486 



NATURE 



[January 8. 1920 



trv, thu effect of price-fixing had always been, and in- 

 evitably would be, the creation of a scarcity of the 

 article the price of which was fixed ; and moreover, the 

 regulation of the price of any one coifimodity would 

 necessitate the application of similar control to every 

 link in the chain of production of that article. The only 

 way to maintain an adequate supply of capital and 

 sufficient production under a system of fixed prices 

 was to institute complete State control of all produc- 

 tion and distribution, but this was impracticable. His 

 remed}', therefore, was, while refraining from any 

 control of prices, to apply publicity to costs and profits 

 by means of profiteering tribunals. 



Dr. J. C. Stamp was also on the track of the pro- 

 fiteer, but rather with the aim of making up the 

 deficit in the national reveriue. For this purpose he be- 

 lieved a substantial increase in the income- and super- 

 taxes would result either in a hindrance to the accu- 

 mulation of capital or in a great addition to working- 

 class burdens, and was therefore inadvisable. Nor did 

 he argue for the lew on capital, which would fail, he 

 beiieved, to bring about distributive justice. His solu- 

 tion of I he problem lay in the taxation of the profits 

 of all businesses in excess, not of their own pre-war 

 profits, but of a normal rate of interest on capital. He 

 believed that in this way it would be possible to reach 

 those businesses which, through good fortune, received 

 abnormal profits, and therefore had a high capacity 

 for bearing taxation without ill-effects to the com- 

 munity. 



The elimination of the gold standard during the war 

 destroyed the system under which gold and credit were 

 interchangeable, and wrecked the stability of the 

 sy.stem of debts based on the gold unit. The gold 

 standard, Mr. R. G. Hawtrey maintained, must be 

 restored, but this must be done with judgment. The 

 business community was hostile to deflation through 

 fear of contraction of trade ; the sudden re-introduc- 

 tion of the gold unit and the reduction of the value of 

 paper below its face value involved an increase in the 

 burden of debts, which would bring serious difficulties ; 

 and the reduction of the gold value of the monetary 

 unit beiow its former nominal value was open to the 

 imputation that public faith had been broken. His 

 argument was that to make possible an unvarying 

 gold currency unit, without which the stability of debts 

 was impossible, it was necessary that the demand for 

 gold currency should be kept as steady as possible. For 

 this purpose, international co-operation was required, 

 with the object of stabilising the general level of prices 

 as measured by index numbers, and of regulating the 

 actual amount of note issue in each country. Such 

 international co-operation need not be universal ; the 

 inclusion of the financially strong countries .would be 

 sufficient ; and this could be begun so soon as the 

 Anglo-American exchange could be brought to par. 



ENGINEERING AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 



A T none of the meetings of the British Association 

 -'*■ in recent years have such large numbers been 

 attracted to the Engineering Section as at Bourne- 

 mouth during the meeting in .September last. Not only 

 was the hall in which the meetings were held uncom- 

 fortably crowded almost throughout the whole of the 

 proceedings, but on the last day many members were 

 unable to gain admission. This was probably due to 

 the fact that many of the papers were of a popular 

 and descriptive nature, and dealt with matters of 

 great interest in connection with the war. The 

 authors in all cases were leading authorities who 

 had been mainly responsible for the development of 

 NO. 2619, VOL. 104] 



the special branches with which their papers dealt. 

 The British Association, being for the purpose of the 

 advancement of science among the general public, 

 should encourage this type of paper rather than the 

 highly specialised technical type which is better suited 

 for the variovis learned and technical societies. 



Prof. Petavel's presidential address was followed by 

 the report of the Committee on Complex Stress. This 

 report embodied six important papers by members of 

 the committee, viz. the strength of tubular struts ; 

 stresses in aeroplane wing frameworks ; the soap- 

 film method of stress estimation ; eccentric loading ; 

 effect of low-frequency alternations of tensile strength ; 

 and the strain energy function and the elastic limit. 

 A summary of the work was given by Prof. Coker 

 and Dr. Haigh. 



Of the three papers read on the Wednesday, the 

 first was " An Account of the British Tanks Used 

 in the War" by Sir R. H. Tennvson-d'Evncourt, 

 the Director of Naval Construction, who traced 

 the history of these devices from the war chariots of 

 the ancients, through the one horse-power one-man 

 " tank " of the Battle of Hastings, viz. the knight in 

 armour, down to the highly developed vehicle which 

 proved such a valuable ally to our infantry during 

 the great war. The author dealt frankly with the 

 thorny questions concerning the development of the 

 Tanks from the time that they were first proposed 

 to Mr. Churchill until they appeared on the Somme 

 in September, 1916. The various types were ex- 

 plained and the reasons given for the successive 

 modifi.cations. 



Prof. Inglis read a paper on portable military 

 bridges, describing in detail the type of bridge with 

 which his name is associated, and which proved so 

 valuable in the final advance of our armies on the 

 Western front. In connection with this paper a 

 demonstration was given at the Christchurch bridging 

 centre on the same Wednesday afternoon, when Inglis 

 bridges of various types were constructed and used to 

 convev Tanks across the river. The final paper on that 

 day was by Mr. R. J. Walker, entitled " The Develop- 

 ment of Geared Turbines for the Propulsion of 

 Ships," in which the great advantages obtained by 

 the substitution of turbines for reciprocating engines 

 were clearly shown. 



Thursday morning (September 11) was devoted to 

 aeronautics, and opened with a paper on airships 

 by Wing-Comdr. Cave-Browne-Cave, who discussed 

 the questions of rigid and non-rigid types, fabric 

 materials, gases, fire risk, etc. Mr. Bairstow, of the 

 National Physical Laboratory, traced the progress of 

 the scientific development of aviation during the war, 

 and explained the various instruments devised for 

 the investigation of the stresses on the aeroplane 

 structure during various evolutions, and also of the 

 inherent stabilitv of aeroplanes when uncontrolled by 

 the pilot. It would appear that although the factor 

 of safety is ample for normal flight, it is reduced to 

 a very small margin by unskilful handling in the air, 

 and no aeroplane has' vet been devised which could 

 not be crumpled in the air bv suitable mishandling. 

 Col. Tizard dealt with the problem of the reduction 

 of engine performance at a great height to a standard 

 pressure, density, and temperature; at present this 

 reduction involves a great deal of uncertainty. _ Prof. 

 Brvan gave a summary of investigations \vhich he 

 has carried out on the sound emitted by air-screws 

 when running with tip speeds exceeding the velocity 

 of sound. Under such conditions the sounds emitted 

 at various parts of the revolution reach the ear simul- 

 taneously and give rise to unpleasant sensations. 

 Capt. Rolleston West read an interesting paper on 

 the application of air-brakes to aeroplanes so as to 



