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NATURE 



[July 17, 1919 



seems to connote something- mysterious and apart 

 from ordinary modes of thought or practice, 

 whilst, as Huxley pointed out longf ago, science 

 is just common knowledge, but exact and purified 

 from error whether in observation or inference- 

 In the words of the pamphlet, science should be 

 "treated as one of the humanities or a record of 

 the progress of human thought applied to the 

 solutions of the problems of Nature." 



Sir Joseph Thomson's Committee, the report of 

 which is largely the theme of this publication, 

 states : " We are by no means sure that the 

 popular interest in science is as great to-day as it 

 was thirty years ago." This is a point which 

 might well be regarded as debatable, in view of 

 the constant talk about the marvels of modern 

 scientific discovery and invention, but that ignor- 

 ance still prevails in unexpected quarters is quite 

 true. It seems necessary that the education of 

 those especially who are likely to become members 

 of the ruling- class should be so far rectified that in 

 the next generation it can no longer be said that 

 the Ministry of the Crown is from top to bottom 

 ignorant of the most rudimentary ideas in this 

 direction. 



As concerns the subject of the other pamphlet 

 under notice, there is much here that .deserves 

 careful thought. We may agree that "the real 

 enemy of education is want of faith in its value," 

 and deplore the general tendency to look for 

 purely utilitarian results. We may agree that " if 

 there is one thing more certain than another it is 

 that the AUies won the war because their moral 

 ideals were higher than those of Germany," 

 while we may demur to the assumption that these 

 arise to any preponderant extent out of the study 

 of the Greek and Latin classics. 



The pamphlet is composed in a laudable spirit 

 of liberality towards other studies, and it is well 

 that each side should remember that "one mind 

 responds best to one stimulus and one to 

 another," but it remains clear that a mind 

 nourished on purely literary material, while care- 

 less of the physical universe, is not only deprived 

 of one great source of delight, but is also in- 

 capable of perceiving many of the influences which 

 are at work in shaping human destinies. 



THE RETURN OF i? 34. 



THE rigid airship R 34 has successfully accom- 

 plished the return flight from New York to 

 Pulham, in Norfolk, where it landed safely on 

 July 13, having left Long Island on July 10. As 

 might have been expected from the direction of 

 the prevailing winds, the return journey was made 

 in considerably less time than the outward cross- 

 ing, occupying only 75 hours, as against 108 for 

 the previous flight. The highest speed recorded 

 on the return crossing was 72 knots, or nearly 

 83 miles per hour. One of the engines broke 

 down completely in mid-Atlantic, but this did not 

 seriously hamper the airship, the full power of 

 which was only used when severe head-winds 

 were encountered. Major Scott's account of the 

 NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 



voyage seems to indicate that thick fogs are the 

 airship's worst enemy, preventing, as they do, 

 the observations which are required to determine 

 the course. A dead reckoning by compass and 

 air-speed indicator is still possible in a fog, but 

 this only gives the course relatively to the air, 

 and takes no account of the motion of the air 

 relatively to the earth. 



The start homeward was hurriedly arranged to 

 prevent the airship being caught in a gale at her 

 moorings, and the strong westerly wind which 

 was blowing at the time enabled R 34 to make 

 rapid headway on her course eastwards. Weather 

 conditions on the homeward passage were very 

 similar to those prevailing over the Atlantic 

 during the outward voyage, but the more 

 southerly route followed on the western side of 

 the ocean led to the avoidance of much bad 

 weather. Anticyclonic conditions have prevailed 

 over the open Atlantic for some time past, but 

 a change may reasonably be expected soon. After 

 the summer weather conditions have broken up, 

 Atlantic flight by any class of machine will prob- 

 ably be in abeyance for several months. The 

 Times of July 15 says : — 



Some remarkable wireless signals were exchanged 

 during the voyage of the R 34. The Royal Air Force 

 station at Dundee exchanged signals at 1000 miles. 

 The R 34 sent messages at iioo miles that were read 

 by the Air Ministry and by Wormwood Scrubs at 

 1 135 miles, and by Ballybunion at 1600 miles. In 

 one case, w^hen the R34 was approaching America, a 

 signal was sent to her from the Air Ministry through 

 Clifden, and a reply received via St. John's, Glace 

 Bay, Clifden, and Marconi House, and then to the 

 Air Minis'try, all in twenty minutes — a very fine 

 example of wireless telegraphy work. 



The double crossing of the R 34 must be 

 regarded as a very great achievement in the 

 history of aeronautics, a flight of 7600 miles in 

 two stages being an enormous advance on previ- 

 ous records. The airship has also abundantly 

 proved its capability to withstand fairly severe 

 weather without mishap. The possibility of com- 

 mercial trans-Atlantic airships seems to be mainly 

 governed by the question of speed. The cost of 

 transport is at present very much higher for air- 

 craft than for even the most rapid means of land 

 and sea communication, and it is only in virtue 

 of high speed that aircraft will find their use in 

 the commercial world — at any rate for the next 

 few years. The question is further complicated 

 by the fact that airships may meet adverse winds 

 having velocities equal to, or even greater than, 

 their own maximum speed, wTiereas the ocean 

 liner has only to contend against currents of very 

 low velocity compared with its own steaming 

 speed. The airship, like the steamship, is most 

 economical to run at low speeds, and analogy 

 would lead one to expect that only by greatly 

 increasing the Size of airships can high speed 

 and commercial success be attained, exactly as 

 has been the case with the ocean liner. What- 

 ever the future may hold in store, we cannot fail 

 to admire the wonderful achievement of the R 34, 



