270 



NATi/RB 



I April 29. 1920 



advan<«?^€ of thie iree.use ,Qf , laboratodes, a,nd 

 special professorial lectures. Our artillery will 

 then t>e able to thraw off th€ badge of second class 

 and idaim to take the rank of first class again. 



A cadet military college can only carry on the 

 initial stage of the education of the artillery officer, 

 and for that it is better for him not to be isolated 

 too early from the other military branches. Many , 

 a scheme for the amalgamation of the military 

 colleges will be found pigeon-holed in the War 

 Office, awaiting the pressure required to be 

 exerted on the opportunist. The artillery could 

 then make its selection from the whole list of 

 Army candidates, and with proper prestige secure 

 the pick of the bunch. It would not then have to 

 submit, as at present, to put up with the leavings 

 of the Royal Engineers, and to be branded as 

 second class. 



The pick of the officers, after some military 

 service, ^yould be selected for a further course 

 at oiiir equivalent of the Berlin Military Technical 

 Academy, where neither indolence nor apathy was 

 tolerated, but stigmatised as bad form, so I was 

 informed. Here they would find a standard of uni- 



versity rank, in a centre of keen intcUeqtual 

 activity. 



But the atmosphere of all Woolwich is close 

 and ill-ventilated. Throw open the window, and 

 let in air and light! The Royal Military 

 Academy there is unhealthy, physically as 

 well as mentally, seated on the safety-valve 

 of the main drainage of all South London. 

 The buildings are antiquated and worn-out, 

 fit only to be mined and blown up at the 

 moon, and then a more healthy atmosphere, 

 physical and intellectual, might be formed. With 

 the solidarity of any other trade union, Woolwich 

 strongly opposed dilution. But Dilution proved 

 the best material, and carried the war to a suc- 

 cessful conclusion, and so the insidious efforts at 

 his elimination in peace must be watched care- 

 fully, and countered by a plentiful entry of 

 university candidates from the outside. 



The country will never cease to shiver at the 

 recollection of our narrow escape from defeat and 

 utter ruin, and will listen to no specious political 

 views of opportunist economy likely to place us 

 again in a state of military inferiority. 



Obituary, 



Dr. Rudolph Messel, F.R.S. 



DR. R. MESSEL died on Sunday, April 18, in 

 his seventy-third year. Death came to him 

 as a happy release but to a large circle of friends 

 familiar with his social qualities and many acts of 

 unostentatious generosity the loss is severe and 

 will be deeply mourned. He had long been one of 

 the most notable of our chemical manufacturers as 

 pioneer founder of a most important industry, for 

 he was the first to produce sulphuric anhydride 

 from its elements on a large scale. 



Messel was born in Darmstadt and came to this 

 country, at the conclusion of his university career, 

 shortly before the Franco-Prussian War ; when 

 this broke out he returned to Germany and volun- 

 teered for service but owing to a physical dis- 

 ability, I believe, he was drafted into the 

 Army Service Corps and was wounded while 

 on ambulance duty. He lost no time in return- 

 ing to England and became assistant to the 

 late Dr. Squire, a mah of considerable 

 ability and originality. Messel had qualified at 

 Tubingen as a chemist under Strecker, who natur- 

 ally took an interest in the then infant alizarin 

 industry, as he had worked with alizarin. Strecker 

 iforesaw the important part that fuming sulphuric 

 acid was to play in the industry and directed 

 Messel's attention to the fact, suggesting that he 

 might well seek to supply the want. Messel, 

 therefore, was fully conversant with what had 

 been done and when Squire, possessed of the 

 same idea as Strecker, suggested to his assistant 

 that he should set to work on the subject, he was 

 soon ready with a process, having at once resorted 

 NO. 2635, VOL. 105] 



to the use of platinum as a catalyst in order to 

 bring about the interaction of sulphur dioxide 

 with atmospheric oxygen, 



A patent was taken out by Squire in 1875 and 

 he and Messel described their process in a paper 

 read to the Chemical Society early in 1876; but 

 this was not published. Their works were erected 

 at Silvertown, on the Thames ; the manufactur- 

 ing process was rapidly developed through 

 Messel's skill and intense devotion to his task. 

 Not alone were English wants soon met but a 

 considerable quantity of the acid was supplied to 

 the German colour-makers. The Badische Anilin- 

 & Soda-Fabrik was led largely to develop the 

 manufacture of the acid in connection with the 

 production of synthetic indigotin ; but the 

 " splash " this firm made in 1900, when it pub- 

 lished the results of its experiments in consider- 

 able detail, was unwarranted. Practically every- 

 thing essential then put forward had long been 

 a matter of everyday practice with Messel. Had 

 not commercial considerations prevailed, he might 

 well have upset the patents ; but he was ever a 

 man of peace, as well as a modest man, so he 

 made no attempt to claim the credit that was his 

 due. He acquired the German patents at a 

 I peppercorn price but his former countrymen never 

 had the honesty to do him public justice. 



The writer was a frequent visitor at Silvertown 

 in early days and was always impressed by the 

 remarkably systematic manner in which the works 

 were operated. Messel was ever on the look-out 

 for improvements and ever ready to make them. 

 His chief trial in later years was the difficulty he 

 experienced in persuading his conservative British 



