264 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. 1Y., No. 84. 



equatorially, which had an objective of eight inches 

 aperture, and a focal length of about forty-seven 

 inches. The exposure was over five minutes. 



The diameter of the sun is about three-eighths of 

 an inch, and the coronal outline is in general quite 

 thirty minutes from the sun's limb. Streamers extend 

 more than twice this distance from the limb. ■ 



There is no great amount of detail in this picture, 

 as was to be expected ; and we shall look for the pub- 

 lication of the photographs of shorter exposure with 

 interest. 



One important fact is stated by M. Janssen ; to wit, 

 that, so far as his photographs have been examined, 

 they show no trace of an intra-mercurial planet. 



— Mr. Cochery, the French minister of posts and 

 telegraphs, according to the Science monthly, reports 

 to the French academy of sciences, that there were 

 in France, during the first half of the year 1883 (from 

 the beginning of January to the end of June), the 

 following strokes of lightning. In January there was 

 a stroke injuring a man who carried an open um- 

 brella with metal ribs. In February there were no 

 strokes at all. In March there were four strokes, 

 damaging unprotected buildings and a high oak-tree. 

 In April there were only four strokes, injuring sev- 

 eral persons, some poplar trees, a weathercock, a bell- 

 tower, and an isolated building. In May there were 

 twenty-eight strokes, killing two men, seven cattle, 

 three horses, and injuring several persons and two 

 horses, as well as numerous trees and houses. The 

 trees were oaks, chestnuts, poplars ; and several of 

 the strokes attacked the chimneys of the houses. It 

 is notable that a gilt wooden figure of Christ in front 

 of the church of Bonsecours (Seine inferieure) was 

 struck, although the church has a lightning-rod on 

 it. During the month of June the total number of 

 strokes largely increased ; there being no less than a 

 hundred and thirteen, or from three to four a day. 

 The daily number varied during the month, but was, 

 if any thing, larger at the end than at the beginning 

 of the month. Seven men were killed. About forty 

 persons — men, women, and children — were injured. 

 Some seventy animals were killed, including fifty 

 sheep and a dog. Many trees, oaks, poplars, elms, firs, 

 were struck. A common object struck is the bell of 

 some church, the chimney of some house, or the 

 weathercock of a barn. Some of the strokes were 

 received by the lightning-rods of buildings, and did 

 no harm, except, perhaps, fusing the point of the rod. 

 On the other hand, several accidents to buildings, 

 and in one case death to a horse, occurred within a 

 comparatively short distance of a lightning-rod (from 

 fifty to eighty metres). Isolated trees, and animals 

 under them, appeared to have suffered most. Rain 

 and hail accompanied most of the storms. 



— Mr. Frederick John Smith writes to the Electrical 

 review as follows : — 



" Considerable trouble has been felt by those who are engaged 

 Unpractical problems connected with secondary batteries, aris- 

 ing from imperfections in the cells for holding the dilute acid, 

 and also from the fact that the plates of a charged secondary bat- 

 tery cannot be lifted out of the liquid, in order that any required 

 area may be exposed to the action of the acid, without the rest 



< 1 the reduced lead on the kathode plates being at once acted on 

 by the oxygen of the air. To meet these difficulties, I have car- 

 ried out the following methods : The cells are made of common 

 pottery-ware about two centimetres thick. All sharp corners 

 should be avoided in the moulding of the cells, because they do 

 not stand the process of cooling well, while rounded corners 

 seldom crack during cooling. These rough porous cells are 

 warmed slowly in an oven, to such a temperature that paraffine- 

 wax melts easily when rubbed against them. The cells, on be- 

 ing removed from the oven, are partly filled with paraffine-wax : 

 this is made to run well over the whole inner surface of the cell. 

 As soon as the wax begins to set, it is poured out, and the cell is 

 put away to cool. A cell so made stands acid well ; and the dilute 

 acid does not creep up the sides of the cell, as it does in the 

 common glazed cell. Another method, used at an earlier date 

 than the one just mentioned, was to make deal boxes of the size 

 required, and place inside them card-boxes (held out by sand), 

 so that there was a space of about one centimetre between 

 them. This space was filled with common paraffine-wax; then, 

 the card-box being removed, a perfect lining of wax was left. 

 This method is more costly than the last, but has the advantage of 

 greater strength. The test of two years' constant use has shown 

 that both these forms of secondary battery cells are both prac- 

 tical and lasting. When using a secondary battery in the labora- 

 tory, it would sometimes be convenient to be able to expose only 

 some part of the plates to the action of the dilute acid; but, as 

 things now are, this cannot be done without the part of the plates 

 which are lifted out being at once acted on by the oxygen of the 

 air. To prevent this action taking place, the plates are drawn 

 out of the liquid into the vapor of benzol (after several ex- 

 periments with different gases, this appeared to answer well, and 

 to be easily managed). By this means the injurious action men- 

 tioned is prevented, and any required amount of surface of plate 

 may be exposed to the action of the dilute acid." 



— The Revue scientifique states, that, notwithstand- 

 ing the ravages caused by the Phylloxera, France is 

 the country which furnishes commerce with the great- 

 est quantity of wine. Of the hundred and fifteen 

 millions of hectolitres produced by Europe in 1881, 

 France furnished thirty-four millions; while the 

 average from Italy, Spain, and Austrian Hungary 

 was only from twenty to twenty-five millions, and 

 that of Germany, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Rouina- 

 nia, and Switzerland, varied from four millions in 

 Portugal, to one million in Switzerland. At present 

 France supplies its lack of harvest by importing wines 

 which it again exports, doctored, and mixed with its 

 own. It receives wines especially from Spain, Italy, 

 Portugal, and Greece. It treats the settlings, the 

 residuum of the native harvest, with sugar, alcohol, 

 and water, and thus makes wines known as the 

 ' second vat.' It also makes wine of raisins received 

 from neighboring high countries and from Syria. To 

 the raisins, softened in water, sugar and alcohol are 

 added, one kilogram of raisins yielding from three to 

 four litres of a harmless wine. This manufacture is 

 carried on especially at Marseilles, at Cette, at Bor- 

 deaux, and at Bercy. The importation of raisins into 

 France amounts to seventy thousand tons, represent- 

 ing thirty eight million francs: these raisins give 

 about three million hectolitres of wine. The wines 

 of the second vat amount to about the same quan- 

 tity. 



— Victor Giraud writes from Karema in good 

 health. He had spent a month on Lake Bangweolo, 

 where several errors of the charts of Livingstone were 

 corrected, among others the position of the Luapulu 

 River, which really comes out of the south-west part 

 of the lake, instead of the north-west. This part of 



