November 22, 1917] 



NATURE 



231 



locally grown pulses, e.g. pigeon-peas, black-eye peas, 

 lima, and bonavist beans, to bring the nutrient ratio 

 of these more starchy products up to the desired 

 standard. Action upon these lines is recommended, 

 and a proposal is put forward for the establishment of a 

 factory, or factories, for converting the locally grown 

 raw materials into non-perishable and marketable pro- 

 ducts. The same number of the bulletin contains also 

 papers by Mr. R. O. Williams and Mr. H. Meaden, 

 in which more detailed information on the various 

 suggested flour substitutes is given. 



Since the war began it has become apparent that the 

 resources of the Empire in food and raw materials have 

 not hitherto been used to meet the needs of the Empire 

 itself to anything like the extent that is desirable. 

 Rice is a striking example of this state of things. 

 Thus India, which produces (principally from Burma) 

 about 40 per cent, of the world's exportable surplus 

 of rice, distributed its exports in 1913-14 in the follow- 

 ing proportions : to British countries 426 per cent., 

 to foreign countries 574 per cent. The gro^s imports 

 into the British Empire were little less than the total 

 exports of rice from India, so that it would be quite 

 possible to find a market within the Empire for nearly 

 all the rice India can spare for export. While this 

 country occupied a relatively unimportant position as a 

 direct importer of rice from India, it imported con- 

 siderable quantities of rice from Holland and Ger- 

 many, which had been first exported from India to 

 those countries, and, after being milled and polished 

 there, had been re-exported to England. It is clear 

 that there is much leeway to make up in the way of 

 developing inter-Imperial trade in food and raw mate- 

 rials. In the new number of the Bulletin of the 

 Imperial Institute is published an exhaustive article 

 on the "Production and Uses of Rice" (British litera- 

 ture on which subject has hitherto been practically 

 non-existent), which, it is hoped, will assist in that 

 direction. It gives precise information as to the pre- 

 sent production of rice throughout the world and the 

 demand for this grain within the Empire, the general 

 tendencies of the trade, the directions in which markets 

 should be sought, and various uses to which rice is 

 freely applied in certain countries, though not, as 

 yet, within the Empire. 



In a paper on the testing and standardisation of 

 motor fuel, read at the Institution of Petroleum Tech- 

 nologists on October 16, Mr. E. L. Lomax described an 

 improvement of the Engler process for determining 

 the degree of volatility of motor fuels. The method 

 consists essentially in the adaptation of a jacketed 

 ■dephlegmator column to the usual apparatus, and is 

 designed to givfe results similar to those obtained by 

 the original method of distillation, but with greater 

 rapidity and easier manipulation. In connection with 

 this subject attention is directed to /the gradual 

 change in the composition of motor-spirits correspond- 

 ing with the development of motor engines during the 

 last decade. Whereas formerly the average proportion 

 of these spirits volatile below 100° C. was about 60 

 to 70 per cent., it is now only about 20 to 40 per cent., 

 with a correspondingly greater proportion of higher 

 boiling hydrocarbons. This is important, since it 

 means that motor engines have been so improved that 

 they can utilise more of the heavier fractions of 

 petroleum than formerly ; the present-day automobile 

 engine will run quite well on spirit which would have 

 given much trouble with the engine of earlier days. 

 It is for motor engineers to see that the engine of the 

 future will run well on even a less volatile mixture 

 than that now employed. The world's supplv of 

 petroleum products suitable for use in internal-corribus- 

 tion engines is strictly limited, and development on 

 the lines indicated is one of the means by which the 



NO. 2508, VOL. 100] 



petroleum industry may be enabled to meet the grow- 

 ing demands. At the present time it is a waste of 

 valuable products to use spirit containing an unduly 

 large percentage of the more volatile compounds for 

 road and water vehicles, as these light fractions assist 

 the vaporisation of heavier hydrocarbons which are not 

 by themselves satisfactory fuels for internal-combustion 

 I engines, but which can be used for the purpose when 

 i mixed with X\\e lighter fractions. Thus utilised, they 

 I serve greatly to increase the available supplies of motor 

 ^ fuel. 



j Althox;gh the calls made on the services of the 

 j National Physical Laboratory for work connected with 

 1 the war during the past two }'ears have been excep- 

 j tionally heavy, the appearance of vol. xiii. of the 

 I Collected Researches of the Laboratory shows that 

 research work has not been neglected. The volume 

 i extends to 300 pages, and includes researches from the 

 Froude tank, the engineering, metallurgical, optical, 

 and magnetic departments. More than naif the total 

 number deal with optical questions of vital importance 

 to the instrument-maker. Some of these describe new 

 methods which instrument-makers have already 

 adopted, while others provide material for future use. 

 A paper on tests of fuel oils made for the Royal Com- 

 mission on Oil Fuels by Messrs. Pannel and Higgins 

 appears not to have been published previously. It deals 

 with the flow of Mexican, Texas, Trinidad, and Scotch 

 shale oils, and of mixtures of them through pipes of 

 various diameters, and shows that the pressure head 

 necessary to give a prescribed flow can be determined 

 by the expression which has been shown to hold for 

 the flow of water or air through pipes of different 

 diameters. The viscosities, densities, and flash points 

 of the above oils, and of Borneo, Persian, and Kimr 

 meridge shale oils, and of their mixtures, were also 

 investigated, and the advantages of certain mixtures 

 are pointed out. 



ha Nature for October 27 gives some particulars 

 of the Institute of Applied Hydraulics which has re- 

 cently been inaugurated by the University of Padua. 

 The new institute is situate at Stra, on the Padua- 

 Venice tram route. A villa has been taken and con- 

 j verted into laboratories, which are provided with the 

 usual equipment, lecture-rooms, etc. Facing the build- 

 ing is a long canal, which has been transformed into 

 an experimental tank, along which runs the electric- 

 ally driven carriage. The tank is 200 metres long, 

 10-75 me'tres wide at the surface, and 35 metres deep- 

 Researches have already been carried out in the tank 

 on the flow of water in tubes of various cross-sections 

 and diameters under constant or slowly varying pres- 

 sures, the motion of water in forced conduits such as are 

 used in hydraulic plants, and so on. A tower specially 

 erected near the main building produces a head of 

 water for experimental purposes, e.g. determining the 

 influence of change of shape of pipe and the nature 

 of its walls, and the strength of materials used in 

 structural work. Investigations are at present in hand 

 on the value of the instruments used for measuring flow, 

 such as Pitot tubes and the Woltmann mill, and the 

 influence of their length, depth of immersion, etc., on 

 the accuracy of measurement. The new Hydro-tech- 

 nical Institute will publish a bulletin periodically 

 setting forth researches undertaken, together with the 

 results attained. The institute will also keep in close 

 touch with the Hydrographic Department at Venice, 

 and thus be able to supply any information required 

 bearing on the protection of that city from floods and 

 the study of the lagoons along the Adriatic. 



The whirling of shafts has occupied flie attention of 

 many engineers during recent years, and a series of 

 articles by Mr. II. .\. \Vebb, which appears in Engineer- 



