August 28, 19 19] 



NATURE 



507 



'IHE JAMES WATT CENTENARY COM- 

 MEMORATION AT BIRMINGHAM. 



THE arrangements for the James Watt cen- 

 tenary commemoration are now practically 

 complete, the general scheme being set forth in a 

 pamphlet issued by the Centenary Committee. The 

 form which the memorial is to take is threefold :- — 

 (i) To endow a professorship of engineering, to 

 be known as the James Watt chair, at the Univer- 

 sity of Birmingham, for the promotion of research 

 in the fundamental principles underlying the pro- 

 duction of power, and the study of the conserva- 

 tion of the natural sources of energy ; (2) to erect 

 a James Watt memorial building to serve as a 

 museum for collecting together examples of the 

 work of James Watt and his contemporaries, 

 Boulton and Murdock, as a meeting place and 

 library for scientific and technical societies, and as 

 a centre from which engineers could co-operate in 

 spreading scientific knowledge ; and (3) to publish 

 a memorial volume. 



The success of the memorial will depend upon 

 the response to the appeal for funds, and we are 

 glad to note that assurances of support have come 

 not only from all parts of the British Isles, but also 

 from France and America. As indicated in our 

 issue of May 15, we attach special importance to 

 the foundation of the James Watt chair of 

 engineering, and we can imagine no better 

 memorial to the great engineer than the creation 

 of a school of research so endowed as to attract 

 both a professor of exceptional ability and also the 

 most brilliant students, of whatever class. Such 

 a scheme would require an endowment on a scale 

 altogether greater than that which is usually asso- 

 ciated with chairs in universities, but it should 

 be possible to raise the necessary money — 

 especially with the sympathetic help of America, 

 which of recent years has shown not only a ready 

 appreciation of the value of scientific research, but 

 also a generosity in its endowment which has been 

 more admired than imitated in this country. It 

 must always be remembered that the vital factor 

 in research is the man, and every possible induce- 

 ment should be offered to secure the best men, 

 both as directors and students. 



The commemoration ceremonies are to extend 

 over the three days, September 16-18, and the 

 official programme includes a garden-party at 

 ^^*att's house (where his workshop can be 

 seen in the state in which he left it in 1819), 

 and visits to Soho Foundry and to two of his 

 engines (one of which, the first pumping engine 

 built for sale by Boulton and Watt in 1776, will 

 be seen at work). A degree congregation is to be 

 held by the University at which honorary degrees 

 will be conferred on distinguished engineers and 

 men of science. 



The committee has issued a short pamphlet (by 

 Prof. F. W. Burstall) in which an appreciation is 

 given of the salient facts in the life of Watt, and 

 of his epoch-making association with his colleagues 

 Boulton and Murdock. 



NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 



All who desire to attend the commemoration are 

 asked to communicate not later than August 31 

 with the Hon. Sec, James Watt Centenary Com- 

 mittee, Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham. 



ANDREW CARNEGIE. 



MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE, the munificent 

 benefactor of popular education in this 

 country and in America, died on August 11, at 

 Lenox, Massachusetts, in his eighty-fourth year. 

 The son of a Chartist weaver in Dunfermline, Mr. 

 Carnegie emigrated to the United States in 1848. 

 From the humblest beginnings he rose during the 

 Civil War to an important charge in the depart- 

 ment of military transport and telegraphs. Then, 

 by way of subserving his railroad and bridge- 

 building plans, he created vast iron and steel works 

 at Pittsburgh, carried on by means of a company 

 the capital of which reached 25 millions, and which 

 employed 40,000 men. He was bought out for 

 some 50,000,000^ by the Steel Trust in the early, 

 'nineties. 



Mr. Carnegie thenceforward retired from busi- 

 ness, and gave himself up to the wise disposal for 

 public objects of his immense fortune. He was a 

 convinced democrat; he proclaimed his conviction 

 that "to die rich is to die disgraced " ; and he 

 consistently set himself to discover ways of apply- 

 ing his wealth for the uplifting of the people. In 

 Pittsburgh he founded institutions for higher 

 education, art and music, and popular culture, on 

 a princely scale. To his native Dunfermline he 

 gave libraries, parks, baths, and schools of 

 hygiene and domestic science. For the Univer- 

 sities of Scotland he founded a Trust with a capital 

 of two millions, the income, in equal shares, being 

 assigned respectively to their better equipment 

 in all modern subjects (he characteristically ex- 

 cluded classics, theology, and law), and to the 

 payment of class-fees for all Scottish students of 

 any faculty who asked for this help and were 

 qualified to profit by it. The fund has provided 

 not only 'for great extensions in the university 

 staffs and buildings, but also for an endowment 

 of advanced study and research in science, 

 economics, modern languages, and history, which 

 has largely transformed Scottish university activi- 

 ties. The well-meant fee-fund has doubtless been 

 of great benefit to individual students, but as 

 Scottish fees are not high, and never really deter- 

 rent, the direct effect in increasing the student 

 population has not been striking. The indirect 

 effect on the schools, due to the requirement that 

 beneficiaries shall have completed a sound 

 secondary education before entering the uni- 

 versity, has been wholly advantageous. 



Shortly before the war Mr. Carnegie established 

 a United Kingdom Trust with an endowment of 

 two millions, the income to be expended in pro- 

 viding public libraries, encouraging popular music, 

 and generally in aiding or initiating schemes for 

 the welfare of the "masses of the people." The 

 Trustees took over the numerous promises pro- 



