298 
(NAT ORE 
[Marcu 3, 1923 

Mr. W. M. Hutcuincs. 
Tue death of a well-known metallurgist, Mr. William 
‘Maynard Hutchings, occurred at Harrogate, at seventy- 
three years of age, on January 17. Mr. Hutchings’ 
school-days were spent at a Moravian school on the 
Rhine, and he received his technical training in metal- 
lurgy and mining at Leipzig and Freiberg. After 
leaving the University he opened an assay office in 
Liverpool. Later he spent some years at the lead 
smelting works at Petrusola in Italy, and after a short 
period in South Wales became manager of Walker 
Parker and Co.’s Deebank Lead Works at Bagillt, 
North Wales, where he replaced the older Pattinsonian 
process by the then comparatively new Parkes process. 
In 1889 Mr. Hutchings joined the firm of Messrs. 
Cookson and Co., Ltd., at Newcastle, as their chief 
metallurgist and technical manager. In conjunction 
with the late Mr. Norman Cookson, he designed and 
installed a large Parkes desilverising plant, which was 
at the time a model of efficiency. He also introduced 
for them the first chamber white lead works in this 
country, which he operated with great success. He 
retired ,from active duties in 1915, but held a con- 
sulting post with this firm till the time of his death. 
Throughout his busy life Mr. Hutchings found time 
to carry out investigations in other branches of science, 
and his numerous and lengthy papers on the petrology 
of shales, clays, and slates published in the Geological 
Magazine created great interest, and are evidence of 
his active mind and patient capacity for research. 
He also contributed frequently to several scientific 
periodicals, and at one time contributed a regular 
column to Engineering. He was an original fellow 
of the Institute of Chemistry and some time member 
of the Society of Chemical Industry. 
Mr. Hutchings was essentially a strong man, thorough 
in all his work, a distinguished metallurgist, and a 

fearless advocate of his own convictions. He was of 
a retiring disposition, but a lover of Nature, and a 
notable characteristic was his intense love of animals. 

WE regret to announce the following deaths : 
Rev. J. C. P. Aldous, author of ‘ An Elementary 
Course of Physics,’’ and formerly chief naval in- 
structor of the cadets in H.M.S. Britannia, on 
February 18, aged seventy-three. 
Prof. E. E. Barnard, professor of practical astro- 
nomy in the University of Chicago, on February 6, 
aged sixty-five. 
Prof. J. W. Caldwell, emeritus professor of chem- 
istry in Tulane University of Louisiana, on January 2, 
aged eighty. 
Dr. J. A. Elliott, professor of plant pathology in 
the University of Arkansas and pathologist in the 
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, on 
January 18. 
Dr. James Gow, formerly headmaster of West- 
minster School and author of ‘‘A Short History of 
Greek Matbematics,”’ on February 16, aged sixty-nine. 
Prof. S. Giinther, emeritus professor of geography 
in the Technical High Schoo] of Munich. < 
Prof. S. S. Keller, head of the department of 
mathematics of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, 
on January 12. 
Mr. F. J. Lloyd, agricultural chemist, for many 
years connected agricultural and dairy societies, on 
February 8, aged seventy. 
Dr. F. Neesen, professor of physics in the Military 
Technical Academy of Berlin, and known for his 
work on the determination of trajectories by a photo- 
graphic method, aged seventy-three. 
Prof. W. N. Parker, emeritus professor of zoology 
at the University College of South Wales and Mon- 
mouthshire, Cardiff, on February 22, aged sixty-five. 
Dr. Terano, director of the Aeronautical Research 
Institute in connexion with Tokyo Imperial University 
and formerly professor of naval architecture in the 
Engineering College of that University, on January 8, 
aged fifty-four. 
Current Topics and Events. 
TuE council of the Royal Society has recommended 
for election into the society this year the following 
fifteen from the list of candidates :—Dr. E. D. Adrian, 
Dr. W. Lawrence Balls, Prof. Archibald Barr, Prof. 
C. H. Desch, Prof. E. Fawcett, Prof. F. Horton, Dr. 
RT. -Leiper, “Prof. J? W.. MeBain, sBroteeiee | 
Rickard MacLeod, Dr. G. A. K. Marshall, Sir Douglas 
Mawson, Dr. W. H. Mills, Dr. J. S. Plaskett, Prof. 
H. R. Procter, and Prof. W. Wilson. 
THE official opening of the new research laboratories 
of the General Electric Co., Ltd., at Wembley on 
February 27 was an interesting event. It is probable 
that this is much the largest industrial research 
laboratory erected by any firm in this country. The 
buildings have a total’ floor space of more than 
80,000 sq. ft., and the tour planned out for visitors, 
comprising a passage through all the laboratories and 
workshops, involves a walk of something like three 
miles. There is a well-equipped library, and an 
organised system of abstracting and recording papers 
for reference has been devised. Throughout the 
building, pipes carrying gas, compressed air, a vacuum 
NO. 2783, VOL. 111] 

service, etc., have been installed, the taps being 
painted in distinctive colours. A feature is the 
arrangement whereby pipes and electric cables traverse 
a gallery at the top of the building so that none are 
carried under the floor, the outlets descending from 
the ceilings. In addition to the large number of 
rooms devoted to different sections of researeh work, 
there are wood and metal workshops, and a small 
experimental factory where new types of lamps can 
be made and tested on a small scale, so as to eliminate 
all manufacturing difficulties before manufacture in 
bulk is attempted. In these days, when demand for 
economy plays such an important part in the pro- 
grammes of manufacturing concerns, it is interesting 
to note this enterprising departure, which will doubt- 
less be well repaid. | 
A CONSIDERABLE amount of attention has been 
devoted in the daily Press to a paper dealing with 
various alleged dangers to eyesight of electric light, 
read by Mr. A. E, Bawtree before the Royal Photo- 
graphic Society on February 13. One of the points 
raised, the high intrinsic brilliancy of filaments, has 
a. la 
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