NATURE 



[April 4, 1918 



This we have already 'been promised, and while the | 

 conditions of test and the limits permissible are settled 

 after consultation with the manufacturers, the enforce- 

 ment of those conditions and the power to refuse the 

 licence rest with an independent body. Such a plan, 

 it seems to mc, is far preferable to the alternative under 

 which an association of the manufacturers would run 

 its own testing laboratory. 



A similar scheme is clearly applicable to other indus- 

 tries. For engineering work the standards of the 

 Engineering Standards Committee are mostly adopted. 

 The laboratory holds the standard screw gauges of the 

 committee as well as the rail templates and other simi- 

 lar standards. Some organisation whereby standards 

 employed locally for testing purposes are controlled by 

 the laboratory and kept in close correspondence with 

 those at Teddington ought not to be difhcult to devise, 

 and would secure much of what is needed, though with 

 screw gauges at present identity of the method of test- 

 ing rather than of the standard of comparison is wjhat 

 is difficult to secure. 



Or, again, \yith electrical instruments, supply meters, 

 ammeters, voltmeters, and the like can be, and are, 

 sent to the laboratory, and where high accuracy is 

 required this must be done. Very large sums depend 

 now on the measurement of the energy supplied from 

 central stations to big works, tramway systems, col- 

 lieries, and other large installations, and very high 

 accuracy is needed. This, too, is true in the case of 

 acceptance tests of large machinery. The necessary 

 accuracy can be obtained only in a properly equipped 

 laboratory, and, indeed, in the case of meters, an 

 individual test is always necessary, but where the type 

 has been tested and approved the individual tests could 

 be carried out by inspectors at the works, or at some 

 convenient local institution. And there are many pieces 

 of apparatus and small plant which could be dealt with 

 In a similar manner to the chemical glassware. 



The Engineering Standards Committee has specified 

 the performance tests for motors and dynamos requisite 

 ■before the term "British standard" can be applied to 

 them. It is clearly impossible to expect that every 

 small motor should have been put through these tests. 

 It would be quite simple to arrange that some limited 

 number of the type were tested out at the National 

 Physical Laboratory, that steps were taken, by inspec- 

 tion and occasional tests, to secure that in subsequent 

 production the same standard was attained; and, so 

 long as this was done, to license the manufacturer to 

 put the E.S.C. mark on his machine, and call it a 

 ""British standard machine." 



The process can be extended to other electrical pro- 

 ducts; it has alreadv been suggested for lamps, and 

 four years ago I had good hopes that some action of 

 the kind would be taken — 1914 stopped it for the time. 

 I would urge that now is the time to develop a -scheme 

 of the kind so that we may be ready when once more 

 peace reigns on earth among men of good will. 



The scheme is a large one, one that as director I 

 cannot hope to see fully developed. It is enough per- 

 haps for me to have indicated how the laboratory may 

 grow, both as a National Research Laboratory and as 

 a National Proving House and Standardising Labora- 

 tory. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 



INTELLIGENCE. 



Miss Phyllis M. Borthwick, lecturer in physics at 



the Ladies' College, Cheltenham, has been appointed 



assistant-professor o.f physics and chemistrv at the 



Lady Hardinge Medical College for Women, Delhi. 



On the first Saturday of each month from May to 

 October, at 3.30 p.m., free public demonstrations on 



NO. 2527, VOL. lOl] 



practical bee-keeping will be given in the Hormman 

 Gardens or the Museum, Forest Hill, S.E., by Mr. 

 W. H. Prior, of the Kent and British Bee-keepers' 

 Associations. 



M. Paul Otlet's article in the Revue generate des 

 Sciences for February last on "The Future of the In- 

 ternational Catalogue of Scientific Literature " contains 

 a short account of the foundation of the catalogue and 

 some proposals for its future development. The vast 

 experience which M. Otlet has acquired at the Inter- 

 national Institute of Bibliography at Brussels^ entitles 

 his opinion on such a subject to respect. It is, how- 

 ever, difficult to reconcile hjs statement that "before 

 the war the German Government had decided to with- 

 draw from the International Catalogue" with the fact 

 that at the meeting of the International Council of the 

 catalogue held in London on June 11 and 12, 1914, 

 about six weeks before the war broke out, the repre- 

 sentative of the German Government, Dr. Uhlworm, 

 proposed the resolution: — "That the International 

 Catalogue of Scientific Literature shall be continued 

 during the years 1916-20," which was adopted by the 

 council. M. Otlet would like to see the International 

 Catalogue extended to include technology, industrial 

 sciences, medicine, agriculture, social sciences, philo- 

 logy, literature, the fine arts, history, geography, philo- 

 sophy, and religion. In view of such extension he 

 thiriks the work of the regional bureaux in the various 

 co-operating countries should no longer be controlled 

 bv scientific societies, but undertaken by the authorities 

 of the National Library in each country. M. 

 Otlet suggests that in view of the continual increase 

 in the number of scientific journals, authors should 

 agree not to publish original papers in any periodical 

 that was not included in a list drawn up by mutual 

 agreement. In order that subscribers to the catalogue 

 may be in possession of the latest information, M. 

 Otlet recommends that the index-cards received at the 

 Central Bureau should be printed and issued at once. 

 As each volume appeared, the cards corresponding 

 with that volume would be destroyed by the subscribers, 

 who need keep only such cards as had not yet been 

 published in a volume. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 21.— Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Dr. C. Chree : The magnetic storm 

 of December 16-17, 1917, as recorded at Kew and Esk- 

 dalemuir Observatories. The magnetic storm of De- 

 cember 16-17, 19 17, was of very considerable though 

 not outstanding magnitude. It commenced between 

 8h. and gh. on December 16, and had not wholly 

 subsided before the afternoon of the following day. 

 Attention is directed in the paper to the curves for 

 the twenty- four hours commencing at 8h. on December 

 16. The most active period of disturbance was be- 

 tween i5h. (3 p.m.) on December 16 and ^h. on De- 

 cember 17. A prominent feature in the curves was 

 a succession of oscillations of periods averaging about 

 twenty minutes. There were also, especially at Esk- 

 dalemuir, some very large short-period oscillations. The 

 paper compares the oscillations recorded at the two 

 observatories, and gives estimates of the rate of change 

 of the magnetic elements during the most rapid move- 

 ments. The amplitude and rapidity of the changes 

 proved to be much greater at the more northern station. 

 — E. A. Owen : The absorption of X-rays, (i) The 

 absorption coefficients of a number of substances for a 

 radiation of wave-length 0-586 x 10- * cm. (the o-Hne 

 of palladium) have been determined, and the values 



