June io, 1922] 



NATURE 



755 



:\[onckton ; Secretaries : Dr. B. Daydon Jackson, 

 I'rof. E. S. Goodrich, and Dr. A. B. Rendle ; 

 Members of Council: Prof. Margaret Benson, Dr. 

 (.. P. Bidder, Mr. E. T. Browne, Dr. W. T. Caiman, 

 l^rof. F. E. Fritch, Prof. E. S. Goodrich, Dame Helen 

 Gwynne-Vaughan, Sir Sidney F. Harmer, Dr. Arthur 

 W. Hill, Dr. B. Daydon Jackson, Mr. Gerald W. E. 

 Loder, Mr. Horace W. Monckton, Mr. Frank A. Potts, 

 Capt. John Ramsbottom, Dr. A. B. Rendle, Baron 

 Rothschild, Dr. E. J. Salisbury, Mr. Charles Edward 

 Salmon, Mr. Thomas Archibald Sprague, and Dr. 

 A. Smith Woodward. Among the Vice-Presidents 

 nominated for the present session appears the name 

 of Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, the first woman to 

 attain that dignity, although it is nearly eighteen 

 years since women were eligible for the fellowship^ 

 and for the last fifteen years they have been elected 

 to the Council. 



The Council of the Institution of Electrical En- 

 gineers has made the following awards for papers 

 accepted during the session 1921-22 : the Institution 

 Premium to Mr. J. G. Hill, the Ayrton Premium to 

 Mr. L. H. A. Carr, the Dudde.l Premium to Mr. T. L. 

 Eckersley, the Fahie Premium to Mr. E. S. Byng, 

 the John Hopkinson Premium to Mr. F. P. Whitaker, 

 the Kelvin Premium to Mr. R. Torikai, the Paris 

 Premium to Mr. J. A. Kuyser, extra premiums to 

 Mr. J. Anderson, Mr. F. J. Teago, and Mr. W. Wilson, 

 \\areless premiums to Mr. E. B. Moullin and Mr. L. B. 

 Turner, and Mr. C. S. Franklin ; and the Willans 

 Premium, which is awarded triennially alternately by 

 the Institution and the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers, to Mr. K. Baumann. 



The British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Associa- 

 tion, 71 Temple Row, Birmingham, has carried out 

 an extensive research on the influence of gases on 

 high-grade brass. A further investigation is now 

 being started by the Association at the Research 

 Department, Woolwich, in which the support of the 

 Engineering Co-ordinating Board of the Department 

 of Scientific and Industrial Research has been secured. 

 The prime object of the present work is to study the 

 conditions necessary for securing both surface and 

 internal soundness of strip brass ingots such as are 

 required for cold rolled sheet metal. The investiga- 

 tion should also throw light on other types of casting 

 in non-ferrous alloys and should be of interest to a 

 wide circle of manufacturers in the metal and en- 

 gineering trades. Dr. Harold Moore and Mr. B. 

 Genders will have charge of the research, which will 

 be conducted paftly in the works of members of the 

 Association and partly in the Woolwich laboratories. 



Before the war the United States did not under- 

 take the manufacture of optical glass ; thus the disc 

 for the 100-inch at Mt. Wilson was made at St. 

 Gobain in France. The exigencies of war, however, 

 made home-manufacture necessary, much help being 

 given by the geophysical laboratory at Washington. 

 The work was at first limited to the small lenses 

 needed for military purposes, but after the Armistice 

 it was greatly extended, and electric furnaces were 

 constructed for annealing the glass, the rate of cooling 



NO. 2745, VOL. 109] 



being carefully controlled. In an article in Popular 

 Astronomy of May, D. E. Sharp states that a 40-inch 

 disc for a reflector for the Steward Observatory, 

 University of Arizona, has now been completed by 

 the Spencer Lens Co., Hamburg. N.Y. The glass 

 employed has a low coefficient of expansion, and it is 

 hoped that changes of figure due to change of tempera- 

 ture will thus be minimised. 



A BRONZE medal to be designated the Faraday 

 Medal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers will 

 commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the first 

 Ordinary Meeting of the Society of Telegraph 

 Engineers (now the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers). The award may be made by the 

 Council not more frequently than once a year, either 

 for notable scientific or industrial achievement in 

 electrical engineering or for conspicuous service 

 rendered to the advancement of electrical science, 

 without restriction as regards nationality, country of 

 residence, or membership of the Institution. 



Invitations have been issued by the Lawes Agri- 

 cultural Trust Committee (Chairman, Lord Bledisloe) 

 to inspect the experimental fields and laboratories of 

 the Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, 

 on Wednesday, June 14, when the Minister of Agri- 

 culture (The Right Hon. Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen) 

 and the Parliamentary Secretary (the Earl of Ancaster) 

 will be present. 



The seventy-seventh general meeting of the 

 Institution of Mining Engineers will be held on June 

 20-22 at Sheffield. A preliminary programme has 

 been issued, which provides for papers and discussions 

 on stainless steels, rock temperatures in coal-measures, 

 coal-mining methods and apparatus, and the absorp- 

 tion of carbon monoxide by the blood. A number of 

 visits to works and collieries in the neighbourhood 

 have also been arranged. 



A PUBLIC meeting of the National Union of Scientific 

 Workers will be held in the Botanical Theatre, 

 University College, Gower Street, London, on Thurs- 

 day, June 15, at 5.30, when an address will be given 

 by Mr. F. W. Sanderson, Headmaster of Oundle, 

 on " The Duty and Service of Science in the New 

 Era." The chair will be taken by Mr. H. G. Wells. 

 Admission will be free. 



It is announced in the Chemiker Zeitung of May 18 

 that Prof. Duparc of Geneva has, at the invitation of 

 the Soviet Government, undertaken the organisation 

 of the platinum industry of Russia. 



The movement for " birth control " has now 

 assumed considerable proportions, and the ^lalthusian 

 League, which numbers many persons of eminence in 

 medicine, science, and literature among its vice-presi- 

 dents, issues monthly the New Generation, a pubUca- 

 tion devoted to this subject and to problems of 

 population. The " Mothers' Clinic," for information 

 and advice on the subject, has been established and 

 is open daily, and issues monthly the Birth Control 

 News, which " intends to present to those who desire 

 to see them shorn of the ephemeral, the real prob- 

 lems facing national and international statesmanship 

 to-day." 



