August 29, 1901] 



NA TURE 



431 



the development of research is entrusted to indifferent 

 and irresponsible authorities it is difficult to hope for 

 better things. Scientific discoveries may not increase 

 the beauty of the earth, but we live in a practical age 

 and must be practical. To be lulled by a sense of false 

 security is to commit national suicide. 



INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING CONGRESS. 



'X'HE International Engineering Congress to beheld at 

 -'■ Glasgow from Tuesday to Friday next week, Sep- 

 tember 3-6, will be an important congregation of repre- 

 sentatives of all branches of engineering practice. The 

 Congress may almost be regarded as a federated meeting 

 of technical societies, for seven of the nine sections are 

 in charge of such organisations. The suggestion that 

 technical societies should hold simultaneous meetings this 

 year in Glasgow was made by the Institution of Engineers 

 and Shipbuilders in Scotland, and it developed into the 

 scheme for an International Engineering Congress. 



Lord Kelvin has accepted the honorary presidency of 

 the Congress, and Mr. James Mansergh, F.R.S., is the 

 president. Mr. Mansergh will deliver a short address 

 on Tuesday, and the members will afterwards meet in 

 their respective sections in the University buildings. A 

 large number of papers are to be read, and among them 

 several of scientific interest. The following is a list of 

 the sections, and of a few of the subjects to be brought 

 forward for discussion : — 



Section I. — Railways. — Chairman, Sir Benjamin Baker. 

 The economy of electricity as a motive power on rail- 

 ways at present driven by steam, by Prof. C. A. Carus- 

 Wilson. 



Section II. — Waterways and Maritime Works. — 

 Chairman, Sir John Wolfe Barry, K.C.B., F.R.S. Novel 

 plant employed in transporting the e.xcavations on the 

 Chicago Drainage Canal Works, by Mr. Isham Ran- 

 dolph ; the improvement of the Lower Mississippi by 

 the Mississippi River Commission, by Mr. J. A. Ocker- 

 son ; irrigation in the Nile Valley and its future, by Mr. 

 William Willcocks, CM. G.; recent improvements in the 

 lighting and buoying of coasts, by Mr. D. Stevenson, 

 and by Baron de Rochemont. 



Section III. — Mechanical Engineering {Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers). — Chairman, Mr. W. H. Maw. 

 Effect of temperature on cooling water in high speed 

 automobiles, by Prof. H. S. Hele-Shaw, F.R.S ; trials of 

 steam turbines for driving dynamos, by the Hon. C. A. 

 Parsons and Mr. G. Gerald Stoney ; application of metric 

 system to workshops, by Mr. Arthur Greenwood ; power 

 required to drive marine engine works and for electric 

 lighting, by Mr. James Crighton and Mr. W. G. Riddell. 



Section IV. — Naval Arc/tite dure and Marine Engin- 

 eering {Institution of Naval Architects).— Q\\3^\xm-i.xi, the 

 Right Hon. the Earl of Glasgow. The chief character- 

 istics of the naval development of the nineteeth century, 

 by Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, K.C.B. 



Section V. — Iron and Steel {Iron and Steel Institute). 

 — Chairman, Mr. William Whitwell. Report on the 

 nomenclature of metallography, by the committee of the 

 Iron and Steel Institute ; on the spectra of flames at 

 different periods during the basic Bessemer blow, by 

 Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., and Mr. Hugh Ramage ; 

 on iron and copper alloys, by Mr. J. E. Stead. 



Section VI.— Minima {Institution of Alitiing En- 

 gineers). — Chairman, Mr. James S. Di.xon. Presidential 

 address, by Sir William Thomas Lewis, Bart. ; alternating 

 currents, and their possible application to mining, by 

 Mr. S. I-. Walker; a new diagram of work, by Mr. 

 H. W. G. Halbaum. 



Section VII. — Municipal Engineering {Incorporated 

 Association of Municipal and County Engineers).— 

 Chairman, Mr. E. George Mawbey. Research into the 

 NO. 1661, VOL, 64] 



system of sewage purification by bacterial and other 

 methods, by Mr. K. F. Campbell ; treatment of sewage, 

 by Lieut. -Col. A. S. Jones, V^C. ; sewage disposal, by 

 Mr. A. B. M' Donald. 



Section VIII. — Gas Engineering {Institution of Gas 

 Engineers). — Chairman, Mr. George Livesey. Electro- 

 lysis of gas pipes, &c., by Dr. Leybold ; water gas as 

 an adjunct in the manufacture of coal gas, by Prof. 

 Vivian B. Lewes ; Emile Gobbe's process for the pro- 

 duction of water gas, by Mr. Fernand Bruyere. 



Section IX. — Electrical {Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers). — Chairman, Mr. W. E. Langdon. Elec- 

 tricity supply meters of the electrolytic type, by Mr. 

 J. R. Dick ; Kelvin's electric measuring instruments, by 

 Prof. M. Maclean ; continuous-current dynamo design, 

 by Mr. H. A. Mavor ; the use of electricity in the pro- 

 pulsion of road vehicles, by Mr. A. R. Sennett. 



Advantage will be taken of the presence of a large 

 number of engineers in Glasgow to open the new "James 

 Watt Engineering Laboratories." These laboratories 

 are being erected and equipped at a cost of more than 

 40,000/., the funds being raised partly by subscriptions 

 from the citizens of Glasgow and neighbourhood, partly 

 by a grant of 12,500/. from the Bellahouston Trust, and 

 the remainder from funds already at the disposal of the 

 University Court. Lord Kelvin will preside at the 

 opening. 



Arrangements have been made for visits to works of 

 interest to members of all branches of engineering, 

 and for a number of excursions. There will also be a 

 banquet, a reception by the Lord Provost, and a ball, so 

 that the social aspects of the Congress are pleasing to 

 contemplate. These pleasures, combined with the meet- 

 ings of the sections and visits to the International 

 Exhibition, should make the Congress memorable to all 

 who take part in it. 



NOTES. 

 The seventieth birthday of Prof. Eduard Suess, who formore 

 than forty years has occupied the chair of geology in the University 

 of Vienna, and is universally regarded as the greatest of living 

 geologists, has called forth hearty greetings from all parts of the 

 world. Prof. Suess was born in London on August 20, 1S31, 

 his father being at that time a merchant in the City ; but, while 

 a sympathetic friend of England, he has always remained a true 

 Austrian, and his life-work as geologist, palaeontologist and 

 politician has been carried out in his own country. His re- 

 searches, while largely palteontological, have covered a wide 

 range, and they have led him to grasp more fully than others the 

 problems in the ancient physical geography of the earth, which 

 he dealt with in his brilliant work, " Antlitz der Erde." As 

 remarked by a correspondent in the Times, Prof. Suess, to his 

 own countrymen, " has been much more than a distinguished 

 pioneer in science. He has been a living example of enlightened 

 patriotism and devotion to the public welfare, and an indefatig- 

 able reformer, whose works will long remain a monument to 

 his memory." 



Among the many objects that attracted attention during the 

 recent meeting of the International Congress of Zoologists at 

 Berlin, few were more noteworthy than a large mounted adult 

 male gorilla, exhibited by Herr Umlauff, of Hamburg. This 

 specimen is remarkable not only for its size, which rivals, if it 

 does not exceed, that of any example of the gorilla previously 

 obtained, but also because its exact history is known. It was 

 shot by Herr H. Pascen, of Schwerin, the representative of a 

 Hamburg mercantile firm, in Vaunde, in the interior of the 

 GermanColony of Kamerun, about fifteen days' journey from the 

 coast, on April 15, 1900. It has been hitherto generally believed 

 that the gorilla is only to be found in Gaboon and the adjoining 



