September 26, 1884.] 



SCIENCE 



331 



Several times during the trip, the balloon underwent 

 oscillations of from two to three degrees, resembling 

 pitching; these oscillations were attributed either to 



irregularities in the shape, or to currents of local air 

 rising vertically." The balloon is 50.42 metres long, 

 and 8.40 metres in diameter. The course taken, 

 shown in accompanying map, was 7.6 kilometres 

 long, and was finished in twenty-three minutes. 



— We learn from the New- York branch Hydro- 

 graphic office, that the bark Stillwater, Capt. Gou- 

 dey, from Manilla to New York, passed through 

 vast quantities of floating pumice from May 3 to 

 25 last, on its course frjm the Straits of Sunda until 

 off Madagascar. From the 3d to the 8th (when in 

 lat. 11° 49' S., long. 95° E. ), the pumice was very 

 plentiful, with many large pieces; from the 10th to 

 the 20th, in less quantity, with smaller pieces; from 

 the 20th to the 25th, it was seen only occasionally, 

 floating in long streaks with the wind. The pieces, 

 up to six or seven inches in diameter, were covered 

 with barnacles, by the weight of which Capt. Goudey 

 thought it would eventually sink. 



— There is hardly any subject in geographical bib- 

 liography so intere>ting to American scholars as the 

 bibliography of Ptolemy's geography; and no one is 

 better qualified than Mr. Justin Winsor to treat of it. 

 His annotated lists of original and augmented text 

 and translations have recently been published as Bul- 

 letin No. 18 of the library of Harvard university. In 

 addition to the titles, a description is given Of every 

 edition which is mentioned, with references to bibliog- 

 raphers' and sales catalogues, and with indications of 

 the American libraries where copies may be found. 

 American collectors have been diligent in their quest 

 for Ptolemies, so much light is thrown by them 



on the cartographic development of the new world. 

 The recent dispersion of the library of Henry C. 

 Murphy has tended to the enrichment of many other 

 libraries. Mr. Winsor mentions that President White 

 of Cornell university has lately added several early 

 editions to his collection. Mr. Winsor' s critical notes 

 are full of important and recondite lore, and deserve 

 a much more careful resume and discussion than our 

 columns can afford. 



— One feature of the year in Europe is the super- 

 abundance of insect life. The roses have been 

 fairly eaten away with green-fly (aphis) ; cockroaches 

 abound, and swarms of dragon-flies are reported in 

 Silesia; on the morning of July 1 the sky is said to 

 have been darkened by them at Eatibor, and on the 

 2d the same appearance was observed for half an 

 hour at Reichenbach, and along the North Sea coast 

 for five miles inland the same thing has occurred. 



— The twenty-fifth general meeting of the German 

 engineers society will be held at Mannheim in Sep- 

 tember, when the most interesting public works, 

 private manufacturing establishments, etc., will be 

 visited by the members. A special committee will 

 report on the law of industrial protection (patent 

 law, registration of trade-marks, etc.), another will 

 report on steam-boilers and engines, and another on 

 the practical education of young engineers. Among 

 the papers to be read is one by Professor Hermann 

 on the graphical treatment of the mechanical theory 

 of heat, another by Mr. L. Post on the industry of 

 Mannheim and surroundings. This society has now 

 fifty-one hundred members, and has twenty-nine 

 branches in various districts. 



— The death of Prof. J. C. Schioedte, a prominent 

 entomologist, and editor of the NaturMstorisk tids- 

 skriH, at Copenhagen, at the age of sixty-nine, is 

 announced. 



— About ten years ago Mr. Krupp of Essen bor- 

 rowed £1,500,000 to be repaid in yearly instalments 

 extending to 1897; arrangements have just been 

 made, however, for repaying within a short time the 

 whole of the sum still remaining undischarged. 

 These great steel-works, which are now in full opera- 

 tion, employ 19,000 work-people in the various 

 departments. 



— The results of Dr. Muller's investigations on the 

 absorption of gases by steel, published in the Journal 

 of the Society of German engineers, have been thus 

 summarized in the Ironmonger: "The gas liberated 

 from steel in the liquid state before solidification is 

 chiefly carbonic oxide. The rising of steel, and con- 

 sequently the formation of blow-holes, is attributed 

 to hydrogen and nitrogen, and to a small extent to 

 carbonic oxide." 



— A new perfect-combustion stove for domestic 

 use has been invented by Mr. Henry Thompson, of 

 Canonbury, England. Externally it resembles the 

 ordinary register-stove, but in its internal construc- 

 tion it widely differs from it. A recess at the back 

 of the Thompson stove is filled with coal at starting; 

 and behind the coal is a vertical hinged plate, which 



