HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



43 



A necessary adjunct to these observations is the 

 movable floor, which rises and falls by means of 

 hydraulic pressure. A simple but ingenious con- 

 trivance, invented by Professor Holden, closes and 

 opens the great shutters as easily as though they were 

 a pair of curtains. The whole of the astronomical 

 establishment and observatory is an isolated com- 

 munity, miles from any sign of life. Frequently in 

 winter the mail stage is delayed from a few days to a 

 week, and no communication or food can be carried 

 to the inmates of the observatory, the snow being 

 many feet deep and the roads impassable. ,The 

 colony of astronomers and workpeople number be- 

 tween thirty and forty persons, and eight or nine 

 families. Food supplies have to be transported by 

 stage from San Jose, twenty-eight miles distant. 

 Water is supplied by four reservoirs situated within 

 walking distance of the observatory. 



The oddest expedition that ever set out for the 

 interior of Africa is probably the one Professor Garner 

 is undertaking with a view to studying monkey talk 

 scientifically. His outfit includes phonographs, tele- 

 phones, photographic apparatus, an electric telegraph, 

 and a set of taxidermist's tools ; but the queerest 

 thing of all is an aluminium cage, in which the Pro- 

 fessor intends to ensconce himself in the midst of a 

 gorilla forest, in order to hold court among the 

 monkeys. Knowing their fondness for admiring their 

 reflections in mirrors, he is taking some along with 

 him. 



The United States Consul-General at Frankfort, 

 in a recent report, describes what he calls the most 

 momentous experiment in technical electricity ever 

 made since electricity has been rendered serviceable 

 to mankind. The object was to create a current of 

 200 or 300 horse-power by a dynamo driven by 

 water-power at Lauffen, on the Neckar, 10S miles 

 south of Frankfort, " convert it into a current of in- 

 tense pressure by specially-devised transformers, trans- 

 mit it to the Frankfort Exhibition, there re-transform 

 it to a current of ordinary pressure, and in that form 

 apply it to motive and lighting purposes." It is said 

 that fully seventy -five per cent, of the energy created 

 in Lauffen is available in Frankfort; part of the 

 current thus secured is used to illuminate 1,200 arc 

 lights, while the remainder drives a rotary pump 

 which draws water from the Main and forces it to the 

 top of an artificial hill, whence it tumbles as a waterfall 

 on the Exhibition grounds. 



The 'medals and funds given at the anniversary 

 meeting of the Geological Society, on February 19th, 

 were awarded as follows : The Wollaston Medal to 

 BaronFerdinandvonRichthofen; the Murchison Medal 

 to Prof. A..H. Green, F.R.S. ; and the Lyell Medal to 

 Mr. George H. Morton ; the balance of the proceeds 

 of the Wollaston Fund to Mr. 0. A. Derby ; that of 

 the Murchison Fund to Mr. Beeby Thompson ; that 



of the Lyell Fund to Mr. E. A. Walford and Mr. J. 

 W. Gregory ; and a portion of the Barlow-Jameson 

 Fund to Prof. C. Mayer-Eymar. 



We confess to a ;weakness for second-hand book 

 catalogues, and none comes more welcomely than 

 Messrs. Pickering and Chatto's " Book-Lovers' Leaf- 

 let." No. 50 (December) is delightful. 



Sir Robert Ball, in an article on the new astronomy 

 in the Fortnightly Review, is justifiably enthusiastic on 

 the triumphs of spectroscopic photography in extend- 

 ing our knowledge of the heavens. The movements 

 of the stars in a direct line to or from us, which were 

 not noticeable on merely telescopic examination, are 

 now measured with wonderful exactness. Stars at 

 such a distance that if they were brought ten times 

 nearer us they would still be too far away for 

 measurement iby the ordinary processes of the ob- 

 servatory, have now their diameter guaged. It is a 

 noteworthy epoch in the history of astronomy when, 

 for the first time, we are able to apply the celestial 

 callipers to guage the diameter of a star. Who would 

 have predicted, some few years ago, that the spectro- 

 scope was to be the instrument to which we should be 

 indebted for the means of putting a measuring-tape 

 round the girth of a star ? Of the dark satellite of 

 the variable star Algol so much has been deduced by 

 the aid of the new spectroscopic methods that Sir 

 Robert Ball is able to say : " Here is an object which 

 we have never seen, and apparently never can expect 

 to see, but yet we have been able not only to weigh 

 it and to measure it, but also to determine its 

 movements." 



THE experiments with sulphate copper as a remedy 

 for potato disease are described in full in the last 

 Quarterly Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. 

 So, likewise, are the experiments of Sir John Lawes 

 and Dr. Gilbert relating to the origin and preparation 

 of nitrogen, etc., in the soil. 



Dr. Pfeiffer, son-in-law of Prof. Koch, is stated to 

 have discovered the microbe of Influenza. Let us 

 hope he will be more successful in dealing with it than 

 his marital relative was with that of Tuberculosis, of 

 which we now hear very little. 



Dr. Marey, the eminent French physiologist, has 

 been studying the flight of insects by photochrono- 

 graphy, an arrangement which allows the exposures 

 of the photographic plates to be made so short as 

 I "25,000 of a second. His observations indicate that 

 the wings of insects in flight, by meeting obliquely the 

 resistance of the air in to-and-fro movements, act in a 

 very similar manner to the sculls used to propel 

 boats. 



Science is looking up. In Sir William Thom- 

 son's worthy elevation to the Peerage, the nation has 

 at length recognised the fact that science is worth as 



