Jan. 6, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NE^VS. 



days to traverse its course. As the moon went round the 

 earth would turn round in the same way, so that the faces 

 of the two bodies would be kept towards each other. 

 When that state of things happened, the tides would no 

 longer flow, because as the earth was turning with the 

 moon it would always remain high tide at one place and 

 low tide at the other, so that the ebbing and flowing of 

 the tide would cease and the earth and the moon would con- 

 tinue in harmony and peace to rotate round one another. 

 The chief alteration would be that our day would be 

 Ij40o hours in length instead of 24. 



PARKES MUSEUM OF HYGIENE. 

 Sir Douglas Galton, in a recent lecture on smoke 

 and fog, said that if people could be impressed with the 

 fact that the greater part of the evil of black fog was pre- 

 ventible, and if each person would endeavour to mitigate 

 that evil, our light and air would cease to be obscured. 

 The black canopy always hanging over us strained our 

 eyesight and lowered our vitality ; we felt the acrid 

 nature of the London fog in our breathing. Dr. Russell's 

 experiments showed that the air in a fog contained four 

 times as much carbonic acid as ordinary London air, and 

 that this might be taken as an index of the quantity of 

 other impurities which a fog accumulated around us. 

 Fog was caused by the floating matter in the air 

 attaching to itself the aqueous vapour which was always 

 more or less present. Some forms of matter, such as 

 ammonia and sulphur, had a greater affinity for the 

 vapour than other matters. These substances were 

 present in London air to an unnecessary extent. The 

 ammonia arose from the manure which the authorities 

 took no pains to remove from stables ; and if dustbins 

 were emptied frequently, so as to remove all oiganic 

 matters rapidly, and if the streets were properly 

 cleansed instead of such a quantity of horse manure 

 being allowed to remain on the pavement, one potent 

 cause of fog would be removed. The blackness of 

 London fogs arose from the smoke proceeding from 

 incompletely burnt coal. There was no doubt that 

 factories had furnished much smoke ; but the efforts 

 which had been made in recent years showed that the 

 formation of smoke was absolutely unnecessary. It 

 might all be prevented. Fires of boilers were quite 

 easily made smokeless, either by proper care or me- 

 chanical stokers. Bakehouses, potteries, and other 

 factories might be entirely smokeless if gas were used, 

 and this had been done by Messrs. Minton and others. 

 But the domestic fires caused most of the foul smoke, 

 and this evil daily increased with the increase of London. 

 If this smoke was to be abolished, it would be necessary 

 in the first place to use gas for cooking — the open fire 

 could not be retained. AH experience showed that the 

 open fire must be given up, although it had great 

 advantages in that it warmed the walls and furniture, 

 and left the air of the room cool to breathe, and therefore 

 more exhilarating. With open fires dust did not attach 

 itself to the warm walls and furniture so much as it did 

 in a room heated by hot-water pipes or by hot air, 

 which heated the air of the room, but left the walls cold. 

 If smoke was to be avoided, houses must be warmed by 

 hot air, hot water, steam, or gas, which should be 

 applied so as to warm the walls or dados and floors, and 

 then some of the comfort of the open fire would be 

 experienced ; and it was to be hoped that, in the progress 

 of invention, electricity would be resorted to for warming 

 as well as lighting rooms. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION NOTES. 



City and Guilds of London Institute. — At the recent 

 distribution of prizes Sir John Lubbock took occasion to 

 praise the work of the Institute, and mentioned that when, 

 in 18S0, it took over the work originated by the Society of 

 Arts the number of candidates examined was 8i5. They 

 had increased every year since, and at present the number of 

 students was 10,224. There were no less than 460 classes. 



Victoria University. — This university has prepared a 

 scheme of examinations, both pass and honours, to which 

 the students attending the classes of registered mechanics' 

 institutes or technical colleges will be admitted. This is an 

 important step in the advancement of technical education, 

 especially as the University intends that the scheme should 

 be readily accessible to all institutions desiring to avail them- 

 selves of it. 



Glasgow. — At a recent meeting of the Glasgow Philoso- 

 phical Society, Mr. Henry Dyer read a paper on " The Tech- 

 nical Schools Act, and Some of its Relations to Elementary 

 and Higher Education." He pointed out that various mat- 

 ters, such as free education, voluntary schools, the re-organi- 

 sation of secondary education, should have been considered, 

 and technical education made an essential part of the national 

 system before the Technical Schools Act was passed. 



Manchester. — The trustees of the late Sir Joseph Whit- 

 worth have spent ;^47,ooo in buying a plot of about twenty- 

 five acres of land, in one of the best situations in the city. 

 They oifer this to the Corporation of Manchester on condi- 

 tion that two-thirds are maintained as a public park, and that 

 the other is to be used for the following institutions : (i) an 

 Institute of Art ; (2) a Museum of Commercial Materials and 

 Products; (3) a Technical School on a scientific and practi- 

 cal scale. It has also been stated that the trustees will 

 probably contribute towards the cost of the buildings. 



FiNSBURY. — A conference on "Technical Instruction in 

 relation to Apprenticeship and to the National Organization 

 of Education " was recently held at the Technical College, 

 Leonard-street, City-road, under the presidency of Sir John 

 R. Jennings (of the City and Guilds Institute). The neces- 

 sity for technical education was generally recognized, and 

 the following resolution was passed : — " That this meeting is 

 of opinion that technical instruction should supplement, not 

 supplant, apprenticeship, and that, if taught by practical 

 workmen under the supervision of scientists, in laboratories 

 and workshops, it is calculated to be of great benefit to 

 British industry." 



Br.^dford. — The council of the Technical College have 

 passed the following resolutions, which have been presented 

 to the Vice-President of the Council on Education, 

 namely: — "(i) That the improvement and development 

 of our manufactures can only be expected from the 

 technical training of youths of special ability, and not from 

 the technical education of children in general, which would 

 prove most burdensome to the ratepayers, and, so far as 

 improvement in manufactures is concerned, would be com- 

 paratively useless. (2) That it is desirable that technical 

 schools be established in the centres of the different manu- 

 facturing industries, with special reference to the industry or 

 industries of the locality. (3) That no technical education 

 will give efficient aid to the development of our manu- 

 facturing industries unless it is given in schools furnished 

 with the newest and most approved machinery employed 1 . 

 each particular industry and given in buildings specall/ 

 adapted for such machinery. (4) That exhibitions entitlin 

 their holders to free education in these schools be granted t > 

 boys who e.xcel in the examinations in art and science. (5 ) 

 That the governing council of technical schools be a repr^ 

 sentative bod}', consisting of representatives of the Town 

 Council or local authority, the Chamber of Commerce or 

 Agriculturist, and such public educational institutions of the 

 town or neighbourhood as the School Board and Mechanics' 

 Institute, in addition to representatives of donors to the 

 building or subscribers to the maintenance of the technical 

 school cr c:>llege." 



