156 



NATURE 



[March 31, 192 1 



Fatigue and Efficiency in the Iron and 

 Steel Industry. 



IN Report No. 5 of the Industrial Fatigue Research 

 Board Dr. H. M. Vernon describes the results of 

 a series of investigations carried out at most of the 

 chief iron and steel centres in the United Kingdom. 

 He points out that there are tremendous variations 

 in the mechanical efficiency of the plant employed in 

 various works and in the efficiency with which human 

 labour is utilised. In most districts the blast furnaces 

 are charged by hand, though four to eight times more 

 men are required than for mechanical charging, and 

 the work is of a much heavier character. In the most 

 efficiently run open-hearth steel furnaces two to three 

 times more charges of steel are worked per week than 

 in the least efficient, whilst the efficiency of rolling 

 mills varies in similar proportion. 



The steel-melters, when engaged in mending their 

 furnaces, which they usually do immediately after 

 the molten steel has been drawn off and whilst they 

 are still white-hot, have to undertake one of the most 

 arduous forms of labour known in any industry. 

 Much might be done to lighten this labour, for at 

 some works the average time required for mending 

 is seven times longer than at others ; also, owing 

 to the fact that all the furnaces are started at about 

 the same time, they tend to require mending at 

 the same time, so the men frequently cannot relieve 

 one another. This could be remedied by arranging 

 that mending was more evenly spread over the week. 

 Many of the steel furnaces are still charg^ed by hand, 

 in spite 0/ the tremendous labour and delay involved. 



The effect of fatigue on health and longevity was 

 studied by Dr. "Vernon (in conjunction with Mr. E. A. 

 Rusher) by tabulating the sickness and mortality data 

 of 24,000 iron and steel workers for a six-year period. 

 These data, which had accrued under the National 

 Health Insurance Act, showed that there is a definite 

 relationship between the amount of sickness experi- 

 enced bv the workers and the nature of their occupa- 

 tion. Steel-melters headed the list, and showed 23 per 

 cent, more sickness than the average and 26 per cent, 

 greater mortality. The puddlers of wrought-iron 

 showed a 20 per cent, excess of sickness, the whole 

 of this excess being due to respiratory diseases and 

 rheumatism. Presumably this was because the 

 puddlers usuallv work alternate 20-minute periods of 

 very hot and heavy work followed bv light work or 

 complete rest, during which they tend to catch chills. 

 Other workers at hot and heavy work likewise showed 

 an excess of sickness, whilst workers at ordinary tem- 

 peratures, such as cranemen and general labourers, 

 showed q per cent, less sickness than the average. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Mr. James W. Low, assistant in the natural his- 

 tory department of University College, Dundee, has 

 been appointed lecturer in zoology at Birkbeck Col- 

 lege, London. 



The Manchester Education Committee has appointed 

 Prof. B. M. Jones to be principal of the Manchester 

 College of Technology in succession to Principal 

 Garnett. Prof. Jones, who was educated at Oxford, 

 was for some time professor of chemistry at the 

 Government College, Lahore, and more recently 

 nrofessor of chemistrv at, and director of, the Edward 

 Davies Chemical Laboratories, Aberystwyth. 



Science for February 25 announces that Prof. J. R. 

 Angell was elected president of Yale University at a 

 meeting of the University Corporation on Februarv 20 ; 

 the new president will take up his duties at the close 

 of the university year. Prof. Angell is a graduate of 

 the University of Michigan, and has been professor of 



NO. 2683, VOL. 107] 



psychology, dean, and acting president of Chicago 

 University. He has also shown ability as an adminis- 

 trator and a leader of education while acting as chair- 

 man of the National Research Council and as presi- 

 dent of the Carnegie Corporation. 



A LIST of the students and teachers from the 

 Dominions overseas and from foreign countries at 

 present in our universities, which supplements that 

 issued in December last and referred to in Nature 

 of December 30, p. 585, has been issued by the Uni- 

 versities Bureau of the British Empire. Although the 

 information is not yet quite complete, an interesting 

 summary has been compiled showing the numbers 

 which are contributed by each of the continents. 

 Africa sends 1046; America and the West Indies, 676; 

 Asia, 1228, of W'hom 974 are from India, Burma, and 

 Ceylon; Europe, 703; and Australasia, 282. The 

 grand total to date is thus 3935, of whom about two- 

 thirds are from our overseas Dominions. 



The Carnegie Corporation of New York has entered 

 into an agreement with the Leland Stanford Univer- 

 sity of California by which it will give large financial 

 support to a research institute which the University is 

 about to establish for the intensive study of the 

 problems of the production, distribution, and consump- 

 tion of food. The need for such research was first 

 brought to the attention of the Corporation by Mr. 

 Herbert C. Hoover, and it is proposed that the insti- 

 tute shall bear his name. The selection of the Uni- 

 versity as fts home is partly due to the fact that Mr. 

 Hoover has deposited there the documentary material 

 he has collected relative to the economic side of the 

 war. The work of research, for which the laboratories 

 of the University will be made available, is to begin 

 on July I. 



The Pioneer Mail for February 18 publishes 

 extracts from the presidential address delivered by 

 Lt.-Col. J. W. D. Megaw to the Medical Research 

 Section of the Indian Science Congress. Col. Megaw 

 states that of late persistent rumours have been cir- 

 culated that the Government of India is not prepared 

 to undertake the full responsibility for the School of 

 Tropical Medicine and Hygiene of Calcutta and 

 Bombav because all its funds are wanted for the 

 establishment of a new Imperial Institute of Medical 

 Research in Delhi. The school was established 

 largelv through the initiative of Sir Leonard Rogers 

 v^ith funds subscribed by the public and grants from 

 the Government. Col. Megaw alludes to the valu- 

 able work done bv the school, and pleads earnestly for 

 its proper support, suggesting that the programmes of 

 medical research in India should be considered by an 

 authoritative committee of experts. 



La Nature for March 19 gives some extracts from 

 the statistics of attendance at the University of Paris 

 which have been published in L'Universite de Paris. 

 Before the outbreak of war the total number of 

 students in the University was 17,308; in the suc- 

 ceeding four years there was naturally a big drop, 

 while in 1918 the numbers had risen again to 11,026, 

 a figure onlv about a thousand short of the 1910 total. 

 In igig there was a big influx of students, much as 

 our own universities experienced, and the total rose 

 to 17,761 ; but surprising figures are given for 1920, 

 from which it appears that only 11,214 students were 

 in attendance. The distribution of the totals among- 

 Frenchmen and others and among men and women 

 also reveal some strange facts. The figures for the 

 men classed as " etrangers " for 1920 show a decrease 

 of about one-fifth of the 1913 total, while for women 

 the decrease for the same period is fully two-thirds. 

 The numbers of Frenchmen attendinif the University 

 have decreased almost bv one-half, while the numbers 



