75° 
form of recognition which would have been most 
congenial to his feelings would be the provision of 
assistance to the authorities of the Council schools 
in his home (Loughton) in furthering the study of 
natural history. With that object, a fund has been 
opened—the Bacot Memorial fund. It is proposed 
that the interest on any money received—to be 
invested in the name of trustees chosen by the sub- 
scribers—should be devoted to the purchase of such 
pieces of simple apparatus such as collecting boxes, 
specimen cabinets, etc., necessary for the develop- 
ment of Nature study in a school. It is well known that 
in the present state of public finances it is difficult to 
obtain grants for such purposes from educational 
authorities, and that the availability of even a very 
small income makes a great difference to an enthusi- 
astic teacher. Should any of Mr. Bacot’s friends or 
admirers of his work who feel in sympathy with the 
proposal care to subscribe to the fund, subscriptions 
will be gratefully acknowledged either by the hon. 
treasurer, Mr. Hubert Baines, Bryn Mawr, Church 
Hill, Loughton, Essex, or by Dr. Major Greenwood, 
National Institute of Medical Research, Hampstead, 
N.W.3. 
Tue Jonas Laboratory for the mechanical testing of 
metals and the Edgar Allen Laboratory for magnetic 
investigations at the University of Sheffield were 
formally opened on May 3 by Sir Oliver Lodge. 
These laboratories have been equipped by means of 
two gifts of 5000/. each from the late Mr. Joseph 
Jonas and the late Mr. Edgar Allen respectively, 
accommodation being found in the existing buildings 
of the Applied Science Department of the University 
of Sheffield. The equipment of the Jonas Labor- 
atory includes Armstrong-Whitworth machines of 
85 and 50 tons capacity, with oil-pump and accumu- 
lator and a variety of extensometers, an Izod machine, 
and a new instrument for the detection of early slip 
in metals by electrical means. Special equipment 
for the study of fatigue has been provided, including 
a Haigh machine for alternating tension and com- 
pression, a modified Stromeyer machine for alter- 
nating torsion, and a modified W6hler machine, the 
latter two having been designed and constructed in 
the department, and provided with optical devices 
for short-period tests. The instruments for the 
measurement of hardness include the ordinary Brinell 
machines, the small Brinell machine for tests with 
balls of small diameter, a scleroscope, sclerometers, 
and the Herbert pendulum instrument. 
also a series of instruments, optical and other, for 
determining the accuracy of standard gauges. The 
Edgar Allen Laboratory is specially equipped for 
investigations on the magnetic properties of steels 
and other alloys, and has been designed and arranged 
by Dr. T. F. Wall. Current of various voltages, 
direct and alternating, is supplied by cables to dis- 
tributing boards around the room, and a special 
generating set has been installed for obtaining alter- 
nating currents of variable high frequencies. A 
powerful electro-magnet, capable of producing very 
intense fields, has been constructed in the depart- 
ment. The electrical instruments include a Duddell 
NO. 2796, VOL. III] 

NATURE 
There is + 

[JUNE 2, 1923 
oscillograph, a variety of measuring instruments, 
vacuum thermo-junctions for small alternating 
currents, standard condensers and resistances, and 
magnetic instruments (Epstein square, fluxmeter, 
etc.). The equipment of this laboratory is excep- 
tionally complete. On the occasion of the opening, 
a number of visitors inspected the laboratories, and 
Sir Oliver Lodge delivered an address on the value of 
research work in industry. 
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the 
foundation of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 
(under the name of the Society of Telegraph Engineers), 
the Council decided in 1921 to establish a Faraday 
medal in bronze to be awarded not more than once a 
year for “ notable scientific or industrial achievement 
in Electrical Engineering, or for conspicuous services 
rendered to the advancement of Electrical Science, 
without restriction as regards nationality, country of 
residence, or membership of the Institution.’”’ The 
Council selected for the first award of the medal Mr. 
Oliver Heaviside, who, unfortunately, owing to ill- 
health, was unable to attend a meeting of the 
Institution to receive the medal, which was personally 
presented to him by the then president, Mr. J. S. 
Highfield, at Torquay on September 9, 1922. The 
second award of the medal was made by the Council 
to the Hon. Sir Charles Parsons, at the ordinary 
meeting of the Institution held on Thursday, May to. 
Mr. Highfield, past-president, said that the name of 
Sir Charles Parsons stood first in the engineering 
world of to-day, and that there was, he thought, no © 
one who did not know what a mighty work Sir 
Charles had done for the engineering of the last thirty 
or forty years. His name would be remembered in 
connexion with the design and development of that 
great engine for the production of power which we 
know to-day, the turbine. After Dr. S. Z. de 
Ferranti had also spoken of the work and of the great 
benefits that had come to the world as the result of 
Sir Charles Parsons’s invention, the president, Mr. F. 
Gill, presented the Faraday medal to Sir Charles. 
In making the presentation, the president expressed 
the wish that Sir Charles would live many years in 
which to enjoy the very special position of regard 
and affection of all members of the Institution. 
SUMMER time commenced in France on Saturday 
. 
last, May 26, at II P.M. 
Str ARTHUR KeErru will deliver the twelfth biennial 
Huxley lecture at the Charing Cross Hospital Medical 
School on Wednesday, June 27, at 3 o'clock. The 
subject will be “ Recent Advances in Science and 
their bearing on Medicine and Surgery.”’ No tickets 
of admission will be necessary. 
Pror. W. D. Bancrort, professor of physical 
chemistry in Cornell University, New York, will 
deliver an address entitled ‘‘ A Plea for Research ”’ 
at the house of the Royal Photographic Society, 
35 Russell Square, W.C.1, on June 5 at 8 o’clock. 
By the will of Sir James Dewar, who died on March 
27, the University of Cambridge is to receive all his 
scientific apparatus in the chemical laboratory of the 


