May 22, 1 91 9] 



NATURE 



235 



IS now. Classical education bulked too large in the 

 University, and the unequal distribution gave cause 

 for just resentment. Though biology provided a 

 parallel in the destruction of millions of eggs in order 

 to produce one salmon, and though the Oxford system 

 occasionally produced a man like Ingram By water, 

 the feelings and the lost opportunities of the countless' 

 others who were destroyed in the process ought to be 

 considered. It would be far better for the average 

 man to infect him with the spirit of the humanities 

 than to waste his time by too much laborious atten- 

 tion to grammatical detail. 



The great philosophers of old— Hippocrates, Galen, 

 Theophrastus, Hero, Aristarchus, and others— fertilised 

 Science and went far on the wav towards under- 

 standing the system of Nature, but in the Middle 

 Ages the thread was broken; Roger Bacon was the 

 only medieval student with a modern outlook, and 

 the loss of connection with the Humanities was a 

 serious set-back to Science. 



Modern men of science might well read such books 

 as Lucretius's " De Rerum Natura," in which a great 

 deal of modern discovery had been foreshadowed; 

 and scholars should not hesitate to point this out. 



An attempt was being made at Oxford to start a 

 new Honours School of Philosophy in relation to 

 science. This should prevent scientific men from 

 getting lost in the backwaters of premature research. 

 The groundwork of this school should not be limited 

 to modern ideas, but the continuity of the history of 

 Science through all the ages should be grasped. There 

 was a great need of both general and individual re- 

 construction, and this should be undertaken in the 

 spirit of Hippocrat'es's maxim, ^f yap Trop.^ (^iXai/^p«7rii;. 

 TvapttTTi Kai <tii\oTex*'in — "The love of humanity is the 

 basis of the love of science." 



Loan Exhibition of Early Scientific Instruments. 



On May 16 Sir William Osier opened a loan exhibi- 

 tion of most remarkable instruments and manuscripts 

 illustrating the scientific history of Oxford from the 

 fourteenth to the eighteenth century. The greater 

 part of the instruments now shown have never 

 been publicly exhibited before. They have been un- 

 earthed in cupboards and corners of' libraries of col- 

 leges and university departments. They are, for the 

 most part, in their original state and of corresponding 

 historic value. 



The two earliest dated Persian and Moorish astro- 

 lajbes, A.D. 987 and a.d. 1067, lent by Mr. Lewis 

 Evans, form a worthy introduction to a wonderful 

 series of instruments lent by Merton College. One 

 of these is traditionally associated with Chaucer, and 

 another of the Saphea type is considered bv Mr. 

 Gunther to have been the instrument left by Simon 

 Bredon either to the college or to its great astronomer. 

 Rede, early in the fourteenth centurv. The energies 

 of those early astronomers were largely directed to the 

 preparation of astronomical tables, which had a wide 

 circulation, and Oxford was regarded very much as 

 Greenwich is now. 



The laterastronomicnlexhibits illustrate the instru- 

 mental equipment of the Earl of O^-rery, who must 

 have been acquainted with the first members of the 

 Royal Society. Many of his instruments are still in 

 the state in which he left them to Christ Church. 

 His telescopes of 8 ft., q ft., and 12 ft. focal length, 

 with many-draw vellum tubes and ligrmm vitae lens- 

 mounts by Marshall and Wilson, form a unique 

 series. 



There is also a Marshall microscope of 160-^ in 

 excellent rondition, as well as some maj^nificent 

 planetaria and other astronomical models by Rowley, 

 the maker of the original (^rrerv. 



The slide.»rule of 1654 in the South Kensington 

 NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 



Museum, described in Nature of March 5, 1914, by 

 Mr. Baxandall as the earliest known slide-rule, mwst 

 now yield to an instrument lent by St. John's Col- 

 lege, dated 1635. It is in the form of a brass disc 

 I ft. 6 in. in diameter engraved with Oughtred's 

 circles of proportion. Would space permit, the series 

 of volvelles or calculating discs showing the age of 

 the moon from manuscripts of the fourteenth and 

 fifteenth centuries, and some early surveying instru- 

 ments, are worthy of more particular description, as 

 well as many other treasures now shown to the public 

 for the first time. A printed catalogue of the principal 

 exhibits, prepared by Mr. R. Gunther, of Magdalen 

 College, is published by the CLacendon Press, price is. 



ELECTRIC FURNACES. 



nrHE importance of electro-metallurgy at .the 

 ■■• present time was made evident at the joint 

 meeting of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and 

 the Iron and Steel Institute on May 8, when six 

 papers were read on electric furnaces. The descrip- 

 tions given by the various authors related almost 

 exclusively to furnaces suitable for the iron and steel 

 industry, of which there are at present 117 at work 

 in this country, as compared with 287 in the United 

 States and 43 in Canada. The nominal output of the 

 British furnaces was given by Mr. R. G. Mercer as 

 31,250 tons per month, but, owing to various causes, 

 the actual production was only about 65 per cent, of 

 this amount. It will be seen from these figures that 

 electric steel is now a well-established commercial 

 product, and with the advent of cheaper electric power 

 large developments may be witnessed. 



The features common tx> all electric steel furnaces 

 are (i) the use of alternating current with suitable 

 transformers and (2) the formation of an arc between 

 carbon electrodes above the charge, which plays upon 

 the slag on the surface. It is customary to place one 

 or more electrodes beneath the hearth of the furnace, 

 so that a part of the current may flow through the 

 charge when the hearth becomes hot enough to act 

 as a conductor, the mixing of the molten metal being 

 thereby facilitated. The electrical connections vary 

 according to whether single-, two-, or three-phase 

 current is employed, it being necessary in all cases to 

 obtain a balanced polyphase load on the service lines. 

 In the two-phase furnace described by Mr. W. K. 

 Booth two main electrodes are used, together with an 

 auxiliary electrode which, at starting, is embedded in 

 the charge, and serves to draw the arc between the 

 charge and the main electrodes. Two other elec- 

 trodes are located in the hearth, which, when hot, 

 permits current to flow crosswise from these elec- 

 trodes through the metal to the main electrodes, the 

 auxiliary then being withdrawn. In Sahlin's furnace 

 the electrodes enter at the sides, forming pairs inclined 

 at an angle, the resulting arc being then directed on 

 to the surface of the charge, several pairs, suitably 

 connected, being used in the larger types. A single 

 electrode is placed beneath the hearth. In the fur- 

 naces described bv Mr. Victor Stobie vertical elec- 

 trodes are used, the number depending on the size 

 of the hearth, and the distribution being such as to 

 ensure the heating of the whole surface of the charge. 

 The heaffth electrodes are stated by Mr. Stobie to be 

 undesirable in large furnaces, though essential in 

 small ones. A special feature of Stobie furnaces is 

 a device for sealing the entrance of the electrode 

 to the furnace, wherebv oxidation at this point is pre- 

 vented. The special electrical connections for obtain- 

 ing a balanced load coiistitute the characteristic 

 features of the furnaces dealt with by Mr. J. Bibby 

 and Mr. H. .\. Greaves, the former of whom gave 



