February 17, 1910J 



NA TURE 



475 



architect must recognise that he is a man of business, with 

 grave responsibiUties to his client, and must cultivate 

 methodical habits and exactness. The art of public speak- 

 ing should be part of the architect's equipment; he may 

 thus often contribute profitably to discussions. 



The scheme for a London pageant which was before 

 the public some time ago is now merged into a larger 

 ■scheme of a Festival of Empire, to be held at the Crystal 

 Palace this summer in the months of May, June, and July. 

 The London pageant will form part of the scheme of the 

 festival of empire. The council of the festival has invited 

 the cooperation of the University Extension Board of the 

 University of London in arranging courses of lectures pre- 

 paratory to the pageant. The Board has accordingly 

 arranged a course, to be given by Mr. Kenneth H. Vickers, 

 on the history of London, arranged specially in view of 

 the pageant of London to be held at the Crystal Palace 

 as a part of the festival of empire. This course will be 

 given in the London Day Training College on Thursday 

 evenings at 8 o'clock, beginning February 17, when Sir 

 R. Melvill Beachcroft, chairman of the London County 

 Council, will take the chair. It is hoped that further 

 courses of this kind will be arranged in different parts of 

 London later in the year. 



Of recent years the system of furthering scientific re- 

 search most in vogue has consisted in the foundation of 

 studentships or fellowships tenable at some university, for 

 which recently graduated students of that or other universi- 

 ties are eligible. ^ While this movement has undoubtedly 

 led to the performance of a large amount of research in 

 experimental science, and has, in this respect, been an 

 unqualified success, it is a matter of common experience 

 that the holders of these endowments have not, as a rule, 

 reached a sufficiently mature age or acquired sufficient 

 •experience to initiate and develop original work in pure 

 science. Indeed, it is not uncommon to find a successful 

 research student baffled by a comparatively simple problem 

 HI mathematical analysis. In an article on "An Empire 

 University ■" in the Standard for February 7, Dr. Waller, 

 F.R.S., proposes a scheme which would obviate this 

 •difficulty. He suggests a class of appointment the holder 

 of which should devote half his time to, and receive half 

 his stipend from, teaching, the other half of his time 

 "being given to research, for which the corresponding re- 

 muneration should take the form of a fellowship. It is 

 pointed out that this combination of teaching and research 

 ■could not fail to have a beneficial effect in infusing an 

 element of originality and individuality into the teaching. 

 Dr. Waller's proposal might further have the advantage of 

 improving the position of the existing underpaid assistant 

 lecturers in our university colleges. Many of these at the 

 present time turn out really excellent original work in 

 addition to teaching, in return for a stipend which com- 

 ■pares unfavourahly with the awards made to research 

 students for advanced study alone. There certainly appears 

 to be a loss of efficiency in the existing system. 



The annual meeting of the ."Vssociation of Technical 

 Institutions was held at the Skinners' Hall, London, on 

 February 11 and 12. Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., 

 president of the association, delivered his address, and 

 dealt with the questions, What should be the aims of 

 tliose teachers whose work lies mainly in the technical 

 institutions of the country, and what should be their 

 position in the scheme of education which is being gradu- 

 ally evolved? He pointed out that in Germany tfie great 

 technical institutions have developed almost independently 

 of the old universities, and asked, Are we to look forward 

 to the growth of technical universities in each town arising 

 naturally out of the technical colleges, but independent of 

 and at the same time rivals of the existing universities? 

 The answer Dr. Glazebrook thinks should be in the 

 negative, with possibly one or two exceptions. It would 

 be suicidal to suggest that in Manchester, Birmingham, 

 Leeds, or Liverpool there should be two decree-giving 

 bodies, one concerned with arts and pure science and the 

 other with applied science. Modern universities, he said. 

 will do for us what technical high schools have done for 

 Germany. Speaking of London, Dr. Glazebrook said we 

 may take it that the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology will in time become the technical university 

 of London, whether as a part of London University or 



NO. 2103, VOL. 82] 



as a new university. On the second day of the meeting 

 a general discussion took place upon the examination of 

 evening students by the ISoard of Education, the City 

 and Guilds Institute, the Royal Society of .Arts, and 

 the London Chamber of Commerce. Speaking on behalf 

 of the Board of Education, Mr. C. A. Buckmaster said 

 the Board is at present considering the whole subject of 

 examinations, and will be glad to receive any information 

 which the association can put before it. It realises the 

 immense difficulties connected with the long period of the 

 examinations, and will be prepared to do what it can to 

 diminish the inconvenience. With regard to the Whit- 

 worth examinations, the Board of Education has to 

 administer the will of Sir Joseph Whitworth, and though 

 slight modifications of the scheme are possible, it would 

 require an Act of Parliament to enable the Board to put 

 it wholly into the melting-pot so that it may come out 

 in a different form. .A.fter further discussion, a resolution 

 was passed instructing the council to consider the subject 

 of examinations in all its bearings. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, February 10. — Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 K.C.B., president, in the chair. — Dr. C. Chree : Some 

 phenomena of magnetic disturbances at Kew. A recent 

 paper (" Phil. Trans.," A, vol. ccviii., p. 205) discussed 

 the diurnal inequality of Kew magnetic declination derived 

 from 20q of the most highly disturbed days of the eleven 

 years 1890 to 1900. The present paper discusses the 

 corresponding phenomena for the same days in the other 

 magnetic elements. It is shown that the irregular 

 changes which form the most obvious feature of mag- 

 netic storms are accompanied by large regular diurnal 

 changes, which are specially striking in the vertical force. 

 In this element the disturbed days referred to above gave 

 a regular diurnal inequality, the range of which in 

 the average month of the year was about four times that 

 given by the Astronomer Royal's " quiet " days. The 

 influence of the hour of the day on the character of the 

 disturbance is visible even on casual inspection of the 

 vertical force curves. When disturbances lasting only a 

 few hours occur in the late afternoon, there is almost 

 invariably a rise in the force, whereas when they occur in 

 the early morning there is a fall. Besides dealing with the 

 analysis of the diurnal inequalities derived from the dis- 

 turbed day curves, the paper discusses some new phenomena 

 observed in the a-periodic changes of the magnetic elements. 

 — R. B. Sangster : A novel phenomenon in the diurnal 

 inequality of terrestrial magnetism at certain stations. The 

 mean diurnal inequality at Greenwich for epoch igoo-6, at 

 F'almouth, 1903-7, and at Pawlowsk (Russia), 1873-85, is 

 dealt with so as to exhibit the inequality in the plane of 

 the astronomical meridian. It is then shown that the com- 

 ponent of the force parallel to the earth's axis has little, or 

 no, variation during the hours from noon to about 5 p.m. 

 There is, however, considerable simultaneous variation in 

 the declination and in the horizontal and vertical forces. 

 The winter months invariably showed a shorter duration of 

 the feature, and, generally, a larger diurnal range produced 

 a more exact and lengthened exhibition of the phenomenon. 

 The phenomenon was found to exist whether " quiet " days 

 or " all " days were dealt with, and, while long periods 

 naturally furnished smoother curves, the feature was also 

 prominent in cases where the mean of only five " quiet " 

 days in a single month was employed. — Prof. P. V. Bevan : 

 The absorption spectra of vapours of the alkali metals. 

 The paper gives an account of the absorption spectra of 

 vapours of the metals potassium, rubidium, and ciBsium. 

 Prof. R. W. Wood has show'n that the absorption spectrum 

 of sodium vapour has for its most striking feature the lines 

 of the principal series. The same series lines for the metals 

 of this communication appear in the absorption spectra. 

 The author has measured the wave-lengths of these lines 

 so that now 24 potassium lines, 2=i rubidium lines, and 19 

 CEesium lines are known of the principal series. Of these, 

 15 are new in the case of potassium, 21 in the case of 

 rubidium, and 12 in the case of cnssium. In the cases of 

 rubidium and caesiuni. the metals themselves were not 

 available, but by heating the chlorides with sodium or 



