
































1s ies ? 
a 7 
| January 27, 1923] 
he gave in his presidential address to the Institution a 
_ masterly summary of telegraphic and telephonic pro- 
gress, and a list of unsolved problems which proved 
very useful in directing the ingenuity of inventors 
along promising lines. 
_ Sir John Gavey served on many international com- 
“mittees, including some of the earliest on radio-com- 
munication. He was one of the first to appreciate the 
nportance of Oliver Heaviside’s theoretical investiga- 
‘tions, and to use Duddell’s oscillograph in everyday 
experimental work. He was very highly esteemed by 
one who came in contact with him, and the work 
lg at the Post Office has proved of the greatest 
e. 
> 
4 Mr. A. H. Curtis. 
By the death of Alfred Harper Curtis on January ro, 
er a few days’ illness, the Imperial Mineral Resources 
Bureau loses a very able and highly-esteemed member 
‘of its staff. Mr. Curtis was the second surviving son of 
the late Alfred Curtis, Town Clerk of Neath, Glamorgan- 
shire, and was born on July rz, 1863. Having chosen 
profession of engineering, he early gave a practical 
bent to his studies. As a youth he spent three years 
with an engineering firm in the Swansea district, and 
ring that time acquired a good knowledge of mining 
and metallurgical processes. He then proceeded to 

4 ~_——-. 
_ Art the meeting of the Chemical Society held on 
Thursday, January 18, it was announced that the 
il had nominated Prof. W. P. Wynne to fill the 
fice of president, which will be vacated by Sir 
James Walker on March 22. 
coun 
_ Tue gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 
has been awarded by the council to Prof. A. A. 
helson, for his application of the interferometer to 
astronomical measurements. It will be presented at 
the annual general meeting to be held on Friday, 
ebrua 9. 
Pror. R. A. Sampson, Astronomer Royal for Scot- 
id, has been appointed General Secretary of the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh for the remainder of the 
surrent session, in succession to the late Dr. C. G. 
Knott. 
Str Epwarp SHarpey ScHAFER has accepted an 
tation to deliver in London next autumn the first 
Victor Horsley memorial lecture. The lecture, which 
will be given triennially, is the outcome of the work 
a committee formed in 1920 to commemorate the 
services of Sir Victor Horsley to science and the 
ritish Empire. The subscriptions received by the 
mmittee amounted to more than rooo/. 
Ar the meeting of the Institution of Electrical 
Engineers to be held on Thursday, February 1, the 
resident will present to Mr. J. W. Meares, late local 
ionorary secretary of the Institution in India, and 
trical Adviser to the Indian Government, a 
NO. 2778, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 
125 
Owens College, Manchester, where he studied civil 
engineering and geology, after which he took up the 
study of mining, mine surveying, and other subjects at 
the Royal School of Mines, London, and graduated as 
B.A. at the University of London. 
On leaving the Royal School of Mines, Mr. Curtis 
travelled widely in many parts of the British Dominions 
and foreign countries, spending long periods in New Zea- 
land and Japan, investigating and developing mineral 
deposits. His paper on “Gold Quartz Reduction,” 
read at the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1891-1892, 
gained for him the Telford premium. While in New 
Zealand, during the period 1896-1902, he was a member 
of the council and one of the honorary secretaries of 
the New Zealand Institute of Mining Engineers, to 
which, in 1898, he contributed a paper on “ The Ex- 
amination and Valuation of Mines.” 
During the war Mr. Curtis gave much time to the 
preparation of reports dealing with the mineral resources 
of the British Empire and foreign countries. In this 
capacity he worked for a short time at the Imperial 
Institute, and compiled the publication on “‘ Manganese 
Ores ” issued by the Institute. He later joined the 
staff of the Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau, and 
took a prominent partin the compilation of the statistical 
and descriptive reports issued by the Bureau. 
Mr. Curtis was an untiring and conscientious worker, 
and his death leaves a gap that it will be difficult to fill. 
Current Topics and Events. 
salver and cigarette box subscribed for by his friends 
in India on the occasion of his retirement from the 
Indian Government Service, and as a token of his 
valuable services to the profession in India. 
Tue Air Conference, to be held at the Guild Hall 
on February 6 and 7, will be opened by the Lord 
Mayor of London. During the Conference the follow- 
ing papers will be presented and discussed: ‘‘ The 
Position of Air Transport To-day,”’ by Maj.-General 
Sir W. S. Brancker; ‘A Self-supporting Airship 
Service,’’ by Commdr. C. D. Burney ; “ The Progress 
of Research and Experiment,’’ by Air Vice-Marshal 
Sir W. G. H. Salmond ; “ Gliders and their Value to 
Aeronautical Progress,"’ by Col. A. Ogilvie; ‘‘ Sea- 
planes,”’ by Mr. C. R. Fairey. 
On Tuesday next, January 30, at 3 o'clock, Mr. R. 
D. Oldham will begin a course of two lectures at the 
Royal Institution on the character and cause of 
earthquakes ; and on Thursday, February 1, Prof. 
I. M. Heilbron will deliver the first of two lectures on 
the photosynthesis of plant products. The Friday 
evening discourse on February 2 will be delivered by 
Mr. C. F. Cross on fact and phantasy in industrial 
science, and on February 9, by Sir John Russell, on 
Rothamsted and agricultural science. 
Tue Grocers’ Company is offering a scholarship 
(one of three), of the yearly value of 300/., with an 
allowance for necessary expenses, the object being to 
encourage original research in sanitary science. The 
appointment will be for one year, but it may be 
