64 



NATURE 



[May 2 1, 190- 



in connection with Anderson's College by its then president. 

 Dr. James Young, referred to above — Allan Glen's Institu- 

 tion, and the Atkinson Institution were amalgamated to 

 form the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. 

 The main object of the governors of the reconstituted in- 

 stitution has been from the first " to afford a suitable educa- 

 tion to those who wished to qualify themselves for follow- 

 ing an industrial profession or trade " ; it is not the purpose 

 of the College to supersede the ordinary apprenticeship, but 

 rather to supplement it, and the courses for day students 

 in engineering are arranged to permit of their spending 

 the summer months in serving part of their apprenticeship, 

 while devoting the winter months to college work. 



The maintenance of the institution entails an annual 

 expenditure of about 25,000/., derived in appro.vimately 

 equal proportions from endowments, students' fees. Govern- 

 ment grants, and grants from the Corporation of Glasgow 

 and other public bodies. 



The College work has hitherto been conducted in the 

 buildings formerly occupied by the amalgamated institu- 

 tions and in hired premises scattered over the centre of the 

 city, but these have long been inadequate, and for some 

 years it has been necessary to refuse admission to hundreds 

 of students for lack of room. So serious is the want of 

 accommodation that a gift of 5000Z. by Mrs. John Elder 

 to make provision for lectures of a popular character on 

 descriptive astronomy cannot be utilised under existing con- 

 ditions, and contemplated extensions in other directions 

 are meanwhile impossible for similar reasons. In 

 December, 1900, a meeting of the citizens was convened 

 by the Lord Provost of Glasgow to consider the scheme 

 which the Governors, after full deliberation on the various 

 alternatives, had adopted for the erection of new buildings. 

 A committee was formed to obtain subscriptions, and in 

 less than two years a sum of nearly i8o,oooZ. was raised. 



The Governors appointed Mr. David Barclay, F.R.I.B.A., 

 to be their architect, and they are satisfied that he has 

 designed buildings admirably adapted to the purpose in 

 view. They will consist of five large wings, two being 

 parallel to George Street ; the other three will be placed 

 at right angles to them, and parallel to Montrose Street. 

 The walls facing the streets will be of red Dumfriesshire 

 stone ; all the other exterior walls will be of white enamelled 

 brick, thus securing a surface which will give the greatest 

 amount of light to the rooms facing the three interior 

 courts. 



The following table indicates the main departments of 

 the College, and, approximately, the space (in square feet) 

 allotted to each : — mathematics, 5500 ; natural philosophy, 

 10,400 ; chemistry, 16,500 ; technical chemistry, 7500 ; 

 mechanics, 10,000 ; machine design, 10,000 ; prime movers, 

 15,100; metallurgy, 4800; electrical engineering, 15,900; 

 practical engineering, 4000 ; mining and geology, 3400 ; 

 architecture and building construction, 7700 ; biology, 

 3200 ; industrial arts, 4000 ; workshops, 7900 ; bakery school, 

 2100; administration, library, general class-rooms, &c., 

 37,000. 



The prime movers laboratory, the dynamo laboratory, 

 and the practical engineering laboratory will be placed at 

 the bottom of the interior courts, and will be lighted entirely 

 from glass roofs. The chemical departments will occupy 

 practically the whole of the top floor, and will contain 

 several large laboratories and other similar rooms set apart 

 for special purposes. The plan of confining each depart- 

 ment to one floor has been followed throughout, with a view 

 to promote efficiency in working. 



The buildings will be the largest of the kind in Great 

 Britain, and will cover nearly two acres ; their cost, with 

 the site, but exclusive of the equipment, will amount to 

 about 2io,oooL Meantime, contracts have been made for 

 the erection of the first section of the buildings, comprising 

 nearly three-fourths of the whole. 



The inadequacy of the present buildings for the work of 

 a technical institution has been long felt by teachers and 

 students, but there are many scattered all over the world 

 who have a grateful remembrance of the instruction and 

 guidance they obtained in these old-fashioned rooms ; there 

 is every reason to hope that with improved facilities for 

 work there will be quickened zeal to take advantage of 

 them. G. A. G. 



NO. I 75 I, VOL. 68] 



NOTES. 



We are glad to know that steps have been taken to secure 

 and erect a memorial of the late Sir George Stokes in 

 Westminster Abbey. At a meeting of a joint committee 

 of the University of Cambridge and the Royal Society, held 

 on March 12, the Duke of Devonshire being in the chair, 

 it was resolved that the authority of the Dean and Chapter 

 of Westminster be requested to place a medallion relief 

 portrait of Sir George Stokes in the Abbey of the same 

 general character as the memorials of Darwin and other 

 scientific men already there. A letter has since been 

 received from the Dean of Westminster expressing his- 

 general assent to the proposal and his willingness to take 

 detailed plans into consideration. Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, 

 R.A., has undertaken to prepare a medallion, the material 

 to be bronze, and the head to be in high relief. It is- 

 estimated that the cost of placing this memorial in West- 

 minster Abbey will be about 400Z., and as there are doubt- 

 less many admirers of Stokes who would like to contribute 

 to the fund being raised for the purpose of the memorial 

 to him, a subscription list has been opened. The treasurers 

 of the fund are the Vice-Chancellor of the University of 

 Cambridge and the treasurer of the Royal Society. Sub- 

 scriptions should be made payable to Messrs. Barclay and 

 Co., Ltd., and should be sent either to them at their Cam- 

 bridge branch or to the treasurer of the Royal Society. 



The two gold Hofmann medals, established in 1888 in 

 connection with the seventieth birthday of August Wilhelm 

 von Hofmann, for award to distinguished foreign men of 

 science, have been conferred by the German Chemical 

 Society upon Prof. Henri Moissan and Sir William Ramsay. 



The centenary of the announcement of the atomic theory 

 by Dalton was celebrated at Manchester on Tuesday and 

 Wednesday. We propose to publish an account of the 

 celebration in our next number with an article upon the 

 atomic theory. 



The Royal Society of Edinburgh will hold a conversazione 

 in the rooms of the Royal Institution, Edinburgh, on 

 Saturday, June 6. 



An International Exhibition will be opened at Athens on 

 June 3, and will last six months. The British exhibits, as 

 at present arranged, will occupy 500 square metres, and will 

 consist mainly of engines, ship-models, and guns. 



The Central News Agency reports that, according to a 

 despatch from the city of Mexico, the Colima volcano is- 

 again in active eruption. 



During the week beginning June i, Prof. J. J. Thomson, 

 F.R.S., Cavendish professor of experimental physics in the 

 University of Cambridge, will, says Science, give a course 

 of lectures in the physical laboratory of the Johns Hopkins 

 University on " A Theory of the Arc and Spark Discharges." 



Mr. W. L. Sclater left England last week to resume his 

 duties as director of the South African Museum at Cape 

 Town. Before his departure he was presented with an 

 address signed by nearly six hundred members of the Zoo- 

 logical Society, testifying to the tact and ability shown by 

 him while occupying the post of secretary, to which he was 

 provisionally elected. 



A MARBLE bust of George Stephenson was unveiled at the 

 railway station at Rome on April 23. The bust was pre- 

 sented by the Institution of Civil Engineers to the munici- 

 pality of Rome as a supplement to the tablet placed in the 

 vestibule of the railway station at Rome in 1881 to com- 

 memorate the centenary of the birth of the father of the 

 railway system. 



