i66 



NATURE [July 29, 1922 



X-rays," " A New Form of Wehnelt Interrupter," and 

 other papers ; Mr. H. R. Nettleton, for a thesis 

 entitled " On the Absolute Measurement of the 

 Thomson Effect," and other papers. D.Sc. (Engin- 

 eering) : Mr. Herbert Moss, the Imperial College — 

 Royal College of Science, for a thesis entitled " Air 

 Consumption and B.H.P. of Aero-Engines." 



Mr. H. G. Wells has accepted the invitation of 

 the Labour Party of the University of London to 

 offer himself as the candidate of the Party at the 

 election for a representative of the University in 

 the House of Commons to be held after the retirement 

 of Sir Philip Magnus at the end of the present session 

 of Parliament. Mr. Wells occupies such a dis- 

 tinguished position in the world of literature and 

 among leaders of thought to-day that his early 

 work in science and education is often overlooked. 

 He was a student at the Royal College of Science, 

 South Kensington, in 1884-87, and was the first 

 president of the Old Students' Association of the 

 College. He took his B.Sc. degree with honours in 

 zoology in 1890, and his first book was a " Text-book 

 of Zoology," written particularly for London Uni- 

 versity students while he was a teacher of the subject. 

 He is a fellow of the College of Preceptors, and for a 

 short time edited the Educational Times. Through- 

 out his career he has been a steadfast supporter of 

 scientific methods in schools and government, and 

 in his books has pleaded the cause of scientific 

 education and research with eloquence and convic- 

 tion. It is not too much to say that no graduate 

 of the University of London possesses such a rare 

 combination of brilliant literary power and scientific 

 thought or has used these gifts with greater effect 

 than has Mr. Wells in his many and various works. 



It is announced in Science that by the will of 

 Seymour Coman, of Chicago, the University of 

 Chicago is made trustee of his residuary estate, about 

 29,000/., the net income from which is to be used 

 for scientific research with special reference to 

 preventive medicine and the cause, prevention and 

 cure of diseases. The bequest is to be known as 

 the Seymour Coman Research Fund. By the will 

 of Alexander D. Thomson, of Duluth, Minnesota, the 

 sum of 20,000/. is bequeathed to the University of 

 Minnesota for use in the medical department." It 

 is also stated that Wake Forest College School of 

 Medicine, North Carolina, is entitled to receive the 

 principal of a trust fund, amounting to 275,000/., 

 which was created in 1892 by Jabez A. Bostwick, a 

 director of the Standard Oil Company. 



A summer course in the Austrian Tirol of unusually 

 wide interest is being organised by the directors of 

 Leplay House, 65 Belgrave Road, Westminster, 

 S.W.i. The course will be of the nature of a civic 

 and rustic survey, and for this purpose the party 

 will be divided into groups each of which will take 

 one particular aspect of the work. Mr. H. J. E. 

 Peake, president-elect of the Anthropological Section 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, has undertaken to direct the group studying 

 the anthropological aspects ; Dr. M. Hardy will 

 organise a survey of plant life and agriculture, 

 while other sections will deal with the geology, 

 physiography, history and sociology of the district. 

 Group meetings and gatherings of the whole party 

 will frequently be held for the purpose of discussing 

 and comparing results, which when assembled and 

 collated should provide a valuable record of natural 

 conditions and life in the Tirol. The tour will 

 commence on August 4 and will last four weeks, 

 although it is possible to arrange for a shorter course 

 of two weeks. 



NO. 2752, VOL. I io] 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



July 31, 1884. Charles Manby died. — The eldest son 

 of Aaron Manby, one of the pioneers of iron ship- 

 building, Charles Manby was engineer of the first 

 iron steamer which crossed the English Channel, 

 and after gaining experience in his father's gas and 

 iron works in France returned to England, and from 

 1839 to 1856 rendered valuable services to the 

 engineering world as secretary to the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers. 



August 2, 1910. Oscar Guttmann died. — Hungarian 

 by birth, Guttmann became editor of an Austrian 

 mining journal, practised on the continent as a 

 chemical engineer, and eventually settled in England, 

 where he erected several works for the manufacture 

 of explosives. He wrote and lectured on explosives, 

 on which he was a recognised authority, and was 

 elected a vice-president of the Institute of Chemistry. 



August 3, 1792. Sir Richard Arkwright died. — 

 Born at Preston, December 23, 1732, four years before 

 Watt, Arkwright was responsible with Watt for the 

 great industrial developments in England in the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century which enabled this 

 country to withstand the tremendous drain on her 

 resources due to the Napoleonic wars. Starting life 

 as a barber, Arkwright became a hair merchant, and 

 about 1767 gave himself up to inventions in cotton 

 spinning. Two years later he patented his " spin- 

 ning frame," " the first adequate example of those 

 beautiful and intricate mechanical contrivances 

 which have transformed the whole character of the 

 manufacturing industry." He is also regarded as 

 the founder of our factory system. 



August 3, 1 880. Mungo Ponton died. — A Writer 

 to the Signet and a founder of the National Bank 

 of Scotland, Ponton through ill-health retired from 

 business and devoted himself to science. In 1839 

 he made the important discovery that the action of 

 the sun renders bichromate of mercury insoluble. 



August 3, 1906. Sir Alexander Moncrieff died. — 

 Educated at the universities of Edinburgh and 

 Aberdeen, Moncrieff became an officer in the Forfar- 

 shire Militia and saw active serve in the Crimean war. 

 He afterwards became known as the inventor of the 

 Moncrieff disappearing gun - carriage and the hydro- 

 pneumatic system of recoil. 



August 4, 1921. Samuel Alfred Varley died. — A 

 member of a famous family of electricians and one 

 of the pioneers of the dynamo, Varley made numerous 

 experiments on submarine telegraph cables. In 1866 

 he made a self-exciting dynamo with soft iron magnets, 

 and ten years later patented the compound-wound 

 dynamo. 



August 5, 1729. Thomas Newcomen died. — A 

 native of Dartmouth and born in 1663, Newcomen 

 is believed to have been a blacksmith. He became 

 associated with Thomas Savery in his attempts to 

 use steam for pumping, but it was Newcomcn's own 

 great invention of the atmospheric steam-engine 

 which furnished ihe model for pumping engines 

 during the eighteenth century. His first engine 

 appears to have been erected at Dudley Castle in 

 1 71 2. Newcomen died in London and was buried in 

 Bunhill Fields. 



August S, 1876. James Freeburn died. — Freeburn 

 enlisted in the artillery in 1825 when seventeen years 

 of age, and rose to the rank of sergeant-major. 

 Turning his attention to the exploding of shell he 

 brought out a series of metal and wood fuses for 

 time or percussion which, after various improvements, 

 were adopted. Freeburn after thirty years' service 

 was retired with the rank of honorary captain. 



E. C. S. 



