74 



SCIENTIFIC NE^VS. 



Qune 1st, 1887. 



the building itself is constructed. Nearly the whole of the 

 framing for the roof is made of ordinary pipes and tubes, 

 so that not only has the first cost been moderate, but, when 

 the exhibition is over, the pipes can be disconnected and 

 sold with a minimum of loss. 



The chemical section also reflects great credit on its 

 many supporters, and the intelligent arrangement in groups 

 and classes helps the visitor very much to compare the pro- 

 ducts of competing makers. The number and variety of 

 dye-materials and other chemicals used in the textile indus- 

 tries is very noticeable, and among the exhibits of chemical 

 research, Mr. Perkin (the discoverer of the first coal-tar 

 colour and the originator of the coal-tar colour industry) 

 appropriately shows specimens illustrating the discovery 

 of mauve, the first aniline dye. In the metallurgical 

 group there are some interesting specimens of steel and 

 slag made from phosphoric pig-iron by the basic process, 

 and in the other groups there are many instructive exhibits, 

 some of which we have described elsewhere. The Cowles 

 Electric Smelting and Aluminium Company show sample 

 ingots made in an electric smelting-furnace, such as was 

 fully described in our last number. Messrs. Spence and 

 Sons make a great display, and among other things show a 

 colossal mass of alum crystals, said to weigh over ten and 

 a quarter tons. 



Infected Milk. — The Local Government Board have 

 issued the report of Mr. W. H. Power, on the recent out- 

 break of diphtheria at Yorktown and Camberley, and although 

 it throws a good deal of light on the conditions which affect 

 the capability of milk to produce disease, we regret to find 

 that his investigation failed to discover how the milk acquired 

 its infective property. Mr. Power appears satisfied that the 

 infection was not due to the drainage, water supply, or 

 deposits of river mud. With regard to the milk being in- 

 fected, he bases his opinion chiefly on the fact that in an area 

 containing 176 houses, 94 of which received milk from 

 the infected farm, and 82 of which derived their supply from 

 other sources, 48 of the former and only 9 of the latter were 

 attacked by diphtheria or throat aff"ections, and some of the 

 inmates of the 9 houses had either been exposed to infection 

 from other cases of diphtheria, or had consumed some of the 

 suspected milk. We may not know how milk becomes in- 

 fected, but- we do know that it is capable of being infected, 

 and that the risk arising from drinking it may be greatly re- 

 duced if not entirely removed by boiling it. The precaution 

 is a simple one, and yet how few avail themselves of it. 



Technical Education. — Under the presidency of Pro- 

 fessor Huxley, F.R.S., a meeting of many leading advocates 

 of technical education was held at the house of Mr. E. C. 

 Robins, the representative of the Dyers' Company on the 

 executive committee of the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute. The chief event was an address by Professor 



Ayrton, F.R.S., on The Technical Training at the Central 

 Institution, an abstract ot which will be found elsewhere. 

 Before the address Mr. Robins briefly explained the object 

 of the meeting, and mentioned that the Institute had 

 founded three institutions in London, viz., the Kennington 

 Applied Art School, in the South ; the Finsbury Technical 

 College, or School of Applied Science and Art, with even- 

 ing trade classes in the East ; and the Central Institution 

 at South Kensington in the West. He added that the 

 Finsbury College, with 1,200 students, was now full to over- 

 flowing, and was about to be enlarged. 



At the close of the meeting. Professor Huxley remarked 

 that the excellent and vigorous school which the City and 

 Guilds Institute had established at Finsbury was chiefly 

 intended to give primary technical instruction to workmen 

 and others who could snatch only a few hours a week from 

 their daily labour for the purpose of receiving it. The 

 Central Institution, on the other hand, was chiefly intended 

 for the advanced instruction of persons who could give up 

 their time for one or more years to the higher branches of 

 technology. Exhibitions enabled the promising student of 

 the schools at Finsbury and elsewhere to pass to the 

 Central Institution, and profit by the advantages it offered 

 him. 



Professor Huxley further remarked that much had been 

 said about the cost of the Central Institution, but that if 

 in the course of the next few years the Institute succeeded 

 in catching and training another Faraday, or Whitworth, or 

 Armstrong, it would, from a mere commercial point of 

 view, be worth all the expenditure, initial and assured. 

 This organisation was, in fact, a capacity-catching 

 apparatus. No blue blood was recognisable among English- 

 men, and there was no reason to suppose that ten 

 thousand men taken at random out of one stratum of our 

 population would have more or less chance of containing a 

 mechanical genius than ten thousand taken from any other 

 stratum. The future of the country depended, in indus- 

 tries as in every other pursuit, on bringing our capacities to 

 the top, and if possible sending our incapacities to the 

 bottom. He considered that the organisation of the City 

 and Guilds Institute had been thoroughly and consistently 

 worked without thought of toil or cost, and would be one 

 of the most efficient means to that desirable end. 



The Detection of Fraudulent Bank Notes. — La Science 

 en Famille gives an interesting account of the system of 

 numbering the notes issued by the Banque de France, and 

 of several methods used for detecting fraudulent notes. A 

 very simple test is made by comparing a doubtful note with 

 a genuine one in the stereoscope. If the two notes appear 

 as one they may both be assumed to be genuine, but if 

 they have not been printed from the same plate the letter- 

 ing and figures will not exactlj' correspond, and the false 



