H 



NATURE 



[March 4, 1920 



The pencil outline of a drawings on the top of ink 

 in another of Hogarth's note-books is also 

 in typical graphite. The lines in the drawings of 

 a later volume of Stowe MSS. (993), about 1747, 

 show fine "interrupted striae, such as are frequently 

 noticeable in the marks made by pure graphite. 

 In "Heraldic Collections" (Stowe MS. 661) of 

 1763-64 the pigment in the drawings of the coats- 

 of-arms is also in graphite, and shows the fibres 

 of the paper lit up by adherent particles. An inter- 

 esting example of graphite markings is to be seen 

 in a letter from Prof. Herrmann (1780) from Stras- 

 bourg (Add. MS. 22,935, fol. 140b). This contains 

 a pencil drawing of a fish, in which the pigment 

 has formed branching striations along the lines 

 of the paper fibres. 



Flaxman was in the habit of making drawings 

 on the backs of the envelopes of letters received 

 by him at Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, and 

 a series of these, dating from about 1800 to 1814, 

 is preserved in the British Museum. In every 

 instance the pigment in these drawings is typical 

 of pure graphite, and even interrupted striations 

 are only of exceptional occurrence. 



In view of the fact that Cont^'s composite clay 

 process was invented in 1795 in Paris, it is inter- 

 esting to note that a card sent to Flaxman by 

 the painter Fleury Epinat, of Lyons, between 



1805 and 1814 was written with a pencil produc- 

 ing the characteristic fine regular beaded striations 

 of the modern type of pencil. This is the first 

 instance noted of the occurrence of writing in a 

 composition pigment in the MSS. in the Museum. 



Of the other manuscripts and drawings of the 

 early nineteenth century, mention may be made 

 of a letter of Byron (about 1809) which is written 

 in a particularly brilliant graphite, and of the 

 pencil corrections made by Keats (about 1820) in 

 his manuscript of "Hyperion," which are also in 

 pure graphite. The same characteristics of rich 

 pigment deposit, showing only scanty, irregular, 

 broken striations, may also be seen in a letter of 

 Lord Wellesley written about 1828. 



The manufacture of graphite pencils by the 

 original method of cutting from the block was 

 continued until about 1869, overlapping the 

 modern process ; but, as the old pencils must have 

 been widely distributed, it is not surprising that 

 the characteristics of pure graphite are frequently 

 to be found in writing, and especially in drawings, 

 for several years after that date. Hence it is 

 quite in accordance with the development of the 

 industry that the note-book of James Thomson, 

 the author of "The City of Dreadful Night," 

 for the year 1869 should be written with a pencil 

 which produced no silvery striations. 



The Relationship of Education to Research in Aeronautics. 



'T^HE relation of education to research is a 

 -*- simple one in most fields of scientific work, 

 in that the universities provide both one and the 

 other. This simplicity cannot, however, extend to 

 the subject of aeronautics, because the cost of 

 experimentation is so great and the organisation 

 required so complex. In the future the universi- 

 ties may perhaps be equipped even for this exten- 

 sion of their activities, but at the present time, and 

 for many years to come, the experimental work 

 will in general be beyond their means. The 

 Government, however, for its own sake, needs 

 to continue to carry on aeronautical research, and 

 the question naturally arises : What are to be the 

 relations between the Government research estab- 

 lishments and the university teaching establish- 

 ments? The Committee appointed in October, 

 1918, by Lord Weir to advise on this matter has 

 now reported, and its recommendation is to merge 

 the staffs undertaking these two classes of work. 

 At the present time it is scarcely practicable or 

 wise to found more than one school of aeronautics, 

 and the Committee selects the Imperial College of 

 Science as its home, suggesting that the staff of 

 the school should for the most part be composed 

 of those members of the Government research 

 establishments who are best qualified for the 

 work, and can be permitted to spend part of their 

 time at the Imperial College. 



The Committee also provides that the Advisory 



Committee for Aeronautics should come to an end, 



and that its former powers should — with certain 



additions — be made over to a new body, the Aero- 



NO. 2627, VOL. 105] 



nautical Research Committee. The Advisory Com- 

 mittee has had a very distinguished history. Its 

 composition was mainly non-official, and it became 

 a watchful and highly independent body able 

 and ready to intervene in any matter where it 

 thought such intervention was required. With the 

 many reorganisations of Air Service matters 

 during the war, whether relating to the R.N.A.S., 

 the R.F.C., the Air Board, the Air Ministry, or 

 the R.A.F., it became the one continuously 

 operating body, and rendered services to the 

 State of a value which can be realised only by 

 those who kept in touch with its wide activities. 

 The Education and Research Committee endeav- 

 ours to pay tribute to the Advisory Committee, 

 and it must have had some diflRculty in finding 

 words appropriate to the occasion. 



It seems that the Government took definite 

 decisions some six months ago that an Aero- 

 nautical Research Committee should be created to 

 replace the existing Advisory Committee; that, in 

 addition, research work should be undertaken by 

 a Research Association to be formed by the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 

 on the usual terms, if the industry should so 

 desire ; and that the Imperial College should be 

 the educational centre (although applications from 

 provincial universities for grants would be con- 

 sidered). The Committee, taking note of these 

 decisions, suggests that the new Aeronautical 

 Research Committee (A.R.C.) should supervise 

 both research and education. Any plan for the 

 supervision of research needs to take into account 



