June 24, 1922] 



NATURE 



829 



vacancy of the chair and invite appHcations. The 

 appointment of a professor of education to the chair 

 vacant owing to the death of Prof. John Edgar has 

 been deferred, and appUcations are invited for a 

 lectureship in education with a salary of 500/. a year. 

 The following appointments have been made : Mr. F. 

 Whyte, to be lecturer in engineering in University 

 College, Dundee ; Mr. M. McGibbon, to be demon- 

 strator in botany, and Miss J. M. Reid to be demon- 

 strator in zoology at St. Andrews. 



The United States Bureau of Education has issued 

 as Bulletin No. 30, 1920, a supplement for 1918 and 

 1 91 9 to the Digest of State laws relating to public 

 education which it published in 191 5. It shows 

 considerable activity on the part of the State Legis- 

 latures, the output of the two years being about 3000 

 enactments without counting those of local applica- 

 tion or ordinary appropriations. Among those of 

 special interest are the provisions for estabUshing 

 continuation schools. Seventeen States passed laws 

 making attendance compulsory, in most cases until 

 the age of 18, and for not less than 8 hours a week. 

 Numerous laws were passed to promote " American- 

 ization " through adult education in the English 

 language, civics, etc. Connecticut, for instance, 

 established a State Department of Americanization 

 under a Director ; New York required the State 

 University to prepare courses of instruction in 

 patriotism and citizenship and provided for enforcing 

 the attendance of children over 8 years of age ; Texas 

 provided for at least ten minutes instruction each 

 day in intelligent patriotism, and required school 

 boards to provide a flag for each school building ; 

 S. Dakota required instruction in patriotism in all 

 educational institutions, both pubUc and private. 

 Five States passed acts providing for military training 

 in schools, one (New York) requiring such training 

 not exceeding three hours a week for boys between 

 16 and 19. Illinois passed a law prohibiting frater- 

 nities, sororities, and secret societies in schools. 



In Bulletin No. 8, 1921, of the United States 

 Bureau of Education, Mr. W. J. Osbum of the 

 Department of Education of the State of Wisconsin 

 has brought together a large number of extracts from 

 reports made in the course of the past seventy years 

 by English, French, and German observers. His 

 comments are characterised by the United States 

 Commissioner of Education as fair and helpful inter- 

 pretation. While the object of the treatise is to 

 extract from the work of the critics its maximum 

 value for Americans, it is of great interest to educa- 

 tionists generally and provides most useful safe- 

 guards for those who in other lands are endeavouring 

 to obtain inspiration and guidance from recent 

 developments and experiences in American institu- 

 tions. Most conspicuous among the criticisms dealt 

 with are, naturally, those contained in the report of 

 the Mosely Education Commission which was sent 

 from England with instructions to find out to what 

 extent American commercial prosperity has been due 

 to their educational system. Many of the criticisms 

 are by French university exchange professors ; 

 German critics have, in general, it appears, shown a 

 bias in favour of autocratic methods and a consequent 

 lack of understanding and sympathy. While satisfied 

 that American achievements and tendencies compare, 

 on the whole, favourably with those of other countries, 

 Mr. Osbum directs attention to several serious short- 

 comings. He says, for instance, that conditions in the 

 teaching profession leave much to be desired as 

 regards salaries, security of tenure, and pensions, 

 although the social standing of the teacher is good, 

 while the annual output of teacher training institu- 

 tions is less than one-fourth of what it should be. 



NO. 2747, VOL. 109] 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



June 25, 1879. Sir William Fothergill Cooke died. — 

 While a student of anatomy and physiology at 

 Heidelberg, Cooke in 1836 had his attention directed 

 to the electric telegraph, and in 1837, on his return 

 to England, he became a partner with Wheatstone. 

 Joint patents were taken out in 1837 and 1838 for 

 instruments with five and two needles, and in 1845 the 

 single needle instrument was produced. After that 

 the telegraph was speedily adopted on all the railway 

 Unes of the country. The first commercial telegraph 

 of Cooke and Wheatstone was erected in 1837 on the 

 London and North Western Railway between Euston 

 and Chalk Farm. 



June 26, 1827. Samuel Crompton died, — Employed 

 in a cotton mill in Bolton, where he was bom in 

 1753, Crompton devoted himself to the improvement 

 of cotton machines. After five years' work, by 

 combining the principle of Arkwright's rollers and 

 Hargreaves' spinning jenny, he was able to produce, 

 by means of his " mule," a yarn of hitherto un- 

 exampled fineness. Too poor to obtain a patent he 

 remained comparatively poor, but in 181 2 the merits 

 of his invention were recognised by Parliament 

 granting him a sum of 5000/. 



June 26, 1810. Joseph Michel Montgolfier died. — 

 The elder of the brothers, to whom is due the inven- 

 tion of the hot-air balloon, Montgolfier was bom at 

 Annonay in 1740, and became, like his father, a paper 

 manufacturer. His first experiments with balloons 

 were made at Avignon in 1782, and on June 5, 1783, 

 Michel Montgolfier and his brother, fitienne, made the 

 first public experiment in Annonay, where a century 

 later a monument was erected to them. The use of 

 hydrogen in balloons was due to the physicist, Charles. 



June 28, 1817. George John Singer died. — The 

 inventor of the gold-leaf electrometer. Singer in early 

 life was a maker of artificial flowers. Given to 

 private study he wrote on electricity and electro- 

 chemistry, made improvements in electrical apparatus, 

 and at his premises in Princes Street, Cavendish 

 Square, gave lectures which were attended by 

 Faraday and Francis Ronalds. He died of consump- 

 tion at the age of 31. 



June 28, 1915. Charles Ernest Paolo Delia Diana 

 Spagnoletti died. — For thirty-seven years — from 1855 

 to 1892 — Spagnoletti was chief electrician and 

 telegraph engineer to the Great Western Railway, 

 and in 1885 served as President of the Society of 

 Telegraph Engineers, now the Institution of Elec- 

 trical Engineers. He brought out numerous electribal 

 apphances for signalling, recording, and controlling, 

 and was the inventor of a dynamo. 



June 29, 1890. Alexander Parkes died. — Ap- 

 prenticed to a Birmingham brassfounder, Parkes 

 afterwards worked for Elkington and, during a period 

 of forty-six years, took out some sixty patents relating 

 to electroplating and other processes. He discovered 

 the method of using zinc for the desilverisation of 

 lead, and about 1855 invented the material now 

 known as celluloid. 



June 30, 1893. Jean Daniel Colladon died. — Of 

 Huguenot descent, Colladon was born in Geneva on 

 December 15,1802. With the mathematician , Sturm — 

 with whom he made experiments on the velocity of 

 sound in the waters of Lake Geneva — he went to 

 Paris and studied under Ampere and Fourier. 

 Returning to his native city, he became a professor 

 in the Geneva Academy and engineer to the Geneva 

 Gas Co. He lectured on the steam engine, brought 

 out a dynamometer, experimented on hydraulics, 

 and was a pioneer in the use of compressed air for the 

 transmission of power. E. C. S. 



