December i, 1923] 



NATURE 



80-, 



Current Topics and Events. 



The Western Galleries of the Science Museum, 

 South Kensington, which for nearly half a century- 

 have contained the valuable Science Collections of 

 tlie Museum, were closed to the public on September 

 17. These galleries have now been vacated, and the 

 constructional and other work (gun foundations, re- 



coration, etc.) considered by the Government to 

 ., necessary to make the galleries fit to house the 

 collections and staff of the Imperial War Museum 

 (created a few years ago, and now at the Crystal 

 Palace) is already well in hand. The Science Collec- 

 tions have been transferred to three unfinished 

 galleries in the eastern block of the new Science 

 Museum building (see Nature, June 30, p. 895), 

 which were not vacated by the Post Office Savings 

 Bank department until towards the end of September. 

 The total floor-area available in these galleries is 

 only about two-thirds that in the Western Galleries, 

 which were already much overcrowded ; but by using 

 two of the new galleries as store-rooms, in which 

 objects are packed very closely together, it has been 

 possible to arrange objects in the third gallery under 

 conditions which allowed this gallery to be open 

 to the public from November 11. Here are shown 

 groups of objects selected from the sections illustrating 

 astronomy, surveying, meteorology, chemistry, optics, 

 sound, and botany. The remaining objects in these 

 sections, and all the objects in the sections illustrating 

 mathematics, general physics, photography, kine- 

 matography, heat, geophysics, geology, geography, 

 and oceanography — forming altogether about eighty 

 per cent, of the Science Collections — are thus stored 

 away, and cannot be placed on exhibition again until 

 further space becomes available. The progress made 

 during recent years with the fine new buildings of 

 the National Science Museums of Germany and 

 Austria, at Munich and Vienna respectively, affords 

 a significant contrast to the above. 



The Council of the Trade Marks, Patents, and 

 Designs Federation, Ltd., recently circulated a 

 questionnaire in relation to trade marks, patents, and 

 designs prepared by the International Chamber of 

 Commerce to a number of societies interested in these 

 matters. This questionnaire was drawn up with the 

 object of ascertaining the directions in which modifica- 

 tions and amendments were desirable, from the 

 British point of view, in the International Convention 

 for the Protection of Industrial Property (Treaties 

 Series, No. 8 (1913). Cmd. 6805. H.M.S.O. Price 

 6rf. net.), signed at Washington on June 2, 191 1 (State 

 Papers, vol. 104, p. 116). A meeting of the repre- 

 sentatives of some twenty of the societies consulted 

 was held at Lever House, Blackfriars, on November 

 23. The questionnaire was discussed, and it was 

 recommended, inter alia, that (i) a clause should be 

 inserted in the Convention abolishing revocation of 

 patent rights either for non-working or for abuse of 

 monopoly, but permitting each country at its dis- 

 cretion to grant compulsory licences in such cases ; 

 (2) provision should be made for establishing in all 

 Convention countries a uniform period of duration for 



NO. 2822, VOL. I 12] 



patents, and renewal fees should be paid at agreed 

 intervals of time and be based on a sliding scale sys- 

 tem of progressively increasing payments ; (3) there 

 should be uniform provisions governing the use of an 

 invention on vessels sailing under the flag of one of 

 the States which has adhered to the Convention ; 

 (4) there should be provision for registration in a 

 public register kept by the competent administration 

 of each country of all assignments and licences affect- 

 ing the legal proprietorship of patent rights ; (5) steps 

 should be taken to secure a greater degree of uni- 

 formity in the regulations at present in force in the 

 various Convention countries with respect to the 

 procedure to be followed on applications for the grant 

 of letters patent. It was further agreed that it was 

 neither desirable nor practicable to insist upon the 

 institution in all Convention countries of a system of 

 preliminary search of patent applications, but it 

 was desirable that any party interested should have 

 the right, prior to the grant of any patent, to institute 

 opposition proceedings based on all prior publications 

 or public users of the invention of which he has 

 knowledge. 



The British Meteorological Office announces an 

 mportant step towards supplying ships with informa- 

 tion regarding the existing weather around the 

 British coasts and forecasts for the seas adjacent 

 to the British Isles. On January i a new series 

 of broadcast wireless messages will be issued from 

 the Air Ministry Station at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily. 

 Each message will contain the actual observations 

 of wind, weather, pressure, barometric tendency, and 

 visibility at ten stations on the British coasts taken 

 only two hours before the broadcast issue. The 

 messages will also give a general inference of weather 

 conditions and forecasts for twelve hours for eleven 

 sea districts ; at the end a further outlook will be 

 given when possible. The code and full particulars 

 may be found in the Board of Trade notices to mariners 

 for November or in the Marine Observer, a monthly 

 magazine to be published by His Majesty's Stationery 

 Office from the beginning of 1924. 



In an address delivered before the Scientific and 

 Technical Circle of the Institute of Journalists on 

 November 20, Sir Richard Gregory, the chairman, 

 discussed the relation of science to progress. In his 

 opening remarks he recalled that Ruskin in his 

 " Crown of Wild Olive," George Gissing in his 

 " Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft," and many 

 other writers had associated science with agencies 

 of death or denounced it as detrimental to social 

 culture. This, however, is a narrow view, and it is 

 futile to rail against the progress of science or attempt 

 to prevent it. We are now on the threshold of 

 developments by which forces may be unloosed and 

 powers acquired far beyond those hitherto known to 

 man. Science is no more responsible for the horrors 

 of the War than for soul-destroying industrial con- 

 ditions. Scientific discoveries may be used for the 

 benefit of mankind or be applied to base uses. Thus 



