290 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



Electrical Standards Division obtained accommodation for the erection of the 

 ampere balance, and later of the Lorenz resistance apparatus. The Division 

 for General Electrical Measurements, which in addition to the testing of iron 

 sheet for magnetic hysteresis and total power loss, is concerned with measure- 

 ments of capacity and inductance, was able to install apparatus for the testing 

 of wavemeters and other instruments for use in wireless telegraphy. In the 

 Optics Division new equipment was provided for testing photographic lenses 

 and shutters, the lenses of oculists 1 trial cases, prism binoculars, and for other 

 purposes. In the Thermometry Division an additional room was fully 

 equipped for the rapid testing of standard and other mercury thermometers, 

 enabling some of this work, where higher accuracy was required, to be trans- 

 ferred from Kew. From the commencement, special provision had been made 

 at Teddington for high temperature thermometry and pyrometry, and in 1907 

 a new furnace room was built out at the north-west corner of Bushy House, 

 and provided later with a 15- kilowatt alternator and other equipment for 

 electric furnace work involving considerable power consumption. The Kelvin 

 tide-predicting machine, placed in the charge of the Laboratory in 1903 by 

 the India Office, for the determination of the tides for the Indian ports and 

 other tide-prediction work, is also installed in Bushy House. 



The Engineering Department has undergone considerable extension since 

 1902. In 1903 a special building was provided for the accommodation of 

 a Whitworth Standard Screw-cutting Lathe constructed to designs approved 

 by a War Office Committee ; and a 50-foot steel tower was erected in the 

 grounds for the wind pressure research. In 1906 two bays were added to the 

 Engineering Building, and a 100-ton machine was provided for the testing 

 work transferred to the Laboratory from Cooper's Hill. In 1909 the Labora- 

 tory was asked by the Government to undertake experimental work in 

 Aeronautics, and the further space necessary for a wind channel, motor- testing 

 plant, &c., was provided by the addition of two more bays to the Engineering 

 Building, while a shed 80 feet square was built to accommodate a whirling 

 table. At the same time the earlier wind tower was replaced by two 60-foot 

 towers, 110 yards apart, to facilitate the study of lateral variation in the wind. 

 In 1911 the Department was asked to undertake the testing of road materials 

 for the Government Road Board, and an additional building has been erected 

 for this work. 



The Physics Department originally comprised a Division for Metallurgy and 

 Chemistry, occupying a few rooms in Bushy House. In 1906 by arrangement 

 with the India Office, the test work for the Government of India, formerly 

 carried out at Cooper's Hill, was transferred to the Laboratory, and a new 

 building for this work was provided. A new Department of Metallurgy and 

 Metallurgical Chemistry was also constituted. In 1910 a gift of .10,000 was 

 received from Sir Julius Wernher for the erection of a building to advance the 

 study of Metallurgy. This was planned to be continuous with the building 



