lif<{^ro 



Scientific Jtcuis 



FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I.] 



May, 1887. 



[No. 3. 



CONTENTS. 



Current Events 49 



General Notes 51 



Domestic Sanitation 55 



Fermentation Treated Historically . . 57 



Notes on Heating Buildings (I'llus.) . , 58 



Poisons in the Household 60 



The Electric Furnace and the Produc- 

 tion of Aluminium Alloys (illiis.) . . 62 



Notes on Colour 64 



The Climax Motor {illiis.) 65 



Artificial Whirlwinds (illus.) 67 



PAGE 



The Formation of Dew 67 



Reviews of Books : — 



The Electric Motor, by T. C. Martin 

 and J. Wetzler 68 



The Journal of the Iron and Steel 

 Institute 68 



Transactions of the Institution of 

 Engineers and Shipbuilders of 

 Scotland 68 



The Watch and Clockmakers' Hand- 

 book 68 



Papers read before Societies. 

 The Royal Institution : — 



The Science of Language 69 



Brain Surgery in the Stone Ages 69 

 The Royal Meteorological Society. . 6g 

 The Institution of Civil Engineers. . 69 



Physical Society 70 



Finsbury Technical College 70 



Institution of Naval Architects .... 70 



Record of Scientific Societies 71 



Applications for Patents 72 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



Dr. Tyndall's Resignation. — A resignation of the Pro- 

 fessorship of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution 

 must necessarily be an important event to the members of 

 the Institution and the world of science ; but when the post 

 has been filled so ably and for so long a period, as it has 

 been by Ur. Tyndall, the fact becomes of considerable 

 public importance. For thirty-four years Dr. Tyndall has 

 carried out the duties of his office, and, to quote the reso- 

 lution of the managers of the institution, " has rendered 

 services which not only have upheld and have advanced 

 the position of the Royal Institution, but have benefited 

 science and the world at large." As Professor Tyndall 

 absolutely declines to receive any pension, it has been 

 determined to have a marble bust of him executed, to be 

 placed in the Institution ; in addition to which one of the 

 annual courses of lectures is to be called " the Tyndall 

 lectures." Dr. Tyndall is nominated Honorary Professor of 

 Natural Philosophy, and Lord Rayleigh is nominated as his 

 successor to the chair. 



The Importance of Technical Education. — In the 

 address just given by Sir Frederick Abel, at the Royal In- 

 stitution, it was remarked that, notwithstanding the growth 

 of the iron trade on the Continent and in the United States, 

 and the great development in the use of steel, we have, 

 fortunately, been able to maintain a leading position in the 

 manufacture both of iron and steel. On the other hand, he 

 pointed out that in another branch of industry, which had 

 its origin in England, the lead has been taken by other 

 Countries. Coal is now the chief source of colouring matters, 

 and, with her vast mineral supplies, England should have 

 been facile priitceps in this industry, but Germany has long 

 outstripped us in the supply of materials we taught her 

 chemists to make, Sir Frederick Abel attributes this, in 



some measure, to the defects in our 'patent laws, and to 

 questions of wages and labour, but chiefly to the superior 

 intellectual training of the German manufacturers and their 

 technical assistants. 



The German manufacturers have for some time realised 

 that their success depends largely on the active prosecution 

 of scientific research. They have employed chemists well 

 trained in science, and they have specially encouraged 

 scientific investigations tending to the improvement and 

 development of their manufactures. "The young chemists," 

 says Sir Frederick Abel, " whom the German manufacturer 

 attracts to his works, rank much higher than ours in the 

 general scientific training which is essential to the successful 

 cultivation of the habit of theoretical and experimental re- 

 search." These men come from the universities and 

 technical colleges, where they have received a thoroughly 

 scientific training, and they find in nearly every factory a 

 research laboratory. They are thus well fitted in every 

 way to study all new inventions bearing on the particular 

 industry they are engaged upon, and seeing that the 

 tendency of our day is for industry to be supported by a 

 competition of intellect rather than by a competition of local 

 advantages, as pointed out by Sir Lyon Playfair some time 

 since, the importance of such a system cannot be over- 

 rated. 



Manchester Jubilee Exhibition. — The Royal Jubilee 

 Exhibition at Manchester bids fair to be one of exceptional 

 interest, especially to the engineer and manufacturer, and 

 others interested in the practical applications of science. It 

 was to be expected that in so important a manufacturing 

 centre there would be a good trade display, but the extent 

 to which exhibitors of the best class have come forward has 

 somewhat surprised even the authorities themselves. It is, 



