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partners to consent to the scrapping of inefficient 

 plant and the substitution of improved appliances. 

 A man of great energy, he was ready at all times 

 to work twenty-five hours a day for several days 

 togethe;. He long lived on the works in the most 

 modest quarters and his all-seeing eyes were 

 everywhere. In Germany the success of the great 

 chemical works has been mainly due to the effec- 

 tive co-operation of a variety of workers, repre- 

 senting the different sides of the business, sup- 

 ported by a small army of highly disciplined, 

 qualified scientific assistants; but Messel did 

 everything himself : his versatility was astound- 

 ing; he was not only chemist but also engineer, 

 works manager and business man ; he had no 

 scientific staff but only an assistant or two. 



Though a German but a German fifed with 

 Jewish imagination, Messel appreciated and prac- 

 tised English methods. Aided only by the most 

 modest resources, he long held his place success- 

 fully against his rivals in Germany. Probably much 

 of his early success was due to his sympathetic 

 attitude towards his workmen, by whom he was 

 generally beloved ; but Messel was not only a 

 worker, he also played hard. In great social 

 request, he knew everyone : Gilbert was one of 

 his great friends. Of late years Messel had been 

 one of the most familiar and popular figures at the 

 Savage Club. 



Messel 's eminent scientific services to industry 

 were recognised in 191 2 by his election into the 

 Royal Society. No other compliment could have 

 given him greater satisfaction. Though a manu- 

 facturer, he lived for science and in the atmo- 

 sphere of science and not the least of his merits 

 is the example he has thus set. H. E. A. 



Prof. A. K. Huntington. 



By the regretted death, on April 17, at sixty-four 

 years of age, of Prof. Alfred Kirby Huntington 

 so shortly after relinquishing the chair of metal- 

 lurgy at King's College, University of London, 

 which he had occupied since 1879, British tech- 

 nical science loses one of its old guard, and both 

 metallurgy and aviation are the poorer by the loss 

 of an indefatigable worker and an outstanding 

 personality. 



Though it be admitted that Prof. Huntington's 

 name is linked with no spectacular discovery, his 

 work, beyond • its professional duties, was con- 

 tinuous, scholarly, and of marked originalitv. In 

 both respects he therefore exercised a determinative 

 moulding influence upon the two generations of 

 men he trained in this rapidly widening field of 

 science. His career, indeed, coincided with what 

 we may justly regard as the Renaissance of non- 

 ferrous metallurgy. For nearly forty years he 

 was invariably abreast, more usually in the fore- 

 front, of the many new departures which have 

 marked it. A physicist as well as a chemist, his 1 

 researches on the micro-structure of metals and ' 

 on "corrosion" have added essentially to our J 

 metallographic knowledge; his paper on "The 

 NO. 2635, VOL. 105] 



Concentration of Metaltifei-ous Sulphides by Pk>t»- ' • 

 tion," read before^he Paraday Society in igbjg^ >o- 

 broke ground which has been gratefully cultivated ^'^ 

 by others, and provided the starting-point lor-' ' 

 fresh researches; whilst in the discussion of such 

 diverse technics as those of copper'SrrieUfmg, 

 cyanidation, nickel metallurgy, etc., many have; 

 owed essential enlightenment to his suggestions and 

 criticisms, imparted with a kindly, if somewhat 

 gruff, sententiousness. ;;■ ■ • 



Prof. Huntington rendered yeoman service tn *-' ' 

 the earlier development of severial of our now 

 important technical associations ; thus one recalls 

 his two papers (upon "The Mexican Amalgama- ' 

 tion Process" and "The Metallurgy of Nickel and 

 Cobalt ") which were read at the first annual meet-i ' 

 ing of the Society of Chemical Industry in 1882. " 

 Later he was actively interested in the formation ' " 

 of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy!.' 

 becoming its second president in 1894, and 

 remaining an honoured member of council until 

 his death. The mere enumeration of his con- 

 tributions to its Transactions occupies a whole 

 page of index. In 191 3 he succeeded to the presi- 

 dential chair of the Institute of Metals, and to 

 that society he gave of his energy and experience 

 with equal freedom. During the war his special- 

 ised knowledge of high explosives was placed at 

 the disposal of, and fully utilised by, the 

 Admiralty. 



A marked characteristic of Prof. Huntington's 

 metallurgical outlook was its practicality and its 

 constant insistence upon the economic aspect of 

 the problem under consideration. His motto 

 might seem to have been : " First write your equa- 

 tion in economics, and the remaining 20 per cent, 

 of technics will be easily and better supplied 

 thereafter " — though it must be admitted that he 

 could be unsparing if that balance appeared faulty ! 



Prof. Huntington's intense practical interest in 

 aeronautics, which advancing years were power- 

 less to quench (since, in addition to his exploits 

 in ballooning, he was until quite recently his own 

 pilot and flew his own 'plane), made him famous 

 to a wide circle ; but it is to his services to modern 

 metallurgy that special tribute is due. 



Dr. a. J, Chalmers. 



The death of Dr. A, J. Chalmers in Calcutta on 

 April 5 causes a gap in the ranks of British 

 workers in tropical medicine, and will also be 

 deeply regretted' by his many friends in this 

 country, as well as in the various Colonies in which 

 he held important posts. The son of a Wesleyan 

 minister, Dr. Chalmers was born in London in 

 1870, but began his career at University College, 

 Liverpool, which at that time formed part of 

 Victoria University. His career in the Medical 

 School during his student days was brilliant, and 

 it was soon apparent that he had a bright future 

 before him. He gained the Holt fellowship of 

 his college in 1890 and 1891, and obtained 

 honours on taking his degree ias M.D. Soon afte; 



