70 
NATURE 
UnpER the joint auspices of the Technical Education 
Board of the London County Council and of the Geo- 
graphical Association, two conferences will be held on 
Thursday, January 7, 1904, in the South-western Poly- 
technic, Manresa Road, Chelsea. In the morning, at 
11 o’clock, Mr. H. J. Mackinder, reader in geography at 
Oxford, and the appointed teacher of geography in the 
University of London, will open a discussion on the de- 
velopment of geography out of nature-study. In the after- 
noon practical methods of teaching geography will be dealt 
with. Mr. Lomas, of Liverpool, will take up the question 
of teaching geography by excursions; Mr. T. Alford Smith, 
St. Dunstan’s College, Catford, will describe a method of 
using the globe and lantern views; Mr. P. F. Kendall, of 
the Yorkshire College, will discuss methods of making 
and using models; and Mr. A. J. Herbertson, of the 
Oxford University School of Geography, will advocate 
the employment of Ordnance maps in teaching geography, 
and will, in particular, deal with sheets which are. illus- 
trative of typical land forms. In connection with these 
conferences an exhibition of geographical appliances, maps, 
and books of use to teachers will be arranged. It will 
probably be open from Tuesday, January 5, to Saturday, 
January 9, at the South-western Polytechnic. The Geo- 
graphical Association has appointed’ a special committee 
to select exhibits. 
Lorp Ketvin on November 13 received the honorary 
degree of D.Sc. from the University of Wales. On the 
evening of the previous day he received the honorary 
membership of the South Wales Engineers’ Institute, and 
in expressing his thanks for the honour, he remarked 
that engineers all over the world had still a good 
deal to learn as to the real value of university training. 
In the matter of the education of foremen in engineering 
works the Germans had learned how to give them scientific 
knowledge in a way in which we in England had not given 
it. It was necessary for the young engineer to learn the 
practical as well as the theoretical, and this could only be 
accomplished satisfactorily by the student’s spending half his 
year at the university and half in the workshop, where he 
might learn to apply the scientific knowledge which he had 
acquired in the university. 
Ar the Sir John Cass Technical Institute, Aldgate, on 
Tuesday, November 17, the prizes and certificates gained 
by students during the past session were distributed by 
Sir Henry Roscoe. The institute is one of the polytechnics 
aided by the Technical Education Board of the London 
County Council and by the City Parochial Foundation. In 
addition to general instruction in the experimental sciences, 
art, commercial subjects, and domestic economy, special 
attention is given to the study of metals both from the 
scientific and the artistic side. Sir Henry Roscoe, in ad- 
dressing the students, said that he hoped all present would 
agree with him that enough had been said about the value 
of the application of the principles of science and of art 
to industry, and that the time for work had come. Over 
and above the ordinary courses of instruction it is of the 
utmost importance that the higher work of students, 
especially research work, should be encouraged. What 
original work teaches is—how to overcome difficulties, how 
to obtain a mastery over opposing forces, how, in fact, 
successfully to tackle new problems when they present 
themselves, as they are ever doing to those who have 
eyes to see. Without this capability a man can only run 
in the beaten track, with it he has a weapon in his hand 
which gives him power to strike out new paths and to 
open up fresh and fertile ground. As in the scientific 
sphere, so also in the domain of art—the same guiding 
spirit holds the fort. Taste needs refinement, hand and 
eye require training, the craftsman, like the man of science, 
must be imbued with the spirit of progress as well as with 
a love of his art. Referring to the relation between the 
London University and polytechnics as regards internal 
students, Sir Henry Roscoe remarked that instruction given 
in the polytechnics must be of a real university type. It 
would be fatal to the prestige of the university were its 
necessarily high standard of efficiency lowered to meet the 
exigencies of the case. The course of study must be an 
extended one, as the hours devoted to work in the evening 
NO. 1777, VOL. 69] 
[ NovEMBER 19, 1903 
are necessarily shorter than those in the day; but the 
total time spent in study must be the same for both day 
and evening students, though a substantial reduction in 
time has been granted to those regularly employed during 
the day. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpbon. 
Royal Society.—‘* The Vapour Pressure of Liquid Oxygen 
on the Scale of the Constant-volume Oxygen Thermometer 
filled at different Initial Pressures.’’ [by Dr. Morris W. 
Travers and Dr. Charles J. Fox. Communicated by Sir 
William Ramsay, K.C.B., r-R.S. Received June 26. 
The vapour pressures of liquid oxygen and of liquid 
hydrogen on the scales of the constant-volume hydrogen 
and helium thermometers have recently been determined by 
one of us in conjunction with Dr. A. Jaquerod and Mr. G. 
Senter, and it has been found that two scales of tempera- 
ture differ by amounts which increase as the temperature 
falls (Phil. Trans., A., vol. cc.). 
Vapour Hydrogen Helium 
pressure scale scale 
Liquid oxygen... 760 mm, go°"10 go" 20 
Liquid hydrogen 760 20°22 20°41 
These results are in accordance with Callendar’s calcula- 
tions of the deviation from the thermodynamic scale of © 
measurements with thermometers filled at an initial pressure 
of 1000 mm. of mercury at the melting point of ice. 
Whether the deviation becomes smaller when the thermo- 
meters are filled at a lower pressure has not been deter- 
mined, and, indeed, with the means at our disposal it would 
be practically impossible to do so. In order, therefore, to 
investigate the variation of the readings of the gas thermo- 
meter with change of initial pressure, we decided to measure 
thi: vapour pressures of liquid oxygen on the scales of the 
constant-volume oxygen and nitrogen thermometers, for 
which the deviations from the thermodynamic scale are 
ceusiderably greater. 
Makower and Noble, using the method of Travers and 
Jaquerod, have found that the pressure coefficient of oxygen 
at an initial pressure Po may be expressed by the formula 
a =0-0036642+0-00000001457 Po, 
where Po is expressed in millimetres. Values derived from 
this expression were employed in calculating the tempera- 
tures corresponding to the vapour pressure of liquid oxygen 
on the scale of the oxygen thermometer filled at different 
initial pressures. 
The results are stated in the following table :— 
Gas in 
Pressure on gas in 
thermometer 
Pressure Boiling point 
thermometer at 
coefficient liquid oxyge 
ice point 
Helium 1000 mm. 0°00366255 90°20 
Oxygen 1000 0°0036788 88°71 
731 0'0036748 8902 
658 0°0036738 89:09 
454 0 0036713 89°31 
336 0'0036692 89°48 
fo) 0 0036642 99°81 
1 By extrapolation. 
The results show that for very low pressures in the 
thermometer the oxygen scale converges towards the helium 
scale. The fact that the deviation does not appear to vanish 
at low pressures may be due to a tendency on the part of the 
gaseous molecules to associate at higher pressures. 
Mathematical Society, November 12.—Prof. H. Lamb, 
president, in the chair.—The council and officers for the 
ensuing session were elected. They are as follows :—presi- 
dent, Prof. Lamb; vice-presidents, Prof. Elliott, Dr. Hob- 
son, Dr. Baker; treasurer, Prof. Larmor; secretaries, Prof. 
Love and Prof. Burnside; other members of council, Mr. 
Campbell, Dr. Glaisher, Mr. Grace, Mr. Macdonald, Major 
MacMahon, Mr. Mathews, Mr. Western, Mr. Whittaker, 
Mr. A. Young.—The following papers were communi- 
cated :—Prof. J. D. Everett, Note on Borgnet’s method 
of dividing an angle in an arbitrary ratio. The method, 
which depends on the construction of a certain transcen- 
dental curve, was given by Borgnet in Rouen. Acad. 
