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NATURE 



[December 26, 1918 



NOTES. 



The announcement of the appointment by the 

 partmenl <jf Scientific and Industrial Research and 

 Medical Research Committee of a Research Board 

 to investigate' the conditions of industrial fatigue comes 

 as a welcome reminder that the importance of 

 fatigue in industrial processes, long insisted cm by 

 those engaged in its investigation, can no longer be 

 neglected-. Fatigue, indeed, forms the dominating 

 factor in limiting output, and its investigation during 

 the war established facts of fundamental importance. 

 It is right that these researches should now be co- 

 ordinated and extended to Other industrial processes 

 where, up to now, fatigue has not been adequately 

 investigated. The Hoard consists oft- Prof. C. S. 

 Sherrington (chairman), .Mr. E. L. Collis, Sir Walter 

 Fletcher, Mr. VV. 1.. Hichens, Dr. Edward Hopkin- 

 son, Mr. Kenneth Lee, Dr. T. M. Legge, Col. ( '. S. 

 Myers, Mr. R. R. Bannatyne, and Mr. D. W. Wilson 

 (secretary). The duty of the Board will be to initiate, 

 organise, and promote, by research, grants, or other 

 wise, investigations in different industries with theview 

 of finding the' most favourable hours of labour, spells 

 of work, rest pauses, and other conditions applicable 

 to the various processes, according to the nature of 

 the work and its demands on the worker. The Board 

 will be glad to receive suggestions as to any problems 

 of the kind described. All communications should be 

 addressed to the Secretary, Industrial Fatigue Re- 

 search Board, 15 Great George Street, Westminster, 

 S.W.i. 'It is a hopeful sign that, in industrial re- 

 search, employers are convinced of the need for pro- 

 gress, and, should undue delay occur, they will be 

 prepared to take into their own hands the prosecution 

 of investigations and the application of results. 



Ten years ago Wilbur Wright gave at Le Mans, 

 western France, a demonstration of the practicability 

 of aerial navigation with machines heavier than air. 

 On Sunday, December 22, we learn from the Times, 

 this notable achievement was celebrated by the laving 

 of the foundation-stone of a monument to Wilbur 

 Wright, erected by the people of Le Mans, in the 

 Place des Jacobins, at the foot of the rising ground 

 on which the cathedral stands, the presentation 

 of a commemorative tablet to Le Mans by the Aero 

 Club of America, and a memorial tablet and bronze 

 wreath from the citizens of Dayton, Ohio, Wilbur 

 Wright's birthplace. 



The President's gold medal of the Society of En- 

 gineers has been awarded to Mr. T. Roland Wol- 

 laston, of Manchester, for his paper on "A Survey of 

 the Power By-product Problem." 



The British Medical Journal announces the resigna- 

 tion of Prof. E. Roux of the directorship of the 

 Pasteur Institute, Paris, and the appointment of Dr. 

 A. Calmetle as his successor. 



In an article on reconstruction, in the Scientific 

 American for November 23, the Hon. W. C. Redfieid, 

 Secntai) ol Commerce to the United States, gives a 

 ■short account of what is being done in the States to 

 restore industry to a peace basis and to improve it in 

 he future. Mr. Redfieid points out that the industrial 

 success of Germany arose out of two causes — first, 

 the appreciation of the science which underlay each 

 industry, its study and its application in the industry; 

 and secondly, the training of the mind as well as the 

 hand of the worker, so that he should understand both 

 ho-,.' to do a thing properly and why that was the 

 proper way-. Neither in Great Britain nor in America 

 has scientific research 01 /o ational training been 

 conspicuous, or even visible, in industry. Both are 

 now being introduced in America as quickly as pos- 

 NO. 2565, VOL. I02] 



sible. Experimental cotton and woollen mills, a papi r 

 mill, and a rolling mill have already been established, 

 and other industrial laboratories are to follow, so that 

 any problem which affects a whole- industry can be 

 at once worked out on a practical scale-. I he Federal 

 Board fur Vocational Education is distributing large 

 and increasing sums n> each State- of the Union to 

 ensure t<> every worker a knowledge of the- wh\ of 

 his work 



At ib,- meeting of the- Illuminating Engineering 



Sciei.-iy on December 10 some particulars were given, 

 by permission of the- Ministry of Munitions, of re- 

 searches which have been undertaken by two com- 

 mittees em the- illuminating value of Hares, parachute- 

 lights, etc., and cm the brightness of self-lump 

 radio-active material. Mr. A. P. Trotter, who dealt 

 with the former problem, showed several forms of 

 photometers specially designed to de-al with thi 

 fluctuating and very powerful light of these service- 

 flares, which in certain instances attained 130,000 c.p. 

 The wcnl; had to be done exclusively on moonless 



nights, and, as experiments were- conducted in the 

 open, precautions had to be taken against the- dis- 

 turbing effects of wind, mist, and smoke. Several 

 interesting results of these experiments are mentioned. 

 It appears that nests of parallel flares give sub- 

 stantially a candle-power equal to the sum of the 

 values of tin- constituent flares; also that the light 

 is of the same- value at different angles below the 

 horizontal; in other words, such flares act as flames; 

 and not in a manner resembling the crater of an eld - 

 trie are. As a rule, sample flares were mounted on 

 high poles, but they were also attached to the carrier 

 of a military kite with the object of ascertaining the 

 illumination that would be produced in practice when 

 such flares are di-opped from aeroplanes. The second 

 series of experiments, described by Mr. W. C. Clin- 

 ton, related to the decay in brightness of composi- 

 tions containing zinc sulphide with a small admixture- 

 of radium bromide in course of time. Experiments 

 extending over a year showed that specimens con- 

 taining from o-i to o-8 mg. of radium bromide- per 

 gram of composition all eventually possessed a bright- 

 ness of the order of 001 foot-candle, though originally 

 the compositions with the higher radium content were 

 much ib' brighter. Hxperiments were made to deter- 

 mine- tlie- desirable- de-pth of material by which the 

 brightness and life are also affected. In view of the 

 costliness of radium, such experiments are must usi ful 

 in determining the minimum amount which can be 

 usefulh employed in practice. Both series of experi- 

 ments afford an instructive instance- of the useful work 

 undertaken bv manv scientific societies during the 



The Registrar-General's return for the week ending 

 December 14 shows a continued decline in the in- 

 fluenza epidemic. The- deaths in the ninety-six great 

 towns of England and Wales were 1885, which is 

 only a little more than one-half of the deaths in the 

 preceding week, anil is lower than in any week sine' 

 that ending October 12, about the- first week of the 

 epidemic. In London the deaths were 322, which is 

 less than one-half of those in the preceding week, and 

 also fewer in any week since that ending October 12, 

 which was the- first week in which the number of deaths 

 in London exceeded'twehty. Tin- Times of December 18 

 gives tli- following as the "influenza world-toll," from 

 its medical correspondent: — "Though estimates of 

 deaths over tin- whole- world from any single epidemic 

 are ven difficult to form, there- seem to be- reasonable 

 grounds for believing that some 6,000,000 persons 

 have perished of influenza and pneumonia during the- 

 past twelve weeks. . . . Never sincethe Black Death has 



