July i i, 1907] 



NA TURE 



261 



by Prof. Braun, of Strassburg, who employs three vertical 

 antennre placed at equal distances, and sets up in these 

 oscillations having certain assigned differences of phase. 

 Hence, by the interference of these oscillations, the re- 

 sultant radiation is made a maximum in a certain direc- 

 tion and zero in an opposite one. 



In conclusion, some questions were dealt with concern- 

 ing the varying opacity of our atmosphere to long electric 

 waves and the effects of sunlight and radio-active matter 

 in hindering their transmission. Although much valuable 

 invention and discoveries in connection with this subject 

 have rewarded the labours of workers in many lands, a 

 glance round shows innumerable unsolved problems still 

 remaining. Having regard to its importance for naval 

 and maritime communication, scientific research in con- 

 nection with wireless telegraphy is not merely desirable, 

 but a positive duty, and it is to be hoped that the tendency 

 to legislate for it by Acts of Parliament or international 

 conferences will not impose shackles upon the freedom of 

 investigation or of commercial work which alone can con- 

 duct us to the satisfactory solution of the difficulties and 

 problems which yet remain. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 BiRMiNGH.«i. — Mr. S. S. Dawson has been appointed to 

 the chair of accounting vacated by Prof. Dicksee. 



A sum of about looo/. has been given by the Birming- 

 ham Chamber of Commerce to found a scholarship in the 

 faculty of commerce. 



M.^N'CuiiSTEK. — During recent years, with the increasing 

 number of students who come from other parts of the 

 country and from abroad, the accommodation in the two 

 halls of residence for men students has had to be extended 

 on several occasions. 'Ihe opening of the new buildings 

 of Hulme Hall in Victoria Park on July 6, which are to 

 displace the older buildings in Plymouth Grove, marks an 

 Important advance, and rooms are immediately available 

 for forty students, whilst this hall will later be e.Ktended to 

 accommodate sixty. 



St. Andrews. — .\n important addition to the equipment 

 of the Gatty Marine Laboratory has just been made by 

 the presentation of the late Mrs. Alfred Gatty 's extensive 

 collection of British and foreign marine algs by her 

 daughter, Mrs. Horatit^ Eden, of Rugby. Begun in 1848 

 at Hastings, this important collection was constantly 

 added to during the life of the accomplished author of the 

 " British Seaweeds." Moreover, Miss Catherine Cutley, of 

 Exmouth, a well-known algologist. Prof. W. Harvey, 

 Prof. Agardh, and others, largely increased its value by 

 liberal donations. The collection is arranged, though not 

 completely, according to Prof. Harvey's " Index Generum 

 Algarum," and is accompanied by a valuable series of 

 books of reference, many of them finely illustrated, by 

 Greville, Harvey, Turner, Agardh, J. E. Gray, Frauenfeld, 

 Mrs. Gatty, and others. The foregoing, with the collec- 

 tions of algae by Mrs. Mcintosh, Charles Howie, W. 

 Knight. Dr. Drui'nmond, &c., previously in the laboratory, 

 wilC with the rich living series in the bay, give workers 

 in algology facilities of no ordinary kind. 



The King will open the new buildings of University 

 College School, in Frognal, Hampstead, on Friday, 

 July 26. 



The Right Hon. Ailwyn Fellowes will distribute the 

 diplomas and prizes on Wednesday, July 24, at the South- 

 Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent. 



Dr. S. G. Rawson has been appointed principal of the 

 Battersea Polytechnic in succession to Mr. Sidney H. 

 Wells, who has been principal since the foundation of 

 the institute in 1893, and is resigning to take up the 

 position of director-general of the Department of Agri- 

 culture and Technical Education for Egypt. Dr. Rawson 

 is at present director of education for Worcestershire, and 

 was formerly principal of the Technical College, Hudders- 

 field, and lecturer at Liverpool University. 

 NO. 1967, VOL. 76] 



.A COMMITTEE has been appointed by the Treasury to 

 inquire and report upon the character of the work accom- 

 plished by the University of Wales and its constituent 

 colleges, the financial position and lines of development of 

 the colleges, and their probable requirements for staff or 

 otherwise. The members of the committee are : — Sir T. 

 Raleigh, K. C.S.I, (chairman) ; Sir John Rhys, Principal 

 of Jesus College, Oxford ; Principal D. Mac.^lister, 

 Glasgow University; Mr. F. G. Ogilvie, C.B. ; Prof. W. S. 

 McCormick ; and Dr. Alexander Hill, Master of Downing 

 College, Cambridge. Mr. G. L. Barstow^, of the Treasury, 

 will act as secretary to the committee. 



The Board of Education has issued its regulations for 

 next session in connection with the work of technical 

 schools, schools of art, and other day and evening schools 

 and classes for further education. A prefatory memor- 

 andum directs attention to the changes introduced ; but, 

 before enumerating these, some reniarlis are made on the 

 general condition of the work of the schools concerned. 

 The experience of towns which have provided systematic 

 and graded courses of instruction shows that a good supply 

 of well-considered educational facilities may be made to 

 foster a demand for these advantages without the appli- 

 cation of compulsion in the matter of attendance. Another 

 interesting fact is to find it specifically stated that it is 

 regarded as one of the functions of the Board's inspectors 

 to advise educational authorities, where evening and other 

 schools are not so popular as they might be, as to the 

 changes which would probably lead to improvement and 

 to inform them where successful schools may be found. 

 A note has been added to the regulations with the object 

 of making clear to local authorities that the classification 

 of subjects and courses is in no sense a restriction upon 

 the free adjustment of the subject-matter and methods of 

 instruction in any class to the particular circumstances of 

 the students. The necessity for keeping rural interests 

 well in view throughout all educational work in country 

 districts is now fully recognised, and the continuing need 

 for Saturday and holiday courses for teachers who desire 

 to improve their qualifications for duty in such areas is 

 again pointed out. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, May 2.—" The Spontaneous Crystallisation 

 of Binary Mixtures. Experiments on Salol and Betol." 

 By Prof.'H. A. Miers, F.R.S., and Miss F. Isaac. 



The authors have inferred from their experiments upon 

 certain salts that a cooling supersaturated solution can at 

 first only be made to crystallise by inoculation with a 

 crystal of the solute, until a perfectly definite temperature 

 is attained at which a mechanical stimulus, e.g. shakmg 

 or friction, will suffice to produce crystallisation. The 

 temperature of this " spontaneous crystallisation " depends 

 upon the strength of the solution as determined by a curve 

 which they name the " supersolubility curve." They have 

 now traced the complete freezing-point curve, and also the 

 supersolubility curves for mixtures in all proportions of 

 salol and betol, choosing these substances merely because 

 they melt at convenient temperatures and do not form 

 compounds or isomorphous mixtures. Salol melts at 42^ . 

 betol at 92°. The eutectic contains 78 per cent, salol, and 

 freezes at 32^° bv inoculation only. ^ 



Salol freezes spontaneouslv at 33°, betol at 79 ; the 

 supersolubility curves of their mixtures meet in the 

 " hypertectic " mixture, containing 74 per cent, salol, tor 

 which the two substances freeze together spontaneously 



^ The' freezing-point curve was determined by immersing 

 a minute crystal in the cooling liquid and noting the 

 temperature at which it just ceased to dissolve and began 

 to grow. 



The temperatures of spontaneous crystallisation were 

 determined (i) by the crystallisation of the liquid on 

 shaking or scratching when enclosed in a sealed tube, and 

 also (2) bv the dense shower of crystals which appears at 

 the same' temperature when the liquid is stirred in an 

 open vessel. 



