January 2, 1919J 



NATURE 



355 



il the gi eai manufai I uring an a ■ 



luntry, and al Ma committee was 



formed under the presidency of the Lord Mayor with 



this intention. A guai antei fund was raised from manu- 



to meet the nei 1 

 uf organisation and equipment. The Education 

 Committee willingly granted the free use of the 

 spacious and conveniem rooms and corridors of the 

 College of Technology for the display of the exhibits, 

 and every facility was afforded by the executive com- 

 mittee of the British Science Guild with the view of 

 inducing the exhibitors at King's College to exhibit 

 at Manchester. 



The total number of firm* contributing to the 

 exhibition is about two hundred and forty, 

 including some sixty which did not make any display 

 al Kind's Collegi , ["hese are chief!} textile firms and 

 tirms engaged in the manufacture of chemical or 

 special engineering products; At Manchester, as 

 might I" there is a specially fine show of 



dyestuffs and of intermediate products necessary for 

 their manufacture, together with a fine exhibit of 

 British-made synthetic indigo, the most important of 

 .ill dyestuffs. Along with these is shown a tine dis- 

 play of goods dyed and printed therewith. There is 

 also an excellent show of magnetos, exhibiting their 

 dissociated parts, with specimens of the raw materials 

 used, and arrangements are made to run the magnetos 

 -how the ignition sparks produced for engines 

 with various numbers of cylinders. The manufacture 

 n! these appliances, previously almost entirely in 

 German hands, has been greatly stimulated by the 

 requirements of the war, which has, without doubt, 

 resulted in the establishment in this country of a 

 highl) essential branch of industry. The exhibition 

 also includes an extensive display of gas- or oil-fired 

 ■ foi hardening high-speed steel, for testing 

 tory materials, or for forging. 



In the large hall of the college is displayed a 

 standard Avro aeroplane, on which 40,0(10 pilots have 

 been trained. It was the first machine to make a 

 nice raid in Germany — Friedrichshafen, 

 November, 1014 and the first to bring down a Zep- 

 pelin. Some beautiful specimens are shown of cotton- 

 pile fabrics in successful imitation of Lyons silk 

 velvets, and of printed cotton voiles and cretonnes 

 and dyed cotton-threads. There is an extensive 

 and typical collection of fine chemicals, and 

 also of intermediate products used in organic 

 svntheses for dye manufacture and for explosives. 

 Some interesting chemical products are also shown 

 1 in the laboratories of the University of 

 Birmingham according to the specifications of certain 

 German patents or modifications thereof suitable for 

 use as high explosives. The "Flatters" method of 

 water colloid doping is shown as applied to gas-proof 

 cloths and to aeroplane-wing cloths, together with 

 micro-photographs illustrating the "permeability" of 

 tate cellulose method as compared with the 

 water colloid method of treatment. There is an excel- 

 lent display of aluminium, showing its preparation 

 from the ore to the finished material and its applica- 

 tion to various uses, including automobile parts of all 

 kinds and aeroplane parts, together with electrical 

 equipment, with bare and insulated cables, bus- 

 bars and feeders, traction motor and lifted magnet 

 windings, etc. 



Precision machinery and measuring instruments and 

 gauges to a high degree of accuracy are stronglv in 



, together with pressure gauges, aeroplani 



radiator thermometers — many thousands of which were 



made during the war by women labour — and optical 



pyrometers for measuring temperatures of from 700 to 



. formerlv made exelusivelv in Germanv, but 



manufactured in this countrj since [914. A notable 

 exhibit is that ol accelerim (paranitrosodimethyl- 

 aniline), a powerful catalyst of the vulcanising process, 



the effect of which was discovered in 1914 by S. J. 

 Peach, v, working in the laboratoi i, s of the Co'lleiM- of 

 Technology, Manchester. The addition of o\ to 

 05 per cent, of the weight of the material to a rubber 

 mixing reduces the time of vulcanisation to one-third 

 of the normal, and it is now being used by many of 

 the largest rubber and cable works. Examples are 

 shown of six-score "Diatrine" paper-insulated and 

 lead-sheathed cable suitable for a working pressure of 

 11,000 volts, provided with Glover's patent test sheath. 

 There is also an exhibit of acid-resisting materials and 

 vessels so necessary to meet the urgent demand which 

 arose during the war for these indispensable require- 

 ments. The War Office Aircraft Fabrics Department 

 of Manchester displays aircraft and kite-balloon fabrics 

 and apparatus' for testing the permeability of aircraft 

 fabrics. 



Interesting exhibits are also to be found illustrating 

 various physical apparatus, such as polarimeters, 

 wave-length spectrometers, Hilger vacuum spectro- 

 graphs, aero-tensionmeters for the accurate and 

 rapid measurement of the tautness of doped and var- 

 nished fabrics for aeroplanes, projection comparators 

 for the rapid testing of screw-threads, together with 

 examples of photographic micro-scales and graticules 

 made by grainless, filmless, ceramic, and metallic 

 deposition methods, as well as other forms of micro- 

 scales, which were before the war a German mono- 

 poly, and a series of colour-films for scientific and 

 technical purposes. 



The catalogue includes, by permission of the British 

 Science Guild, the various valuable scientific and 

 technical articles prepared by recognised authorities 

 which appeared in the London exhibition catalogue, 

 and added considerably to the value of it. In addition, 

 a chapter is devoted to recent researches by the staff 

 and advanced students of the College of Technology, 

 which cover a wide range of subjects, including many 

 investigations required for naval and military purposes 

 which have been found to be "of extreme value." In 

 the electrical engineering department researches have 

 been carried out under the auspices of the Institute 

 of Electrical Engineers on the electrical and mechani- 

 cal properties of porcelain and on the electrical pro- 

 perties of oils. Experimental work has been suc- 

 cessfully completed upon a wattmeter for very heavy 

 alternating currents, and a research concluded upon 

 the existence or non-existence of an action between 

 masses analogous to mutual induction between elec- 

 trical circuits. The experiment showed that if any 

 such action did occur, the ratio of the change of 

 momentum in the body acted upon to the change of 

 momentum of the acting body was less than 

 4-3 xio -10 . The paper excited considerable interest 

 at the meeting of the British Association in 1915. 

 Investigations were conducted upon the eddy current 

 losses occurring in the end plates of turbo-generators, 

 and a formula deduced by which these currents could 

 be estimated. Many important commercial applica- 

 tions have resulted from researches upon the com- 

 mutation of continuous-current generators and rotary- 

 converters. The municipal and sanitary engineer- 

 ing department has been engaged upon matters 

 relating to the heating and ventilation of buildings, 

 upon the design, construction, and use of material 

 for artisans' dwellings and on town-planning matters, 

 and upon experiments on the strength of lead and 

 other pipes used for the distribution of water. 



In the chemical department experiments have been 

 undertaken on the sulphonation of oils under the 



NO. 2566, VOL. I02] 



