88 



NATURE 



[September 19, 191: 



dLuing structures in steel as admirably as those they 

 design in stone? Partly, no doubt, because they are 

 hampered by tradition. They have not yet fully 

 realised the difference in spirit that must characterise 

 fit designs in the newer and the older materials. No 

 one can be an artist in any material the possibilities 

 and limitations of which he has not fully mastered. 

 Again — if a common engineer may venture the 

 criticism — the architect, as a rule, has not sufficiently 

 mastered the science of construction, and has been too 

 much addicted to taking the easy course of adopting a 

 decorated treatment instead of striving to secure 

 elegance of structural scheme as such ; and decoration, 

 at least on anything like traditional lines, is wholly 

 incompatible with the best possibilities of steel as a 

 structural material. Progress is being made in the 

 art of designing efficient and graceful structures in 

 metal, but the best results can only be attained by a 

 designer who has a thorough scientific and technical 

 knowledge of the properties of steel and the processes 

 of its manipulation on the one hand, and cultured 

 artistic sense and capacity on the other. These should 

 not be considered as appropriate equipments for 

 separate professions. 



There are many, however, who have a rooted con- 

 viction that structures in steel can never be so beau- 

 tiful as those in stone. This I believe to be altogether 

 wrong. It arises partly from the crudity of design 

 that characterises most of the steel structures that 

 have yet been erected, and partly from preconceived 

 notions as to what is fitting in proportions and 

 massiveness. We can quite imagine that a native of 

 the Congo region whose notions of the proportions 

 suitable and comely for a quadruped were founded on 

 his familiarity with the hippopotamus would, at first 

 sight, consider the racehorse sadlv lacking in sub- 

 stance and solidity ; but, in time, he might come to 

 recognise some measure of gracefulness in a creature 

 that has been developed to meet requirements that 

 hitherto he had not fully considered. 



Mr. Wells has said in his " Modern Utopia," " the 

 world still does not dream of the things that will be 

 done with thought and steel when the engineer is 

 sufficiently educated to be an artist, and the artistic 

 intelligence has been quickened to the accomplish- 

 ment of an engineer." But we need not postpone until 

 the advent of a complete Utopia, the full realisation 

 of our duty to practise our profession, as far as in us 

 lies, with due regard for the material interests and 

 the aesthetic susceptibilities of all who can be affected 

 by the works for which we are responsible. 



NOTES. 



A PUBLIC meeting will be held at the ^[ansion House 

 on Wednesday, October 23, in support of the memorial 

 to Lord Lister. 



The superintendent of the Meteorological Office 

 Observatory at Eskdalemuir, near Langholm, Dum- 

 fries, reports that the seismographs at the observatory 

 recorded a large earthquake at 11.30 p.m. on Septem- 

 ber 13. The centre of the disturbance is indicated at 

 latitude 40"4° N., longitude 27° E., a point situated 

 at the south coast of the Sea of Marmora. 



We learn from The Lancet that the Riberi prize of 

 the University of Turin, amounting to 20,000 lire 

 (about 800Z.), will be awarded after the close of the 

 year 1916 for the work which is adjudged to have 

 most advanced the science of medicine. Such work, if 

 published, must have been printed after 191 1. Or it 

 -\0. 2238, VOL. 90] 



may be sent in before the end of 1916, in print or 

 typoscript — the English language is admissible. 

 Eurther information may be obtained from Prof. Dr. 

 Oliva, Turin. 



A SPECI.XL number of the Atti dcllii R. Accadewia 

 dei Lincei, containing the report of the proceedings 

 at the anniversary meeting last June, announces a 

 gift of 4000/. from Dr. Gino Modigliani towards the 

 publication of the works of Leonardo da Vinci, and a 

 legacy to the academy of 2000Z., as well as of many 

 of her personal effects, from the estate of the late 

 Signora Celli Dutuit. Prizes given by the King of 

 Italy have been awarded to Prof. Ernesto Manasse for 

 mineralogy and geology, and to Prof. Giuseppe Chio- 

 venda for jurisprudence and political science. The 

 Minister of Public Instruction also gives four prizes, 

 each of which has this year been divided, the re- 

 cipients being Profs. G. Ercolini and A. Amerio for 

 physics, Profs. A. Quariaroli and R. Salvadori for 

 chemistry, and Profs. Enrico Carrara, Donadoni 

 Eugenio, Levi Ezio, and Ribezzo Francesco for the 

 two philology prizes. .\ prize founded by Santoro is 

 awarded to Prof. Costantino Gorini for his dis- 

 coveries in the bacteriology of cheese, while another 

 most useful prize, founded by the late Alfonso Sella 

 for assistant lecturers in the department of physics, 

 is awarded to Dr. Paolo Rossi, of the L'niversity of 

 Naples. 



We announced with regret last week the death on 

 September 4, at forty-two years of age, of Dr. Stanley 

 Dunkerley, formerly professor of engineering in the 

 L'niversity of Manchester. Dr. Dunkerley was 

 educated at the Burnley Grammar School and Man- 

 chester LTniversity, where he graduated in 1900 with 

 honours in mathematics, and took, a year later, the 

 degree in engineering. After two years on the con- 

 struction work of the Manchester Ship Canal, he 

 obtained the Bishop Berkeley fellowship, and returned 

 to the University to carry out researches in the Whit- 

 worth Engineering Laboratory under the direction of 

 the late Prof. Osborne Reynolds. Dr. Dunkerley 

 held appointments as assistant-lecturer in engineering 

 at Liverpool University and at Cambridge. In 1897 

 he was appointed professor of applied mechanics at 

 the Royal Naval College, resigning in 1905 to succeed 

 Prof. Osborne Reynolds at the Manchester University. 

 He had only held this post three years when ill health 

 compelled him to resign. Dr. Dunkerley was strongest 

 on the mathematical side of engineering. His most 

 important contributions to engineering science are the 

 paper on the whirling and vibration of shafts pub- 

 lished in the Transactions of the Royal Society, and an 

 investigation of the straining actions in crank shafts, 

 which appeared in the transactions of the Institute of 

 Naval Architects. He was the author of text-books 

 on mechanism and hydraulics. In 1905 his University 

 conferred on him the doctor's degree in science, and 

 in the same year he was elected a member of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers. 



Throughout the . wide circle of mining engineers 

 the announcement of the death of Mr. J.- A. Chalmers 

 at Bournemouth, on September g, will be deeply 



