8o 



M'^Mk. 



[MARdH I§, 1920- 



wijh , (pil, as in our Navy, or by cpal-dust, as used 

 by the Germans. 



^yorkinrt the guns with the ships at full speed, as 

 I have jiist stated, will be an additional protection, 

 while submarine craft will be more dangerous 

 operating ag^ainst fixed objects, such as harbour 

 defences, etc., in which case they could be detected 

 frpiTi the shore by submarine listening devices, such 

 as ipy liquid microphone. 



In closing this discourse, I should like to say that 

 a- good deal of credit is due to Anschutz for the 

 courage he displayed in being the first to attempt a 

 gyro-compass, knowing as he did the extremely feeble 

 force that is likely to result from the earth's rotation, 

 and in the fact that the instrument must be carried 

 on a rolling, pitching, plunging vessel. With us who 

 follow it is a question over again of Columbus and 

 the egg. For myself, if I had known at the com- 

 mencement of my acquaintance with the gyro-compass 

 — ^some five years ago — all the diflRculties that had to 

 be encountered, T think I should have abandoned the 

 pursuit. 



Notes. 



At the, meeting of the Royal Society on June 3 

 the Batcerian lecture will be delivered by Sir Ernest 

 Rutherford on "The Nuclear Constitution of the 



Atqrn." 



»SiR James Dewar has been elected a corresponding 

 membw of the French .Academy of Sciences in the 

 section ' of general physics in succession to the Inte 

 Prof, i P. Blaserna. 



'Th6 Institute of Research in Animal Nutrition at 

 A'Derde'eri has received a gift of io,oooZ. from Mr. 

 J! D. Rowett. The amount required from public 

 sources for the establishment of the institution is 

 25',.qboZ.' 



Mr, a. a. Campbell Swinton, during his presi- 

 dential address to the Wireless Society of London on 

 February 28, reviewed, with the aid of ex{>eriments, 

 advances in wireless telegraphy since 1914, and 

 received, in full view of the audience, messages from 

 Gen, Ferris in Paris and from the Slough station of 

 the JRadio Communication Co. These messages were 

 received, not on the usual external aerial, but on a 

 simple loop of wire standing on the lecture-table. 



iN'the course of a speech at a Conference of Pro- 

 viittcial and Suburban Wireless Societies, held on 

 Fe^ruaity 27 under the presidency of Sir Charles 

 Bright,! Capt. F. C. Loring announced that the Post 

 Office : is in favour of granting wireless licences of 

 about •10 ;watts where an amateur can prove that he 

 thoroughly understands the apparatus and is a pro- 

 ficient operator, and that his transmitting station is 

 to ;be; used for genuine experimental work and not 

 merely lor communication between other stations in 

 a general way. 



We are officially informed that Dr. Carlos Ameghino 

 las been appointed director of the National Museum 

 of Natural History, Buenos Aires, in succession to 

 Dr Angel Gallardo, who retired in 1916 to become 

 Minister of Education. The new director ■ is the 

 )rou'nger brother of the late Dr. Florentino Ameghino, 

 NO. 2629, VOL. 105] 



the distinguished, palaeontologist, who .held ithft'same 

 office from 1902 until his death in 1911. During the 

 e<'irlier part of his career Dr. Carlos Ameghino ex- 

 plored many parts of Patagonia and made t^e gre;at 

 collections of fossil vertebrate remains which >yere 

 studied and described by his brother. During, recent 

 years he has been interested in tjie evidence for the 

 association of man with extinct ma,mmals in 

 Argentina. 



The council of the Linnean Society has issued to 

 the fellows a statement of the present financial posi- 

 tion and outlook of the society, recommending them 

 to increase the annual contribution from 3L to 4Z. 

 The cost of publication is now so high that the Trans- 

 actions have already been suspended, and the Journal 

 is so much reduced that the issue of many valuable 

 papers has to be postponed for an indefinite time. 

 The due maintenance of the library and the prepara- 

 tion of an up-to-date catalogue are impossible in 

 existing circumstances, and all establishment charges 

 still tend to rise. If the difficulties appeared to be 

 temporary some of the small invested funds of the 

 society might be used, but as there is no prospect of 

 a return to former conditions an increased income is 

 absolutely essential. Nearly all the learned societies 

 are at present faced with similar problems, and the 

 time seems to have arrived when there should be some 

 action in common to consider the possibility of help 

 from public funds. 



The following are among the lecture arrangements 

 at the Royal Institution after Easter :— Major 

 G. W. C. Kaye, two lectures on recent advances in 

 X-ray work ; Prof. Arthur Keith, four lectures on 

 British ethnology: The Invaders of England; .Major 

 C. E. Inglis, two lectures on the evolution of large 

 bridge construction ; Mr. Sidney Skinner, two lectures 

 on (i) Ebullition and Evaporation, (2) The Tensile 

 Strength of Liquids ; Mr. R. Campbell Thompson, 

 two lectures on (i) The Origins of the Dwellers in 

 Mesopotamia, and (2) The Legends of the Baby- 

 lonians; Mr. A. P. Graves, two lectures on Welsh 

 and Irish folk-song- (with musical illustrations) ; Prof. 

 W. H. Eccles, two lectures on the thermionic vacuum 

 tube as detector, amplifier, and generator of elec- 

 trical oscillations; Prof. Frederic Harrison, two lec- 

 tures on (i) A Philosophical Synthesis as Proposed 

 by Auguste Comte, and (2) The Reaction and the 

 Critics of the Positivist School of Thought ; and Prof. 

 J. H. Jeans, two lectures on recent revolutions in 

 physical science, (1) The Theory of Relativity, and 

 (2) The Theory of Quanta (the Tyndall lectures). 

 The Friday evening meetings will be resurhed on 

 April 16, when Prof. J. A. McClelland will deliver a 

 discourse on iohs knd rtuclei. Succeeding discourses 

 will probably be giveh by Prof. H. Maxwell Lefroy, 

 Prof. F. O. Bower, the Right Hon. Lord Ravleigh, 

 Prof. Karl Pearson, Prof. J. A. Fleming, Prot \V. L. 

 Bragg, and other gehtlemen. 



One of the Industrial 5^esearch Associg^tion.s formed^ 

 in connection with the Department of Scienjtific pjtid , 

 Industrial Research is the British ^^npir^-' . Spgar 

 Research Association. . li the associa,tion , pjans its 



