August 14, 1884] 



NA TURE 



on a portion of a paper disk : a contiguous portion of the 

 disk is illuminated by the pentane candle fixed on one 

 side of the opening in the shutter. The disk can be 

 moved on a trolley to and fro until equality of illumination 

 is reached, when its distance from the candle is measured. 

 This measure and the known distance of the observatory 

 from the lighthouse give the necessary data for determin- 

 ing the illuminating power of the light. By these mea- 

 surements, taken at different distances in various states 

 of the atmosphere, the penetrative power of the several 

 illuminants will be determined. For instance, in very 

 clear weather the electric light may give twenty times the 

 light of the oil light ; a slight haze comes on and the 

 electric light is found to be only ten times as bright. It 

 has suffered in a greater ratio than the other. A mist 

 blows by the towers, and the superiority of the electric 

 light becomes less and less marked : before the lights are 

 finally obscured the superiority has vanished. It need 

 hardly be stated that this question of penetration is the 

 most important point the Trinity House are called on to 

 settle. 



The principle of superposition of lights also raises 

 an interesting point. When two lights are placed close 

 together they can be seen at a greater distance than one 

 light. Up to what point will this increase of range con- 

 tinue on multiplying the lights — without altering the in- 

 trinsic brightness of each ? It may be that in thick 

 weather the eye can detect a large area of low illumina- 

 tion better than a smaller area of higher illumination ; 

 and it may be that the electric light with its smaller lenses 

 suffers from this reason in comparison with the oil and 

 gas lights with their larger lenses. 



We hope that the experiments will not be discontinued 

 before these points have been thoroughly sifted, as they 

 only can be satisfactorily, on the actual working scale. 



We may add that the electric machines and cables are 

 being tested by Prof. Grylls Adams, and the photometric 

 •observations taken by Mr. Harold Dixon. Mr. Vernon 

 Harcourt is appointed to watch the experiments generally 

 and report to the Board of Trade. 



We give a plan of the district showing the point of 

 observation, which includes the coast-guard stations and 

 light-ships in the vicinity. 



THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON 

 EDUCATION 



THE Conference which was held at the Health Exhi- 

 bition last week has achieved a remarkable success. 

 It was attended by upwards of a thousand persons, in- 

 cluding many of the leading teachers in English, Scotch, 

 and continental schools, University professors, statesmen, 

 managers of schools, and others interested in different 

 ways in the subject of education. The interest was so 

 well sustained that all four sections were more crowded 

 on the last day than the first, and very general regret was 

 expressed that the Conference should close so soon. Two 

 circumstances mainly contributed to this result. The 

 president, Lord Reay, by his tact and courtesy, his know- 

 ledge of foreign languages, and his cosmopolitan experi- 

 ence was singularly qualified, both to obtain from different 

 continental States their most fitting representatives, and 

 to give to these representatives when they arrived appro- 

 priate tasks and a worthy welcome. And Lord Reay was 

 helped in the task of organising the Conference by a small 

 but efficient committee, by whom during several previous 

 months the work of selecting the readers of papers had 

 been sedulously pursued. Unless pains had been taken 

 in relation to each subject of discussion to secure that it 

 should be initiated by a person who spoke upon it with 

 some authority, and special knowledge, the result would 

 have been far less satisfactory. 

 The Conference sat in four sections, which were at 



work simultaneously during five days. The first of these 

 was devoted mainly to the consideration of questions 

 relating to elementary education. The best and most 

 fruitful subjects of discussion here were the Kindergarten, 

 physical training, and the right way of inspecting, ex- 

 amining, or otherwise testing the work of pupils. 

 Frbbel's principles, which have done so much to trans- 

 form the system of training very young children in Eng- 

 land, in Belgium, and in France, were expounded with 

 much fulness of knowledge and felicity of illustration by 

 some of Frobel's own countrymen and disciples, as well 

 as by ladies who have in England qualified themselves 

 by special sympathy and knowledge to become his expo- 

 nents. Closely akin to this subject were the topics of 

 gymnastic and physical training, the better construction 

 of schools and school apparatus, and the indirect effect of 

 pictorial or other decorations in improving the taste and 

 cultivating the imagination, and of increasing the scho- 

 lars' interest in their work. The Swedish and other sys- 

 tems of bodily exercise, and the means of sense training 

 by music and by object lessons were well discussed. On 

 the general subject of the organisation of elementary 

 education, which was debated in a crowded audience 

 under the presidency of the Vice-President of the Council, 

 the results were somewhat disappointing. Some of the 

 teachers took the opportunity of the presence of their 

 official chief to urge the demand with which the public 

 have been long familiar, for grants of public money on 

 easier conditions, and for the abandonment of the prin- 

 ciple of payment by results. But no other practical method 

 of distributing the public money was suggested, and it was 

 generally felt that the Vice-President had an easy victory 

 over those who sought to attack the principles of the 

 recently-modified Code. A more important subject was 

 raised in the animated debate on the inspection and 

 examination of schools, which was rendered more 

 apposite at the moment by the appearance of the 

 recommendations of the Select Committee of the 

 House of Commons, recommending that there should 

 be in England a Minister of Public Instruction, and that 

 he should have inter alia the duty of inspecting and 

 annually reporting on the endowed secondary schools. It 

 was perceived that this was a step of considerable moment 

 and significance. Under the Act of 1 869 endowed schools 

 have been re-organised, and their governing bodies and 

 schemes of study re-constituted. But neither the Com- 

 missioners who administer that Act, nor the public, know 

 anything of the way in which those schemes are carried 

 out, nor of the actual performances of the schools from 

 year to year. There was among the larger number of 

 earnest speakers on this point, a very general agreement 

 on two points : first that some such public supervision over 

 the reformed foundations was absolutely necessary, in 

 order to keep them efficient ; and secondly, that as there 

 would be in this case no grant to administer, there would 

 not be, as in elementary schools, any need to formulate 

 conditions as to instruction, but simply to inquire in every 

 case what the endowed school professed to do, and to see 

 how far it had realised its own ideal. It is rather for the 

 purpose of knowing what the schools are doing, than for 

 that of imposing upon them by authority any theory or 

 official ideal that State supervision seems to be demanded 

 in regard to endowed schools. 



In the second of the sections the principal topics of 

 discussion were connected with scientific, technical, and 

 artistic instruction. The fact that the Conference held 

 its sittings in the new and beautiful buildings recently 

 erected for the City and Guilds of London Technical 

 Institute, naturally excited special interest, and awakened 

 discussion as to the place which the physical sciences 

 ought to hold in general education, as well as the special 

 uses to which the Institute might be put in connection 

 with the improvement of handicrafts and skilled trade. 

 Mr. Magnus, Prof. Armstrong, Mr. Sparkes, and other 



