i84 



NATURE 



[April 27, 19 16 



time would often lead to great confusion. Boat- 

 trains would run according to the mid-Pluropean 

 time, but the tides would be stated in Greenwich 

 mean time. In most seaport towns a time-signal 

 is used for the convenience of- vessels in port, 

 and is also valuable to the public. Would the 

 signal always be given according to Greenwich 

 mean time, or would it mark the changed hour 

 during certain months of the year? It would 

 often be difficult for local bodies to decide whether 

 the interests of navigators or those of the public 

 ought to determine the hour at which the time- 

 signal should be given. Lighting-up times 

 would be in like confusion, for they are deter- 

 mined by the times of sunset, which belong 

 to astronomy, whereas the times in use 

 would be those of tRe Greenwich or mid-Euro- 

 pean meridians according to the period of the 

 year. 



(6) Artisans who have to be in workshops at 

 6 a.m. would begin work at what is really 5 a.m., 

 and therefore most of them would have to rise 

 at about 4 a.m. This means that they would 

 have to get up in the dark more than twice as 

 often under the daylight saving scheme as they 

 do now. The difference would be particularly 

 noticed in the last month of the period. The 

 six o'clock artisans would have to suffer 

 the discomforts of additional darkness in the 

 early morning in order that people who are asleep 

 when they have done a quarter of a day's work 

 may have additional daylight at the other end 

 of the day. 



(7) For several weeks of the period over which 

 the proposed advance of time would be effective 

 additional fuel would be consumed for heating 

 in the early morning, and this amount, as well 

 as the additional lighting required by many 

 thousands of artisans getting up in the dark, is 

 overlooked when the saving of artificial illumina- 

 tion at night is put forward as a plea for the 

 adoption of the scheme. The heat meridian is 

 about two hours after the light meridian ; and 

 possibly it has determined the customary time- 

 table here, as it does the social arrangements of 

 other countries of Europe, as w^ell as in the 

 Tropics. 



(8) Though hundreds of corporations and coun- 

 cils have expressed their desire to have the 154 

 additional hours of daylight per annum promised 

 by the scheme, not a single scientific society or 

 other body with expert knowledge has supported 

 it. The public may demand whatever legislation 

 it pleases, without regard for the consequences ; 

 but, in the words of the Select Committee which 

 reported upon the Daylight Saving Bill of 1909, 

 " having regard to the great diversity of opinion 

 upon the proposals of the Bill and to the grave 

 doubts which have been expressed as to whether 

 the objects of the measure can be attained by 

 legislation without giving rise, in cases involving 

 important interests, to serious inconvenience," it 

 will be a pity if the circumstances of the war 

 should lead Parliament to adopt a measure 

 which has been twice rejected already after full 

 discussion. 



NO. 2426, VOL. 97] 



THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. 

 ''T'HE Imperial Institute (Management) Bill. 

 -*■ which received the Royal Assent on April 18, 

 provides for the transfer of the property and 

 management of the Imperial Institute from the 

 Board of Trade (in which these were vested 

 by the Act of 1902) to the Colonial Office. Mr. 

 Bonar Law, in a speech on the second reading in 

 the House of Commons, explained that in view 

 of the commercial reorganisation which would 

 take place after the war the Government desired 

 that the valuable work of the institute should be 

 supported by a larger and more representative 

 governing body, on which each of the Dominions, 

 India, and the Crown Colonies would be repre- 

 sented, as well as the Colonial Office, the Board 

 of Trade, the Board of Agriculture, and the 

 India Office, whilst representatives of the com- 

 merce and industry of the United Kingdom would 

 also be nominated on the executive council, which 

 will consist of twenty-five members. Among the 

 speakers at this stage, and afterwards in Com- 

 mittee, were Sir J. D. Rees, Sir John Jardine, 

 and Colonel Yate, all of whom proposed increased 

 representation of India, and Sir Philip Magnus, 

 who asked for the appointment of representative 

 both of the Imperial College of Science an' 

 Technology and of the University of London. 



It was announced that the member selected b\ 

 the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific 

 and Industrial Research would be nominated "b 

 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and tha 

 of the other nominees of the Secretary of Stat' 

 one would be an Indian member in addition t 

 Lord Islington, the Under-Secretary of State fo 

 India, which would give India five member- 

 in all. 



The second reading of the Bill In the Housi 

 of Lords was moved by Lord Islington, who full} 

 explained the intentions of the Bill and spok^ 

 in high terms^of the value of the work of tht 

 institute to the commerce of the Empire. Viscoun; 

 Milner supported the Bill, and expressed the hopt 

 that in future the Institute would be better sup 

 ported with funds to aid the extension of it' 

 important work, a view which was also expresses 

 by Viscount Peel and Lord Sudeley. In Com 

 mittee Lord Sudeley moved an amendment to makt 

 Ministers of the Dominions, Governors of Crowi, 

 Colonies and Protectorates, and members of th< 

 Viceroy's Council In India when at home on 

 leave, ex-officio members of the executive council I 

 This was not accepted by the Government, who 

 however, agreed to Invite the persons sp>eclfied t(i 

 attend the meetings of the executive council. 



THE SUN'S ROTATION.^ 



AN interesting contribution to the investlgatio 

 of the sun's rotation by the spectroscopi 

 method has been made by Mr. J. B. Hubrecb 

 In an extended discussion of a series of plate 

 taken by him with the McClean equipment a' 



1 Annals of the Solar Physics Ohservatory, Cambridge. Vol. iii., P«rt 

 The Solar Rotation in fune, igii. from Spectrographic Observations mac i 

 with the Mcriean Solar In-^truments. By f. B. Hubrecht. Pp.77- ^^ i 

 bridge : At the University Press, 191 5.) Prica gs. net. 



