EDITORIAL. 
to 1 gallon of the latter. It is recommended, however, that gas-bags 
should be replaced by rigid or semi-rigid containers whenever a com- 
pression plant can be installed, but it is not considered advisable that 
any existing plant for gas traction should be abandoned at this time. 
Figures on cost of compressing, &c., are given, but they are obviously of 
no value in this country. 
In a supplementary article, Mr. David J. Smith, who made many 
of the experiments in the matter, states that it is possible to run satis- 
factorily, in competition with petrol, motor vehicles by producing gas 
made on the vehicle, using anthracite, coke, or charcoal. He states 
that the cost of running a truck with anthracite at 50s. per ton was 
equivalent to petrol at 5.4d. per gallon, the commercial rate of the 
petrol being taken at 2s. 6d. (about 60 cents) per gallon. He claims 
that a producer can be made according to his designs that will occupy 
no loading room on the truck, and free access to the equipment is 
secured. In case of trucks, the weight of the equipment for producing 
the gas does not exceed 2 per cent. of the weight of the loaded vehicle. 
The method is applicable to boats and tractors; the small size of the 
plant rendering it suitable for applications to which formerly producer- 
gas apparatus could not be applied. 
THE BRITISH NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY. 
Sir Richard Glazebrook, who has resigned the directorship of the 
National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, is succeeded by Professor 
Petavel, Professor of Engineering and Director of’ the Whitworth 
Laboratory in the University of Manchester. The London Times 
writes— 
Sir Richard Glazebrook, who retires from the directorship of the 
National Physical Laboratory, has controlled its fortunes from 
its small beginnings in 1899 to its present great place in the scien- 
tific organization of the nation. It was first Intended merely to 
carry out investigations required in connexion with the manufac- 
ture and testing of instruments of precision, and, in 1902, when it 
was moved to new buildings at Teddington, it had only two depart- 
ments and a staff of 26. It has now seven scientific departments, 
a secretariat, and a staff of over 600 persons. ~ These deal with 
heat, optics, acoustics, and molecular physics, with electricity, 
metrology, engineering, metallurgy, the forms of ships and aerial 
machines, and aerodynamics. It ig the supreme scientific court of 
appeal and advice for all questions involving the physical pro- 
perties of matter, the strength and qualities. of. materials, gauges 
and standards. During the war it rendered invaluable service. In 
the financial year ending in March, 1918, the Ministry of Muni- 
tions alone paid it £42,000 for work done, and when it is remem- 
bered that the expenditure was not on manufacture, but merely 
on examining and testing, some measure of its service may be 
gained. Until last year the Royal Society was the governing body 
of the Laboratory, and conducted its affairs with the assistance 
of a general Board of 36 members, of whom twelve were nominees 
of industrial and commercial institutions. It was almost an ideal 
15 
