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NATURE 



[May 22, 1913 



and courses of work put forward by various examining 

 authorities, and methods of teaching were discussed. 



The principal resolutions passed by the conference 

 dealt with the educational proposals of the Govern- 

 ment, and the London University Commission Report. 

 The conference urged the " necessity for improved 

 provision for technical education and the organisation 

 of technical education on a national basis." In addi- 

 tion, attention was directed "to the urgent necessity 

 for increased grants from the State in aid of tech- 

 nical education," higher salaries for teachers to be 

 a first charge upon these increased grants. With 

 regard to the London University Commission report, 

 a resolution was passed unanimously opposing any 

 limitation of the existing facilities for obtaining ex- 

 ternal degrees, and the proposed exclusion of external 

 students from the examinations in the faculty of tech- 

 nology, including engineering. This resolution also 

 stated that many of the criticisms made in the report 

 concerning London polytechnics and technical insti- 

 tutions are obviously founded on an incomplete know- 

 ledge of the work done i» these institutions. The 

 association strongly deprecated any weakening of the 

 connection between these institutions and the Univer- 

 sity in view of the excellent results which have fol- 

 lowed in the past as a result of the present relation- 

 ships between the polytechnics and the L'niversity. 

 The higher work in these institutions, whether day 

 or evening, should form an integral part of the 

 organisation of the faculties of science and technology. 



A public meeting was held in connection with the 

 conference in the large hall of the Bradford Technical 

 College, the principal speaker being the Right Hon. 

 J. A. Pease, M.P., the President of the Board of 

 Education. During the course of his speech, Mr. 

 Pease emphasised the importance of technical educa- 

 tion, especially in the day-time if possible, and the 

 necessity of " gradually bringing into the educational 

 net nearly the whole of the population which left 

 school between the ages of twelve and fourteen." 

 New regulations would shortly be issued which, by 

 means of larger grants and more elastic conditions, 

 would favour the development of junior technical 

 schools, " which would be linked up with the colleges 

 and classes of a superior character." Mr. Pease 

 criticised externa! examinations "as a waste of money 

 and effort, and resulting in very little good." In 

 concluding, he suggested that the key of the educa- 

 tional situation is to give more power, coupled with 

 greater financial aid from the State, to the local 

 authorities. J. Wilson. 



THE NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY. 



THE annual meeting of the general board of the 

 National Physical Laboratory was held recently 

 at the rooms of the Royal Society, when the report 

 and accounts for the year 19 12 and the statement of 

 work for 1913 were presented and approved for trans- 

 mission to the president and council of the Royal 

 Society. 



In former years this meeting has usually been held 

 at Teddington during the month of March, and has 

 been combined with an inspection of the laboratory 

 by the members of the board. In consequence of a 

 change in the financial year, the annual inspection 

 will in future be held at a later date. This year it 

 is to take place on Thursday, June 26, when the 

 Right Hon. A. J. Balfour will open the new buildings 

 recently erected. 



These buildings complete a scheme initiated in 1909 



to provide laboratories for metallurgy and optics, with 



administrative offices, at an estimated cost of 30,000/., 



exclusive of equipment ; of this sum the Treasury 



NO. 2273, VOL. 91] 



undertook to provide 15,000/., provided the remainder 

 were forthcoming from other sources. 



In 1910 the late Sir Julius Wernher generously 

 provided 10,000/. for the erection of the metallurgy 

 laboratory, and on learning lately that the actual cost 

 had exceeded the sum available by 936/., Lady Wern- 

 her most kindly defrayed the deficit. 



To secure the further sum necessary for the com- 

 pletion of the scheme, and to obtain funds for the 

 equipment of the buildings, an "Additional Funds 

 Committee," of which the late Sir William White 

 was chairman, was appointed during 1912. In its 

 report this committee states that the Royal Commis- 

 sioners for the Exhibition of 185 1 had generously given 

 a donation of 5000/. to the building fund, thus com- 

 pleting, with the gift from Sir Julius Wernher, the 

 15,000/. required to meet the Treasury grant. 



Generous help towards the equipment has been 

 received from many sources, including a number of 

 the City companies. The committee, however, points 

 out that considerable sums are still necessary to pro- 

 vide adequately the equipment which is essential for 

 the proper development of the work. 



The block of buildings for optics and administration 

 is now nearly complete, and it is to open these that 

 Mr. Balfour has promised to be present on June 26. 



ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION 

 IRREGULARITIES. 



THE anomalies of atmospheric refraction are nume 

 rous, and at various times irregularities extending 

 over periods of one minute, one day, and one year have 

 been discussed, that of the order of one second being 

 generally known and causing "unsteady seeing." 

 The variation of the order of one minute was dis- 

 covered by Nusl and Fric experimentally in 1908, and 

 they concluded that this irregularity had an ampli- 

 tude of nearly a second of arc. The existence of such 

 a large amplitude and its importance in meridional 

 work suggested to Prof. Frank Schlesinger a re- 

 determination by a perfectly independent method, and 

 this he has done and described in a recent number 

 of the Publications of the Allegheny Observatory 

 (vol. iii., No. 1). He has based his measures on 

 photographs of ordinary star trails made with the 

 help of stationary long-focus instruments, and these 

 he has had secured for him, according to a pro- 

 gramme, by Prof. Slocum with the 40-in. Yerkes 

 refractor, and Prof. Seares with the Mount Wilson 

 60-in. reflector, the star trails being those of the 

 Pleiades group. The result deduced from the Yerkes 

 plates, as is illustrated by curves in the publication, 

 is to show the presence of this slow fluctuation, every 

 one of the seven trails remaining at times above or 

 below its mean position for a considerable fraction 

 of a minute. 



The same series of photographs was used to deter- 

 mine whether neighbouring stars showed the same 

 fluctuations and whether the minor fluctuations were 

 real. The curves plotted from these photographs 

 thoroughly endorsed both these views, one figure 

 showing the fluctuations of Merope and Alcyone as 

 absolutely identical. To decide whether such one- 

 minute fluctuations were common to mountain sites 

 as well as low-lving situations, the Mount Wilson 

 photographic trails were employed, and handled in 

 the same way. The conclusion drawn was that the 

 irregularities were of the same character, the ampli- 

 tude being of the same order and the extreme range 

 about one second of arc. Prof. Schlesirger thus 

 directs attention to the fact that these results set a 

 limit of accuracy to meridian work and show that 

 photographic determinations of the distance between 



