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gives some further details about the discovery of this comet. In the Monthly Register of the Society for Practical Astronomy (vol. vii., No. 1, January and February, 1915), Mr. Mellish narrates how he first saw the comet on the morning of February 9. Daylight made it impossible to determine any motion of the object, and he had to wait until the following morning, February 10, before he was able to observe its slow movement, and thus recognise the object as a comet. Its position was R.A. 17h. 2m., and declination +3° 15'. The comet is described as being 3' in size, bright, and having a very short, fan-shaped tail.

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ASTRONOMY AND THE WAR.--A correspondent of the Morning Post (April 23), writing from Paris on April 22, relates how astronomy is found among the victims of the war. At Nantes, he relates, an electric tramway built out to an English camp put all the instruments in the observatory for the registration of terrestrial magnetism out of order, and made observation impossible. The observatory of the Puy de Dôme found itself cut off from the outside world at an altitude of gooo ft. The funicular on which it depended in time of peace stopped working, and all the horses had been commandeered, so that the astronomers had the choice between leaving their post and being starved. Happily the problem was solved by the artillery depot of Clermont-Ferrand, which undertook the task of provisioning the observatory."

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ELECTRIC FURNACE SPECTRA CHROMIUM. The results of some very interesting experiments with regard to the variation with temperature of the electric furnace spectra of vanadium and chromium appear in the current number of the Astro

For this reason the following curtailed list of communications is given :-No. 4797: Observations of long-period variables (1914), by A. A. Nijland. No. 4796: Observations of the planet Jupiter, by H. E. Lau. No. 4795: Numerical investigations on a class of periodic orbits, by Carl Burran and Elis Strömgren; observations of comet 1913f (Delavany, by A. Abetti. No. 4793: The variable star W Cygni, by G. Hornig; Observations of SS-V 19 Cygni, by A. A. Nijland. No. 4792: Tables for the computation of precession for stars near the pole, by L. de Ball; ephemeris of the periodic comet of Tempel 2, Johannes Braae. No. 4791: Determination of the position of third order points on the moon's surface, by K. Graff and W. Voss; observations of the star BD 89.1°, with the large refractor of the Berlin Observatory, by L. Courvoisier. No. 4787: Observations and elements of the Algol star 10, 1914, R. S. Canum Venaticorum, by Cuno Hoffmeister; elements and ephemeris of the periodic comet of Winnecke for the appearance in 1915, by K. Hillebrand. No. 4786: Definite orbit of comet 1890 III., by S. Ogura and H. Kaneko; observations of Algol stars, by R. Lehnert; the orbit of comet 1913f (Delavan), by G. van Biesbroeck. The contents of the Nos. 4777 to 4785 will be given next week.

The “Gazette Astronomique.”—In this column for December 24 last reference was made to the proposed publishing in this country of the Gazette Astronomique, the monthly bulletin of the Antwerp Astronomical Society, should sufficient financial aid be forthcoming. It is satisfactory to be able to record the appearance of the first number, but its continuance will depend on the support given to it in the future. The present issue contains an interesting account in English of the Uccle Observatory under German occupation, a de

physical Journal (March, vol. xl., No. 2, p. 86), by scription of a photograph of Delavan's comet, taken

Dr. A. S. King. The author has been able to record his observations at three separate temperatures, which he denotes as high, medium, and low. The temperatures on which the classification is based were recorded by a Wanner pyrometer, and were 2500-2600° C. for the high, 2300-2350° C. for the medium, and 20002150" C. for the low temperature. The metals used were metallic vanadium and crystalline chromium of "fair purity," and the furnace tubes used were of regraphitised Acheson graphite. The paper gives two tables of the intensities of the lines measured under the three temperatures, together with the arc intensities; several reproductions from the spectra are also included. The conclusions drawn indicate that the spectra of these substances develop similarly to those of iron and titanium, vanadium being very like titanium. The chromium spectrum near the temperature at which the vapour begins to radiate predominates in Class 1. lines (lines relatively strong at low temperatures and strengthen slowly at higher temperafures), which change little at higher temperatures. Certain chromium lines, very diffuse in the arc in air, may be resolved into sharp components in a vacuum source, either furnace or are. A large number of lines belonging to various furnace classes are relatively weak in this are. The spectrum increases into the utra-violet as the temperature rises. The ability of lines to show self-reversal in the furnace distinctly increases with decreasing wave-length. The absence in the furnace of banded spectra which appear in the ares of vanadium and chromium indicates that they are probably due to the oxides of the metals.

RECENT PAPERS IN THE "ASTronomische NaCHRICH1*N." A large number of the issues of the Astromemische Nachrichten came to hard together last week. and while the material included is of too great and varied a nature to be dealt with in this column, it may help readers to know some of the chief contents.

The

by M. G. van Biesbroeck in September last, a series of notes on astronomical current literature, etc. first number promises well for future issues.

BRITISH GEOLOGY.

THE series of memoirs published by the Geological Survey of Great Britain on the South Wales Coalfield reaches part xi. in the description of "The Country around Haverfordwest" (1914, price 3s. 6d.). Dr. Strahan is fortunate in having colleagues who, like himself, have become devoted to this particular ground. The district here described includes a considerable development of the Llandovery series, which is divided into local stages, the lowest of which rests, with an occasional conglomeratic facies (pp. 78 and 201), on rocks of Upper Bala age, while the highest stage laps over on to far older series. The Lower Old Red Sandstone is unconformable with the beds below it, and contains plant-remains, which are unfortunately indeterminable. The structure and economic features of the eastern part of the Pembrokeshire Coalfield are described.

The pre-Glacial wave-cut platform recognised in southern Ireland is shown to exist also at Milford Haven (p. 214). Dr. Strahan (p. 220) points out how the older glacial drift of the area was brought in from the north-west, and even from the west, by a lobe of the Irish Channel ice. Through a recent subsidence, the rock-floors of the valleys tributary to Milford Haven lie far below sea-level, and a submerged forest with flints worked by man, which were recognised by A. L. Leach, occurs at Amroth on Carmarthen Bay.

Memoir No. 83 of the Scottish series (1014, price 28.) deals with "The Country round Beaulty and Inverness." The names of J. Horne and B. N. Peach are still to be seen happily associated on its cover,

with those of younger colleagues. One of the most striking features of the district is the Great Glen fault, which, despite its Caledonian trend, is later than some of the folding of the Old Red Sandstone, and has here a minimum throw of 6000 ft. The river-scenery is finely illustrated, and attention is directed (p. 82) to a deep pre-Glacial channel at the mouth of the valley of the Ness, the rock-floor of which has not been reached at 290 ft. below Ordnance datum. The Strathpeffer Spa, with its sulphurbearing springs, is the main economic feature of the district. In a region so rich in human history, we wish that a geological survey might trench farther on the field of the geographer and the archæologist.

Drs. Peach and Horne have provided a description of the "Geological Model of the Assynt Mountains "

very large area. We miss a reference in the memoir to the old tale of the "Caithness grin," which was said to be developed among a hospitable folk by sighting a stranger across miles of level flagstone. The evidence for a Middle Old Red Sandstone Series, which was sustained by J. W. Evans in 1891, is fully substantiated in this memoir, in consequence of the studies made by Traquair on the fossil fishes. These include the interesting Palæospondylus at Achanarras. We should like to have a further account of the flora of the Caithness strata, beyond the brief references on pp. 5 and 81. The successive stages of deposition of the Old Red Sandstone in "Lake Orcadie" are well shown in diagrams on pp. 84 and 85. A downward warping of the Caledonian continental surface allowed of the accumulation, as Sir A. Geikie long ago esti

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Thurso Flags (Upper Caithness Flags) cut by a typical ravine or "goe," south of Duncansby Head. Many of these "goes" are of pre-Glacial origin. Reproduced from the Memoir to Sheets 110 and 116, by permission of the Controller of H. M. Stationery Office.

(1914, price 1d.), which is exhibited in the Museum of Practical Geology, the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and elsewhere. This modestly priced pamphlet, with its numerous sections, forms an excellent introduction for the student to the classic district of the Highland overthrusts.

The memoir to Sheets 110 and 116, entitled "The Geology of Caithness" (1914, price 4s.), is by C. B. Crampton and R. G. Carruthers. The maps (2s. 6d. each) with the memoir show a thinly populated country formed mainly by Old Red Sandstone, and descending from the Highland region northward, until it becomes, in comparison, a plain with "monadnocks," now stretching at about 150 ft. above the sea. Peat, as the useful system of shading shows us, covers a

mated, of some 16,000 ft. of Caithness flags. The origin of red strata in a warm and fairly dry climate, where vegetation exists, but not in sufficient quantity to acidify the soil, is discussed in chapter ix. The considerable amount of calcium carbonate in the flagstones is attributed to an arid epoch, here called a cycle, affecting the deposits on the shores.

The suggestion (p. 100) of the sudden suffocation of fish by the inflow of alluvium is supported by a recent observation of E. Kolb during his descent of the Arizona canyons. The gills of the fish were, however, in this recent case choked by mud during flooding of the stream, and not in a period of marginal recession.

The nearness of Cretaceous masses to the north

east coast of Scotland, and the possibility of the existence of outliers beneath the Glacial drift, is shown by the account (p. 131) of the Cretaceous sandstone of Leavad, which was recognised by D. Tait in 1906. This block, 240 yards in length, is used as a sandquarry, and rests on a green clay which, from its foraminifera, G. W. Lee regards as perhaps of Pliocene age. This in turn rests on boulder-clay, so that, as happens in Ostpreussen (NATURE, vol. lxxxv., p. 470), local geology has been distinctly enriched by material imported during the Ice age.

The Geological Survey states that the issue of some of its colour-printed maps is delayed by work necessitated by the war; but it makes its own contribution to military needs in a pamphlet on "Sources of temporary water supply in the south of England and neighbouring parts of the Continent" (1914, price 2d.). The waters of sand-dunes, alluvium, and rivergravels are especially considered, and useful warnings are given as to pollution. It is remarked (p. 10) that a well sunk in sand or gravel on a chalk hill may lose its water if carried down to the surface of the porous chalk.

The proceedings of local societies, especially where universities are at hand to provide a stimulus, afford valuable supplements to the publications of the official surveys. The second part of vol. xv. of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow (price 7s. 6d.) forms an admirable example. All the papers record original observations in southern Scotland. Prof. J. W. Gregory (p. 174) treats of the red rocks of the Isle of Arran, which he regards as including Permian desert-beds at Brodick. These terrestrial deposits are, he urges, Lower Permian, and the appearance of conformity with the Keuper Marls above may be deceptive. G. W. Tyrrell (p. 188) describes critical sections in spots which he visited at Prof. Gregory's request, and is unable to discover any break in the sedimentation. The papers by P. Macnair, R. G. Carruthers, and J. E. Richey on the lower beds of the Carboniferous Limestone Series will do much to help workers in other districts, such as the north of Ireland. G. A. J. C.

EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY AT TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN.

IN "Notes from the Botanical School of Trinity College, Dublin," No. 5, vol. ii., 1915, Prof. H. H. Dixon gives experimental proof that morbid changes spread through plants from branches killed by heat. If a portion of a branch be killed by heat and the substances dissolved as the result of the heating be washed away, morbid changes only take place after some fourteen days. In cases where no steps are taken to remove the poisonous substances liberated by the heating, the branches above the heated portion show morbid changes in the course of five days. It is clear from the experiments that with the killing of the cells by heat, substances are liberated into the sap which contaminate the water supply to the living tissues above, and that the morbid changes are not due to the cutting off of the supply of water.

In a further paper in the same number of the "Notes" Prof. Dixon gives the result of his investigations into the nature of the changes which are produced in the sap by the heating of the branches. Sap was extracted by means of a centrifuge from pieces of branches, and was examined both fresh and after steaming for the acidity, colour, presence of oxydases and quantity of dissolved substances. The steamed sap showed marked acidity, a much higher percentage of dissolved substance-indicated by the depression of the freezing point-and a development of colour, any oxydase pre

sent being, of course, destroyed. The presence of poisonous properties was proved by placing leaves of Elodea canadensis in the steamed and in fresh sap, when it was noticed that lethal effects were produced quickly by the steamed sap, and that the leaves would not recover when placed in water.

In a paper on the tensile strength of sap, Prof. Dixon records tensions of about 207 atmospheres and 132 atmospheres in a tube of sap collected from a branch of Ilex aquifolium. The former of these is probably the highest yet :ecorded for the cohesion of any liquid. The tensile strength of the sap of trees, like that of water, is considerable, but it is probably somewhat more stable under tension than pure water. Prof. Dixon and Miss Marshall have also examined the elements of the wood of trees in relation to the ascent of sap, and find no evidence to support Janse's hypothesis as to the intervention of the living cells in the ascent of sap in stems.

Mr. W. R. G. Atkins publishes a series of careful papers on oxydases and their inhibitors in plant tissues, and his work confirms that of Keeble, Armstrong, and Jones. The distribution of oxydases in the flowers of Iris has been particularly studied; when they are kept in darkness, the quantity of active peroxydases increases. In the Pogoniris group an active peroxydase is absent. The localisation of oxydases and catalases in some marine Algæ has also engaged the attention of the author.

ENGINEERING, EDUCATION, AND

RESEAR

RESEARCH.1

DESEARCH.-Research for the solution of new problems is of great importance, but it is not a task for young and immature students. Many so-called researches, in which well-understood methods are applied to materials or subjects not themselves important, scarcely deserve the name. They amount to little more than class exercises. Most scientific societies receive papers in which a much over-elaborated description is given of known proceedings and precautions, in which the new results are of limited value without establishing any general law. But the value of real research, based on a clear formulation of a definite unsolved problem, cannot be overestimated.

Unfortunately, in engineering, the solution of unsolved but important problems is generally both difficult and expensive. Much, no doubt, is done by manufacturers who have a financial interest in the work. But their researches are, in general, not fully published. It is of great interest to the public at large and to other engineers that a scientific institution like this feels it part of its duty to advance knowledge by research, and is able to devote a fraction of its income for such researches as are beyond the means of private engineers. In most cases, a research committee of this institution begins by an investigation of what has been done before, and the summary of previous investigations which the institution publishes is not only a safeguard against mere repetition of experiment, but is valuable in itself. Prof. Martens, the director of the great State laboratory at Grosslichterfelde, has said that in four cases out of five when a manufacturer brings him a problem, it is found that it has already been solved somewhere by somebody.

The War and Engineering.-We meet in circumstances not foreseen a year ago. A war of unprecedented magnitude, extending over a vast area, has broken on us with the suddenness and fury of a tropical storm. We are already proud of the courage

1 From the presidential address delivered to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on April 16 by Dr. W. Cawthorne Unwin, F.R.S.

and military skili of our Army, the magnificent work of the Navy, and the resource of the Government in meeting extraordinary emergencies. As engineers, we know that our dockyards, arsenals, and armament firms are great schools of technology where the utmost resources of science and experience have been utilised. Victory, if we reach it, as we confidently trust we shall, will largely be the result of the general progress in mechanical engineering and in the capacity of our factories and workshops, due to the concurrent exertions of all engineers, civilian and military.

In this war the question of transport for troops, for munitions, and for food has assumed an importance never experienced before. It is only by the use of every mechanical appliance that a war on the scale of the present one is possible. Conveyance of food, munitions, and troops beyond railheads to the nearest possible point to the firing line depends almost exclusively on motor traction. The vehicles comprise columns of motor-lorries, box-cars, motor-ambulances, motor-omnibuses for troops, motor-cars for officers, steam-tractors for guns and travelling kitchens. It has been necessary to provide large stores of spares and well-furnished repair shops.

I think we may regard the conveyance of the Expeditionary Force as a triumph of organisation. A committee of railway managers, formed before the war, had studied the necessary arrangements. Three hundred and fifty trains were at work, and they arrived at Southampton from all parts of the country, between dusk and dawn, at twelve-minute intervals, during ten days. The troops and their heavy equipment were detrained and embarked without a hitch, and, guarded by the Navy, were transported to Boulogne without molestation.

As engineers, we may recall with pride the words of Mr. Churchill in regard to the ships at the Falkland Islands battle and the cruiser raid. He pointed out that "all of a sudden the greatest trial was demanded of the engines, and they excelled all previous peace time efforts. Can you conceive," he said, 66 a more remarkable proof of the excellence of British machinery, of the glorious industry of the engineroom branch, or of the admirable system of repairs and refits by which the Grand Fleet is maintained without exhaustion?" In this connection I should like to refer to the reform effected by Lord Fisher, conferring military rank upon the old entry engineers of the Royal Navy. Hitherto, in spite of their invaluable service and the risks they ran, they were rated as civilians. Lord Fisher said that "the unapproached efficiency of the engineers in the Navy merited this tardy recognition of their all-important part in the splendid fighting condition of our whole Fleet."

If in this war the work of the mechanical engineer has assumed a new importance, if success depends on an enormous supply of munitions, if, as Mr. Lloyd George said, "the turning out of munitions of war not merely means success, but means the saving of lives," then a great responsibility is placed on the shoulders of engineers. They are called on for the utmost exertions and perhaps for more sacrifices than others, except those at the front.

Foreign Competition.-Nevertheless a retrospect of our methods and activities is not entirely favourable. Fas est et ab hoste doceri, and it is no condonation of the military crime of Germany to recognise that the enormously rapid industrial advance in that country has serious lessons for us. Consider these facts. In sixteen years the aggregate income of Prussia has nearly doubled. While our Mercantile Marine increased from 9 to 10 million tons, that of Germany increased from 1 to 2 million tons. In 1870 Germany had seven shipyards employing 3000 hands; in 1900

she had thirty-nine shipyards employing 40,000 hands. Although Germany has on the whole poorer qualities of iron ore and coal, her production of pig-iron increased from 11 to 19 million tons annually, while ours increased only from 9 to 11 million tons. To-day her production of steel is nearly twice as great as ours.

Various artificial conditions have fostered German trade, some of which might, and others could not, be imitated with advantage. The German Government is poorer than ours, but it has much more clearly recognised the interdependence of science and industry, and the duty of the State to assist industry in matters beyond private initiative. It has spent very much more in providing the highest type of technical instruction and State research laboratories. The railways and canals being under State control, differential rates can be adopted to help traders. The banks, advised by a staff of scientific, legal, and commercial experts, have been ready to promote the trial of inventions, and to subsidise promising but necessarily speculative industrial undertakings on a scale unknown in this country. Amongst other influences which have adversely affected our manufacturers may be reckoned some perversities of the Patent Law. Hence it has come about that, since the war began, we find ourselves in want of important products we can no longer obtain, and we realise that Germany fights not only with her army, but with her science and industry.

The most striking examples of the plight to which we have been reduced are found in the chemical industries, which, however, involve a good deal of mechanical engineering. Aniline mauve was discovered in this country in 1856, but the Germans, and to a certain extent the Swiss, have practically captured the whole colour industry. Prof. Meldola stated that, in 1886, nine-tenths of the dyeing colours used in this country came from Germany. Yet these are essential to textile industries having an annual output of 200,000,000l., employing 1,500,000 workers. The production of synthetic indigo in Germany has largely destroyed the cultivation of natural indigo in India. The value of imported indigo from India in 1895 was about 3,500,000l. At the present time it is about 70,000l. Baeyer discovered synthetic indigo in 1880, but nearly twenty years were employed in research and nearly a million pounds was spent before commercial synthetic indigo was placed on the market. That is immensely creditable to German faith in science. Before the war the world's demand for electrical porcelain was practically met by Germany alone. There are many other similar cases. In these industries Germany had no natural advantages, but only a greater scientific intelligence and greater confidence of financiers in supporting scientific advisers.

To take another instance of more interest to engineers. Germany has acquired a practical monopoly of the treatment of the complex ores of the baser metals. The whole of the ores of zinc, lead, and silver from the mines of Australia, the richest in the world, are under contract sent to Germany for reduction. The Australian Attorney-General stated that "German influence exercised a monopoly over the world's base metal industry, so complete that it excluded effective competition.

Happily, in the iron and steel industries we are in a better relative position. Metallurgists here and in Germany, Belgium, and the United States have learned much from each other, and we have no reason for dissatisfaction with our part in the progress made. We had a long lead, and the discoveries of Bessemer, Mushet, William Siemens, Thomas, and Gilchrist, and others kept us in the front rank. We have been outpaced in volume of production, but in the higher qualities of steel and steel alloys, both in investigation and the quality of our product, we still hold a lead.

The large demand for warships, guns, and projectiles has no doubt been a favourable factor. The establishment of laboratories directed by competent experts in steel works and the works of large consumers like the railway companies has tended to the improvement and standardisation of quality.

Nevertheless we do not maintain superiority in all departments. In the heavy steel and machinery trades we have a dominant position, but for lighter machines Germany, the United States, and Scandinavia have secured a large market. In the case of light and medium steel castings-those required for motor-cars, for instance this country has become almost dependent on Germany and Switzerland. The use of steel castings has very greatly increased, and they add in an important way to engineering resources. So far as a reason can be found for the better and more uniform quality of Continental steel castings, it lies in the adoption abroad of the electrical furnace, and great attention to heat treatment. Many of the steel castings come from Switzerland, where the cost of raw materials must be greater than in this country, and the cost of carriage must balance the lower labour cost.

There is another point. After the war, when happier conditions return, our manufacturers must be willing to give designs, specifications, and estimates in metric measures for countries where the metric system is adopted. The use of the metric system is legalised, but its compulsory adoption is not likely to be enacted, at any rate for a considerable time, if indeed it is desirable, about which a good many of us have doubts. Meanwhile, in many branches the use of a double system of metric and English measures involves little difficulty. In fine machinery no doubt it is troublesome, but that at present must be faced.

Technical Education.-Samuel Butler said that life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. It is certainly true of the engineer, not engaged in mere repetition work, that he has constantly to arrive at conclusions and to act on insufficient data. Probably no difficult engineering problem has ever in the strict sense been completely solved. The engineer has to make assumptions, to use approximate theories, to decide between material and negligible considerations, and to allow for unknown contingencies. Now, scientific training, if sufficiently advanced, does enable us to solve most problems which are clearly stated and data given, but its usefulness does not end there. The trained engineer with incomplete data reasons correctly, estimates probabilities, and knows the limit of the trustworthiness of his conclusions. He does not snatch at a pocket-book rule and ignore the assumptions on which it is founded.

Among the various causes which have contributed to German industrial development, a thorough and widely diffused technical education must be given an important place. The branches of industry in which Germany has acquired a dominant position are those in which advanced applications of science are most necessary.

In the highest branches of scientific discovery this country has held a very distinguished place. That has been largely due to men who pursued science without regard to any practical end, or even with a certain disrespect for the fruitful applications of science. The value of this pursuit of pure science is, of course, not to be underrated. Manufacturers, on the other hand, who are interested only in applications of science, have been a little contemptuous of scientific men who seemed indifferent to business. All that is no doubt gradually changing. The means of obtaining technical knowledge, and the desire to take advantage of

it, have increased. But even yet we have no institutions quite equivalent in buildings, equipment, and staff to the great, technical high schools on the Continent. In Germany and Austria, excluding chemists, there are four or five times as many students in technical high schools as in colleges of corresponding rank in Great Britain. America, Belgium, and Switzerland in this respect have closely followed Germany.

But now, putting aside political and moral considerations, it is the thorough and advanced character of the education in the technical high schools and the researches of their professors, to which indeed many of us are greatly indebted, which have so directly promoted German industry. It is sometimes said that the Germans only pick up other people's discoveries and apply them. I think that is untrue, or at least greatly exaggerated. As Dr. Ormandy has well said, "those who adapt scientific discoveries to industrial use are as entitled to honour and reward as those who made the original discovery." But there is another aspect of education in Germany which has a lesson for us-the German secondary school is far more efficient than ours. Lord Haldane said that "in this country we have never understood the significance of the secondary school. In Germany the whole educational fabric rested on it." Secondary education in Germany is State-supported and definitely graded. The Gyninasium, the Real-Gymnasium, and the Real-Schule are organised to meet the wants of boys intended for different careers. Further, the universities, the professions, and higher Government appointments (including those on railways) are practically closed to all who do not pass a severe State maturity examination after nine years' schooling. The precise arrangements differ in various States, but in each there is an organised system and great pressure on boys to reach a high standard. Also those who pass the maturity examination are excused one year's military service. The importance of that for us is that a great obstacle to really efficient technical instruction in this country is the inadequate preparation for it in the schools. Practically a year of the three years' college course must be given to work which could well be, and ought to be, acquired in school by lads of seventeen or eighteen. Perhaps the excessive attention to athletics has something to do with our intellectual shortcomings. I have spoken of the value of an advanced type of technical education for engineers who aspire to positions of responsibility, but I do not overlook or underrate the necessity of practical experience. Both are necessary, but one should not be cut down at the expense of the other. There are many branches of engineering, and as to the relative importance of technical instruction, workshop, field, and office training, in different cases, there may be differences of opinion. Further, I am far from advocating the Germanisation of English education. Only it seems to me that some of our educational tools, like some of our workshop tools, are medieval and out of date, and that some of our faults need a remedy. If, as I suppose, the cost of the war must be paid out of the profits of industry, it is of importance that our efficiency should be increased. Sir George Reid has said that "captures of German trade in time of war will only be retained in time of peace by the capture also of the scientific methods of the Germans.'

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Testing Materials.-Half a century ago, most materials of construction were selected and bought on the reputation of the manufacturer. Experience roughly indicated the sources from which the most trustworthy supplies could be obtained. Now scarcely any material in large use is accepted without special testing in the interest of the purchaser. Such testing is primarily intended to distinguish suitable and unsuitable mate

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