SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



307 



METEOROLOGICAL EXHIBITION. 



'T^HE Royal Meteorological Society recently held 

 an important Exhibition of Meteorological 

 Instruments in use in 1837 and 1897, in commemora- 

 tion of the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the 

 Queen. It is only natural to expect that the space 

 of sixty years should develop some remarkable 

 improvements in this class of scientific instruments. 

 That such improvements have taken place was 

 very fully demonstrated by the collection we are 

 now noticing. It was probably as complete as 

 could have been got together. Still, when we 

 consider the enormous strides which some other 

 branches of science have made during the same 

 sixty years, it seems remarkable how compara- 

 tively slow has been the progress of meteorology, 

 taking into account its vast importance to the 

 human race. We fully recognize the difficulties 

 encountered by the meteorologists on every side, 

 and the perpetual recurrence of the element of 

 apparent accident brought about by conflicting 

 influences from unexpected quarters. After ex- 

 amining the score and a-half exhibits representing 

 the instruments in use when the Queen ascended 

 the throne, and then looking over those of most 

 recent construction, one cannot help feeling that in 

 1837 ^^^ general idea was nearly as far advanced 

 as at the present time. The chief addition to 

 the new instruments are for cloud observation, 

 which is receiving greater attention now. This is 

 probably to be attributed to the immensely ad- 

 vanced condition of the science of photography. 



The exhibition was opened on Tuesday, March 

 i6th, and held in the large library of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, 

 Westminster, S.W. The instruments which were 

 in use in 1837, ^s might be supposed, were not very 

 numerous, but many of them were somewhat quaint 

 and of great interest. Sir E. H. Verney, Bart., 

 showed an old barometer with a large spirit 

 thermometer, which latter had an arbitrary scale, 

 decreasing as the temperature increases, " extream 

 cold " being 90° and " extream hot "0°. A 

 curious instrument of the olden time was shown by 

 the Society itself, to whom it belongs. This was the 

 large cistern barometer which was made by R. C. 

 Woods in 1837 for the Meteorological Society of 

 London. The proportion of the calibre of the tube to 

 that of the cistern is as 1-50, a proportion which 

 was considered sufficient to obviate the necessity of 

 applying capacity corrections. The tube and 

 cistern originally held 70 lbs. of mercury. Mr. 

 G. J. Symons, F.R.S., exhibited an original centi- 

 grade thermometer by Gay Lussac. 



The instruments in use in 1897 were very 

 numerous, and comprised various forms of 

 barometers, thermometers, hygrometers, rain- 

 gauges, anemometers, nephoscopes, sunshine 



recorders, actinometers, aneroids, electrical and 

 miscellaneous instruments. Many of the instru- 

 ments were self-recording and were shown in action. 

 The most interesting exhibit was a railed-off 

 enclosure, about twelve feet square, covered with 

 green baize, representing a typical climatological 

 station of the Royal Meteorological Society. This 

 included a Stevenson thermometer screen, fitted 

 with dry bulb, wet bulb, maximum and minimum 

 thermometers, rain-gauge, solar and terrestrial 

 radiation thermometers, sunshine recorder and 

 earth-thermometer, all of which were placed in situ. 

 The exhibition also included a number of charts 

 and photographs which were of great interest, par- 

 ticularly those, by Mr. J. Leadbeater, of ice-crystals 

 on window-panes. These photographs were of great 

 beauty, exhibiting some of the striking dendritic 

 patterns assumed by ice-crystals. They appeared 

 to develop definite types which, though frequently 

 related, were remarkable for their divergence from 

 each other. Mr. W. H. Dines showed an experiment 

 illustrating the formation of the tornado-cloud, 

 and Mr. Birt Acres exhibited some exceedingly 

 interesting studies of form and movement of 

 clouds and waves projected on the screen by his 

 cinematoscope. 



ABNORMAL ORANGES. 



OEVERAL correspondents have consulted us 



O 



recently about an abnormal growth of orange 



fruit, said, in each instance, to come from California. 

 Writing on March 2nd last, Mr, Eldon Pratt, 

 of Northerndene, Streatham Common, near 

 London, says, "We have recently had several 

 fine oranges, said to be Californian ; they are 

 quite as large as the "Jaffa ' fruit, and much 

 the same shape, with thick peel. Each shows at 

 its distal end, that farthest from the end of attach- 

 ment, through a small aperture in the outer peel, 

 bounded by thin edges, another smaller orange. 

 On section it was evident that a complete im- 

 mature orange was present, well developed, and 

 about the size of a small tangerine. It was quite 

 easy to entirely enucleate it, leaving a somewhat 

 conical cavity. The "mother" orange was com- 

 pletely developed, very juicy, and in all cases, I 

 think, pipless. Is this peculiar ? At any rate, I 

 thought it worth recording." Another correspon- 

 dent sends, for our inspection, a couple of these 

 supplementary fruit, which are much of the same 

 character as those described by Mr. Eldon Pratt. 

 He, however, draws our attention to a long cord- 

 like connection between the small and the larger, 

 or host-fruit, and suggests, we think properly, that 

 they are probably placentse connecting the two. 

 Can any one tell our readers anything about 

 this apparently frequent "sport" in Californian 

 oranges ? — [Ed.] 



