October 3, 1907] 



NATURE 



583 



statemont of the statutes and regulations under which the 

 college is now governed in its new position as an integral 

 portion of the University of London. It also contains a 

 set of plans that show the uses to which the extension of 

 building's is being put. It appears that the space now 

 available for university purposes is greater by one-third 

 than it was last session. .Among the most striking 

 features of the new developments are the following : — 

 the institution of a new department of geology with geo- 

 logical museum, rock museum, and research room ; the 

 enlargement of each of the engineering departments and 

 of the drawing office ; the enlargement of the department 

 of applied matliematics, and the provision of special rooms 

 to be Icnown as the Galton research laboratories in con- 

 nection with the Eugenics Institute founded by Mr. Francis 

 Galton. The calendar also contains a section setting forth 

 in full the arrangements for post-graduaie courses of 

 lectures and arrangements for research work. The oppor- 

 tunities for research work are full and ample, and the 

 .regulation with regard to admission is such that no one 

 qualified to undertake research work ought to be debarred 

 therefrom. It appears from the summary of students that 

 there were no fewer than 171 post-graduale and research 

 students in the college last session, consisting of 140 men 

 and thirty-one women. 



At the annual meeting of the governors of the Glasgow 

 and West of Scotland Technical College on September 24 

 Mr. G. T. Beilby, F.R.S., was unanimously elected chair- 

 man of the governors in succession to the late Sir William 

 Robertson Copland. -As a chemical technologist, Mr. 

 Beilby enjoys a world-wide reputation. In industrial 

 circles his name is more particularly associated with the 

 Young and Beilby retort, and with a process for the manu- 

 facture of potassium cyanide. The introduction of the 

 former revolutionised the process of shale distillation, and 

 enabled the industry to emerge successfully from the 

 struggle for existence ; by means of the latter invention 

 he has been instrumental in retaining an important in- 

 dustry in this country. As an investigator in the regions 

 of pure science, Mr. Beilby has also established his reputa- 

 tion, his valuable researches on the surface structure of 

 metals having attracted widespread attention. The second 

 section of the new buildings for the college is in course 

 of erection, and is expected to be ready for occupation in 

 the session 1908-9 ; operations on the third section, which 

 will complete the buildings as originally planned, will be 

 undertaken immediately. The accommodation provided in 

 the new buildings has enabled the college to extend its 

 work in various directions. Recognition has been given 

 to the importance, in a large engineering centre, of the 

 studv of fuels and their applications, and a very complete 

 equipment has been provided in the department of technical 

 chemistry for valuing fuels and illustrating the methods of 

 controlling their use. This consists of calorimeters of all 

 the various types for use with solid, liquid, and gaseous 

 fuels, all the commonlv used forms* of pvrometer, and an 

 (■.vperimental gas producer. .Another feature of this de- 

 partment is the plant wliich has been installed for giving 

 Instruction in the methods of conducting technical experi- 

 ments. The equipment includes grinding mills, filter and 

 hydraulic presses, a hydro-extractor, a small refrigerating 

 plant, pumps, an air liquefier, a steain-jacketed pan, and 

 a double-effect vacuum evaporator plant. The laboratory 

 in the department of motive-power engineering has been 

 full}" equipped, and in designing the equipment the object 

 has been, not merely to provide for the illustration of 

 principles set forth in the lecture course, but also to pro- 

 mote the industries of the district by obtaining inform- 

 ation ahead of current practice. In addition to the 

 ordinary steam, gas, and oil engines, there are several 

 pieces of plant of special interest ; with one of these 

 engines experiments are being made from which it is hoped 

 that information will be obtained to settle the much 

 disputed points in the initial condensation versus valve 

 leakage controversy. In the equipment of the other labor- 

 atories equal care has been shown, and everv effort has 

 been made to render them suitable for the nei'ds of a great 

 centre of industry. 



NO. T979, VOL. 76] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, June 20. — "The Fluted Spectrum of 

 Titanium Oxide." By A. Fowler. 



The author has previously shown that nearly all the 

 dark flutings whicli are characteristic of the spectra of 

 Antarian or third-type stars correspond with flutings 

 obtained from compounds of titanium. 



The first part ol the present paper gives an account of 

 experiments which indicate that the flutings in question 

 are produced by a compound of titanium with oxygen, and 

 not by the vapour of the metal itself. The most con- 

 clusive evidence on this point was alil'orded by titanium 

 chloride, which, in the absence of oxygen, did not show 

 the Antarian flutings, although the occurrence of another 

 group of flutings, attributed to the chloride itself, indicated 

 that the conditions were not unfavourable for their pro- 

 duction if their existence depended only upon the presence 

 of titanium. Experiments with nielallic titanium also 

 showed that the .Antarian flutings were only produced in 

 the presence of oxygen. 



The result is of some importance as indicating that the 

 source of the fluted absorption in the .Antarian stars is 

 at a temperature low enough to permit the formation of 

 a chemical compound, and also as demonstrating the 

 presence of oxygen, of the existence of which in these 

 stars there is otherwise no direct evidence. The investi- 

 gation has lately gained additional interest in consequence 

 of Prof. Hale's discovery of some of the less refrangible 

 flutings in the spectra of sun-spots. 



The second part of the paper contains a revised and 

 extended table of wave-lengths, based upon photographs 

 taken with much greater dispersion than that previously 

 employed. F'or the first heads of the more prominent 

 groups of flutings the wave-lengths tabulated are 458462, 

 4761.08, 4954-78, 5167-00, 544S-48, 5597-92, 6158-86, and 

 7054-5. .AH of these are strongly marked in the stellar 

 spectra, that in the extreme red having lately been photo- 

 graphed by Slipher and Newall. Two of the stellar bands, 

 however, about wave-lengths 5862 and 6493, do not appear 

 to be sufficiently accounted for by titanium oxide. Photo- 

 graphs of the spectrum are reproduced in the paper. 



Received July 4. — " The Effect of Pressure upon .Arc 

 Spectra. No. i. Iron." By W. Geoffrey Duffleld. 



The first part of the paper contains a description of the 

 mounting and adjustment of the large Rowland concave 

 grating in the physical laboratory of the Manchester 

 University. The feature of this is the stability of the 

 carriages carrying the grating and camera, and the novel 

 construction and attachment of the cross-beam, which 

 secure the absence of any disturbance which might be 

 caused by bending or sagging. 



The second part describes experiments made with a 

 pressure cylinder designed by Mr. J. E. Petavel, F.R.S., 

 in which an arc is formed between metal poles opposite 

 a glass window, through which the light is examined by 

 means of the grating spectroscope. .A system of mirrors 

 allows the image of the arc, however unsteady it may be, 

 to be kept almost continuously in focus upon the slit. 



Tw^o sets of photographs of the iron arc in air have 

 been taken for pressures ranging from i to loi atmo- 

 spheres (absolute), and the results are given below for 

 wave-lengths A. = 4ooo k.V. to ^ = 4500 A.U. 

 I. Broadening. 



(1) With increase of pressure all lines becoine broader. 



(2) The amount of broadening is different for different 

 lines, some almost becoming bands at high pressures, and 

 others remaining comparatively sharp. 



(3) The broadening may be symmetrical or unsym- 

 metrical ; in the latter case the bro.adening is greater on 

 the red side. 



II. Displacement. 

 (i) Under pressure the most intense portion of every 

 line is displaced from the position it occupies at a pressure 

 of I atmosphere. 



(2) Reversed as well as bright lines are displaced. 



(3) With increase of pressure the displacement is towards 

 the red side of the spectrum. 



