;8 



NA TURE 



[April 22, 1909 



versity, 2000/. ; (H) Scottish universities, 42,000?. ; 

 (I) colleges, Great Britain, 100,000!. ; (J) university 

 colleges, Wales, i2,oooL ; (K) Welsh university and 

 colleges, additional grant, 15,000!. ; increase, 15,000/. 

 University College of North Wales (building fund), 

 decrease, 20,000!. Provision is made as follows in other 

 estimates for expenditure in connection with the University 

 of London : — buildings, external maintenance and repairs, 

 3358/. ; rates, 4500!. ; non-effective, 1317/. ; total, 9175/. 



The Times announces that " the German Aerial Navy 

 League is organising a school for aeronauts which, it 

 is said, will be opened at Friedrichshafen on October i 

 of this year. The object of the school is to provide the 

 necessary scientific and practical training for the crews 

 of military and other airships. Only those who have been 

 through an ' intermediate ' school and, in addition, have 

 worked for a year in engineering shops, will be admitted 

 as pupils. The course will extend over three years, of 

 which the first will be devoted to theoretical instruction, 

 the second to work in a construction yard, and the third 

 to ascents in airships and flying machines." This 

 announcement will be read with the more interest as a 

 somewhat similar project forms a part of the programme 

 of the recently formed Aerial League of Great Britain, 

 the inaugural meeting of which at the Mansion House 

 was so highly successful. It is much to he hoped that 

 the_ promoters of the English scheme will succeed in 

 maintaining the same high standard of admission, and 

 the same length of training, that are contemplated in the 

 above notice. It would be highly undesirable that an 

 institution founded for the training of aeronauts should 

 have to waste its resources by providing classes in 

 elementary calculus and mechanics such as can be found 

 at any technical college. 



The National Union of Teachers held its annual con- 

 ference of delegates at Morecambe from April 10 to 15, and 

 the meeting was thoroughly successful and the discussions 

 full of interest, notwithstanding the rather unusual 

 circumstance that there was no new Education Bill to be 

 considered. The president, Mr. C. W. Hole, delivered the 

 inaugural address, in the course of which he stated that 

 the elementary schools have made great progress during 

 recent years. The ancient system of payment by results 

 has passed away, leaving all concerned happier and better 

 for its disappearance ; the liberty and confidence reposed 

 in the teachers have resulted in the children being, not 

 only rationally instructed, but also more properly educated. 

 It remains for the Government to provide financial assist- 

 ance in order that the size of the classes may be reduced 

 and the staff rendered efficient in number and quality. 

 In this connection I\Ir. Hole warmly approved Air. Runci- 

 man's recent staffing circular. Resolutions were carried 

 unanimously (1) in favour of larger grants from the 

 National Exchequer ; (2) regretting attempts made by 

 certain local authorities to repudiate settled contracts of 

 teachers in their service. At the sectional meetings papers 

 were read by Mr. C. H. Wyatt and Mr. Ernest Gray on 

 the supply and training of teachers, by Mr. A. R. Pickles 

 on leaving examinations and scholarship competitions, and 

 by Mr. Charles Bird on the teaching of handwork. Mr. 

 Pickles quoted with approval the report of the British 

 Science Guild on the relations of primary and secondary 

 education, particularly the recommendation that the reports 

 of teachers should supersede largely the present system of 

 estimating ability by examinations. 



The Colonial Conference in 1907 pronounced in favour 

 of reciprocity between the Governments and examining 

 bodies throughout the Empire. The council of the 

 Surveyors' Institution has taken an important step for- 

 ward by submitting a memorandum to the Colonial Secre- 

 tary, which Lord Crewe has approved and dispatched to 

 the officers administering the Governments of Canada, 

 Newfoundland, Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, 

 Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, 

 New Zealand, Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Transvaal, and 

 Orange River Colony. The memorandum states that under 

 existing conditions a surveyor has to pass examinations 

 .•uid comply with requirements, varying in different parts 

 of the Empire, before he is allowed to practise. It is 

 NO. 2060, VOL. 80] 



ho[3ed, as a result of the present movement, to arrive at 

 a uniform standard of qualification. A surveyor would 

 then, having taken his diploma in England or one of 

 the colonies, be eligible to practise in any part of the 

 Empire, subject to an examination in the local land laws 

 and conditions. In the event of an Imperial conference 

 of surveyors being held, it will take place at the Surveyors' 

 Institution, and the chief points, so far as they have been 

 formulated, for discussion would probably be the desira- 

 bility of establishing reciprocity throughout the Empire ; — 

 (a) that a candidate must have matriculated at some 

 recognised university, or passed an equivalent examination ; 

 (h) that an examination in the theory of land surveying 

 be then taken, the standard of this examination to be as 

 high as that now in force in South Africa ; (c) that the 

 candidate be then required to pass an examination in 

 practical surveying, and that he be ineligible to sit for 

 this final examination until he has had at least two years' 

 experience with a practising surveyor. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, December 10, iqoS — "The Specific Heat 

 of Air and Carbon Dioxide at Atmospheric Pressure, by the 

 Continuous Electrical Method, at 20° C. and at 100° C." 

 Bv W. F. G. Swann, Communicated by Prof. H. L. 

 Callendar, F.R.S. 



The continuous electrical method possesses two main 

 advantages over the method of mixtures ; it enables the 

 specific heats to be measured over small ranges of tempera- 

 ture, and further, the elimination of the heat loss does 

 not depend upon the results of a set of experiments in 

 which the conditions are different to those which hold in 

 the main experiments. The mean of a large number of 

 measurements of the specific heats, agreeing to about 

 1 part in 1000, gave the following results : — • 



Air I Carbon dioxide. 



0*24173 cal.per gram degree at 20" C. 0*20202 cat. per gram degree at 20° C. 

 0*24301 ,, ., 100° C. 1 o'2zi4i „ .. 100° C. 



An accurate comparison with the values deduced on 

 theoretical considerations from Joly's measurements at 

 constant volume can be made in the case of air, and the 

 agreement is shown to be nearer than to i part in 1000. 

 The comparison can only be made in a rough manner for 

 carbon dioxide, and the agreement is to i per cent. 



The results obtained are about 2 per cent, higher than 

 those obtained by former investigators. The experiments 

 of Regnault are discussed as a typical example, and it is 

 pointed out that an uncertainty amounting to 5 per cent, 

 (tending to mal^e the results too low) probably exists in 

 those experiments, owing to the fact that the heat loss 

 was determined by a set of observations in which the con- 

 ditions were different to those which held in the main 

 experiments. 



March 25. — Sir .'\rchibald Geikie, K.C.B., president, in 

 the chair. — Liberation of helium from radio-active minerals 

 by grinding : J. A. Gray, (i) Helium is liberated from 

 thorianite, and a liberation of 28 per cent, has been 

 effected ; (2) the smaller the mineral is ground the more 

 helium is liberated ; (3) this liberation has a temporary 

 limit when the mineral is reduced to a size of about 3/i ; 

 (4) it is impossible to say how the remaining 72 per cent, 

 of helium is contained in the mineral, and to how much 

 finer than 1 fjL the mineral would have to be reduced to 

 liberate the helium. — The expulsion of radio-active matter 

 in the radium transformations : .Sidney Russ and W. 

 Makower. When the radium emanation is transformed 

 into radium A, the process is accompanied by the emission 

 of a particles with a velocity of 1-70x10° centimetres per 

 second. The portion of the atom from which the a particle 

 has been emitted, which constitutes the radium A, must 

 therefore recoil in a direction opposite to that in which 

 the a particle is projected. If we further consider that 

 the mass of the a particle is 4(H = i'), and that of the 

 active deposit of the order 100, it follows that at the 

 moment of its formation this product must be travelling 

 with a velocity of the order 10' centimetres per second. 

 In ordinary circumstances, when the emanation is mixed 

 with air at atmospheric pressure, the radium .A particle 



