April 3, 1919] 



NATURE 



93 



many, and it was marvellous lo think that, owing to 

 their response, by the time the war was at its height 

 England was Germany's equal, if not her superior, in 

 chemical warfare. The nation must not again be cut 

 off from the essential means of defence, for the possi- 

 bilities of war must always be remembered. To the 

 chemist the future prospects are limitless ; the dis- 

 covery of new substances, the shortening of processes, 

 economy — all these lie in his hands. The Chemical 

 Society is doing valuable work because it exists for 

 the general advancement of chemical science. Lord 

 Moulton then referred to the valuable services rendered 

 to the country by Sir William Pope in the problems 

 connected with explosives, in the production of 

 poisonous gases, and in the realm ' of photography. 



In replying. Sir William Pope stated that the 

 society numbered some 3500 members, and though 

 it was nearly eighty years of age, it was not 

 the age of decrepitude. It was still prepared to pro- 

 duce new methods for stimulating scientific work 

 and scientific effort. He referred to Lord Moulton as 

 the greatest chemical manufacturer of this or any other 

 day, and chemists feel honoured at having been made 

 an essential part of the stupendous weapon for destruc- 

 tion in the forging of which Lord Moulton had played 

 so large a part. All the resources of science had been 

 utilis^ in the war without scrutiny of cost, and the 

 result had been worth the expenditure. Unless the 

 same resources are used in the struggle before us to 

 develop and promote, not only applied, but pure 

 science, then our country will fall behind. It lies 

 with our leaders to «ietermine to what extent science 

 will exist in the coming great wave of intellectual and 

 material progress throughout the world. The nation 

 must be prepared to pour out treasure into our educa- 

 tional establishments for securing the potential young 

 energy of the country and of directing it into scientific 

 channels, and money must be poured into our uni- 

 versities and colleges to stimulate scientific research. 

 Whether it be pure or applied knowledge, the dividend 

 paid will be enormous. The great object we have in 

 view is the increase of human knowledge, and this 

 can be achieved only by the expenditure of large sums 

 of money. , _ 



Prof. H. E. Armstrong, in proposing the toast of " Our 

 French Colleagues," referred to previous exchanges 

 of courtesies between French and English chemists, 

 and whilst this was the first time that the French 

 Chemical Society had been officially represented at our 

 anniversary dinner, he hoped that it would become a 

 regular practice in the future. In replving. Dr. C. 

 Poulenc expressed the great pleasure felt by himself 

 and his colleagues in being invited to take part in 

 the first public function held by the Chemical .Society 

 since 1914, for thev realised that such an mvitation 

 set yet another seal on the bond of sympathy existing 

 between the two nations. 



The president then proposed " His Majesty '.s Forces," 

 to which Lt-Cxen. Sir W. T. Furse, Master of the 

 Ordnance, made acknowledgment. 



Sir James J. Dobbie, president-elect, in proposmg 

 the toast of "The Guests," referred to the pleasure 

 the society felt in seeing such a representative gather- 

 ing of guests, and though it might seem difficult to 

 bring them all into one toast, owing to the interests 

 they represent being so diverse, the chemist had been 

 closely associated with them all during the period 

 of the war. The Right Hon. Herbert A. L. Fisher, 

 in responding for the Board of Education, referred to 

 the place of science in national education. Though 

 we had arrears to make up and wanted more monev, 

 more teachers, and more learners for science, in the 

 main the battle had been won. He was of the opinion 

 that unless the country was provided with a large 

 nnd generous scheme of education, a number of 

 NO. 2579, VOL. TO3] 



talents which might be educated to a high pitch of 

 accomplishment would be lost. Unless the com- 

 munity realises that science has its message, its value, 

 that it ought to be encouraged, and that no money 

 spjent on scien<?e is wasted, science will never be in a 

 satisfactory and wholesome condition. Sir Aston 

 Webb replied for Art, and Sir J. J. Thomson for 

 Science. 



ENERGY TRANSMISSION. 



TWO or three years ago a Rumanian engineer, 

 Mr. Constantinesco, brought to this country a 

 remarkable new method of transmitting energy. A 

 pipe filled with water or a similar fluid is used. 

 Vibrations of the nature of sound-waves are produced 

 mechanically at one end of the pipe, and the energy of 

 these is recovered at the other end as mechanical 

 energy. As there is no general movement of transla- 

 tion of the mass of fluid, little is lost and the efficiency 

 of transmission is high. The energy recovered can 

 be applied to any mechanical operation. The method 

 has been said to be an alternative to electrical trans- 

 mission, and, in a sense, this is true. Certainly it 

 will find a field in which it will compete with other 

 modes of doing work at a distance. 



Researches have been going on during the war, and 

 many devices have been perfected. But it has been 

 necessary to observe secrecy as to what has been done 

 and what is contemplated. It is known that one im- 

 portant invention made possible by the Sonic system 

 of transmission is the C.C. synchronising gear on aero- 

 planes, which arrests the action of a machine-gun 

 while a propeller-blade is in the line of fire, so that 

 2000 bullets per minute can be discharged through a 

 propeller revolving at 1000 to 2000 r.p.m. 



From a statement in the Times of March 27 it 

 appears that works have been established at West 

 Drayton by the Government which will serve as a 

 laboratory to enable Mr. Constantinesco to develop his 

 inventions. These works were recently visited by 

 Queen Mary, the Queen of Rumania, and a distin- 

 guished company, who followed with great attention 

 a demonstration of the applications of the new 

 system to various industrial purposes. Although little 

 has so far been made public, it is known that Mr. 

 Constantinesco has shown remarkable ingenuity and 

 patience in devising means for applying the Sonic 

 system to industrial operations, and he has accom- 

 plished enough to prove that his method is of the 

 highest possible interest. 



THE PROBLEM OF RADIO-ACTIVE 



LEAD.^ 



II. 



IT appears, then, that 206, the value pertaining to 

 uranium-lead, is a very reasonable value. 

 But, as has been repeatedly pointed out, ordinar\' 

 lead, constituting the vast bulk of the lead in the 

 world, has without doubt a much higher atomic 

 weight, 207-2, not to be expected from either of the 

 lines of reasoning just given. In order to test the 

 uniformity of this circumstance, Baxter, with the help 

 of one of his assistants, investigated ordinarv' lead 

 from non-uraniferous ores from many parts of the 

 world, and discovered that the constanc\- of its quanti- 

 tative behaviour is as striking as that of copper or 

 silver. His figures agreed very closely, within the 

 limit of error of experimentation, with those obtained 

 as a part of the present comparison of the two kinds 



' Presidential Address to the American .■\s«ocIat ion fir the Advancement 

 of Science. Baltimore, December, 1918, by Prof. Theodore W. Richards. 

 Continued from p. 78. 



