REPORTS 



ON THE 



STATE OF SCIENCE. 



Experiments for improving the Construction of Practical Standards for 

 Electrical Measurements. — Report of the Committee, consisting of 

 Lord Rayleigh (Chairman), Dr. R. T. Glazebrook (Secretart/), 

 Professors W. E. Ayrtox, J. Perry, W. G. Adams, and G. Carey 

 Foster, Sir Oliver J. Lodge, Dr. A. MuiRHEAD,*Sir W. H. 

 Preece, Professors A. Schuster, J. A. Fleming, aiid J. J. 

 Thomson, Dr. W. N. Shaw, Dr. J. T. Bottomley, Rev. T. 0. 

 Fitzpatrick, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, Professor S. P. 

 Thompson, Mr. J. Rennie, Principal E. H. Griffiths, Sir A. W. 

 RiJCKER, Professor H. L. Callendar, and Messrs. G. Matthey, 

 A. P. Trotter, T. Mather, and F. E. Smith. 



API'KNDIX PAGE 



I. On the Secular Changes of the Standards of Resistance at the National 

 Physical LahoTatonj. By F. E. Smith, A.R.C.Sc. {From tlie National 

 Physical Laboratory) .......... 34 



II. Sj)ecificatio7is for the Practical Realisation of the Definitions of the Inter- 

 national Uhm and loiter national Ampere, and Instructions for the 

 Preparation of the Weston Cadmium Cell. {From the National 

 Physical Laboratory) 51 



The Committee desire in the first place to record their deep sense of 

 the loss they have sustained by the death of Lord Kelvin. He was an 

 original member of the Committee appointed at Cambridge, October 3, 

 1862, and he continued his active interest in their work up to the end. 

 His name will always be associated witli the establishment of the 

 absolute system of electrical measurement and with the determination 

 of the absolute units. The Reports of the Committee from 1862 onwards 

 contain a large amount of valuable information in a form which is not 

 generally very accessible — the reprint of the earlier reports, issued under 

 the editorship of Fleeming Jenkin in 1873, is out of print — and the 

 Committee suggest that their reports from 1862 up to the present time 

 might be reprinted as a memorial to Lord Kelvin. The present time is 

 in other respects specially suitable for such a reissue, for it is hoped that 

 the proposed International Congress, to be held in London in October, 



