768 REPORT— 1901. 



ill our commercial world. The position of manufacturers of all classes must be 

 helped aud improved by a well-considered series of investigations on the properties 

 of materials, measurements of forces, and by the careful standardisation of and 

 j^ranting certificates to measuring apparatus of all classes. Until the question is 

 fairly faced and studied, few manufacturers realise how helpless individual effort 

 or individual investigations must be when compared with comprehensive and con- 

 tinuous investigations which can be carried on by a National Laboratory so as to 

 deal with the whole of each subject completely and exhaustively, instead of each 

 investigation being limited by the temporary need of each manufacturer or user. 



As an example Dr. Glazebrook showed how much has been done at Jena and 

 afterwards at the Eeichsanstalt in the development of the manufacture of glass used 

 in all classes of scientific apparatus. The German glass trade has benefited 

 enormously from these investigations. The microscopic examination of metals, 

 which was begun by Sorby in 1864, has been much worked at by individual investi- 

 gators in this country, but its further development, which is probably of enormous 

 importance to arts and manufactures, is clearly the duty of a National Laboratory. 

 We owe much to the investigations of the Alloys Research Committee of the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers ; but, again, this is work for the National 

 Laboratory. As regards the measurement of physical forces how little is accu- 

 rately known of the laws governing air resistance and wind-pressures, and the 

 means of measuring them. Who can formulate with any certainty a law for the 

 air resistances likely to be met with at speeds in excess of eighty miles an hour, 

 the importance of which 1 have already noticed ? 



I have already alluded to the verification, care, and maintenance of ordinary 

 standard gauges of accuracy. In this electrical age the accuracy of electric standards 

 is of supreme importance. " 



These are only a few of the directions in which we can foresee that the establish- 

 ment of a National Physical Laboratory will be of tlie greatest use and assistance 

 to our country in enabling it to hold its own in scientific and engineering 

 matters with its energetic rivals. The work has been commenced on a small scale, 

 but it is to be hoped that its usefulness will become at once so evident and appre- 

 ciated that it will soon be developed so as to be worthy of our country. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. The Mcdianical Exhibits in the Glasyow Exhibition. 

 By D. H. Morton. 



2. Long continiious burning Fetroleimi Lamps for Biboys and Beacons. 



By John K Wigham. 



3. New Scintillating Ligldhouse Light. By JoiiH E.. Wigham. 



4. A Recording Manometer for High-pressure Ex2dosions. 

 By J. E. Petavbl. 



In this instrument the spring of the ordinary indicator is replaced by a metal 

 cylinder. The travel of the piston is therefore limited to the amount allowed by 

 the elastic compression of the metal (about one thousandth of an inch in the case 

 of the present records). 



The diagrams exhibited are typical of the results obtained : they both refer 

 to a mixture of air and gas in the ratio of 6'4 to 1 fired at an initial pressure of 

 about 1,190 lb. per sq. inch. In the second figure the speed of the chronograph 

 has been greatly reduced so as to obtali a clear record of the rate of cooling. 



