35 
Light,” in which the suitability of the electric glow 
lamp for domestic lighting was dealt with. 
Swan played a considerable part in connection 
with the introduction of the improvements in the 
manufacturing processes which have resulted in 
the successive reductions in the price of the glow 
lamp. To him was due the introduction of the 
‘““‘parchmentised thread” filaments formed by 
treating ordinary crochet cotton-thread with sul- 
phuric acid and then carbonising the same; later 
he devised the process whereby filaments of ex- 
ceedingly small diameter and great uniformity 
were obtained by squirting artificial cellulose by 
hydraulic pressure through a die; the latter being 
first shown to the public at the Inventions Exhibi- 
tion in 1885. It is only very recently that this 
process of manufacture has given place to the 
newly developed metal filament lamps. 
Swan’s activities in the field of electro-chemistry 
resulted in the invention by him of a rapid process 
of depositing copper, due to the discovery made 
by him that the addition of a suitable quantity of 
gelatine to the solution in the electro-depositing 
bath much improved the quality of the deposited 
metal. The process admits of the utilisation of 
currents of from 1000 to 1500 amperes per square 
foot of kathode, pure copper wire being at once 
reeled off from the bath through a die. Swan 
devoted his attention also to apparatus for mea- 
suring electric current, and the improvement of 
secondary batteries; his activities in the field of 
invention resulted in the filing of some sixty 
patent specifications, some in his name alone and 
others in the joint names of himself and his eldest 
son, 
A recognition of Swan’s services to applied 
science came first from France when, in 1881, he 
was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. 
In 1894 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal 
Society, and ten years later received a knighthood. 
The University of Durham also conferred upon 
him the honorary degrees of M.A. and D.Sc. He 
was the recipient, in 1903, of a gold medal from 
the Society of Chemical Industry, and, in 1904, 
of the Hughes medal from the Royal Society. In 
1906 the Royal Society of Arts awarded him its 
Albert medal, “for the part he took in the inven- 
tion of the incandescent lamp and for his invention 
of the carbon process of photographic printing,” 
the medal being presented to him by King George 
(at that time Prince of Wales). 
The career of Swan demonstrates that a scien- 
tific training and the possession of inventive 
faculties are not, as some suppose, necessarily 
incompatible with the possession of sound busi- 
ness capacity; and, indeed, the subject of this 
memoir gave ample evidence by his life work that 
it is possible for a man to be a productive in- 
ventor and at the same time successful as a com- 
mercial manager. 
In Sir Joseph Swan the nation has lost not only 
a venerable investigator, whose labours did much 
for the material progress of civilisation, but one 
who was also possessed of a charming personality 
which deservedly endeared him to a large circle of 
friends and acquaintances. WAS Owe 
NO}2327,, VOL193 || 
NATURE 
[JUNE 4, 1914 
DiS Po A. “PVRESMIT Hee tokens 
-DHILIP HENRY . PYE-SMITH was. .born 
August 30, 1839, at Billiter Square, “E.C. 
He was the eldest son of Ebenezer Pye-Smith, 
FLR.C-S:,,. and. the: grandson of =the, anew. 
Dr. John Pye-Smith, F.R.S., the principal of 
the Homerton Theological College, well known, 
nearly a century ago, both as a geologist and 
theologian. He belonged to a medical family, for 
his father was a surgeon in the city, his brother 
Rutherford John Pye-Smith is emeritus professor 
of surgery at the University of Sheffield, and a 
nephew is also in the profession. 
Dr. Pye-Smith was educated at Mill Hill 
School, and in 1858 took the B.A. of the 
University of London. He then entered Guy’s 
Hospital Medical School and attained his 
M.D. in 1864; he gained the gold medal, 
thus outstripping two future distinguished 
colleagues, Moxon and Sir Thomas Stevenson. 
After a year at continental schools his teaching 
began by his being appointed demonstrator of 
anatomy. In 1871 he became assistant physician 
to Guy’s Hospital, and full physician in 1883. 
He retired from the active staff in 1899, as in 
that year he reached the retiring age of sixty. 
He then became consulting physician to the hos- 
pital. During the earlier part of his assistant 
physiciancy he lectured on comparative anatomy, 
then on physiology, and when he was full phy- 
siclan on medicine. For many years he took 
charge of the department of diseases of the skin, 
and was regarded everywhere as one of. the 
highest authorities in this branch of medicine. 
In 1870 Pye-Smith was elected a Fellow of the 
Royal College of Physicians, and he later became 
examiner, a member of the council, and a censor. 
From 1900-9 he represented the college on the 
senate of the University of London, and held the 
office of vice-chancellor from 1903 to 1905. He 
was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1886, 
and served on the council of the society in 1891- 
92. In 1899 he was appointed by the British 
Government joint representative with Sir Heron 
Maxwell at the International Congress on Tuber- 
culosis in Berlin. He was a member of the 
General Medical Council and treasurer from 
1901-7. He gave the address in medicine at the 
meeting of the British Medical Association at 
Ipswich in 1900. He was an hon. M.D. of the 
University of Dublin, an honorary fellow of the 
Royal College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and 
of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. 
In 1883 his colleague Fagge died, leaving by his 
will the manuscript of his famous book on medi- 
cine to Pye-Smith for him to complete and see 
through the press. Pye-Smith greatly appreciated 
this act of his friend; he worked hard at the task, 
and was the means of giving to the world one of 
the best and most original books on medicine. He 
kept it up to date and edited the subsequent 
editions, so that it gradually contained more and 
more of Pye-Smith’s writing, and the later 
editions were published as under the joint author- 
ship of Fagge and Pye-Smith. This was his out- 
