430 
NALORE 
[JUNE 25, 1914 
fostered the development of research in their re- 
spective national laboratories. 
The National Physical Laboratory has taken 
part during the year in various international 
matters, such as the establishment of a practical 
scale of high temperature, the standardisation of 
screw-threads, and the questions underlying 
photometric measurements. The director served 
on Lord Parker’s committee, which advised the 
Government on systems of long-distance wireless 
telegraphy; he is also a member of the committee 
appointed by the Postmaster-General to deal with 
the question of organised research in telegraphy 
and telephony. The new wireless laboratory 
Fic. 2.—The new library of th2 National Physical Laboratory ; 
which this committee has recently recommended 
should be established at Teddington, will work in 
close association with the National Physical 
Laboratory. In addition, the laboratory has 
taken a prominent part in the investigatory work 
incidental to the Home Secretary’s committee (of 
which the director is chairman), which is con- 
cerned with the lighting of factories and work- 
shops. 
As mentioned above, the laboratory has been 
called on largely during the year to undertake 
important investigations for a number of Govern- 
ment departments. Among these may be men- 
tioned an inquiry into the viscous behaviour of 
NO.’ 2330, VOL, 93] 
oil fuels for the Admiralty, and an investigation 
(for the Local Government Board) into methods 
of preventing glare from motor-car headlights. 
The work conducted for the Board of Trade and 
the Admiralty on ships’ lights has been continued, 
while observations on the vibrations of St. Paul’s 
Cathedral were made for the Home Office. Other 
investigations were carried out for the War Office, 
the Post Office, the India Office, the Crown agents, 
and the various Colonial Governments. 
To turn to the research side of the work, Mr. 
I’. E. Smith has completed a very important in- 
vestigation on the absolute measurement of elec- 
trical resistance by means of an elaborate appar- 
seo% eee se #6 
a memorial to the late Sir William White. 
atus of the Lorenz type. The final value he 
obtains is that the ohm in the usual mercury units 
has a length of 106°245 +0°004 cm., which is dis- 
tinctly less than the mean of previous results. 
Mr. Campbell has overcome with his well-known 
skill a number of difficult problems of measure- 
ment associated with the high frequencies used in 
wireless telegraphy, for an account of which refer- 
ence must be made to the report. Mr. Paterson 
and Mr. Dudding have completed an inter-com- 
parison of the photometric standards of the prin- 
cipal standardising laboratories of the world. 
The heat division has contributed a series of 
interesting papers on the subject of the electric 
