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January 19, 1922] 



NATURE 



85 



scientific information obtainable through association 

 with the institute that exists to foster their interests. 

 It is largely through the adoption of more scientific 

 methods of manufacture that the British manufacturer 

 will be able successfully to meet foreign comjjetition, 

 and it is just here that invaluable service is being 

 rendered by our scientific institutions. 



The officers of the Ramsay Memorial Fund an- 

 • nounce that the Dean and Chapter of Westminster 

 have consented that a tablet containing a medallion 

 portrait of Sir William Ramsay should be placed in 

 Westminster Abbey in the place immediately below 

 that occupied by the Hooker tablet. The tablet is 

 being executed by Mr. Charles Hartwell, A.R.A. It 

 is anticipated that the unveiling will take place in 

 October next. An announcement will be made on 

 the subject in due course. At the request of the 

 Ramsay Memorial Committee a commemorative 

 medal of the late Sir William Ramsay has been 

 executed by the distinguished French sculptor, M. 

 Louis Bottle. The medals will be struck shortly in 

 London when it is known approximately how manv 

 will be required. 



On January 2 occurred the centenary of the birth 

 of Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius, the distin- 

 guished mathematical physicist and the predecessor of 

 Hertz in the chair of natural philosophy at Bonn. 

 The son of a pastor and schoolmaster, Clausius was 

 born at Koslin, in Pomerania, and after attending 

 the gymnasium at Stettin, spent four years at Berlin, 

 where he studied under Dirichlet, Steiner, Dove, and 

 Magnus. Before going to Bonn he held appointments 

 at the Royal Artillery School, Berlin, Zurich Poly- 

 technic, and Wijrzburg University. Recognised as one 

 of the founders of the science of thermo-dynamics, it 

 was in his memoir to the Berlin Academy of Sciences 

 in 1850 that he re-stated Carnot's principle in its cor- 

 rect form. To him is also due the conception of 

 entropy. His chief work, " Die Mechanische Warme- 

 theorie," appeared in 1867. The kinetic theory of 

 gases and the theory of electrolysis also owed much 

 to his labours. Among his honours was that of the 

 receipt of the Copley medal, while the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers made him an honorary member. He 

 was called to Bonn in 1869, served as Rector of the 

 University during 1884-85, and died there on August 

 24, 1888. 



In his presidential address to the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, delivered in 

 December last at Toronto, Dr. L. O. Howard made 

 some interesting remarks on the ages of presidents 

 of the British and American Associations. The 

 average age of the presidents of the British Associa- 

 tion during the period 1895-1920 was sixty-one years 

 and eleven months, and of those of the American Asso- 

 ciation sixty-one years and five months. The youngest 

 president of the British Association during that period 

 was fifty-three years of age, and Sir A. W. Rucker 

 (1901), Sir J. J. Thomson (1909), and Prof, W. Bateson 

 (1914) were each fifty-three years of age when serving 

 NO. 2725, VOL. 109] 



as president. The oldest was Prof. T. G. Bonney 

 (1910), whose address was delivered at the age of 

 seventy-seven. The youngest of the American presi- 

 dents were Minot and Richards, whose addresses were 

 delivered at the age of fifty; and the oldest was 

 Eliot, whose Philadelphia address was delivered when 

 he was seventy-nine years of age. "We may safely 

 assume," remarks Dr. Howard, "that the usefulness 

 of the man past middle age is granted, and that, 

 while he may not have the illuminative bursts of 

 inventive or sp>eculative genius which come to the 

 younger man, he is better able to make the broad 

 generalisations based upon accumulated experience — 

 in other words, to prepare an appropriate presidential 

 address as president of the British or the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science." 



At the Institution of Electrical Engineers on 

 January 12 there was an interesting exhibition of 

 instructive American cinematograph films. The first 

 film, which was exhibited by Dr. Garrard, showed 

 tests of high-tension switchgear. The experiments 

 with switches were made with currents of the order 

 of 100,000 amperes, the object being to find out how 

 the apparatus withstood the enormous mechanical 

 stresses set up by these very large currents. The 

 films were first shown at the ordinary speed; they 

 were then shown at a reduced speed, so that 

 the various effects produced could be followed. 

 The tests made on current and potential trans- 

 formers showed clearly the types which withstood 

 the stresses best. In some cases switching on the 

 power produced effects similar to those produced by 

 a high-explosive bomb. A noteworthy educational film 

 called "The Audion " was" also exhibited. It ex- 

 plained very clearly the operations which are believed 

 to take place between the transmitter and the receiver 

 in radio-telegraphy. The electrons are shown in active 

 motion round the filament of a thermionic tube, and 

 the artist shows by means of them the valve action 

 of the tube. Similarly, the amplifying action of the 

 grid is explained by the motions of the electrons. 

 The currents in the antenna and. the waves leaving it 

 were also shown in motion, the whole producing a 

 very lively representation of what takes place. The 

 films were made by the Western Electric Co. of 

 America for the instruction of their employees. 

 Another film showed the building up of a telephone, 

 all the various parts of it slowly and deliberately 

 getting into their proper places apparently by their 

 own agency. 



The annual meeting of the Mathematical Associa- 

 tion was held on January 2-3, and Sir T. L. Heath 

 was elected p>resident as successor to the Rev. Canon 

 J. M. Wilson. Papers were read by Sir George 

 Greenhill on " Mathematics and Artillery : Before and 

 After the War : A Review of the Outlook : Then and 

 Now," and on "The Structure of the Atom " by Dr. 

 J. W. Nicholson. Prof. C. Godfrey delivered an 

 address on the importance of the introduction of 

 vectors in the work of the secondary school — a subject 

 on which several writers in the Mathematical Gazette 



