262 



NATURE 



[October 21, 1920 



inducement to brinj; out new and improved patterns 

 of instruments ; their largest customers are engineers, 

 wlio, as a rule, have had a very elementary training 

 a» surveyors, and are shy of adopting any new instru- 

 ment or method. 



The above remarks apply particularly to land 

 surveying, but are largely true also of hydrograpliic 

 worU. India and Canada have their own Hydro- 

 graphic Services, but apart from these the Hydro- 

 graphic Department of the Admiralty has to deal with 

 all the seas and coasts of the Empire, and also with 

 such others as are not dealt with by their own 

 Governments. The task is great, and the resources 

 available are all too small for the work. Even in 

 home waters there is much to be done, if only due 

 to the changes continually taking place in all 

 estuaries. Apart from the shifting of sandbanks, etc., 

 much of the earlier work is not up to the standard 

 of modern requirements. 



There is no school where hydrographic surveyors 

 can receive instruction in the principles and theory 

 of their work, and no staff available for studying 

 methods and instruments and bringing them up to 

 date. The hydrographic staff of the Admiralty is 

 recruited from volunteers amongst the younger officers 

 of the executive branch of the Royal Navy who have 

 passed in navigation. They learn their surveying in 

 the surveying ships while work is in progress, and 

 the staff of trained surveyors is at present so limited 

 that it can give little instruction to the beginners. 

 Many officers after serving in a surveying ship for 

 two or more years return to ordinary duties afloat, or 

 specialise in other branches where their knowledge of 

 survey work is of great benefit to them. The remainder 

 are advanced in rank /lari passu with the officers of 

 H.M. Fleet. The existence of a school where the 

 theoretical side of the question could be studied would 

 be of great benefit to all. 



The principles involved in survey are the same 

 whether applied by land or by sea, and the instru- 

 ments largely the same. One establishment could 

 usefully study and give instruction in both sides of 

 survey work. 



Survey cannot be carried out over large tracts of 

 country without consideration of the science generally 

 known as geodesy, which is reallv onlv survey as 

 applied to the earth as a whole. The problems in- 

 volved in this require not onlv world-wide data, but 

 also hich mathematical skill. Problems interconnected 

 with these are those concerning the tides and terres- 

 trial masnetism, both of prreat importance to naviga- 

 tion. These, again, arc connected with the studv of 

 the earth's structure in its wider sense, and so with 

 seismology and feologv. These problems mav all be 

 summed up in the word "geophysics." 



While a knowledge of geophysics is not necessary 

 for every surveyor, no survey authority can function 

 satisfactorily without it. At the same time few such 



authorities have the staff available for its proper 

 study. A central institution which could be referred 

 to for information would add greatly to the efficiency 

 of the survey authorities. 



The need tor a British geodetic institute is admitted 

 by all who are acquainted with the nature and im- 

 portance of the pressing Imperial and scientific 

 problems which depend on the great surveys. The 

 study of such problems has hitherto been' left, in 

 characteristic British fashion, to the initiative of 

 enthusiastic individuals or neglected altogether. 

 Take, for example, the case of the tides — so vital a 

 matter to our sailors. While the latje Sir George 

 Darwin still lived it could at least be said that one 

 master-mind was devoted, with some approach to 

 continuity, to the study of the great problems which 

 must be attacked and solved if tidal prediction is to 

 advance beyond its present elementary and scrappy 

 state, but since his lamented death in 1912 the subject 

 has lacked attention. 



At the request of the British As,sociation, Prof. 

 H. Lamb recently ri:\ iewed the whole situation with 

 regard to tide.s, and in a masterly report indicated the 

 number and importance of the problems awaiting 

 solution. Problems comparable in insistence are con- 

 nected with the land surveys of our Empire, and a 

 similar review of the general situation, also initiated 

 by the British .Association under the stimulus of war, 

 directed attention to the pressing need for some deter- 

 mined effort to attack them. The report opened with 

 this cogent sentence: "There is no institution, 

 association, or department whose business it is to 

 deal with the higher geodesy." Consideration of the 

 report by a special committee, afterwards enlarged, 

 developed in the direction of urging the establishment 

 of a geophysical institute. The need for such an 

 institute has been formally recognised as urgent by 

 the Conjoint Board of .Scientific Societies (formed 

 during the war for the study of urgent questions), 

 which appointed a small executive committe£ (which 

 included the president and secretary of the Royal 

 Society) to press for the immediate establishment of 

 such an institute. 



We think it would be difficult to find in any 

 scientific matter greater unanimity amongst all the 

 authorities concerned therein. We trust that sufficient 

 evidence has been given as to both the national im- 

 portance of the subject and the urgency of the need 

 for action. We await the advent of the -vivus bene- 

 factor, for, as already indicated, there is a consensus 

 of opinion that such an institution should be estab- 

 lished within a university by private benefactions, 

 although assistance might, as a consequence, be forth- 

 coming from national funds. The wide ramifications 

 of survey, geodesy, and geodynamics into mathe- 

 matical, physical, and engineering sciences call for 

 their study in a university rather than in a depart- 

 mental atmosphere. 



The Imperial^ College as a University of Science and Technology.^ 



'T'HE real issue is whether a useful and worthy 

 ■*• type of university can be erected on the com- 

 paratively narrow basis of a limited group of studies. 

 In both primary and secondary education there has 

 been a growing tendency to evolve several distinct 

 types of school. Is it only university cloth that must 

 always be cut to the same pattern ? If we consider 

 the enormous complexity of modern civilisation and 



1 Synopsis of a paper on " The Proposed University of Science and 

 Technology : Can a Useful and Worthy Univt-rsity be Based on Pure and 

 Applied Science?" read before the Old Students' Association of the Royal 

 College of Science on October i2 by J. W. Williamson. 



NO. 2660, VOL. 106] 



I the degree and extent to which it is based vipon 



science, we must think that, in the region of univer- 



I sity education, the time has come for a further 



j differentiation of functions, and that the first step in 



I this development should be the creation of a new tvpe 



I of university based upon pure and applied science, 



not to supersede, but to supplement, the existing type. 



The normal type of university, embracing a great 



number of faculties, would still remain, and ought to 



be, the predominant and prevalent type. 



Science, pure and applied, from its nature, is worthy 

 to rank in educational and cultural values with other 



