An industrial research laboratory is often an experiment and hence it is usually prudent to start in a small way and gradually build on acquired experience. Every plant laboratory must justify itself and develop into an essential industrial service bureau. Work should generally begin in a simple and relatively inexpensive building, planned so as to permit of easy extension as the activities require and as the appropriation allows.

The scope of the research, like several other features, should be determined as time goes on. At the outset there will be several problems awaiting investigation that will supply plenty of work for the small group of scientists. Gradually it will become the habit for various department heads to pass problems over to the laborator director. Every company that establishes a research laboratory should be educated in the value of and need for more and more scientific investigation. There, a good motto for an industrial research director is "Make our laboratory necessary." All who have benefited by the results of scientific research should feel it a duty to do something for the acquisition of additional knowledge.

Industrial history makes it clear that happy ideas and chance discoveries have not contributed materially to the progress of technology. The stimulus for development generally results from demand, and in manufactures organised on modern lines the working out of new processes and the improvement of existing processes consist mainly in the application of scientific fact and theory, the raw material of the applied scientist and engineer. Industry, therefore, should sustain pure ah well as technical research, not merely for altruistic reasons, but because pure science research makes for progress in technology. The successful director of industrial research is a Janus with two faces, one of which receives the impressions from technology, while the other is turned toward the laboratories of pure science.

OXIDATION OF SODIUM SULPHITE. By RALPH B. MASON AND J. H. MATTHEWS. (Abstracted from The Journal of Physical Chemistry.)

1. The rate of oxidation of an aqueous sodium sulphite solution is highly dependent on the rate at which oxygen is bubbled

through the solution. The shape and size of the bubble greatly influence the rate of oxidation.

2. Pure oxygen and ozone greatly increase the rate of reaction both in the dark and in the light. The rate of the light reaction is more than doubled when the flow of air is increased from 30 to 60 liters per hour.

3. Hydroquinone and phenol in .001 N solutions act as positive catalysts to the light reaction while sugar, quinine sulphate, rubber, and copper sulphate, act as negative catalysts to the light reaction.

4. Our experience with contamination due to some constituent of rubber reemphasises the necessity for the exercise of the utmost care in the exclusion of all possible contaminations in the study of photochemical effects.

5. There is no apparent relationship between the light absorption of the catalysts and their action upon the photochemical oxidation of sodium sulphite.

ENGINEERING AND RESEARCH. By MILO S. KETCHUM. Dean, College of Engineering and Director, Engineering Experiment Station, University of Illinois. (Abstract from the Bulletin of the School of Mines and Metallurgy, University of Missouri.)

Engineering is both an art and a science. The art of engineering is much older than the science of engineering. Many engineering works of great magnitude were constructed by the ancient peoples. Great irrigation works constructed in India, Chaldea, and Egypt made it possible for a relatively high state of civilisation to exist in these countries at least four thousand years before the Christian era. The Egyptians constructed great tombs known as the Pyramids and other monumental works. The Romans constructed large masonry aqueducts to bring drinking water into the cities, and also constructed a magnificent system of hard roads.

The ancient engineering works were con structed by man power without the use of adequate tools. It is recorded by Heredotus that it required the labour of 100,000 men working for more than 20 years to build the Great Pyramid. Most of the laborers on these great engineering works

were slaves that did their work under the lash of the taskmaster. With man power only, the amount of labor available was limited, and large engineering structures in ancient days could only be constructed by the rulers with forced labor.

With the invention of power we have a new era, which may be called the industrial age. The industrial had its beginning in the invention of the steam engine by Watt in 1765. The steam engine was followed by the invention of the steam boat by Fulton in 1807. The first railroad was built in England in 1830, while the first railroad in the United States was built in 1831. These great inventions were followed by the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, the electric motor, the electric generator, and, in our own time, by the invention of the aeroplane and the wireless.

In constructing engineering works the ancient peoples were limited to the use of masonry, timber, brick and iron. Iron made by the puddling process was high in cost and limited in amount. The invention of Portland Cement early in the nineteenth century made available a new building material by means of which masonry structures could be built with the expenditure of much less man power than was required in the construction of stone masonry. The invention of the Bessemer process for making structural steel made it possible to produce a substitute for iron greater in strength and cheaper in first cost. The invention of Bessemer steel led to the greatly increased use of steel in the building of bridges, tall buildings, and other industrial structures.

The ancients knew very little of the science of engineering as we now know it. It was necessary to design and build structures by the" cut-and-try" method. An interesting example of this cut-and-try method was the construction of the Pont-yPrydd bridge built in Wales by Edwards. in about 1750. This bold masonry arch Iwas built three times before a structure was secured that was finally successful.

The science of engineering depends both upon pure science and applied science, and therefore there could be relatively little progress in this direction until the sciences of mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, mechanics, applied mechanics, and a knowledge of the properties of engineering materials were placed upon a substantial foundation. The first mathemati

cian to consider the nature of the resistance of solids to rupture was Galileo in 1638. Galileo treated solids as inelastic, not being in possession of any facts as to the properties of engineering materials. He endeavoured to obtain the strength of a beam, one end of which was built into a wall and which was loaded to the breaking point either with its own weight or with an applied load, and he concluded that the beam tends to turn about an axis perpendicular to its own length, and in the plane of the wall. This is known as Galileo's Problem.

The two most important landmarks in the development of the problem proposed by Galileo were the discovery of Hooke's Law in 1660 and the equations of Navier in 1821. Hooke's Law of the proportionality of stress to strain provided the necessary experimental foundation for the theory of elasticity, and the general equations of Navier made possible the calculation of small strains in elastic bodies. Much work was done by Saint Venant and other scientists, but it remained for Rankine in 1858 to put the theory of the strength of materials on a practical scientific basis. When Rankine was appointed to the chair of Civil Engineering at the University of Glasgow in 1855, he found a chair without a science. In a few years Rankine developed the theory of applied mechanics and the theory of thermo-dynamics, and wrote books on civil engineering, applied mechanics, steam engines, and machinery, that were used as textbooks until recently, and are still standard reference books.

Rankine found engineering a trade and made it a science. In addition to a vigourous mind, Rankine had a thorough training in mathematics, physics and the sciences, and an extensive experience as an engineer.

It may be interesting to know that the first systematic calculation of the stresses in bridge trusses was given in a book published by Squire Whipple at Utica, New York, in 1847, and that the next book on the design of bridges was published by Herman Haupt in Philadelphia in 1851. The first systematic calculation of stresses in structures by algebraic and graphic methods was given in the first volume of "Graphic Statics," written by Culman and published in Germany in 1861.

In the beginning of engineering schools, the curriculum consisted mainly of languages, mathematics, chemistry and physics,

together with surveying and brief courses in engineering construction. Engineering teachers were for the most part men with little or no engineering experience, and as a result the training in the engineering school did not prove to be of any material benefit aside from the liberal arts training. The engineering graduate was not looked on with favour, either by the financial man who employed him, or the practical engineer under whom he worked. There was a constant conflict between engineering theory and engineering practice.

With the advance in pure and applied science, the curriculum of the engineering school has changed from an inferior liberal arts course with a smattering of engineering practice, to a course in applied science with a close and intimate contact with the latest advances in engineering practice. Engineering schools now have fully equipped laboratories in which commercial tests are mode of materials and machines. Many engineering teachers have made notable additions to scientific knowledge as applied to engineering construction. feeling of antagonism between practical engineering and theoretical engineering has disappeared, and engineers and technical schools are now working in very close cooperation. Engineering contractors find that they must needs keep in touch with the laborotory if they are to solve presentday construction problems. The most approved and latest advances in mechanics together with properties of materials are now recognised as essential to engineering construction.

The

Engineering is a profession of progress, and engineering research is the foundation of engineering progress. In the earlier days of industrial development it was possible for the individual inventor or scientist to accomplish results while working alone. With the increased size and complexity of modern industry,it is now no longer possible to carry on many of the investigations without organised effort. Engineering research may be classified according to whether it is undertaken by (1) individual manufacturers, (2) associations of manufacturers, (3) commercial laboratories, (4) Government laboratories, (5) scientific societies, or (6) universities and colleges.

The development of engineering research. by manufacturers has usually gone through the following stages of development: (1) research applied to the elimination of manufacturing troubles; (2) research

having some new and specified commercial object; (3) researches for the purpose of establishing standards; (4) researches in pure science with no specific commercial application in view; (5) research applied to public service.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

CHEMISTRY IN AGRICULTURE. We have been advised that the Chemical Foundation Incorporated, of Beaver Street, New York City, have just succeeded in sending to the press "the first authoritative book that ever covered in popular language the very vital part played by chemistry in the advancement of agricul ture, and the whole problem of food production.'

66

"Chemistry in Agriculture," is the title of the work. The publishers state that twenty of the foremost authorities on agricultural chemistry have collaborated on "Chemistry in Agriculture" to tell their stories of what the chemistry of the soil, the plant, the animal, and of the human body itself means in furnishing the food that must sustain your life. In giving the last word on all the fascinating problems of the farmer, these authorities have built a book that is of intense interest to everyone who must necessarily be conce.ned in the matter of food values, production and supply. Chapters concerning vitamins, nitrogen, nutrition, cereals, sugar, fruit and meat appeal to broad human interest, while every man, woman or child who cares for plants or animals will revel in the chapters treating every phase of farm activity."

The price of the work is one dollar.

Dix Ans d'Efforts Scientifiques, Industriels et Coloniaux. 1914 1924. Sous la Direction de M. JEAN GERARD. 2 Vols. Pp. 3,000. Paris: Chimie et Industrie, 49, Rue des Mathurins. 1926. Price £2 8s.

The Great War wrought a profound influence upon most phases of industry, and chemistry in all its applications has been affected perhaps more than many others since its preponderating importance has been recognised on all sides. These considerations have prompted the Société de Chimie Industrielle de France to prepare this lengthy and comprehensive work on the ten years of scientific, industrial and colonial effort. The editor, M. Jean Gerard, has had the collaboration of experts in the various branches of technology for which they contribute.

The first section contains an account of the evolution of chemistry, written by Professors Urbain, Béhal, Desgrez and Lindet. The second section is devoted to descriptions of the remarkable progress made in applied chemistry in the different branches of industry. The last section of the first volume is concerned with the economic development of each industry and includes much statistical information dealing with the accomplishments of various French industries in the period under review. The work forms an invaluable and permanent record of the lessons derived from the Great War.

Chemische Technologie der Nahrungs und Genussmittel. By DR. R. STROHECKER. Pp. XI + 252. Leipzig: Otto Spauer. 1926. Price, 22 marks.

This work on the chemical technology of food products should establish itself as a valuable contribution to the literature of analytical chemistry. It gives an account of the theory and practice of analytical procedure in connection with the examinaion of the following commodities: meat, eggs, milk,cheese, fats, cereals, confec

tionery, yeast, dough, baking powder, pulse, starch foodstuffs, greens, fungi, fruit, sugar and sweetened preparations, tea and coffee and their substitutes, beer, wine, spirits, liqueurs, vinegar, mustard, salt, spices,mineral waters, and tobacco.

The author has had extensive experience in the examination of foodstuffs, etc., at Frankfurt-on-Maine.

Unpublished Directions for "Organic Syntheses."

The Editors of Organic Syntheses, an annual publication of satisfactory methods for the preparation of organic chemicals, now have at hand a large number of preparations in addition to those to be included in Volume 6, which is now in press, and in Volume 7, which will soon go to the printer. The following is a partial list of these preparations. Chemists interested in any of these preparations can procure copies from Frank C. Whitmore, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Alloxan; a-Aminoisobutyric Acid; Ammonium d-a-Bromocamphor Sulphonate; n-Amylbenzene; B-Anthraquinone Carboxylic Acid; Benzoyl-o-benzoic Acid; Benzoyl Hydroperoxide; Benzyl Aniline; Diphenyl; Bromal; n-Butylamine; Cacodyl Chloride; n-Caproic Acid; Chloretone; o-Chlorobenzoic Acid; p-Chloromercuribenzoic Acid; Ethyl Cinnamate; Ethyl Nitrate; Glyceric Aldehyde; Guanidine Nitrate; Hydrocinnamic Acid; Iodobenzene; o-Iodobenzoic Acid; p-Iodobenzoic Acid; p-Iodoguaiacol; Mercury Diphenyl; o-Phthalyl Chlorides; Pinene Hydrochloride; Propionic Aldehydes; Pyrrole; Thioacetanilide; Thioguaiacol; Thiophene ; a-Thiophene Arsonic Acid; Thymol Mercury Compounds; o-Toluamide; o- and pToluic Acids.

THE CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF

IODOFORM.

By ISAMN NITTA.
(Institute of Physical and Chemical
Research, Tokyo.)

Among the organic compounds of chemically simple structure, iodoform CHI,, which is regarded as the tri-iodine substituted product of methane CH,, crystallises from acetone solution in six-sided tablets. The crystal is described as possessing the symmetry of the dihexagonal dipyramidal

class (designated by D", for which the axial ratio a: c=1:1.1084, and the

density of 4,1955 at 17° C. The present paper contains an account of the X-ray study made upon this crystal. The specimens used in the experiment were prepared by recrystallisation from acetone solution of C. A. F. Kahlbaum's " Jodoform kryst. D. A. b. 5."

was

The crystal structure of iodoform studied, using the Laue photographic and the X-ray spectrometric methods. It was found that the symmetry class hitherto described is incorrect, and the proper one must be of lower symmetry most probably the hexagonal pyramidal C. The unit of structure built upon the hexagonal translation group Th, is of the dimensions a=6.87, c=7.61 A., and contains two chemical molecules of CHI ̧. Hence the density is 4.19. The plausible space group is C. The positions of iodine atoms are -x, y, ; -y, x, ; y, y-x, 1; x, y, o; y-x, —x, 0; —y, x- y, 0; where x=0.352, y=0.047. The hydrogen and carbon atoms are so arranged as to form a molecule of trigonal pyramidal symmetry C,, the central carbon atom having the valency force distributed tetrahedrally.

Wednesday, June 9, at 5.15 p.m.-Prof. S. Barcroft, C.B.E., F.R.S. "Lungs."

Thursday, June 10, at 5.15 p.m.-Newton Friend, D.Sc., F.I.C. "Science in Antiquity."

Friday, June 11, at 9 p.m.-Professor J. C. M'Lennan, LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S. (Uni "The Spectrum of versity of Toronto). the Aurora."

Friday, June 18, at 9 p.m.-Seton Gordon, F.Z.S."The Golden Eagle and its Neighbours."

INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS.
LECTURE BY MR. H. E. WIMPERIS.

We are advised by the Institute of Physics that the lecture by Mr. H. E. Wimperis on "The Relationship of Physics to Aeronautical Research," which was to have been held on May 11, will now be given on Monday, June 7, at 5.30 p.m., in the Physics Lecture Theatre, Royal College of Science, South Kensington. Members of the Society are invited to attend. Tickets of admission will not be required.