Research in Engineering Colleges 59 



phase of the moon is but seven days, and 'a few' of these days must 



be a time near one phase or another. Accidental coincidences are 



generally alluded to influence the wind, because when they occur, 



they mark any event more particularly. Similar to these are the 



prejudices against sailing on Friday, which used to be so common." 



The writer, about twenty-five years ago, found the belief to be very 



general among sailors, including some of the less scientifically trained 



officers of the mercantile marine. The belief seems to be dying out 



slowly, under the pressure of opposite opinion among the better informed; 



but it is certainly still in existence, because in at least one well known 



and widely distributed almanac, of this year 1920, there is a reaffirmation, 



with tabulated data, of the weather to be expected following a given hour 



of quarterly change of the moon. 



The foregoing instance of a popular belief without scientific founda- 

 tion, fairly widely held among intelligent folk, is evidence of the need 

 for training the mental habits of observers who are to engage in any 

 kind of applied scientific research. It suggests that no belief or proposi- 

 tion is to be accepted from the assertions of even many men, howsoever 

 alert mentally, unless backed by methodical arid unbiassed scientific 

 evidence. In other words, we must always be prepared to prove all 

 things^ and to hold fast that which is good. 



In the trainmg of research assistants, and indeed in the training of 

 applied-science students generally, large amounts of time and effort are 

 wasted perennially in North America, on the cumbersome units of 

 weights and measure in the customary English system. There are some 

 forty-five units of measure in the tables of that system, which tables are 

 so complex that very few persons can recite their numericaj relations 

 from memory without a mistake. Moreover, there are certain serious 

 ambiguities in the meanings of some of these units; to wit, the terms 

 ton, hundredweight, pound, bushel, gallon, quart, and pint. Thus, in 

 the United States, the gallon is still the old wine gallon of Queen Anne, 

 containing 231 cubic inches or 3.785 liters, whereas, in Canada, we have 

 the imperial gallon, which the writer understands to contain 277.274 

 cubic inches or 4.546 liters, a discrepancy of over 20 per cent. On the 

 other hand, the international metric system may be correctly said to 

 have only two units — 'the meter and the gram — ^with additional optional 

 names for decimal derivatives. It is only a question of time when the 

 simple two-unit system will displace the cumbersome forty-unit system 

 in the business of the world, just as it has already done in the scientific 

 world. A scientific paper written in non-metric units is not a world 

 paper, but a sectional paper. The waves of radio are believed to encircle 

 the globe, from the emitting station to its antipodes, in about one-tenth of 



