602 



NA TURE 



[OcTOr.ER 2 2, 190;; 



events, the existence of directional properties of the 

 ether determined by the regular arrangement of the 

 grains, and the finity or infinity of extent of the 

 medium. It may be confidently anticipated that Prof. 

 Osborne Reynolds's granular medium will play an im- 

 portant part in the physics of the future. It is, how- 

 ever, to be hoped that the subject will receive careful 

 and critical study in the hands of numerous mathe- 

 matical physicists, and that it will not be left for the 

 experimenter and philosopher blindly to accept Prof. 

 Reynolds's doctrines as the basis of speculations about 

 things which they do not understand. The practice of 

 assuming statements to be true because Maxwell made 

 them has been too prevalent in the past, and there is 

 not very much difference between those who adopt this 

 attitude and writers who publish papers at their own 

 expense to show that the earth is not round or that 

 gravitation does not exist. The dogmatic statements 

 of the former class of philosopher often afford plenty 

 of material for the abusive attacks of the latter. 



G. H. Bryan. 



THE EFFECT OF EDUCATION AND 

 LEGISLATION ON TRADE. 

 T N his second presidential address to the Society of 

 ■»• Chemical Industry at its annual meeting held in 

 Bradford, Mr. Levinstein again addressed himself to 

 the subject of education. He thinks that almost too 

 much importance has been attached to education as 

 being the only factor which has caused the industrial 

 progress and superiority, in certain classes of 

 merchandise, of_ Germany in comparison with this 

 country. Attention is therefore directed to other con- 

 siderations which he considers have also to be taken 

 into account, such as the unification of the various 

 German States after the Franco-German war, which, 

 of course, gave an internal free trade to the German 

 nation, the nationalisation of the railways and canals, 

 and the protective patent laws. 

 _ He then refers to America, which he does not con- 

 sider to be a better educated countrv than our own. 

 Naturally the new Education Act of 1902 comes under 

 review. _ Mr. Levinstein is doubtful, as are many 

 others, if the Bill will advance secondarv education, 

 because the number of persons appointed to the 

 councils who represent secondarv education is ex- 

 ceedingly small. No remark is made upon another 

 aspect of the case, namely, that a great many of those 

 appomted know practically nothing about primary, and 

 still less about secondary education. In some cases 

 which have come before our notice, persons of little 

 education (beyond their own inflated opinion of them- 

 selves), but desirous of local fame, and having plenty 

 of " push," have brought themselves forward and been 

 elected, while those who reallv are educated, and know 

 what education means, have been passed by. 



The raising of secondarv education to a 'really high 

 and uniform standard will be extremely costlv. But 

 the expenditure on primarv education, according to the 

 provisions of the new Act, will absorb such a large 

 amount of the ratepayers' monev that thev will be 

 disinclined to incur further expenditure in" order to 

 make it really efficient. No student can enter a 

 German technical college without passing an extremely 

 searching and thorough examination. In Great 

 Britain the total number of students, from fifteen years 

 and upwards, taking complete dav technological 

 courses is 3873; probably not more than 10 per cent, 

 could pass the entrance examination of Charlotten- 

 burg. 



As an illustration of what Manchester is doing in 

 the way of technical training, Mr. Levinstein gives an 

 account of " the department for preparing, bleaching, 



NO. 1773, VOL. 68] 



dyeing, printing, mercerising and finishing textiles, 

 together with the manufacture of paper." There is 

 no dabbling here with manufacture in a test tube, such 

 as we see in some of our educational institutes. The 

 department is lodged in a separate building apart 

 from the school of technology. It is fitted with the 

 latest and most up-to-date machinery, taken from this 

 country and abroad. As all the machinery is driven 

 by separate motors, there will be no difficulty in re- 

 placing it, as it becomes out of date and obsolete, by 

 means of newer and more modern machinery. 



In this country we excel in the production of first- 

 class yarn and cloth, made from first-class raw 

 material. These goods will alwavs fetch a good price. 

 But within the last quarter of a century a demand has 

 sprung up for cheap imitations, made from inferior 

 materials, but which must have the external appear- 

 ance of the first-class article. It is in the weighting 

 of silk, the intermixing of fibres and the manufacture 

 of imitation velvets that the foreigner excels. But 

 the demand is enormous, and if we would hold our 

 own in the markets of the world, we must learn how 

 to manufacture these cheap goods. The British manu- 

 facturer must learn to adapt himself to the times and 

 to the tastes and wishes of the consumer. 



Manufacturers have often refused to employ t 

 chemists, except as "testing machines," because the I 

 chemist is so often only a theorist, sometimes not even ' 

 that, and understands absolutely nothing about 

 machinery. This excuse will, however, soon be no 

 longer tenable. Students who have passed through 

 the department just mentioned at the Manchester 

 Technical School should be fully qualified to take a 

 position not only in dye, bleach, print, mercerising, or 

 finishing works, but also in paper mills. They will 

 have not only a knowledge of chemistry, but also of 

 niachinerv. It is a pity that technical institutes do 

 not make it compulsory for those who intend to be- 

 come works chemists to include in the syllabus a 

 course in engineering, both practical and theoretical. 



Referring to the " Patent Law Amendment Act," 

 Mr. Levinstein has great hopes that satisfactory re- 

 sults will accrue to our manufacturers. The chief 

 clause in the Act, and one for which British manu- 

 facturers have been agitating for many years, is that 

 which deals with the granting of licences. Hitherto 

 the foreigner could patent anything he chose, manu- 

 facture It abroad, and " dump " it down here, without 

 his being under any obligation to manufacture It on 

 British soil. And it was a matter of great difficulty 

 to compel him to grant a licence to a British firm to 

 manufacture the goods. Under the new Act, if he 

 does not manufacture in this country, he can be com- 

 pelled to grant a licence for the manufacture of the 

 product, or failing this his patent may be declared 

 void. 



It is only aftef more than twenty years of_ agitation 

 that this Act has been passed. Mr. Levinstein reviews 

 the pioneering work which had to be done before the 

 inertia of the Board of Trade was overcome. 



Finallv, the difficult and vexed question of foreign 

 tariffs Is dealt with. Mr. Levinstein considers that 

 the reasons we have not made greater headway, so far 

 as our export trade is concerned, are :^our education 

 has been at fault, our patent laws were bad, and foreign 

 tariffs have often been prohibitive ; and we would add 

 the want of adaptability of some of our manfacturers. 

 The Government is also exceedingly slack in making 

 known to our traders, at the earliest moment possible, 

 changes in foreign tariffs. Interested Continental 

 traders learn at once, through their Minister of Com- 

 merce, not only changes which have taken place, but 

 changes which are contemplated. But the wheels of 

 our Government, in respect to information which may 



