NOTES 501 



mittee has at its disposal a Trust Fund of ,£1,000,000 to be expended on research 

 during the next five or six years, and an annual grant from Parliament which for 

 the financial year 1916-17 amounted to ,£40,000. It is proposed to use the Trust 

 for industrial research, which will be undertaken by Trade Research Associations 

 registered under the Companies' Act. Associations for the benefit of the cotton 

 trade, woollen and worsted manufacturers, photographic manufacturers, etc., are 

 in course of formation. The Committee has taken over the National Physical 

 Laboratory, and will, apparently, finance it from this fund. The annual vote will 

 cover (a) the cost of those researches which will not be undertaken by the proposed 

 Research Associations ; (d) the grants to individual research workers, both students 

 and others ; and (c) the cost of administration. The general principles which will 

 govern the grants to research workers are as follows : (i) No aid should be recom- 

 mended for persons who are required for military service, or who, though unfit for 

 military service, are required for munition work, (ii) No aid should be recommended 

 for the purpose of relieving educational institutions of any part of the salaries of 

 the members of their staffs, (iii) No aid should be recommended which would in 

 effect strengthen the teaching staff of an institution, (iv) Money should not be 

 given to increase the yearly value of a research scholarship or studentship, though, 

 in special circumstances, a personal grant may be given to a scholar or student 

 otherwise unable to take up the award, (v) Allowances for training students in 

 the methods of research should not be made to persons of alien nationality. 

 The report gives details of the progress of the investigations started in the period 

 191 5-16, and mentions a number of others commenced since the publication of the 

 last report. Among these are experiments intended to remove difficulties ex- 

 perienced by English manufacturers of X-ray bulbs (directed by Dr. Willows) ; 

 experiments on superheaters (at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow) ; on 

 cellulose (Manchester School of Technology) ; and on the acoustics of the piano- 

 forte (Northern Polytechnic, Holloway). The Committee states that "the 

 encouragement of the discoverer and inventor is a matter with which we have 

 great sympathy, - ' and are prepared to assist in the development of definite 

 inventions which meet with their approval as likely to be of real use. 



The Fuel Research Board of the new Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research has issued its first published report. The chief question under con- 

 sideration, at present, is this : " To what extent can and ought the present use of 

 raw coal to be replaced by the use of one or other of the various forms of fuel 

 manufactured from coal— coal, briquettes, tar, oil, or gas?" While the process of 

 the high temperature (900-1,200° C.) carbonisation of coal is highly developed, the 

 question is still open as to whether, by low-temperature carbonisation, products 

 can be obtained of a collective value greater than the cost of the original coal and 

 of manufacture. Outlets for all the products of carbonisation have to be found to 

 justify the process economically and that without poaching on the preserves of 

 existing industries. The Admiralty needs the oil that could be obtained, but to 

 produce 1,000,000 tons of oil would require 20,000,000 tons of coal, and leave 

 15,000,000 tons of coke which would have to be disposed of at a profitable price. 

 The Committee hopes to be able to deal also with the preparation of fuels from 

 oil shales, brown coals, and peat, and is carrying out a survey and classification 

 of coal seams in the various mining districts by physical and chemical tests in the 

 laboratory. 



The Report of the Committee appointed by the British Association to consider 

 the question of Science Teaching in Secondary Schools consists roughly of two 

 parts. First, a discussion of matters of general interest, and secondly a fully 



