622 
o” 
NATURE 
[ApRIL 22, 1904 
of an Imperial Agricultural College in connection with an 
Experimental Farm and Research Laboratory, to be carried 
on under the general direction of the Inspector-General of 
Agriculture, at which it is intended to provide a thorough 
training in all branches of agricultural science, combined 
with constant practice in farming work and estate manage- 
ment (see p. 564). There will be courses of instruction ex- 
tending to five years, which will qualify men to fill posts 
in the Department of Agriculture itself, such as those of 
assistant directors, research experts, superintendents of 
farms, professors, teachers, and managers of encumbered 
estates. 
In conclusion the Governor-General in Council states in 
the minute that the system of education thus extended makes 
provision in varying degrees for all forms of intellectual 
activity that appeal to a civilised community. It seeks to 
satisfy the aspirations of students in the domains of learn- 
ing and research; it supplies the Government with a 
succession of upright and intelligent public servants; it 
trains workers in every branch of commercial enterprise 
that has made good its footing in India; it attempts to 
develop the resources of the country and to stimulate and 
improve indigenous arts and industries; it offers to all 
classes of society a training suited to their position in life; 
and for these ends it is organised on lines which admit of 
indefinite expansion as the demand for education grows and 
public funds or private liberality afford a larger measure 
of support. It rests with the people themselves to make a 
wise use of the opportunities that are offered to them, and 
te realise that education in the true sense means something 
more than the acquisition of so much positive knowledge, 
something higher than the mere passing of examinations, 
that it aims at the progressive and orderly development of 
all the faculties of the mind, that it should form character 
and teach right conduct—that it is, in fact, a preparation 
for the business of life. : 
The aspirations of the Government of India, so far as 
university education in particular is concerned, may be 
gathered both from the minute already referred to and from 
the Viceroy’s speech at the meeting of his Legislative 
Council on the occasion of the passing of the Universities 
Act. The minute points out that it has been realised in 
India that universities which are merely examining bodies 
tend to accentuate the defects of the Indian intellect—the 
disproportionate development of the memory and the in- 
capacity to observe and appreciate facts. It is proposed to 
reconstitute the unwieldy senates of the universities, and 
to define and regulate the position and powers of the 
syndicates. The universities are to be empowered to provide 
teaching, while collegiate teaching will be tested by in- 
spection in addition to examination, and a higher educa- 
tional standard will be enforced from collegiate colleges. 
Government is prepared to afford liberal financial aid to 
enable universities to adapt themselves to the new conditions, 
and it is hoped that such aid may _ stimulate private 
beneficence. 
Lord Curzon, in his speech to the Legislative Council, 
said that the fact that the Government had taken the 
power of the last word in the entire programme of recon- 
struction of Indian universities is the best guarantee that 
the programme will not be inoperative, though he regretted 
that the Government is compelled to be so dominant a 
factor in the settlement of Indian problems. But, he con- 
tinued, if the Government had not taken up this particular 
problem of higher education, who would have done it? and 
if the Government had not made itself responsible for seeing 
it through, who could give any guarantee that it would 
not have proved abortive? It is quite likely, said the Viceroy 
later, that the senates and syndicates of the universities of 
India will be perfectly competent to stand by themselves 
and will make no mistakes, but if not, and until they are 
created, the matter must necessarily be in doubt, and the 
Government must, in common prudence, retain the power. 
It is consequently clear enough that the improvement of 
education in India in the immediate future is now fully 
assured, and it may be expected with confidence that the 
result of this development will in our eastern empire be 
identical with that in other countries, viz. an increased 
prosperity and national well-being. 
NO. 1800, VOL. 69| 
PLATING UPON ALUMINIUM. 
MAY attempts to plate other metals upon aluminium 
have been tried, but although apparent success has— 
for a short time—attended some of these efforts, the film 
of metal plated on has not been of such a nature as tc 
stand wear or rough usage. Messrs. C. F. Burgess and 
Carl Hambuechen publish a new method in the March 
number of Electrochemical Industry. The difficulty of 
plating on aluminium is generally, and probably correctly, 
attributed to the invisible film which forms upon that meta] 
when exposed to air. ‘Therefore most of the methods 
previously described depend upon the removal (or attempted 
removal) of this film by means of solvents, such as acids) 
or alkaline hydroxides, and the rapid transference from the 
pickling to the plating bath. 
An ideal method would be to plate in a bath containing 
some substance which would dissolve off the film of oxide 
from the aluminium and thus leave it clean for the de- 
position of the metallic film. Messrs. Burgess and 
Hambuechen find that the presence in the bath of soluble) 
fluorides, such as sodium or ammonium fluoride, or prefer- 
ably a small quantity of free hydrofluoric acid, dissolve off 
or prevent this film formation. 
The next important point is to plate as a base metal, upon 
the aluminium, one which will adhere tenaciously to its 
surface, or partially alloy with it. Zinc appears to possess) 
this property of adhesion to a high degree. 
The method of procedure is first to clean the aluminium 
by immersion for a few minutes in a bath of hydrofluoric 
acid; this produces a suitable roughening of the surface; 
the adhesion to a perfectly polished surface is not satis- 
factory. On removal from this bath the aluminium is rinsed 
in running water, dipped for a few seconds in a bath con- 
sisting of a mixture of sulphuric acid 100 parts and nitric 
acid 75 parts, again rinsed in water, and placed in the 
plating bath. 
The plating bath consists of a mixture of zinc and 
aluminium sulphates, which is very slightly acidified, and 
contains about 1 per cent. of hydrofluoric acid and an 
equivalent amount of potassium fluoride. After the deposi- 
tion has continued for a few minutes with a current density 
of 10 to 20 amperes per square foot the article is taken from 
the bath, washed and dried. Other metals, such as copper 
or silver, may now be deposited upon the zinc coating, using: 
the ordinary precautions commonly observed in the deposi- 
tion of such metals upon zinc. 
If gold is to be deposited upon it, it is necessary first to 
plate on a thin coating of copper, otherwise in a short time 
the gold sinks into the zinc and in a few weeks almost | 
disappears. 
The authors do not state whether aluminium coated with 
zinc can be readily soldered, but probably there would be | 
no difficulty in doing this. Ie IN Ieee 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
WE learn from Science that Mr. John D. Rockefeller has 
given 100,000l. to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, in order 
that the work of the institution may not be curtailed owing 
to the losses from the recent Baltimore fire. The Maryland 
Legislature has voted soool. annually for two years to the 
Johns Hopkins University. By the will of Mrs. Farnham, 
widow of the late Prof. Henry Farnham, Yale University 
receives 10,5001. for the endowment fund of the medical 
school and 7900l. for the endowment fund for the library. 
Ir is announced in Science that the Assembly has passed 
a Bill appropriating 50,0001. for the New York State College 
of Agriculture at Cornell University; that President C. E. 
Miller, of Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio, has secured 
pledges to the amount of 30,0001. for the fuller equipment 
of this university, 10,0001. of this amount to be expended 
in buildings, and 20,0001. to be added to the permanent 
endowment; and that Mr. Andrew Carnegie has given 
60001. to Berea College in Kentucky. 
AT a recent meeting of the New York section of the 
American Chemical Society a discussion on the training” 
