate. 



On the recommendation of Rear Admiral 

 Hae, chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineer- 

 ing, the secretary of the navy has appointed 

 a board consisting of Capt. G. A. Converse, 

 Commodore J. A. Perry and Lieutenant Clc- 



land Davis, to report upon the subject f( 

 training of line officers of the navy in engi- 

 neering. In the order constituting the board, 

 the following instructions are given : The 

 board will consider and report upon the sub- 

 ject of engineering instruction and training 

 for officers of the line of the navy involved in 

 the consolidatioii of the line and Engineering 

 Corps by the Navy Personnel act of Con- 

 gress of March 2, 1899. The board will re- 

 port what plan it considers will best qualify 

 officers for the efficient performance of engi- 

 neering duties. The report will include the 

 recommendations as to : First. The establish- 

 ment of an engineering school for officers, its 

 character, location, administration and gov- 

 ernment. In this connection the board will 

 report as to the availability of the engineering 

 experimental station at Annapolis for this 

 purpose. Second. The period in their pro- 

 fessional career in which officers should re- 

 ceive this instruction. The report will com- 

 prehend all details necessary to a complete 

 understanding of this scheme or any other 

 that the board may propose. The engineering: 

 instruction referred to should insure thor- 

 oughly efficient care, preservation and man- 

 agement of machinery afloat; but it is di- 

 rected that the board also report upon the 

 subject of further instruction in engineering 

 for officers who evince a marked aptitude anil 

 interest in that branch of the profession and 

 who choose to pursue that study as a specialty. 

 The department desires the board to consider 

 what measures should he adopted in order to 

 insure a sufficient number of officers devoting 

 their attention to engineering and whether the 

 status of such officers shall differ in any re- 

 spect from that of line officers in general in the 

 corresponding grades. 



We learn from Nature that the Great West- 

 ern Railway Company now offers facilities, 

 in conjunction with the Swindon Education 

 Committee, to their apprentices to enable them 

 to gain technical scientific knowledge. A 

 limited number of selected students may at- 

 tend day classes at the technical school. They 

 must have spent at least one year in the fac- 

 tory, and must have regularly attended for 



