173 



NATURE 



[October 31, 191 8 



Raleigh should bi remembered with reference to 



1 ts introduction was ici bj Sir 



Hawkins in 1565, and Raleigh ea ly acquired 



11 1 ii 1 oi smoking, which he si eeded in intro- 



to I .mi 1 c ircles. I 'i ushfii Id writes 



rhere can be no hesitation in affirming that Ralegh 



■ inly introduced it [tobai ito g< nei al use in 



this country, but . . . wa ; thai brought it 



hion." 



I BRITISH INSTITl OF INDUSTRIAL 



ART. 



Al the Royal Societ] ol \rts on October 28 the 

 Righl lion. II. \. I.. Fisher, President of the 

 Board of Education, presided over a meeting called 

 to consider a scheme for the promotion of a British 

 Institute of Industrial Art. Mr. Fisher, in his intro- 

 ductory address, referred to the past history of indus- 

 trial art in Great Britain, remarking that people in 

 this country are apt to depreciate the national ability 

 in artistic directions. What is needed is a centre to 

 promote a closer relation between art and industry, 

 and this the proposed scheme, which will involve the 

 co-operation of tfie Board of Trade, the Board of 

 Education, and the Royal Society of Arts, aims at 

 providing. The chief feature of the scheme is a 

 permanent exhibition to be held at the Victoria and 

 Albert Museum, where representative works illus- 

 trating a high standard of British artistic craftsman- 

 ship will be shown. The exhibition should in time 

 become self-supporting, and the nation would purchase 

 annually a selected number of exhibits to form a per- 

 manent nucleus. The scheme also provides for a 

 central fund to enable grants to be awarded for re- 

 search and experimental work, institute scholar- 

 ships, and initiate propaganda. Co-operation with the 

 British School of Rome, with the view of enabling 

 students to study Roman art, was proposed. 



Lord Leverhulme, who opened the discussion, em- 

 phasised the importance of a shorter working dav, 

 combined with the more efficient use of machinery, in 

 order to provide more leisure for study and artistic 

 effort. Sir William McCormick remarked that the 

 movement would be on parallel lines to the work of 

 the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 

 and mentioned several instances of processes — for 

 example, the manufacture of fine porcelain — where 

 scientific investigation and artistic effort could work 

 in combination. Mr. Gordon Selfridge urged that a 

 steady educational effort was needed before the public 

 would sufficiently appreciate beautiful things to justify 

 manufacturers in producing them. For the time being 

 (heme is to be administered by a representative 

 committee, and it is hoped that ultimately 

 sub-committees will be established to deal with the 

 needs of individual industries requiring artistic talent. 



CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY AT THE 

 IMPERIAL COLLEGE. 



TN order to meet what seem to be the requirements 

 of the post-war situation on a scale commensurate 

 with Imperial needs, it is proposed to organise the 

 future I), p. nii: ileal Technology of the 



Imperial College- of Science and Technology, South 

 Kensirigton, so as to incl 1 following four prin- 



ipal sections, nannl\ : 



1. Furl Technology and 1 hetnii <» Gases, with 



Refrat lory 



neral fuel technology, and ' constitution of 

 ieats, lignites, and coals; 1 thi onisation of 



XO. 2557. VOL. I02 



coal .ni'l wood distillation; (c) tin chemistrj of coal- 

 tar, ammonia, and the manufacture ol intermediate 

 products from coal-tar; (</) tin chemistr) of gases and 

 technical gas catalysis, with special reference to the 

 new developments in the manufacture of ammonia, 

 nitric acid, sulphuric anhydride, etc., resulting from 

 the war; (c) refractory materials, clays, earths, and 

 sands, used in furnace construction and the manufac- 

 ture o! ceramics, iLtss, and cements; and m technical 

 ri nil with tin- foregoing. 

 The arrangements contemplated under (e) would in- 

 clude some provision for investigating the materials 

 used in the manufacture of optical glass, which it is 

 hoped will be a useful adjunct to the new Department 

 of Technical Optics; those under (b) meet the need, 

 already felt in many quarters, of an adequate pro- 

 vision being made in this country for the scientific 

 study of wood distillation, etc., in the interests of 

 India and the Empire generally; and those under (o) 

 will provide for an extension of the important ii 

 tigations on lignites which have already been in- 

 stituted in tho Department during the war in the 

 interests of the Dominions. 



II. — Chemical Engineering. 



Advanced study and investigations upon (a) the 

 materials and principles involved in the design, con- 

 struction, and use of plant for such general factory 

 operations as the transportation of solids, liquids, and 

 gases; filtration, desiccation, extraction, distillation, 

 evaporation, crystallisation, etc.; condensing plant; 

 the cooling, cleaning, and scrubbing of gases; the 

 refining of solids, the concentration of acids; auto- 

 claves and pressure plant, etc. ; (b) the design and 

 construction of foundations, flues, chimneys, etc. ; and 

 (c) factory economics and organisation. The under- 

 lying idea of this section of the Department's work is 

 that students shall be trained in the working out of 

 designs of commercial plant from their own notes 

 and experimental work, including the drawing up of 

 plans and specifications, and the organisation of fac- 

 tories in which the above-mentioned operations are 

 carried out. 



III. — Electro-( "hernistry. 



This section is to be developed so as to include 

 broadly the principal applications of electricity in 

 chemical industry, and especially to the many processes 

 which are dependent upon 1 the electrolytic or ionising 

 actions of currents. These include, inter alia, the 

 manufacture of caustic alkalis, chlorine, hypochlorites, 

 etc.; " peroxidised " products such as persulphates, 

 perchlorites, permanganates, etc. ; also white lead, 

 and such metals as sodium, magnesium, aluminium, 

 calcium, etc. Also manv organic substances are 

 nowadays made by electrolytic "reduction" or 

 "oxidation" processes. 



The value to this country of such processes has 

 been emphasised bv the experience of the war, and it 

 is more than ever important F01 tin will-being of our 

 chemical industries that no time should be lost in 

 developing at this college a sub-department in chemical 

 technology for the special study of them. 



IV. Technology of Carbohydrates, Fats, Oils, and 

 Rubbi r. 



The selection bi 'the subjects to be included under 

 this section has been largely influenced by two con- 

 sidei ations, namely : — 



First, the already large provision (o) in Manchester, 

 Leeds, and Huddersfield for advanced study and re- 

 search upon dyes and tinctorial chemistry, as applied 

 to the great textile industries of the country; (b) in 

 Leeds and in London in connection with the leather 



