February 24, 192 1] 



NATURE 



847 



London County Council will be represented. The 

 i'aris Municipal Council and the University of Paris 

 will each send three delegates. Among the latter will 

 be M. Henri Hergson. The rector of the Institut's 

 mother-University of Lille is also expected to be 

 present. 



Prof. Luigi Luiggi has accepted the invitation of 

 the University of London to deliver a course of six 

 lectures on " Recent Enginwring Works in Italy " 

 during hii forthcoming visit to England. Dr. Luiggi 

 is the professor of hydraulic engineering in the Uni- 

 versity of Rome, and also president of the Italian 

 Society of Engineers. The lectures, which have been 

 arranged to be given at the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers at 5.30 p.m. on March 7, 9, 11, 15, 16, 

 and 18, will be open to the public without fee or 

 ticket. They will be illustrated with lantern-slides, 

 which promise to be of particular interest. The chair 

 at the first lecture will be taken by the Italian 

 Ambassador. 



The Council, the Delegacy, and the Professorial 

 Boards of King's College have resolved to found a 

 memorial to the late Dr. R. M. Burrows, who guided 

 tlie fortunes of the college with such brilliant success 

 during his .seven years' tenure of the office of Prin- 

 cipal. The memorial will take the form of a tablet to 

 be erected in the college chapel, together with a 

 Ronald Burrows pria', exhibition, or scholarship to 

 be awarded annually to a student of the college who 

 has distinguished himself in the field of Greek studies. 

 Prof. H. G. Atkins has consented to act as honorary 

 treasurer of the memorial fund, and subscriptions 

 may be sent to him at King's College, Strand, W.C.2. 



The annual general meeting of the Association of 

 Technical Institutions will be held at the Grocers' 

 Hall, Princes Street, London, E.C., on Friday and 

 Saturday, March 4 and g. The president-elect, the 

 Right Hon. Viscount Burnham, will deliver his presi- 

 dential address, and papers will be read by Principal 

 C. T. Mil'lis on " Junior Technical Schools : Their 

 Status and Position," Dr. W. M. Varley on "The 

 Report of the Departmental Committee on Scholar- 

 ships and Free Places," Mr. H Stainsby on "Tech- 

 nical Instruction for the Blind," and Principal W. J. 

 Chalk on "Technical Instruction in London of the 

 Higher Branches of Commerce." Important resolu- 

 tions dealing with the necessity for closer co-opera- 

 tion between the technical colleges and the universi- 

 ties will be submitted for consideration, together with 

 other resolutions on educational matters. 



The annual dinner of the Finsbury Technical Col- 

 lege Chemical Society was held on February 18. 

 The president, Mr. A. J. Hale, who occupied the 

 chair, expressed the hope that ultimately the function 

 might develop into a reunion between the past and 

 present chemical students of the college. Mr. J. H. 

 Coste, in proposing the toast of the college, referred 

 to the splendid work which has been done in the 

 past and how every effort was being made by the 

 Finsbury Technical Collepe Defence Committee and 

 by various institutes and societies to prevent the 

 threatened closing of the college. Until the authori- 

 ties definitely decided to keep the college open, Mr. 

 Coste urged that no effort to gain that end should 

 be relaxed bv those interested. This view was warmly 

 supported bv Prof. G. T. Morgan. Attention was 

 also directed to the plea for keeping open the college 

 recently ipade in the columns of Nature and sup- 

 ported by Sir Oliver Lodge (February 10, p. 757)- 

 Mr. C. R. Darling expressed a hope that in the 

 event of the college remaining open its present cur- 

 riculum would not be altered or its freedom interfered 

 with in any way. 



NO. 2678, VOL. 106] 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



February 24, 1799. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 

 died. — The discoverer of the dust figures on electrified 

 planes, Lichtenberg held the chair of physics at Got- 

 tingen, and in his day was well known in both 

 Hanover and England. 



February 25, 1723. Sir Christopher Wren died.— 



Before he became famous as an architect, Wren was 

 known as a mathematician. He was one of the 

 founders of the Royal Society, and for twelve years 

 Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford. 



February 26, 1878. Angelo Secchi died.— The suc- 

 cessor of the Jesuit father, de Vico, as director of the 

 observatory at the Collegio Romano, Secchi was a 

 pioneer worker in the field of stellar spectroscopy, 

 and his grouping of stellar spectra into types repre- 

 sents one of the results of his extensive studies of 

 this subject. 



February 27, 1864. Edward Hitchcock died. — 



Schoolmaster, minister, and, lastly, professor of 

 chemistry and natural history at Amherst College, 

 Hitchcock suggested and carried out the geological 

 survey of Massachusetts. He is recognised as one of 

 the fathers of American geology. 



February 27, 1906. Samuel Plerpoint Langley died. 



— The great pioneer of aviation, Langley was 

 originally a civil engineer, but abandoned that pro- 

 fession for astronomy. For the study of the infra-red 

 portion of the solar spectrum, in 1880 he devised the 

 spectro-bolometer — an electrical resistance thermo- 

 meter of extreme delicacy. In 1887 he became secre- 

 tary to the Smithsonian Institution. Taking up the 

 investigation of the resistance offered to planes 

 moving through the air, he was led to the construc- 

 tion of the steam-driven model flying machine which 

 in 1896 made successful flights of half a mile. Having 

 thus demonstrated the practicability of mechanical 

 flight, he left the commercial and practical develop- 

 ment of the idea to others. 



February 28, 1882. Thomas Romney Robinson died. 



— An Irish clergyman, Robinson for many years 

 directed the Armagh Observatory. He was also a 

 physicist, and in 1843 invented the well-known cup 

 anemometer. 



February 29, 1744. John Theophilus Desaguliers 

 died. — Like Dollond, Demoivre, Demainbray, and 

 others, Desaguliers was of Huguenot extraction. 

 Educated at Oxford, for many years he lectured there 

 and in London, and rendered notable services to 

 science when some acquaintance w'ith scientific prin- 

 ciples was first considered fashionable. He was the 

 second recipient of the Copley prize. 



March 1, 1862. Peter Barlow died. — Professor of 

 mathematics at Woolwich, Barlow was a pioneer in 

 the study of the strength of materials, and did much 

 important work in terrestrial magnetism. 



March 2, 1840. Heinrlch Wilhelm Mathias Olbers 

 died. — A doctor at Bremen, Olbers, by limiting his 

 sleep to four hours nightly, accomplished much astro- 

 nomical work, and was the discoverer of the minor 

 planets Pallas and Vesta. 



March 2, 1911. Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff died 



.V student under Kekule an<l Wurtz, van't Hoff became 

 a professor at Amsterdam, and in 1896 professor of 

 chemistry to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. A 

 great physical chemist, he developed the theory of 

 solutions, and was one of the founders of stereo- 

 chemistry. With Le Bel in 1893 he was awarded 

 the Davy medal, and in 1901 he received the Nobel 

 prize. E. C. S. 



