34 



NATURE 



[May n, 189c 



window-bench. This bench, however, is chiefly used for 

 titration work, and therefore shelves are affixed to the 

 wall some distance above it on either side, on which large 

 bottles are placed containing the standard solutions. 



It will be seen from Figs. 2 and 3 that a sink is placed 

 at the end of the bench on the one side, and that there is 

 a desk on the opposite side ; adjoining this desk is an 

 ice cupboard let into the bench, on the cover of which a 

 balance for weighing out substances used in the experi- 

 ments is placed. By the provision of such an ice cup- 

 board at every place a great saving of ice has been 

 effected : it is not only available for the storage of ice — 

 nowadays an indispensable laboratory agent — but things 

 can be kept cool in it even over long periods, over Sun- 

 day for example. 



Four differently coloured pipes for water, gas, com- 

 pressed air and vacuum run along the ceiling, and from 

 these branch pipes are carried down the columns to the 

 benches ; taps are provided in a convenient situation, so 

 that, if necessary, the supply of water, &c., to a bench 

 may be at once shut off. The water pipes are covered 

 with flannel to prevent the water which condenses on 

 them from dropping down. Each working place is pro- 

 vided with 4 taps for compressed air, 4 vacuum taps, 11 

 water taps, 14 gas taps for heating purposes, and 9 gas 

 burners in case of a failure of the electric light. A steam 

 pipe runs along the wall, from which there are branch 

 pipes connected with " purifiers," conveying steam to 

 each of the large water baths before referred to, and to 

 a valve under the hood adjoining the closet. 



A shower bath depends from the ceiling at either end 

 of each of the large laboratories for use in case of the 

 clothes of any of the chemists or laboratory attendants 

 catching fire. 



Every bottle on the shelves is not only clearly labelled, 

 but is also numbered, so that it is easy for the lad who 

 has to keep the place clean and in order, however igno- 

 rant he may be, to arrange them properly, and more- 

 over, each particular chemical occupies the same position 

 in the row of bottles in every place in the laboratory. 



Each chemist has a lad to assist him who washes all 

 vessels, keeps the benches clean and the apparatus in 

 order ; in fact, does generally what he is told, even help- 

 ing in the experiments. In addition, there are three 

 lads under the supervision of an older laboratory servant 

 in each laboratory, who at once avail themselves of any 

 opportunity offered by the absence of the staff to " tidy 

 up " in regions not specially committed to the charge of 

 the young assistants. The order and cleanliness— extend- 

 ing even to keeping the leaden bench tops polished — thus 

 secured is most remarkable. 



Each chemist is so completely screened from his neigh- 

 bour " next door," that he is not only able to work 

 undisturbed, but practically in secret ; he is only open to 

 observation from the place on the opposite side of the 

 main gangway, and the chemists are usually so placed 

 that of the two working at these benches either the one is 

 a junior under the direction of the other, or they are 

 working in co-operation. 



As a further illustration of the perfection of the arrange- 

 ments I may quote from an account before nie of a visit 

 to the laboratory a description of the steps taken to put 

 out a fire. A crack is suddenly heard and flames and a 

 dense cloud of smoke are seen to ascend from one of the 

 benches ; all the chemists in the room at once rush to the 

 spot. The particular chemist is found to be unhurt, but 

 the clothes of his laboratory boy are on fire ; instantly he 

 is dragged to the shower bath, and the fire is at once put 

 out. Meanwhile the laboratory servant has given the 

 alarm by means of the electric fire alarm provided in the 

 room, and within two minutes the twelve men on duty of 

 the twenty-four members of the works fire brigade appear 

 in full uniform. Those present, however, by turning on 

 all the water taps in the neighbourhood of the fire and 



NO. 1228, VOL. 48] 



directing the water on to the burning bench had already 

 extinguished the flames. The room is filled with a dense 

 black fog, but by opening the windows and a valve in the 

 main ventilation system near the ceiling this is very soon 

 got rid of. The origin of the accident was simple enough ; 

 a young chemist, fresh from the University, unaccustomed 

 to work with large quantities, had allowed his laboratory 

 boy to heat a couple of litres of the hydrocarbon toluene, 

 which he was using in recrystallising a substance, in a 

 glass flask, over a bare flame. 



Another striking feature in the large laboratories is a 

 series of brass valves arranged along the wall under a 

 hood opposite the bench for general use ; the labels 

 under these valves bear the names oxygen, carbon 

 dioxide, chlorine, sulphur dioxide, phosgene, methyl 

 chloride, hydrogen and ammonia. These various 

 gases, compressed in cylinders enclosed in cupboards in 

 the basement, can be used at any time by communicating 

 through a speaking tube to the man in charge of the store^ 

 department, who then opfens the valve on the cylinder i 

 containing the required gas, so that it only remains for 

 the chemist to open the valve in the laboratory. 



In the lower laboratory one place only is distinguished 

 from all the others, being fitted up for electro-chemical 

 work with the necessary current-measuring instruments, ' 

 a series of about fifty glow lamps bemg arranged as 

 resistances. 



In the balance-room, besides balances, there is a large 

 arc lamp with special lenses designed by Prof, von Perger, 

 ofVienna, used in ascertainingthe effect of light on colours 

 — in these days sunlight can no longer satisfy the needs 

 of German industrial enterprise ! Colorimeters, spectro- 

 scopes, and other apparatus are also to be found in this 

 room. Colour chemists are not fond of making analyses 

 if it be possible to characterise substances by any other 

 means ; the combustion furnaces are therefore but little 

 used, and a number of ovens in which pressure tubes 

 are heated have supplanted most of them. 



Adjoining the research laboratories there is a " tech- 

 nical laboratory " full of apparatus exactly like that in 

 use in the works, but of much smaller size. Here experi- 

 ments are carried out on a somewhat larger scale than in 

 the laboratory prior to the processes being effected on the 

 large scale in the works ; and the staff in this laboratory 

 are also engaged in making many of the chemicals re- 

 quired to replenish the stores for use in the research 

 laboratories. 



The stores are in charge of two superintendents, one 

 of whom is educated as a glass-blower. It is worth men- 

 tioning also that all thermometers, prior to their issue 

 from the store, are there compared with a normal ther- 

 mometer. 



The laboratory was designed by my friend Dr. C. 

 Duisberg, the director, the necessary architectural assist- 

 ance being afforded by Herr Bormann, architect to the 

 works. 



The foregoing is but a very imperfect account of this 

 marvellous works research laboratory. A more typical 

 and concrete illustration of the appreciation of the value 

 of science by German manufacturers, however, could not 

 possibly be found, but yet it is only one of many that 

 might be brought forward. Personally I can only say, 

 that while lamenting the criminal short-sightedness 

 of my countrymen, I am lost in admiration of the enter- 

 prise displayed by their foreign competitors : it cannot be 

 denied that they deserve to succeed ! 



Henry E. Armstrong. 



ELECTRO-OPTICS. 



THE experimental and theoretical investigations of the 

 last twenty years have lent a new interest to what, I 

 venture to think, is one of the most fascinating branches 



