124 



NA TURE 



[July 22, 1922 



work was carried on vigorously until the war under 

 the successive distinguished chairmen, Sir William 

 Preece and Sir Dugald Clerk. The Committee is still 

 in existence. There is also the Research Laboratory 

 at Shoreham under the direction of Mr. H. R. Ricardo, 

 himself a distinguished scientific investigator. 



During the war official organisations have been 

 established, and now the Department of Scientific and 

 Industrial Research provides aid in money, apparatus, 

 advice, and encouragement to any individual worker 

 who has ideas and is qualified to carry on a research 

 alone or under direction. This is a great national 

 asset. But above all, so far as the petrol engine is 

 concerned, there is the powerful organisation for 

 Research within the Air Ministry itself, generally under 

 the supervision of Air-Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond 

 (known as the Director-General of Supply and 

 Research), but under the immediate direction of 

 Brigadier-General Bagnall-Wild, officially known as 

 the Director of Research. The Air Ministry is advised 

 by the Aeronautical Research Committee under the 

 chairmanship of Sir Richard Glazebrook. This Com- 

 mittee has grown from the old Aeronautical Advisory 



Committee of the late Lord Raleigh. Work of the 

 highest scientific value is now in progress at the 

 National Physical Laboratory, at Farnborough, and 

 at other places under the direction of the Ministry. 



All I have done here is to hint at some of the 

 work now going on at the National Physical Laboratory; 

 it would take a whole evening merely to epitomise 

 the researches in progress at that institution. Farn- 

 borough is now entirely a research establishment 

 in its widest sense, for it is organised both for 

 laboratory and for full-scale work. Work on the 

 internal combustion engine has reached a magnitude 

 and an intensity undreamt of before the war. The 

 war has, in fact, shown that the internal combustion 

 engine instead of being a convenient prime mover to 

 put in our motor cars, to drive our workshops, or even 

 our ships, has become an engine vital to our very 

 existence. The Aeronautical Research Committee 

 realises this, and the Air Ministry also. Let us hope 

 that the nation will realise it too, and that in the need 

 and passion for economy our legislators will not starve 

 research on this vital national prime mover. 



The Hull Meeting of the British Association. 



Local Arrangements. 



ARRANGEMENTS are well in hand in connexion 

 - with the meeting of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science at Hull, September 6-13. 

 Hull is particularly well provided with suitable rooms 

 for the evening discourses, public lectures, and sectional 

 meetings. Its large City Hall, centrally situated, 

 accommodates three thousand people, and trams for 

 every part of the town start at its doors. In this the 

 inaugural meeting on Wednesday, September 6, will be 

 held at which Sir Charles S. Sherrington (President of 

 the Royal Society) will deliver his presidential address 

 entitled " Some Aspects of Animal Mechanism." On 

 the following day the City Hall will be the scene of the 

 Lord Mayor's reception. 



Hull's new magnificent Guildhall provides an excel- 

 lent reception-room, adjoining which the banqueting 

 chamber makes a very fine lounge and writing-room. 

 On the same floor are suitable rooms for the various 

 officers of the Association, the press bureau, the meteoro- 

 logical demonstration given by the Air Ministry, etc. 

 This last named will be very welcome in the reception 

 room, where it will be seen by everybody, and in an 

 adjoining room the methods of preparing the chart will 

 be available to the members. 



Across the road from the reception-room are the 

 British Association refreshment rooms, the Queen's 

 Hall (Section F (Economics) and joint meetings). 

 Section A (Mathematics) meets in the Central Hall, 

 Pryme Street ; B (Chemistry) in Waltham Street ; 

 C (Geology) and H (Anthropology) in the Museum and 

 Royal Institution ; D (Zoology), E (Geography), K 

 (Botany), and M (Agriculture) in the new Art School ; 

 I (Physiology) in the Church Institute ; J (Psychology) 

 in the Albion Hall ; and L (Education) in the Lecture 

 Hall, Jarratt Street. All these buildings are within 

 three minutes' walk from the terminus of the various 

 tram routes in the City Square. 



The Local Committee is providing each member with 



NO. 2751, VOL. I io] 



a small badge, which has been artistically designed and 

 will serve as a more convenient means of identification 

 than the somewhat cumbersome members' ticket (this 

 latter, however, is this year to be waistcoat-pocket size 

 and once more includes, as formerly, a map of the 

 meeting-rooms). Each badge bears the number of the 

 member's card, so that a reference to the index at the 

 end of the list of members will enable the identity of 

 any particular member to be ascertained, if desired. 



With regard to the accommodation, while it is not 

 expected that there will be any difficulty in providing 

 for as many members as care to visit the city, the hotel 

 accommodation which will be available for visitors is 

 exceedingly limited. This year, therefore, a list of hotels 

 and lodgings will not be prepared, but a special com- 

 mittee is sitting with the object of meeting the require- 

 ments of the members. In this connexion rooms are 

 being provided at Bridlington, Hornsea, Withernsea, 

 Beverley, Cottingham, Brough, Ferriby, Hessle, and 

 other places in the immediate vicinity, but the provision 

 of special late trains and of exceptionally favourable 

 weekly contract tickets for this meeting will help 

 considerably. It is desired to impress upon intending 

 visitors to the Hull meeting the necessity of filling in 

 the cards on the back of their preliminary programme, 

 and returning them to the Secretary at the earliest 

 possible moment, in order to prevent unnecessary 

 trouble, which will certainly be caused if members 

 arrive at the meeting without having previously notified 

 their intention of being present. This warning seems 

 particularly necessary, as several members have inti- 

 mated their intention of being present, but neither state 

 that they have found accommodation nor that they 

 wish accommodation to be found for them. Those who 

 have applied will receive particulars of their rooms 

 shortly. 



In a previous article reference was made to the 

 various presidential addresses, with the exception of 



