September 22, 1923] 



NATURE 



459 



maximum and minimum, occur in the same months 

 at the two stations. 



A very complete investigation follows into the 

 secular change, based on a table, on p. 287, of mean 

 annual values at Pare St. Maur reduced to Val 



Joyeux, and at Val Joyeux, extending from 1883 to 



1 92 1. Some small differences may be noticed from M. 

 Dufour's table on p. 95. On p. 288 reference is made 

 to the possible influence of sunspots on secular change. 

 As several magneticians have supposed such an in- 

 fluence to exist, it is important to note that M. Angot's 

 results are wholly negative: " il semble impossible 

 de retrouver ... la moindre trace d'une periodicite 

 de onze annees." Secular change has followed almost 

 identical courses at Paris and London. The change 

 of D in late years has been very rapid, the easterly 

 movement at Paris from 1916 to 1921 being 48-1'. 

 H attained a maximum in Paris in 191 2. After 

 falling continuously until 1913, I has been rather 

 oscillatory, there being a rise from 1914 to 1918, but 

 a fall since. 



As a final contribution to the subject of secular 

 change, M. Angot has tried to represent the value of 

 D at Paris from 1541 to 192 1 by a simple harmonic 

 fluctuation about a mean value. The formula giving 

 the best results is 



D = 6-55°+ 15-85° cos 27r(/! - i8i4)/48o, 



t being the date in years. The agreement between 

 this formula and observation is quite good from 1541 

 to 1891 ; but since 1881 the excess of the observed 

 westerly declination over that calculated has steadily 

 increased until in 192 1 it was 3-2°. The publication 

 of this volume promises well for the future of the new 

 Institute of Geophysics of the University of Paris. 



C. Chree. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



The Department of Aeronautics of the Imperial 

 jllege of Science and Technology, which was estab- 

 lished in 1920-21, has issued a pamphlet showing the 

 )urses available during the session 1923-24. The 

 irork is conducted in three sections, design and 

 engineering, meteorology, and navigation, and a 

 )mplete course normally occupies two years, the 

 ;cond often including research and experimental 

 irork. 



The university extension division of the University 

 >f Colorado exemplifies the wide range of services 

 )ffered by a modern state university in America. 

 This " division," described as " simply a vehicle by 

 leans of which the various departments of the 

 miversity may be made available to the people of 

 Colorado," includes not only a department of in- 

 ruction (correspondence, class, vocational, and 

 risual), but also a " department of public service " 

 jmprising bureaus of community organisation (for 

 promoting public health, child welfare, recreation, 

 id kindred subjects), business and governmental 

 research, library extension, home-reading courses, 

 ' igh school debating league, higii school visitation, 

 id supply of public speakers. The range of public 

 srvice which the university is willing to undertake 

 J, in fact, limited only by its capacity to perform 

 "lem. 



For many years an admirable system of continuative 

 iucation has been given in Great Britain in H.M. Dock- 

 yard Schools. Boys enter the dockyards as the result 

 )f competition, and the effect of this is a high standard 

 »f teaching in the primary and secondary schools of 

 dockyard towns. When the apprentice has entered 



the dockyard, he has to attend school for eleven 

 hours each week, partly in the afternoons in his 

 working hours, and partly in the evenings. He is 

 under strict naval discipline during these educational 

 periods, and absence from school without sufficient 

 cause leads to loss of pay, or to suspension or dismissal 

 if the offence is repeated. Attendance is compulsory 

 for every apprentice in the first year, but at the end 

 of each of the four years of the normal course the 

 least successful students are sent away from school. 

 There is thus a continual weeding out of the mentally 

 unfit, with the result that, at the end of the fourth 

 year, the students who remain represent the best 

 products of a wise combination of theoretical and 

 practical training and are able to compete successfully 

 for Any scholarships in which applied science and 

 mathematics are given prominence. The announce- 

 ment of the result of this year's competition for 

 Whitworth senior scholarships and Whitworth scholar- 

 ships affords a remarkable example of this fact. 

 The number of competitors for the former^ — of an 

 annual value of 250/. tenable for two years — was 19, 

 and for the latter — annual value of 125/. tenable for 

 three years — was 142. Of the two senior scholar- 

 ships awarded, one was to a former dockyard 

 apprentice, now at the Royal Naval College, Green- 

 wich. Of the six other scholarships, four were 

 awarded to dockyard apprentices, and of the twenty- 

 five Whitworth prizes of 10/. each given to unsuccess- 

 ful candidates, twenty-one were awarded to dockyard 

 apprentices. These splendid results are most credit- 

 able to the instructors in H.M. Dockyard Schools, 

 and they show that the Admiralty system of educa- 

 tion is a potent force for technical training and 

 development in Great Britain. 



The prospectus for 1923-24 of university courses 

 in the Manchester Municipal College of Technology 

 contains the new regulations for the B.Sc. Tech., 

 which provide for higher courses, distinct from, and 

 at least one year in advance of, the ordinary degree 

 courses, to extend over three years from the standard of 

 the present intermediate examination for the degree, 

 or the Higher School Certificate. The college offers 

 courses of post-graduation and specialised study and 

 research in various branches of engineering, applied 

 chemistry and chemical technology, textile industries, 

 applied physics, and mining engineering. The calendar 

 of the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, Bristol, 

 gives particulars of university degree courses, in- 

 cluding the Bristol " sandwich " scheme of training 

 for engineers. This comprises three periods of ten 

 months each in the university, followed severally, 

 the first by 14, the second by 2, and the third by 14 

 months in certain engineering works to which the 

 university undertakes to recommend suitable students. 

 IvOughborough College, which has on its Board of 

 Governors representatives of the Universities of 

 Cambridge and Birmingham as well as of the Leicester- 

 shire County and Loughborough Town Councils, 

 publishes full details of its equipment and courses in 

 engineering and chemical technology and of its School 

 of Industrial and Fine Art, Junior College, and extra- 

 mural department, together with a list of some 250 

 students who qualified in 1922 for the College diploma, 

 conferred for the first time in that year. The diploma 

 course covers five years and its special feature is that, 

 unlike the various " sandwich ' systems, it provides 

 for continuously concurrent training in engineering 

 theory and practice. The Sir John Cass Technical 

 Institute, London, announces, among others, special 

 courses of higher technological instruction in brewing 

 and allied industries, petroleum technology, colloids, 

 alternating currents and electrical oscillations, metal- 

 lography, foundry practice, mining and surveying. 



NO. 2812, VOL. 112] 



