NA TURE 



[November 30, 1905 



munications with reference to the conference should be 

 addressed to the hon. secretaries, Mr. Alfred Goddard and 

 Mr. F. H. Pruen, Education Offices, Northumberland 

 Road, Newcastle. 



Several changes have taken place, we learn from 

 Science, in the staff of the research laboratory of physical 

 chemistry of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 Prof. W. D. Coolidge has accepted a position in the tech- 

 nical research laboratory of the General Electric Company 

 at Schenectady. To Prof. Coolidge has been due in large 

 measure the development of one of the most important 

 lines of work in progress in the research laboratory of the 

 institute — the investigation of the conductivity of aqueous 

 solutions at high temperatures. Mr. Yogoro Kato, who 

 has also been engaged on the conductivity investigation for 

 two years, has accepted a position in the Technical High 

 School of Tokio, where he will have charge of the work 

 in electrochemistry. Dr. Wilhelm Bottger will return as 

 privatdocent to the University of Leipzig, at which he will 

 conduct one of the laboratory courses in analytical chem- 

 istry. In place of these retiring members, Messrs. William 

 C. Bray, Guy W. Eastman, Gilbert N. Lewis, and Edward 

 W. Washburn have been appointed to the research staff. 



At the distribution of prizes to the students of the 

 Mechanics' Institute, Crewe, on November 22, Sir Oliver 

 Lodge delivered an address. He emphasised the import- 

 ance of the study of pure science and the application of its 

 broad principles, whereby it is possible to make discoveries 

 and to ascertain facts which are not known to the human 

 race. After all the ages of the human race there are 

 innumerable facts which we do not know, and it is now 

 and then given to a man here and there to find them out 

 and pass them on as common property never more to be 

 lost. Sir Oliver Lodge went on to say he does not believe 

 that a thing which really exists can go out of existence. 

 There is an infinitude before us, and it behoves us to realise 

 that and see to it that we fit ourselves for what is to come. 

 We are parts of an industrial organism, parts of a much 

 larger organism, the universe, and in the universe there 

 is one great law of evolution, of growth, and development. 

 The universe is not yet perfect ; it is our privilege to help 

 in the process of making it more perfect. Things will not 

 be done on this planet unless we help to do them ; we are 

 agents for helping in the process of evolution. Errors or 

 mistakes may cause dislocation or calamity in the great 

 scheme. We have the power of causing dislocation or 

 calamity by errors, or by living strenuous self-sacrificing 

 lives we have the power of cooperating in the great scheme 

 of helping towards the fruition, development, growth, and 

 progress of the universe of which we are an infinitesimal 

 part. 



The inaugural address delivered by Dr. B. C. A. Windle, 

 F.R.S., president of Queen's College, Cork, at the open- 

 ing of the session, is given the first place in the current 

 number of the University Review. Dr. Windle deals in 

 an exhaustive manner with the subject of examinations in 

 Ireland and with the university question. Four deadly 

 errors, he maintains, have long affected England and 

 Ireland. These errors are that acquisition of knowledge 

 and education are synonymous terms; that education — as 

 apart from mere knowledge — can be easily, nay, more, can 

 only be tested by examination ; that a degree is in itself 

 an object of value ; and that a degree means the same 

 however and wherever it may have been acquired. Dr. 

 Windle regards examinations as an evil, but at present a 

 necessary evil, and proceeds to discuss the objects such 

 examinations should have in view. By means of an ex- 

 amination, Dr. Windle explains, an endeavour is made to 

 ascertain whether the candidate has acquired the necessary 

 knowledge of facts to enable him to proceed to a further 

 stage "l learning or — at the end of his course — a sufficient 

 knowledge of his profession to be trusted to go out into 

 the world and practise it independently. An examination 

 is intended, moreover, to ascertain whether a student has 

 ai quired the proper methods of gaining and applying know- 

 ledge. To secure efficient examinations, the article lays 

 il down, every teacher should take a large share in any 

 examination which his students may have to confront, but 

 the judgment of the teacher should be supported or corrected 



by the assistance of an external examiner. The conclusion 

 of the article is that there is at present in Ireland, for the 

 great majority of its inhabitants, " a university system 

 which almost necessitates a method of examination which 

 is harmful in its effects on education ; a method which leads 

 to subterranean complaints and accusations, which, though 

 they may be, and almost invariably are, false, are none 

 the less injurious to education generally; a method for 

 which, indeed, no excuse can be urged except the excuse 

 that the system arises out of the necessities of a position 

 which never ought to have been created." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, Received September 28. — " Researches on 

 Explosives." Part iii. Supplementary Note. By Sir 

 Andrew Noble, Bart., K.C.B., F.R.S. 



Since communicating to the Royal Society " Researches 

 on Explosives," part iii., the author has succeeded in 

 obtaining the paper (Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin Sitz. Ber., 

 vol. v. p. 175) by Messrs. Holborn and Austin on the 

 " Specific Heat of Gases at High Temperatures." 



The attention of these investigators has 'been specially 

 directed to carbonic anhydride, and their researches show 

 a considerable (but rapidly decreasing) increment in the 

 specific heat of CO, with increase of temperature. 



If we suppose the same law of increment which appears 

 to rule up to 8oo° C. to remain unaltered up to 1300 C, 

 the increments at that temperature would vanish, and, if 

 this be so, the author finds that the specific heat of CO,, 

 at constant volume, should be taken at 0-2111. 



He has therefore re-calculated the specific heats given in 

 his recent paper, and as the specific heats of the exploded 

 gases at constant volume are reduced, the temperatures of 

 explosion given in his paper should also be reduced. 



The temperatures the author gives have been obtained 

 by two different methods, firstly, by dividing the heats 

 determined by the calorimeter by the specific heats, and, 

 secondly, by using the equation of dilatibility of gases, and 

 determining the temperature from 



t = p-pJo-ooT,6fp a (1) 



where p is the pressure in atmospheres obtained from the 

 explosion, and p the pressure in atmospheres when the 

 volume of gases generated is reduced to 0° C. and 760 mm. 

 bar. pressure. 



The differences of the results are very remarkable. 



Taking, for example, cordite as an illustration, it will 

 be seen that for the four highest densities given the 

 temperatures derived from the two methods are but slightly 

 different. At the higher density (0-5) the temperatures are 

 5275 C. and 5263° C, the higher being that derived from 

 equation (1) ; at density 0-45 the temperatures from the 

 two methods are identical, at density 0-40 the tempera- 

 tures are 4902° C. and 4970° C, the lower temperature 

 being from equation (1), but after density 0-35 the 

 temperatures derived from equation (1) fall very rapidly. 



The same general results are observable in the other 

 two explosives experimented with, and it should be noted 

 that in all three explosives, at the highest densities, the 

 temperatures given by equation (1) are greater than those 

 obtained by the second method. 



The figures for the three explosives are given below, 

 ... , . . , , units of heat ' . . _ . 



3S40 3830 3S60 



1 Water gaseous. 



NO. 1883, VOL. JT,} 



