790 TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIF.S. 



brought into great prominence the part played by the chemist and engineei 

 in the national welfare. The manufacturer will expect the Universities to 

 train not only chemists and engineers, but preferably that combination 

 connoted by the term "chemical engineer." The South African School 

 of Mines and Technology at Johannesburg was, it was pointed out, the 

 only South African institution of University rank that had hitherto 

 attempted to deal with this problem. The special requirements for the 

 essential University course were summarised by the author, the problem 

 of laboratory equipment discussed, and the personal qualifications for 

 success in the profession of chemical engineering enumerated. — " Some 

 economics in hand-drill steel " : H A. Read. The consumption of steel 

 was classified under different heads, and details were given of experi- 

 ments tried with an improved form of drill-head, which resulted, inter 

 alia, in the saving of steel by preventmg the crushing of the shank end ; 

 obviated the discarding of short ends by enabling the permanent heads to 

 be welded on to other steel when the starter became too short. 



Saturday, April 26th: H. S. Meyer. A.R.S.M.. President, in the chair.— 

 " Agricultu'-al Motor Tractors" : G. HildickSmith. The author was 

 employed by the Imperial Government during the war as head (;f the 

 Technical Section of the Food Production Department of the Board of 

 Agriculture, and in that position had unique experience of the working 

 of motor tractors. A short account of some of the tractors employed 

 for agricultural purposes was given. 



Saturday, May 17th: H. S. Meyer, A.R.S.M., President, in the chair. — 

 "Note on the closer working and joint housing of technical and scientific 

 societies on the Rand": P. Cazalet A scheme^ was outlined, proposing 

 joint ownership of an institute building, containing offices for each society, 

 at a cost of £110,000, the total membership being assumed at 3,860. — "Notes 

 on defective air in disused raises and backstopes" : C. J. Gray. It is not 

 generally realised that, owing to possible accumulation of carbon dioxide, 

 precautions should be taken when entering disused raises and similar 

 places in Witwatersrand mines. In January, 1918, the dead body of a 

 native was found about 65 ft. up a raise in the Wolhuter Gold Mine, afte^ 

 having been m.ssing for six days. A sample of air taken at the spot 

 contained 16.4 per cent, of oxygen and .60 per cent, of carbon dioxide. 

 In May, 1917, the dead body of a missing native was found in a disused 

 backstope on the Knights Deep Gold Mine, and could not be recovered 

 until compressed air pipes had been installed and used. Further investi- 

 gations showed that disused raises and backstopes in various mines con- 

 tained lethal quantities of carbon dioxide. — " A ' safety-first ' method for 

 estimation of carbon dioxide in mine air " : 11. R. S. Wilkes. An eight- 

 ounce bottle is filled with air by means of bellows, connected with a 

 reagent bottle containing decinormal baryta water, and shaken, after 

 inversion, until the pink colour, due to phenolphthalein as indicator is 

 discharged or remains unchanged after seven minutes. Several num- 

 bered reagent bottles are provided containing different quantities of 

 baryta water, and from the the number of the bottle used the quantity nf 

 carbon dioxide is calculated by nieans of tables. 



Geological Society of South Africa. — Monday, March 17th : II. B. 

 Maufe, B.A.. F.G.S., President, in the chair. — "Recent advances in 

 Rhodesian Geology" (Presidential address) : H. B. Maufe. The geology 

 of Rhodesia was comprehensively co-ordinated under/.the. following 

 heads: — The Crystalline schists; The Lomagundi System, a succession of 

 rocks above the Crystalline schists, comprising the quartzite, dolomite, anr! 

 slates of the Hunyani Range, and the beds overlying these ; The Umkondo 

 formation, a series of indurated sediments, resting unconformably upon 

 the ancient granite in the Sabi Valley, and particularly near the Umkondo 

 Copper Mine; The Karroo System, the basal beds of which rest on the 

 ancient gneisses in the Wankie District ; Tlie Kalahari System — uncon- 

 solidated or loosely consolidated land deposits, most widespread as the 

 red or white Kalahari sand, to a thickness of from 100 to possibly 240 

 feet, and of later date than the Karroo System ; Superficial deposits of 

 pleistocene and recent alluvia. 



