October 7, 191 5] 



NATURE 



165 



^Jumestic gas-fire. A committee appointed by the 



Institution of Gas Engineers, upon which scientific 



men are largely represented, is now considering the 



■ loption of a standard method of testing the radiant 



iiicicncics of gas-fires. Thus no one can say that the 



as industry is not making every effort to put its 



lairs upon a thoroughly scientific basis. 



Passing on to the metallurgical and allied indus- 

 iiies (who, of course, are large consumers of fuel), 

 there is much here to be done in improving the con- 

 struction and operation of furnaces in order to check 

 ilie waste of fuel. But of these details there is no 

 time to treat; and one instance of the possibilities of 

 very large economies as the result of scientific control 

 must suffice. 



It is perhaps common knowledge that the most 

 . conomical arrangement of plant for the manufacture 

 >if iron and steel is one in which bye-product coke- 

 ovens, blast-furnaces, steel furnaces, and rolling mills 

 are brought together on one site and under one 

 organising direction, so that the surplus gases from 

 the coke-ovens and blast-furnaces may be utilised to 

 the fullest extent. My relative, Mr. T. C. Hutchin- 

 -^on, of the Skinningrove Iron Company, who has 

 <levoted many years of anxious thought and practical 

 study to this important problem, ventured some few 

 Acars ago to predict that — with the most approved 



pe and arrangement of plant, working under strict 



icntific control by competent chemists— it would 

 soon be possible to make finished steel rails or girders 

 from Cleveland ironstone with no further consump- 

 tion of coal than is charged into the bye-product coke- 

 ovens for the production of the coke required for the 

 blast-furnace, and all subsequent experience at 

 Skinningrove has fully demonstrated that his pro- 

 phecy can be fulfilled in everyday practice. Of course, 

 it means a constant watchful control by a well-paid 

 and competent scientific staff under efficient leader- 

 ship, and in Mr. E. Bury — an old Owens College 

 student, trained in an atmosphere of "gas and com- 

 bustion" — we have found the very man for the work. 



It is perhaps unnecessary, even had time permitted, 

 for me to multiply instances of possible economies in 

 other important directions — Such, for instance, as 

 power production and the heating of domestic apart- 

 ments. There is probably no direction in which 

 equally good results would not accrue with proper 

 scientific application and control as those already cited 

 as having been reached in the direction of carbonisa- 

 tion, or in the iron and steel industry. To-morrow 

 \vc are to discuss the important subject of smoke pre- 

 vention, in which many Manchester public men are 

 showing an active interest, so that there will be some 

 further opportunity of referring to the matter. 



But may I, in conclusion, appeal in all seriousness 

 to chemists and scientific men generally to take up 

 this important matter effectively as a public duty at 

 this crisis in the country's affairs? I would suggest 

 that the Government be memorialised with a view to 

 The establishment of a central organisation for the 

 supervision of fuel consumption and the utilisation of 

 < oal somewhat on the lines of the existing alkali 

 works inspection, which has been so beneficial to 

 chemical industry. And in connection with such an 

 organisation there might be undertaken a much 

 needed systematic chemical survey of British coal- 

 fields, as well as experimental trial of new inventions 

 for fuel economies. There would certainly be no lack 

 of important work for such a properly organised de- 

 partment of the State, and there can be no doubt at 

 all that the results of its activities would be, not only 

 a very large direct saving in our colossal annual coal 

 bill, but also a purer atmosphere and healthier condi- 

 tions generally in all our large industrial areas. 



NO. 2397, VOL. 96] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — In his valedictory address to the 

 Senate, the retiring Vice-Chancellor, Dr. M. R. 

 James, the provost of King's College, stated that the 

 University has shrunk to less than one-third of its 

 former numbers; no fewer than 10,000 Cambridge 

 n:>en have entered the military and naval services. The 

 Rev. T. C. Fitzpatrick, president of Queens' College, 

 was elected Vice-Chancellor for the ensuing year. The 

 Quick professorship of biology is vacant, as the period 

 of three years for which Dr. G. H. F. Nuttall was 

 appointed has now ended. 



Although much of the best glass used in England 

 is of English manufacture, large quantities of glass, 

 principally of the cheaper types, have been for some 

 years imported. Cheaper labour, cheaper transport, 

 and the scarcity of technically trained managers and 

 chemists, together with the prevalence of "rule-of- 

 thumb " methods, have been the determining factors. 

 The manufacture of fine glass requires a peculiar 

 combination of engineering, physical, and chemical 

 knowledge and training, and the chemical knowledge 

 is not usually obtainable in university or technical 

 college courses, because of the specialised nature of 

 the subjects and the difficulties which arise in trans- 

 lating laboratory experiments into practice on a 

 manufacturing scale. To meet these difficulties, the 

 University of Sheffield has established a department 

 of glass manufacture and technology, and has insti- 

 tuted special technological courses. A syllabus of 

 special lectures and laboratory work has been issued 

 with details of a projected full-time three years' course. 

 The announcement indicates the variety of scientific 

 and technical work which is essential to a good train- 

 ing in glass manufacture, and includes, e.g., the 

 chemistry of the materials, the glasses and pots, the 

 fuel used, the furnaces, the temperatures at which 

 they work, variations in the methods of melting, 

 chemical actions in the process of melting, methods 

 of working the glass, such as rolling, pressing, and 

 blowing, grinding and cutting, and the machinery 

 and appliances incidental to all these operations. The 

 success of these courses will necessarily depend on the 

 co-ordination of the lectures and the laboratory 

 practice with larger scale experimental work ; but 

 the University of Sheffield, with its experience of 

 similar problems in the metallurgical department, 

 should be well qualified to deal with these difficult 

 problems. Their successful solution should be of 

 material assistance to a very important and growing 

 branch of British industry which it is particularly 

 essential to encourage as much as possible at the 

 present time. 



The third war programme in connection with the 

 Chadwick Public Lectures dealing with the last 

 quarter of the present year has now been published. 

 Prof. D. Noel Paton is giving a course of three lec- 

 tures on " Food in War Time " at the Hampstead 

 Central Library, Finchley Road, London, N.W. The 

 first lecture was given on Monday last, and the others 

 will be given on the two succeeding Mondays, at 

 8.15 p.m. Dr. R. O. Moon, physician to the Serbian 

 Isolation Hospital at Skoplje (Uskub), will lecture on 

 "Typhus in Serbia," at the Royal Society of Medicine, 

 I Wimpole Street, Cavendish Square, London, W., at 

 5.15 p.m. on October 20 and 29, and on November 3. 

 On November 10, at 8.15 p.m., Mr. A. Saxon Snell 

 will lecture on " Emergency Military Hospital Con- 

 struction " at the Royal Institute of British .Architects, 

 Conduit Street, London, W. On November 17, at 

 8.15 p.m. Mr. W. E. Riley will lecture on "Some Con- 



