March ii, 1920] 



NATURE 



57 



txist for philanthropic purposes. But the first rear 

 of peace has been a disappointment. Building opera- 

 tions, which form a very large part of the activities 

 assisted by the Trust, are kept back because buiMinii 

 is now so costly. The outstanding obligations 

 already undertaken by the Trust are sufficient 

 to absorb the greater part of the available income 

 during the next five years. It is evident that further 

 sums will be required to supplement grants already 

 made for building libraries. The' committee is, there- 

 fore, disinclined to consider new requests for grants 

 in aid of library building. The committee considers 

 that the assistance given to rural library schemes is 

 among the most important and satisfactory of the 

 Trust's activities. Under these schemes a box con- 

 taining fifty books is sent to a small town or village 

 and there used as a lending librarv until, the books 

 having been read, it is time to exchange them for a 

 fresh supply. Reports from those in charge of rural 

 centres show that the scheme reallv provides a means 

 for spreading education in thinly 'populated districts. 

 The Carnegie Trust has made "a grant towards the 

 maintenance of the School of Librarianshio rece>itlv 

 established at University College, London. The 

 highly trained students who pass through this school 

 should do much to make our libraries more useful. 

 The committee of the Carnegie Trust also reoorts on 

 the part it has taken in physical welfare 'schemes 

 and in the promotion of music. 



An appeal has just been issued by the University 

 of London through its Military Education Committee 

 inviting subscriptions to the war memorial which it 

 is proposed to raise to the former officers and cadets 

 of the University of London Officers Training Corps 

 who have fallen in the war. The services reridered 

 by the Officers Training Corps during the war are 

 too little known or appreciated. When war broke 

 out the cadets came forward practically as one man, 

 and to their heroism and the unremitting labours 

 (often in the teeth of great discouragement and diffi- 

 culties) of their pre-war instructors we owe the fact 

 that what might have proved a most dangerous gap 

 in the supply of officers during the earlier part of the 

 war was successfully bridged. The record of the 

 University of London contingent appears to be second 

 to none. The number of past and present officers and 

 cadets who served in the war as officers is 4197, 

 of whom we have to deplore the loss of no fewer than 

 6.!57. The number of distinctions gained is i6i;o, in- 

 cluding five V.C.'s (the only two surviving V.C.'s, 

 Major Cloutman and Major White, both graduates 

 of the University, are honorary secretaries of the 

 appeal). In particular the gratitude of Londoners 

 must go out to Major Sowrey, who brought down a 

 Zeppelin in flames, and later a Gotha aeroplane. 

 The scheme is to include a memorial in London, and, 

 in addition, a permanent hall in connection with the 

 new standing camp of the University of London 

 O.T.C. at Great Kimble, near Princes Risborough, 

 where special memorials to individuals may be out 

 up, of which the first will commemorate' Lt.-Col. 

 Arthur Egerton, Coldstream Guards, the first adiutant 

 of the contingent, whom all the original officers and 

 cadets mourn as a personal friend. The appeal com- 

 mittee is a strong one, and includes many honoured 

 names outside the University itself — in particular, those 

 of Marshal Foch and of Field-Mnrshals Lord French 

 and Sir Henry Wilson. It is to be hoped that every 

 patriotic person who realises the part played by the 

 British universities in the great national struggle and 

 the importance of maintaining this splendid tradition 

 will contribute £*enerously tow'ards the 30,000/. asked 

 for. Contributions should be sent to the hon. 

 treasurer at 46 Russell Square, London, W.C.i. 



NO. 2628, VOL. IO5I 



Societies and Academies. 



London. 

 Royal Society, February 26.-Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 president, in the chair.— L. F. Richardson: Some 

 measurements of atmospheric turbulence. The eddy- 

 shearing stress on the ground is deduced from pilot- 

 balloon observations. Values on land in any con- 

 sistent dynamical units are found to range from 

 00007 to 0007 times the value of »nVp, where m is 

 the mean momentum per volume up to a height of 

 2 km. and p is the density. Evidence is given to 

 show that the eddy viscosity across the wind at 

 Lindenberg increases |. with height, and, except near 

 the ground, is much, greater than the eddy viscosity 

 along the wind. In parts iv. and v. the spreading of 

 a lamina of smoke is considered. Osborne Reynolds's 

 eddy stresses are studied. For one occasion an 

 attempt was made to measure simultaneously all six 

 components of stress by observing the motion of 

 thistledown. The three direct stresses are easily 

 measured. Not so the shearing stresses ; however, 

 one was found to be 24 times its probable error. 

 The theory of the scattering of particles is summarised, 

 and numerical values are derived from scattering. The 

 " turbulivity " ^ is estimated from the rising cumuli 

 in calm weather and found to be 10*, applicable only 

 in the sense of friction. Thus the whole range of f 

 observed in the free atmosphere was from seven to 

 a million, in contrast with 02 in perfectly still air. 

 The eddy stresses observed have ranged in absolute 

 value from 0004 to no dynes cm-"^. — J. H. Hyde : 

 The viscosities and compressibilities of liquids at high 

 pressure. In the first place, experiments were made 

 to determine the change in the value of the 

 kinematical viscosity (ty/p) of the various oils, and 

 after this investigation was completed apparatus was 

 designed for the determination of the change in 

 density with pressure. The apparatus used for the 

 determination of the kinematical viscosity consisted 

 essentially of a system of two horizontal (the upper 

 one of capillary dimensions) and two vertical tubes 

 forming a closed circuit of liquor under pressure, the 

 lower half of the circuit containing mercury and the 

 upper half the liquid under test. One end of the 

 tubular frame rests on a horizontal knife-edge, and 

 the frame is supported in a horizontal position by a 

 spiral spring. On the mercury being displaced by 

 a given amount, flow will take place round the circuit 

 owing to the difi'erence of head, and it is evident that 

 if the spring be so designed that its rate of extension 

 is equal to the rate of change of head of the mercury, 

 flow of the liquid under test will take place through 

 the capillary tube under a constant pressure-difl"erence 

 and at a velocity which can be calculated from the 

 rate of extension of the spring. In this way all the 

 data required for the determination of the absolute 

 kinematic viscosity of the fluid were determined. 

 The determinations of the variation in density under 

 pressure were made bv measuring the decrease in 

 volume of known quantity of the liquid enclosed in a 

 steel cylinder sealed at one end and closed at the 

 other by a long steel plunger. The cylinder and 

 plunger were enclosed in a pressure vessel and the 

 motion of the plumper for any particular pressure was 

 measured. The density was calculated from the 

 decrease in the volume thus measured. From the 

 values of the density (o) and those of the kinematical 

 viscosity (n/p) obtained for the oils, the values of the 

 absolute viscosity (r\) were calculated. The results 

 show that the absolute viscosity of all the oils tested 

 increases considerably with pressure.- — .A. Russell : 

 The capacity coefficients of spherical conductors. ^ It 

 is proved that tTie capacity coeffici< nt nf a spherical 



