364 



NA TURE 



[August 8, 1901 



to the bombardment of an electric discharge are, as Sir 

 William Crookes has taught us, beautifully phosphorescent. 

 I have here in this tube some thin crystalline plates of arti- 

 ficial ruby ; they become beautifully phosphorescent when the 

 current from the induction coil is passed through the tube, and 

 by the kindness of Sir William Crookes I can show you some 

 true rubies treated in a similar way. The behaviour of the 

 artificial rubies in the vacuum tube is not quite as brilliant as 

 that of the natural ones, but hitherto no special attention has 

 been devoted to their preparation ; they are simply thin plates 

 broken from a large crystalline mass of slag such as that on the 

 table. I may add that this variety of corundum produced by the 

 burning of aluminium is very hard, and may be used, not only for 

 the same purposes as ordinary corundum, but for lining the 

 crucible in which the operations are conducted, so that the 

 product of combustion takes its place in conducting the process. 

 My warmest thanks are due to Dr. Goldschmidt for lending me 

 the beautiful specimens on the table, and to Mr. W. H. Merrett 

 for his aid in conducting the experiments. 



I have set before you the considerations respecting the use of 

 metals as fuel simply as they appear to flow. I trust that the 

 adoption of the title of this lecture has been justified by the 

 evidence given as to the possibility of using metals as fuel in the 

 strictest sense of the word. It is well to be accurate on this 

 point because we are told that the first known appearance of the 

 word " fuel" in the English language occurs in a poem ( Co«('' rfr; 

 Lion, 15th century), and seems to have been a misinterpretation 

 of the old French viojA/oiiailU, and was adopted in the belief 

 that sustenance for the body and food for the flames are 

 synonymous. Widening our view of metals by grouping them 

 with fuels will be acceptable because fire and flame powerfully 

 appeal to our thoughts. We "kindle" enthusiasm, and add 

 ' ' fuel " to the fire of ambition, in fact we constantly use fire, flame 

 and fuel as similes, and any prospect of extending their use to us 

 as such by enlisting metals in the service will be welcome. An 

 early Italian metallurgist, Vanoccio Biringuccio, might not have 

 thought so, for I find that, writing in the sixteenth century, he 

 quaintly devotes the last chapter of a work on metallurgy to 

 " Fires which burn and leave no ashes."' In this chapter he 

 appeals to envy, hatred, malice and other products of a kindled 

 imagination, and traces their analogies to fuel and flame, but 

 he speedily takes leave of his readers in alarm at the prospect 

 such a treatment of the subject presents. 



The burning of aluminium as fuel gives us sapphires and 

 rubies in the place of ashes, and metallic fuel is burnt, not by 

 the air above, but by the oxygen derived from the earth beneath, 

 as it occurs in the red and yellow oxides to which our rocks and 

 cliffs owe their colour and their beauty. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS. 



A NUMBER of reports on agricultural experiments con- 

 ■^ ducted by provincial colleges have reached us, of which 

 the most comprehensive is that issued by the Agricultural 

 Department of the Durham College of Science. Most of the 

 field-work that this report deals with was planned and started 

 by Prof. Middleton's predecessor, and the results are becoming 

 more valuable each year. It is a report that should be in the 

 hands of every one that is interested in agricultural progress, 

 though no one need expect to find it light reading. 



In the north of England, as in many other parts of the country, 

 the turnip crop suffers severely from finger and toe, and the work 

 of the Durham College of Science is throwing much fresh light 

 on this subject. Hitherto the disease has chiefly been combated 

 by the application of large dressings of slaked lime applied a 

 year or less before it was intended to grow a cruciferous crop. 

 In this way the fungus and its spores are destroyed more or less 

 effectively, but at a larger cost than agriculture can now well 

 bear. It appeared, however, that if lime can get rid of the 

 disease when the substance is applied only a short time before 

 the crop that the fungus affects is to be grown, the clearance of 

 the soil will be much more eft'ectual — or will be accomplished at 

 less outlay — if the trouble is attacked at its fountainhead, 

 namely, directly after an infected crop has been grown. With 

 this object in view, a field that had grown a much-diseased crop 



in 1896 was divided into five plots in the autumn of that year, 

 one of the plots being soon afterwards treated with 2h tons per 

 acre of ordinary burned lime, while another plot did not receive 

 its dressing till the autumn of 1S99. Following the four-course 

 shift the field was again under turnips in 1900, with the follow- 

 ing result per acre : — 



540, p 167. E(Ve 



NO. 1658, VOL. 64] 



1 " De laPirotechn 

 tl nonfuccncc- 



:e). "Del/iw.lwchi 



The above figures hardly put the case so strongly as they 

 might, for whereas when the roots were diseased to the extent 

 of 4 1 '6 per cent, and 29'2!per cent., such roots were practically 

 valueless, the infected roots were far from the putrescent stage 

 when the percentage of disease was lO'l. 



The now well-known Cockle Park experiments on 

 " manuring for mutton " are described at length in the above 

 report, and are popularly presented in a circular issued by the 

 Northumberland County Council. In this circular the results 

 for each plot are shown by a diagrammatic sheep, the sections 

 of whose body represent (a) the growth due to the .soil in its 

 unimproved condition ; (b) the growth induced by manurial 

 treatment ; and (i) the portion of such growth as is needed to 

 cover the manurial outlay. So far a large dressing of basic slag 

 applied four years ago, and not repeated, has proved most 

 effective ; whereas the lowest place is taken by a moderate 

 dressing of lime. A corresponding circular deals with the 

 experiments on turnip manuring. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A WELT.-AKRANGED Calendar of the Merchant Venturers' 

 Technical College, Bristol, showing the courses of work to be 

 taken in the forthcoming session and the facilities for study, has 

 been received. At the end of each syllabus a useful list of books 

 of reference is given, in addition to the usual list of text-books. 

 We assume that the reference books recommended are to be 

 found in the school library, or on the laboratory bookshelf. 



A VACATION course of lectures and observations connected 

 with nature study, for teachers in rural schools, was opened at the 

 Harper-Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Salop, on 

 August I with an address by the principal, Mr. P. Hedworth 

 Foulkes. The primary object of nature teaching is, he pointed 

 out, to encourage and promote in children the power of observa- 

 tion, so that when the school days are over the pupil is in full 

 and complete sympathy with natural knowledge, and takes an 

 intelligent interest in it. The course has been arranged to help 

 teachers who are desirous of cultivating this spirit of observation 

 and inquiry in their pupils. 



Prof. W. J. Ashley, now one of the professors of economics 

 in the Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been 

 appointed to the first or organising chair of the future faculty of 

 commerce in the University of Birmingham. Prof. Ashley was a 

 Br.ackenbury scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, and obtained a 

 first inhistoryin 1S81, followed bya fellowship of Lincoln College. 

 For three years he was college tutor in Oxford, lecturing in large 

 classes in economics and history. Towards the end of the 

 eighties he was called to a chair of economics at Toronto, and 

 after a short time the staff of Harvard University went out of 

 the ordinary course to enable provision to be made among them 

 for him, and there he has occupied the chair of economic history 

 since 1S92, the chair of economics itself being held by Prof. 

 Taussig. It is understood to be the wish of the council and 

 senate of the University of Birmingham that the professor should 

 devote his first year to investigation and consolidation of ideas, 

 in consultation with men of business in this and other countries. 



