November 22, 191 7] 



NATURE 



229 



experimentation in the industrial development of the 

 Bucher process for the production of sodium cyanide 

 and ammonia, contingent upon a satisfactory arrange- 

 ment being made with the Nitrogen Products Co. ; 

 (4) 20,000/. to be made available for the active prose- 

 cution of investigations into processes for the indus- 

 trial production of such nitrogen compounds as are 

 required in the manufacture of explosives and fer- 

 tilisers. The committee further recommends that the 

 War Department proceed with the construction of the 

 plants mentioned under (i) and (2) above at the earliest 

 practicable date, that the Government promote the 

 installation of by-product coke-ovens in order to in- 

 crease the production of ammonia and toluol, and that 

 a decision regarding the more extensive installation of 

 nitrogen processes be postponed until the plants now 

 recommended are in operation. The committee is of 

 opinion that the immediate accumulation and per- 

 manent maintenance of a reserve of Chile saltpetre of 

 not fewer than 500,000 tons is a wieasure urgently 

 necessary. 



We learn from Science that upon the recommenda- 

 tion of the U.S. National Research Council Dr. A. 

 Trowbridge, of Princeton University, and Prof, T. 

 Lyman, of Harvard Uniyersity, have received com- 

 missions in the Signal Corps, U.S.A., for work in 

 sound-ranging. They have sailed for France to inves- 

 tigate conditions at the front in this subject. The 

 sound-ranging service which will be developed under 

 their direction will utilise in the near future more than 

 fifty men. A meteorological service has been organised 

 under the Signal Corps, U.S.A., in which about one 

 hundred physicists and engineers will be engaged in 

 aerological observational work under the direction of 

 Dr. W. H. Blair, of the U.S. Weather Bureau, who 

 has sailed for France to investigate conditions abroad. 

 Forecasting work for the American Expeditionary 

 Force in France will be in charge of Mr. E. H. Bowie, 

 of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Prof. C. E. Menden- 

 hall, of the University of Wisconsin, has been placed 

 in charge of the development of aeronautical instru- 

 ments. All the work of these services, sound-ranging, 

 meteorology, and aeronautical instruments, is included 

 within the scope of the Science and Research Division 

 of the Signal Corps, which, in accordance with a 

 recent order of the chief signal officer, has been estab- 

 lished and placed under the direction of the National 

 Research Council, of which Major R. A. Millikan is 

 the executive officer. The functions of this division 

 of the Signal Corps are twofold, namely : (i) to furnish 

 personnel of the research sort to the other divisions 

 when the situation warrants the assignment of men 

 of this type to these divisions, and (2) to have a per- 

 sonnel of its own which maintains intimate contact 

 with all research and development work in other divi- 

 sions, and distributes research problems to university, 

 industrial, and governmental research laboratories with 

 which it is associated. Similar, though in some cases 

 less formal, relations have been established with other 

 technical bureaux of the War and Navy Departments. 

 Upon request of the French High Commission a num- 

 ber of .American physicists and chemists are being 

 sent to France to assist in various war problems in 

 which technically trained men are needed. Upon the 

 recommendation of the National Research Council 

 Prof. R. W. Wood, of Johns Hopkins University, 

 Prof. E. Bartow, of the llniversity of Illinois, Prof. 

 R. Stevenson, of the College of the City of New York, 

 ;ind other men of science are receiving commissions 

 in this connection, and a number of them have already 

 sailed for France. 



The Committee of the Loutreuil Foundation has re- 

 ported to the Paris .Academy of Sciences (Comptes 

 rendus, October 22) that it has recommended the fol- 



NO. 2508, VOL. 100] 



lowing grants ; — The National Natural History 

 Museurn, 3000 francs to Prof. Louis Roule for assist- 

 ance in his researches on the migrations of the Sal- 

 monidae. Central Council of the Observatories : 8000 

 francs to the Observatory of Lyons for the installation 

 of a telephone line ; 1500 francs to Henry Bourget, 

 director of the Marseilles Observatory, for assisting in 

 the publication of the Journal des Observateurs. Ecole 

 Polytechnique ; 1000 francs to Prof. A. Colson for his 

 physico-chemical researches on the theory of solutions. 

 National Veterinary College of Lyons : 5000 francs for 

 the installation of radiological apparatus ; 350 francs 

 to Prof. Charles Porcher for the purchase of appa- 

 ratus for researches on milk. National Veterinary 

 College of Toulouse : 5000 francs for the purchase of 

 a projection" apparat^us capable of utilising kinemato- 

 graphic films. Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers : 

 5000 francs to Prof. L^on Guilliet for the organisation 

 of a metallographic laboratory. In reply to demands 

 addressed direct : 5000 fiancs to Charles Alluaud and 

 R. Jeannel ; 1000 francs to Henri Blondel ; 5000 francs 

 to the Institute of Hydrology and Climatology ; 2000 

 francs to R. Ledoux-Lebard and A. Dauvillier for their 

 X-ray researches ; 2000 francs to A. Paillot, for the 

 purchase of material required for bacteriological re- 

 searches; 1000 francs to J. de Th^zac; and 3000 firancs 

 to Albert Portevin and Marcel Garvin. The grants 

 proposed amount to 47,850 francs, and the committee 

 considers it necessary to carry forward a large balance, 

 in view of probable demands at the close of the war. 



Prof. J. A. Fleming will deliver a Christmas course 

 of six illustrated lectures (adapted to a juvenile audi- 

 tory) at the Royal Institution, on "Our Useful Ser- 

 vants : Magnetism and Electricity." 



A GENERAL meeting of the Geological Physics Society 

 will be held in the rooms of the Geological Society, 

 Burlington House, on Wednesday, November 28, at 

 3.30 p.m., at which a lecture will be delivered by Mr. C. 

 Carus- Wilson on " Theories and Problems relating to 

 Musical Sands," illustrated by experiments. The 

 meeting will be open to visitors. 



The Thomas Hawksley lecture, 19 17, of the Insti- 

 tution of Mechanical Engineers will he delivered at 

 six o'clock on Friday, November 30, in the hall of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, 

 Westminster, by Capt. H. R. Sankey, who will take 

 as his subject " Heat Engines," An invitation is given 

 to visitors. 



At a meeting o. the Chemical Society held on 

 November 15 the following exhibits were shown : — 

 Laboratory glass apparatus and specimens of chem- 

 icals, by Messrs. Baird and Tatlock ; laboratory ware, 

 by Messrs. Doulton and Co., and by the Royal Wor- 

 cester Porcelain Co. ; specimens of dyes used in the 

 clothing of the Armies of the Allies, and medicinal 

 agents and antiseptics, by Messrs. Levinstein, Ltd. ; 

 balances and weights, by Mr. L. Oertling; and labora- 

 tory glass apparatus, bv Messrs. Wood Bros. Glass 

 Co., Ltd. 



As the subject of the metric system was very fully 

 discussed at the Institution of Civil Engineers in the 

 early part of the year, especially from the point 

 of view of the relative merits of that system and the 

 British, it may be well to state that the main object 

 of the discussion to be held at the Institution of Elec- 

 trical Engineers on December 13 is to consider the 

 effect on the British electrical trade of the introduction 

 of the metric system at the present time, espe- 

 cially in those markets in which the British system 

 is at present in vogue, with the view of determining 

 whether the compulsory introduction of metrical 

 measures should be pressed for or resisted. It is hoped 



