September 5, 1918] 



NATURE 



their general scope. One group deals with elastic 

 hysteresis in steel' and the endurance of that metal 

 under repeated cyclic variations of stress. For 

 these experiments he designed an ingenious 

 "fatigue-tester " to apply alternations of pull and 

 push at a rate as high as 7000 per minute by using 

 electro-magnetic action to maintain the vertical 

 oscillation of a heavy armature attached to one 

 end of the test-piece. Another important group 

 of papers deals with gaseous explosions. His 

 researches in this subject have done much to clear 

 away earlier misconceptions and to bring out 

 features in the process of explosion that had been 

 overlooked. They disposed of wrong ideas about 

 "after-burning," but at the same time showed how- 

 far from uniform is the condition within a closed 

 combustion-vessel at the moment when the maxi- 

 mum pressure is attained. 



As joint secretary with Sir Dugald Clerk of the 

 British Association Committee on Gaseous Explo- 

 sions, as well«as by his own experiments, Hopkin- 

 son did much to advance our knowledge of an 

 intricate problem. He applied similar methods of 

 inquiry to the analysis of what occurs in an In- 

 ternal-combustion engine ; in this connection his 

 optical indicator is of great service. During the 

 years immediately before the war he was engaged 

 in studying the pressure produced by the detona- 

 tion of high explosives and by the impact of 

 bullets. For this he devised methods of measure- 

 ment which were admirably simple and effective. 

 Thev were described in a Royal Institution lecture 

 in 191 2, and more fully in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society for 1914. Hopkinson 

 also edited a reprint of his father's scientific and 

 technical papers, and wrote for it a short memoir, 

 which was published in 1901. 



On the outbreak of war he threw himself with 

 characteristic vigour into national service, to the 

 exclusion of all other interests. At Cambridge 

 he had been a keen promoter of the Officers Train- 

 ing Corps. He first undertook R.E. duty at 

 Chatham in order to relieve others for active 

 service. Later he was engaged for a time at the 

 Admiralty on work of a kind quite new to him, 

 which he attacked with conspicuously good effect. 

 He had the satisfaction of seeing an invention, 

 which he made to meet one of the big-ger diffi- 

 culties of the war, promptly tested, adopted, and 

 officially recognised. Concurrently with this he 

 acted as secretary of a committee set up by the 

 Royal Society to assist the Government, a posi- 

 tion which brought him into touch with many 

 other war questions and with the men busied in 

 them. His attention began to be directed to the 

 equipment of aircraft, and soon he became 

 absorbed in this task, accepting a position in 

 what is now the Royal Air Force. There, perhaps 

 as never before, he found his opportunity. His 

 powers were acknowledged and turned to full 

 account ; he received promotion, and the range of 

 his authority was enlarged. He revelled in his 

 work, put everything aside for it, was unsparing 

 of himself. He knew well that flying, especially 

 for a man no longer young, meant a serious risk ; 

 NO. 2549, VOL. I02] 



but he felt that the risk had to be taken if the 

 work were to be well done. So he flew, from one 

 air station in England to another, or even to 

 France, generally as his own pilot. 



All who knew Hopkinson esteemed him for a 

 man of strong character and sane judgment, of 

 unswerving straightness in thought and action, 

 with a rare freedom from egotism or self-seeking 

 or any pettiness. But it was only in the intimacy 

 of the domestic circle that one learnt what a 

 wealth of affection lay behind his reserve. In 

 1903 he married the eldest daughter of Mr. Alex- 

 ander Siemens ; she survives him with seven 

 daughters. His family life was a» ideally happy 

 one save for the calamity of 1898 am! for the 

 death of his brother Cecil, a young man of like 

 tastes and of the finest promise, who died last 

 year of a wound received in Flanders. In 1 I 

 ing them both, the War has taken of our very 

 best. J. A. Ewing. 



NOTES. 



The Societa ftaifiana 'I'll' Sciei dei XL) 



has awarded the natural sciences gold medal for mis 

 to Prof. Filippo Eredia for his work in meteoro 

 This is the first time that, in Italy, studies in the field 

 of meteorology have been rewarded in this way. 



A telegram received at th. Mi Office 



on \ugust 26 from the Director-General of Observa- 

 in India states, with reference to the Ara 



Sea and Bay of Bengal, that the monsoon is normal, 

 and that no cyclonic storm has occurred. 



We regret to note that Enginccri)ig for August 30 

 records the death of Engineer Rear-Admiral 

 Francis Henry Lister. Admiral Lister was well 

 known in the Service, and was closely identified 

 with the construction of machinen in tin- contrai 

 works, not only for the Navy, but also for sevei il 

 ships ranked as auxiliaries to the Navy, including the 

 Mauritania and Lusitania. His age was fifty-sis 

 rears, and he had given thirty-nine years to the ser- 

 vice of his country in the Navy. He was a member 

 of the Institution of Naval Architects and of the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 



The principle that every large industrial firm should 

 h.'ivi' its own research laboratot have been 



accepted more generally in America than it has been 

 in this country, and as a consequence a large propor- 

 tion of our knowledge of the working of such labora- 

 tories comes from American sources. In the August 

 issue of the Scientific Monthly there is, for example, 

 a valuable paper on research and industry by Dr. 

 P. G. Nutting, the director of the Westinghouse Re- 

 search Laboratory at East Pittsburgh. Dr. Nutting 

 points out that in addition to technical research, such 

 as the testing of the materials received and produced, 

 the elimination of works troubles, and the starting 

 of new processes, it is necessary to earn' out scien- 

 tific industrial research on basic principles, and on 

 relations to the more obscure and fundamental works 

 troubles. He considers that the best preparation for 

 industrial research as a profession is a thorough 

 grounding in principles, followed by research sufficient 

 to justify the award of a doctor's degree in the best 

 American universities. 



A Royal Commission has been appointed ''to con- 

 sider and report whether it is advisable to make any 

 •changes in the denominations of the currency and 



