46: 



NA TURE 



[pEliRUAKY 17, I9IO 



is hardly likely to enter into competition with ordinary 

 electroplating' for large work or for irregular articles. 

 Nor is it likely to be employed in cases where heavy 

 coatings of metal are required, because it would not 

 be an easy matter to rub on sufficiently evenly to 

 obtain uniform and thick deposits. F. M. P. 



L'A7F£flS/Ty COLLEGE, LONDON. 

 Appeal for New Chemical Laboratories. 



MANY old students of University College, London, 

 and others familiar with the work done in the 

 chemical department of the college, will be interested 

 in the appeal which has just been made for funds for 

 new chemical laboratories. 



The letter which Lord Rosebery has written as 

 Chancellor of the University, and the statement cir- 

 culated by Sir Henry Roscoe, as chairman of the 

 Equipment and Endowment Fund Chemistry Appeal 

 Committee, serve to bring into high relief the urgent 

 need at University College for improved and more 

 extensive accommodation in its chemical department, 

 both for teaching and research purposes. 



While, thanks largely to the generosity of Mr. 

 Carnegie, the L'niversity of Manchester has recently 

 become possessed of adequate and modern laboratories, 

 and fine buildings possessing admirable accommoda- 

 tion for chemical science have been erected at South 

 Kensington — to give two examples only — the Univer- 

 sity College laboratories date from 1871. Yet, despite 

 material disadvantages, splendid work for chemistry 

 has been accomplished in Gower Street under Graham, 

 Williamson, Sir William Ramsay, and others. 



In America to mention the need and to state the 

 sum required would ensure its being immediately 

 forthcoming, especially when it can in a sense be 

 regarded as a means of celebrating the completion 

 by Sir William Ramsay of twenty-one years of work 

 at Liniversjty College. In Germany, again, the State 

 would see to it that so distinguished a chemist was 

 not hampered by want of material or accommodation. 



We are hopeful that a ready response to the appeal 

 will be promptly forthcoming, and that very soon the 

 necessary buildings will be in course of erection. The 

 appeal, and Lord Rosebery's letter referring to it, are 

 subjoined. 



An Appeal for 70,000/. for the purchase of a Site and the 

 erection of new Chemical Laboratories thereon at 

 University of London, University College. 



The chemical laboratories at University College, London, 

 were for the most part built under the direction of the late 

 Prof. Alexander Williamson in the year 1871. From time 

 to time they have been re-fitted and supplemented to meet 

 the demands of the subject and the increasing number of 

 students in the department. It has been impossible in 

 the present buildings of the college to provide the requisite 

 additional accommodation in rooms immediately adjoining 

 the main laboratories. Conset|uently, at the present time 

 the department is scattered and inconvenient, and neither 

 in planning nor equipment is it adequate for modern 

 chemistry work. The average number of students in the 

 chemical department for the last four sessions has been 

 261, of whom, on the average, 160 have been students in 

 the junior classes, 6S students in the advanced laboratories, 

 and 33 research students. 



During the last four sessions, the college has been 

 compelled to refuse students for want of room, even after 

 making such arrangements as have been possible for the 

 laboratory work of some students elsewhere. The number 

 of those who desire to do research work under Sir William 

 Ramsay and Prof. Collie has also increased to such an 

 extent that additional accommodation is now a matter of 

 urgent necessity. 



The lack of adequate accommodation for the department 

 of chemistry at the college has been carefully considered 

 by the University and college authorities, and the con- 

 NO. 2103, VOL. 82] 



elusion has been arrived at that nothing short of entirely 

 new buildings can meet the necessities of the case, a con- 

 clusion confirmed by the Treasury Commissioners at their 

 last inspection of the college, and also by the University 

 inspectors. 



The provision of new buildings for the department of 

 chemistry will greatly benefit other branches of university 

 study now hampered for want of room. The space in the 

 present buildings vacated by the department of chemistry 

 will go some way towards supplying the deficiency of space 

 for other subjects. 



It was originally proposed to provide the requisite 

 accommodation for chemistry by erecting the north-west 

 wing of the college on the Gower Street frontage, but a 

 more convenient site has been found fronting Gower Place 

 on the north side of the present buildings of the college. 

 This site has a frontage of about 316 feet and an average 

 depth of 66 feet, with a superficial area of about 20,800 

 feet, and is suitable in every way for the erection of 

 chemical laboratories. The Senate has acquired an option 

 lasting for a short period to buy this site at an agreed 

 price. 



The erection of the north-west wing of the college would 

 necessarily be expensive, because it must be built in Port- 

 land stone and correspond in elevation with the remainder 

 of the quadrangle of which it would form part, and for 

 these reasons it would not be suitable for chemical labora- 

 tories. It is estimated that the cost could not be less than 

 70,000/. 



For this sum (70,000!.) not only could the freehold of 

 the proposed new site be acquired, but a suitable building 

 for the department of chemistry could also, it is estimated, 

 be erected upon it. 



If sufficient money is not immediately forthcoming to 

 complete the whole scheme, the earlier subscriptions will 

 be applied in purchasing the site. 



The services to chemical science which have been 

 rendered by Sir William Ramsay, the university professor 

 of general and inorganic chemistry, who has recently com- 

 pleted twenty-one years' work at the college, and the 

 important discoveries that he has made, are generally 

 well known. In addition to these, the number of re- 

 searches published during the past twenty-two years by 

 members of the staff and students of the chemical depart- 

 ment amounts to 331 ; of these, 72 have been carried out 

 by Sir William Ramsay and collaborators. It is interest- 

 ing to observe that while the total number of researches 

 published from the department from 1887-IQ02 was 115, 

 the number issued since 1902, when the laboratories were 

 enlarged, to the present year is already 216. 



It is the wish of Sir William Ramsay's friends and of 

 his old students to see his desire for adequate and well- 

 equipped chemical laboratories realised as speedily as 

 possible. 



This appeal for 70,000!. for new chemical laboratories 

 is therefore made to all who are interested in the advance 

 of chemical science, and also to all who desire to see 

 university teaching in London developed in accordance with 

 its needs. 



Donations or subscriptions, which may be paid in instal- 

 ments, should be sent to the chairman or the treasurer of 

 the new chemical laboratories fund, and addressed to 

 University College, London. 



Henry E. Roscoe (Chairman). 

 Letter from the Chancellor of the University. 

 Dalmeny House, 



Edinburgh. 



January 23, loio. 



I earnestly hope that the friends of the University of 

 London and the admirers of Sir William Ramsay will 

 cooperate to ensure the success of this appeal for 70,000!. 

 for an academical necessity. 



Should the admirers of Sir William Ramsay alone take 

 the matter up in proportion to their zeal and his merits, 

 there can be no doubt of the necessary fund being raised. 



But indeed those who are interested in the well-being 

 of our university, either from their association with it or 

 on high public grounds, will, I am sure, spare no effort 

 to ensure the prompt erection of the chemical laboratories 

 so urgently needed for its work. 



Rosebery (Chancellor). 



