74 
NATURE 
[MaxcH 21, 1912 
the Future.’’ Science will certainly go on, and 
scholarship and poetry will go on at its side and 
beneath its ewgis. The *‘scientific use of the imagina- 
tion’? on which Tyndall, that most poetic man of 
science, discoursed so finely forty years ago will be 
| 
balanced more and more by the imaginative use of 
science.. 
The famous epigram by Ptolemy, the author of the 
Ptolemaic system, with the Professor’s version of it, 
may conclude the address :— 
MITOAEMAIOY. 
O18 bri Ovards eyw Kal epdwepus: BAN bray Borpwy 
MATTEVw TUKLVAS dupldpduous EAtKas 
ovKET emipatw yains mociv, HAAG Tap avT@ 
Zavl beotpepeéos miumAauat auBpocins. 
I know that I am mortal, and doomed to fleeting days, 
But when I track the circling stars in myriad-orbéd maze, 
I tread the earth no more, but sit beside the Lord cf 
Heaven, 
And taste the ambrosial food whereby the life of Gods is 
given. 
CIVIL SERVICE ESTIMATES FOR SCIENCE 
AND EDUCATION. 
‘7 HE Estimates for Civil Services for the year end- 
ing March 31, 1913, are being issued as a series 
of Parliamentary Papers. The following particulars 
referring to the money under this vote to be devoted 
to scientific worl and to higher education are taken 
from the paper entitled ‘‘Class IV. Education, 
Science, and Art.” 
Under the heading “Scientific Investigation, &c.,” 
we find that the amount of the grants in aid for 
IgI2-13 is 125,523l., which represents a net increase 
over the total for 1911-12 of 61,9201. This consider- 
able advance is explained largely by the increase of 
29,5001. in the grant to the National Library of Wales 
and of 31,0001. to the National Museum of Wales. 
The grants in aid enumerated under the heading: of 
the Royal Society, and voted for scientific investiga- | 
tions and scientific publications, for the expenses of 
the Magnetic Observatory at Eskdalemuir, and for 
salaries and other general expenses of the National 
Physical Laboratory, remain as in 1911-12; the grant 
in aid of the expenses of the aéronautical section of 
the National Physical Laboratory, however, has been 
increased from 48851. to 5775]. The total grants in 
aid under all these headings reach 23,775]. 
The grant to the Meteorological Office has been 
increased from 16,8501. to 17,000l., and that of the 
Royal Geographical Society from sool. to 12501. The 
Edinburgh University will receive 1728I., as compared 
with 1508/. in 1911-12, and the International Seismic 
Association 370l., as compared with 21ol. 
The Estimate for Universities and Colleges, Great 
Britain, and Intermediate Education, Wales, amounts 
to 314,200l., an increase of 10,400]. over 
Igt1-12. The total for universities and colleges is 
287,0001., an increase of 10,5001., which all goes to 
Scottish universities. 
The vote for Science and Art in Ireland reaches 
38,5911., as compared with 117,883]. in ror1—r12, 
30,6001. of the increase being accounted for by larger 
annual grants to schools and classes of science, art, 
and technical instruction. The estimate of the 
amount required for grants under the Irish Universi- 
ties Act, 1908, is 130,0001., or a decrease of 56,256l. 
on I9gII-12. 
The estimate of the amount required to pay the 
salaries and expenses of the Board of Education and 
of the establishments connected therewith 
that for | 
is | 
14,504,7651., allocated, so far as the chief items are | 
NO. 2212, VOL. 89] 
concerned, as follows :—administratior, 202,333]. ; 
inspection and examination, 249,633/.; elementary 
schools, 11,832,235/.; training of teachers, 603,000l. ; 
secondary education, 756,o0ol.; technical institutions, 
evening schools, &c., 621,800l.; universities in respect 
of technological work, 42,o0ol.; Imperial College of 
Science and Technology, 20,000l.; Science Museum, 
18,0181.; Geological Museum, 3694l.; Geological 
Survey of Great Britain, 17,6441.; and Committee on 
Solar Physics, 21711. 
THE GYROSTATIC COMPASS AND PRAC- 
TICAL APPLICATIONS OF GYROSTATS.1 
ape problem of a practical gyrostatic compass has 
attracted the attention of many, but the credit 
of being the first to produce a practical working in- 
strument belongs to Dr. Anschtitz, who, with those 
associated with him, has devoted some twelve years 
of patient work and no inconsiderable sum of money 
in experiments. Since then some important work 
has been done by Hartmann and Braun in Germany, 
and Mr. Sperry in America, details of which are not 
available. : 
Few people have any idea of the difficulties attend- 
ing the installation and correct adjustment of a mag- 
netic compass on board a large steel ship, and more 
particularly on a battleship or cruiser, so as to worl 
surrounded by huge masses of steel, and in order to 
withstand the terrific shocks caused by the firing of 
heavy guns, and the problem would to-day be impos- 
sible had it not been for the theoretical work of Sir 
George Airy, the applied genius of Lord Kelvin, and 
the present practical improvements introduced by the 
superintendent of compasses at the Admiralty. 
A magnetic needle can only point in the direction 
of the lines of magnetic force at the place where it is 
set up, and it is well known that there are very few 
places on the globe where the magnetic needle points 
true north and south. 
Dr. Anschiitz attacked the problem of a gyrostatic 
compass with enthusiasm, and has continued to work 
at it in the face of many and great disappointments 
with a thoroughness and patience which is character- 
istic of his nationality. The construction of the com- 
pass meant new designs for everything in connection 
with its motors, &c. His first experiments were with 
gyrostats suspended with the gyro free to move about 
its three principal axes, or, as it is termed, having 
three degrees of freedom; but it is easy to show how 
impossible it is to construct such a gyro so as to be 
sensitive to small movements, and yet really accurate 
in practice. 
To make use of the gravity effect of the earth, Dr. 
Anschtitz mounts his gyrostat in the form of a pen- 
dulum; as the earth rotates the gvrostat tends to 
maintain its plane of rotation parallel to its original 
plane in space. The earth’s gravity acts against this 
tendency, and a precession results, the only position 
of equilibrium occurring when the gyro axis has set 
itself parallel with the axis of rotation of the earth. 
In the actual compass the friction of the universal 
| joint carrying the pendulum arrangement must be 
very small for the gyro to take an ultimate position 
| with accuracy—the length of the pendulum, and hence 
the effect of gravity, must be small, so as to keep the 
compass free from disturbances—and therefore the 
precession is very slow, and the compass would swing 
to and fro on either side of the meridian indefinitely ; 
its mean position would, it is true, be the true north 
and south line, but valueless for practical use. 
1 From a Discourse delive-ed at the Roval Institution on Friday, Feb- 
ruary 23, 1912, by Mr. G. K. B. Elphinstone. 
