SCIENCE AND ‘INDUSTRY. 
The Committee does not recommened the immediate’ continuation of 
the work, believing that a reasonable period should be allowed to elapse 
for the assimilation and practical testing of the conclusiops advanced 
by Dr. Stillwell; but the Committee is of opinion that at a subséquent 
date it will be found profitable to continue the work which has been 
financed on a contributory basis by the Institute and by the gold mining 
companies of Bendigo. 
COTTON-GROWING, 
_ The Special Committee in Queensland which is considering the 
question as to the best methods to be adopted for developing the cotton 
industry in Australia, has taken up the question vigorously, and. has 
already held three meetings. It has been decided to furnish a report 
on the following lines:—1. Historical, including Statistics. 2. Possi- 
bility of expanding at present, under the heads of—(a) Growing, 
(6) Picking, (c) Ginning. 3. Protection required. ‘The Committee 
has accepted the offer made by the Queensland Acclimatisation Society 
to use the Society’s ground at Lawnton for the. purpose of growing 
cotton experimentally, and the construction of an experimental cotton- 
picking machine is being expedited. A. 
. 
ENGINEERING STANDARDISATION IN US.A. 
"In many lines of engineering great progress had been made before 
the war in standardisation work in the United States of America. The 
war emphasized the importance of this work, and showed clearly’ the 
need for co-operation to prevent the confusion caused by the promulga- 
tion of overlapping standards by independent bodies. It has been found 
that it is very much more difficult to obtain agreement between the users 
of overlapping standards after they have been published than it would 
be to get them to agree before they had committed themselves publicly. 
The American Society of Civil Engineers, the Institute of Mining 
Engineers, the Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Elec- 
trical Engineers, and the American Society for Testing Materials, 
accordingly appointed a Committee to consider the advisability of com- 
plete co-operation in engineering standardisation. As a result, the 
American Engineering Standards Association has recently been estab- 
lished. ‘The governing body of this association consists of three repre- 
sentatives from each of the institutions and societies mentioned, and from 
each of the following Government Departments—the Department of 
Commerce, the War Department, and the Navy Department. The main 
objects of the association are to unify and simplify methods of arriving 
at standards, and to secure co-operation between the various cognate 
societies, institutions, and Government Departments concerned. The 
association hopes, as a result of its work, to give international status 
to approved American engineering standards. It is also intended that the 
association shall act as a Bureau of Information regarding standardisa- 
tion, and that it will establish relations with similar bodies in other 
countries, with a view to bringing about the acceptance of international 
standards. 
262 
