June 3, 1909] 



NA TURE 



401 



According to the third report there are now sixty-two 

 institutions which satisfy the requirements of the 

 foundation, and are recognised as accepted institu- 

 tions. To their professors the benefits of the found- 

 ation are extended through the institutions themselves. 

 That is, if the professor has reached the age agreed 

 upon, or has been in the teaching profession for a 

 certain period of years, he will receive his retiring 

 allowance as soon as his institution applies for it. 

 The trustees have given special consideration to the 

 professors whose active salary is low. They have 

 adopted a scale under which such a teacher is granted 

 a much higher percentage of his salary than is granted 

 to one receiving a high salary. Any person sixty-five 

 years of age, who has been a professor for at least 

 fifteen years, shall receive a retiring allowance on the 

 following scales : — 



.•\. Salary not more than 1200 dollars. — An allow- 

 ance of 1000 dollars, or not more than 90 per cent, of 

 his salary. 



B. Salary above 1200 dollars. — An allowance of 1000 

 dollars, increased by 50 dollars for each 100 dollars 

 of salary above 1200 dollars. 



No retiring allowance shall exceed 4000 dollars. 

 This is 1000 dollars more than the limit originally 

 fixed. 



In these sixty-two accepted institutions there are 

 already in force 116 retiring allowances, the average 

 amount of which is 1600 dollars per annum. 



The trustees have also from the beginning granted 

 retiring allowances to certain professors not on the 

 " accepted list." These grants have in all cases been 

 made on the ground of distinguished and unusual 

 service. When applications from individual professors 

 are received each case is minutely considered bv the 

 trustees and judged upon its own merits. At present 

 sixty-six such retiring allowances are in force, the 

 average amount of which is fully 1400 dollars. 



The foundation has also incorporated in its rules a 

 recommendation of the executive committee that a 

 pension be granted to the widow of a professor in an 

 accepted institution who has been for ten vears mar- 

 ried to the professor. This widow's pension is to be 

 line-half of what the husband would have been entitled 

 to receive. 



According fo the report, pensions are at present 

 (granted to nine widows of professors in accepted 

 institutions, and to six widows of professors not in 

 .-accepted institutions. The average allowance in the 

 former case is q6-^ dollars, in the latter case 6S0 dollars. 



The trustees are to be congratulated on the wisdom 

 and firmness of their administration of the foundation, 

 .and on the influence which thev have already exercised 

 upon the progress of higher education. The full effect 

 of that influence is just beginning to be foreshadowed. 



John Edgar. 



GERMANY AND THE PATENTS AND 

 DESIGNS ACT, 1907. 

 "\"X/'E have received a report to the Secretarv 

 ^ » of the Department of .Agriculture and Technical 

 Instruction for Ireland on a visit to Germany made 

 by a deputation in connection with the operations 

 nf the Patents and Designs Act, 1907. Section 27 

 of the Act provides that any person mav apply to 

 the Comptroller for the revocation of a patent on 

 the ground that the patented article or process is 

 manufactured or carried on exclusively or mainlv 

 outside the United Kingdom, and also provides that 

 unless the patentee proves that the patented article 

 or process is manufactured or carried on to an 

 adequate extent within the United Kingdom, or gives 

 satisfactory reasons why this is not the case, the 



NO. ?.nf)6, VOI-- 80I 



Comptroller may revoke the patent either forthwith 

 or after a reasonable interval. 



The wording of this section clearly suggests that 

 a patentee who manufactures an article or carries 

 on a process exclusively or mainly abroad runs a 

 grave risk of having his patent revoked under the 

 sanctioned procedure, and considerable alarm has been 

 manifested by foreign patentees in consequence. They 

 have hoped against hope that the section does not 

 mean what it says, or at least that it will be inter- 

 preted to mean something quite different, and now 

 that it is being borne in upon them that the section 

 will be construed to mean exactly what it says, they 

 are making very sincere attempts, in some cases, to 

 comply with the plain requirements of the section. 



One way of complying with the requirements and 

 of thus avoiding the risk of revocation is obviously 

 to work the patent in the United Kingdom, and there 

 have been many inquiries from foreign patentees as : 

 to the feasibility of taking this course. There have 

 been, on the other hand, numerous attempts to bring 

 to the notice of such foreign patentees the advan- 

 tages of particular places in the United Kingdom for ■ 

 the establishment of industries, and the chief object 

 of this visit to Germiany was to interest foreign manu- . 

 facturers who might be affected by the .'\ct in the op- 

 portunities for industrial enterprise now being offered 

 in Ireland. When it is remembered that in the year 

 igo6 more than 6000 patents were granted to- 

 foreigners, it is clear that the object of the visit might 

 easily have been defeated by attempting too much, 

 and, in order that this might not occur, the members 

 of the deputation wisely decided to devote their 

 energies particularly to industries specially suitable for 

 introduction into Ireland. In seeking for such in- 

 dustries, they were of opinion that it was undesirable 

 to concern themselves with industries already estab- 

 lished in Ireland and capable of further development 

 from within, and they were finally led to limit the 

 object of the visit to an attempt to convince the 

 directors of certain chemical industries, such as those' 

 concerned with the manufacture of anilin dyes, and 

 certain electrical industries, that the conditions which 

 exist in Ireland are specially suited to the require- 

 ments of these industries. 



Most of the important centres of these industries 

 in Germany were visited, and the report contains an 

 account of the wonderful development which Germany 

 has made in these industries during the last quarter 

 of a century. Of their visit to Berlin they state that 



We seized the opportunity of visiting the largest of the 

 electrical firms — the Allgemeine Electricitats Gesellschaft 

 (known familiarly and shortly as the A. E.G.), which last 

 year celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of its in- 

 auguration. The development of this company has been 

 phenomenal. Founded in 1883, with a capital of 250,000?., 

 it has to-day a capital of 5,000,000/. — including debentures 

 and reserves, 9.200,000/. From the manufacture of 

 dynamos, motors, and lamps it developed and erected in 

 18S5 an Electric Power Station in Berlin, which developed 

 into the Berlin Electrical Works, where they manufacture 

 a great variety of electrical plant, and, keeping pace with 

 every new discovery, are now manufacturing the metal- 

 filament lamps which threaten to displace the carbon-fila- 

 ment lamps. Since 18S5 it has erected power stations in 

 nearly 700 German and foreign towns. It then took up 

 electric traction, and has constructed a large number of , 

 electric railways. It has a vast number of agencies in 

 Germany and other countries. 



.\t Ludwigshafen, 



We were fortunate in being able to see a portion, .it 

 least, of the well-known works of the Badische Anilin- 

 und Soda-Fabrik at Ludwigshafen. By the kindness of the 

 head of their Patents Department, Dr. Ehrhardt, and Dr. 

 Lloyd, his assistant (both from Birmingham), we were 



