October 29, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



401 



The Italian government has decided to de- 

 vote special attention to the establishment of 

 industrial experimental stations and the en- 

 couragement of technical education. Besides 

 studying new processes and making new appli- 

 cations of old methods, these stations will 

 supply industries with a trained personnel. 

 Five such stations have already been estab- 

 lished — ^two at Milan, for paper and fats re- 

 spectively; two at Naples, for leather and 

 ceramics; and one at Eeggio Calabria, for es- 

 sential oils and perfumes. It is planned to 

 establish three new stations: one at Eovigno, 

 for the sugar industry; another at Milan, for 

 the development of the refrigerator industry; 

 and a third, probably at Eome, to study the 

 distillation of gases and their by-products and, 

 in general, all processes of combustion. Other 

 stations are under consideration. Laboratory 

 schools are being organized at Turin, Milan, 

 Genoa, Florence, Home, Naples and Palermo. 

 Provision is also being made for ordinary 

 schools of industry, of which 150 will be royal 

 schools and 400 others subsidized. 



The establishment of a national system for 

 encouraging scientific and industrial research 

 in Belgium has been provisionally approved 

 by the minister, but details have not yet been 

 published. 



An Institute of Physical and Chemical Ee- 

 search was established in Japan in 1917 with 

 government support of £200,000 over a period 

 of ten years, while a gift of £100,000 has been 

 received from the emperor. The balance of 

 the £800,000, which is required is being col- 

 lected from private sources. The institution 

 is apparently intended to serve three purposes : 

 (a) the prosecution of fundamental researches ; 

 (h) the conduct of industrial investigations on 

 lines similar to those of the Mellon Institute; 

 and (c) the training of research workers who 

 will be elected from among university gradu- 

 ates to research scholarships. Until the lab- 

 oratories of the institute can be built in Tokyo 

 accommodation is being provided by the 

 universities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Sendai. It 

 is understood further that another Imperial 

 Ordinance has been issued announcing the es- 

 tablishment of a new Bureau in the Depart- 



ment of Agriculture and Commerce for the 

 purposes of industrial experiment. This bu- 

 reau will control work in connection with ex- 

 periments, analysis, appraisal and instruction. 

 There will be two experimental stations; one 

 in- the Tokyo district and one in the Osaka 

 district. 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



AERONAUTIC SECTION OF THE AMEERICAN 

 SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS 



In the field of aviation a good deal of 

 cooperative engineering work has been done, 

 standards have been established, details of 

 construction perfected, interchangeability se- 

 cured. Nevertheless there still exists the real 

 opportunity for promoting in a large way the 

 broad engineering development having to do 

 with the future of aerial navigation regarded 

 as an essentially international science, art and 

 business. To this end the members of The 

 American Society of Mechanical Engineers 

 interested in aeronautics have organized them- 

 selves into a professional section of this 

 subject. 



Howard E. Cofiin, Jesse G. Vincent, Orville 

 Wright, C. F. Kettering, Elmer A. Sperry, 

 James Hartness, John E. Cautley, Lionel S. 

 Marks, Miller E. Hutchison, Charles E. Lucke 

 and Joseph A. Steinmetz, all prominent in 

 the aeronautic field in the war, are among 

 those who have registered in the section. 



As chairman of the advisory committee on 

 aeronautics under the Council of National 

 Defense, Mr. Coffin sent the first American 

 delegation to the London Conference on Air- 

 craft in the spring of 1918. In the full 

 realization of the possibilities of future com- 

 mercial as well as military and naval develop- 

 ment, the Peace Conference created a com- 

 mission for drafting an International Air- 

 craft Convention. Benedict Crowell, assistant 

 secretary of war, and as chairman of the 

 American Aviation Mission visiting Europe 

 in 1919, urged the adoption of a definite engi- 

 neering basis to secure the future of air navi- 

 gation and to guide bodies entrusted with the 

 formulation of laws. Herbert Hoover, in his 

 recent address before the American Institute 



