82 SCIENCE. 
receive photographic instruction. Each of them will 
be required to perform at least ten hours’ work, di- 
vided into five days of two hours each. 
Some experience has already been attained in teach- 
ing photography upon a small scale (last year this 
department had sixteen students); but, should the 
present venture prove a successful one, it is hoped it 
may be adopted by other colleges, and that photog- 
raphy may in the future come to be regarded as a 
necessary portion of every professional man’s college 
education. Wo. H. PICKERING. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
Ir is generally known that Williams college secured 
a table early last year at Dohrn’s international station 
at Naples. The table may be occupied by any Amer- 
ican scientific scholar recommended by the faculty 
of the college. Any one wishing to use the table 
should send an application to President Carter, and 
the application should be accompanied by evidence 
of ability to improve the unrivalled facilities for 
original investigation afforded at Naples. 
Each occupant is expected, soon after his return, 
to give a brief course of lectures at Williamstown 
on some subject connected with zodlogical work. 
The lectures by the first occupant, Dr. Edmund B. 
Wilson, formerly fellow in the Johns Hopkins univer- 
sity, are to be given in January and February. 
In assigning the table, any regular graduate of Wil- 
liams college will be recognized as entitled to preced- 
ence; but, in case no graduate of the college worthy 
of the honor is an applicant for the position, the ap- 
pointment will be determined as far as possible by 
distinction already attained. The successful appli- 
cant will be at once informed of his appointment, and 
his name communicated to Science and the American 
naturalist for publication. 
The table is at present used by Dr. Samuel F. Clarke, 
professor of natural history in Williams college, but 
will probably be vacated on or before April 1, 1884. 
— The department of the interior, at the request of. 
the Italian government, has issued a circular, calling 
attention to the Bufalini prize of five thousand lire 
for an essay on the experimental method in science, 
and giving the conditions under which writers must 
compete. The character of the essay may be gath- 
ered from the following extract from Bufalini’s will: — 
‘* Let the learned consider, therefore, whether they can pardon 
me for daring to appeal to them ten years after my death, and 
after that every twenty years, to solve the following problem: 
the necessity of the experimental method in arriving at the 
truth and the relation of all the sciences being assumed, it is re- 
quired to demonstrate in a first part how far the said method is 
to be used in every scientific argument, and, in a second part, to 
what extent each of the sciences has availed itself thereof during 
the time that has elapsed since the last competition for a prize, 
and how they may be brought to a more faithful and complete 
observance of the method itself.” 
— According to Nature, a meeting was recently 
held in Sheffield for the purpose of carrying out, in 
connection with Firth college, a proposed technical 
department having reference to the trade of the dis- 
trict. Among those who spoke were Mr. Mundella 
[Vox. IIL, N 
and Dr. Sorby; and all agreed as to the desirability — 
of establishing such a department, and the necessity — 
of educating the captains as well as the privates of — 
industry in the principles of their crafts. For that, 
Mr. Mundella insisted, is the true technical educa- 
tion. He gave the experience of a friend who has ~ 
just been visiting the United States, and inspected — 
the means for technical education existing there. 
The distinct conclusion was, ‘‘that there is more 
skill and intelligence in American industrial pursuits 
than there is in our English industrial pursuits.’ 
— At the meeting of the Institution of civil engi- 
neers, Noy. 27, the paper read was on ‘The new | 
Eddystone lighthouse,’ by Mr. William Tregarthen — 
Douglass. 
The necessity for the construction of a new light- 
house on the Eddystone rocks had arisen in conse- 
quence of the faulty state of the gneiss rock on which 
Smeaton’s tower was erected, and the frequent eclips- 
ing of the light by heavy seas during stormy weather. 
The latter defect was of little importance for many 
years after the erection of Smeaton’s lighthouse, when 
individuality had not been given to coast-lights; but, 
with the numerous coast and ship lights now visible 
on the seas surrounding this country, a reliable dis- 
tinctive character for every coast-light had become a 
necessity. The tower of the new Eddystone is a con- 
cave elliptic frustum, with a diameter of 37 feet at the 
bottom, standing on a cylindrical base 44 feet in di- 
ameter and 22 feet high, the upper surface forming — 
a landing platform 2 feet 6 inches above high water. 
The cylindrical base prevents in a great measure the 
rise of heavy seas to the upper part of the tower, and 
has the further advantage of affording a convenient 
landing-platform, thus adding considerably to the 
opportunities of relieving the lighthouse. With the 
exception of the space occupied by the fresh-water 
tanks, the tower is solid for 25 feet 6 inches above 
high-water spring-tides. At the top of the solid por- 
tion the wall is 8 feet 6 inches thick, diminishing to 
2 feet 3 inches in the thinnest part of the service-room. 
All the stones are dovetailed both horizontally and 
vertically, as at the Wolf Rock lighthouse. Each 
stone of the foundation-courses was sunk to a depth 
of not less than 1 foot below the surface of the sur- 
rounding rock, and was further secured by two Muntz- 
metal bolts 14 inches in diameter, passing through the — 
stone and 9 inches into the rock below, the top and 
bottom of each stone being fox-wedged. ‘The tower 
contains nine rooms, the seven uppermost having a — 
diameter of 14 feet and a height of 10 feet. These — 
rooms are fitted up for the accommodation of the — 
jight-keepers and the stores necessary for the effi- 
cient maintenance of the lights. They are rendered 
as far as possible fireproof, the floors being of granite ~ 
covered with slate. The stairs and partitions are of 
iron, and the windows and shutters of gun-metal. 
The oil-rooms contain eighteen wrought-iron cisterns 
capable of storing 4,300 galions of oil; and the water- | 
tanks hold, when full, 4,700 gallons. The masonry 
consists of 2,171 stones, containing 62,133 cubic feet 
of granite, or 4,663 tons. The focal plane of the up- 
