May 9, 1912] 
NATURE 
257 
What the actual limit of the atmosphere may be is | Donations may be sent to the treasurer, Mr. F. A. 
not known, but experiment shows that for the lower 
strata, at any rate, the adiabatic distribution of 
temperature is not very far from the truth. 
If we have two short columns, one of hydrogen and 
one of air, of the same length, and both at height h, 
then (putting aa ; =K, for air, Ky hydrogen, and 
N for the ratio of the densities, p,/px at sea-level, the 
density of the air at h is p,(K,—h)'”, and of the 
hydrogen pu(Ky —/)!”. 
If the balloon carries no weight it will ascend until 
the densities are equal, which occurs when 
NZ 
Ny-1 ) 
or, since N=i6 for air and hydrogen, and y=1-41, 
N7-1=3'1, N’¥=51, and K,=17 miles, 
h=NKa( 
palOX17 X21 
, or I1°5 miles, 
and no hydrogen-filled balloon could ascend higher 
than this if the temperature was the adiabatic 
temperature. 
The ascents of the balloons with recording instru- 
ments, however, lead to the belief that at heights 
exceeding 6 or 7 miles the temperature is constant, 
or nearly so, so that the practicable height of ascent 
may very considerably exceed the 11-5 miles just 
mentioned. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
CaMBRIDGE.—The General Board of Studies will 
shortly proceed to the appointment of a Stokes lecturer 
in mathematics, in succession to Mr. J. H. Jeans, who 
is resigning the lectureship. The appointment will be 
from June 24, 1912, to September 29, 1913. The 
annual stipend is 2001. Candidates are requested to 
send their applications, with a statement as to the 
branches of mathematics on which they are prepared 
to lecture, and with testimonials if they think fit, to 
the vice-chancellor on or before May 22. 
Dr. A. H. Garpiner, Laycock student of Egypt- 
ology at Worcester College, Oxford, has. been 
appointed reader in Egyptology in the University of 
Manchester. 
Reuter reports that the King of Siam has sanctioned 
a scheme for the establishment of a University of 
Bangkok. There will be eight faculties, including 
medicine, law, engineering, agriculture, commerce, 
pedagogy, and political science. 
THE annual conference of the Association of 
Teachers in Technical Institutions will be held at 
Whitsuntide in London, at the Polytechnic, Regent 
Street. A paper will be read by Sir Alfred Keogh, 
K.C.B., on “The Relations between the Imperial 
College of Science and Technology and Technical 
Institutions.” There will also be a discussion on the 
important question of the cooperation of employers in 
technical education, following a paper on this subject 
by Mr. E. A. Atkins. 
Tue Bethnal Green Free Library, one of the pioneer 
institutions of the free library movement in Great 
Britain, has now completed thirty-six years of work 
without endowment or State aid. We are informed 
that a million readers, borrowers, and students have 
used the library and attended the classes in connection 
with it. A plan is now on foot to secure the per- 
petuity of the work, and a reserve fund of 10,0000l. 
has been started, to which the King has contributed. 
NO. 2219, VOL. 89] 
| bureau. 
| the Chinese coast and three in 
| Bevan, 54 Lombard Street, London, E.C.; the 
bankers, Messrs. Barclay and Co., at the same 
address; or to the librarian, the Free Library, Bethnal 
Green, London, E. 
In the House of Commons on May 6, Mr. Runci- 
man said, in reply to a question relating to agricul- 
tural education:—‘‘I am carefully considering by 
what means the various agencies, actual and prospec- 
tive, for the provision of agricultural education and 
research and of technical advice in agriculture may 
most effectively be brought into cooperation. I think 
it will probably make both for efficiency and for 
economy if county councils and agricultural colleges 
will combine for the purpose of joint action in respect 
of many of their agricultural activities. I am not yet, 
however, prepared to make a definite statement on 
the subject, as to which I shall hope, before taking 
any decision, to learn the opinions of county councils 
and agricultural colleges.” 
Tur University of Chicago has established a 
system or retiring allowances for professors or their 
widows. A fund of 500,000l., says Science, taken 
from the 2,000,000l. Rockefeller gift of 1g10 has been 
set aside for this purpose. This pension system will 
grant to men who have attained the rank: of assistant 
professor or higher, and who have reached the age of 
sixty-five and have served fifteen years or more in 
the institution, 40 per cent. of their salary, and an 
additional 2 per cent. for each year’s service over 
fifteen. The plan also provides that at the age of 
seventy a man shall be retired unless the board of 
trustees specially continues his services. The widow 
of any professor entitled to the retiring allowance 
shall receive one-half the amount due to him, provided 
she has been his wife for ten years. 
Tue University of the Philippines has, we learn 
from The Manila Times of March 7 last, conferred 
the honorary degree of doctor of science upon Father 
Jose Algue, director of the official weather bureau 
of the Government of the Philippine Islands. Dr. 
Algue, who was born in Manresa, Spain, in 1856, was 
in 1891 appointed assistant director of the observatory 
in Georgetown, D.C. In 1894 he became assistant 
director of the Manila Observatory, conducted by the 
Jesuit fathers, which in 1901 was made the official 
He held this position until the death of its 
founder, Father Faura, in 1897, when he was ap- 
pointed director. Father Algue reorganised the 
meteorological service of the institution and perfected 
a system whereby the observatory receives daily tele- 
graphic report from over thirty meteorological stations 
in the islands, ten in Japan, six in Formosa, four on 
Indo-China. He is 
a leading authority on earthquakes, and his observa- 
tions in the Philippines, where seismographic 
phenomena are of such frequent occurrence, have 
been of great service. The University of the Philip- 
pines confers but one honorary degree each year, and 
its scroll at present bears only the names of Dr. Algue 
and one other honorary doctor. 
THE experienced instructor appeals in teaching to 
as many of the pupil’s senses as possible. The eye, 
for instance, is being more and more pressed into 
service to assist the ear in its work, and good lectures 
and school lessons are consistently illustrated by pic- 
tures and diagrams. The most recent of these pic- 
torial aids is provided by the kinematograph, and it 
is satisfactory to learn that manufacturers and dealers 
are taking active steps to familiarise lecturers and 
school teachers with the possibilities of kinemato- 
graphy in increasing the value of their work as well 
as simplifying it. The proprietors of The Bioscope, 
