348 



NA TURE 



[February 1 1, 1892 



disk between the two nodal lines, the vibration of a rod 

 clamped at both ends will be represented ; whilst the 

 outer half of the latter length of slit will represent similarly 

 a closed organ pipe giving its fundamental note. In this 

 way by restricting the slit to various parts of the disk, 

 various vibrating rods of metal and organ-pipes can be 

 represented. 



The disks thus produced I have had very satisfactorily 

 lithographed for students' use. 



Should any of your readers be desirous of obtaining 

 further information I shall be happy to oblige them. 



F. Cheshire. 



P.S. — In the drawing of the disk given the centre has 

 been filled up by broken circles. As thus drawn the 

 inner circle may with advantage be blackened over. 



THE SCIENCE MUSEUM AND GALLERY OF 

 BRITISH ART AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 



■jV/rOST people were under the impression that they 

 ^^^ had heard the last of the absurd proposal that the 

 site in South Kensington, which had already been set 

 apart for scientific purposes, should be appropriated for 

 the British Art Gallery. After all, however, the scheme 

 has not, it seems, been definitely abandoned. Mr. Tate 

 is said to have decided that if this particular piece of land 

 is not granted he will withdraw the offer of his pictures 

 and of the money he is willing to give for the erection of 

 a suitable building. Men of science, like other people, 

 would be sorry if the nation lost the advantages which 

 Mr. Tate wishes to confer upon it ; but they are bound to 

 protest strenuously against the notion that it is either right 

 or expedient to try to promote the interests of art at the 

 expense of those of science. The South Kensington site 

 is urgently wanted for the purposes for which it has 

 been promised. Careful investigation has shown that 

 every foot of the land will be needed for an adequate 

 Science Museum and for laboratories ; and if Mr. 

 Tate's idea is acted upon, irreparable injury will be 

 done, not only to the Royal College of Science, but to 

 the entire system of scientific training in England. 

 It has been asserted that the land " was bought for science 

 and art," and that, consequently, science has '' no 

 monopoly in it." The land was not bought for " science 

 and art." It was bought for "science and t/ie arts," by 

 which were meant the industrial arts, the development of 

 which directly depends on science. The whole difficulty 

 is due to the haphazard way in which all that relates to 

 science is treated by public authorities in this country. 

 If England had possessed a Minister of Education, with 

 powers corresponding to those which belong to the French 

 or the Prussian Minister of Education, he would never 

 have permitted this question to be even opened ; and Mr. 

 Tate would probably have obtained long ago a proper 

 site elsewhere. Of course nothing that can be done to 

 prevent an act of utter folly and injustice will be left 

 undone in Parliament by the scientific members. 



The following letter on the subject appeared in the 

 Pall Mall Gazette on Wednesday, February lo : — 



Sir, — Before Parliament and the public agree to the some- 

 what exacting terms which Mr. Tate appears to make a condition 

 of his munificent donation, I would beg your leave to submit 

 the following questions for their consideration : — 



1. Why should he not be satisfied with the plot of ground, 

 somewhat higher up the Exhibition Road, which is much larger 

 than his contribution of ;i^8o,ooo will cover with a decently- 

 constructed building? The situation of that plot is in every 

 respect better than the one he covets. It is adjacent to the 

 East and West Galleries, which are already connected by a cross 

 gallery. These galleries are, in the opinion of the most eminent 

 artists in the country, the best galleries for the exhibition of 

 pictures yet constructed in England, and in them the overflow 

 from Mr. Tate's gallery might in future time find a home. 



2. Why should the site which he asks for be cleared of the 



NO. I 163, VOL. 45] 



Physical Laboratory and other portions of the College of 

 Science already housed on it to interpolate an English Luxem- 

 bourg between two portions of the Science School and Science 

 Museum, relegating the latter to the aforesaid admirable picture 

 galleries, which then for all time can never be annexed to the 

 Tate Gallery, or even put in connection with it ? Why, in fact,, 

 should the science instruction of the country be sacrificed to this 

 collection of pictures, which is not of sufficient value to be 

 accepted by the National Gallery ? We hear a good deal of the 

 French Luxembourg, but would any munificent donor of modern 

 French pictures be allowed to have a^slice out of the middle of 

 the Ecole Polytechnique, or of the Ecole Centraie, or of the 

 Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, if, peradventure, that was the 

 Naboth's vineyard which his heart craved for .' 



3. Why should the Government or the public suppose that if 

 Mr. Tate's collection of pictures were inserted like a seton into 

 the tissue of the College of Science it would have the effect of 

 drawing a shower of gifts and bequests away from the rival 

 establishment across the Exhibition Road, and only separated 

 from it by a part of the College of Science ? That rival establish- 

 ment contains the Sheepshanks collection, given under stringent 

 conditions to found, and accepted by the Government to found, 

 a National Gallery of British Art. Other collections have 

 been added — even since the Tate Gallery was in the air — 

 on the same conditions. Intrinsically and artistically they 

 are worth probably ten times as much as the Tate collec- 

 tion. From the recent competition which has been held 

 it is evident that the Government propose to spend a 

 large sum of money in completing the South Kensington 

 Museum, which will then be in a position to properly 

 exhibit these and other bequests. It is well known that 

 they cannot be sent to the Tate Gallery. They would be 

 lost to the nation if an attempt were made to do so, the pious 

 donors having taken ample precautions against such tricks being 

 played with their gifts. Whatever pranks the Royal Academy 

 may play with the Chantrey Bequest, there is no reason to 

 suppose that the British Museum or National Gallery pictures 

 can be sent to increase the importance of this new establish- 

 ment under an irresponsible management, which is not supported 

 by a single artist of eminence, as far as I am aware. 



4. Why should Government emulate the antics of the 

 celebrated cow who kicked over the pail of milk she had just 

 filled, and, having done more than any previous Government 

 for technical instruction, make its-elf superbly ridiculous by 

 dealing an irremediable blow to the advance of that instruction 

 for the sake of Mr. Tate's ;^8o,ooo? It must be remembered 

 that there is no institution for the advancement of scientific 

 instruction in the country similar to the College of Science with 

 the Science Museum which it is now proposed to dismember for 

 the sake of that ^80,000. — I am. Sir, yours obediently, 



London, February 9. Y. 



NOTES. 



The late Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte has left to 

 the Nation his valuable collection of metals, which is 

 now in course of arrangement at the Science Museum, 

 South Kensington. The collection is rich in specimens 

 of the rarer metals. This bequest is the result of a 

 promise made to Prof. Roberts-Austen, the Prince having 

 been much interested in the Percy collection at South 

 Kensington. The Prince's early papers, which were mainly 

 chemical, comprised an account of a method of separating 

 cerium from didymium ; and he used to refer with pride to 

 his having won admission to the ranks of the Legion of 

 Honour by chemical research. 



In order to afford increased and improved accommodation 

 for the departments of physics and mechanical and electrical 

 engineering, the Council of University College, London, have 

 decided to enter without delay upon a considerable extension of 

 the College buildings. The addition to the College will form 

 an important block opposite the east end of University Street, 

 with an extension for some distance along the Gower Street 

 front of the College grounds. It is to contain separate labora- 

 tories and lecture-rooms for mechanical engineering and elec- 

 trical engineering, with rooms for engineering drawing, a 



