NOTES 477 



yards or feet or inches ; but not in a complex of miles, yards, feet, and inches. 

 As regards coinage, the opinion is expressed that no change should be 

 made in the existing system at the present time. 



The Report contains an account of a modified system of French legal 

 units awaiting adoption by the French Senate in the early part of 1920. It 

 contains two extraordinary blunders, which can hardly be excused by the 

 fact that they occur in the original text (if, indeed, they do). The first 

 is contained in the definition of a new unit of force — the Sthene. It is 

 a force which in one second gives a mass of 1 tonne {i.e. 1,000 kilograms) an 

 acceleration of 1 metre per second! The other defines the " unit of density" 

 as " that of a body with a mass of i tonne in a volume of i metre cubed." A 

 confusion of density and specific gravity hardly to be expected in a report 

 from the Conjoint Board. 



The Report of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and 

 Industrial Research for the year 1919-20 (H.M. Stationery Of&ce, is. net), 

 is so comprehensive that it is only possible here to refer briefly to a few of 

 the more important points. The index alone runs to seven pages of small 

 type. Selecting from it at random, we find as consecutive items such divers 

 matters as ferro-zirconium research, fertilisers, fighting services — boards for 

 co-ordinating research, file-making, fire prevention, fish-freezing . . . etc., 

 a list which gives a fair idea of the wide sweep of the work for which the 

 Department is now responsible. Referring first to finance, it is stated that 

 about ;^8oo,ooo of the million pound fund placed at the disposal of the 

 Committee will be needed for research associations already formed or in view ; 

 ;£63,8oo has actually been used, associations completely established will 

 take ;^450,ooo, those approved and waiting licence ;£i20,ooo; while others in 

 the earlier stages of their formation should require the remaining part of the 

 total. The work of the National Physical Laboratory has so extended that 

 ;^203,ooo has been provided for its maintenance during the current year. 

 Its income in 1914 was only ^^40,000. The researches now in progress or 

 recently completed at the Laboratory include work on heat-insulating 

 materials for cold-storage work ; low temperature hygrometry ; research 

 on the lubricating efficiency of various oils ; experiments on the lighting of 

 picture galleries and of public buildings and offices ; investigations relating 

 to searchlights, ships' navigation lights, miners' lamps and motor car head 

 lights. In addition a building has been erected in the laboratory grounds for 

 the study of problems peculiar to the needs of the Navy. The work of the 

 Fuel Research Station is getting into full swing and covers the whole field of 

 enquiry from oil fuel for the Navy through the design of the domestic grate 

 to the utilisation of Irish peat. A special branch of this Board is dealing with 

 possible methods for the artificial production of motor fuel, but nothing very 

 hopeful has yet come out of it. The Royal Society has assumed responsi- 

 bility for the annual grant of ;^200 to the International Commission of Pub- 

 lication of Annual Tables of Constants and Numerical Data, as well as for 

 all the other subscriptions of the Government for all classes of international 

 research. The publication of the tables is proceeding satisfactorily, and 

 plans have been drawn up for the issue of critical revision tables at intervals 

 of five or ten years. The system of grants to individual workers on the 

 personal recommendation of their professors or responsible directors has 

 extended very considerably. In 1916-17 the total sum involved by these 

 grants was only ;^3,2oo, in 1919-20 it was nearly £-2^,000 and for 1920-21 

 has been estimated at ;^45,ooo. The publication of the results of the re- 

 searches aided in this manner is not now restricted in any way, except in 

 the few cases in which results of a commercial value are obtained. It has 

 been decided to appoint an Inter-Departmental Committee to consider the 

 fairest method of dealing with patents granted for inventions which are the 

 outcome of State-aided research. 



