CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 407 
One reason that suggested itself for taking this subject for my address 
to-day, is that many firms in technical industry at the present time are 
employing to an increasing extent scientifically trained men in their research 
departments, to whom a ready access to current technical literature is all- 
important, and it is hardly to be expected that this is to be found to hand 
everywhere, nor is it worth while to accumulate technical periodical litera- 
ture which may be but rarely required. 
Again, discussion on scientific and technical subjects, which is readily 
obtainable in London and in the large cities, may be less easy to arrange for 
elsewhere. It is not only with workers in the same field that such discussion 
may be fertile in results ; in other lines of investigation methods evolved 
for other purposes may often be usefully taken over and adopted. 
Dr. George Hale of Mount Wilson Observatory, California, during his 
presidency of the International Council of Scientific Unions, has drawn 
attention to many cases within his own experience when instruments and 
methods which were perfectly familiar to workers in one branch of science 
were wholly unused by investigators in other fields, and gave as an illustra- 
tion a case at Mount Wilson Observatory in which the range of the 1o0-inch 
telescope has recently been increased 50 per cent. by the adoption in its 
spectrographs of a new type of photographic objective, developed on the 
principle of a microscope objective by Mr. Rayton of the Bausch and 
Lomb Optical Company. This has made possible the measurement of 
the enormous velocities of the extremely remote spiral nebulz which have 
been used in recent discussions on the Expansion of the Universe. 
More recently the British Scientific Instruments Research Association 
has made further suggestions which are expected to increase very consider- 
ably the anticipated efficiency of the 200-inch telescope which is now under 
construction. 
He emphasises the point that such helpful suggestions may come from 
the most unexpected quarters; and there is no reason why similar con- 
sultative co-operation by the workers of a single locality in various fields of 
science may not be quite as helpful to them as it is anticipated that it will 
be in the international field. 
In recent years much has been done to improve and to extend the influence 
of local museums, and in this movement no one has done more than Sir 
Henry Miers ; as a result many of them now exercise a valuable influence 
in many fields. In the past they have in many cases received their main 
support and encouragement from those who were interested in Archeology 
and Natural History, and Science and Technology could only find place in 
the larger institutions. But now many of them are giving much attention 
to the representation of the technical industries which have been established 
in their vicinity and to the display of the scientific principles on which they 
are based. Such institutions are exceptionally favourably situated for 
securing those early examples illustrating the path of development which 
has been followed in arriving at the efficiency of to-day, and which are 
becoming scarcer every year. 
In this direction steady advance is being made, and we may note with 
special interest the opening six weeks ago of the Municipal Museum of 
Science and Industry at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the scientific and 
industrial advances which have been made in this district will be illustrated, 
and future progress recorded. The existence of an active and influential 
body, the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, to 
assist and guide its efforts is a guarantee that its development will be rapid 
and that it will be of real value and interest to all who are engaged in scientific 
and technical work in the North of England. 
