April 17, 1913] 



NATURE 



179 



Fig. 18. My assistant spins the flywheel of the large 

 gyrostat, which is then suspended by means of a 

 string and hook from trie upper bar of the 

 frame. At present the centre of gravity of 

 the gyrostat is vertically below the hook, and 

 under these conditions thej-e is no precessional 

 motion. He now spins the two small gyrostats and 

 attaches them to the large one. Each small gyrostat, 

 you will observe, is carried by two sleeves which are 

 threaded on a horizontal bar. The hook is now trans- 

 ferred to one of the side recesses provided in the upper 

 bar of the large gyrostat, and the system is left to 

 itself, when it turns round in azimuth. One of the small 

 gyrostats throws itself up and balances on the bar. 



The experiment is repeated with the hook engaging 

 in the other side recess, when you observe that the 

 small gyrostat which previously occupied the lower 

 position now rises into the upright one, and the gyro- 

 stat which occupied the upright position now occupies 

 the lower one. 



This top admits of a large variety of designs. It is 

 easy to imagine a gyrostatic circus rider performing 

 balancing feats on the back of a gyrostatic horse ! 



I conclude with a gyrostatic model which depends 

 for its action upon an entirely novel and prac- 



batic top. 



tical method of operating a gyrostat or gyrostats. 

 The method has a very large variety of applications, 

 into which I shall not enter at present. It is here 

 shown applied to a motor-car. The car runs on two 

 wheels in tandem ; it can be set to run either in a 

 straight path or a path curved in either direction. 

 You observe that the arrangement includes two parts 

 connected by a vertical or nearly vertical hinge. Each 

 is supported on a single wheel. The front part carries 

 a gyrostat with axis horizontal (in this case), the after- 

 part contains the propelling mechanism. A quasi- 

 gravitational field of force is produced by the propeller 

 behind acting through the hinge. 



The car can be made to go round in anv curve 



by a weight placed on one side, when it will be seen 

 that it leans over to the inside of the curve. 



The balancing power is very great ; even when a 

 weight comparable with that of the entire car is 

 mounted on a vertical rod carried by the structure, 

 the device does not fall down. In fact, it is dynamic- 

 ally impossible for the car to overturn. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — It is proposed to confer the degree of 

 Doctor of Law, honoris causd, upon Admiral Sir Wil- 

 mot H. Fawkes, G.C.B., and Mr. 

 J. S. Sargent, R.A. ; and the degree 

 of Doctor of Letters, honoris causd, 

 upon his Excellency Adolph H. G. 

 Wagner, professor of political 

 economy in the University of Berlin ; 

 Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, K.C.B., 

 director and principal librarian of the 

 British Museum; Sir John Knox 

 Laughton, professor of modern his- 

 tory in the University of London ; Sir 

 James A. H. Murray; Prof. C. 

 Bemont, professor of history in the 

 Sorbonne; Mr. Thomas Hardy, O.M. ; and Mr. 

 Reginald L. Poole, keeper of the archives of the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford. 



Sir" Robert Rede's lecture/ for the present year. 

 Earl Curzon of Kedleston, will deliver the lecture in 

 the ensuing Michaelmas term, not, as previously 

 announced, in the present term. 



The Linacre lecture, at St. John's College, will be 

 delivered bv Dr. Norman Moore, on Tuesday, May 6, 

 at 5 p.m., 'in the lecture-room of anatomy and physio- 

 logy. New Museums. The title of the lecture is "The 

 Physician in English History." 



Mr. W. W. Hornell, formerly of the Indian Edu- 

 cational Service, and now of the Board of Education, 

 has been appointed Director of Public Instruction in 

 Bengal. 



The council of the South African School of Mines 

 and Technology has made the following appointments 

 to the staff— Dr. G. S. Corstorphine, consulting 

 geologist, of Johannesburg, to be principal of the 

 school and professor of economic geology; Mr. J. S. 

 Cellier, mining engineer, of Johannesburg, to be pro- 

 fessor of mining. 



Mr. Pease made his annual statement as President 

 of the Board of Education in the House of Commons 

 on April 10. In the course of his remarks he said 

 that the number of pupils in receipt of free tuition 

 in the 885 secondary schools receiving Government 

 grants last year was 52,563, of whom 49,120 came up 

 from the elementary schools. The staffing of the 

 secondarv schools is one teacher to every 325 ; of the 

 elementary schools one teacher to every 135. There 

 , ( re twenty training colleges, and their total output 

 of trained teachers last year only reached forty men 

 and 195 women. At the continuation schools only 13 

 per cent, of the total population under seventeen are 

 in attendance. A course of from two to four years 

 will be established in day trade schools. There is 

 room for twenty more in London and 150 in the 

 country. The i\. 'Vjs. per head granted by the 

 Government is wholly inadequate, and Mr. Pease has 

 been able to increase the grant to 5/. in land schools 

 and 10Z. to the various training ships. The Science 

 Museum is about to be built on a site in Exhibition 

 Road, South Kensington. It is proposed to erect the 



NO. 2268, VOL. 91] 



