NOTES 459 



Finally, some indication is given of the further work which the Council 

 hope to take up when additional financial support is forthcoming, which 

 includes problems of importance to the electrical industries, to die casters, 

 and to the tinplate trade. 



The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has reissued in 

 booklet form (H.M. Stationery Office, price ^d.) the reports of the Fuel 

 Research Board on Gas Standards, presumably for the purpose of combating 

 the recent misdirected newspaper agitation against the introduction of the 

 therm. It appears that under the original Act tests on the calorific value of 

 a gas supply could only be taken officially after due notice of the day and 

 hour at which the test was to be made have been given to the company 

 concerned, and the Board states that they " have had before them clear 

 evidence in certain cases that only during the brief period of the prearranged 

 test was the gas up to the required standard and that at all other times it 

 was much below that standard." The recommendations made to prevent 

 such cases were as follows : (i) That each gas company should be free to 

 choose the calorific value best suited to its particular local conditions ; (2) that 

 this value must be declared and adhered to ; (3) that the company must 

 adjust the appliances of its consumers, free of charge, to burn the gas supplied 

 efiiciently ; (4) that tests should be made at times unknown to the company 

 and preferably that they should be made continuously with the Simmance 

 Recorder, the records from that instrument being exposed for public inspec- 

 tion. It is clear that these recommendations do not necessarily involve the 

 use of the therm, but excellent reasons are given for its introduction {e.g., 

 that only by expressing cost in terms of some such unit would the charges of 

 difierent corporations be directly comparable). Obviously the use of the 

 new unit cannot of itself have increased the cost of gas, as it is alleged to 

 have done, and the pamphlet issued by the department gives no hint as to the 

 real reason — the price which the companies have been permitted to exact 

 per therm. This leads us to the serious defect in an otherwise excellent and 

 opportune publication — it gives us the recommendations of the Board, but 

 tells us nothing at all about the form in which they were incorporated in 

 the new Gas Act. 



We have received from the National Research CouncU of the United 

 States, Bulletin No. 18, a valuable report on Modern Theories of Magnetism, 

 and Circulars 24, 30, 34, and 37 dealing respectively with the Grignard Reac- 

 tion (including a complete bibliography with 1,485 references). Contact Cata- 

 lyses (the report of a committee of which Wilder D. Bancroft was chairman), 

 the Indexing of Scientific Articles (by Gordon S. Fulcher), and Recent Geo- 

 graphical Work in Europe. This contains an account of the activities to 

 the geographical associations and the geographical departments of all the 

 countries in Europe. It appears that this subject forms part of the curri- 

 culum of all the French and German universities (16 and 23 in number), 

 but only in 16 out of the 18 EngUsh ones. Geographical research appears to 

 be best cultivated in Germany, and the twentieth meeting of German 

 geographers was held in Leipzig in May 192 1, after a lapse of seven instead 

 of the usual two years. At this meeting a resolution was passed calling on 

 all German map publishers to show the territories lost by Germany, including 

 her former colonies on all maps of the relevant areas, including school maps. 

 An unfortunate resolution showing that, even in scientific circles, there 

 remains an unhappy intention to foster and aggravate the wounds caused 

 by the war with an ultimate object which is obvious enough. 



Besides the rapid issue of these valuable Circulars and Bulletins the 

 National Research Council has just instituted a Research Information Bureau 

 to serve as a clearing house for all kinds of scientific knowledge both pure 

 and applied. On receipt of an inquiry the Bureau is prepared either to 

 supply references to places where the required information may be found. 



