February 5, 1920] 



NATURE 



597 



observed growing, there the issuing gases or en- 

 crustants contained ammonia ; while, conversely, an 

 active area not supporting algae proved to have no 

 trace of ammonia in its emanations or encrustants. 



In connection with the presence of hydrofluoric 

 acid, the deposits of sulphates, such as alum, are 

 very significant. Potassium alum, appearing as 

 lichen-like growths after every rainfall, covered the 

 surface of the ash over many of the areas of activity. 

 Sulphuric acid is a strong disintegrating agent, and 

 its presence in the emanations gives a key to the 

 formation of hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acids, for 

 sulphuric acid acting on fluorides and chlorides sets 

 free the more volatile halogen acids. 



The volcanic ash and pumice which constitute the 

 mud-flow have been highly altered by the passage of 

 the volcanic gases. Analysis shows that in the vicinitv 

 of the vents the ash has lost a portion of its silica 

 content, while the iron, calcium, and magnesium have 

 been relatively concentrated. Sometimes the ash and 

 pumice are completely disintegrated. Superheated 

 steam containing halogen acids is a disintegrating 

 agent that even rhyolite cannot withstand. The 



Photo\ 

 Fig. 4. — A typical volcanic vent. 



[y. W. Shipley. 



The gases wc-e escaping from another hole some distance away 

 along the horizontal tunnel. Note the thickne^s ot the encrustants covering the tunnel. They 

 consisted of silica, sulphur, fluorides, and compounds of iron. 



presence of so many large vents, tunnels, and channels 

 in the mud-flow may well be attributed to the action 

 of the volcanic gases. 



The nature of the emanations, and the continuous 

 evolution of heat and gases for seven years, with little 

 indication of any diminution in volume, indicate 

 direct magmatic origin for the phenomena of this 

 valley. The extrusion of semi-fluid lava from Nova- 

 rupta and in the bottom of the Katmai crater may 

 signify a similar approach of the magma to the sur- 

 face in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. 



J. W. Shipley. 



Chemical Department, Universitv of 

 Manitoba, Winnipeg. 



The Control of Scientific and Industrial Research. 



.\xNOUNCEMENT is made in Nature of Januarv 2q 

 of the appointment of Mr. R. T.. Frink to be director 

 of research of the Glass Research Association, which 

 has recently been formed as one of the Industrial 

 Research .\ssociations of the Department of Scientific 

 and Industrial Research. The appointment raises a 

 question which has intimate relations with scientific 



NO. 2623, VOL. 104] 



interests and progress, and it should not be permitted 

 to pass without protest. 



I,t has always been urged in the columns of 

 Nature, and accepted as a cardinal principle by men 

 of science generally, that scientific research can only 

 be rightly understood and sympathetically promoted 

 by a director who has himself taken part in it. The 

 essential qualification, therefore, of a director of re- 

 search of each of the industrial research associations 

 should be proved capacity for research ; for without 

 such aptitude the work undertaken is bound to be 

 narrow, and the scientific aspects upon which progress 

 ultimately depends to be neglected. This point of view, 

 however, seems to have received secondary considera- 

 tion only in the recent appointment ; for what the 

 secretary of the Glass Research Association says as 

 to the qualifications of the director of research is : 

 " Mr. Frink has a lifelong experience of the American 

 glass trade and glass research, is well known to the 

 foremost English glass manufacturers, and his ap- 

 pointment is welcomed by the British glass industry." 

 It is scarcely too much to say that this appoint- 

 ment has been received with intense astonishment by 

 all scientific men connected with the 

 glass industry, and by many glass 

 manufacturers as well. In the glass 

 industry, more, perhaps, than in anv 

 other, it was naturally expected that 

 a director of research would be a 

 man of distinguished eminence 

 whose work was of proved scientific 

 value ; yet practically no such evi- 

 dence is forthcoming in the case of 

 Mr. Frink. 



A scientific friend in America, who 

 is recognised as one of the first 

 authorities upon scientific matters 

 connected with glass, tells me that 

 Mr. Frink is not known as a re- 

 search man or in research circles, 

 but that he is highly spoken of by 

 practical glass-makers "as a man 

 of long experience in the window- 

 glass trade who is accustomed to be 

 called in as ' first aid ' for furnace 

 troubles, colour troubles, and like 

 technical difficulties. This trade he 

 has pursued for some years with 

 success, and his reputation in this 

 domain is among the best. He main- 

 tains a so-called laboratory and has a number of 

 technical assistants, and, ' I fancy, has gathered 

 together a considerable amount of rough-and-ready 

 wisdom which has found extensive application in an 

 industry where research laboratories have hardly been 

 thought of until recently." 



It seems quite possible that the Glass Research 

 Association has secured the services of a very able, 

 practical man, but in making the appointment the 

 council of the association has negatived the policy 

 elaborated with such care in the article published in 

 Nature of November 13 last: "The ideal director 

 for this association is not an individual research 

 worker whose glorv is to work in splendid isolation, 

 but is he who will bring expert knowledge of the 

 methods of scientific research to bear upon these 

 complex problems, who possesses such personality as 

 to attract promising young research workers to his 

 side . . . and to co-ordinate the efforts being made 

 through the various laboratories, institutions, and 

 works to which specific research and experimental 

 work will be allotted." (Italics are mine.) 



If the writer of that article, the temporary secre- 

 tary of the association, had been a scientific inan, he 



