November 14, 1884.] 



SCIENCE. 



465 



war a balloon will be able to reach the enemy's terri- 

 tory, and ascend again, without requiring a fresh 

 supply of gas. 



— Weill, who has spent many years on his ex- 

 periments, has, it is said, at last succeeded in coating 

 instantaneously all the ordinary metals and their 

 alloys with a thin film of brass, which can be varied 

 in color. He uses only a single battery-cell, and 

 obtains at will solid deposits of various hues and bril- 

 liancy. The tints are stated to be due to the forma- 

 tion of copper oxides, the composition of which has 

 not yet been determined. 



— Nature states that the Globus reports the dis- 

 covery of the ruins of an ancient city near Samar- 

 kand. They are situated upon a hill which was 

 doubtless a fortress formerly. Eemains of utensils 

 and human bones have also been found. According 

 to Arabian sources, the large city of Aphrosiab existed 

 there in tbe time of Moses : it was the royal resi- 

 dence ; and the king's castle stood on the hill, and was 

 provided with subterranean corridors. The result of 

 the excavations shows that the ruins are indeed those 

 of a very ancient city. The various depths, however, 

 differ widely. In the lower ones fine glass objects 

 are found, which are quite absent from the upper 

 ones. The lowest layers contain remains of a very 

 primitive nature, i.e., coarse implements of clay and 

 flint. The excavations are being continued. News 

 from Turkestan announces the discovery of another 

 ancient city, Achsy, on the right bank of the Amu 

 Darya. Eemains of brick walls and other buildings 

 are said to be visible in considerable numbers. 



— The December number of the monthly meteor- 

 ological charts of the North Atlantic, described in 

 Science, iii. 654, was recently issued by the Hydro- 

 graphic office, completing the set. It is announced 

 that work in a similar direction has been begun for 

 the South Atlantic. 



The November number of the North Atlantic 

 pilot chart is also just published. The bark Ethel 

 Blanche continues its zigzag way across the ocean, 

 being now reported for the sixth time. Two storm- 

 tracks are charted, one of tropical origin, noteworthy 

 in not advancing west of longitude 58° west, before 

 turning to the north-east: the other storm seems to 

 have left our shores near Charleston, and then spent 

 four days in turning round a sharp loop, and recross- 

 ing its path, before finally moving away to the north- 

 east. 



— After thirty-three years of duty, Gen. Isaac F. 

 Quimby has been compelled by ill health to retire 

 from the professorship of mathematics and natural 

 philosophy at the University of Eochester. 



— Ensign J. J. Blandin, U.S.N., has been ordered 

 by the navy department to the Johns Hopkins uni- 

 versity, for a course of study in physics and chemis- 

 try. 



— L. E. Hammersly & Co. of Philadelphia an- 

 nounce a work on Indian sign-language, by the late 

 Capt. W. P. Clark, U.S.A.; and E. & F. N. Spon 

 announce a practical treatise on the manufacture of 

 bricks, tiles, terra-cotta, etc., by Charles Thomas 



Davis; also a new book by I. Lothian Bell, entitled 

 ' Principles of the manufacture of iron and steel, 

 with some notes on the economic condition of their 

 production.' 



— Capt. Kostovich of the Russian navy proposes 

 the use of a small captive balloon, to which an Edison 

 lamp is suspended, for night signalling. By the aid 

 of connecting-wires, the lamp may be lighted and ex- 

 tinguished at will, and the apparatus may thus be 

 used with any of the codes in vogue. 



— The report on the prizes offered by the Berlin 

 royal academy of sciences was read at the July meet- 

 ing. The Steiner prize for geometry was not granted, 

 as no essay reached the required standard of excel- 

 lence: the grant was therefore postponed until March 

 1, 1886, when it will be offered for the best geometri- 

 cal treatise written in German, Latin, or French. 

 One prize has, however, been accorded to Professor 

 Fiedles of the Zurich polytechnic school, for his work 

 in geometry. The subject for the Cothenius prize 

 is, "By personal experiment and chemical research 

 to ascertain the assimilation process of plants in 

 light, and by direct proof show in the plant-fibres 

 the primary assimilation products of the carbon in 

 plants, distinguishing them from the similar products 

 of transformation in the change of matter in the 

 cells, and showing its chemical nature." As some 

 approximate solution of the problem, a clear demon- 

 stration will be accepted of the present ideas on the 

 assimilation process of plants, and the primary organ- 

 ic generations thereof by repetition of the series of 

 observations and researches already made, and an im- 

 portant extension or limitation thereof. The Diez 

 prize of the academy, of two thousand marks, has been 

 granted to Professor Pio Eajna of Florence, for his 

 work on the origin of the French epic. 



— It is reported, says the Engineer, that the atten- 

 tion of the Indian government has been drawn to a 

 tree in southern India, from which large supplies of 

 caoutchouc can be drawn. This is the 'Teichmig' 

 of the Chinese, or Prameria glandulifera of botanists. 

 Unlike the South-American tree, from which the 

 caoutchouc is tapped by piercing the bark, the gum 

 is obtained from the new source by breaking the 

 boughs, and drawing it out in filaments. If the new 

 caoutchouc is at all equal to the old in insulating- 

 properties, it will form a timely discovery; for the in- 

 troduction of electric lighting has created an increased 

 demand for india-rubber coated wires. Indeed, sev- 

 eral inventors have lately been engaged in trying to 

 manufacture a substitute for gutta-percha and india- 

 rubber out of oxidized oils; that is to say, oils treated 

 with chloride of sulphur, mixed with asphalt, ozoke- 

 rit, and other insulating substances. 



— The effect produced by Mr. Selim Lemstrom in 

 his experiments on the artificial production of the 

 aurora is well shown in the illustration on the next 

 page, from a drawing by Mr. Lemstrom. On the top 

 of the mountain a wire was stretched on poles, and 

 furnished at every foot or two with brass points. 

 This wire was several miles in length, and was car- 

 ried over the top of the hill in the form of a spiral. 



