March 8, 1906J 



NA TURE 



45; 



The Education Committee of the London County Council 

 has issued a report, drawn up by a subcommittee, dealing 

 with the question of apprenticeship. A carefully thought 

 out scheme of scholarships for particular cases is, the 

 report states, the only effective, as well as the only legal, 

 substitute for the old-fashioned apprenticeship premium 

 within the reach of a local authority. The report shows 

 that there are in London various apprenticeship charities 

 with an aggregate income of 24,000/. a year, and not more 

 than one-third of this sum has been expended in the pay- 

 ment of premiums. It is suggested that these funds might 

 with advantage be devoted to technical scholarships for 

 poorer children in higher elementary schools, or to the 

 maintenance of boys while they are attending day technical 

 instruction, and thus unable to earn wages. Attention is 

 directed in the report to the lack of technical training in 

 London, and the subcommittee urges that if the apprentice- 

 ship system is destined to disappear, it is necessary to find 

 a substitute for such training. Scholarships tenable at 

 evening classes, industrial scholarships at day technical 

 classes, and at trade schools, and the part-time system by 

 which the boy or girl spends a portion of the day in the 

 workshop and the remainder in a day technical school, are 

 mentioned as ways of training which will take the place 

 of the old indentured apprenticeships. 



The scheme of training urged upon the London County 

 Council by its Education Committee as a substitute for the 

 apprenticeship may be summarised briefly as follows : — 

 The intelligent boy, as he leaves the elementary school, 

 will have offered him the choice of two courses of instruc- 

 tion which will assure him an all-round training in a 

 skilled trade. There will be, first, the " part-time " 

 system, in which he will spend a portion of the week in 

 the workshops and the remainder in the day technical 

 school, and, secondly, there will be evening classes. 

 In certain cases scholarships carrying free tuition and a 

 maintenance grant will be awarded to the day students to 

 compensate for the small earnings received during the 

 years of training. Other scholarships of less value will 

 be allowed to some of the evening students in order to 

 encourage regularity of attendance. From this class of 

 student will be drawn the skilled worker of the future. 

 The boy, as he leaves the higher elementary school, will 

 be able to enter the day trade school, either by paying the 

 fees himself or by winning one of the trade scholarships. 

 With this stream of boys coming from the higher elemen- 

 tary school will mingle another stream of boys who, having 

 completed their course at the secondary school, have com- 

 peted for one of the trade scholarships. From this class 

 of student will be drawn the future foremen and managers 

 of industrial undertakings. Finally, a development of the 

 senior County Council scholarships will make it possible, 

 not only for intermediate scholars, but also for certain of 

 the holders of trade scholarships, to proceed, for the highest 

 technological instruction in the engineering, electrical, 

 chemical, or other industries, to the university. From these 

 will be drawn, we may hope, the future inventor, the future 

 managers of large businesses, and the future " captains of 

 industry." A somewhat less elaborate system will afford 

 similar facilities for girls. 



The science laboratories and class-rooms at Dulwich 

 College have long been inadequate for the demands made 

 on them. The governors of the school, with their chair- 

 man, Lord Davey, have now, owing to the cooperation 

 of the Estates Governors with the Charity Commissioners 

 and the Board of Education, been able to commence the 

 building of a new science school, the foundation-stone of 

 which was laid with due ceremony on Saturday last by 

 Lord Rayleigh, P.R.S. The school is to consist of two 

 floors, the upper for chemistry, providing an advanced 

 laboratory, a large combined lecture-room and laboratory, 

 a junior laboratory, a separate lecture-room with preparation 

 store, and balance rooms ; the lower for physical science, 

 and containing a senior and junior laboratory, two lecture- 

 rooms, and a school museum. Provision is also made for 

 a master's room, a photographic dark-room, and a small 

 workshop. The building is being erected from the plans 

 of the school architect, Mr. C. E. Barry. In his speech in 

 the great hall Lord Rayleigh contrasted the old and present 

 position of science in schools. He pointed out that scientific 



NO. 1897, VOL. 73] 



spirit and method should be the aim of the teaching. In 

 the present-day provision of elaborate apparatus and 

 fittings things were in danger of being made too mech- 

 anical. He mentioned the simple apparatus used by Max- 

 well, and by Hughes for the microphone, who carried 

 simplicity almost to an absurdity. The charms of accurate 

 measurement were briefly touched upon. He thought there 

 was also a tendency to try and cover too much ground in 

 science teaching at schools ; less, more thoroughly done, 

 would be better. His own classical education was not 

 literary enough ; he was taught no English composition. 

 Modern languages would be better than Greek for very 

 many boys. 



The London Inter-collegiate Scholarships Board was 

 constituted in 1904 with the approval of the governing 

 bodies of University College, King's College, and the East 

 London College, for the purpose of holding a combined 

 annual examination for entrance scholarships and ex- 

 hibitions tenable at those colleges. One examination has 

 been held already, and with satisfactory results. The next 

 examination will take place in London on May 15 and 

 following days. The competition is limited to those who 

 have not previously been students at any one of the colleges, 

 except where the contrary is stated. No candidate will be 

 admitted to the examination unless he has passed the 

 matriculation examination of the London University, or 

 any examination accepted by the University in lieu thereof, 

 or is the holder of a school leaving certificate, or is able 

 to furnish some evidence of having had a sound general 

 education which is satisfactory to the Board. Application 

 should be made to the secretary of the Board, University 

 College, London, Gower Street, W.C., for forms of entry, 

 which must be returned not later than May 1. Any 

 scheme tending to diminish the number of examinations to 

 which pupils in secondary schools are subjected is to be 

 welcomed, and we trust that the schoolmasters of London 

 will appreciate the efforts of this Board. The insistence 

 upon the possession of a good general secondary education 

 by the holders of scholarships at the group of colleges con- 

 cerned is a step in the right direction, and it is to be hoped 

 this example will be copied by similar institutions through- 

 out the country. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 2, 1905. — " On the Electr 

 Resistance to the Motion of a Charged Conducting Sphere 

 in Free Space or in a Field of Force." By G. W. Walker. 

 Communicated by Prof. A. E. H. Love, F.R.S. 



November 16, 1905. — " First Photographs of the Canals 

 of Mars." By Prof. Percival Lowell, Flagstaff Observ- 

 atory, Arizona. Communicated by Sir Norman Lockyer, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S. 



With this paper the author communicates a number of 

 photographs which undeniably prove the objective reality 

 of the Martian canals. From a large number of photo- 

 graphs obtained by Mr. Lampland during May and June, 

 1905, five have been selected for publication, and when 

 these are studied with the contemporaneous, yet quite in- 

 dependent, drawings made by Prof. Lowell, the more 

 prominent canaliform features on the Martian disc are 

 plainly seen. 



The photographs show, so far as the grain of the photo- 

 graphic plate permits, that the canals are narrow and direct 

 lines following arcs of great circles or curving in a system- 

 atic manner. There is evidence, although for the present 

 the author does not care to assert it definitely, that both a 

 double canal and a double oasis have been photographed. 



One remarkable result that has accrued from Mr. Lamp- 

 land's researches is the increased efficiency to be obtained 

 by diaphragming down the objective, so that its effective 

 aperture becomes equal to, or less than, the length of the 

 atmospheric waves obtaining at the moment of observation. 

 If the aperture is so large that more than one such wave 

 is in front of the objective at the moment of exposure, poor 

 definition results, caused by the consequent quiver in the 

 ravs from the planet ; but if only one wave be included, the 

 atmospheric displacement of all the rays is homogeneous, 

 and good definition results. 



