ii8 



NATURE 



[-December 5, 1907 



chairman of the governing body, will lake the chair 

 at 8 p.m. 



Copies of the general and departmental reports on the 

 work of Bradford Technical College for the session igob-y 

 presented to the Higher Education Subcommittee of the 

 city have been received. The principal of the college 

 appeals to employers of labour in the city to recognise 

 the efforts made by those in their employ who desire to 

 obtain instruction in evening classes, and urges masters 

 to make arrangements to liberate students during the time 

 the classes meet. The work of the department of te.xtile 

 industries is exerting a beneficial influence on the trade 

 of Bradford. The demand for students trained in the 

 department, and the increasing tendency of combers, 

 spinners, and manufacturers to appeal to the college in 

 cases of difficulty, have been very marked during the 

 session. The reports contain other indications that the 

 college is assisting the various industries in its neighbour- 

 hood. 



At the recent annual convocation of the University of 

 Allahabad for conferring degrees, the Vice-Chancellor, Rai 

 Sunder Lai Bahadur, delivered an address on the need 

 for higher technical education in the United Provinces. 

 Referring to the conference which sat in August last at 

 Naini Tal to consider important questions in connection 

 with technical education, the Vice-Chancellor said, we 

 learn from the Pioneer Mail, that " among the matters 

 which engaged the attention of the conference was the 

 suggestion for the establishment of a high-class techno- 

 logical institute for research and instruction, where 

 students could receive instruction in chemical technology, 

 mechanical engineering, and other kindred subjects. The 

 cost of maintaining an institution lilie this will be large. 

 According to Sir Norman Lockyer," continued the Vice- 

 Chancellor, " for the up-keep of seven out of twenty-two 

 universities, the annual sum found in Germany chiefly by 

 the State comes up to 271,000;. When these figures are 

 borne in mind, the cost of the proposed institute ought 

 not to stand in the way of its establishment. Its 

 advantages will abundantly repay the outlay. It will pro- 

 vide an opening for graduates in science, and will divert 

 many of them to the useful paths of industry and research. 

 In such an institution graduates, who have studied the 

 general principles of science in colleges, will be able to 

 master the various methods of the practical application 

 of science to the needs of the present day. They will 

 there learn with what extraordinary skill, in other and 

 more advanced countries, men are ' harnessing science in 

 the service of business and the other tasks of modern 

 life.' " 



The Earl of Crewe, chairman of the governing body of 

 the Imperial College of Science and Technology, "has 

 authorised the publication of the following communica- 

 tion : — The governing body of the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology has appointed three standing com- 

 mittees, a finance committee (chairman. Sir Francis 

 Mowatt), an education committee (chairman, Mr. Arthur 

 Acland), and a general purposes committee (chairman. 

 Lord Halsbury). In addition, two temporary committees 

 have been appointed, namely, a transfer committee (chair- 

 man, Mr. Arthur Acland), and an organisation committee 

 (chairman, Mr. Gerald Balfour ; vice-chairman, Sir 

 William White). Matters relating to the transfer to the 

 Imperial College of the constituent institutions, which it 

 has been arranged shall take effect as from January i 

 next, and to the transfer of land from the Exhibition Com- 

 missioners, have been referred to the transfer committee. 

 The organisation committee, to which have been referred 

 matters relating to the future organisation of the Imperial 

 College, has appointed four subcommittees to consider 

 questions arising under this head in relation to the follow- 

 ing sciences or groups of sciences, viz. : — (i) mining and 

 metallurgy (chairman of the subcommittee. Sir Julius 

 Wernher) ; (2) other branches of engineering (chairman, 

 Sir John Wolfe-Barry) ; (3) biological sciences (chairman. 

 Sir ./Xrchibald Geikie) ; and (4) other pure and applied 

 sciences (chairTnan, Sir Arthur Riicker). The governing 

 body has authorised the appointment of persons not 

 members of the governing body who are speciallv con- 

 versant with the sciences' in question or with their in- 



NO. T988, VOL. 77"| 



dustrial applications as additional members of these sub- 

 committees, which are now engaged in considering the 

 questions referred to them. The governing body •" as also 

 approved in principle the appointment of a principal officer 

 of the Imperial College, and has referred the question of 

 his title and functions to the organisation committee. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Society of Chemical Industry, November 4. — Mr. R. J. 

 FriswcU in the chair. — The determination of indigotin in 

 indigo-yielding plants : Cyril Bergtheil and R. V. 

 Briggs. The accurate determination of indigotin in the 

 indigo plant is of considerable importance, since a correct 

 estimate of the efliciency of the process of indigo manu- 

 facture depends thereon. A method of precipitating 

 indigotin from an extract of the plant in boiling water by 

 means of ammonium persulphate, proposed by Rawson in 

 1904 and modified by the present authors, has been shown 

 to give correct results by comparison with those obtained 

 by fermentation of the extract by means of the indigo 

 enzyme (Journ. Soc. Chem. Industry, 1906, xxv., 729). 

 This method h.as been criticised by Orchardson, Wood and 

 Bloxam, and two alternative methods proposed, one of 

 which, depending on the same principle, is said to give 

 results identical with those obtained by the authors' 

 method, whilst the other, depending on the precipitation of 

 indirubin by the action of isatin in acid solution, in- 

 dicates a considerably higher potential yield of indigotin 

 in the plant extract used (Journ. .Soc. Chem. Industry, 

 xxvi., 4). The authors' original method is now verified, 

 and some minor modifications are recommended. The 

 conclusion that the isatin method may in certain circum- 

 stances indicate a higher indican content in a given extract 

 than the persulphate method is njt borne out by thf 

 authors' experiments. — Analysis of indigo (part iii.) and of 

 the dried leaves of Indigojera atrccta and /. Suinatrana : 

 R. Gaunt) F. Thomas, and W. P. Bloxam. A summary 

 is first given of the results of the work on indigo carried 

 out for the Government of India at the University of 

 Leeds during the years 1905-7. In the present paper the 

 exact conditions were prescribed for the preparation of 

 pure indigotin to serve as the standard on which the 

 tetrasulphonate process for the estimation of indigotin is 

 based. A reply was made to certain criticisms on the 

 tetrasulphonate process ; the defects complained of were 

 shown to be due to want of proper precaution on the 

 part of the operators. The methods in use for the estim- 

 ation of indigotin in the leaf were described. The per- 

 sulphate method was found altogether faulty, as the results 

 obtained by it were too low. The new " isatin " method 

 was found to give much higher results, and, moreover, 

 the method is quantitative, as proved by its action on the 

 glucoside indican, which has recently been isolated in 

 quantity by Messrs. A. G. Perkin and W. P. Bloxam. .\s 

 a result of employing the isatin process, the indigo leaf 

 is demonstrated to be capable of yielding more indigotin 

 than had previously been supposed. .'Xgain, the percentage 

 of leaf present in the green plant has been underestimated 

 in India. It is insisted that these facts are in favour of 

 the survival of the Indian indigo industry. Finally, it was 

 submitted that the work on the indigo ferment or enzyme 

 had not been properly followed out, and that the present 

 reports on the Indian manufacture are eminently unsatis- 

 factory, for (i) the colour-giving value of the raw materials 

 was seriously underestimated, whilst (2) the indigotin value 

 of the manufactured cake was overestimated, and this 

 owing to the persistent use of unsatisfactory methods of 

 analysis in lieu of adopting the tetrasulphonate process. 



Physical Society, November 8.- Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S.. 

 vice-president, in the chair. — A freehand graphic way of 

 determining stream surfaces and cquipotentials : L. F. 

 Richardson. Where an accuracy of i per cent, to 3 per 

 cent, of the range is sufficient, solutions of the equation 

 p2v S2V g^v 

 r.v- Py^ 82^ 

 may be obtained bv drawing equ'notentials and section^: 

 of stream surfaces, and amending tliom freehand until tlu- 



