June 24, 1922] 



NATURE 



821 



1906, when MM. Fabry and Perot took up the same 

 investigations by the new method of superposed fringes, 

 he gave them the full benefit of his earlier experience 

 and every assistance in his power. The remarkable 

 concordance (the difference was not much in excess 

 of one part in ten million) between the results of the 

 two investigations is sufficient testimony to the 

 accuracy of the earlier work, and although possibly it 

 must be admitted that fortune played its part, and 

 that the absolute accuracy was not quite so high as 

 the agreement between the two results appeared to 

 indicate, an accuracy not inferior to one part in a 

 million may, in any case, safely be considered to have 

 been attained. 



Dr. Benoit was associated also with the researches 

 of Dr. Ch. Ed. Guillaume, the present director of the 

 Bureau, into the properties of invar, and was closely 

 concerned with the early standardisation of the 24- 

 metre Jaderin surveying wires, which are now almost 

 universally employed in the measurement of geodesic 

 base-lines. He was further interested, from his 

 earliest days, in questions of electrical standardisation, 

 and spent much time in determining the value of the 

 standard ohm. This work, however, was not part 

 of the regular programme of the Bureau, and the 

 pressure of his other duties prevented him from de- 

 voting so much attention to it as he would have liked ; 

 but for a period the standard ohm produced by Benoit 

 was the accepted type for precision measurements, 

 and the value he obtained was very close to that 

 accepted at the present time. He was still at work on 

 this subject when failing health and eyesight caused 

 him, in 1914, to tender to the Comite International his 

 resignation of the directorship which he had held 

 with so much distinction. 



To appreciate the value of Benoit's work and his 

 unsparing labour and painstaking attention to every 

 detail making for precision of results, it is necessary 

 to read the " Travaux et Memoires " of the Bureau 

 during the period of his direction. In appreciation 

 of his services the Comite International, on his retire- 

 ment, appointed him honorary director, and he was 

 present in the autumn of 192 1 at the sixth Conference 

 Generale des Poids et Mesures, showing all his old 

 enthusiasm for the work which had filled his life. He 

 had a most unassuming and charming personality, 

 and those who had the privilege of knowing and colla- 

 borating with him will feel a very real and personal 

 loss in his death. He was past president of the Societe 

 Fran^aise de Physique and correspondant of the 

 Institut de France, of the Bureau de Longitudes, and of 

 the Academie des Sciences, honorary fellow of the 

 Physical Society of London and of the Societe Franraise 

 des Electriciens, and officer of the Legion of Honour. 



J. E. S. 



John Wanklyn McConnel. 



A COMBINATION of business ability and legal 

 -^ training with real experience of agriculture as 

 well as of textile engineering, directed by a passion 

 for constructive organisation, brought the late Mr. 

 J. W. McConnel to occupy an exceptional position as 

 an exponent of industry in relation to science, and his 



NO. 2747, VOL. 109] 



death on May 25 at the age of sixty-seven is more 

 than premature. His grandfather founded the firm 

 of McConnel «& Co., fine cotton spinners, whose mills 

 are now the second largest in the world, in 1797, and 

 Mr. McConnel was thus one of the aristocrats of the 

 industry. The purchase by McConnels of the English 

 patent rights of the Heilman Comber gave him, as 

 a young man, an exceptional experience with the one 

 new machine which the industry has evolved during 

 the century ; this experience influenced his outlook 

 in later years, and seemed to render him much less 

 convinced of finality than most cotton spinners, and 

 hence more eager for the application of scientific methods. 

 Incidentally, it may be mentioned that he was one of 

 the first two students in the then new school of engineer- 

 ing at Cambridge. Thus he was led to advance a 

 scheme for the formation of a special department in 

 Manchester University at the British Association 

 meeting of 1915 ; but, failing to secure a permanent 

 endowment, he obtained the co-operation of the Fine 

 Cotton Spinners' and Doublers' Association to under- 

 take the proposed scientific work, which has since 

 steadily developed into an experimental department 

 qf the combine with workshops and spinning mill as 

 well as laboratories. 



The original intention was merely in advance of 

 public opinion, for only two years later Mr. McConnel 

 became chairman of a provisional committee of the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. 

 He resigned the chairmanship, after two years' work, 

 before the British Cotton Research Association was 

 actually constituted, but not before he had laid the 

 foundations of an immense organisation which em- 

 braces the whole industry, and aim.s at breaking down 

 the watertight compartments into which a highly 

 efficient but conservative industry had segregated 

 itself. It is pleasant to recall the graceful acknow- 

 ledgment of this " spade work " recently made by 

 Mr. Kenneth Lee at a luncheon when H.R.H. the 

 Duke of York formally opened the Shirley Institute, 

 Mr. McConnel being present as a guest. 



The thesis of essential community of interest between 

 grower and spinner had found a strong supporter in 

 Mr. McConnel. Travels to the West Indies, Egypt 

 and the Sudan, supplemented by an active personal 

 supervision of a very large cotton-growing plantation 

 in Mississippi, and of his own estate in Ayrshire, placed 

 him in an exceptional position as an authority on 

 spinning who also knew a great deal at first hand about 

 cotton-growing. Having first applied this experience in 

 laying the broad foundations of the British Cotton 

 Industry Research Association, he developed it further 

 on the committees set up by the Board of Trade, his 

 appendix to the Textile Committee's report leading 

 to the formation of the Empire Cotton Growing Com- 

 mittee, and when the committee was transmuted into 

 the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation under royal 

 charter, Mr. McConnel became chairman of its council. 

 Mr. McConnel was most remarkable in an ability 

 for learning new methods, subjects, and viewpoints 

 which would have been unusual even in a much younger 

 man. The work he initiated for the cotton industry 

 was neither superficial nor conspicuous, but its effects 

 will endure, and he will be remembered as one of those 

 who thought for to-morrow as well as for to-day. 



