June 26, 1919] 



NATURE 



327 



Brig^hton for enabling- men partially disabled in the 

 war to be trained in the craft of cutting gem- 

 stones, and especially diamonds. 



Of what in the trade are known as fancy stones, 

 the most popular during the year under review 

 appear to have been sapphire and emerald. Ruby 

 still remains under a cloud, probably owing to the 

 competition of the synthetical product. The 

 Burmese jade, which is worked by Chinese and 

 Japanese artificers, has been in considerable 

 demand. Gem-stones, on account of their hard- 

 ness, find a use in industry. The diamond drill is 

 a familiar instance, but it may not be so well 

 known that some electric motors have jewelled 

 bearings; one factory in the United States used 

 for that purpose no less than a ton of sapphire 

 material. 



Among the new occurrences of gem-stones 

 referred to by Dr. Kunz may be mentioned opal, 

 with an emerald-green to apple-green plav of 

 colour, from Hosaka, Japan; black opal from 

 Stuarts Range Field, South Australia ; and chryso- 

 lite from Lac La Hache, British Columbia, which 

 has been found in ten-carat stones. Dr. Kunz 

 makes no reference to the beautiful blue zircons 

 from India, which form one of the most interesting 

 novelties in London jewelry of recent years ; but, 

 perhaps owing to the interruption of the ordinary 

 trade channels, these stones had not, at least in 

 any quantity, reached New York. 



NOTES. 



Additional interest has been given to the forth- 

 coming commemoration of the centenary of the death 

 of James Watt by the movement just inaugurated in 

 Glasgow to found locally a James Watt chair of 

 engineering at the University. Birmingham engineers 

 decided sorne time ago that a similarly named chair 

 should be installed in the University of their citv, 

 besides holding a centenary comniemoration and 

 erecting an international memorial to the three great 

 pioneers, Watt, Boulton, and Murdock. The com- 

 memoration in Birmingham will be held on Sep- 

 tember 16-18. London, Glasgow, and Greenock, and, 

 indeed, all parts of the country, are heartily co- 

 operating, and, with few exceptions, the universities 

 and scientific societies, together with many manu- 

 facturers and individual eminent men, are associating 

 themselves with the scheme. In the Science Museum 

 at South Kensington steps are being taken to arrange 

 a comprehensive exhibition of Watt relics. In Bir- 

 mingham the Watt relics existing there, which have 

 so carefully been preserved by the forethought of Mr. 

 George Tangye, and were a few years back presented 

 to the city, will be completely re-arranged and displayed 

 with many additions. Two pumping-engines made 

 by Boulton and Watt will be seen ; one, the first sold 

 by the makers in 1776, will be actually shown under 

 steam, and raising water. A memorial ser\'ice will be 

 held in the Parish Church at Handsworth, where the 

 three contemporaries are buried. A garden-party will 

 be held in the park at Heathfield Hall, where the 

 garret workshop still remains as Watt left it. Lec- 

 tures will be delivered by eminent men and a cen- 

 tenary dinner held. Some doubt seems to have been 

 raised with regard to the claims of Birmingham to 

 an international memorial. It should be remembered, 

 however, that Watt's association with Boulton led to 



NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 



the success of his engine. Boulton 's factory was 

 famous for workmanship throughout Europe. ' It is 

 true that Watt conceived his first ideas whilst work- 

 ing at the University in Glasgow, but he gained no 

 practical success until he went to Birmingham. He 

 spent the best part of his life there, including the 

 evening of his days after he retired from business. 

 The foundations he laid by scientific thought and care- 

 ful study have resulted in the great and universal 

 application of steam, and the appeal comes appro- 

 priately from Birmingham for an international 

 memorial to him. 



The Wilbur Wright memorial lecture was given on 

 June 18 at the Royal Societ\- of Arts by Mr. Leonard 

 Bairstow. The subject was "The Progress of Avia- 

 tion in the War Period," and the lecture commenced 

 with a resume of the progress made during the last 

 five years, and a discussion of the possibilities of the 

 present-day aeroplane for commercial purc>oses. By 

 far the most interesting part of the lecture was that 

 dealing with stability. An account was given of the 

 use of the acceierometer to record the acceleration of 

 a machine during any manoeuvre, and of the informa- 

 tion which has been obtamed from its readings. Onlv 

 in rare cases is the acceleration such as to reduce the 

 pilot's apparent weight to zero, and in the majority 

 of "stunts" he is pressed into his seat by a force 

 greater than his normal weight. Mr. Bairstow ex- 

 hibited a gyroscopic model which clearly showed the 

 nature of stable and unstable oscillations, and then 

 showed some lantern -slides made from acceierometer 

 records, in which these types of oscillation had been 

 observed on actual aeroplanes. He strongly em- 

 phasised the necessity for a thorough investigation of 

 all the problems connected with the stability of aero- 

 planes, and expressed a hope that, now the war is 

 ended, systematic research will be put in hand to 

 provide fundamental data which will enable the 

 scientific designer to treat stability with the same 

 degree of certainty as he is now able to compute the 

 performance of a machine. Mr. Bairstow 's opinions 

 on this point are of great interest, as he was the first 

 to apply the results of wind-tunnel experiments on 

 models to the complete calculation of the stability' of 

 a machine. 



At the summer meeting of the Anatomical Society, 

 held at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, on 

 June 21, Major E. Distin Maddick exhibited a series 

 of moving films which he had prepared to illustrate 

 the application of the kinema to the teaching of 

 anatomy. During the war Major Maddick designed 

 and prepared many films for the use of cadets of the 

 Royal Air Force, showing the building up and dis- 

 mantling of aeroplanes and of aercHjlane engines. In 

 these films the spectator saw the various machines 

 taken to pieces and the parts again assembled, ex- 

 hibited and built up at a rate suitable to permit a 

 demonstrator to name the various parts and explain 

 their uses. It was this method which Major Maddick, 

 who is a member of the College of Surgeons, has 

 applied to the teaching of anatomy. His films show 

 a human skeleton which turns its various aspects to the 

 audience and then begins slowly to disintegrate until 

 only the spinal column is left. The parts then begin 

 to assemble, and part by part the skeleton is again 

 built up. For large audiences desirous of becoming 

 acquainted with the elements of human anatomy 

 Major Maddick's films will serve a most excellent pur- 

 pose, and are certain of a welcome by our soldiers in 

 France and on the Rhine. The members of the 

 .Vnatomical Society, while admiring the excellence of 

 the technique shown by Major Maddick's films, ex- 

 pressed the hope thru he would extend its application. 



