SEPTEMBER 18, 1902 ] 
NATURE 
493 
most important contributions to chemistry in its applica- 
tions to explosives and to metallurgy. Foremost among 
these are his researches into the preparation and uses of 
gun-cotton as an explosive, which were summarised in a 
paper printed in the Philosophical Transactions of 1866 
and in the Bakerian lecture which appeared in the 
Philosophical Transactions of the following year. Gun- 
cotton was atready known at that time, but it was 
generally regarded, at any rate in this country, as a 
dangerous and probably inefficient substitute for gun- 
powder. Abel showed, as the result of a long series of 
carefully chosen and elaborate experiments, how the 
material may be safely prepared of constant composition, 
how it should be stored, and also indicated its value 
as an explosive agent. These papers are eminently 
characteristic of the practical bent of Abel’s mind. 
Though interested in the progress of pure science, his 
own inclinations were in the direction of its applications. 
With the exception of a few of his early papers, written 
whilst he was Hofmann’s assistant, nearly all his contri- 
butions have been to the applications of chemical science, 
and have been made with the express purpose of solving 
practical problems. 
In connection with his other work on explosives, the 
researches, carried on in conjunction with Sir Andrew 
Noble, on the chemical changes resulting from firing 
gunpowder under various conditions and those on the 
detonation of explosives may be specially mentioned. 
In 1888, Abel was appointed chairman of the Govern- 
ment Committee on Explosives, and asa result of a series | 
of experiments conducted under its auspices, the smoke- 
less explosive known as “‘cordite,” containing both gun- 
cotton and nitroglycerine, was patented by Abel and 
Dewar, and became the standard explosive of this country. 
The influence of composition on the properties of 
steel and its analysis and the testing of petroleum also 
engaged his attention. The apparatus known by his 
name which he devised in connection with the Petroleum 
Acts of 1868 and 1879 for determining the temperature 
at which petroleum gives off inflammable vapour is still | 
in general use, and he became a recognised authority on | 
| provement 
petroleum and its employment as an illuminating agent. 
As a member of the Royal Commission on Accidents 
in Mines, he investigated the cause of the explosion at 
the Seaham Colliery in 1881, and its connection with the | 
presence of coal dust in the air. 
No account of Abel’s career can be complete without 
some reference to what he regarded as the most impor- 
tant work of his life. From the first he took a leading 
and responsible part in the movement which led to the 
foundation of the Imperial Institute. He was the secre- 
tary to the first organising committee, and ina lecture de- 
livered at the Royal Institution in 1887 he gavean account 
of the work which the Institute proposed to accomplish. | 
It is noteworthy that the need for further provision in 
this country for scientific research in connection with art 
and manufactures was one of the principal points in this 
lecture. On the opening of the Imperial Institute in 
1893, Abel was appointed its secretary and director, a 
post which he held, latterly in an honorary capacity, 
until his death. Although already far advanced in life, 
Abel threw himself with great courage and determination 
into the difficult task of organising the operations of the 
Institute, and continued to do so even in the face of 
steadily declining health. In relation to the history of 
the Imperial Institute, it need only be noticed here that 
in 1894 a laboratory was equipped on a small scale for 
the chemical examination of Indian and Colonial products. 
In 1896, a scientific and technical department, including 
extensive laboratories, was established with Prof. Dunstan 
as director, but the necessary funds were supplied by 
the Royal Commissioners of the 1851 exhibition, all 
the available funds of the Institute having been allocated 
to other purposes. Although it was Abel’s intention to 
NO. 1716, VOL. 66] 
retire from official connection with the Imperial Institute 
on its transfer to the Board of Trade at the end of 
the present year, he characteristically expressed his 
intention of continuing to take an active part in its 
proceedings as a member of the advisory committee. 
Abel was an influential member of many scientific 
societies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal 
Society in 1860, and was awarded a Royal medal 
in 1887 for his researches on explosives. He became at 
an early age a Fellow of the Chemical Society, and filled 
several offices in the Society, in which he was always 
deeply interested ; at the time of his death he was one 
of the oldest of its past presidents. Abel took a leading 
part in the foundation of the Institute of Chemistry, of the 
Society of Chemical Industry and of the Institution of 
Electrical Engineers, of all of which he became presi- 
dent. He was also president of the British Association 
in 1890 and of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1891. He 
had filled the offices of vice-president and chairman of the 
council of the Society of Arts, which awarded him the 
Albert medal in 1884. Abel took an important part in 
the foundation of the City and Guilds of London Institute, 
and was at the time of his death chairinan of its execu- 
tive committee. He was an influential member of the 
court of the Goldsmiths’ Company, of which he became 
prime warden in 1895. Abel's distinctions were 
numerous and varied. Hewas a D.C.L. of Oxford and 
a D.Sc. of Cambridge. He was made a C.B. in 1877 and 
was knighted six years later. The K.C.B. was conferred 
in 1891, and he was created a baronet on the occasion of 
the opening of the Imperial Institute in 1893. The last 
honour, that of the G.C.V.O., was conferred by the King 
soon after his accession, in recognition of Abel’s personal 
services to the Royal Family. 
Highly endowed with a practical mind, great common 
sense and a prodigious power of work, Abel was in- 
valuable as a member of committees. His large ex- 
perience in drafting official papers made him an excellent 
critic, and it may be safely asserted that few of the many 
documents submitted to him, by the institutions he was 
connected with, left his hands without substantial im- 
As time went on, routine work became a 
confirined habit and the idea of a holiday positively re- 
pugnant to him, so much so that he found himself unable 
at the last to take rest and change, the necessity for 
which his friends and medical advisers so repeatedly 
urged on him. Wp 
AN INSTRUMENT FOR AIMING GUNS 
UNDER COVER. 
HE advantage of cover in military operations has 
been shown over and over again during the recent 
war in South Africa. But even when cover is avail- 
able, the head of the soldier is exposed, while in the 
act of aiming, to the fire of an enemy. By means 
of the hyposcope the marksman is able to aim with 
considerable accuracy, while protected by a cover 
of earthwork or stones. Apparatus for sighting 
ordnance by means of mirrors has been employed 
by the war departments of several nations.1 But the 
inventor of the hyposcope, Mr. W. Loulten, has dealt 
with the problem of furnishing any existing rifle with a 
system of mirrors, whereby the act of aiming may be 
performed from a point several inches below the trigger- 
guard. The hyposcope is shown in Fig. 1 attached to 
the service rifle, which is placed in position over the edge 
of a rough mass of stones used as cover. The marksman 
aims the rifle by looking into the mirror at the lower end of 
the vertical tube, his head being protected by cover. In 
this form of instrument, four mirrors are émployed ; on 
looking into the instrument,’the sights of the rifle are 
1 ‘“ Treatise on Service Ordnance." (Lon7on, 1893). 
