May 20, 1922] 



NATURE 



665 



a committee of vice-chancellors should investigate 

 claims for additional endowments by special depart- 

 ments and inquire whether the transference of trust 

 funds to different subjects within the university was 

 desirable or whether the migration of students 

 requiring special subjects could be facilitated. Sir 

 Henry Miers, vice-chancellor of Victoria University, 

 Manchester, was emphatic on the point that higher 

 education of the right type could be given only by 

 universities or institutions of similar standing. 



If the number of suitable applicants is sufficient, 

 the Board of Education will provide during the 

 summer, courses of instruction of two weeks' duration 

 for teachers of engineering science and electrical 

 engineering in technical schools. The standard of 

 the work will be that of the " National Certificates " 

 in engineering of ordinary grade, but advanced treat- 

 ment will be accorded to certain sections of the work. 

 The courses will start on Saturday, July 22, and will 

 end on Saturday, August 5. The courses will be held 

 in Oxford, in the University Engineering Building, the 

 University Electrical Laboratories, and in the new 

 laboratories of the City of Oxford Technical School. 

 The instruction in engineering science will be given 

 by Prof. F. C. Lea, of Birmingham University, and 

 that in electrical engineering by Prof. W. M. Thornton, 

 of Armstrong College University of Durham, each of 

 whom will have the assistance of a staff of tutors, 

 lecturers and instructors. Teachers who wish to 

 apply for permission to attend either course must fill 

 up and return form 972 T/Engineering as soon as 

 possible, so as to reach the Board's office not later 

 than Monday, May 29. 



Mr. J. W. BisPHAM, of the London County Council 

 service (Technology Section), has been appointed 

 principal of the Borough Polytechnic Institute, to fill 

 the vacancy caused by the retirement of Principal 

 C. T. Millis. He will take up his duties in September. 



In Bulletin No. 6, 1921,'of the United States 

 Bureau of Education, pubUshed for the guidance of 

 students in other countries contemplating advanced 

 study or research in the U.S.A., particulars are given 

 regarding the graduate schools of 28 universities, 

 including, inter alia, admission requirements, periods 

 of study for degrees, noteworthy faciHties for par- 

 ticular lines of graduate study (equipment and re- 

 search funds, library facilities, and facilities for publi- 

 cation of research results), expenses of tuition and 

 board and lodging. The graduate school now usually 

 co-ordinates into one administrative unit all the 

 advanced teaching and all the facilities for original 

 research provided by the university. To obtain a 

 master's degree, one year (Yale and Johns Hopkins — 

 two years) of post-graduate study devoted, as a rule, to 

 not more than three subjects, including one " major," 

 is usually required, while for a doctor's degree the 

 minimum period is usually three years. Most uni- 

 versities require the dissertation for the doctorate 

 to be published. The requirements for the Ph.D. 

 degree parallel closely those proposed by the German 

 universities, but attempts have recently been made to 

 insist on a somewhat longer scholarly preparation 

 and a more substantial thesis. Each university 

 generally awards to graduate and professional students 

 a number of fellowships and scholarships carrying 

 stipends ranging from 100 to 600 dollars, the holders 

 of which are sometimes required to do one to six 

 hours' teaching weekly. Foreign students will usually 

 find^it necessary to spend at least a year in residence 

 at an American university before qualifying for one 

 of these grants. The enrolment in graduate courses 

 in the United States increased from 4340 in 1893 to 

 16,470 in 1916. 



NO. 2742, VOL. 109] 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



May 18, 1747. Bernardo Zendrini died. — One of 

 the most celebrated Italian hydrauUc engineers of the 

 eighteenth century, Zendrini was also a mathe- 

 matician and was one of the first to apply the in- 

 finitesimal calculus to practical problems. As 

 mathematician and engineer to Ferrara, Modena and 

 Venice he carried out many works connected with 

 the rivers and ports of north-east Italy. 



May 19, 1907. Sir Benjamin Baker died. — Bom in 

 1840, Baker was apprenticed at the Neath Abbey 

 Iron Works in South Wales, and after gaining experi- 

 ence as a civil engineer became an assistant to Sir 

 John Fowler, with whom he was afterwards in partner- 

 ship. Among the great works he was associated with 

 were the Forth Bridge, the Assouan Dam, the Central 

 London Railway, and the Avonmouth Docks. As one 

 of the leading engineers of his day he served on the 

 Ordnance Committee, the Engineering Standards Com- 

 mittee, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and 

 in 1 895 served as president of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers. A memorial window to his memory has 

 been placed in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey. 



May 21, 1826. Georg von Reichenbach died.— - 

 A famous German mechanician and instrument 

 maker, Reichenbach was bom in 1772 at Durlach. 

 In liis youth he spent some time at Boulton and 

 Watt's works at Birmingham, and after his return to 

 Germany was employed with his father in the manu- 

 facture of munitions. In 1800 he invented a dividing 

 machine ; the transit circle was re-introduced by him, 

 and lie collaborated with Utzschneider, Fraunhofer, 

 and Ertel. 



May 22, 1900. William Lindley died.— Trained as 

 a civil engineer under Francis Giles, Lindley worked 

 under Brunei on the Thames Tunnel, and in 1838 

 became engineer of the Hamburg and Bergedorf 

 railway. He was afterwards responsible for the 

 sewage works, the water works, and many of the 

 engineering schemes which turned Hamburg into one 

 of the greatest modern seaports. 



May 23, 1800. Henry Cort died. — The inventor of 

 the important process of puddhng and also of the 

 grooved rolls for manufacturing wrought iron, Cort, 

 between 1765 and 1775, made a fortune as a navy 

 agent in Surrey Street, the Strand. Stimulated by the 

 dearness of Russian iron, he then made experiments 

 on iron-making and had works at Fareham and 

 Gosport where, in 1783, he brought out his great 

 inventions, but at the same time reduced himself to 

 poverty. His inventions added enormously to the 

 wealth of the country, and the puddling process 

 suppUed all the malleable iron for our engines, rail- 

 ways, and iron ships till the introduction of the 

 Bessemer process of making mild steel. 



May 23, 1915. Pierre Emile Martin died. — A native 

 of Bourges, and born in 1824, Martin in the early 

 'sixties began experimenting on the manufacture of 

 steel in a small Siemens regenerative furnace, and in 

 July 1865 took out his patent for the process in which 

 pig-iron, scrap steel, and iron oxide are melted together 

 on an open hearth. Till the introduction of the basic- 

 Uned furnace of Thomas and Gilchrist, the Martin — or 

 Siemens-Martin process, as it is known in England — 

 made little headway against the Bessemer process. 

 By 1 91 3, however, of 74 million tons of steel pro- 

 duced only 30 milUons were produced in Bessemer 

 converters and the remainder by the Martin process. 

 Martin reaped no pecuniary advantage from his work, 

 but in 1910 a fund was raised for him, and a few weeks 

 before his death he was awarded the Bessemer medal. 



E. C. S. 



