394 



NATURE 



[July 6, 191 6 



technology of glass, with a' certain amount of instruc- 

 tion in engineering principles and mechanical 

 drawing. 



Three scholarships, of the approximate value of 50Z. 

 each, are offered by the Co^nmon Cause (the organ 

 of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies) 

 to women who wish to qualify for positions as indus- 

 trial chemists. Applications must be made not later 

 than the morning of July 17 to the scholarship secre- 

 tary, the Common Cause, 14 Great Smith Street, 

 London, S.W., from whom further particulars can bo 

 obtained. 



Dr. a. H. Graves,* who during the year 1914-1915 

 was engaged in botanical research at the laboratory 

 of Prof. V. H. Blackman, Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology, London, has been appointed 

 associate professor of biology in the new Connecticut 

 College for Women at New London, Connecticut, 

 U.S.A. Dr. Graves was formerly assistant professor 

 of botany in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale 

 University, and instructor in forest botany in the 

 Yale Forest School. 



The eighth annual meeting and conference of the 

 Secondary Schools Association will be held at Caxton 

 Hall, Westminster, S.W., on Wednesday, July 12, 

 at 2 o'clock p.m. Sir Philip Magnus, M.P., will 

 preside. Two papers will be read on this occasion, 

 namely, (1) "Scientific Habits and Knowledge," by 

 Mr. F. Beames, senior science master at Bristol 

 Grammar School, and (2) "Scientific Method in 

 Education," by Mr. S. E. Brown, headmaster of the 

 Liverpool Collegiate School. 



Regimental care committees and relatives and 

 friends of British prisoners of war will do them a 

 good service by bringing to the notice of the in- 

 terned, in their letters to them, the fact that if they 

 are desirous of carrying on serious reading they can 

 obtain, free of charge, educational books on almost 

 any subject by writing to Mr. A. T. Davies at the 

 Board of Education, Whitehall, London, S.W. To 

 facilitate the dispatch of parcels of books and, if 

 possible, the organisation of an educational library 

 in every camp, all applications for books should, as a 

 rule, be sent through, or endorsed by, the senior, or 

 other responsible, British officer or N.C.O. in the 

 camp. Where for any reason (which should be stated 

 in the application) this course is impracticable, re- 

 quests from individual prisoners wall be acceded to 

 so far as possible. 



The General Education Board of the United States 

 announces that grants amounting to 158,000/. were 

 made at its annual spring meeting. The largest grant was 

 one of 50,000/. for the medical department of Washing- 

 ton University, St. Louis, Missouri. This gift makes 

 20o,oooZ. appropriated by the General Education 

 Board to this institution towards a total of 300,000/. 

 for the purpose of placing the teaching of medicine, 

 surgery, and pediatrics on the so-called full-time basis. 

 Including the aopropriations now made, the General 

 Education Board has, since its organisation in 1902, 

 made grants amounting to 3,677,400/. This amount 

 was either appropriated outright or towards total 

 funds to be raised amounting in all to 12,897,400/. 

 Of the grants made during this period, about 600.000/. 

 was for medical schools, 2,500,000/. for universities and 

 colleges, 20,000/. for further prosecution of educational 

 researches, 180.000/. for colleges and schools for 

 negroes, 60,000/. for professors of secondary educa- 

 tion, and 20,000/. for ifarm demonstration work. 



The Board of Education has issued a circular 

 dealing with several points in connection with the 



NO. 2436, VOL. 97] 



education services and military service. Teachers, 

 full-time students ir: public schools of various grades, 

 and education officials who are not passed as lit for 

 general service are not to be called up without 

 reference to the War Office, which will consult with 

 the Board of Education. The procedure now applic- 

 able in the case of attested teachers and officials fit 

 for general service may also be used in the case of un- 

 attested as well as of attested, but reference is in future 

 to be made to the War Office (not the Board of 

 Education as heretofore). Full-time students fit for 

 general service are not for the present to be called 

 up until they attain the age of eighteen ; but the 

 Army Council may terminate this arrangement after 

 July 31. The Army Council, on grounds of public 

 interest, will consider applications endorsed by the 

 Board of Education for the postponement of military 

 service in the case of specially selected students of 

 science or technology. The applications must be 

 limited to research students or post-graduate students, 

 and other students who are likely to attain a standard 

 equivalent to first- or second-class honours in courses 

 leading to degrees. Applications on behalf of such 

 students are to be made in the first instance to the 

 Board of Education by the authorities of the univer- 

 sities and colleges concerned. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Physical Society, June 16.— Prof. G. W. O. Howe in 

 the chair. — Capt. C. E. S. Phillips : Experiments 

 with mercury jet interrupters. The paper describes 

 an experimental attempt to ascertain the form of 

 the mercury column issuing from a hole in the side 

 of a rotating drum, that is continuously supplied with 

 mercury by centrifugal action. Incidentally a new 

 form of interrupter is introduced, in which the interior 

 is visible through a window in the lid. Experiments 

 with various forms of orifice are described, and it is 

 pointed out that the issuing stream is only slightly 

 affected by this means. An explanation is given of 

 the fact that a vertical slit orifice will not produce a 

 ribbon of mercury, and that no matter how much the 

 diameter of the orifice is increased beyond about 

 2 mm., the cross section of the mercury column 

 remains unaltered. A method is described, however, 

 by which a much larger stream of mercury can be 

 obtained from the rotating drum, if necessary. — G. D. 

 West : A method of measuring the pressure of light 

 by means of thin metal foil. Part ii. The pressure 

 of the radiation emitted by a carbon filament lamp, 

 at a distance of a few centimetres, is sufficient to 

 cause a microscopically measurable deflection of the 

 end of a strip of gold or aluminium foil, suspended in 

 a closed test tube. By this means the radiation pres- 

 sure may be measured, and the results may be checked 

 by a comparison with the energy density of the radia- 

 tion, as deduced from the initial rate of rise of tem- 

 perature of an exposed blackened copper plate. In a 

 previous paper experiments were carried out in atmo- 

 spheres of air and hydrogen, and at pressures extending 

 from 76 cm. to i cm. of mercury. Under certain 

 conditions it was found possible to obtain satisfactory 

 results. The present paper deals with experiments at 

 pressures from i cm. of mercury down to the highest 

 exhaustions that could be reached. Experiments on 

 the pressure of ligfht may thus be advantageously 

 carried out at the highest vacua obtainable, or at 

 pressures as far above 0-002 cm. of mercury as con- 

 vection currents will permit. The latter alternative is 

 the easier, and leads to more consistent results. — ■ 

 Edith Humphrey and E. Hatschek : The viscosity of 



