March 22,, 1922] 



NA TURE 



395 



(^ape Colony from 1892 to 191 5, and for the greater 

 part of that period he served as a member of the 

 council of the University. 



Thk Royal Academy of Belgium announces that a 

 triennial prize of 2500 francs, to be known as the 

 Prix Joseph Schepkens, for the best experimental 

 work on the genetics of vegetables, has been estab- 

 lished. 



The Research Chair of Medical Psychology in the 

 University of Queensland, Brisbane, has been filled 

 by the appointment of Dr. J. P. Lowson, University 

 Demonstrator in Experimental Psychology at Cam- 

 bridge. It is expected that Dr. Lowson will arrive 

 in Brisbane early in this month. 



The Hull Corporation recently endeavoured to 

 purchase nineteen acres of land on the outskirts of 

 the city, adjoining the Hull Training College, for 

 the purpose of a Technical College, the present 

 building, near the centre of the city, being too small 

 and inconvenient. The Board of Education, owing 

 to national financial stringency, turned the matter 

 down. The Rt. Hon. T. R. Ferens, formerly M.P. 

 for East Hull, has now purchased the land for ten 

 thousand pounds and presented it to the Hull educa- 

 tion authority. Mr. Ferens has previouslv given 

 about 40,000/., for the erection of a new Art Gallery, 

 10,000/., for the purchase of pictures, besides other 

 amounts for the erection and endowment of alms- 

 houses, and in numerous other ways has placed the 

 citizens of Hull under a deep debt of gratitude. 



The interest in the eighth report of the Carnegie 

 United Kingdom Trust for the year ending December 

 31, 1 92 1, centres round two schemes to which the 

 Trust has definitely committed itself — [a) to provide 

 facilities for reading in the rural districts, and (6) to 

 supplement the resources of library authorities 

 throughout the United Kingdom by regional centres 

 of book distribution. The launching of these two 

 schemes was preceded by a very careful sufvey of 

 tlie whole question of library policy, the results of 

 which are beginning to bear fruit. There are now 

 39 county schemes in operation in Great Britain, 

 i.e. schemes administered from county headquarters, 

 from which boxes of books are circulated to the 

 village centres — the distributing agent in the village 

 being usually the local teacher. Thus the county 

 library and education authorities are brought into 

 direct connection — the local teachers working under 

 the direction of the county librarian. This method 

 has worked satisfactorily. Past experience, however, 

 teaches that little value is to be placed on initial 

 success. When the novelty of the experiment and 

 of the books circulated wears off, the interest of 

 readers wanes and the system falls into disuse. 

 Against this the Trust has wisely provided by the 

 provision of regional book stores — of which three 

 centres are already established in London, Dunferm- 

 line, and Dublin — the last named being still in its 

 embryo stage. In Wales the National Library at 

 Aberystwyth has for some years supplied this want. 

 In these centres a large and well - selected stock of 

 books has been accumulated which should go far 

 toward satisfying the requirements of serious readers 

 not only in the villages but also in the smaller borough 

 and urban districts. Thus equality of opportunity 

 now exists throu^ihout Great Britain for self-educa- 

 tion, and this result has been secured with a minimum 

 expenditure on the machinery of administration. 

 Amongst the miscellaneous grants we note with 

 pleasure that a generous, though final, donation has 

 been made to the Library Association in respect of 

 its " Subject Index to Periodicals." We understand 

 that the Class List "Science and Technology" for 

 1917-19 is in the press and will be issued shortly. 



NO. 2734, VOL. 109] 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



March 23, 1875. Thomas Lloyd died. — Trained as 

 a shipwright at the School of Naval Architecture at 

 Portsmouth, Lloyd was detailed by the Admiralty 

 for duty with the early naval steam vessels, and 

 ultimately became the first Engineer in Chief of the 

 Navy, a post he held from 1847 to 1869. He was 

 born in 1803, and his services extended from the 

 introduction of steam into the Navy to the develop- 

 ment of the first mastless steam ironclad, H.M.S. 

 Devasiation. 



March 24, 1879. Karl Karmarsch died. — Bom 

 in Vienna in 1803, Karmarsch founded, and for forty- 

 five years directed, the Polytechnic at Hanover, and 

 wrote valuable works on mechanical technology. 



March 25, 1864. Francis Baird died. — Second 

 son of Sir Charles Baird, the founder of the weU- 

 known works at St. Petersburg, Baird for many years 

 was sole proprietor of the establishment, and as such 

 carried out numerous important contracts for the 

 Russian Government. 



March 25, 1905. Bruno Kerl died. — A distin- 

 guished German metallurgist, for thirty years a pro- 

 fessor at the Berhn School of Mines, Kerl was the 

 author of valuable treatises, and for thirty-eight 

 years edited a mining and metallurgical journal. 



March 25, 1912. Antonio Pacinotti died. — One 



of the pioneers of the dynamo, Pacinotti was educated 

 at Pisa, where his father was a professor. He served 

 in the Garibaldean wars, and on his return to Pisa 

 in i860, at the age of 19, constructed the ring- 

 armature dynamo, a form of dynamo re-invented 

 ten years later by Gramme. Though unnoticed at 

 first, Pacinotti 's work ultimately received recognition 

 and he was awarded various honours. He held 

 professorships at Florence, Cagliari, and Pisa, where 

 he died. 



March 26, 1865. Thomas Hancock died. — The 

 great pioneer of the British rubber industry, Hancock 

 took out his first patent in 1820. He afterwards 

 perfected a process of mastication, and in 1843, having 

 seen samples of the " cured " rubber of Goodyear, 

 patented a method of " vulcanising " rubber by 

 sulphur, and was the first to make vulcanite or ebonite. 

 With his brothers he founded the firm of James Lyne 

 Hancock. In 1857 he published his " Personal 

 Narrative of the Origin and Progress of the Caoutchouc 

 or Indiarubber Manufacture in England." 



March 26, 1858. John Seaward died,— In 1824, 

 after experience in many branches of engineering. 

 Seaward opened the Canal Ironworks at JVlillwall, 

 and became one of the principal builders of marine 

 engines for the Navy. Assisted by his brother 

 Samuel, he made many improvements in paddle- 

 wheel machinery, and introduced the " Gorgon " 

 type of direct-acting engine. 



March 28, 1919. Henry Wilde died. — Left an 

 orplian at 16, Wilde began life as an engineering 

 apprentice in Manchester. In 1856, at the age of 

 23, he set up in business as a telegraph and lightning 

 conductor expert, achieving his first success with an 

 alphabetical telegraph. In 1863 he began his work 

 on the dynamo, which with his electro-chemical 

 discoveries laid the foundation of his fortune. He 

 retired from business in 1884, devoted much time 

 to scientific research, and became well known for his 

 generous gifts to scientific institutions. 



E. C. S, 



