470 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



for, by using modern amplifiers, it was possible to obtain near Washington signals 

 from the principal European stations by using a small wire net on the ground 

 beneath the tree. A most important fact is that a tree can be used for widely 

 different wave-lengths if the appropriate receiving devices are connected to the 

 tree terminal. General Squiers suggests that the " metallic electrode rigidly 

 driven into the living organism of a tree " may serve, in conjunction with the 

 thermionic valve-tube, as a powerful method for the detailed study of electrical 

 disturbances in the atmosphere and the earth. 



Mr. D. Brownlie (of Brownlie & Green, Austin Friars, E.C.) has published 

 another valuable paper on the efficiency of boiler plants, this time dealing with the 

 economy in coal which could be effected by modernising all colliery steam plants. 

 Collieries are by far the worst coal-wasters because, in pre-war days, coal was so 

 cheap as to be hardly worth saving. In some pit-heads a few years ago high-class 

 coal was sold at $s. per ton — it has even been given away to release railway 

 wagons ! Now that it costs 25s. a ton even colliery managers may become 

 interested in economy. Mr. Brownlie gives details of tests he has actually made 

 on 100 colliery-boiler plants which he considers typical of all those in the country, 

 and finds that their average thermal efficiency is only 55*5 per cent, (the extremes 

 being 71*8 per cent, and 32*5 per cent.) as against an average of 60 per cent, for 

 the whole of the plants used in Great Britain. It is contended that an average 

 efficiency of 70 per cent, could easily be obtained, and, since the collieries consume 

 18,500,000 tons of coal each year, this would save nearly 4,000,000 tons. Further, 

 if more use were made of refuse coal, a total saving of 6,600,000 tons per annum 

 could be effected, to say nothing of what could be achieved by stopping the 

 enormous waste of exhaust steam, and by using a modern system of steam-pipe 

 lagging. 



The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research ' seems now to have 

 become a firmly-established Government Office, and its Annual Report has become 

 so comprehensive that, in these notes, it will only be possible to deal briefly with 

 some of its more important aspects. Of these not the least important is that the 

 administration of the Geological Survey and Museum is to be transferred to the 

 Department from the Board of Education. The Fuel Research Laboratory is 

 open, and the Main Station (at Greenwich) should by now be completed. The 

 Fuel Research Board is to undertake, in addition to its many other important 

 tasks, a research on Power Alcohol at the request of the Admiralty. The Food 

 Investigation Board has already obtained important results, and will receive a 

 sum of ,£24,500 to carry on the work this year. It is estimated that between forty 

 and fifty Industrial Research Associations will ultimately be formed, and a sum 

 of at least £373,000 (out of the ,£1,000,000 available) will be required for those 

 already in existence or in course of formation. The British Scientific Instrument 

 Research Association, which was to be guaranteed ,£40,000 from the Department, 

 has now been granted an additional £^24,000 to ,£30,000 as a result of the extension 

 of its scope to include the X-ray electromedical industry and electric scientific 

 instrument makers. To balance this the members of the Association have only 

 to raise an additional £6,400 to ,£7,000, instead of an equal sum, as is usually 

 required. These exceptional terms have been given on the ground that the 

 Association deals with an industry of the " key " class. Similar generosity has for 

 the same reason been shown to the Glass Research Association, which has been 



1 Report of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial 

 Research for the year 191 8-19, to be obtained through any bookseller from H.M. 

 Stationery Office. Price bd. net. 



