250 



NA TURE 



[July 12, 1900 



Academy being represented on this by one member 

 only, if it concerns itself with only one of 

 the Sections of Literature or Science ; it will send 

 two delegates when it is concerned with both 

 Sections. Amongst the eighteen Academies, twelve 

 belong to both Sections and consequently will send two 

 delegates to the committee. Of the other six, four, 

 namely the Royal Society of London, the Academy of 

 Sciences of Paris, the Academy of Stockholm, and the 

 National Academy of Washington, belong to the Section 

 ■of Science alone, and two, the Academy of Inscriptions 

 and Literature, and the Academy of Moral and Political 

 Sciences, belong to the Section of Literature. Hence 

 the committee will consist of thirty delegates, of which 

 sixteen will belong to the Section of Science, and fourteen 

 to that of Literature. In full committee the two dele- 

 gates of one Academy will have only a single vote. 

 After delay, inevitable in such cases, all the Academies, 

 with the exception of two or three, have sent in the names 

 of their delegates. The delegate of the principal 

 Academy will take the chair at the committee of the 

 Association, the principal Academy being that of the 

 place in which it is proposed to hold the next general 

 meeting. 



The Conference of Wiesbaden having decided on a 

 resolution to which we can here only draw attention, that 

 the first general meeting of the International Association 

 should be held in Paris this year, a difficulty has arisen 

 not foreseen when the provisional rules were drawn up. 

 Three Parisian Academies having joined the Association, 

 it is necessary to decide to which shall be assigned the 

 Presidency on this occasion. The delegates of the three 

 Academies of the Institute of France have met, and have 

 unanimously decided to confer for this year the presidency 

 •of the Association upon the Academy of Sciences, which 

 was the first to join the Association, and, moreover, 

 has taken an active part in the discussions, at the con- 

 clusion of which the Association was constituted. 



It has been further decided that the first Session of the 

 committee shall be held in Paris towards the end of 

 July, the first meeting being fixed for Tuesday, July 31, 

 at 9.30 a.m., at the Palais de I'lnstitut. 



The agenda for the first meeting will include the 

 preparation of a scheme of government for the committee, 

 the settlement of the exact date and the order of the day 

 for the next general meeting. The Royal Society of 

 London, which has taken so active a part in the forma- 

 tion of the Association, has already announced a scheme 

 which it proposes to submit for approval to this next 

 general meeting ; it concerns the measurement of an 

 •extended arc of a meridian in the interior of Africa. 



The Academy, by the act of joining, has subscribed to 

 the rules of the new Association. There is no occasion 

 to recall here with what prudence and moderation they 

 •have been drawn up. The object of the Association is 

 to prepare and promote scientific work of general interest 

 which may be proposed by one of the constituent 

 Academies, and generally to facilitate scientific relations 

 laetween different countries. In any particular case, each 

 Academy reserves to itself the right to give or refuse 

 its support, or decide the choice of methods and the 

 means to be employed. 



If these principles are followed, the Association will 

 become a powerful instrument of study, of concord and 

 •of scientific progress ; it will rapidly take its place in the 

 front rank of those international scientific associations, 

 the r6le of which must necessarily be satisfactory. 



Faithful to the principles which they have alvyays 

 followed, the three Academies of the Institute of France, 

 •called by the nature of their studies into the Association, 

 will strive to assure it the success and mfluence which 

 have been desired for it by its promoters. 



Finally, attention may be directed to a particular 

 clause in the rules which will interest some of our 



NO. 1602, VOL. 62] 



colleagues. For taking into consideration the study or 

 preparation of scientific enterprises or researches of 

 international interest, upon the proposition of one or 

 more of the associated Academies, special international 

 commissions may be instituted either by the general 

 meeting or one of its two Sections, or, in the interval 

 between two general meetings, by the committee or one 

 of its two Sections. 



THE NEW PHYSICAL LABORATORY AT 

 OWENS COLLEGE. 



OWENS COLLEGE recently held high festival on 

 the occasion of the opening, by Lord Rayleigh, of 

 the new physics laboratories. Of these, a preliminary 

 account was given in Nature of October 27, 1898, on 

 the occasion of the laying of the foundation-stone. As 

 the size of the new building surpasses that of any other 

 physical laboratory in this country, it was fittmg that 

 the occasion should be marked by a ceremony of some 

 importance, and dignified by the presence of a number 

 of leading physicists from all parts of the country. 



The main features of the new laboratories, as planned 

 by Prof. Schuster, were described in our former article ; 

 but it remains to state how they have been carried out. 

 The new building is separated by Coupland Street from 

 the main quadrangle of buildings of which Owens College 

 consists, though it is joined to the older buildings by an 

 underground passage. It is a commodious structure, 

 having three complete storeys above the basement, with 

 simple but effective decorative features both internal and 

 external. The frontage is about no feet wide, and the 

 main building extends about 90 feet back. The ground 

 floor is devoted to rooms for electrical measurement, the 

 magnetic testing of iron, electrochemistry, a workshop 

 and a private laboratory. The first floor contains a 

 large laboratory for elementary teaching (36 feet by 44 

 feet in dimensions), a balance room, a room for chemical 

 physics, two laboratories for electricity and one for 

 optics. On the second floor is a fine lecture theatre 

 with raised auditorium, preparation room, museum and 

 apparatus room, a class-room and two smaller labora- 

 tories, and a special room fitted up for physical optics ; 

 its special feature being the equipment, designed by Sir 

 Howard Grubb, necessary for working with a 6-inch 

 Rowland grating. From this floor an upper staircase 

 leads to a small astronomical observatory containing an 

 excellent lo-inch equatorial by Cooke, the gift of Sir 

 Thomas Bazley. In the basement are rooms for spectro- 

 scopic and photographic work, a cryogenic laboratory 

 and a room for researches at constant temperature. 

 The arrangements for heating, ventilating, and for the 

 supply of gas, electricity, water, steam and compressed 

 air are exceedingly complete. In the ventilation system, 

 the air supplied through a fan and warmed by passage 

 through a flue heated by the gases of the boiler-furnaces, 

 is passed over a surface of oil to deprive it of its dust 

 and prevent blackening effects. 



A very important adjunct to this fine building is the 

 John Hopkinson memorial wing for electrotechnics. 

 This consists of two large rooms on the ground floor : 

 one (27 feet by 50 feet) to serve as a dynamo room, the 

 other an electrochemical laboratory (36 feet by yj feet), 

 together with basement rooms for gas engine, counter- 

 shaft for dynamo-driving, photometers, and heating 

 apparatus. In the dynamo room, where already are 

 placed several of Wilde's dynamos and some more recent 

 types, there is a fine bronze portrait tablet of the late 

 Dr. Hopkinson. The cost of this wing has been defrayed 

 by the parents and relations of the lamented Dr. 

 Hopkinson, who was himself an alumnus of Owens 

 College. 



The opening ceremony on the 29th ultimo began with 



