SEPTEMBER II, 1902] 
NATURE 
461 
his researches on the alloys of steel and on the manu- 
facture of optical glass. Had the example he set in the 
Royal Institution laboratory ;been followed, we should 
scarcely now be making the armour plates for our iron 
clads under license from Krupp, or be obliged to resort 
to Jena for improved qualities of glass. 
Brande, who occupied the chair in succession to Davy, 
from 1813 to 1852, did little in the way of research 
work. Faraday’s star was brightest throughout most of 
these years, and it would indeed have been remarkable 
had there been a second chemical luminary. 
during Brande’s time that the attempt was made to estab. 
lish a school of chemistry at the Institution which the late 
Prof. James Dewar, F.R.S. 
Sir F. Abel referred to in the Hofmann memorial lecture 
as the movement which culminated in the foundation of 
the Royal College of Chemistry. ° 
Frankland, who held the professorship of chemistry 
from 1863 to 1868, did some of his best work in the Insti- 
tution laboratory, notably the research (in conjunction 
with Duppa) on the action of sodium (followed by that of 
methyl or ethyl iodide) on acetic ether, which has since 
proved to be one of the most fruitful of synthetic methods. 
In the course of lectures on coal gas which he delivered 
in 1867—fully reported at the time in the Journal of 
Gas Lighting, but not otherwise published—he advanced 
novel views on the origin of flame which have not yet 
NO. 1715, VOL. 66] 
It was | 
received the consideration they deserve. In extension of 
this inquiry, he was led to investigate the influence of 
pressure on the emission of light ; among the important 
results he obtained was the observation that a consider- 
able luminous effect was obtained by burning hydrogen 
in oxygen under pressure. 
Prof. Dewar was appointed Fullerian professor in 
1877. Those who have followed his career may recall 
the two Friday evening lectures he gave prior to his 
appointment, describing work which he and Prof. 
MckKendrick had done on the effect of light on the 
retina and optic nerve ; the latter of these especially was 
a remarkable four de force, exhibiting the facility of 
experimental resource and brilliance 
of demonstration which have ever 
| since characterised Prof. Dewar’s 
\ lectures and rendered them _ so 
eee —sopeculiarly attractive and instructive. 
It should not be forgotten that he 
was the first to study the oxidation 
products of the quinoline bases. His 
earlier work at the Institution lay ina 
field far removed from that in which 
he has since acquired such distinction, 
and was carried out at high tempera- 
tures. The reversibility of the rays 
of metallic vapours, the origin and 
identification of spectra, and the 
synthetic changes effected in the 
electric arc occupied his attention at 
this trme. Much of this work was 
done in conjunction with Prof. Live- 
ing. Prof. Dewar entered the field 
of low-temperature research in the 
early eighties, and gradually the 
chemical laboratory of the Royal 
Institution has been transformed into 
a veritable machine shop. For years 
past liquid air has been handled there 
as though it were water, and re- 
searches have been systematically 
carried on at very low temperatures 
with the certainty and ease with 
which experiments are made in 
laboratories generally at ordinary 
temperatures. Our knowledge of the 
properties of matter at temperatures 
near to the absolute zero has conse- 
quently been developed to a remark- 
able extent. To quote the words used 
by the President of the Royal Society 
in 1894, with reference to his work 
on the liquefaction of gases, when 
handing to him the Rumford medal, 
Prof. Dewar “has displayed, not only 
marvellous manipulative skill and 
fertility of resource, but also great 
personal courage, such researches 
being attended with considerable 
danger. One of his chief objects has 
been so to improve and develop the 
methods ot liquefying the more permanent gases that 
it shall become possible to deal with large quantities of 
liquid, and to use such liquids as instruments of research 
in extending our knowledge of the general behaviour of 
substances at very low temperatures. In this he has 
already been highly successful. Not only has he suc- 
ceeded in preparing large quantities of liquid oxygen, but 
he has been able by the device of vacuum-jacketed vessels 
to store this liquid under atmospheric pressure during 
| long intervals, and thus to use it as a cooling agent.” 
The vacuum vessels here referred to were introduced 
| into use by Prof. Dewar in 1892, and have contributed 
in an extraordinary degree to the advancement of research 
