646 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



of Gases in Small Quantities. The title is somewhat misleading in that the 

 term " small quantities " is to be interpreted in a manufacturing sense, the 

 volume of gas required for a complete determination being 1,500 c.c. The 

 method employed is a slight modification of one described by Sir Richard 

 Threlfall in 1907, and involves the balancing of columns of air and gas 

 24 ft. long against each other. 



Special Report No. 9 of the Food Investigation Board (H.M. Stationery 

 Office, IS. 6d. net) contains an account of experiments made by Dr. Ezer 

 Griffiths and Mr. A. H. Davis on the transmission of heat by radiation and 

 convection in continuation of those on conduction already dealt with in 

 Report No. 5. The experiments were originally started in connection with 

 heat insulation for cold storage work, but later on their scope was extended, 

 and the exhaustive investigation of the process of convection from flat 

 plates and cylinders described in this Report should be of material assis- 

 tance in extending our theoretical knowledge of this difficult subject. The 

 results obtained are by no means simple, but they show that the heat lost 

 by convection is proportional to a power (n) of the excess temperature of 

 the surface above its surroundings, which is very nearly constant and may 

 be taken as 1-25 for temperature excesses up to 100° C. This result is in good 

 agreement with that (n = 1-3) obtained by Kinoshita for radiators. The 

 constant factor in this proportionality varies considerably with the shape and 

 size of the hot body and with the position of any baffle plates placed near it. 



In December last the newspapers announced that an American Commis- 

 sion had come to London in order to allot awards for British inventions 

 used by the Americans during the war, and named a very large sum of money 

 amounting to millions as being likely to be distributed. The Commission 

 was said to be under Col. Jos. I. McMullen. On making inquiries, 

 however, we were courteously informed that the awards were only to be given 

 in respect of British designs of aircraft, their engines and accessories, com- 

 municated to or used by the United States during the war. We do not 

 know what has become of any claims which might conceivably be made 

 by other people in respect to inventions which were quite conceivably more 

 important than those of aircraft design and accessories. We are informed 

 that the claims were to be considered by joint sittings of the Royal Com- 

 mission on Awards to Inventors and the said American Commission for the 

 Adjustment of Foreign Claims. We presume that the claims of medical 

 men, who did perhaps more good than anyone else during the war, are to 

 be rigidly and contemptuously excluded by means of the casuistical argu- 

 ments already used by the British Commission. 



We have seen the proofs of a very interesting book called The Rhythm 

 of Speech, by William Thomson, B.A., D.Litt., which will shortly be issued 

 by Maclehose, Jackson & Co., Publishers to the University of Glasgow. The 

 work is a complete scientific treatise on the subject. 



