568 



NA TURE 



[September 9, 1922 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Birmingham. — The following appointments have 

 been made : Assistant Professor K. N. Moss to be 

 professor of coal and metal mining ; Prof. G. Haswell 

 Wilson to be professor of pathology in succession to 

 Prof. Shaw Dunn ; and Mr. T. H. P. Veal to be 

 assistant lecturer in civil engineering. 



Cambridge. — The Chancellor of the University 

 has appointed Prof. H. R. Dean, professor of patho- 

 logy in the University of Manchester, to be professor 

 of pathology in succession to the late Sir German 

 Sims Woodhead. 



The Salters' Institute of Industrial Chemistry has 

 awarded fellowships for post-graduate studv to 

 Messrs. C. G. Harris, W. S. Martin, J. H. Oliver, 

 and W. Randerson, and has renewed the fellowship 

 of Mr. F. R. Jones. 



A PROsrECTUS has been issued from the chemistry 

 department of the Borough Polytechnic Institute, 

 Borough Road, S.E.i, for the coming session. In 

 addition to the customary course in general and 

 organic chemistry, electro-chemistry, and the chemical 

 technology of the essential oils, a" grouped series of 

 courses have been arranged, for this session, to meet 

 the needs of students taking the National Certificate 

 in Chemistry. There will also be a series of lectures 

 on the chemistry of foodstuffs and a course on 

 chemistry as applied to the laundry industry. In 

 assessing the fees payable by students, special 

 consideration is given to apprentices, while there is 

 a special scale for students residing outside the 

 county of London. 



The convenient practice of issuing abridged and 

 sectional calendars adopted by the" authorities of 

 Battersea Polytechnic, Battersea Park Road, S.W.n, 

 has been continued for the coming session. The 

 abridged calendar of afternoon and evening classes 

 gives some idea of the scope of the institution's 

 activities ; courses are provided in mechanical, civil, 

 and electrical engineering, pure and applied mathe- 

 matics, physics, chemistry and technological chem- 

 istry, hygiene, photograph's', and domestic science. 

 The fees are fixed for students residing in the London 

 area while at the Polytechnic, but for those residing 

 outside the county an additional fee, generally 

 equivalent to the difference between the ordinary 

 school fee and the cost to the London County Council 

 of the student's education, is charged. 



It is announced in Science that Prof. A. Sommer- 

 feld, of the chair of mathematical physics at the 

 University of Munich, will be in residence at the 

 University of Wisconsin for the first part of the 

 academic year 1922-23, holding the Karl Schurz 

 memorial professorship in the university for that 

 period. The Karl Schurz memorial professorship was 

 founded in 191 o in memory of Karl Schurz, of Water- 

 town, Wisconsin, sometime member of the board of 

 regents of the State University, as an exchange pro- 

 fessorship with the German universities, and the 

 appointment of Prof. Sommerfeld marks the re- 

 sumption of the professorship after the interruption 

 caused by the war. Prof. Sommerfeld is expected 

 to lecture on atomic structure, and on either the 

 analysis of wave propagation or the general theory 

 of relativity. 



no. 275S, VOL. no] 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



September 10, 1827. George Medhurst was buried. 

 — The projector of the atmospheric railway, of 

 which he published descriptions in 181 2 and 1827, 

 Medhurst was born in 1759, began life as a clock- 

 maker, and was afterwards a machinist in Soho. 

 Various atmospheric railways were constructed, but 

 not till some years after Medhurst's death. 



September 12, 1870. Karl August Steinheil died. — 

 Born in Alsace in 1801, Steinheil in 1835 became a 

 professor in Munich, where he invented a form of 

 electric telegraph. During 1849-1852 he was director 

 of the Department of Telegraphs at Vienna, while three 

 years later he founded an optical institute at Munich. 



September 12, 1914. Edward Riley died. — Riley's 

 name is associated with two great advances in the 

 manufacture of steel. As a young chemist at the 

 Dowlais Iron Works in 1857 he made experiments on 

 the Bessemer process, while some twenty years later 

 as a consulting chemist he was associated with 

 Thomas and Gilchrist in the introduction of basic 

 linings in converters. He was also a pioneer in the 

 ai t urate analysis of iron and steel. 



September 13, 1906. Hubert Henry Grenfell died. 

 — A pioneer in the development in modern gunnery, 

 Grenfell, when first lieutenant of H.M.S. Excellent 

 in 1869, with Chief Engineer Edward Newman, 

 worked out the first design of hydraulic mounting 

 for naval ordnance. Retiring in 1886 he joined 

 Armstrong's of Elswick, and in 1891 invented self- 

 illuminated sights for night firing. 



September 14, 1882. Georges Leclanche died. — ■ 

 An inventor who by a single invention won a world- 

 wide reputation, Leclanche was for some years 

 chemical engineer in the laboratory of the Chemin 

 de Fer de l'Est. His well-known battery was 

 patented in 1867. 



September 14, 1892. Rudolph Proell died. — Trained 

 at the Technical Academy in Berlin, Proell became 

 1 professor in the Technical High School at Aix-la- 

 Chapelle, but afterwards as a consulting engineer 

 devoted himself to the development of automatic 

 valve gears. 



September 14, 1907. Leveson Francis Vernon- 

 Harcourt died. — Educated at Harrow and Balliol 

 College, Oxford, Vernon-Harcourt, after graduating 

 in 1862, became a pupil of Sir John Hawshaw. From 

 1882 to 1905 he was professor of civil engineering in 

 University College, London, and was widely known 

 as an authority on all that concerns tidal harbours, 

 rivers and estuaries. In 1895 he served as president 

 of the Mechanical Science Section of the British 

 Association. 



September 15, 1859. Isambard Kingdom Brunei 

 died. — Among the engineers of the first half of the 

 nineteenth century Brunei holds a high place. He 

 assisted his father on the construction of the Thames 

 Tunnel, became engineer to the Great Western 

 Railway, introduced the broad gauge, and was the 

 designer of the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the 

 Albert Bridge at Saltash. With his three ships, the 

 Great Western, 1838, Great Britain, 1843. and Great 

 Eastern, 1857, he made notable contributions to the 

 advancement of naval architecture. He is com- 

 memorated by a window in Westminster Abbey. 



September 16, 1871. Dennis Hart Mahan died. — 

 For forty years Mahan was professor of civil and 

 military engineering at the Military Academy, West 

 Point, and published works on these subjects, his 

 course of civil engineering being translated into 

 various foreign languages. He was one of the 

 incorporators of the American National Academy of 

 Science. E. C. S. 



