September i, 1923J 



NATURE 



i3i 



Current Topics and Events. 



It is announced in the Times of August 28 that 

 Prof. A. G. Green, director of research of the British 

 Dyestuff Corporation, has resigned his post on account 

 of " dissatisfaction at the lack of technical knowledge 

 on the board of directors, and his belief that the 

 permanent establishment of the dyestuff industry in 

 this countr\'- is impossible under these conditions." 

 In Great Britain it is common for power to be in the 

 hands of people without the scientific knowledge 

 essential to make the best use of it for industrial and 

 social progress ; and Prof. Green has proved by 

 experience what has often been pointed out in these 

 columns and publicly stated by scientific workers in 

 various industrial fields. In political appointments 

 the same principle is adopted of placing the power 

 over scientific departments in the hands of politicians 

 without regard to their scientific knowledge or training. 

 Sir William Joynson Hicks has, for example, just 

 been appointed to succeed Mr. Neville Chamberlain 

 as Minister of Health — this being the fourth Govern- 

 ment post he has occupied in less than a year. Though 

 it is accepted that a Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 should know something about finance and a Solicitor- 

 General something about law, apparently a Minister of 

 Health need not know anything about science in order 

 to control the manifold activities of a department 

 mainly concerned with scientific problems. 



A SENSATIONAL report of a change of level of the 

 bed of the Atlantic between Cape Town and St. 

 Helena was made on the authority of the Eastern 

 Telegraph Co. last week. It was stated that a cable 

 repair-ship found a depth of three-quarters of a mile 

 at a place where the chart showed a depth of three 

 miles when the cable was laid in 1899. Changes of 

 level of the ocean floor have often been brought to 

 light by soundings, but the actual rise or fall is 

 reckoned in a few feet or fathoms, and nothing of 

 such a stupendous character as a change of more than 

 two miles has ever been established by surveys. 

 Decrease of depth could, of course, be caused by 

 accumulation of the products of an eruption of a 

 submarine volcano, and in such an event the rise of 

 level would be local and the material would sooti be 

 worn down. Both Vesuvius and Etna began their 

 careers as submarine volcanoes, and Sir Archibald 

 GeJkie records a number of submarme eruptions in 

 his "Text -book of Geology," though nothing 

 approaching the building of such a pile as would be 

 required to produce the difference of level reported 

 above. All that can be said at present, therefore, is 

 that an actual uplift of the dimensions reported in so 

 short a time is unthinkable and that the accumulation 

 of volcanic material to produce the change of depth 

 is extremely improbable. Confirmation of the accur- 

 acy of the old sounding as well as of the new will be 

 required before any scientific significance can be 

 attached to the report. 



Several experiments have been made recently, 

 both in America and in France, to instal a complete 

 radio telephonic set in express trains. In the fast 

 NO. 2809, VOL. 112] 



express train between Hoboken and Buffalo this has 

 been done. Passengers can continue conversations 

 with their friends which were interrupted by the 

 train starting ; they can also receive radio telegrams 

 from their friends while the train is in motion. In 

 La Nature for August 18, a technical description is 

 given of the experiments which have been carried out 

 by three of the French railway companies in making 

 such " concert " cars. On the Paris-Orleans railway, 

 the experimental saloon cars had two loud-speaking 

 telephones fitted at each end of the cars. Up to a 

 distance of 210 miles from Paris, the Eiffel Tower' 

 concerts were heard quite satisfactorily. As a rule 

 the concerts were better heard than the news items. 

 When the train goes through deep cuttings the sound 

 is notably reduced, and when going through long 

 tunnels it almost disappears. As there are at present 

 only three large broadcasting stations in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the railway, and as these are near Paris, 

 the concert cars have only a limited use. With the 

 arrangements used it was found that the large radio 

 telegraphic stations near the Bordeaux-Paris line 

 produced serious disturbances. When going round 

 curves also, discordant sounds were heard due to the 

 friction of the flanges of the wheels on the rails. 



" Climbing Mount Everest," the cinematograph 

 record of last year's attempt to scale the world's 

 highest peak, was presented in a revised edition with 

 several new photographs on August 27 at the 

 Polytechnic Hall, London. Capt. J. B. L. Noel, who 

 took the photographs, provided an interesting running 

 commentary as the pictures appeared, while the 

 orchestra played " Airs of Tibet and Nepal," collected 

 in Tibet by Mr. J. Howard Somervell, one of the party 

 of four who made the first attack on the summit. 

 Frankly an entertainment of great and vital interest, 

 designed to raise funds for an attempt on the peak in 

 1924, this pictorial account of the greatest acliieve- 

 ment in mountaineering has been wisely chosen by 

 Natural Films, Ltd., to inaugurate by a four weeks' 

 season the series of travel and interest filtns which 

 are to be presented to Londoners at this hall during 

 next winter. While Capt. Noel deliberately em- 

 phasised merely the sporting nature of the climbing 

 effort, his pictures show a much wider outlook ; of 

 particular scientific interest are pictures of the land 

 forms and the force of the prevalent westerly winds, 

 and also of the customs and ceremonials of the 

 Tibetans. 



The fourth annual report of the Tidal Institute 

 of the University of Liverpool describes further 

 developments in the work of this vigorous young 

 institution, though much of the work referred to is 

 not yet ready for publication. Only a few of the 

 more interesting features can be mentioned here. A 

 study of the effect on the sea-level at Liverpool, of 

 winds operating in the Irish Sea and in the Atlantic 

 Ocean respectively, shows that their importance is 

 in the ratio of about 2:3. The purely local winds 

 seem to be less important than was hitherto supposed. 



