254 



NA TURE 



\yan. 



18S7 



They stated that the collections would beef great value 

 to School Boards, managers, and teachers, and they esti- 

 mated 7000 square feet of surface as necessary, not 

 including any allowance for the library. 



Mechanical CoHec/ions 



21. The Committee appointed to consider these collec- 

 tions were Mr. John Slagg, M.P., Sir W. G. Armstrong, 

 Sir J. W. Bazalgette, Mr. James Brunlees, Mr. E. A. 

 Cowper, Prof. T. M. Goodeve, Sir Charles Button 

 Gregory, Mr. John Hick, Mr. James Howard, M.P., Mr. 

 Charles Manby, Mr. J. Hinde Palmer, Sir E. J. Reed, 

 M.P., and Mr. (now Sir) B. Samuelson, M.P. 



They carefully examined the collections, including the 

 "Patent Museum" (which, under the Patent Act, 1883, 

 had been transferred to the care of this Department on 

 January i, 1SS4), and made a comprehensive report, em- 

 bodying suggestions for the improvement and the 

 arrangement of the whole. 



They estimated that from 40,000 to 50,000 square feet 

 of space would be required. 



22. Considering that the members of these Committees 

 were selected, on the responsibility of the Government, 

 for their competence as authorities in their respective 

 branches of science, and considering the detailed nature 

 of their inquiries, we assume their conclusions as the 

 basis of our recommendations. 



We may also add that similar Committees are per- 

 manently retained, under the name of " Committees of 

 Advice and Reference" for the several collections. 



23. We need not enlarge on the desirability that 

 such a country as Great Britain should possess a tho- 

 roughly good and complete National Collection of Scien- 

 tific and Technical objects, any more than that it should 

 possess a Museum of objects of Art or of Natural History. 



\yhen it is considered how much the prosperity of the 

 nation is bound up with industrial enterprises and occu- 

 pations, and how largely these depend, for their success, 

 on practical applications of science, it needs no elaborate 

 reasoning to prove that the public exhibition of well- 

 selected and judiciously arranged scientific and technical 

 collections, particularly when used in connection with 

 efficient courses of instruction, justifies its cost. 



24. There has long been a National Scientific and 

 Technical Museum in France, well known under the 

 name of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, and this 

 has often been referred to as a type of the institution of a 

 similar nature which ought to be established in England. 



We reprint, in Appendix C, an article published in the 

 TiJiies newspaper of October 5, 1S76, which gives a full 

 account of the nature and scope of the Conservatoire, 

 and we have also received, through the courtesy of the 

 Directors, full information as to the present contents and 

 arrangements of the Museum. 



The premises are situated in an area contained between 

 the four streets. Rue St. Martin, Rue Vaucanson, Rue du 

 Vert Bois, and Rue Rdaumur. This area is about 200 

 metres wide by 140 metres deep, thus containing 28,000 

 square metres, or about 7 acres. These 7 acres are 'not 

 at present entirely occupied by the Conservatoire, but an 

 enlargement of the buildings is in progress, which will 

 extend them, including the necessary courtyards, passages, 

 &c., over the whole area. 



The objects exhibited belong to a great variety of sub- 

 jects, the following being only a brief indication of their 

 general classification : — • 



yI/£?/();-j-.— Horse-machines, water-motors, wind-motors, 

 steam-engines, hot-air engines. Details and accessories. 



Hydraulic Macliiiu-s.—Vumi^s, &c. 



Descriptive Geometry.— Yorms of curves ; teeth of 

 wheels. Machines for producing special forms. 



Metallurgy.— \\o]:\i\ng of mines. Minerals. Metal- 

 lurgical processes. Aletals. 



Cahxlating and Counting Machines. 



Instruments for Suri'cying. 



Astronomy., &^c. — Almanacs and Calendars, 



Chronometry, ancient and modern ; movements ; tools. 



Arts 0/ Construction. — Materials, processes, workmen's 

 tools, &c. Constructions under water. 



Kinematics. — Machinery. Mechanism. Elements of 

 machines. 



Dynamometers and instruments for mechanical ob- 

 servations. 



Cra>ies and other constructions for lifting and removing 

 weights. 



Machine Tools of various kinds. Presses, &c. 



Engraving, Lithography, Typography, Printing, &"c., 

 and paper-making. 



Porcelain, Glass, and Pottery. 



Physics. — Mechanics. Molecular actions. Heat. Mag- 

 netism. Electricity. Acoustics. Optics. Meteorology. 

 Electro-chemistry. Telegraphy. 



Agriculture. — Apparatus of all kinds. 



Weights and Measures. — French and foreign. Weigh- 

 ing-machines. Instruments of comparison. 



Locomotion and Transport on ordinary roads, on rail- 

 ways, and on rivers, canals, and the sea. 



Manufactures, various. — Gunpowder. Arms. Chemi- 

 cals. Bread. Sugar. Cements. Cutlery. India-rubber. 



Spinning and Weaving. — Textile manufactures 'gene- 

 rally. 



Preparation, Dyeing, and Printing of Fabrics. 



Chemical Arts and Products. — Preservation of Timber. 

 Gas. Distilling. Brewing. Tanning, &c. 



Industrial and Fine Arts. — Prints ; designs. Photo- 

 graphy. 



Pictures and Drawings, illustrative of Scientific and 

 Technical matters ; a very large collection. 



There are in all about 10,000 objects. The collection is 

 remarkably rich, both in historic apparatus and in the most 

 recent inventions. The machinery is shown in motion 

 two days in the week. The objects are used, when 

 required, for the lectures given in the Cons.-rvatoire. 



Nothing is added unless it can be utilised for teaching ; 

 sometimes orders are given for models to be made, and 

 sometimes objects are purchased. When anything is 

 offered as a gift, it is not accepted unless one of the 

 professors will state that it is really required. 



The collection is not in any way a Patent Museum. 

 Formerly certain models of patented inventions were 

 exhibited there, but this is no longer done. 



( To lie continued. ) 



NOTES 

 The meetings held yesterday at .St. James's Palace and the 

 Mansion House, to which we have not time to refer at length 

 this week, indicate that from the Prince of Wales downwards all 

 interested in the proposed memorial are willing to allow the 

 necessity of making the Institute one on a broad scientific basis. 

 An admirable speech by Prof. Huxley at the Mansion House, 

 following that of the Prince of Wales at the first meeting, shows 

 that there is now no chance of the importance and of the 

 necessity of collecting and arranging knowledge being over- 

 looked. 



French geologists have ciuse to regret the blow which their 

 science has received in the premature death of the well-known 

 geologist of Lyons, C. F. Fontannes, on December 29, at the 

 age of forty-eight. He is best known by his important monograph 

 on the " Stratigraphy and Palaeontology of the Tertiary Deposits 

 of the Basin of the Rhone" — a work oflaborious research and of 

 great value from the minuteness and accuracy of its details. He 

 established a claim on the gratitude of geologists by the infinite 

 pains he took in the organisation and working of the Inter- 



