400 



NA TV RE 



[September 16, 1922 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



September 17, 1823. Abraham Louis Breguet died. 

 — The foremost horologist of his day, Breguet was born 

 in Switzerland in 1747, but at an early age removed 

 to Paris, where he became a member of the Bureau 

 des Longitudes and of the National Institute. He is 

 remembered for his improvements in the escapement 

 Iks and his invention of the sympathetic 

 pendulum and of a sensitive metallic thermometer. 



September 17, 1869. John Elder died. — One of 

 the greatest marine engineers, Elder was trained 

 under his father, David Elder, at Napiers'. In 1852, 

 at the age of twenty-eight, he joined the engineering 

 firm of Randolph Elliott and Co. and became the 

 virtual founder of the great firm at Govan known 

 since 1886 as the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineer- 

 ing Co. He was one of the first engineers to grasp 

 the importance of the new science of thermodynamics, 

 and he successfully introduced the use of the com- 

 pound engine at sea, thereby effecting a saving of 

 30 to 40 per cent, of the coal burnt. The Elder 

 chairs of naval architecture at Glasgow and at 

 Liverpool were founded respectively bv his widow 

 and his brother Alexander, who died in 1915. 



September 17, 1895. Johann Sigismund Schuckert 

 died. — After working as a mechanic in various towns 

 of Germany, Schuckert spent some years in America, 

 where he became acquainted with Edison, and on 

 his return home, in 1873, set up a workshop at Xiirn- 

 berg. He then began the manufacture of dynamos 

 and other electrical machinery, and became one 

 of the best-known electrical engineers in Germanv. 



September 18, i860. Joseph Locke died. — Born 

 near Sheffield in 1805, Locke gained his first experience 

 of railway engineering under George Stephenson on 

 the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. Afterwards 

 by himself, or with his partner Errington, he built 

 many of the early railways, including those between 

 Manchester and Sheffield, and London and South- 

 ampton, and the line from Paris to Rouen and 

 Havre. His railways were notable for the absence of 

 great and expensive works. From 1857 till his death 

 he was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 



September 19, 1899. Leon Bourdelles died. — An 

 engineer of the Corps des Ponts et Chaussees, Bour- 

 delles rose to be head of the Lighthouse Department, 

 in which situation, by the display of uncommon 

 energy and resource, he revolutionised the lighting 

 of the French coast, increasing the aggregate candle- 

 power from 4,000,000 to nearly 100,000,000 without 

 increasing the annual cost. 



September 20, 1885. Walter Weldon died. — The 

 son of a Loughborough manufacturer, Weldon became 

 a journalist in London. Turning his attention to 

 practical chemistry, he sought means of recovering 

 the manganese peroxide used in the manufacture of 

 chlorine, and about 1868 patented the lime-manganese 

 process, which reduced the cost of bleaching powder 

 by 61. a ton and added something like 750,000/. 

 per annum to the national wealth. 



September 22, 1852. William Tierney Clark died. 

 — A well-known civil engineer, Clark for forty years 

 was engineer to the Middlesex Water Works." I lis 

 masterpiece was the great bridge erected across the 

 Danube at Budapest in 1839-49 at a cost of 622,000/. 



September 23, 1878. John Penn died. — For many 

 years Penn was the leading marine engine builder oil 

 the Thames. He invented the lignum vita? stern bush 

 bearing for screw ships, and during the Crimea War 

 he organised the manufacture of the engines for 

 gunboats, completing 90 sets of engines of 60 n.h.p. 

 each in ninety days, the first example of mass 

 production of machinery for warships. E. C. S. 



NO. 2759, VOL. I 10] 



Societies and Academies. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, August 16. — M. Emile Roux 

 in the chair. — M. dc Sparre : Remarks on the de- 

 pressions resulting from a breakage in a water main 

 under pressure. — Kyrille Popoff : The integration of 

 the equations of ballistics under general conditions 

 of resistance. — Pierre Auger and Francis Perrin 

 The shocks between a-particles and atomic nuclei. 

 An application of a modification of C. T. R. Wilson's 

 method of studying the paths of a-rays. Photographs 

 of the paths were taken with two cameras at right 

 angles to each other, and details of results in argon 

 and in hydrogen are given. For argon the value <>1 

 the atomic number calculated from the results of the 

 observations is 19 (instead of 18). — I. Newton 

 Kugelmass : A new apparatus, the nephelectrometer. 

 The change in the transparency of a colloidal solution 

 is measured bv the deflection of a millivoltmeter 

 connected with a thermocouple. The light from an 

 electric lamp, after passing through a cell containing 

 distilled water, is allowed to fall on the thermo- 

 couple iir a fixed time, and the deflection of the 

 millivoltmeter measured (I). The water is then 

 replaced by the colloidal solution and the deflei tun 

 il ') measured under the same conditions. The ratio 

 ! ' I gives the transparency index. — A. Marcelin : 

 Measurement of the pressure of " superficial fluids." 

 Detailed study of oleic acid. — F. Granel : The 

 morphological signification of the pseudobranch of 

 the teleosteans. 



Official Publications Received. 



Union of South Africa. Department of Mines and Industries : 

 Geological Survey. The Geologv of the Country around Heidelberg. By 

 Dr. A. W. Rogers. Pp. 84. The Geological Map of the Country 

 around Heidelberg. (Pretoria: Government Printing and Stationery 

 Office.) Price, including Map, 8s. 6d. 



Air M ini-t 1 v : Mel -illogical Office. British Meteorological and 



Magnetic year Book, 1918. Part IV.: Hourly Values. From Auto- 

 graphic Records, 1918. Pp. 73. (London : H.M. Stationery Office.) 



Miltanie Vgrieultural Society: Technical Section. Bulletin No. 1: 

 A Survey oi the more Important Economic Insects and Mites oi Egypt. 

 By F. C. Willeocks. Pp. viii + 483. (Cairo: Sultanic Agricultural 

 Society.) 



< . n i 1 1 1 • t.i the Australian Ethnological Collection exhibited in the 

 National Museum of Victoria. Bv sir Baldwin Spencer. Third 

 edition. Pp. 142-33 plates. (Melbourne.) 



Edinburgh and Ea-t of Scotland College of Agriculture. Calendar 



The North of Scotland College of Agriculture. Calendar. Session 

 1 Pp. viii-r 14.",. (Aberdeen.) 



Tlie North 111 Scotland College of Agriculture: County Extension 

 Department. Report on County Extension Work, 1921-22. Pp. 

 i\ 52. (Aberdeen.) 



Mihi-tnio da Agrieultura, Industria e Commercio : l>hv. i.ei. .1. 

 ri 1 Boletin Meteorologico : Anno de 1914. Pp. vi — 121. 



(1! 



. 1.) 



apartment of Agriculture for the West Indies. Report 

 ultural Department, Antigua. 1920-21. Pp. iv 19 

 Bd. 



the Indian Meteorological Department. Vol, 23. Part 4 : 

 1 urinations and of " Lag " on the Readings of the Ki-ii 

 muter. By Dr. E. P. Harrison. Pp. 137-144+2 



;il Yi 



Pp. 



logj 



1 1 lii Government Chemist upon the Work of the Govern- 

 ,noi\ lor tlie Year ending 31st March 1022; With Appen- 

 :;::. (London: H.M. stationery Office, 1922.) Is. 1../. in 1 

 oi the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Report 

 iiidition and Progress ol the Museums for the Year ending 

 1,1921. Bv Win. Henry Fox. Pp.56. (Brooklyn, N.Y.) 

 li ih lie Scssioni della R. Aeeademia delle Scienze del- 

 di Bologna. Classe >li Scienze Fisicne. Nuova serie, Vol, 

 1. Pp. 152 + xx\iii. Nuova serie, Vol. 25, 1920 21. IV 



is 01 University Courses in the Municipal College of Techno- 



1 M.i 



orological 



C01 ittee. Report oi the Eleventh Ordinarj Meeting, Loudon. 



1921 ■ \111i 01 Meetings of the C missions tor Weather Telegraphy. 



Maritime Meteorology, Aerial Navigation. Reseail -Mondial, and Polar 

 Meteorologs (M.0. 248.) Pp. 128. (London: H.M. Stationery 

 Office, 1922.) 4s. 0d. net. 



