TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A. 607 



projects to the south to a distance xff -nearly 95 feet. This building also is three 

 storeys in height. 



In the second division there are about forty-one or forty-two apartments 

 devoted to laboratories, in addition to a considerable number of rooms required 

 for the director, the clerks, and Ihe staff, and for a small library. 



Towards the front on the eastern side, but nearer the road, is the director's 

 house. On the western side is a house which affords apartments for two of the 

 assistants, and a meeting room for the Board of Management and subsidiary clerks' 

 offices. Behind the latter building, on the west side, are placed the engine house, 

 and rooms for dynamos and storage batteries, as well as laboratories for operations 

 in which the use of cold air is required. These are in course of construction. 



These buildings are equally convenient for the supply of power to both 

 divisions. 



Two important questions for a department of pure research are: first, the 

 management and the arrangements for regulating the subjects of research ; secondly, 

 the methods of taking stock of the work done in the establishment. 



In the Reichsanstalt the President is supreme over the staff. The successor to 

 V. Helmholtz is Dr. Kohlrausch. He takes charge of the first division, viz., that of 

 pure research. 



The Director, Professor Ilagen, under him, takes charge of the second division. 



Each main division is subdivided into separate departments for each branch of 

 research ; these are in charge of permanent professors. Each of these has under 

 him the necessary assistants selected for limited periods, and for previous good 

 work in one or other of the universities or scientific schools of Germany. 



The general supervision is under a Council, consisting of a President of the 

 Council, who is a Privy Councillor, and twenty-four members, including the Pre- 

 sident and the Director of the Reichsanstalt ; of the other members, about ten are 

 professors, or heads of physical or astronomical observatories connected with the 

 principal universities in Germany. Three are selected from leading firms in Ger- 

 many, representing mechanical, optical, and electric science, and the remainder are 

 principal scientific officials connected with the Departments of War and Marine, 

 from the Royal Observatory at Potsdam, and from the Eoyal Commission for 

 "Weights and Measures. 



This Council is summoned to meet when required, but it generally meets in 

 the winter, for such time as may be necessary, for examining tlie research work 

 done in the first division during the previous year, and for laying down the scheme 

 for research for the ensuing year, as well as for suggesting any requisite improve- 

 ments in the second division. 



It will he seen that the safeguard for ensuring good research work on subjects 

 of general interest and importance lies first in the judicious selection of the Presi- 

 dent, Director, and Professors of the Reichsanstalt, and after them in a careful 

 selection of the members of the Board of Management, because they not only 

 arrange the subjects for research, but they also hold' an annual stock-taking of work 

 done in the department. 



_ Members of the Board of Management, who are appointed from the various 

 scientific establishments all over Germany, are carefully selected, and are remu- 

 nerated for their services. 



In this country, whilst the more enlightened of the County Councils are form- 

 ing polytechnic institutions intended to approximate to the higher grade polytech- 

 nics in Germany, we have no Government Department which approximates to the 

 Reichsanstalt. 



The Standards Department was attached to the Board of Trade in 1878, with 

 the duty of mak-ing standards of length, weight, and capacity, and in 1889 it was 

 further empowered to make such new standards for the measurements of electricity, 

 temperature, and gravities as appeared to be of use for trade. This department 

 possesses, moreover, under the Gas Acts, powers as to a standard of light. 



The object of this department is to meet the requirements of trade. Neither 

 the Nation nor the Government appear to have realised the enormous savin"- of 

 time and labour which would result from systematic standards for every branch of 



