106 
POPULAK SCIENCE EEYIEW. 
A Novel and Peculiar mode of Telegraphing, according to a patent recently 
taken out in America, is described in the “ Scientific American” for November. 
The inventors provide a thin and narrow conducting tape or strip of metal, 
on which they emboss the message in the Morse characters, and this strip 
they draw through a transmitting instrument, which is so arranged that a 
metallic pen, or stylus, which is in communication with, one pole of the 
battery, will only touch the upper surface of the characters, as the strip 
passes along through the machine. The under surface of the strip or tape 
is in communication with the other pole of the battery; consequently 
whenever the stylus comes in contact with an embossed character or signal, 
the electrical circuit is closed and a signal, corresponding to the embossed 
signal, is transmitted over the line wire, to the receiving instrument at the 
opposite end. The receiving instrument maj'^ be made on the plan of the 
Morse instrument, and is intended to be so arranged that it will indent or 
emboss the signals, as fast as received, upon a metallic strip like that used 
in first sending the message. Several advantages attend this method of 
telegraphing and recording. The transmission of messages once formed can 
be much more rapidly efiected than heretofore. 
Measuring Temperatures hy Electricity. — The apparatus for this purpose and 
the method of using it are described very fully in the “ Chemical News ” for 
October 4, and following numbers, by Dr. C. W. Siemens, F.ll.S. The paper 
is very long, and too technical for a brief abstract. 
Meteorites in Vienna . — The Academy, ”a journal which unfortunately we 
rarely see, sa}^s that Professor Tschermak has published a new catalogue of 
the meteorites in the Vienna collection. At the date of issue (October 1, 
1872) the mineralogical museum contained specimens representing 182 falls 
of meteoric stones, and 103 falls of meteoric iron. Letters appended to the 
name of each aerolite in the list indicate its position in a classification which 
has been based chiefly on the constituent minerals, certain distinctive physi- 
cal characters of these minerals also being used in arranging them in sub- 
divisions. 
The Disaggregation of Metallic Tin . — In the Kevue hebdoraedaire de Chi- 
mie ” Dr. Oudemans states that a quantity of Banca tin was sent last winter 
rail from Botterdam to Moscow ; on its arrival the metal was all converted 
into a powder, which, on being submitted to heat (somewhat above the 
fusion-point of the metal), did not become molten and re-converted to its 
pristine state, owing to the formation of a large quantity of oxide. Analysis 
proved the powder to be pure tin containing only 0.3 per cent, of foreign 
metals (lead and iron). The author is of opinion that the blocks of tin 
were converted into powder by the combined action of cold and vibration 
during the journey by rail. — Chemical News. 
The Spectrum of the Aurora. — A note appears in Silliman’s American 
Journal ” (November) written by Lieutenant E, L. Holden, in which he says, 
I have this evening succeeded in observing the spectrum of a very fine 
aurora, which appeared about 7 p.m., and lasted perhaps twenty minutes. It 
first appeared as a rosy cloud about 15° wide, and perhaps 30° high, bearing N. 
30° W. by compass. Afterward it spread to the zenith, and was principally 
in the shape of a band, of (say) 15° wide extending from the N.W. to the 
E. No pulsations of any magnitude were evident, but a radiated structure 
