188 RESEARCH 



now vested in the National Physical Laboratory. 

 The committee had in 1881 arranged for the sys- 

 tematic testing of resistance coils, and ' in addition 

 to dealing with the primary electrical standards, 

 the committee have also considered the subjects 

 of platinum-thermometry, thermal and magnetic 

 units, and physical constants in general. During the 

 latter years of the committee's existence it was 

 active in its efforts to promote international uni- 

 formity in standards, and for this purpose many 

 experiments were undertaken at the National 

 Physical Laboratory, on behalf of the committee. 

 The appointment by the London Conference of 

 1908 of an international scientific committee [Lord 

 Rayleigh's Committee] of fifteen to direct work 

 in connexion with the maintenance of electrical 

 standards relieved our committee of much of its 

 responsibility. The main objects for which it had 

 been appointed had been achieved ; in all the 

 principal countries of the world the same units of 

 resistance, of current, and of electromotive force 

 had been adopted, and the standards in use were 

 practically identical.' The reports of the committee, 

 which had as usual suffered dispersal through the 

 successive annual volumes published by the Associa- 

 tion, were collected in a single volume and published 

 in 1913, as a memorial to the association of Kelvin 

 with the work, the publication being aided by a gift 

 from Mr. R. K. Gray. 



CHEMICAL RESEARCHES 



As an important early example of research in the 

 department of chemistry we may take the report on 



