154 



NATURE 



[April 25, 1918 



before operations upon so large a scale can be com- 

 menced. Mistakes there are bound to have been, but 

 that the company has made a definite step towards its 

 objective, and towards the assurance of a national 

 supply of dyes for this country, cannot be denied. On 

 the other hand, what has been accomplished is but 

 small in comparison with what remains to be done ; for 

 the large plants visited produce but a small fraction of 

 the total number of intermediates that are of primary 

 importance. Despite this, when the actual progress 

 that has 'been made by British Dyes, Ltd., and by 

 other firms, in the face of the great difficulties of the 

 times, is fairly surveyed, the confidence that British 

 chemists and engineers can place the country in a 

 position of independence as regards dyes is confirmed, 

 but it is also clearly seen that this result can only be 

 achieved by years of strenuous work, by co-operation, 

 and with the aid of sympathetic national support of 

 the industrv. A. E. E. 



SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS OF REFRIGERA- 

 TION AND COLD STORAGE. 

 A COMMITTEE has been set up by the Food 

 Investigation Board of the Department of 

 Scientific and Industrial Research to consider 

 engineering and physical problems which arise in 

 connection with the use of cold to preserve food, and 

 to organise such research on these subjects as may 

 be considered necessary. 



The Committee consists of Sir Alfred Ewing (chair- 

 man), principal, University of Edinburgh; Sir Richard 

 Glazebrook, director. National Physical Laboratory; 

 Commdr. C. F. Jenkin, professor of engineering 

 science, Oxford; Mr. S. R. Beale, of Messrs. Louis 

 Sterne and Co. ; Prof. H. L. Calkndar, professor of 

 physics. Imperial College of Science and Technology ; 

 Messrs. G. C. Hodsdon and F. A. Wilcox, of Messrs. 

 J. and E. Hall, Ltd.; Prof. C. H. Lees, professor of 

 physics. East London Technical College ; Mr. A. Mac- 

 donald, superintendent engineer of the Commonwealth 

 and Dominion Line, Ltd., of *he Cunard Line; Mr. 

 J. T. Milton, chief engineer surveyor of Llo}xi's Regis- 

 ter of Shipping; Mr. W. B. Statham, of the Messrs. 

 Lightfoot Refrigerating Co.; Mr. J. Thorn, chief 

 engineer of the London Central Markets Cold Storage 

 Co.; and Mr. A. R. T. Woods, general manager of 

 the H. and W. Nelson Line. 



The terms of reference to the Committee are cre- 

 signedly wide, so that its activities may be as little 

 hampered as possible. They cover refrigerating 

 machines and the insulation of cold stores in general, 

 and in particular the application of refrigeration in 

 shiips, barges, and railway vans for the conveyance 

 of produce at low temperatures, and the methods of 

 measuring the temperature and degree of moisture in 

 closed spaces. 



The Committee may be said to be taking up work 

 at the point at which it was left by the Reifrigeration 

 Research Committee of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers, but with greatly extended terms of refer- 

 ence. That committee, which was also under Sir 

 Alfred Ewing, was appointed to define a standard in 

 refrigeration, and the valuable results of its delibera- 

 tions were issued as a report of the institution in 

 October, 19 14. 



In setting up the present Committee an attempt 

 has been made to include exp>erts representing each 

 division of the subject, and in attempting a general 

 survey of the scientific problems which press for solu- 

 tion on the engineering and physical sides the Com- 

 mittee will be guided by the first-hand knowledge of 

 its members. It includes engineers with much ex- 



NO. 2530, VOL. lOl] 



perience in the practical work of refrigeration, and 

 also physicists familiar with the methods of experi- 

 mental research which are likely to be relevant. 



No single committee, however, can hope ito possess 

 an exihaustive acquaintan^ce with all aspects of so 

 wide a question. The work will therefore ibe helped 

 forward by suggestions received from without, and 

 the Comrnittee would welcome suggestions as to 

 specific questions on which further knowledge is 

 needed. uAny communication should be addressed to 

 the Secretary, Sir Alfred Ewing's Committee, 

 Scientific and Industrial Research Department, 

 15 Great George Street, Westminster, S.W.i. 



PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE FOOD 

 SUPPLIES. 



RECENT reviews of the outlook for food supplies 

 after the war have been so uniformly pessimistic 

 that a note of comparative optimism from so eminent 

 an authority as Sir R. Henry Rew is doubly welcome 

 at the present juncture.' In his address to the Royal 

 Statistical Society on December 18 last (Journal of the 

 Royal StatisticafSociety, January, 1918) Sir Henry was 

 able to arrive at the conclusion that the prospects of 

 food supplies for the hungry world after the war are 

 at least not hopelessly gloomy, although indeed his 

 considerations were limited solely to supplies, and did 

 not cover the problem of transport. 



Dealing first with breadstuffs, and reviewing the 

 existing position as regards production and require- 

 ments in the chief importing and exporting countries, 

 he deduced that although there is an immediate de- 

 ficiency of norrhal breadstuffs, available to meet the 

 existing demand, there is no shortage in the world's 

 supplies as a whole, if Australia be included. More- 

 over, the shortage affects only the northern hemisphere, 

 and, so far as can be judged, the wheat crops south 

 of the equator will compensate for the deficient wheat 

 crops north of it. As to the food situation which will 

 exist when the war ends, it is by no means certain 

 that the Central Powers will draw heavily upon extra- 

 European sources of supply, since their needs will 

 probably be met adequately from Russia and the 

 Balkans. Another factor which must be taken into 

 account is the reduction in the number of bread-eaters 

 in the countries at war. It is difficult to assess the 

 present reduction of food requirements from this cause 

 at less than one million tons of cereals alone. More- 

 over, it is probable that demobilisation will lead to a 

 reduction in the avera^^e food consumption per head of 

 the men affected, and that the general economy in the 

 use of food which war conditions have engendered will 

 persist for a considerable period. 



As regards meat, there has been a serious reduction 

 in the number of cattle, sheep, and pigs in Europe 

 during the war, but, on the other hand, a very sub- 

 stantial stimulus has been given to the overseas tr^de 

 in meat, and sources of supply hitherto almost un- 

 tapped, such as Brazil and South Africa, are being 

 steadily developed. On the whole, therefore Sir 

 Henry found reason to believe that there are, and will 

 be, adequate supplies of meat in the world to satisfy 

 the demands of carnivorous Europe, again assuming, 

 as in the case of breadstuffs, that they can be shipped. 

 Transport is thus obviously the dominant factor, and 

 no optimism as to the world's supplies can modify the 

 grave fact that the most rigid economy of food is 

 essential throughout the war, since the food available 

 is limited, not by the world's supply, but by the quan- 

 tity which can be brought to, or produced in, the 

 country which reeds it. 



The optimism expressed in the paper was not en- 

 tirely shared by speakers in the subsequent discussion, 



