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IPPATIOR E 
[FEBRUARY 4, 1897 
AT the Queen’s§Hall, Langham Place, to-morrow, February 
5, the Prince of Wales will present the certificates to the winners 
of scholarships and exhibitions of the London County Council 
Technical Education Board. 
THE Technical Instruction Committee of the Northumberland 
County Council have intimated that they would not be indisposed 
to make a grant tothe Northumberland Sea Fisheries Committee, 
provided the latter will undertake to arrange for something 
definite in the direction of hatchery, vr arrange some clearly- 
defined work of an educational value. The Sea Fisheries 
Committee are making inquiries with the object of devising and 
establishing experimental work in hatchery. 
THE Durham County Council last week sanctioned the ex- 
penditure of no less a sum than £2254 for the erection of a 
**band-room” by the committee of the Earl’s House Industrial 
School, which is under its control. Though it was rightly 
objected by one councillor that instrumental music was not 
legitimately a part of an industrial training, yet, following the 
lead of a member of Parliament present, the Council approved 
of the grant on the ground that band-playing ‘‘tends to elevate 
the boys, and make them better citizens.”’ 
Ir is proposed that Staffordshire shall unite with Shropshire 
and Warwickshire in a scheme which shall provide advanced 
and elementary technical education, in colleges and schools 
specially adapted for the work, for the sons and daughters of 
farmers. The Staffordshire Committee are also to appoint a 
lecturer on pottery and porcelain, with the object of improving 
the ceramic industry of the northern part of the county, as well 
as appoint a lecturer and establish a metallurgical laboratory at 
Wednesbury in South Staffordshire. 
PROBABLY the scholarships established by Sir Joseph Whit- 
worth have been the means of bringing more talented young 
men to the front rank of engineers than any similar foundations. 
By a will just made known, it appears that the late Lady 
Whitworth recognised the advantages which scholarships offer 
to earnest students. She bequeathed such a sum as will pro- 
vide a permanent income of £100 a year to be applied as 
*“ Lady Whitworth Scholarships” in connection with the public 
elementary school or schools established in Darley Dale, for 
the purpose of enabling scholars therein to maintain themselves 
at such schools wholly or partially, or to proceed to other place 
or places of higher education. The selection of scholars has 
always to be made according to merit, and not on the mere 
ground of poverty, or any considerations of private personal 
favour. 
THE great Fayerweather Will contest has just been finally 
settled by the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, con- 
firming the judgment of the Supreme Court, and dividing the 
residue of the estate, amounting to about 3,000,000 dols., 
equally among the following educational institutions, in addition 
to the following named bequests, which have already been 
divided among them under the ninth paragraph of the will :— 
Yale University, 300,000 dols. ; Columbia and Cornell Uni- 
versity, 200,000 dols. each; Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Williams, 
Amherst, Hamilton and Maryville College, Wesleyan, Lincoln 
and Hampton University, and’ the University of Virginia and of 
Rochester, 100,000 dols. each; Union Theological Seminary, 
Lafayette, Marietta, Adelbert, Wabash and Park College, 
50,000 dols. each. 
WE have received a copy of the scheme agreed to between the 
Leathersellers’ Company and the Executive Committee of the 
City and Guilds of London Institute for the administration of a 
grant of £150 a year, offered by the Leathersellers’ Company, to 
be applied to chemical research. It has been resolved that the 
fellowships shall be open to natural-born British subjects, who 
are (a) students of the Institute who have completed a full 
three years’ course of instruction in the chemical department of 
the Central Technical College, or (4) candidates duly qualified 
in the methods of chemical research in its relation to manufac- 
tures, without-restriction as to age or place of previous study, 
but preferably to class (a). Every fellowship will be tenable for 
part of a year or for one year, and may be renewed for a second 
or third year, but in no case can be held for a further period. 
Holders of fellowships must devote their whole time to the | 
prosecution of research. The researches have to be carried out 
at the Central Technical College. Applications for fellowships 
must be made in writing to the Hon. Secretary of the Institute, 
at the Head Office, Gresham College, E.C., and must state the 
NO. 1423; VOR. 55] 
name of the proposed research and the qualifications of the 
candidate. 
THE report of the Director of Technical Instruction to the 
County Council for the County Palatine of Lancaster for the 
year ending August 31, 1896, which is to be presented to the 
meeting of the Council on February 4, is of the most exhaustive 
nature. The amount which the Technical Instruction Committee 
resolved to distribute among the urban and rural districts of the 
county for the year was £24,225, being a decrease of £4285 on 
the sum distributed in the previous twelve months. Short 
accounts of the various conferences at which the Lancashire 
County Council have been represented throughout the year are 
given, and also full information respecting the scholarships 
awarded by the Council, and of all grants made in aid of the 
different branches of study throughout the county. Under the 
heading ‘‘ Renewal of Scholarships,” we notice that a Lancashire 
student at Cambridge, who was Second Wrangler in 1895, has 
been granted a special scholarship of £60 a year to enable 
him to complete the terms required for a Fellowship of his 
college, and to make it possible for him to compete for the 
Smith’s Prizes. A series of useful tables showing the whole of 
the scholarships and exhibitions awarded, as well as the total 
number of students receiving instruction, makes it possible to 
compare the work of the session 1895 6 with that of previous 
years. It is interesting to note that the amount actually awarded 
for these purposes during the year under consideration more 
nearly approximated to that set aside for the purpose than in any 
previous session. The highest number of entries of students in 
all subjects was in the year 1893-4, when the total reached 
58,534; with the exception of this particular year there has been 
a steady increase up to 1896, when the total was 54,719. The 
excellent report of the work of the County Council Farm at 
Hutton completes the history of a most satisfactory year’s work. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, December 17, 1896.—‘‘On the Effect of 
Pressure in the Surrounding Gas on the Temperature of the 
Crater of an Electric Are. Correction of Results in former 
paper.” By W. E. Wilson, F.R.S., and G. F. Fitzgerald, 
F.R.S. Received November 30, 1896. 
This paper describes experiments made with the surrounding 
gas as air, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. It was found 
that with air and oxygen large quantities of NO, are formed at 
high pressures, and that observations of the radiation at these 
pressures is consequently impossible. The experiments de- 
scribed in the former paper were made with nitrogen, and there 
is every reason to believe that the remarkable diminution in 
radiation then observed was due to the nitrogen containing 
sufficient oxygen as an impurity to produce NO,. Experiments 
with hydrogen showed that in this gas the are is long and thin 
with a red line down its centre, giving the hydrogen lines not 
nearly so expanded as in a spark spectrum at the same pressure. 
Observation of the crater under high pressures of hydrogen was 
impossible, because (2) only a very short are could be main- 
| tained, and (4) soot trees and a deposit of graphitic carbon all 
round the margin of the crater at high pressures completely hid 
it. The experiments in CO, were the most satisfactory, but, 
owing to a variety of difficulties, it was found impossible, to 
decide with certainty whether the crater was hotter or colder at 
high pressures. é 
A thermodynamic investigation of the rise of temperature in 
the crater due to increased pressure, on the assumption that the 
vapour pressure then is the same as that of the surrounding 
atmosphere, and that the latent heat of carbon is 4000 calories, 
leads to the conclusion that the temperature of the crater should 
have risen 220° C. for each atmosphere added, and that the radia- 
tion would have doubled for an increase of four atmospheres. 
Such a large increase would have, almost certainly, been 
observable in our experiments. Another difficulty, in the way 
of supposing that the carbon vapour near the crater is at the 
pressure of the surrounding atmosphere, is pointed out, arising 
from the slow evaporation of the carbon. Mercury evaporates 
very rapidly when used as the positive pole of an arc, and there 
seems no sufficient reason why the much less dense carbon 
vapour, at a much higher temperature, should evaporate so very 
much more slowly, 
