i\UGUST 



I918] 



NATURE 



431 



the difficulty lies in finding men who are equally con- 

 versant with the chemical problems to be solved and 

 the engineering facilities available for their solution. 

 A man with an adequate training both in chemistry and 

 engineering is required. Such a man, and no other, 

 has the right to call himself a chemical engineer. 

 These men do exist in this country to-day, notably Sir 

 George Beilby and Sir Dugald Clerk, but there are 

 very few of them, and undoubtedly one of the most 

 pressing problems which will have to be solved is the 

 securing of an adequate supply of chemical engineers 

 to maintain and develop the great industries of the 

 country. Prof. Louis — who, by virtue of his position 

 and his work, is associated more with the mining 

 and metallurgical than with the chemical industries- 

 devoted his address mainly to a consideration of the 

 nature of the principal problems that a" chemical 

 engineer is called upon to conduct, ?nd illustrated it 

 by reference to a process which, though metallurgical 

 in name, is chemical engineering in fact, namely, the 

 hydrometallurgical extraction of gold by the cyanide 

 process. The magnitude of this industry may be 

 gauged from the fact that the Witwatersrand alone 

 cyanides more than two and a quarter million tons 

 of ore per month. This process has developed slowlv 

 from quite modest beginnings a quarter of a century 

 ago. It has now reached a very high pitch of per- 

 fection . 



The report of the council of the Association of 

 British Chemical Manufacturers was presented at the 

 second annual genera' meeting of the association, held 

 on July II. Dr. C. Carpenter, who was in the chair, 

 referred to several matters of public interest in the 

 course of his remarks in moving the adoption of the 

 report. Progress has been made with the Directory, 

 the bulk of which is now in the printers' hands. The 

 Directory will be printed in English, French, Italian, 

 Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese, and will 

 thus provide for a very compi ehensive circulation 

 throughout the markets of the world of information 

 relating to British manufacture in connection with 

 chemical products. A very useful system has been 

 put into operation for placing at the disposal of 

 members of the association a good deal of informa- 

 tion available at the Department of Overseas Trade 

 and the Foreign Office. In dealing with the question 

 of industrial alcohol the association has been very 

 helpful. When it is remembered how long it has 

 taken to educate the Government on the technical 

 questions connected with the use of alcohol in chemical 

 manufacture, it wi'l be realised that a great advance 

 has been made in the acceptance of the recommenda- 

 tions of the alcohol committee of the association. An 

 information and statistical bureau has been estab- 

 lished with the view of avoiding overlapping and waste 

 of time and energy in research and manufacture. 

 The council has supported the efforts of the Chemical 

 Society in establishing a comprehensive library of 

 chemical technplogy. With regard to the difficult 

 problem of the dves industry. Dr. Carpenter thinks 

 that the course followed in 19 15 in developing the 

 explosive manufactures of the country, viz. to use 

 all and everybody, great and small, m order to get 

 all working' in the direction of making up the 

 shortage, is the right one; and that the concentration 

 of the work in the hr^nds of only a few firms, as 

 appears to be the present policy in dealing with the 

 dve situation, will not produce such a measure of 

 national success as if all the resources of the country 

 are utilised. Lord Moulton has acc^ted the position 

 of president of the association. Mr. R. G. Perry, 

 C.B.E., has been elected chairman, in succession to 

 Dr. C. Carpenter, and the Rt. Hon. J. W. Wilson 

 has been elected vice-chairman. 

 NO. 2544, VpL. 1 01] 



It was recommended by the Imperial War Con- 

 ference held in London last summer: — "That it is 

 desirable to establish in London an Imperial Mineral 

 Resources Bureau, upon which should be represented 

 Great Britain, the Dominions, India, and other parts 

 of the Empire." The importance of the matter has 

 been urged on several occasions in the columns of 

 Nature (see, for example, the issues for October 5, 



1916, and September 13, 1917). By direction of the 

 War Cabinet, the Minister of Munitions, in May, 



1917, appointed an Inter-Departmental Committee to 

 prepared a scheme for the establishment of the pro- 

 posed Bureau. .After consideration of the report of this 

 Committee the Government instructed the Minister of 

 Reconstruction, in consultation with the Secretaries 

 of State for the Colonies and India, to give effect to 

 the recommendations of the Imperial Conference and 

 the findings of the Committee. It is now announced 

 that the Bureau will be incorporated by Royal charter, 

 and the governing body, which will be under the pre- 

 sidency of the Lord President of the Council, will 

 consist of the following :— Chaiiman, Sir Richard Red- 

 mayne, K.C.B. ; nominated bv 'the Canadian Govern- 

 ment, Dr. W. G. Miller; Commonwealth of Aus- 

 tralia, Mr. W. S. Robins; New Zealand, Mr. T. H. 

 Hamer, of the High Commissioner's Office; Union of 

 South Africa, the Rt. Hon. W. P. Schreiner, C.M.G. ; 

 Newfoundland, the Rt. Hon. Lord Morris, K.C.M.G. ; 

 India, Mr. R. D. Oldham, F.R.S. ; nominated by the 

 Secretary for the Colonies, Dr. J. W. Evans; 

 nominated by the Minister of Reconstruction (in con- 

 sultation with the Ipstitution of Mining and Metal- 

 lurgy, the Institute of Metals, the Iron and Steel 

 Institute, and the Institution of Mining Engineers), Mr. 

 W. Forster Brown (Mineral .-Adviser to H.M. Woods / 

 and Forests), Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter (president of 

 the Institute of Metals), Dr. F. H. Hatch (member 

 of the Mineral Resources .Advisory Committee of the 

 Imperial Institute), Sir Lionel Phillips (lately Director 

 of the Mineral Resources Development Department, 

 Ministry of Munitions). Mr. Edgar Tavlor (ex-presi- 

 dent of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy), and 

 Mr. Wallace Thorneycroft (president of the institu- 

 tion of Mining Engineers). Mr. Arnold D. McNair 

 has been appointed secretarv. .All communications 

 regarding the Bureau should be addressed to the 

 Secretarv. Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau, Hol- 

 born Viaduct Hotel, E.C.i. 



Among the recent additions to the Municipal 

 Museums, Hull, we notice the collection of birds' eggs, 

 land, fresh-water, and marine shells, all from Lincoln- 

 shire, formed by the late John Beaulah, of Ravens- 

 tborpe ; also two very large narwhal tusks, and an 

 excellent model of the railway engine Vicloria and 

 tender, dated 1859, which was shown at the Great 

 Exhibition in 1861, bequeathed by the late H. Astropp. 



Mr. a. J. LosEBY, ihe veteran Registrar pf the 

 Market Bosworth County Court, has sent us a copy 

 of his work entitled "The Great Hereafter and the 

 Road to Perfection" (London : A. H. Stockwell, price 

 \s.). Though the subject lies outside the usual range 

 of this journal, we cannot help remarking on the 

 manner in whicii the elemental aspirations of humanitv 

 are dealt with in these blank-verse narratives, which 

 maintain a high level by their dignified simplicity. 

 The story of the triumph of motherhood in the midst 

 of horrors that creep upon a flaming world is 

 Dantesque without being imitative. 



The Museum Journal of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania (vol. viii.. No. 4, December. 1917) is devoted 

 to an account by Mr. C. S. Fisher of the work done 

 by the Egyptian expedition at Memphis financed by 



