100 YEARS AGO

A few weeks ago we described some of the excellent results obtained by Messrs. Heraeus, of Hanau, in their attempts to produce apparatus of “silica glass,” and Prof. Dewar had added point to our remarks by exhibiting at the Royal Institution a “liquid air holder” made of silica, which had been made to order and sent by return of post, almost, from Hanau to London a few days before. Similar apparatus could have been made in England, it is true, but it could not have been produced by any means so quickly as at Hanau... Truly, as Prof. Dewar said the other evening, there will soon be another “lost industry” if our practical men do not wake up. Silica glass making as an industry no doubt is still in earliest infancy, but though so young, it already shows signs of growth. Everyone who has worked with silica, and knows its properties and how comparatively easy it is to work with, foresees that soon silica glass will replace ordinary glass in many of its most important applications.

From Nature 26 February 1903.

50 YEARS AGO

G. Notini and S. Forselius discuss the methods which have been undertaken to exterminate the wild rabbits on Gotland Island. The wild rabbit was introduced into Sweden with the object of providing a new game animal of commercial value. Vigorous stock was selected and care was taken to ensure the proper environmental conditions, based on European accumulated experience in parts where the stock had become more or less stabilized, excess numbers being kept down by small predatory animals and also disease. As has occurred in other parts of the world where mammals, birds and plants have been introduced outside their own habitat, the rabbits in Gotland increased rapidly in numbers. None of their ordinary checks was present, the only one being the occasional severe winters experienced in the island. The ordinary methods of man-shooting, poisoning, snaring, etc. — but not poison, have proved ineffective; poison is regarded as too dangerous... The rabbit to-day in Gotland constitutes such a menace to sylviculture and agriculture that it is ranked with the small rodents. Work is now being undertaken on the introduction of the virus disease Myxomatosis cuniculi into the Gotland rabbit population.

From Nature 28 February 1953.