NOVEMBER 5, 1896] 
NATURE 
Ze 
enable them to spend two years at a Central Technical School, 
in order to acquire the necessary knowledge of scientific 
principles and some acquaintance with methods of instruction. 
Whether the ‘‘ intelligent workman” would afterwards be con- 
tent to pass his days in the workshop, and his evenings in the 
class-room, is another story. But however this may be, the 
intentions of the Committee are good, and we should be sorry to 
say anything which would tend to depreciate the admirable 
efforts they are making to improve the condition of technical 
education in this country. Mr. G. Matthey, the Chairman of 
the Committee, and Sir Philip Magnus, the Superintendent of 
the examinations, deserve the thanks of every one interested in 
the development of our industries for their organisation of 
knowledge which lies at the root of such developments. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
CAMBRIDGE.—Dr. Glaisher, F.R.S., has been appointed 
Chairman of the Examiners for the Mathematical Tripos, Part 
Il. of 1897. Mr. J. G. Leathem, fourth wrangler 1894 and 
Isaac Newton Student in Astronomy, has been elected to a 
fellowship at St. John’s College ; and Mr. W. E. Philip, third 
wrangler in the same year, to a fellowship at Clare College. Mr. 
W. E. Johnson, of King’s College, has been appointed to the 
University Lectureship in Psychology, vacated by Mr. G. F. 
Stout, editor of AZizd_ 
A COMMITTEE has been appointed to consider the mode in 
which the grants in aid to science and art schools are distributed, 
and to report if it is desirable to make any alteration therein. 
The members consist of the Vice-President of the Committee of 
Council on Education (Chairman); Mrs. Sidgwick, Sir John 
F. D. Donnelly, K.C.B., Secretary of the Science and Art 
Department ; Sir H. Roscoe, F.R.S., Mr. G. L. Ryder, H.M. 
Treasury ; Prof. R. C. Jebb, M.P., Mr. W. Armstrong, Director 
of the National Gallery, Dublin; Captain W. de W. Abney, 
C.B., F.R.S., Science and Art Department (Secretary). 
It is announced in Sczence that the Chicago Institute of 
Education has appointed a committee of sixty to develop some 
feasible plan for carrying on systematic outdoor, or field work, 
in connection with nature study. The committee held its first 
meeting on September 19, and a permanent organisation was 
effected by the election of Mr. Wilbur S. Jackman as President, 
and Mrs. M. L. T. Baker as Secretary, aud the appointment of 
a number of sub-committees. One of the first works of the com- 
mittee will be the preparation of maps of the environs of Chicago, 
which will assist the pupils and teachers of the public schools in 
a systematic study of the country lying within a convenient 
radius of the city. 
THE sum of £25,000 has now been subscribed for an en- 
gineering laboratory at Glasgow University (says Engineering), 
and the same tact and energy which have been displayed in 
finding the money, will result in an early realisation of the aim 
of the promoters. The sum of £12,500 was voted out of the 
Bellahouston Trust Estate, and the remainder has been readily 
subscribed by engineers and others in the district. Meanwhilea 
temporary laboratory is to be equipped, two large rooms having 
been set apart in the main building. This, however, will not 
even delay the arrangements for the new laboratory. A gas 
engine of ten horse-power is being presented to the University 
by the Committee of the Murdock Memorial Fund, and this will 
commemorate the association of the founder of gas-lighting with 
James Watt. The testing plant will include a ten-ton machine, 
with tension, compression, shearing, and bending tackle and an 
autographic stress-strain recorder, while a melting furnace will 
be constructed for making alloys. 
ABUNDANT evidence of the continued increase in the number 
of well equipped and properly staffed technical schools through- 
out the country is afforded by the current number of the Record 
of Technical and Secondary Education, which is published 
quarterly under the auspices of the National Association for the 
Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education. A detailed 
review of the work accomplished in thirteen county boroughs 
is given ; and selected as these are from all parts of the country, 
they afford an excellent means of judging of the general advance 
which has taken place since the passing of the Technical 
Instruction Act of 1890. The photographs of the yarious 
NO. 1410, VOL. 55] 
departments of the Battersea Polytechnic, and the Victoria 
Institute, Worcester, show that the plan upon which these new 
places of instruction are furnished leaves very little to be 
desired. The editorial notes, with which the publication opens, 
emphasise the occurrences of special educational interest during 
the preceding three months, and, together with the article on 
intermediate education in Wales, they show that the Association 
has reason to be satisfied with the results of its efforts to improve 
the knowledge of the workers of this country. Reference is 
made in the Aecord to the Return recently presented to 
Parliament, showing that the total income of evening con- 
tinuation schools in this country amounts to £189,130 3s. Id., 
made up as follows :—Grants by the Education Department, 
£81,362 35. 4d.; grants by the Science and Art Department, 
£1410 12s, 11d. ; grants by County Councils, £16,440 11s. 2d. : 
School Board rates, £58,516 12s. ; voluntary contributions, 
47432 7s. 8d. ; school fees and books, £22,303 ; endowment, 
4515 18s.; other sources, £1149 145. 4d. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES, 
Lonpon. 
Physical Society, October 30.—Captain Abney, President, 
in the chair.—Special general meeting.—The Secretary having 
read a summary of the replies sent by members to a circular 
which had been addressed to them during the last session, a 
series of resolutions drawn up by the Council, bearing on the 
points raised by this circular, were adopted. The chief of these 
resolutions were to the following effect: (1) That the subscrip- 
tion to the Society be raised to £2 2s. (2) That present life- 
members be invited to voluntarily subscribe £1 Is. annually to 
the funds of the Society, or to compound for this annual con- 
tribution. (3) That a guarantee fund be instituted. (4) That in 
future members of the Society be styled Fellows of the Physical 
Society of London. In the course of the discussion on these 
resolutions the President, Secretary, and Treasurer gave an 
account of the financial position of the Society, and explained 
that at present each member receives from the Society, in the 
shape of Proceedings and Abstracts, printed matter which costs 
the Society more than the amount of the annual subscription. 
The ordinary science meeting was then held.—A letter was read 
from Lord Kelvin thanking the Society for the address which 
the President, on their behalf, had recently presented to him. 
—Prof. W. Stroud read a paper, by himself and Mr. J. B. 
Henderson, on a satisfactory method of measuring electrolytic 
conductivity by means of continuous currents. The method 
consists in placing a balancing electrolytic cell in the arm of the 
Wheatstone’s Bridge adjacent to the arm containing the chief 
electrolytic cell, so that the electromotive force of polarisation 
in the two cells neutralise each other’s effect on the galvano- 
meter. The authors find that if the resistance of the arms of 
the bridge are high (20,000 ohms), and if an E.M.F. of about 
30 volts is used in the battery circuit, then the resistance of a 
solution (of potassium chlorate in their experiments) can be deter- 
mined to within about one part in two thousand. Witha D’Ar- 
sonval galvanometer the balancing cell is so efficacious that it is 
impossible to tell that it is not a metallic resistance that is being 
measured. Prof. Perry asked if the authors had tested whether 
the difference in resistance of the two cells was proportional 
to the difference in length of the liquid columns. Mr. 
Appleyard said he had found that the resistance of an 
electrolyte appeared to vary, because in the ordinary arrange- 
ment the cell was short circuited through the arms of the 
bridge. He suggested as a remedy the making and break- 
ing of the circuit by a special key so arranged that, except 
when taking a reading, the cell is on open circuit. Mr. 
Blakesley asked if the authors had tried the method in 
which the resistances are adjusted till, when the battery circuit 
is broken, there is no immediate change in the galvanometer 
deflection. It is possible by this method to measure a resistance 
of between 6000 and 10,000 ohms to within o'1 per cent. Prof. 
Ayrton said the method referred to by Mr. Blakesley was the 
ordinary ‘‘ false zero” method. In using this method you were 
working toa continuously altering zero ; in Prof. Stroud’s method, 
however, the zero was constant. Mr. Appleyard said he had 
found the ‘‘false zero” method troublesome to use. Prof. 
Stroud, in reply, said they had not tested the proportionality 
between the resistance and length, and they had not tried the 
‘* false zero’? method.—Mr. Appleyard then exhibited a number 
