SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, MARCH 9, li 



The address of Maj. J. W. Powell on evolution in civilized 

 man, delivered before the Anthropological Society of Washington 

 on Tuesday evening, a full abstract of which is given in our Wash- 

 ington letter, will be found interesting and important. It will be 

 seen that Major Powell rejects the doctrines of evolution as applied 

 to the development of civilized man by the Spencerian school of 

 philosophers. He presents his argument in his usual lucid and 

 forcible manner, and illustrates each point copiously. This address 

 is more popular in its character than either of Major Powell's pre- 

 vious papers on the same subject, but as a scientific discussion 

 of an important scientific question, it is, in our estimation, the best 

 •of the series. 



The latest reports received by the Hydrographic Office 

 about the logs of the great raft abandoned south of Nantucket 

 about two and one-half months ago, prove, that, though they are 

 now widely separated, their general drift has been in an east-south- 

 east direction, the logs being found a little to the southward of this 

 line. That they were not carried more to the northward and east- 

 ward by the Gulf Stream, as would be expected, was probably due 

 to the strong north-west winds which prevailed during the latter 

 part of December and the first part of January. Fortunately, no 

 vessel has been disabled by collision with them, although the Ger- 

 man bark ' Bremen,' which was in company with the logs for five 

 days, in latitude 39" north, longitude 62° west, had her sheathing 

 torn and rudder injured. 



The New York Academy of Sciences was organized in 1817 

 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is fourth in point of age 

 among American scientific societies. The name and constitution 

 were changed in 1876. ' The Annals,' begun in 1824, have been 

 distributed in all lands, and have given world-wide reputation to 

 the society. The Transactions, begun in 1881, give a record of the 

 meetings, papers, and discussions, are published in monthly or bi- 

 monthly numbers, and make an octavo volume each year. The 

 library now numbers over eight thousand titles, and is especially 

 rich in sets of the publications of foreign societies. It is now on 

 deposit in the Library Building of Columbia College, and is accessi- 

 ble to the public from 8 a.m. to lo p.m. every day of the year e.Kcept 

 Sundays. The cabinet was destroyed by fire in 1866. Previous to 

 that date it was the principal collection in the city, and did a noble 

 work. The academy has long looked forward to the time when it 

 could secure a building of its own, such as the corresponding 

 societies in Boston and Philadelphia have long enjoyed. It is not 

 to the credit of New York that its oldest scientific organization, 

 after nearly three-quarters of a century of steady and persever- 

 ing activity, should be still unprovided with a building, while 

 many other cities can show noble monuments of scientific interest 

 and public spirit. Why should not the recent meeting of the 

 American Association in this city be permanently commemorated 

 by the erection of a fire-proof building for the accommodation of 

 the academy, or perhaps of several other societies under the same 

 roof, — a building which should be at once a benefit and an honor 

 to the metropolis of America ? The interest of the community has 

 been aroused and quickened in the direction of science by the meet- 

 ing of the association, and the Academy of Sciences would now 

 invite the citizens of New York to take a greater interest in its 

 work. 



THE NATIONAL ELECTRIC LIGHT CONVENTION, 



The National Electric Light Association met in Pittsburgh on 

 Feb. 21, and continued in session for three days. The association 

 is mainly made up of representatives of the various arc lighting 

 companies and of the alternating system of incandescent lighting. 

 As Pittsburgh is the headquarters of the Westinghouse Company, 

 and as the Westinghouse Company practically represents just at 

 present the alternating system of electrical distribution, the investi- 

 gation and discussion of the system occupied a considerable part of 

 the time of the convention, although a couple of papers were read 

 on underground electrical conductors, and other subjects were dis- 

 cussed which will be mentioned below. 



The most important paper was by Mr. T. C. Smith, the title be- 

 ing ' The Distribution of Electricity by Alternating Currents.' The 

 alternating system, briefly, consists in distributing the alternating 

 currents at high potential, reducing to the low potential necessary 

 for safety and for the running of incandescent lamps, by means of 

 'transformers,' — that is, induction-coils working backward, — • 

 changing high-potential to low-potential currents. Mr. Smith's 

 paper gave the practical experience he had gained in working with 

 the system, and very frankly told some of the difficulties he had 

 met. With regard to the best way of running the circuits, he says, 

 " The general question as to whether it is better to use separate cir- 

 cuits for separate machines, or to couple them into a general set of 

 ' bus ' wires and distribute from them, is too large to be lightly de- 

 cided ; as also is the question as to whether it is best to run separate 

 circuits for separate districts, or to run into a general system of 

 high-pressure mains outside of the station, feeding into these mains 

 at different pointg, and again distributing from them. . . . There 

 seems to be no doubt that in underground systems the network of 

 high-pressure mains would be best, but for over-head work we have 

 adopted the system of separate circuits from separate dynamos. 

 ... I now come to the question of the placing of the converters ; 

 and for this I think that you may safely lay down the general rule, 

 that, wherever you are simply carrying current, do it at a high 

 potential, and keep your low pressure for purely local distribution. 

 With proper precautions, I do not see that there is any real danger 

 in carrying the high-pressure wires into and through the building. 

 . . . We started in with the idea that it was better, in cases where 

 we had from the number of lights in a building to use more than 

 one converter, to bank them ; that is to say, connect all the prima- 

 ries and all the secondaries in parallel, . . . but two or three pe- 

 culiar experiences have led us to change our plans, and never to do 

 so if it can be easily avoided." 



Following Mr. Smith's paper was one by Mr. Shallenberger, on 

 ' The Energy of Alternating Currents.' The first part of this 

 paper was a description of the ordinary and well-known phenome- 

 na of alternating currents : they have been sufficiently described in 

 a former paper in this journal.' The following, however, is sug- 

 gestive : " The question naturally arises. What effect does this new 

 element of self-induction have on the possibilities of practical meas- 

 urements of alternating currents for commercial work ? " The two 

 cases in which the effect is negligible are, ist, the measurement of 

 the current through an incandescent lamp ; and, 3d, the current 

 supplied to lamps through converters with cores far below satura- 

 tion, and carrying a fair proportion of their full normal load. 

 " There is a third case, however, which arises in practice, in which 

 central station instruments give a somewhat false notion of the 

 actual energy transformed to the circuits ; and this is the one in 

 which a large number of converters are connected to the primary 

 circuit, but with the secondaries open." In this case we may have 

 no energy transformed, " while at the same time a considerable 

 reading might be shown on the current instruments." 



Now, I have quoted from these papers principally because I wish 



^ Abstract of paper on alternating current motors, Science^ Feb. 34, 1888. 



