602 NATURE [FEBRL'ARY ;;, 1920

SHACKLETON'S LAST ANTARCTIC equipped, and there was not enough time given EXPEDITION.I to carry it out successfully. The \Veddell Sea alone required two ships and a larger scientific IR 'S book is an staff, especially in meteorology and biology; there S exciting story of a polar expedition that was should also have been additional sub-Antarctic a disastrous failure in almost everything it set out meteorological and biological stations or ships. to do, with a difficult, but stolid and dangerous, But the Treasury and Parliament are hopelessly retreat and a splendid retrievement. It is of blind even nO"l'I' after they should have learned popular rather than of scientific value. To that it was on science that the European War was readers of NATURE the last twenty-four pages are ended. Science has been found essential on the of the greatest interest. land, on the sea, and in the a ir in every way; in The volume shows that medical and science the fighting and equipment of the forces, and in graduates from London, Cambridge, and Aber• the maintenance of non-combatants at home, older deen can be as tough and as useful as the most men and women and children. The Govern• hardened seamen, and do more than ordinary and ment was sure of a good leader, and should

FIG .. 1.-L3nding on · Georgia. Composite drawing and photograph~ From Sir Ernest StJackleton's "South." (W. Heinemann.)

A.B. se.amen's work on a full-rigged auxiliary have given not less than 200,oool., with the steam sailing vessel. Also, that they can sit as guarantee that equipment, ships, small stations, tight on -a dangerous and rotten piece of ice-floe and a sufficient and thoroughly good scientific for month after month, and do good scientific staff were sec.ured, and that more time was work in squalor and filth and in water in a frozen I afforded. and thawing condition as well as any, and con• The \Veddell Sea and South Atlantic have been tinue scientifi..: observations and collecting-an shown to be huge suppliers of food and of material example to others · making observa tions and for the manufacture of explosives. It has been records under more favourable conditions. One found that the meteorology of those parts is an arid all also served as valuable officers 1n the ; importar,t factor in the. n:ieteorology of the globe, fighting Services on their return. I especially in southern agricu;ltural areas upon The expedition was under-financed and under- i which we. ar~ la_rg-ely depep~ent, . 1 I One om1ss10n 1s that there 1s no special acknow• ~· "South : ·, he Story of Shadleton's· Last Expedhion, 1914-17.'' By Su -Rrne.;;t . Shackleton. Pp. xx-i+376. (London: Willi;i.m Heinemann-( i ledgment to the British Admiralty, which hag come r9c9,) Price 25.f. net. in at the bitter en::! . The Admiralty, with special NO. 2623, VOL. l04]

© 1920 Nature Publishing Group FEBRUARY 5, 1920] NATURE scientific exper,ts and Sir Ernest Shackleton's own that heavy and light conditions of ice existed representatives, helped the explorer with official there, calling it "the worst portion of the worst assistance to secure the vessels he finally obtained. sea in the world," enough to imprison, crush, Even before news of the loss of the and lose his ship; but Sir Ernest Shackleton came to hand, it had begun the. organisation of a and Capt. Worsley allowed themselves to be relief expedition, and secured and re-conditioned too much entangled in it, which probably a the Discovery, which actually sailed so far as veteran ice-master fike Robertson would not Buenos Aires, involving the expenditure of a large have done. sum of public money better given earlier to the Mr. ,vordie usefully and ably summarises the expedition. scientific work done in the , and says : The Endurance was crushed in approxi• "The work undertaken and accomplished by each mately 69° S. after being beset off Caird Coast, member was as wide as possible, but it was only the south-west coast of Coats Land, whence in keeping with the spirit of the times that more she drifted west, north-west, and north until she attention should be paid to work from which prac• sank. Sir Ernest Shackleton and his party later tical and economic results were likely to accrue."

F1c;. 2.-The last of the Endurance before she sank. From Sir Ernest Shackleton's" South." (W. Heinemann.) escaped on floating ice, drifting in a track almost He also gives an excellent but too short sum• parallel to, but a little west of, the Deutsch• mary on " Ice Nomenclature." land; and, like the Swedish ship Antarctic, the Mr. Clark proved the faunistic richness of the Endurance was totally wrecked, and the biological coastal Antarctic watersJ but, unfortunately, all collections and most of the records were unfor• his collections were lost with the ship. Doubt• tunately lost. With the Deutschland she thus con• less he has brought home some notes of which we firmed the drift of the ice to the 'Nest of the shall hear more in time, for he was already well Weddell Sea, as originally observed by the Scotia acquainted with the Weddell Sea fauna. He gives and others. She also confirmed the Scotia's ob• an excellent summary of South Atlantic whales servations regarcting Coats Land and the southern and whaling, which should be particularly useful part o_f the Weddell Sea, and refuted Sir Clement tn demonstrated that the reverse was. the case, and the meteorology, but, unfortunately, the valuable NO. 2623, VOL. ro4] © 1920 Nature Publishing Group NATURE [FEBRUARY 5, 192 0 detailed tracings packed in the ship 's hold were TELEPHONING BY LIGHT. lost. Mr. Hussey's discussion shows that " was dull and overcast, only 7 per T ELEPHONY by means of lig ht is a particular It differs from cent. of the observations recording a clear blue case of wireless telephony. sky, 71 per cent. being completely overcast." The what is generally understood as wireless tele• clearest weather occurred in winter; when the sky phony in no essential respect. In both cases whereas in was cloudless for nearly half the time. Some in• electromagnetic waves are used, but teresting results are likely to accrue when the ordina ry wireless the waves are very long, in the meteorological records are worked up in detail case of lig ht they are very short. As a conse• and co-ordinated with other observations from quence, telephony by light is easily directed by South Atlantic and South American stations. means of lenses or mirrors, and constitutes a te of affairs " Temperatures on the whole were fairly high, secret means o f communication-a sta arly known as though a sudden unexpected drop in February, not yet attained in what is popul e same time, after a series of heavy north-easterly gales, caused Marconi wireless transmission. A t th on the pos• the ship to be frozen in, and effectually put an end the use of light imposes definite limits to any hopes of landing that year. The lowest sible range of light telephony. An uninterrupted sending and temperature experienced was in July, when 35° straig ht line is essential between the the extreme range is there• F ahr., i.e. 67° below freezing, was reached." receiving stations, and e e arth and For determining the position in drifting pack fore determined by the curvature of th ice, Mr. James found the theodolite a more gener• the altitudes of the stations. is rendered ally useful instrument than the sextant, as the ice• The transmission of speech by light possessed by floes were found quite steady in really thick pack possible by the well-known property s) of chang• ice, and the theodolite can be set up and levelled selenium (and certain other substance subjected to as well as on dry land. Mr. James shows that "the ing its electrical conductivity when acts as a Endurance was carried by the ice-drift well to the varying illumination. Selenium thus light. It is west of the Weddell Sea, towards the position of sort of electric valve controlled by ent to light the supposed Morrell Land, so that the accurate capable of responding to some ext determination of longitude became a matter of moment in view of the controversy as to the exist• ence of this land." The existence or non-existence of Morrell Land, however, has yet to be investi• n.. c1 ...,t;nj bg«m Sele""'~"-m gated more thoroughly, in spite of the assurance t ell of Sir Ernest Shackleton and others that it does f'r'O,n. t'l"Q.n.~mLtte.,. not exist. If it is a low "cluster of islands," it would not have been seen at all; the party may have drifted on the floe to the west of it. Sir Ernest Shackleton's appendix on the lists Fl{; r. of provisions and gear in the McMurdo Sound huts is most useful and important for future ex• fluctuations of comparatively high frequency. If peditions. a selenium cell is connected in simple circuit with Finally, the drift party reached , a b attery and a telephone receiver-as .shown in which was one of the places the Admiralty had !"ig. I- fluctuating currents are obtained possess• planned to search. But several landings were mg the same characteristics as the variations of made there a century ago, and Sir Ernest Shackle• the incident light, and if the latter are of audible ton's expedition is not the first to land there, as frequency the corresponding sounds are heard in he quite excusably supposes. The voyage to the receiver. The problem of light telephony is South Georgia was a wonderful piece of seaman• thus reduced to the production of a b eam of light ship and endurance, and Sir Ernest Shackleton fluctuating in intensity in accordance with the has aga in shown that he can lead men. The story vi_brations constituting the speech sounds. of the Aurora with MacIntosh and Stenhouse is The construction of the first transmitter of this another disaster. Spencer Smith unfortunately kind was due to Graham Bell, who in 1880 suc• died while doing land work, which included, how• ceeded in transmitting speech by means of a beam ever, successful depot laying , under MacIntosh. of sunlight over a distance of about ,200 yards. The absence of scurvy, on the Weddell Sea side, T elephony by light is, indeed, almost as old as shows what is possible if fresh meat is mainly ordinary telephony, and Graham Bell was the in• adhered to. ventor of both. It is difficult to account for the MacIntosh and Hayward lost their lives in a difference in the rate of development of the two blizzard while attempting to cross from Hut Point systems ; the fact remains that ordinary telephony to Cape Evans on thin ice, and were blown out is now in common use, whilst telephony by light to sea. is still a novelty. Graham Bell's first photophone Capt. Stenhouse, ,of the A,urora, handled that - as it was called-consisted of a l arge diaphragm, vessel with marked ability during her ten months' silvered so as to become a mirror. Upon this drift beset in the ice. No mention is made of any mirror a beam of light was projected and thence systematic scientific work having been accom- reflected to the distant selenium receiver. Speech plished l:>y the party. W. S. B. sounds, falling on the diaphragm, set it in vibra- NO. 2623, VOL. !04]

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