2^4 



NATURE 



[June i, 1916 



b\- the designers and constructors of- our present aero- 

 planes. If the new Air Board succeeds in bringing 

 about a better understanding between the practical 

 designer and the scientific expert, and in enabling the 

 results of scientific experiment and calculation to be 

 used more widely in the actual production of aircraft, 

 it will be doing a great service to the aeronautical 

 industry. The proposal for the establishment of a 

 separate Board of Inventions in connection with the 

 Air Board seems to be a good one, provided that the 

 Board consists of men who have sufficient technical 

 knowledge to be able to discriminate between inven- 

 tions of real use and the many " freak " inventions 

 which now flood the country. A great deal of the 

 time of scientific experts is now wasted in experiment- 

 ing on inventions that should have been thrown out 

 as obviously useless in the first place. The progress 

 that has been made from the scientific point of view 

 is very considerable. It is now possible to calculate 

 with considerable accuracy the performance and 

 stability of a new design from simple experiments on 

 models in a wind tunnel. In the matter of scientific 

 aeronautics we are well in advance of the enemy, 

 except perhaps in connection with rigid airships. The 

 chief necessity at the present time is that available 

 scientific information should be used to the fullest 

 advantage. It is only by the combination of scientific 

 investigation with the practical experience of the pilot 

 and the designer that the best results can be obtained, 

 and the much-desired supremacy of the air definitely 

 assured. 



The following officers of the Linnean Society for 

 the ensuing year were elected at the annual meeting 

 of the society on May 24 : — President, Sir David 

 Prain, C.M.G. ; Treasurer, Mr. H. W. Monckton ; 

 Secretaries, Dr. B. Daydon Jackson, Mr. E. S. Good- 

 rich, and Dr. A. B. Rendle. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, 

 on May 28, at seventy years of age, of Sir James F. 

 Goodhart, consulting physician to Guy's Hospital 

 and other institutions, and president of the Harveian 

 Society of London in 1898. 



The fourth Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture of the 

 Aeronautical Society, on "The Life and Work of 

 Wilbur Wright," will be delivered by Mr. Griffith 

 Brewer at the Royal Society of Arts, on Tuesday, 

 June 6, at 3 p.m. The Rt. Hon. Lord Montagu of 

 Beaulieu will preside. 



At a meeting of the Institution of Mining Engineers, 

 to be held at the rooms of the Geological Society, Bur- 

 lington House, Piccadilly, W., on Thursday, June 8, 

 Prof. F. W. Hardwick will deliver a lecture on "The 

 History of the Safety-Lamp," in celebration of the 

 centenary of its invention by George Stephenson and 

 Sir Humphry Davy. 



We regret to announce the death, on May 17, at 

 eighty-four years of age, of Mrs. Mary Everest Boole, 

 widow of George Boole, the mathematician. Devoted 

 to her husband and his memory, she was an original 

 and rather paradoxical writer; for example, on the 

 strength of her knowledge of the mathematical theory 

 of envelopes, she wrote a sort of metaphysical essay 

 about free wijl, etc.. In terms of an envelope-theor\'. 

 Like Henry Drummond, she mistook a picturesque 

 analogy for a real explanation ; but the book is better 

 worth reading than many more orthodox productions. 



General Sir Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief 

 of the British Forces in France and Belgium, in his 

 first despatch, dated May 19, and covering the period 

 from December 19, 1915, makes the following appre- 



NO. 2431, VOL. 97] 



ciative reference to the assistance afforded by chemists 

 attached to the forces: — "The valuable nature of the 

 work performed by the officers of the Central Labora- 

 tory and the Chemical Advisers with the Armies in 

 investigations into the nature of the gases and other 

 new substances used in hostile attacks, and in devising 

 and perfecting means of protecting our troops against 

 them, is deserving of recognition. The efforts of these 

 officers materially contributed to the failure of the 

 Germans in their attack of December 19, 1915, as 

 well as in the various gas attacks sin.ce made." 



Among the representatives of applied science who 

 have lost their lives in the present war some mention 

 should be made of Capt. Paul Hammond. He was 

 born in Brazil of British parentage, and was 

 educated at Tonbridge School. He studied at 

 the School of Mines at Freiberg, in Saxony* 

 where he graduated as a mining engineer. He 

 was for some time engaged in mineralogical sur- 

 vey work in the south of the State of Sao Paulo, and 

 afterwards practised as a consulting mining engineer 

 in London. Shortly after the outbreak of war he 

 received a commission in the 8th Battn. of the East 

 Lancashire Regiment, and was Acting Major when he 

 was wounded at Foncquevillers. He died eight days 

 later, on February 25 of the present year, aged thirty- 

 one. His keenness and courage stood him in good 

 stead in his short military career, while his cheerful- 

 ness and kindliness endeared him to all who knew 

 him. 



A REPORT has just been issued by the Committee 

 appointed by the Home Secretary in March last to 

 test experimentally the value of dry-powder fire- 

 extinguishers in putting out fires such as are likely 

 to be caused by bombs (Cd. 8250, price id.). These 

 extinguishers generally contain as their main con- 

 stituent sodium bicarbonate, the amount varying from 

 46 to 56 per cent, in the samples analysed. The par- 

 ticular make chosen for the fire experiments contained 

 also approximately the same proportion of calcium 

 carbonate, the total available carbon dioxide amount- 

 ing to 12 or 13 per cent. The efficacy of the dry- 

 powder preparations was compared with that of water 

 applied (i) in buckets, and (2) in liquid extincteurs 

 spraying a jet of water impregnated with carbon 

 dioxide upon the fires. None of the agents employed 

 had any material effect upon the combustion of the 

 bomb itself. Water, however, was far more effective 

 than the dry powder in preventing the spread of the 

 fire, the wetting of the surrounding material confin- 

 ing the conflagration to the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the bomb. The general conclusion arrived at was 

 that by far the best extinguishing agent is a plentiful 

 supply of water applied in the manner most con- 

 venient ; the use of dry powder is to be deprecated as 

 giving a misleading sense of security. 



Some interesting details of his recent explorations 

 in Central Asia have Been furnished by Sir Aurel Stein 

 on his return to England. He followed a route 

 hitherto unknown to the Pamirs across Darel and 

 Tangier, and in this portion of his journey he was 

 assisted by Pakhtum Wali, an exiled chief of Chitral, 

 who has recently carved out for himself a new king- 

 dom in this region, and desires the friendiv support 

 of the Government of India. At an old sand-buried 

 site in the Talkamakan desert many ancient writings 

 on wood in an early Indian language dating- from the 

 third century a.d. were found, and the old route by 

 which the Chinese conveyed their silks to Centra'l 

 Asia and the Mediterranean was traced. On this road 

 hundreds of copper coins and bronze arrow-heads, the 

 debris of their caravans, were picked up. On another 



