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NATURE 



[August 5, 1920 



marine acoustics for the Electrical and Submarine 

 Committee of the British Board of Inventions. He 

 has been engaged for some time on important re- 

 searches on the efficiency of fog-signal machinery and 

 on the measurement and distribution of sound. 



In an illuminating article in the Times of July 29 

 Dr. Herbert Levinstein explains the close co-operation 

 of the German Government and the combine of the 

 German aniline . dye manufacturers known as the 

 " Interessen Gemeinschaft " or the "I.G.," which 

 enabled the German General Staff to provide large 

 quantities of high explosives and poison gases when 

 the need arose after the Battle of the Marne. Until 

 then the aniline dye factories had not been mobilised ; 

 they had continued their ordinary vocation of manu- 

 facturing dyes because the great accumulation of high 

 explosives by the Germans had been expected to over- 

 whelm the French in a short time. After the Marne, 

 however, there was an actual shortage of munitions 

 in Germany, and the vast resources of the dye fac- 

 tories were then requisitioned for the production of 

 further quantities of high explosives and of poison 

 gases. Whilst the varied collection of dye-making 

 plant in Germany could be immediately adapted for 

 this purpose, the special plant erected in this country 

 cannot so easily be utilised in the reverse direction, 

 and it is vitally necessary that we should possess 

 extensive plants for the manufacture of dyes compar- 

 able with those of the "I.G.," so that not only can 

 the necessary provision be made for any future war, 

 but also facilities for chemical research, which, in 

 chemical warfare and in the dye industry, can be 

 supported only by the industry itself, may be pro- 

 vided to enable us to maintain a premier position. 



We have now had an opportunity of examining at the 

 London office of Messrs. Barr and Stroud, Ltd. (15 Vic- 

 toria Street, S.W.i), the latest form of that remark- 

 able instrument devised by Dr. E. E. Fournier d'Albe 

 and perfected by Prof. Archibald Barr by which it is 

 possible for a blind man to read ordinary print by 

 listening to sounds in a telephone receiver. The ap- 

 paratus, which is called the optophone, was fully 

 described by the inventor in an article in Nature of 

 May 6 last, where the way in which, by the use 

 of selenium cells, a series of distinctive sounds is 

 produced as the "eye " of the instrument passes over 

 the letters was explained. To anyone who has not 

 tested the instrument it is difficult to believe in the 

 possibility of making the sound combinations suffi- 

 ciently distinctive for even a trained operator, blind or 

 otherwise, to recognise the different letters easily. A 

 few minutes' experimenting, however, is sufficient 

 to dispel all such doubts. After realising the prin- 

 ciples of the action, the present writer was, in one 

 or two cases, actually able to name correctly the 

 simpler letters at a first attempt, and there is no doubt 

 that a blind person could be trained to read with the 

 apparatus more easily than he could become expert in 

 picking up a wireless message in Morse. The way 

 in which the letter "w," for example, is represented 

 by beautiful little descending and ascending arpeggios 

 sung softly in one's ear, or a single harmonious chord 

 denotes an "i," is quite fascinating. The adjustments 

 NO. 2649, VOL. 105 I 



of the apparatus, although delicate, are not beyond 

 the powers of a blind reader of intelligence, and we 

 feel sure that the institutions (including St. Dunstan's 

 and others) which have already acquired these instru- 

 ments will find them appreciated by the sightless 

 readers whom they train. We have not the space to 

 direct further attention to the numerous littte 

 mechanical details which contribute so much to the 

 success of the instrument. It must suffice to say that 

 they are largely the result of long personal attention 

 by Prof. Barr himself, who had at his disposal the 

 unrivalled resources of the well-known firm of range- 

 finder manufacturers. 



Major W. E. Simnett has retired from the direction 

 and editorship of the Technical Review on his ap- 

 pointment to direct the Intelligence Branch of the 

 Ministry of Transport. 



The Harveian oration of the Royal College of 

 Physicians will be delivered by Sir Frederick Andrewes 

 on St. Luke's Day, October 18; the Horace Dobell 

 lecture by Sir William Leishman on November 2 ; the 

 Bradshaw lecture by Dr. R. C. B. Wall on Novem- 

 ber 4 ; and the FitzPatrick lectures on the History of 

 Medicine by Dr. E. G. Browne on November 9 and 11. 



According to a notice appearing in La Technique 

 Moderne for May, a French committee is now engaged 

 in the establishment of an institute for chemical re- 

 search as applied to industry. The idea is to create, 

 on the model of the Pasteur Institute and the large 

 American research institutes, a powerful scientific 

 organisation at which all kinds of researches of in- 

 terest to industry may be carried out. In addition to 

 founding the research institute at Paris, the committee 

 intends to provide the means to make grants on a 

 liberal scale to those workers who wish to carry out 

 their work in private laboratories. Missions will also 

 be sent abroad for the purpose of studying conditions 

 there. 



The use of the different species of woods and the 

 preference accorded to the various kinds in industry 

 are determined mainly by experience. In France 

 especially no methodical investigations have hitherto 

 been carried out on the various timbers grown in the 

 country. This want is now to be filled by the enter- 

 prise of the Administration des Eaux et Forets. A 

 series of researches will be undertaken by that Depart- 

 ment in consultation with the Technical Section of 

 the Aeronautics Department, dealing with the pro- 

 perties of native woods from the point of view of their 

 utilisation. The first-named Department will collect 

 samples of wood of known origin, and these will be 

 subjected to suitable mechanical tests by the Aero- 

 nautics Department. The results of the tests, together 

 with the specimens, will be sent to the research station 

 of the Nancy Forestry School. 



An important discussion on "The Present Positior* 

 of Vitamines in Clinical Medicine " was opened by 

 Prof. F. Gowland Hopkins at the eighty-eighth 

 annual meeting of the British Medical Association at 

 Cambridge. A full report of the proceedings will be 

 found in the British Medical Journal for Julv 31. 

 Prof. Hopkins said that he deplored the scepticism 



