June 20, 19 18] 



NATURE 



;o9 



the quality of the damask, all the other shades 

 and gradations — the wavy, the motley, and the 

 'kirk narduban ' — may be obtained." This water- 

 ing, when examined by the naked eye, represents 

 the macrostructure of the finished article and 

 shows the way in which it has been mechanically 

 S treated. 



The most remarkable quality of these high-car- 

 bon steels is their unusually high degree of malle- 

 ability. Col. Belaiew shows that while the 

 melting process and the slow rate of cooling are 

 to some extent responsible for this, the real expla- 

 nation is to be found in the microstructure of the 

 finished article, which reveals the fact that the free 

 cementite (hyper-eutectoid) is no longer present 

 in the sharp, pike-like projections characteristic of 

 the metal in the cake, but is in the form of small, 

 rounded globules resolved at about 50 diameters' 

 magnification, which appear like "milky ways." 

 The main cause of the great malleability of damas- 

 cene steel is the globulitic microstructure of the 

 cementite produced by forging at a low tempera- 

 ture. This ," spheroidising, " which has been 

 studied in other connections by Howe, occurs 

 readily at temperatures rather below Acj (730° C), 

 and is much facilitated by forging. All the 

 Oriental writers, and especially Anossoff, insist on 

 the importance of not exceeding a red heat dur- 

 ing this operation ; and the reason for this is now 

 clear. This aspect ,of the results of Col. 

 Belaiew 's research has a most important lesson for 

 the manufacturers and users of tool-steel. The 

 low-temperature forging below Aj is a process 

 capable of manifold application to high-carbon 

 steels, which, without it, are too brittle. It is 

 scarcely too much to say that there are many 

 cases where carbon tool-steel treated in this way 

 could be used instead of the much more expensive 

 allov steels. H. C. H. C. 



NOTES. 



Sir William Crookes attained the age of eighty- 

 six on Monday, June 17, and received the congratula- 

 tions of many friends. He bears the burden of his 

 years lightly, -and is still actively engaged in research. 

 This spirit of inquiry has been maintained throughout 

 his life, and. we trust that strength will be given to 

 ■^ir William for some time yet to enable him to 



ntinue to satisfy it. 



We regret to announce the death at forty-seven years 

 of age of Dr. E. A. Newell Arber, demonstrator in 

 palaeobotany at the University of Cambridge since 



1899. 



Following the precedent of .last year, the Confer- 

 ence of Delegates of Corresponding Societies of the 

 British Association will this year be held in London 

 in the rooms of the Geological Society on Thursday, 

 July 4. Dr. F. A. Bather has been nominated 

 as president, and a discussion will be invited upon his 

 address, which will be entitled "The Contribution of 

 Local Societies to Adult Education." The question 

 of afforestation will also be considered. 



From a statement made by Sir Albert Stanley, 

 President of the Board of Trade, in an address at 

 Manchester on Friday last, June 14, it appears that 



NO. 2538, VOL. lOl] 



the Government has decided to take certain further 

 steps in support of the dyes industry. The matter 

 was referred to in a note recently published in these 

 columns (Nature, May 23), and it is satisfactory to 

 find that, in addition to the control of imports by 

 a system of licences and in order to further financial 

 help to be given amorig smaller makers, a com- 

 bination is to be arranged between the two great 

 firms, British Dyes, Ltd., and Messrs. Levinstein, 

 Ltd. The foreigner must be fought with his 

 own weapons, and long ago in Germany it was 

 recognised that mutual support and assistance con- 

 tributed almost as much as, or perhaps more than, 

 any other condition to the success of the dye-making 

 firms. One of the first things which should now be 

 done in this country is to prepare a general survey 

 of the dye field, to ascertain which firms are best pre- 

 pared to make particular classes of dyes and their 

 necessary intermediates, to determine in what direc- 

 tions the home industry is weakest, and to pool the 

 results of research. The relation of explosives to the 

 dye-making business must be steadily borne in mind, 

 and the "combine" which is contemplated between 

 Nobel's and other explosive manufacturing concerns is 

 a feature of the situation from which results of the 

 utmost importance may ensue to the dyes industry. 



The death is announced, on June g, at sixty years 

 of age, of Mr. J. H. Lace, C.I.E., formerly con- 

 servator of forests, Burma. 



The Toronto correspondent of the Times reports that 

 the Honorary Advisory Council for Scientific Research, 

 which has been studying measures to foster the 

 scientific development of Canadian industries, proposes 

 the establishment of a research institute for the 

 Dominion . 



The third Gustave Canet lecture of the Junior 

 Institution of Engineers will be given on Monday 

 next, June 24. at the Institution of Civil Engineers by 

 Sir Wilfrid Stokes, who will take as his subject "The 

 Stokes Gun." Free tickets of admission may be 

 obtained from the secretary of the Junior Institution 

 of Engineers, 39 Victoria Street, S.W.i. 



The Royal Academy of Science of Turin has an- 

 nounced, we learn from Science, a prize of 26,000 lire, 

 to be awarded for the most remarkable and most cele- 

 brated work on any of the physical sciences published 

 in the four years ending December 31 next. The 

 prize fund is a bequest from Senator T. Vallauri. 

 Competition is open to Italian and foreign men of 

 science, and the term "physical sciences" is to be 

 taken in the broadest sense. 



We learn from Science that the Boston Society of 

 Natural History has awarded the Walker grand 

 honorary prize, which this year takes the form of a 

 one-thousand-dollar Liberty' bond, to Prof. Jacques 

 Loeb, of the Rockefeller Institute, New York, in 

 recognition of his many published works covering a 

 wide range of inquiry into the basic concepts of 

 natural history. The Walker grand prize, is awarded 

 every five* years, under the terms of the will of the 

 late 'William Johnson Walker, "for such scientific 

 investigation or discovery in natural history," fir>t 

 made known and puhli<h.(i in the I'nited St. 

 the council of tlif scirty shall deem <l 

 thereof. 



The President of the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries has appointed a Committee to consider and 

 report how Government stores which may become 

 available after the close of the war can best be utilised 

 for agricultural and horticultural purposes, and what 



