13 



'COLOURS OF SOAP FILMS."— By Ma. F. JEFFS, B.Sc. 



Through the courtesy and kindness of the 

 authorities of the Simon Langton School, the 

 members of the Society assembled in the labora- 

 tory attached to the Boys' School on Wednesday, 

 December 10, to listen to an intensely interesting 

 lecture given by Mr. F. J. Jeffs, B.Sc. — a member 

 of the teaching staff of the school— his subject 

 being " Coloui-s of Soap Films." There wag a 

 good attendance, and the chair was taken by 

 Mr. Sidney Harvey, F.C.S., F.I.C. At the 

 commencement of the proceedings Mr. Harvey 

 said they were assembled in that laboratory 

 that night, not for the tirst time, to enjoy the 

 hospitality of the managers and staff of the 

 Simon Langton Schools. It was, he explained, for 

 greater convenience that they met in that room 

 with all its valuable appliances to illustrate the 

 lecture, and he felt sure they would all 

 enjoy the meeting. They were much indebted 



to the Simon Langton authorities for allow- 

 ing them to meet there. Mr. Jeffs illustrated 

 his lecture with many experiments which were 

 watched with the keenest interest. The lantern 

 was also brought into requisition to more 

 clearly demonstrate the points of the lecturer, 

 and towards the close of the meeting a framed 

 soap bubble was, by means of reflected light, 

 thrown on the screen, thus showing the distinct 

 bands of colour and the ever varying motion of 

 the films. At the close a very hearty vote of 

 thanks was passed on the initiative of Mr. Harvey 

 to Mr. Jeffs for his lecture, and Mr. Harvey 

 also congratulated him on the success of his 

 experiments which he said wore especially 

 difficult to carry out before an audience. Mr. Jeffs 

 responded, and expressed his willingness to give 

 another demonstration at any time. 



MENLATUEP: PORTEAITS."— By Mr. F. BENNETT GOLDNEY, 

 Mayor of Cantkkbury. 



At the Guildhall, on January 14, the Mayor 

 gave a lecture on the subject ot ''Mioiature 

 Painting." Mr. Sidney Harvey, F.C.S., F.I.C, 

 presided over a good attendance. 



The Mayor said before they went to the Kith 

 century he thought it was almost necessary to say 

 a few words with regard to the Renaissance, which 

 was the beginning of miniature painting in Eng- 

 land. His Worship remarked that he had thought 

 of obtaining some magic lantern slides, but those 

 he had been to see gave such a poor idea of what 

 miniature painting really was that he thought it 

 was far better that they should see a few genuine 

 minatures which he had brought witli him. 

 [These were here lianded round to those present]. 

 Continuing, he said few phenomena in human 

 history had been more exhaustivnly studied than 

 the wondrous development not only of Italian, but 

 of Fi'ench, English and German art, which was 

 conventionally emphasized as lienaissance. Little 

 could be said by way of explaining the new birth 

 of art, science and literatiu-e which transmuted 

 mediaeval Christendom into modern Europe. At 

 the outset, howevur, it might be well to note that 

 no study of the Italian Renaissance ixs an isolated 

 phenomena could tell them much of its real 

 nature. The invention of printing and the dis- 

 covery of America were a singularly attractive 

 couple of events approximately contemporary with 

 theearly Renaissance, and it was almost inevitable 

 that they should be regarded as having been among 

 its efficient causes. Doubtless in the infinite series 

 of actions, re-actions, inter-actions, and counter- 

 actions which affected human destinies, each of 

 these far-reaching events did not fail to modify, 

 and even profoundly to modify, the direction in 

 which the Renaissance moved, and the special 

 form it assumed, but it waa no less certain that 



30 far from being the causal forces, which produced 

 the movement, they were essentially co-ordinate 

 results produced by the same forces as the 

 Renaissance itself acting under different condi- 

 tions. The invention, for instance, of printing 

 from wooden or metal types was nothing more 

 than the ingenious adaptation of a process 

 familiar from primeval antiquity, and, given an 

 effective demand for the rapid multiplication fif 

 books, a thousand cunning artificers were to be 

 found capable of conceiving not only the novel 

 application of the ancient process, but of construct- 

 ing the first rude working of the requisite 

 machinery. But it might be noted the super- 

 session of the written by the printed book rai^idly 

 resulted in the practical extinction of one singiUarly 

 beautiful and important department of pictorial 

 art upon w^hich the early Renaissance had exercised 

 a predominant influence. A finn illuminated 

 manuscript, as a work of art, belonged to an almost 

 unique categoiy, and it could not be gainsaid that 

 the illuminators of medisevaland early Renaissance 

 manuscripts remained still unsurpassed in many 

 classes of decorative design ; that their still 

 extant works were of inestimable value as throw- 

 ing authentic light on the manners and customs, 

 the ways, habits, costimies, appliances, and general 

 surroundings of life in a past which had well nigh 

 totally disappeared. He had brought down with 

 him one of their extremely beautifiU old chartei-s 

 of the City of Canterbury. As they would see, 

 the charter was in wonderful preservation, and 

 at one coruer they would note the miniature, 

 an exti'aordinarily wonderful portrait for its time 

 of King James I. of England. If they examined 

 that charter they would be amazed to see how 

 beautifully it was painted and how beautiful 

 was the decoration which surrounded the 



