!2S 



NATURE 



[December 26, 1918 



been much studied, and some excellent results 

 have been obtained in Scotland by Mr. Robert 

 Drummond, the engineer of the Paisley roads, 

 who has devised methods by which the stones 

 forming- a road surface can be wedged into posi- 

 tion by simple and inexpensive methods, and 

 then waterproofed by pouring a very small quan- 

 tity of pitch over the wedged surface. Roads 

 so made have stood the heaviest traffic with a 

 minimum of deformation. It is practically 

 certain that Mr. Drummond's method, hitherto 

 worked by hand, can be carried out still more 

 efficiently by machinery. This will undoubtedly 

 be done and will greatly reduce the cost not only 

 of resurfacing the vast mileage of roads which 

 must now be taken in hand, but also of the great 

 extension which must be undertaken, as fore- 

 shadowed in the early part of this article, to enable 

 country districts to be opened up. In conclusion, 

 if, twenty years ago, anyone had stated that the 

 extension of roads was even more important than 

 the extension of railways, he would have been 

 looked upon as a visionary ; but this is now actually 

 the case. 



Since the above was written, the announcement 

 has been made that the Government, acting on 

 the recommendation of the Road Board, has allo- 

 cated 10,000,000/. to our roads and bridges. We 

 are not informed whether Ireland is to share in 

 the grant, but it is stated that the greater part 

 is to be spent on roads, as the bridge improve- 

 ments can be carried out by the local authori- 

 ties, borrowing for this purpose on long-term 

 loans. Ten million pounds is a large sum, 

 but it will be found sufficient only to resurface 

 about one-quarter of the main roads of England, 

 Wales, and Scotland so as to bring them to an 

 equality with the improved roads we have men- 

 tioned, even if the most economical methods now 

 known are faithfully followed. 



This grant is sufficient for a commencement. 

 It will give employment to many demobilised men 

 as they return from overseas, but it is to be 

 hoped that the Government or the Road Board 

 will see to it that really scientific training is given 

 to the executive staff which is to carry out the 

 work. The special local knowledge of climatic 

 conditions, local road stones, and so forth, which 

 used to form so large a part of the qualifications 

 of our local road surveyors, will no longer suffice. 

 As we have shown, the road engineer has now to 

 deal with scientific questions which ought to be 

 determined for him by the central authority, which 

 is at present the Road Board; it is to be hoped, 

 therefore, that the instructive experimental work 

 commenced by it previous to the war will be at 

 once renewed, so that the methods of resurfacing 

 the roads oi the kingdom may be to some extenl 

 standardised. 



Road problems are already so specialised that 

 our universities might with advantage follow the 

 example 1 of some of the American universities by 

 instituting special courses of lectures on highway 

 engineering. 



NO. 2565, VOL. I02] 



■ 



THE AMERICAN CHEMIST IX WARFARE. 



UNDER the above title Dr. Charles L. Parsons, 

 chairman of the U.S. Committee on War 

 Service for Chemists, communicated to the 

 American Chemical Society, at a recent meeting at 

 Cleveland, a paper which is reproduced in our con- 

 temporary Science. As the paper bears directly 

 upon matters of national importance, and is of 

 interest as showing the promptitude and thorough- 

 ness with which our Ally dealt with a great and 

 critical emergency, it may be desirable to give 

 a short summary of its contents. 



Some months before the United States entered 

 the war Dr. Parsons was sent by the Ordnance 

 Department to study in England, Prance, Italy, 

 Norway, and Sweden certain chemical processes, 

 particularly those relating to the fixation of nitro- 

 gen. When he arrived in England he was 

 strongly impressed with the dangerous position 

 in which this nation stood owing to the policy of 

 the War Office in drafting practically every avail- 

 able man, irrespective of his qualifications and 

 potential value, into the combatant ranks. Per- 

 haps at the time no other course was possible. It 

 was absolutely necessary to stem the rush of the 

 enemy, and men were required to do it. Mean- 

 while, the Government was halting between two 

 opinions — shilly-shallying with the question of con- 

 scription, and "letting I dare not wait upon I 

 •would." The consequence was that owing to the 

 lack of technical men, chiefly chemists, the supply 

 of munitions was greatly retarded. This was no 

 less true of France. Everywhere the same state- 

 ment was made that the greatest mistake of the 

 Entente countries was in giving too little atten- 

 tion to brain power and too much to physical 

 prowess. Germany, on the other hand, had care- 

 fully conserved her chemical strength in order to 

 develop the new and terrible methods of warfare 

 which her policy of " frightfulness " forced upon 

 the world. We were ultimately reluctantly driven 

 to fight her with her own weapons, and to better 

 her example, if we could. 



The war, in fact, entered upon a new and utterly 

 unexpected phase for which this nation was very 

 inadequately prepared, and with which the War 

 Office, as then constituted, was quite unable to 

 cope. Practically the whole chemical force of 

 the Empire was called upon to grapple with the 

 position. How our difficulties were at length sur- 

 mounted, and how our chief enemy was eventu- 

 ally compelled to regret that he had ever embarked 

 upon such a mode of warfare, will perhaps some 

 day be made fully known. It is a chapter in the 

 history of the war not onlv of present interest, but 

 also of future value. There is no question that 

 before this consummation was reached we were 

 for a time in great jeopardv. Indeed, it was 

 necessary for all the Allies to seek for chemists 

 and chemical engineers wherever they could be 

 found. France secured the services of Nor- 

 wegians ; England drew upon her colonies and 

 her oversea possessions. Dr. Parsons, indeed, 

 says that "the chemist who perhaps more than any 



