Report of the Rugby School Natural History Society for the year 1873

Abstract

THIS Report is on the whole very satisfactory, and the tone of the preface exceedingly hopeful. At no time in its past history of seven years, the retiring president tells us, does the Society seem to him to have contained more promising workmen. It appears that it has been resolved to construct a geological model of the Rugby district, and for this magnum opus many volunteers from the Society have offered their assistance. The appended reports of the various sections are on the whole satisfactory, showing that real work is being done. One of the most valuable features in the Report for 1873 is the number of papers which have been read by the young members themselves, there being seven printed here in greater or less fulness, and a number of others mentioned as having been read at the regular meetings of the Society. One of the most interesting of the published papers is one by Mr. H. N. Hutchinson On Home-made Electrical Apparatus, showing that the author possesses very considerable originality and ingenuity. The apparatus described was made by his brother and himself five years ago, and includes some of the most essential parts of an electrical equipment, the cost of the whole not being more than a few shillings. He thus tells us how the cylinder of an electrical machine may be manufactured. “Choose a tall glass jar, such as you see in confectioners' shop-windows. Next get two wooden caps turned to fit on to the ends of the cylinder, about an inch deep, with projecting pivots. The caps are next to be cemented on to the ends of the cylinder. The cement is composed of resin, beeswax, red ochre, and a little plaster of Paris, and must be heated over a slow fire. The open end of the cylinder must be first covered over with a piece of silk to prevent bits falling in.” The conductor was made of deal wood turned to the proper shape and covered very smoothly with tinfoil; the Leyden jars were made from ordinary plum jars. We recommend the paper with its accompanying sketches to those who cannot afford to buy an electrical apparatus. W. B. Lowe describes some carefully made experiments On Cohesion of Water at Various Temperatures; and other papers by pupils, evincing considerable power of observation, are—On an Excursion of Mr. Wilson's Geological Class to Mount Sorrel, by C. M. Kerr; On a Botanical Expedition to Princethorpe, by H. W. Trott; On a Geological Expedition to Atherstone and Nuneaton, by E. Mann; On an Entomological Expedition to Frankton Wood, by H. A. Bull; and On the Chameleon, by J. S. Beuttler, giving an account of the author's own observations on two specimens belonging to himself. Besides these there are several other papers by masters and outsiders; one of the latter is a very instructive paper by Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., On the Weather. The Report also contains four plates by pupil members of the Society.