io8 



NAT URL 



[December i6, 1920 



use are being studied, and the results will shortly 

 be experimentally applied in the works of 

 members. 



A number of improvements and inventions, 

 for some of which applications have been 

 made for patents, are being completed, and 

 will in due course be placed in operation. 

 These improvements and inventions include a 

 method of cooling tank-furnace walls, an 

 instrument for indicating and recording vis- 

 cosity of glasses under practical working con- 

 ditions, temperature-control apparatus, furnace- 

 controlling instruments, paste for moulds, etching 

 and acid polishing solutions, instruments for 

 classification of colour values of glasses, and 

 others of minor importance. 



It has been the policy of the association so far 

 as possible to utilise existing facilities in scientific 

 institutions, and in accordance with this policy the 

 National Physical Laboratory is proceeding with 

 researches on behalf of the association, and it is 

 contemplated that during the coming year the 

 volume of researches at this institution will be 

 considerably increased. Investigations are also pro- 

 ceeding at the Department of Glass Technology, 

 University of Sheffield. Negotiations are pro- 

 pressing with universities and institutions which 

 are specially equipped and adapted to investigate 

 specific problems on behalf of the association. 



The association is completing a working agree- 

 ment with the British Refractories Research Asso- 

 ciation whereby large-scale researches into the 

 fundamental principles underlying the manufac- 

 ture of refractories for the glass industry and their 

 industrial application will be carried out by the 

 British Refractories Research Association working 

 in consultation with a joint committee formed oi 

 members of both associations and the Directors 

 of Research. 



Working arrangements have been made with 

 the British Scientific Instrument Research Associa- 

 tion whereby problems common to both associa- 

 tions will be investigated jointly, this association 



co-operating with the British Scientific Instrument 

 Research Association to the fullest possible extent. 



The council has considered the advisability of 

 conducting research investigations into psycho- 

 logical and physiological problems affecting organ- 

 isation and productive operations of the industry, 

 itnd, believing that such investigations will be of 

 great benefit both to the operatives and to the 

 manufacturers, has referred this matter to the 

 appropriate research committee for action. 



Apart from work to be undertaken by associa- 

 tions and scientific institutions and at factories of 

 members on behalf of the association, arrange- 

 ments have been made for men of science who 

 have specialised in certain branches of scientific 

 investigation as applied to this industry to under- 

 take researches. 



Extensive investigations on " The Bloom and 

 Dimming Effect upon Lamp-working Glass " ha\ c 

 been made on behalf of the association by Mr. 

 J. H. Gardiner. A first report has been receiveii 

 which has led to fruitful suggestions for further 

 investigations, which are proceeding. ."V valuable 

 contribution has been made to the association by 

 Messrs. F. Twyman and A. J. Dalladay upon 

 "Methods of Differentiating Cords in Glass," and 

 further work is being done on this subject in thi 

 laboratories of the association. 



A vast amount of work lies before the 

 association, and, while realising the limitations 

 of universities in their relation to industrial 

 research and appreciating their services to 

 industry in furnishing both ideas and trained 

 investigators, the council is, in its en- 

 deavours to solve such of those problems 

 of the glass industry as lend themselves to in- 

 vestigations along academic lines, anxious for the 

 close co-operation of those uni\ersities and scien- 

 tific institutions having equipment and facilities 

 available, and it is hoped that as its work pro- 

 gresses the association may become the centre of 

 scientific and industrial research into problems of 

 the glass industry for the Empire. 



The Quantum Theory. 



pROE. MAX PLANCK was awarded the Nobel 

 *■ prize for physics this year, and his address ' 

 on the occasion of receiving it makes extra- 

 ordinarily interesting reading. He describes in 

 some detail the w-ay in which he was led to the 

 discovery of the quantum, and to anyone engaged 

 in research the description will be very encourag- 

 ing, for it shows through what darkness the mind 

 of a great discoverer must grope, and what false 

 tracks he will follow, before he sees the light of 

 the truth. At the time of his discovery few 

 physicists would seem to have appreciated the 

 fundamental importance of the unknown relation 

 connecting the energy of radiation with its wave- 

 length and temperature, perhaps because this rela- 



1 "Die Entstehung uml b'sherige Kntwicklung der Quantenthcorie.' 

 Von Max Planck. Pp.32. (Leipzig:) .^. Barth, 1930.) Price 4 marks. 



NO. 2668, VOL. 106] 



tion can be obtained only by a denial of some of 

 the chief articles of their scientific creed. Thus 

 the late Lord Rayleigh had already stated cor- 

 rectly the radiation formula as it ought to be — 

 and as it is for the longer wave-lengths; but hi- 

 does not appear to have attempted to explain its 

 hopeless failure in the region of the visible spec- 

 trum and beyond. The rival formula was that 

 of Wien, far less sound theoretically, but giving 

 good agreement with observation in the visible 

 spectrum. 



Planck started on Kirchhoff's idea that if he 

 could find the emission and absorption for a single 

 ideal radiating substance, the true radiation 

 formula would result. He naturally worked on 

 dynamical principles, and inevitably got a result 

 equivalent to no result at all, for it led to the 



