February 17, 19 16] 



NATURE 



697 



on the changes desirable in the education of this 

 country. Larger grants for scientific industrial re- 

 search, though imperative!}' necessary, will not be 

 enough. What our system of education should be 

 - .ifter the war must be inquired into. Our children 

 ^\ ill have to be taught their duties as citizens of a great 

 I-.nipire, and in relation to our Dominions overseas. 

 Sir Philip Magnus advocated the appointment of an 

 independent and competent committee, such as was 

 -uggested by. him in the House of Commons on 

 January 26 (see Nature, February 3, 639), to inquire 

 into the whole question. Scientific education must 

 be made more general and the spirit of our people be 

 made scientific. Science must be given full play in 

 . ixW our activities, and especially must it govern our 

 organisation. Such a committee would be able to 

 effect concentration, and its recommendations should 

 lead to reforms and development of the Board of 

 Education. While it is of the utmost importance that 

 we shall apply science to commerce, to industry, and 

 t(i other purposes, it is, said Sir Philip, still more 

 inortant to keep steadily in mind that the highest 

 n of education is so to develop the character of our 

 iiple that they shall act as moral human beings. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, February 10. — Sir J. J. Thomson, 



president, in the chair. — Lord Rayleigh : '1 he theory of 



the Helmholtz resonator. The ideal form of a Helrh- 



holtz resonator is a cavernous space enclosed in a thin 



immovable wall, but communicating with the external 



atmosphere by means of a small perforation. An 



approximate theory is due to Helmholtz, who arrived 



^it definite results for apertures the outline of which 



is circular or elliptic. In the present paper the 



<ipproximation is carried further for the special case 



where the wall is spherical, with the aid of the appro- 



riate Legcndre's functions. — Sir Norman Lockyer 



I H. E. Goodson ; The oxyhydrogen flame 



H ctrum of iron. A spectrogram of the light 



initted when metallic iron burns in the oxyhydrogen 



tlaine, notably rich in lines due to the metal, has been 



studied. Sixt3--four lines of iron have been identified 



in the region AA 3856-52 — 5615-88. Fifteen of these 



lines do not appear to have been hitherto recorded in 



the iron-flame spectrum, and a number of these latter 



possess special interest. On the basis of a comparison 



of the flame spectrogram with a spectrum of the iron 



arc of approximately similar exposure, it has been 



possible to separate the flame lines according to the 



observed variations of intensity into two well-marked 



groups, whilst a residuum forms an intermediate 



group. All the flame lines have accordingly been 



placed in one or other of the following three groups : — 



Group A containing lines strontjer in flame than arc. 



,, B „ ,, weaker „ „ 



„ C „ „ nearly equal in both sources. 



This division bears close relation to the more minute 



' Irissification employed by King in the case of spectra 



obtained at varied temperature levels in the electric 



Imnace.— W. G. Duffield and M. D. Waller : The con- 



-uniption of carbon in the electric arc. HL — The 



mode loss. It has already been shown that the rate 



; consumption of carbon from the kathode of a very 



ort arc is such that the departure of one atom is 



( ompanied by the transfer between the poles of four 



electronic charges. The above ^periment gave a clue 



to the rdle played by the kathode. Experiments were 



undertaken to determine the part played by the anode. 



It appears that the anode loss of carbon is unimportant 



In the mechanism of the arc, and that the function 



of the anode is to receive the carriers of the current 



produced by the essential process occurring at the 

 surface of the kathode. The formation of a crater in 

 the normal tyj>e is not vital to the arc, though it is 

 its most prominent feature. The reduction in poten- 

 tial difference in the arc with rotating anode is prob- 

 ably due to absence of electronic emission on a large 

 scale from its cooler anodes. — C. H. Lander : Surface 

 -friction : experiments with steam and water in pipes. 

 The work comprises a verification of Rayleigh 's 

 formula connecting resistance with velocity, density, 

 diameter of pipe, and kinematical viscosity of fluid. 

 The results are slightly above those obtained by Stan- 

 ton and Pannell for water and air in brass pipes, and 

 show similar characteristics. The general results of 

 the work confirm the accuracy of the assumptions 

 made in the derivation of the equation 



r=^.f('^) 



for fluids differing as widely in their properties of 

 viscosity, density, etc., as steam and water. — T. R. 

 Merton : The structure of broadened spectrum lines. 

 It is considered improbable that the broadening of 

 spectrum lines which occurs at high pressures and 

 under conditions of powerful electric discharge can 

 be referred to the movement of the atom as a whole, 

 but rather to processes more intimately connected with 

 the problem of radiation. Stark has suggested that 

 the broadening is closely related to the electric resolu- 

 tion of the lines. On this assumption the distribution 

 »of intensity to be expected in the lines Ho, H/3, and 

 Hy of hydrogen, broadened by powerful discharges, is 

 discussed. A method of investigating the distribution 

 of intensity in these broadened lines has been found. 

 This method is not affected by the eccentricities of the 

 photographic plate and is adapted to quantitative 

 measurements. The results for the hydrogen lines 

 show that Ha consists of a strong maximum falling 

 off rapidly and regularly on either side, H/3 falls off 

 much less rapidly and shows a minimum at the centre 

 of the line, and H7 shows a strong central maximum 

 with very diffuse "wings" on either side. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, January 24. — M. Camille Jordan 

 in the chair.— L. Maquenne : The comparison of the 

 action of saccharose and of invert-sugar on alkaline 

 copper solutions. Supplementing an earlier note on 

 the same subject, details are given of the influence 

 of temperature and time on the reduction by inyen 

 sugar and by cane-sugar. — Boris Delaunay : Th 

 general solution of the equation X^p-+-Y^ = i. — Gaston 

 Julia : Positive quadratic binary forms. — Maurice 

 Frechet : The deviation of any two functions. — A. 

 Liljestrom : The difference between the centre of 

 gravitv and centre of inertia.— G. Mouret : The flow 

 of liquids over a thin edge.— Ernest Esclangon : The 

 trajectories of projectiles in air. — J. Dejust : The deter- 

 mination of the rational surface of the blades of a 

 hydraulic turbine. — M. Mesnager : The problem of the 

 fixed thin rectangular plate.— Thadee Peczalski : The 

 mechanical equivalent of the light of an incandescent 

 lamp.— Stanislas Meunier : New observations on th«' 

 structure of the meteoric irons of the Diablo Canyon 

 (Arizona) : consequences relating to the circumstance.^ 

 of the fall of these meteorites. The author's inter- 

 pretation of the structure of the meteorite agrees with 

 the view put forward by Barringer and Tilghmann, 

 that the crater of Coon Butte was excavated by tht 

 shock of the meteorite (see Nature, January 27, p. 595). 

 ^-y\. Dalloni : The Senonian of Oran (.Algeria).— M. 

 Marage : The measurement of the sharpness of hearing 

 in real and simulated deafness. A discussion of the 



NO. 2416, VOL. 96] 



