156 



MATURE 



[February 2, 1922 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



February 2, 1876. Evan Leigh died — The author of 

 many improvements in cotton machinery and the 

 writer of "The Science of Modern Cotton Spinning " 

 (1871), Leigh was also known as one of the earUest 

 advocates of twin-screw propellers for steamships. 



February 2, 1906. Samuel Cunliffe Lister, first Baron 

 Masham, died— A worsted spinner and manufacturer, 

 Lister took out more than 150 patents, among them 

 being his wool-combing machines and his method of 

 "utilising silk waste. The wool-combing machine of 

 the 'fifties cheapened cloth, advanced Bradford's 

 prosperity, and created the Australian wool trade, 

 while by his second great invention he converted what 

 was regarded as useless into a valuable and beautiful 

 material. He was raised to the peerage in 1891. 



February 2, 1913. Carl Gustav Patrik de Laval died — 

 Born at Blosenberg, Sweden, in 1845, de Laval 

 graduated at Upsala University, engaged in practical 

 work, and in 1875 became engineer to the Kloster- 

 verken Iron Works. A year or two later he brought 

 out his cream separator, an apparatus now in use 

 throughout the world. Turning his attention to the 

 invention of a steam turbine, he first applied the use 

 of diverging nozzles, discs rotating at a great velocity, 

 and high-speed tooth-gearing. In 1897 he exhibited 

 a turbine suppljed with steam at 1500 lb. pressure. 



February 3, 1893. James Edward Henry Gordon died. — 

 An original investigator, Gordon worked in Maxwell's 

 laboratory at Cambridge, and in 1880 published "A 

 Physical Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.'' He 

 afterwards became connected with some of the pioneer 

 electrical installations in London. 



February 4, 1882. Sir William Palliser died — While 

 an undergraduate at Cambridge Palliser began his 

 studv of rifled ordnance and projectiles, and after- 

 wards, when in the Army, became known for his 

 invention of a method of converting smooth bores into 

 rifled guns and his introduction of chilled cast-iron 

 shot. 



February 4, 1884. George Auguste Leschot died.— An 

 eminent Swiss horologist, Leschot was one of the first 

 to introduce machinery for making the parts of 

 watches and to make such parts interchangeable. He 

 was also the first to propose the use of the black 

 diamonds of Brazil for the boring of rocks, and with 

 another Geneva mechanician made the first diamond- 

 pointed drill. 



February 6, 1877. George Parry died. — Though com- 

 mencing life as a grocer's assistant. Parry studied 

 the chemistry of iron manufacture, and in 1848 became 

 chemist to the Ebbw Vale Works, where he worked 

 at the utilisation of waste gases, tried Nasmyth's idea 

 of puddling with steam, and made many early exf>eri- 

 ments in connection with the Bessemer process. 



February 7, 1866. David Elder died — One of the 

 earliest builders of marine steam engines, Elder in 

 182 1 became manager to Robert Napier at Camlachie. 

 He Introduced many improvements in his engines, and 

 was one of the first to use steam expanslvelv. 



February 7, 1879. Bennet Woodcroft died — The son 

 of a Lancashire merchant and a pupil of Dalton, 

 Woodcroft became a silk and muslin manufacturer 

 and made valuable improvements in looms and 

 patented various forms of screw propellers. From 

 1847 to 185 1 he was professor of machinery In Uni- 

 versity College, London, and on the passing of the 

 important Patents Act of 1852 became superintendent 

 of patent specifications. In 1864 he became Clerk to 

 the Commissioners of Patents. He was mainly re- 

 sponsible for starting the Patent Office LIbrarv and 

 the Patent Office Museum. E. C. S. 



Societies and Academies. 



London. 

 Royal Society, January 26. — Sir Charles Sherrington, 

 president, in the chair. — W. A. Bone, A. R. Pearson, 

 £. Sinkinson, and W. E. Stockings : Researches on 

 the chemistry of coal. Ft. 2 : The resinic con- 

 stituents and coking propensities of coals. Prolonged 

 extraction of eight selected coals by typical resin- 

 solvents in a Soxhlet apparatus has no appreciable 

 effect upon their coking propensities, which therefore 

 cannot be ascribed to the presence of free resins. A 

 resin isolated by a new method from two typical 

 bituminous coals has a molecular weight of about 450, 

 agreeing with the empirical formula Cg^Hj^O, ; its 

 properties coi'respond with those of a resene in 

 Tschlrch's classification of resins. The usual pyridlne- 

 chloroform method of extracting coals does not effect 

 a complete separation between the resinous con- 

 stituents and the degradation products of the cellulose 

 of which coal is conglomerated. It yields an admix- 

 ture of resins with a predominance of non-reslnous 

 substances of cellulosic origin, provisionally designated 

 "humic" bodies. These substances may amount to 

 4 per cent, of the coal substance. The strong coking 

 propensities of some coals are principally due to the 

 presence, or formation In them by heat, of such non- 

 resinous "humic" substances of cellulosic origin the 

 fusion temperatures of which are below those at which 

 they undergo rapid decomposition ; the more complex 

 substances of cellulosic origin, which form the main 

 portion of the coal substance and decompose without 

 fusion, have little or no Influence upon the coking 

 properties. — J. A. Crowther and B. J. Schonland : The 

 scattering of ^-rays. The scattering of a homo- 

 geneous beam of /3-rays has been measured for 

 various elements, and at various angles with the 

 beam. The results obtained are compared with the 

 nuclear theory of scattering of Sir Ernest Rutherford, 

 a correction being applied to allow for the variation 

 of the mass of the ^S-partlcle with velocity. Scattering 

 Is due to single encounters between the /^-particle and 

 the deflecting particles as postulated by the theory 

 until the thickness of the scattering material reduces 

 the radiation to half value. The scattering by gold Is in 

 numerical agreement with the theory when measured 

 at very small angles with the primary beam. It In- 

 creases rapidly as the angle Is Increased, and finally 

 attains a value approximately four times that given 

 by the theory. This high value Is given by the lighter 

 elements at all the angles investigated. Present 

 theories of scattering require modification when the 

 collisions between the ^-particle and the deflecting 

 nucleus are closer than a certain critical distance 

 which is of the order of 10- " cm. In the case of 

 gold.— Ann C. Davies : The minimum electron 

 energies associated with the excitation of the spectra 

 of helium. The lines of the orthohelium and par- 

 helium series are simultaneously excited when lonisa- 

 tion of the helium atom has occurred. The limiting 

 voltages for excitation are 204 and 25-2, according to 

 whether lonisation bv multiple impacts can occur or 

 not. The corresponding voltages in the case of the 

 enhanced line A4686 are 54 2 and 8o-o respectively. 

 This line can also be excited from the helium positive 

 ion without further lonisation of the atom at t^o% 

 volts, the value deduced from Bohr's theory. The 

 minimum voltage for the appearance of the helium 

 band spectrurn is 204, and the conditions indicate that 

 it is emitted by He, molecules. Orthohelium and 

 parhellum lines and the band spectrum are maintained 

 as the voltage is backed down to 13 volts at high 

 pressures.— C. N. Hinshelwood, H. Hartley, and 



NO. 2727, VOL. 109] 



