February io, 192 i] 



NATURE 



77^ 



subsidence along the southern side of a normal fault 

 cutting the rocks below the alluvium of the Sylhet 

 district, and situated approximately under the major 

 axis of the epicentral area." 



La Nature for January 22 contains an illustrated 

 article by M. L^on Laflfitte on the methods which are 

 being used by the French naval authorities to refloat 

 those vessels which were torpedoed during the war 

 and sank in situations which render them dangerous 

 to navigation. Maps are given on which the position 

 and name of each submerged wreck are marked. No 

 numbers are mentioned by the author, but the maps 

 show that at least 200 vessels, many of them near the 

 entrances to the larger ports, were lost. The opera- 

 tions are directed by three captains of the fleet, and 

 in most cases are carried out by the compressed-air 

 method, temporary wooden patches being fixed by 

 divers over the holes made in the sides of the vessel 

 by the torpedoes. It is found possible to carry out 

 this work down to a depth of 180 ft. 



In a paper read recently before the Institution of 

 Petroleum Technologists Mr. F. H. Garner, of the 

 Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh, discussed the importance 

 of the carbonisation constant of lubricating oils. 

 This constant is determined by exposing the oil to a 

 definite temperature in an oxidising atmosphere, and 

 then measuring the quantity of asphaltene produced. 

 The carbonisation constant is closely connected with 

 the content of resinous matter in the oil, which may 

 be extracted by utilising the selective adsorption of 

 charcoal for these resins. The Conradson coke test 

 was brought forward as an important means of dis- 

 criminating between different lubricating oils, and it 

 was shown that this criterion was particularly valu- 

 able in connection with internal-combustion engines. 



Dr. H. E. Armstrong has a charming address on 



Dotective Work in the Potbank " in the current issue 



of the Transactions of the Ceramic Society. He 



shows that, if righlly interpreted, the story of the 



"crime" committed when, say, iron rusts, so that a 



t valuable strong metal is changed to a worthless 

 powder, is as exciting in its way as the shilling- 

 shocker detective story. He utilises the discovery of 

 the composition of limestone to give his views on the 

 general principles which obtain in the application of 

 science to the manufacture of pottery in particular 

 and to the industries in general. The title of Dr. 

 Armstrong's address is singularly appropriate, be- 

 cause much of the so-called application of science 

 to the industries is an application of the detective 



I instinct in locating sources of loss. 



It appears from the Procis-Verbaux of the last 



ling of the International Committee of Weights 



•iiui Measures that it will be proposed at the general 



conference in September next that the functions of 



, the International Bureau shall no longer be confined 



I to the construction and verification of standards of 



I length and mass, but extended to include other 



units and standards, as well as the determination 



of physical constants. In the event of this being 



' .«..r-cd to by the countries participating in the metric 



NO. 2676, VOL. 106] 



convention, a commencement will probably be made 

 with electrical units and standards. The conference 

 will also consider a proposition to increase the fixed 

 annual budget of the Bureau from the present figure 

 of 100,000 francs to 250,000 or 300,000 francs. The 

 periodical recomparisons of the iridio-platinum 

 national prototypes of the metre and the kilogram 

 are now in progress at the Bureau, and preliminary 

 observations on four of the metres seem to indicate 

 that all of them have undergone a small diminution 

 of length, of the order of half a micron, since their 

 original verification more than thirty years ago. The 

 investigation of the properties of nickel-steel alloys, 

 which led to the discovery of invar, has been resumed, 

 and it has been found that by the addition of 12 per 

 cent, of chromium to alloys of the invar type a metal 

 (" elinvar ") is obtained which exhibits a constant 

 modulus of elasticity throughout a wide range of tem- 

 perature. 



A REPORT has now been issued by the Department 

 of Scientific and Industrial Research giving particu- 

 lars of the work accomplished by the lubricants and 

 lubrication committee. The report fills 126 pages, 

 and contains a large amount of interesting informa- 

 tion. A bibliography has been compiled, to be pub- 

 lished separately, containing classified references to 

 every published work or paper on lubricants or lubri- 

 cation of definite importance ; abstracts of a large 

 number of important papers are also given in the 

 biblioR-raphy, and a complete translation of Prof. Otto 

 Faust's researches on the increase in the viscosity of 

 certain liquids with pressure appears in the report. 

 Research work has also been carried out on behalf of 

 the committee; complete reports and the results of 

 each individual research are given in appendices to 

 the report. There are also a summary of the existing 

 knowledge of lubrication and recommendations for 

 future research on lubricants and lubrication. The 

 tests on the viscosity of liquids at high pressure are of 

 particular interest; in Mr. Hyde's experiments, car- 

 ried out at the National Physical Laboratory, it was 

 found that all the oils tested showed a rapid increase 

 in viscosity with pressure, and the increase was much 

 greater for the mineral than for the animal and 

 vegetable oils. Castor (vegetable) and Trotter (animal) 

 gave almost identical results up to about 4 tons per 

 sq. in., but at 8 tons per sq. in. the Castor had in- 

 creased to 55 times and the Trotter to 5 times their 

 atmospheric values. The report can b<: obtained 

 from His Majesty's Stationery Office, price 2S. 6d. 

 net, and those interested in this subject are recom- 

 mended to procure a copy. 



Wb have received from the British Scientific Ap- 

 paratus Manufacturers, Ltd., i<)8 rue Saint-Jacques, 

 Paris (5e), a general catalogue (in French) of the 

 instruments and apparatus manufactured by its 

 members. This company was formed in February 

 last with the object of making British scientific pro- 

 ducts more widely known in foreign countries; it 

 serves generally as an advertising medium and a 

 connecting link between manufacturers at home and 



