498 
— The gunpowder-mills owned by Messrs. W. H. 
Wakefield & Co., near Kendal, Eng., are now lighted 
by the electric lights they being the first works of 
the kind where this ‘mode of illumination has been 
adopted. ‘The works are very extensive, at least two 
miles in length. The dynamo is placed about the 
centre of the works. Very long mains were neces- 
sary, aS each dangerous building is about two hun- 
dred yards from its neighbor. Over head, bare wires 
were found to be the best for conveying the current. 
These were carried on insulators on posts and trees 
along the route, four to eight lamps being necessary 
toeach. The lamps used are the new pattern, twelve- 
candle power Swan lamps. The dynamo runs almost 
continuously day and night in the winter, the average 
work per day being at least twenty hours. In the 
dangerous powder-making sheds the lights are en- 
closed in specially designed copper reflectors, enam- 
elled white inside, with tight-fitting plate-glass fronts. 
Each lamp is under separate control, and each circuit 
can be controlled by a switch in the machine-room. 
Every lamp and every circuit is also protected by a 
safety-plug, which melts in case of danger through 
excess of current; thus breaking the current, and re- 
moving all possible danger. 
— The rainfall in San Diego, Cal., and also through- 
out southern California, is greater for the present 
season of 1885-84 than has ever been previously 
recorded. A total of 18.46 inches has fallen at San 
Diego, and as high as 60 inches have been reported 
from the back country. The rainfall for 1879-80 
was 14.89 inches; 1880-81, 9.30 inches; 1881-82, 9.47 
inches; and for 1882-83, ony 4.91 imcnes 
— The Indians in Oregon are much disturbed by 
the constant settling of whites on lands which they 
have occupied, and which have enabled them to gain 
a living by horse-raising. They recently asked for a 
hearing for their grievances from the commander of 
the fort at Walla Walla, which was granted. They 
were told, however, that their only remedy was in 
taking the land as individuals, and not as members 
of atribe. But as they have scruples about dealing in 
mother-earth, from which they all come, and to which 
they return, the prospect is at present that they will 
be finally driven from all land outside their reser- 
vation. 
— Professor Ormond Stone, now of the University 
of Virginia, resigned the position of astronomer of 
the Cincinnati observatory in June, 1882; and upon 
his advice, his former assistant, Mr. Wilson, now 
astronomer pro tempore, has devoted himself chiefly, 
since that time, to the reduction of the miscellaneous 
observations which remained unpublished. No. 7 
of the publications of the observatory, a pamphlet of 
79 pages, contains those observations which pertain 
to comets, and is divided about equally between 
observations of cometary positions and physical ob- 
servations. Previously to 1880 this observatory 
paid no attention to these bodies, the equatorial 
(Merz and Mahler, 11} inches aperture) being princi- 
pally engaged with double-star observations. The 
former publications of this observatory (Nos. 1-6) 
SCIENCE. 
[Vou. IIL, No. 
relate entirely to discoveries and micrometri¢al meas- 
urements of double stars. itty 
The observations of position were waa after the 
usual manner, mostly. with the filar, but sometimes 
with the ring-micrometer, and need no further men- 
tion here. The assumed co-ordinates of a hundred 
and fifty-four comparison-stars are given also, ‘The 
physical observations, generally made just before 
or after the observations of position, consisted of 
sketches, measures, and notes on the appearance of 
the comets. Sketehes of the heads of comets were 
made with the large equatorial, using a power of 
about a hundred diameters. The tail-sketches were 
made with the unassisted eye, and sometimes an 
opera-glass. All the stars visible in the vicinity of 
the comet were plotted upon the pencil-sketches as 
accurately as possible with the eye. The stars were 
afterward identified in Heis’s Atlas Coelestis, and 
plotted to a scale three times that of the engravings. 
The position of the nucleus was then plotted, and 
the tail drawn in the same proportion, relatively 
to the stars, as on the original sketch. In the process 
of photo-engraving, the compiled sketches were re- 
duced to one-third, so that the engravings are about 
the same size as the original sketches. 
The theory and methods of discussion of tail-obser- 
vations of comets, elaborated by Dr. Bredichin, direct- 
or of the observatory of Moscow, have been followed | 
by Mr. Wilson; and he summarizes that theory from 
Copernicus and the Annales de VUobservatoire de 
Moscou. 
The discussions of the notes on the several comets 
form a very interesting contribution to cometary 
astronomy. The plates accompanying the work con- 
tain about thirty drawings of comet (b) 1881, twelve 
of comet (a) 1882, and twenty of comet (e) 1882, 
commonly known as the great comet of that year; 
and they appear to have been reproduced in a manner 
worthy of the accuracy of the originals. 
—In the French journal, La ramie, M. Pailleux 
calls attention to a Japanese plant named Kusu 
(Pueraria Thunbergeana), the roots of which contain 
starch, while the leaves and shoots are used as food. 
Its fibrous portions are adapted for use in the manu- 
facture of cordage. It is a lofty and hardy plant, 
attaining within a year to the height of between 
twelve and twenty-five feet. It yields fruit, and 
grows upon the most unfruitful dry ground, where 
nothing else would thrive, provided there is a suf- 
ficiency of warmth. It requires no care, and can be 
propagated by seeds or by planting. 
— The Chinese are beginning to adopt western 
chemical scienee, and a factory has recently been 
erected for the manufacture of sulphuric acid on a 
large scale. Two well-known chemical text-books — 
Malguttis’ Elementary chemistry, and the Chemical — 
analysis of Fresenius—have also been translated 
into Chinese, with the help of a great number of — 
new characters, and adopted in the imperial colleges. _ 
His exeellency Tong Kin Sing, the first minister, has 
taken the work under his immediate patronage, and 
written the preface for the first of these books, 
