296 



NATURE 



[June 12, 1919 



The University of Liverpool has recently established 

 a Tidal Institute for the purpose of research into 

 tidal questions, and to constitute a bureau of informa- 

 tion on matters connected with tides. The work con- 

 templated at present is mainly mathematical and com- 

 putative, though doubtless this will lead in time 

 to special schemes of observation, perhaps in co- 

 operation with other bodies. The necessary funds 

 have been provided by Sir Alfred Booth and Mr. 

 Charles Booth, chairmen respectively of the Cunard 

 and Booth steamship companies, while Dr. J. Proud- 

 man will be the honorary director of the institute. 

 It is very satisfactory that this country should again 

 have a centre of tidal learning and research at one 

 of its universities, to continue, under a new form, 

 some of the services rendered to the science by Sir 

 George Darwin. It is not possible to judge as yet 

 whether or not this makes unnecessary the inclusion 

 of tidal matters in the larger scheme for a geodetic 

 institute now being discussed, but in any case, 

 through the wider range of activity on the part of the 

 latter and the intensive theoretical studies of the 

 Liverpool institute, each body may be expected to be 

 advantageous to the success of the other. 



The almost universally conceded necessity for attract- 

 ing well-qualified teachers into the profession by offer- 

 ing really adequate salaries and improved prospects 

 does not appear to be appreciated by some education 

 authorities. Recent advertisements in the Newcastle 

 Evening Chronicle by a local education authority show 

 that 170L to 2ooi. per annum is thought to be an ade- 

 quate and attractive salary for a well-qualified science 

 master who is required for advanced course work, 

 and that a "slinger " for loading machinery parts and 

 engines can command a wage of 5Z. per week (260L 

 per annum). The comparison does not accentuate the 

 value of a good education, nor will it create enthusiasm 

 in the minds of possible entrants to the profession. 

 We may add that in many rural districts, especially in 

 Wales, it is the exception to find secondary-school 

 teachers, even with experience, enjoying a salary of more 

 than 160L per annum. The lamentable inadequacy of 

 salaries has reacted upon the supply of teachers, which 

 does not now approach the normal demand, and this 

 renders all the more difficult the problems of staffing 

 the new continuation schools provided for in the recent 

 Education Bill, and of diminishing the size of classes 

 in the secondary schools to the advantage of the pupils. 

 We cannot urge too strongly that the provision of a 

 really efficient system of national education depends, 

 to a great extent, upon the payment of adequate salaries 

 to the teaching staff, and that the question as to 

 whether rates or taxes are to provide the additional 

 cost should not influence the educational facilities 

 offered to the youth of the country. 



At a meeting of the Yorkshire Natural Science 

 Association at Sheffield on Saturday, May 24, Prof. 

 Ripper, Vice-Chancellor of the University, speaking 

 on "Science and Reconstruction," said that the task 

 of those who wished to promote the extended use 

 of science and scientific method in industry was to 

 urge the importance of using them in all those indus- 

 tries which as yet were untouched by the spirit of 

 modern scientific progress. Science could help in two 

 wavs : first, bv the gift of new knowledge, built up 

 by the scientific worker with no regard to its indus- 

 trial value; and, secondly, by the application of 

 scientific method and principles to problems of 

 industry. No manufacture could afford to dispense 

 with the services of the well-trained man of science, who 

 was required wisely to direct the activities of the two 

 partners, capital and labour. Prof. Ripper welcomed 

 the formation of the Privv Council Committee for 

 the purpose of establishing research associations in 



NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 



connection with national industries. The light trades 

 and the glass industry of Sheffield were taking steps 

 towards reorganisation and enlisting the help of 

 the scientific expert. For the most part, the work 

 of training these men of science would devolve upon 

 the universities, and to that end their resources would 

 have to be augmented. The staff and equipment were 

 at present fully occupied in the teaching of the under- 

 graduate, and better provision must be made for the 

 advanced student. Governments were the servants 

 of public opinion, and until public opinion was fully 

 awake to its duty to the universities and recognised 

 the need for an adequate supply of trained persons, 

 the progress of industry would be severely handi- 

 capped. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Physical Society, May 9. — Prof. C. H. Lees, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — A. E. Bawtree : A new colour 

 transparency process for illustrating scientific lectures. 

 The image is produced in a thin colloid film upon 

 bare glass. Considerable experimenting led to the 

 ^election of a range of dyes and mordants by which 

 practically any shade of the most brilliant^ colouring 

 could be obtained. By suitable insulating films, 

 images'in any number of colours can be superimposed 

 and accurately registered with one another. Thus 

 diagrammatic slides can be prepared in various 

 colours. The passage of a beam of white light 

 through a prism can be shown spreading out into 

 bands of colour, instead of merely initialled lines. 

 Coloured mosaics can be placed in a diffusing lantern 

 to show the preparation of additive colours, e.g, red 

 and green producing yellow more convincingly and 

 brilliantlv than with the Maxwell disc. — F. J. W. 

 Whipple :' Absolute scales of pressure and temperature. 

 The paper urges the general use of the new scales of 

 pressure and temperature which have been adopted 

 by meteorologists. In the pressure-scale the funda- 

 rnental unit is the bar, the pressure due to a million 

 dvnes per square centimetre. The practical unit is 

 the millibar. The temperature-scale is that known as 

 the pseudo-absolute scale, obtained by adding 273 to 

 the Centigrade scale. The author, however, considers 

 that it would be advantageous to use the "integral 

 freezing point" scale, in which the interval between 

 absolute zero and the freezing point of water is 

 divided into 273° exactly.— Dr._ A. O. Rankine : The 

 transmission of speech by light. Light from a 

 point source is collected by a lens of about a metre 

 focus, and an image formed on a small concave 

 mirror, which is attached to the diaphragm of a 

 gramophone recorder. The light diverges and passes 

 through a second similar lens, which projects it to 

 the distant station. Two similar grids are mounted, 

 one in front of each lens. An image of the first grid 

 is superposed on the second by reflection in the con- 

 cave mirror. When the latter oscillates imder the 

 vibrations of speech, the dark spaces of the image 

 move over the openings of the second crid, thus nro- 

 ducing fluctuations of the intensitv of the bram. The 

 light is received bv a collecting lens and focussed 

 on a selenium cell in circuit with a battery and tele- 

 phone receiver. 



Geological Society, Mav 21. — Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, 

 president, in the chair.— C. I. Gardiner: The Silurian 

 rocks of Mav Hill. With an appendix by Dr. F. R. 

 Cowoer Reed. The district of May Hill comprises n 

 small area of ashy grits, which Dr. Callaway in. iqoo 

 considered to be of pre-Cambrian age. The evidence 

 now available does not seem to warrant anv definite 

 opinion as regards the age of these beds. Dr. Reed 



