January 26, 1922] 



NATURE 



125 



number of shell was filled with amatol by the methods 

 supplied from this country. Again, tetryl, trinitro- 

 phenylmethylnitroamine, not " tetranitro-dimethyl- 

 aniline," as stated, was not used exclusively in Ger- 

 many before the war, but was made here also on the 

 manufacturing scale. 



The address, however, is of interest as showing a 

 practical appreciation of the need for the application 

 of scientific method in the development of old, and 

 I he acquisition of new, industries. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Birmingham.— The reports of the Council and of 

 the Principal to be presented to the Court of Gover- 

 nors at the annual meeting on February 9 have been 

 issued. The Principal appeals for more liberal provi- 

 sion of both undergraduate and post-graduate scholar- 

 siiips, and lays stress upon the difficulties which 

 Imancial stringency imposes on the advancement of 

 research. He reminds the Governors that "the war 

 revealed the obvious, but often forgotten, truth that 

 trained minds cannot be improvised, and that success 

 in international competition will go to the nation 

 which, by laborious and patient organisation, pro- 

 vides, through its universities, disciplined workers." 



The extension of the Universityr library is reported 

 with satisfaction as a step in the direction of a more 

 complete provision of that vital need of research 

 workers. The overcrowding of the Mason College 

 buildings is regarded as a grave menace to the con- 

 tmued expansion of the departments of medicine, 

 biology, arts, and education. The obvious remedy is 

 to transfer the biological departments to new build- 

 mgs at Edgbaston, but as this would involve great ex- 

 penditure of money the alternative of restricting entries 

 to all the departments at present housed in Mason 

 College may have to be faced in the near future. 



The Principal appeals especially for more support 

 from the districts surrounding the city, which send a 

 large* proportion of the students at present in the 

 University, reminding them that "we cannot have it 

 both ways : unrestricted admission of all the fully 

 qualified and the withholding of a substantial con- 

 tribution towards the financial cost of a university 

 education." 



Reference is made to the problem of adult educa- 

 tion and the way in which the University is trying 

 to do its share of this important work. "All who 

 keep closely in touch with the main currents of educa- 

 tional opinion are impressed with the increasing in- 

 sistence of the demand as well as with the com- 

 plexity of the task involved in an ' educated demo- 

 cracy.' It would be disastrous if the handling of the 

 problem became political ; the provincial universities 

 by sympathy and wise statesmanship, perhaps more 

 than any other organisations, can avert this danger." 



The Court of Governors is to be asked to confer 

 the title of emeritus professor on Prof. J. H. Muirhead. 



The assistance of the Birmingham Chamber of 

 Commerce in completing the fund for a chair of 

 Italian (which was started by Mr. Arthur Serena's gift 

 of 5000/.) is gratefully acknowledged bv the Council. 



The appointment of Mr. Maurice Nicoll to the lec- 

 tureship in psychotherapy, endowed bv Sir Charles 

 Hyde, is reported. 



In commemoration of the work of Prof. P. F. 

 Frankland, a fund has been subscribed for providing 

 a Frankland medal and a prize of books to be given 

 annually to the best student in practical chemistrv. 



A bequest of 2000Z. under the will of the late 

 Richard Peyton becomes available, bv the death of 

 his widow, "for the advancement of music." 

 NO. 2726, VOL. 109] 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



January 26, 1891. Nicolas August Otto died 



Originally a commercial traveller. Otto began work 

 on the gas engine in 1854. In 1867 with Langen he 

 brought out the Langen and Otto atmospheric engine, 

 and in 1876 he introduced the engine working on the 

 Otto cycle, which proved to be the turning point in 

 the history of gas motors. 



January 27, 1848. Josiah Christopher Gamble died — 

 A pioneer among alkali manufacturers, Gamble was 

 born in Ireland in 1776. He graduated at Glasgow 

 University and became a Presbyterian minister. After 

 a few years he abandoned the Church, started small 

 works at Dublin for the manufacture of sulphuric 

 acid, bleaching powder, and alum, and in 1828 with 

 Muspratt founded the first chemical works at St. 

 Helens. 



January 27, 1885. Edward Davy died. — A contem- 

 porary of Wheatstone and Cooke, Davy invented an 

 electric telegraph, experimented with a mile of wire 

 in Regent's Park, and in 1837 at Exeter Hall ex- 

 hibited his needle telegraph. In 1839 he sailed for 

 Australia, where he became medical officer of health 

 and Mayor of Malmesbury. 



January 28, 1829. Thomas Tredgold died — Known for 

 his valuable writings on carpentry, the strength of 

 materials, and the steam engine. Tredgold began life 

 in the North of England as a journeyman carpenter. 

 He studied mathematics, chemistry, and architecture, 

 contributed to the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " and 

 the Philosophical Magazine, and made original inves- 

 tigations. He died in London at the age of forty, 

 worn out bv his labours. 



January 28, 1864. Benoit Paule Emile Clapeyron died. 

 — From the Ecole Polytechnique Clapeyron entered 

 the mining service, taught in the School of Public 

 Works at St. Petersburg, and on his return to France 

 took part in the construction of some of the earliest 

 French railways. He wrote on the mechanical theory 

 of heat, and it was through his work that Kelvin 

 was led to the study of Carnot's famous memoir. 

 Clapeyron in 1858 succeeded Cauchy as a member of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



January 29, 1882. Alexander Lyman Holley died. — A 

 graduate of the Brown University, Providence, Holley 

 engaged in practical engineering, and in i860 pub- 

 lished an important work on American and European 

 railway practice. He afterwards became a great iron- 

 master. The inscription on his monument in Wash- 

 ington Square, New York, states that he was " fore- 

 most among those whose genius and energy estab- 

 lished in America and improved throughout the world 

 the manufacture of Bessemer steel." 



February 1, 1885. Stanislas Charles Henri Laurent 

 Dupuy de Lome died. — In 1848-^2 Dupuy de L6me built 

 the NapoUon, the first steam line of battleship. About 

 five vears later he converted the finest two-decker in 

 the French Navy, also called the NapoUon, into the 

 Gloire, the first fully armoured sea-going ship ever 

 seen. She was 256 ft. long, of 900 h.p., carried 

 thirty-six guns, and was protected by 5 in. of iron 

 and 26 in. of timber. Dupuy de L6me was for some 

 years Chief Constructor of the French Navy. 



February I, 1885. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas died — A 

 clerk in a London police court, Thomas studied 

 chemistrv and in 1870 attacked the problem of the de- 

 phosphorisation of pig-iron in the Bessemer con- 

 verter. By 1875 he had solved the problem, and with 

 the assistance of his cousin, Percv Gilchrist, and 

 others, the commercial triumph of his important dis- 

 covery was assured. His grave is in the Passv 

 Cemeterv in Paris. E. C. S. ' 



