49 NATURE 
[Marcu 14, 1912 
THE EXTENSION OF THE PHYSICAL AND 
ELECTROTECHNICAL LABORATORIES OF 
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. 
‘]> HE new extension of the physical and _ electro- 
technical laboratories of the University of Man- 
chester was formally opened on Friday evening, 
March 1, by Prof. Schuster, F.R.S. A well-attended 
reception and conversazione was held on Friday even- 
ing in the old and new laboratories. Many interest- 
ing experiments and exhibits of apparatus were on 
view during the conversazione and on Saturday 
morning. In the course of the evening a meeting 
was held in the large lecture theatre. The Vice- 
Chancellor, Sir Alfred Hopkinson, referred to the 
growth of the work in the physical laboratory and 
the necessity of providing more space for research. 
Mr. S. Z. de Ferranti, president of the Institution of 
Electrical Engineers, was awarded the honorary 
degree of doctor of science. Prof. Lamb, in present- 
ing Mr. Ferranti to the Vice-Chancellor, said that 
more than a quarter of a century ago he attacked the 
problem of the transmission of electrical energy in 
its most concentrated form, and, undaunted by dis- 
couragements and prophecies of disaster, he solved it 
in practice on a commercial scale with complete 
success. It was largely to his initiative and his 
labours that we owed the plentiful use of the light 
which supplemented and often, alas! superseded and 
surpassed the sunshine of Manchester. 
Prof. Schuster, before declaring the new buildings 
opened, addressed the meeting, and described the 
development of the physical department of the Uni- 
versity. In a subsequent portion of his address he 
spoke of the great field for the student of physics in 
India and the colonies. 
When the main physical laboratories were built in 
1900, a large part of one floor was set aside for the 
department of electrical engineering, while a special 
laboratory, known as the John Hopkinson Dynamo 
Laboratory, was built. The steady growth of the 
department and the increase of the number of those 
engaged in original investigation have, in recent years, 
placed great pressure on the space of the laboratory. 
This was emphasised by the nature of many of the 
researches in radio-activity, in which large quantities 
of radium are employed. The effect of the y rays, 
which are able to traverse the walls and floors of the 
laboratory, disturbed the measurements of the 
workers not only in the immediate vicinity, but also 
in the neighbouring rooms. In order to provide addi- 
tional space, the Council of the University decided to 
remove the department of electrical engineering from 
the physical laboratory proper and to locate it in a 
new building. In these new engineering labora- 
tories, part of the first floor, containing six research 
rooms, has-been set aside for physics, while a small 
electrochemical laboratory has been erected outside for 
work on radio-active substances. The physics depart- 
ment has thus the use of the space formerly occupied 
by electrical engineering. The addition of a number 
of new research rooms for physics, removed some 
distance from the main physical laboratory, will 
prove of great advantage for the purpose of original 
investigation, especially for radio-activitvy and allied 
subjects. It is intended to keep the new laboratories 
uncontaminated by radio-active matter, and they will 
be employed mainly for the more delicate measure- 
ments. 
The new buildings were designed by Mr. J. W. 
Beaumont, the architect of the main physical labora- 
tories. They form a simple but substantial structure 
faced externally in red Ruabon brick with stone dress- 
ings so as to harmonise with the main physics build- 
ings. 
NO. 2211, VOL. 89] 
| present time. 
A noteworthy feature of the new buildings is the 
system of bare wires run on insulators, which has 
been adopted throughout for the experimental 
circuits. This system has proved so satisfactory in 
the main laboratory that it has been employed 
wherever possible in the present extension. From the 
battery, which is of 600 ampere-hour capacity, with 
a maximum discharge rate of 300 amperes, heavy 
bare copper conductors run along a subway beneath 
the main corridor to the switchboard room in the 
north wing. From this, by means of plug boards, 
current can be distributed over the whole building. 
CALENDAR REFORM. 
JN article by Mr. Victor Anestin, of Bukarest, on 
calendar reform in the States of the Greek 
Church, extracted from A. Richter’s ‘‘ Kalender” 
(Riga, 1912), has been received. The author gives an 
interesting account of the efforts which have been 
made in the Balkan States and in Greece towards 
the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, and describes 
the state of public opinion on the question at the 
It is a pathetic story of ecclesiastical 
prejudice and jealousy on one side and political irreso- 
lution and instability on the other. The chief obstacle 
to following the practice of western Europe lies in the 
fear entertained by each national church of being 
denounced as schismatic by the other adherents of 
the Greek faith, and this prevents any one of the 
churches, though nominally independent, from taking 
the lead and sanctioning the reform. Hence the out- 
look at present is not promising. Mr. Anestin ex- 
presses the opinion that the fate of the reform in 
these States depends on the action of Russia, since 
| the other Greek churches would not be likely to 
| does not 
impugn the Russian church, but would probably 
follow its initiative. In the meantime, the matter 
advance. Roumania seems to have gone 
further than the other States, and though a Bill 
enacting the change which was presented to the 
Chamber came to nothing owing to the political cir- 
cumstances of the time, the postal and telegraph 
services and the railways use the Western calendar, 
and all the almanacs show both styles side by side. 
A certain value in the existence of two calendars 
| is suggested by the following quite charming story 
which happens to appear in close juxtaposition to 
Mr. Anestin’s article, and, if not bearing seriously on 
_ the question, may be reproduced as an interesting 
piece of folklore. It appears that the gipsies of 
Servia and Montenegro go in fear of the evil spirits 
which are abroad at Christmas. Therefore an old 
gipsy living on the Hungarian-Servian border has 
devised this subtle means of protecting himself. On 
Christmas Day (N.S.) he hangs up in his hut a 
Servian (O.S.) calendar; thus any prowling demons 
will see at once that he is a Serb, and as such observes 
the Julian Christmas. Thirteen days later he hangs 
up a Hungarian (Western) calendar; and then, of 
course, the evil spirits will recognise their powerless- 
ness over him since, so far as he is concerned, Christ- 
mas is alreadv a thing of the past. Hi (Ga 
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