4o8 



NATURE 



[July 19, 1917 



the Government has intervened to form State-aided 

 compvanies, and British Dyes, Ltd., has its French 

 analogue in the " Societe Nationale des Mati^res 

 Colorantes et Produits Chimiques. " Meanwhile, 

 private enterprise has played a very important 

 part. The last surviving- independent French dye 

 factory at Saint-Denis has greatly increased its 

 capital and organised its resources in order to deal 

 intensively with dye production as soon as the 

 claims of the explosives departments have abated. 

 In Lancashire, Messr's. Levinstein, who have 

 achieved noteworthy success as dye-makers, now 

 form the nucleus of a group of co-ordin^ited firms 

 working amicably in the production of dyes and 

 other synthetic products. These firms^ which 

 include the Ellesmere Port indigo factory and 

 Messrs. Claus, of Clayton, near Manchester, have 

 working arrangements with other industrial under- 

 takings not only in Great Britain, but also so 

 far afield as Italy and America. This combina- 

 tion of the Lancashire colour firms and their 

 associates is at present a most hopeful sign of 

 renaissance for the chemical industries of the 

 Entente Powers. G. T. Morgan. 



FRANCE AND NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC 

 RESEARCH APPLIED TO INDUSTRY. 



THE French Societe d' Encouragement pour 

 rindustrie Nationale, always to the fore in 

 matters of vital moment to industry, has recently 

 been dealing with the question of scientific in- 

 vestigation as applied to manufacture. The 

 "Economic Arts" Sub-Committee in particular 

 is greatly interested in the co-ordination and co- 

 operation of the various research and test labora- 

 tories in the country with the view of bringing 

 science and industry into more direct contact 

 after the war. In No. i (1917) of the society's 

 Bulletin General Sebert has an article on the 

 various establishments of the kind. Many of the 

 Government departments in France have their 

 own special laboratories, e.g. the various research 

 laboratories of the French War Office and the 

 Munitions Inventions Committee. A number of 

 the scientific societies also have their own estab- 

 lishments, e.g. that founded by the Society of 

 Electrical Engineers in 1886. Many tests are 

 made there for different Government departments, 

 and a number of important researches in elec- 

 tricity have been undertaken. Then there is the 

 laboratory created by the French Photographic 

 Society, which has done good work for the photo- 

 graphic profession and trade, and, more recently, 

 for the kinematograph trade. By a decree passed 

 in 1900 it was decided to widen the scope of the 

 mechanical laboratory founded in 1854 by 

 General Morin, the result being the foundation 

 of the Laboratoire d'essais at the Conservatoire 

 national des arts et metiers. To this institution 

 many technical societies have made grants. It is 

 divided into five sections, viz. physics, metals, 

 materials of construction, mechanics, and 

 chemistry. Here certain primary and secondary 

 standards are kept. This laboratory has done 

 good work in the carrying out of routine testing 

 NO. 2490, VOL. 99] 



of all kinds, but its operations are evidently cir- 

 cumscribed through lack of funds. The 

 laboratory had to close at the beginning of the 

 war, though it has since been reopened at the 

 instance of the Munitions Inventions Committee 

 for the carrying out of experiments relating to 

 war problems. 



Useful as such establishments are, however, 

 there is a strongly felt desire to establish in 

 France a National Laboratory on the scale of our 

 own National Physical Laboratory, the Bureau 

 of Standards (U.S.A.), and the Reichsanstalt at 

 Charlottenburg. 



M. Armand Gautier, of the Institute, recently 

 expressed at the Academy of Sciences his per- 

 sonal ideas regarding the creation of a central 

 laboratory of the kind, and an epitome of his con- 

 tribution is printed in the Bulletin of the Societe 

 d'Encouragement already referred to. He sug- 

 gests the formation of a council consisting of 

 manufacturers of the first rank, scholars who are 

 specialists in particular branches of science, and 

 a small number of Ministers of State or members 

 of the National Council. This council would 

 draw up a list of the questions to be dealt with 

 and appoint the most eminent men to carry out 

 the investigations. The council would also 

 approach the manufacturers, etc., who would be 

 most likely to benefit from the researches, and 

 the latter would do the rest by the provision of 

 annual grants for the execution of the work. 

 The State would have no responsibility, direction, 

 or supervisory powers, but would provide the 

 funds necessary for the establishment and equip- 

 ment of the institution. Each manufacturer 

 would undertake to assist according to the extent 

 of his business, but the share of each would be 

 fixed as low as possible. M. Gautier thinks that 

 there would be no difficulty in inducing manu- 

 facturers to lend their support, as it is they who 

 would most directly profit from the results of the 

 researches. E. S. Hodgson. 



NOTES. 



A CORRESPONDENT in Petrograd gives us a rather 

 gloomy account of the difficulties of carrying on scien- 

 tific work or publications under the present conditions 

 in Russia. He says : — " It is, in fact, now almost 

 impossible to print here scientific works having small 

 circulations, as the prices demanded by the composi- 

 tors, printers, papermakers, and other workers con- 

 nected with the production of books are 200-300 per 

 cent, higher than they were in February, immediately 

 before the Revolution. The results are beginning tc 

 be felt already — factories are being closed and tl 

 number of unemployed getting larger every day| 

 Scientific work and teaciiing are at present almc 

 impossible, as many of the institutes and universitie 

 are ' requisitioned ' by irresponsible revolutionar 

 organisations and troops ; thus the Polytechnic 

 Institute has been occupied since March 5 by abou^ 

 2500 soldiers, and as the sanitary arrangements we 

 never intended for such a number of people, having 

 no ideas of sanitation, living and sleeping in tW 

 lecture- and drav/ing-halls, the shameful state of the 

 institute may be imagined. AU efforts to eject thesi 

 unwelcome guests and those of other organisations 

 have proved abortive, as the ' Provisional Government ' 



