March 5, 1908] 



NA TURE 



417 



distinct lead in this matter, it may be hoped that the 

 scheme, which has been long delayed, will be realised 

 before long, and the reproach wiped a\va\" that the 

 country which equals all the rest of the world in its 

 shipping and shipbuilding lags behind other countries 

 in utilising the experimental methods due to that 

 great English man of science William Froude. 



L'ntil recent years work done by the Froudes and 

 |)ublished by permission of the Admiralty furnished 

 !he best information available for guidance in pro- 

 peller design, especially when associated with pro- 

 gressive trials of steamships. The experimental 

 methods introduced at Torquav and Haslar have been 

 adopted and extended of late by other workers having 

 command of specially equipped hydraulic laboratories 

 or tanks. .Vmongst these the ^^'ashington tank, be- 

 longing to the L'nited States \avy Department, has 

 taken a leading position under the able super'ntend- 

 ence of Naval Constructor Taylor, who received his 

 training as a naval architect at the Royal Naval 

 College, Greenwich. In addition to this establish- 

 ment, the United .States has the great advantage of 

 possessing experimental tanks attached to univer- 

 sities; these tanks are necessarily inore available for 

 research-work than any establishment can be which 

 is created primarilv and regularly employed for experi- 

 mental work bearing directlv on actual ship-construc- 

 tion. Piof. Durand — whose investigations on screw- 

 propellers specially claim attention in this notice — for 

 ten years past has closely studied the screw-propeller 

 problem. His later experiments have been made at 

 the hydraulic laboratory of Cornell Iniversity ; they 

 an- systematic and thorough within the limits of the 

 scheme laid down. The method and results have 

 been admirably described and summarised in a 

 memoir of about sixty pages. The Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington made a grant in aid of the experi- 

 ments, and has published the memoir, thereby 

 conferring great benefit on all who are concerned in 

 the propulsion of steamships, and furnishing a fresh 

 illustration of the encouragement given to scientific 

 research in the United States. 



NOTES. 



The following fifteen candidates have been selected by 

 ih" council of the Royal Society to be recommended for 

 elc Ttion as fellows of the society : — Mr. W. Barlow, the 

 Karl of Berkeley, Mr. Dugald Clerk, Prof. A. Dendy, 

 Prof. H. H. Dixon, Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, Prof. W. 

 (iowiand, Mr. J. H. Grace, Prof. D. J. Hamilton, Mr. 

 C. I. Forsyth Major, Mr. E. N. Xevill, Mr. \V. H. Rivers, 

 the- Hon. Bertrand Russell, Dr. Otto Stapf, and Dr. J. F. 

 Thorpe. 



.\ spiiCIAL general meeting- of the Geological Society will 

 bi- held on .•\pril i to consider a resolution relating to the 

 admission of women to full fellowship of the society. 



It is reported by The Hague correspondent of the Globe 

 (-March 3) that Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes, professor of 

 physics in the University of Leyden, has succeeded in 

 lic-iuefying helium. 



Sir Oliver Lodge will deliver his presidential address 

 t(i the Faraday Society on Tuesday, March 24. The subject 

 of the address will be " Some Aspects of the Work of 

 Lord Kelvin." 



The Paris correspondent of the Times reports that Prince 

 Roland Bonaparte has placed at the disposal of the 

 .Academy of Sciences a sum of 100,000 francs (4000!.) 

 to be employed in promoting discoveries by facilitating 

 the task of investigators who h.ive already given proof of 

 NO. 2001, VOL. 77] 



their ability by original work, but who may lack th^^ 

 resources necessary for undertaking or pursuing their- 

 investigations. 



Prof. J. R. Bradford, F.R.S., Sir T. H. Holdich, 

 K.C.M.r;.. and the Duke of Northumberland. F.R.S., 

 have been elected members of the Athenjeum Club under 

 the provisions of the rule which empHJwers the annual c'ec- 

 tion by the committee of nine persons " of distinguished 

 eminence in science, literature, the arts, or for public 

 sei-i'ii es." 



Dr. Artiilr Keith, lecturer on anatomy at the London 

 Hospital Medical College, has been appointed conservator 

 of the museum of the Royal College of .Surgeons, inr 

 succession to the late Prof. C. Stewart. 



Prof. Milne's discourse at the Royal Institution on 

 "Recent Earthquakes," announced for Friday next, 

 March 6, has been postponed until March 20. The dis- 

 course on Friday next will be delivered by Prof. Love on 

 " The Figure and Constitution of the Earth." 



In a footnote to Cowper's poem (Magnet edition, 1834), 

 a remarkable meteor, .August 18, 1783, and a fog which- 

 covered Europe and Asia during the summer of 17S3 are 

 mentioned, as well as an earthquake in Sicily of unusual 

 severity. A correspondent asks for details of these 

 occurrences, or a reference to records of them. 



The following officers of the .Asiatic Society of Bengal 

 have been elected for the ensuing year : — President, the 

 Hon. Justice Asutosh Mukhopadhyaya ; vice-presidents. 

 Dr. T. H. Holland, F.R.S., Dr. 6. ' Thibaut, Mahama- 

 hopadhyaya Haraprasad Shastri ; genera! secretary, Lieut. - 

 Colonel D. C. riiillott ; treasurer, Mr. J. A. Chapman. 



■W'k learn from the Times that the Russian Governmeni: 

 is dispatching a research commission to investigate some 

 recent discoveries of mammoth remains in the Yakutsk 

 province of north-east Siberia. The commission consists 

 of a doctor of zoology, of the Academy of Sciences, the 

 senior curator of the zoological department of the academy, 

 and six junior laboratory students. The expedition, w-hicl' 

 is expected to be absent for a year or more, is suppliri 

 with a grant of 16,000 roubles (1600/.). 



The report of the committee appointed by the Treasury 

 to inquire generally into the work now performed at the 

 National Physical Laboratory has been published as a 

 Parliamentary paper (Cd. 3926), which also includes a 

 Treasury minute recording the approval by the Treasury 

 of the recommendations contained in the report of the 

 majority of the committee. The opinion of the 1898 com- 

 mittee, that the work proper for a National Physical 

 Laboratory to undertake should include not only physical 

 research directly or indirectly bearing on industrial 

 problems, and the standardisation and verification of instru- 

 ments, but also — under proper restrictions — the testing of 

 materials, is in the first place endorsed. The committee 

 then distinguishes " commercial testing " into " con- 

 tractual " and " investigatory " testing — " contractual " 

 testing being the ordinary testing of materials to ascertain 

 whether their quality and behaviour are in accordance with 

 the requirements of contracts; " investigatory " testing the 

 investigation for commercial purposes of various substances 

 in which no question of contract arises. To place restric- 

 tions upon " investigatory " testing would, it is pointed 

 out, hinder the advance of knowledge. The committee 

 thinks that the laboratory should remain entirely free with 

 regard to "investigatory testing," and, as a rule, be 

 debarred from undertaking " contractual testing " — though 

 electrical, thcrn-ial, optical, and other physical tests are tO' 



