\ 



NA TURE 



[August 4, 1892 



Royal Sovereign was finished. There was nothing very startling 

 in Mr. Deadman's paper, which was none the less a useful 

 record of facts. During the discussion, however, Mr. Crompton 

 sounded a very stirring note. He roundly told the whole body 

 of important dockyard officials and Admiralty officers present, 

 including even the Director of Naval Construction, that they 

 were altogether behind the age in the matter of electricity, that 

 the French and German navies were far ahead of them, to say 

 nothing of other powers, and that generally the English 

 Government was the most benighted and non- progressive 

 Government in all the world, so far as the matter of electricity 

 was concerned ; for they paid twice as much as they ought to do 

 for an article that was not half as good as it should be. That 

 was the purport of Mr. Crompton's speech, if not the exact 

 words he used, and one cannot but acknowledge that he did not 

 speak altogether without a text. It is hard to fully account for 

 the want of enterprise in the Royal Navy, but there is one 

 point to which we might draw attention. The paper read at 

 the meeting was by a naval constructor, and electricity is, we 

 understand, within the Constructor's department. Now electri- 

 cal engineering is essentially an engineering question, and i's 

 consideration requires engineering knowledge and ability of a 

 very high order. In the early days nothing kept electric light- 

 ing back more than the had engineering that was associated with 

 it ; and thus it will always be so long as engineers are net 

 employed in carrying out the plans which are founded on the 

 researches of those more highly scientific investigators, upon 

 whose experiments and deductions the practical applications are 

 founded. 



The next paper read was Mr. Corner's contribution, in which 

 He described the lighting and hauling apparatus used at Ports- 

 mouth. These may be divided into the hydraulic installation, 

 the compressed-air appliances, and the ordinary steam cranes. 

 There are in the dockyard ninety-six boilers, which burn about 

 lo,cx)0 tons of coal per annum, but what proportion of this is 

 used for lifting and hauling we do not know. In the hydraulic 

 department there are nearly two miles of pressure pipes varying 

 from I i" to 4" in diameter. There are also some independent 

 installations, as well as the coaling arrangements for the fleet at 

 coaling point. There are here ten 30 cwt. cranes, and three 

 10 ton tips, with necessary capstan weigh-bridges. The more 

 modern lifting and hauling appliances are by compressed air, 

 the air being compressed to 60 lbs. With this pressure there 

 is little or no trouble with frost, only a little forming at the 

 exhaust in very damp weather, and altogether the pneumatic 

 .system seems to be preferred to the hydraulic. It must be 

 remembered that the power required is variable, and this of 

 course brings the advantage of the pneumatic system, in the 

 matter of working expansively, to the fore. We understood 

 Mr. Corner to say, during the discussion, that when the hydraulic 

 motors and the air-engines were both worked at their full 

 power the water system was the most economical, but 

 working linked up, under the prevailing conditions, the air 

 system was the best. The condensation of steam in the pipes is 

 the objection to the steam motor when situated at some dis- 

 tance from the boiler, otherwise steam would be the best vehicle. 

 The other papers read do not call for any special notice at our 

 hands, their titles giving a sufficient indication of their scope, 

 and there being no features of especial novelty in the matters 

 they described. 



A number of excursions had been arranged, and were carried 

 out in a very satisfactory manner. On the first day, Tuesday, 

 the 26th ult., the members visited the Dockyard, and were wel- 

 comed by the Admiral Superintendent in person. On Wed- 

 nesday the Portsmouth Sewage Works were visited, and a trip 

 was made to the Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport. On 

 Thursday a trip was made to Southampton, where the Docks 

 were inspected, and a visit was paid to the Union Steam- 

 ship Company's new engineering shops. There was an alterna- 

 tive visit to the Ordnance Survey Office. In the afternoon a 

 visit was paid to the London and South Western Railway 

 Company's new carriage and wagon shops at Eastleigh. Friday 

 was devoted wholly to frivolity, the only item on the programme 

 being a steamer trip round the Isle of Wight. On Saturday a 

 good many of the members went to Brighton to visit the loco- 

 motive works of the London, Brighton and South Coast Rail- 

 way. Largely owing to the exceptionally fine weather the 

 meeting was a great success, and, for pleasantness, may rank 

 with the Dublin meeting of three or fouryears back. 



NO. I 188, VOL. 46] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford.— The fifth summer meeting of Oxford University 

 students commenced on July 29, and will continue till August 27. 

 The general outline of the programme has already been noticed 

 in these columns, but we may notice here that the popularity 

 which has attended these gatherings shows no signs of diminish- 

 ing. It was announced by the Provost of Queen's College, who 

 presided at the inaugural lecture given by Mr. John Addington 

 Symonds, that upwards of 1250 students had come to attend 

 the lectures it was proposed' to deliver. In welcoming the 

 students to the meeting, Dr. Magrath remarked that last winter 

 60,000 students (including 10,000 artisans) regularly attended 

 the extension lectures of the various universities engaged in the 

 work. There had been 3 1 2 courses of Oxford lectures. He also 

 commended the cooperative societies of the North, and par- 

 ticularly the Co-operative Union, and mentioned the individual 

 liberality of Mr. Dixon Galpin, who had founded scholarships 

 for students from Dorset to attend this summer meeting. The 

 munificence of Mr. Galpin had been supplemented by the Dorset 

 County Council. A University Extension College had been 

 recently established at Reading, under the presidency of Mr. 

 MacKinder, an example which he hoped would be followed at 

 other centres. 



On Monday a conference was held in the Union Debating- 

 room, under the presidency of Mr. J. G. Talbot, MP., to con- 

 sider the relations between the County Councils and the 

 University extension movement. The president invited the 

 lecturers under various County Councils to express their opinion 

 as to the advantages, prospects, and difficulties which they had 

 met or encountered in the cour>e of their peripatetic teaching. 

 His own opinion was that one very successful result of these 

 lectures would be the amalgamation of the classes and the 

 masses, and he noticed that one of the candidates to whom a 

 County Council had awarded a scholarship was in the position 

 of an agricultural labourer. 



Mr. Hall, who had been a University Lecturer under the 

 Surrey County Council, cautioned the meeting against enter- 

 taining any exaggerated views of the actual information that he 

 had been able to convey to the agricultural labourers. He him- 

 self was satisfied if he could awaken a desire for knowledge in 

 the rural mind and convince the extremely conservative agri- 

 culturist that he had something to learn. 



Mr. Sells, of the Yorkshire College, Leeds, described the 

 activity of that portion of the Victoria University, and believed 

 that in the North they were in advance of the Oxford move- 

 ment in meeting the actual and practical wants of the labouring 

 section of the community. Coal-mining was taken up by them 

 with eagerness, and the agricultural lecturers carried about with 

 them the actual implements of husbandry in order to bring the 

 matter practically before their audience. The discussion was 

 continued by Mr. Sadler, secretary to the Delegacy, who said 

 that alliances had been entered into with twelve large counties 

 in the past year, and they should be proud of the achievement. 

 In his opinion they ought to give a stimulus to learning to the 

 masses, and for this reason they ought also to combine with the 

 elementary teachers. Help should also be given to individuals, 

 and it was necessary to secure the services of good men, by 

 enabling the scheme to compete with other professions in the 

 matter of the remuneration offered. 



Mr. MacKinder (University Extension Lecturer) and Dr. 

 Magrath agreed in deprecating any fixed cut and dried plan for 

 the whole country, but thought that the scheme should be 

 varied to meet the different circumstances of the various County 

 Councils. At the same time, each County Council should have 

 a definite policy. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The Quarterly yournal of Microscopical Science for March 

 1892, contains : — On a new branchiate Oligochsete {Branchiura 

 so7verbyi), by Frank E. Beddard, M.A. (plate xix.). This 

 annelid, found in mud from the " Victoria regia tank" in the 

 Royal Botanical Gardens, Regent's Park, London, is remark- 

 able for the unusual contractility of its body, which suggested a 

 leech or flat worm rather than a Choetopod. It consists of 

 about 120 segments. When magnified the orange-coloured 

 digestive tract traversed by the bright blood vessels is seen, and 



