NATURE Sten eS 
NOVEMBER 15, 1906 | 
A MODERN PHYSICAL LABORATORY. 
pe December of last year were opened at Gottingen 
a number of fine new buildings to accommodate 
the different subdivisions of the physical department 
of the University. An account of these has just been 
palatial, and at Gottingen five separate and distinct 
‘institutes ’? have been provided. 
The speeches at the opening ceremony of 
directors of each of these institutes sketch in 
interesting and eloquent fashion the evolution of the 
whole from its small beginnings, and review in suc- 
cession the many honourable 
names which, from Gauss and 
the 
an 
\Veber down to our own times, 
have been associated with the 
progress of physics at Gottingen. 
Prof. Riecke, speaking as head 
_of the parent laboratory of pure 
physics, mentions how rapid was 
the increase, during the closing 
fifteen years of last century, of 
work on the borderland between 
physics and chemistry, of the 
type in which Ostwald and 
Victor Meyer were pioneers. 
This led to the foundation of a 
separate physical-chemical insti- 
tute under the direction of Prof. 
Nernst. Again, the expansion 
of applied physics and of electro- 
technics, particularly in its de- 
velopments for lighting and 
power purposes, was so rapid 
that in 1898, with the aid of the 
Gottingen Association for the 
Fic. r.—North Side of the Physical Institute, University of Gottingen. 
published in a volume issued under the auspices of | 
the G6ttingen Association for the Promotion of | 
Applied Physics and Mathematics.‘ This book, a 
handsome quarto of 200 pages containing numerous 
illustrations and plans, gives a graphic idea of the 
elaboration which is now considered necessary for 
the successful carrying out of 
work in the different branches of 
this most rapidly developing 
science. 
Many physicists can remember 
the time when, even in the most 
progressive of our universities, 
where large and _ well-fitted 
chemical laboratories had long 
been established, the accommo- 
dation accorded to experimental 
physics consisted of two or three 
very ordinary rooms, with per- 
haps a stone pillar or two for 
galvanometers or cathetometer, 
and a wide shelf outside the 
window for the Grove or Bunsen 
batteries. By and by came a 
few accumulators, possibly 
home-made from jam-pots and 
roofing lead, the charging 
arrangements for these consist- 
ing of a dynamo of perhaps 25 
per cent. efficiency and a gas 
engine, the obstinacy of which 
in starting on a winter’s morn- 
ing still calls up recollections. A 
pressure of 100 volts was to be 
treated with great respect, and 
no laboratory resistance-coil was made to carry more | 
than a few amperes. Nowadays it is impossible 
satisfactorily to house the various subdivisions of 
experimental physics in a single building, however 
1 “Die physikalischen Institute der Universitat Géttingen.” Festschrift, 
1906. Pp. iv+200. (Leipzig and Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1906.) 
NO. 1933, VOL. 75] 
Fic. 
Promotion of Applied Physics 
and Mathematics, an annexe to 
the main physics laboratory was 
erected. This developed later with the help of sub- 
stantial Government grants into the present institute 
for applied electricity, and when the new physical 
laboratory was erected the old building was consti- 
tuted the institute for applied mathematics and 
mechanics. 
ae 
2.—Seismological Station, University of Géttingen. 
A similar evolution from earlier beginnings has 
been the history of the department for geophysics, the 
child of the observatory for the study of terrestrial 
magnetism founded by Gauss. In a_ historical 
vésumé by Prof. Wiechert is quoted a very interest- 
ing letter of Gauss to Olbers in 1833, in which he 
