SCIENCE. 



389 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Progress. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



TERMS: 



Per Year, ... - Four Dollars. 



6 Months, - - - Two 



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Single Copies, ... - Ten Cents. 



Published at 



TRIBUNE BUILDING, NEW YORK. 



P. O. Box 3838, 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1881. 



The International Electrical Exhibition at Paris 

 was opened with much eclat on the 10th instant by 

 the President of the French Republic. 



The brief telegraphic dispatches describing the 

 event, all state that Edison's exhibit was the chief 

 centre of attraction, and that great interest was shown 

 for the forthcoming exhibition of certain novelties 

 which he had sent These appeared to prove that the 

 energies of the great electrician were far from exhausted 

 on this subject, and that his fertile brain is as active 

 as ever. 



We are promised a very detailed report of this ex- 

 hibition, so defer particulars until it arrives. England 

 and Germany occupy the largest space of the foreign 

 countries represented, America and Belgium coming 

 next in order. All the departments on the day of 

 opening were incomplete, the Americans complain- 

 ing much of the dilatory behavior of the French work- 

 men, who seemed to have no idea of the value of 

 time. 



We presume that the object of exhibitions of this" 

 character is to stimulate those engaged in electrical 

 investigations, and to form landmarks in the history 

 of electrical progress. In that light the Exhibition has 

 many advantages, but Edison appears to have suffered 

 from his generous permission to permit all comers to 

 inspect the progress of his inventions. Many misin- 

 terpreted what they saw, and came to false conclu- 

 sions, while men of no mental endowment who were 

 mere clever mechanics, assiduously appropriated the 

 ideas of the man of brains, and have since produced 

 barefaced copies. These men have so far proceeded 

 unchecked, but the time appears to have arrived 

 when Edison has decided to enforce with vigor all 

 those patent rights which he has secured after so 



many years of patient study and unremitting toil, in- 

 volving the outlay of an immense amount of money. 



The seizure of the " Maxim " electric lamps at 

 the Paris International Exhibition appears to have 

 been directed in consequence of such a decision, and 

 we can assure Mr. Edison that the public will 

 heartily sympathize with him in his attempt to enforce 

 his just rights. 



We are informed by cable that Sir George Biddell 

 Airy has retired from the office of Astronomer Royal, 

 and his successor appointed. 



Sir George was born on the 27th of July, 1801, and 

 was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1824. He 

 commenced his career as a scientific teacher in 1826, 

 when he was elected Lucasian Professor. In 1828 he 

 was elected Plumian Professor, and entrusted with 

 the management of the Observatory at Cambridge 

 which had been just then erected and supplied with 

 one of its instruments. On taking charge of the new 

 Observatory he commenced a series of observations, 

 but his able services there will be best remembered 

 by the admirable methods he introduced in the calcu- 

 lations and observations, by which their utility was 

 greatly increased. 



Professor Airy had also the satisfaction of superin- 

 tending the mounting of the Equatorial, the Mural 

 Circle and the Northumberland Telescope (the last 

 entirely from his own plans), at the Cambridge Uni- 

 versity. 



In the autumn of 1835 the office of Astronomer 

 Royal became vacant by the resignation of Mr. John 

 Pond, and at the request of Lord Auckland, Airy re- 

 ceived the appointment for this distinguished office, 

 which he has since filled with so much benefit to 

 science and honor to his country, for a period which 

 has covered nearly half a century. 



In 1833 ne received the gold medal of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society " for his discovery of the long 

 Inequality of Venus and the Earth ; " and again in 

 1846, for his "Reduction of the Observation of 

 Planets made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 

 from 1750 to 1830." 



We have the pleasure of directing the attention of 

 our subscribers to a very interesting work by A. B. 

 Hervey, A. M., on " Sea Mosses" being both a col- 

 lector's guide and an introduction to the Study of 

 Marine Alga;. It is published by S. E. Cassino, of 

 Boston. In another part of this issue will be found 

 an extended extract from this book, giving Mr. Hervey's 

 methods of collecting and preserving specimens, and 

 the article will, doubtless, be read with interest at this 

 season, when so many are at the seashore, with full 

 opportunities for commencing the study of this de- 

 partment of Cryptogamic Botany. 



