SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
very small. It has recently been proposed to use helium in place of 
oil for surrounding the switches and circuit-breakers of high-tension 
electric transmission lines. If the gas should prove suitable for this 
purpose, large quantities could be utilized, and it has yet to be demon- 
strated that in this field helium possesses any advantage over the oils 
now used. It has been suggested by Eilhu Thomson and others that, 
if divers were supplied with a mixture of oxygen and helium, the rate 
_of expulsion of carbon dioxide from the lungs might be increased, and 
the period of submergence, as a consequence, be considerably lengthened. 
To chemists and physicists, the discovery that helium can be pro- 
duced in quantity at a moderate cost opens up a vista of surpassing ~ 
interest mm the realm of low temperature research. I+ is but a few years - 
(1908) since Onnes, after prolonged effort, succeeded in liquefying 
helium, and in so doing reached a temperature within approximately 
1 degree or 2 degrees of absolute zero. The results obtained by him, 
although limited in number, are of great importance, for they show 
that, if liquid helium were rendered available in quantity, fundamental 
in formation of the greatest value on such problems as those connected — 
with electrical and thermal conduction, with specific and atomic heats, 
with magnetism and the magnetic properties of substances, with phos- 
phorescence, with the origin of radiation, and with atomic structure 
could be obtained. In spectroscopy, supplies of liquid helium would 
enable us to extend our knowledge of the fine structure of spectral lines, 
and thereby enable us to obtain clearer ideas regarding the electronic 
orbits existing in the atoms of the simpler elements. In the field of 
radio-activity important information could be obtained by the use of 
temperatures between that of liquid hydrogen and that of liquid helium; 
and such problems as the viability of spores and bacteria at such low 
temperatures could be attacked with fair prospect of success. A point 
to be remembered is that the supplies of natural gas from which helium 
can be extracted are being rapidly used up, and hence careful con- 
_ sideration should be given to the problem of producing helium jn large 
quantities while it is still available, and of storing it up for future use. 
The number of problems which could be attacked by the use of liquid 
helium is so great that it appears well worth while to press for the 
establishment of a cryogenic laboratory within the Empire. Such a 
‘project merits national and, perhaps, Imperial support. A well- 
equipped cryogenic laboratory should include—(1) A large liquid-air 
plant; (2) a liquid-hydrogen plant of moderate capacity; (3) a small- 
liquid-helium plant; and (4) machine tools, measuring instruments, 
and ‘other apparatus. The capital cost of such a laboratory would be 
£30,000, and the running costs would be covered by the interest on an 
endowment fund of £125,000. No better method could be imagined of 
perpetuating the work of the great pioneers of low-temperature research 
—Andrews, Davy, Faraday, and Dewar, — 
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