172 



NATURE 



[August 4, 1923 



authoritative study of St. Gregory the Great, which 

 was followed by " Augustine the Missionary." He also 

 wrote " The Golden Days of the Early English Church," 

 published in 1916, and edited a " History of the Vicars 

 of Rochdale " for the Chetham Society. 



It is surprising that, amid all this literary and scientific 

 activity, Sir Henry should have been able to devote 

 so much time to politics and public affairs, on which 

 he was a frequent and voluminous writer in the corre- 

 spondence columns of the Press. He was elected 

 member of Parliament for South Salford in 1886, 

 1892, and 1895. In 1902 he did not seek re-election. 

 Although he sat as a Unionist, he adopted an inde- 

 pendent attitude, giving a free rein to powers of 

 criticism and controversy which lost nothing by his 

 command of language. 



In addition to the honours already mentioned. Sir 

 Henry Howorth was an honorary D.C.L. of Durham Uni- 

 versity, a trustee and honorary librarian of Chetham Col- 

 lege, and, from 1899, a trustee of the British Museum. He 

 had been president of the Royal Archaeological Institute 

 and the Viking Society, and was a vice-president of the 

 Royal Asiatic and of the Royal Numismatic Societies. 



Dr. Louis Bell. 



Dr. Louis Bell died at his home at West Newton, 

 Mass., on June 14. He was born in Chester, New Hamp- 

 shire, in 1864, and twenty years afterwards graduated 

 at Dartmouth College. He then specialised in physics 

 and applied engineering, receiving the Ph.D. degree 

 from Johns Hopkins University in 1888. In the same 

 year he was elected professor of physics at Purdue 

 University, Lafayette, Ind. He edited the Electrical 

 World, from 1890 to 1892, and was then appointed Chief 

 Engineer of the power transmission department of the 

 General Electric Company. In this capacity he installed 

 at Redlands, California, the first three phase transmis- 

 sion plant which was used for general service. From 

 1895 to 1905 he lectured on power transmission to the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while for twenty- 

 seven years he was a consulting engineer in Boston. 



Dr. Bell did excellent pioneering work on illuminating 

 engineering and on power transmission. His " Electric 

 Power Transmission," published in 1897, was for several 

 years the standard textbook on the subject. For many 

 years also his " Art of Illumination," published in 1902, 

 was the standard work on illuminating engineering. 

 He contributed articles on " Electrical Power Trans- 

 mission " and on " Electric Motors " to the loth and 

 nth editions of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," and 

 published many technical articles chiefly on alternating 

 currents, electric traction, illumination, physiological 

 optics and radio-telephony. He was a manager of the 

 American Institute of Electrical Engineers from 1891 

 to 1894 and was a past president of the American 

 Illuminating Engineering Society. His work on photo- 

 metry for the International Electrical Commission was 

 much appreciated by engineers all over the world. 



The former Director-General of the German Con- 

 tinental Gas Co., Dr. W. v. Oechelhaeuser, died on 

 May 3 1, at Dessau (Anhalt). He was born on January 5, 

 1850, at Frankfort-on-Main. He studied engineering 

 science at the Technical High School in Berlin, made 

 rather extensive journeys in foreign countries and 

 entered in 1887 into the services of the German 



NO. 2805, V<^L. I I 2] 



Continental Gas Co. at Dessau, of which firm he was 

 Director-General during the years 1890-1912. His 

 technical achievements, based upon sound scientific 

 knowledge, have been acknowledged by the bestowal 

 of the honorary degrees of Dr.Ing. and Dr.Phil. 

 Dr. von Oechelhaeuser contributed largely to the 

 development of the gas industry ; for example, he 

 substituted for the old type of horizontal gas retorts, 

 with their great amount of hand work, the vertical 

 retorts, in which the coal glides down by its own 

 weight and at the same time is gasified. On the 

 other hand, he constructed the first engine on the 

 Oechelhaeuser system, by which it became possible 

 to use the gas from a blast furnace directly for power 

 production. In addition to this, he was successful in 

 raising the social standing of the engineer in Germany, 

 in his capacity of president, during many years, of 

 the Society of Gas and Water Engineers and of the 

 Society of German Engineers. 



Prof. Hermann Scroll, professor of technical physics 

 of the University of Leipzig, died on June 27, aged 

 fifty-one. His premature death will be much regretted. 

 He was bom on January 14, 1872, in Eupen, Rhenish 

 Prussia, and studied at the Technical High School, Aix- 

 la-Chapelle, and at the University of Giessen, where he 

 became assistant to Prof. Otto Wiener, with whom he 

 moved to Leipzig in the year 1899. In 1910 he was 

 made professor of technical physics, and he organised 

 the practical courses of this study at the university. 

 His investigations were concerned mainly with the 

 relation between light and electricity ; for example, he 

 was of opinion that electric action of the light plays an 

 important part in the first-known photographic process, 

 the daguerreotype process. Much important work was 

 done by Scholl in his capacity as an expert of the 

 Reichsgericht in patent cases. In numerous decisions 

 concerning the validity of patents connected with 

 electricity and mechanics, the senate of the supreme 

 German court of justice followed Scholl's opinion. In 

 consequence of his far-reaching scientific knowledge 

 and thorough understanding of technical questions, 

 Scholl exerted great influence upon the development 

 of industry. Industrial circles, as well as his colleagues 

 and pupils, will be much afflicted by the loss of this 

 distinguished man. 



We regret to announce the following deaths : 



Dr. E. Beckmann, on July 12, aged seventy. An 

 appreciative note on his life and work appeared in our 

 issue of July 21, p. 109, when the occasion of his 

 seventieth birthday celebrated on July 4 was recorded. 



Prof. L. Hiltner, president of the Bavarian 

 Botanical Institute, on June 6. 



Prof. E. W. D. Holway, of the University of 

 Minnesota, known for his work on the rust-fungi, 

 on March 31, aged seventy. 



Prof. F. Krafft, professor of chemistry at Heidelberg, 

 aged seventy-one. 



Dr. Josef Nevinny, professor of pharmacology and 

 pharmacognosy at the University of Innsbruck, aged 

 seventy. 



Prof. J. P. Langlois, of the Conservatoire national 

 des Arts et Metiers, and editor since 1910 of the 

 Revue generale des Sciences, on June 17. 



Dr. J . G. Rutherford, chairman of the International 

 Commission on Control of Bovine Tuberculosis and 

 Canadian delegate at the International Institute of Agri- 

 culture at Rome in 1908, on July 24, aged sixty-five. 



