630 



NA TURE 



[May 13, 1922 



Hostel accommodation for students at King's College 

 is being substantially increased, a grant of 12,000/. 

 having been allocated to this purpose. Among note- 

 worthy events of the year were the following : the 

 opening of the Unit of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 

 at the Royal Free Hospital for Women and of the 

 Institute of Historical Research ; the inauguration 

 of professorships of history, central European history, 

 history and culture of British Dominions in Asia, 

 Sanskrit, phj^sics, and five medical school professor- 

 ships ; the institution of a Bachelorship in dental 

 surgery and of a B.A. degree and diploma in Slavonic 

 studies ; the creation of a staff tutorship for Uni- 

 versity Extension Tutorial Classes ; and the forma- 

 tion of a Union Society on the lines of those of 

 Oxford and Cambridge. The report foreshadows the 

 establishment, in close association with the Univer- 

 sity, of a central Post-graduate Medical School and 

 Institute of State Medicine, a site for the purpose 

 adjoining the University's Bloomsbury estate having 

 been acquired by the Rockefeller Foundation which 

 recently offered to provide 2,000,000 dollars for the 

 furtherance of these obj ects. Arrangements were made 

 during the year with the University of Paris for six 

 members of the Faculty of Medicine to lecture in 

 London, and six similar exchanges in various depart- 

 ments of science were arranged with four Dutch 

 Universities. The report closes with an eloquent 

 and stimulating reminder of present-day university 

 educational aims. 



The council of the British Medical Association 

 announces that an Ernest Hart Memorial Scholarship, 

 tenable for one year, of the value of 200/., for the 

 study of State medicine, and three Research Scholar- 

 ships, each of the value of 150/., and tenable for one 

 year, for the investigation of a subject relating to the 

 causation, prevention or treatment of disease, are 

 to be awarded. Grants in aid of research in these 

 subjects will also be made. Preference will be given 

 to members of the medical profession and to applicants 

 who propose to undertake to investigate problems of 

 practical medicine. Applications for scholarships and 

 grants should reach the Medical Secretary of the 

 Association, 429 Strand, W.C.2, not later than 

 June 24 next. 



The Board of Education has just pubUshed a 

 table of holiday courses which will be held in England 

 and Wales during the coming summer (H.M.S.O. 6d). 

 In addition to general courses for teachers at most of 

 the centres, there are special courses in the following 

 subjects : — biology, at Aberystwyth and Saltburn ; 

 practical geography, at Nottingham, Scarborough, 

 Falmouth, Brecon, Barry, Bangor, Oxford, and 

 Bristol ; economic geology, at Camborne ; mine 

 surveying, at Camborne, Amman Valley, Cardiff, and 

 Penarth ; mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering, 

 at Cardiff and Penarth ; psychology, at Brighton, 

 Derby, Nottingham, Repton Hall, and Bangor ; 

 science courses for teachers, at Cardiff, Barry, Pen- 

 arth, Ojcford, Weston-super-Mare, and Repton Hall ; 

 sociology, at Edinburgh ; oceanography and fisheries, 

 at Barrow-in-Furness ; botany, chemistry, mycology, 

 and entomology applied to everyday life, at Wye ; 

 and climatology and the relations between geological 

 structure and agriculture, at Midhurst, the country 

 hostel of the London School of Economics. In this 

 course. Prof. W. T. Gordon and Dr. E. J. Russell will 

 lecture ; of the other courses, about half are being 

 organised by various educational bodies and the 

 remainder by local education authorities and neigh- 

 bouring universities. The table gives the dates of 

 each course, the fees, the principal subjects of in- 

 struction, the address of the local secretary, and other 

 particulars. 



NO. 2741, VOL. 109] 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



May II, 1830. Friedrich Albrecht Winsor died. — 

 A native of Brunswick, Winsor settled in England 

 about the end of the eighteenth century. He lectured 

 upon the use of gas, in 1806 had an exhibition of 

 appliances at 97 Pall Mall, London, and early the 

 following year lit a part of that street with gas. 

 This was the first street lighted in that way. He 

 was connected with the Westminster Gas Light and 

 Coke Company, and in 1815 went to Paris, where 

 he died ; there is a cenotaph to his memory in Kensal 

 Green Cemetery. 



May 13, 1883. James Young died. — The originator 

 of the paraffin industry. Young was bom in Glasgow 

 in 1 811, became an assistant to Thomas Graham, 

 the chemist, and was then successively manager to 

 Muspratt and to Tennant. Through a suggestion of 

 Lyon Playfair, Young was led to the investigation 

 of a petroleum spring at Alfreton, Derbyshire, and 

 in 1850 took out a patent for the dry distillation of 

 coal. Entering into partnership with Meldrum and 

 Binney, he founded works in Scotland, where naphtha, 

 lubricating oils, paraffin for burning and soUd paraffin 

 were produced. 



May 13, 1884, Cyrus Hall M'Cormick died. — The 

 son of an American farmer who had introduced 

 various labour-saving appliances, M'Cormick began 

 work on the reaping machine in 1831, three years 

 later took out a patent, and in 1847 started a 

 factory for manufacturing his machines in Chicago. 

 It was afterwards said that owing to M'Cormick's 

 invention " the line of civilisation moves westward 

 thirty miles each year." Many honours fell to him, 

 and he was made a corresponding member of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences as having done more for 

 the cause of civilisation than any other living man. 



May 14, 1852. Walter Hancock died. — A member 

 of the family whose name is associated with the rise 

 of the British rubber industry, Hancock was born in 

 AViltshire in 1799. Between 1824 and 1836 he made 

 a large number of experiments with steam road 

 carriages, in 1832 built the Era which ran between 

 London and Brighton, and the following year con- 

 structed the Enterprise which ran between Paddington 

 and the City. 



May 14, 1915. John Samuel White died. — The 

 founder of a well-known firm of shipbuilders and 

 engineers at East Cowes, White was one of the 

 pioneers of the fast steamboat for naval purposes. 

 To increase the manoeuvring power of his boats he 

 brought out the double rudder system with the dead- 

 wood removed. 



May 15, 1888. Charles Francois Herve Mangon 

 died. — A student of the ficole Polytechnique and 

 the ficole des Fonts et Chaussees, Mangon, though 

 originally employed on railway engineering, was best 

 known for his works on irrigation and drainage and 

 the application of science to agriculture. He held 

 a chair in the ficole des Fonts et Chaussees, was a 

 member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and for a 

 time was director of the Conservatoire des Arts et 

 Metiers. 



May 17, 1910. Philip Cardew died. — From the 

 Military Academy at Woolwich Cardew passed into 

 the Royal Engineers and afterwards specialised in 

 the application of electricity to purposes of war. 

 He was instructor in this subject at Chatham and 

 became known for his inventions, among which were 

 the hot-wire voltmeter and the vibrating transmitter 

 for telegraphy. In 1888 he became the first electrical 

 adviser to the Board of Trade. E. C. S. 



