UNIQUE EVENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 7

UNIQUE EVENT

IN SCIENTIFIC WORLD CENTENARY MEETINGS. The delegate representing the New Zealand Institute at the recent Faraday centenary celebrations in London was Professor D. M. Y. Sommerville. He was also the institute’s delegate to the British Association centenary meeting, also held in London, and to the Clerk Maxwell centenary celebrations at Cambridge. “ The occurrence together of these three centenary celebrations was a unique event in the scientific world,” says Professor Sommerville, “ and, although of special significance to Great Britain, was given a highly international character by the attendance of distinguished representatives of physical science from all countries of the world. Never before, perhaps, have there been gathered together in one place and for one object so many stars of the first magnitude. Popular interest also amounted almost to enthusiasm, and was stimulated and fed by popular lectures, in hall and broadcast, by the very remarkable Faraday Exhibition in the Albert Hall, by the Shipping, Engineering, and Machinery Exhibition at Olympia, by numerous and varied excursions and visits lo places of interest, and—although arranged for another purpose in connection with the International Illuminating Congress—by spectacular displays of floodlighting of the principal buildings in London, in itself a magnificent demonstration of results which have followed from Michael Faraday’s celebrated discovery of August 29, 1831, of the generation of an electric current from magnets.

“The Faraday Celebrations, organised by the Royal Institution of Great Britain in conjunction with the Institution of Electrical Engineers, opened on the afternoon of Monday, September 21, in the Lecture Theatre of the Royal Institution, where Faraday himself had lectured. The president (Lord Eustace Percy) welcomed the delegates, about 300 in number. Eacli delegate, ns his name was read out, stood in his place and bowed to the president; at the same time his name was flashed on the screen, with a picture" of the town or institution which he represented. At the close of the meeting the delegates signed the roll, and an opportunity was given to inspect the illuminated addresses which many of the institutions had presented. There was no public presentation of addresses at any of the celebrations, and the majority of the delegates did not present any. There were, however, several fine works of art; but of those presented to the British Association there was none finer than the one presented by the New Zealand Institute.” After describing the Faraday commemorative meeting in the Queen’s Hall, Professor Sommerville, in his report to the institute, goes on to say: —

“It would be impossible to describe briefly even the main features of the wonderful exhibitioon collected together in memory of Michael Faraday—the catalogue is a book of about 250 pages—but an idea may be given of the general impression presented by the great oval hall. In the centre stood a replica of the statue of Faraday, in the possession of the Royal Institution, and radiating from it were eight sectors divided by alley-ways; these terminated in illuminated arches and were separated from the wall stands by hn alley-way extending all round the ball. The ceiling was covered with a velarium of white and yellow sectors which was flood-lighted from below; a great yellow central lantern in the shape of three telescoping cylinders, 40 feet in depth, was suspended from the centre, while smaller half-lanterns of similar form surmounted the gallery pillars. All the lighting was indirect and gave the impression of bright sunlight. The power used was about 25(1 kilotvatta.” One of the outstanding events of the British Association meetings was a discussion on ‘‘The Evolution of the Universe,” which was listened to for three hours with breathless interest by several thousand people in the Central Hall, Westminster. Sir Frank Dyson presided, and the platform of speakers included almost the whole galaxy of original thinkers on this immense subject—deans, E. A. Milne, dc Sitter, Eddington, Millikan, Smuts, Dr Barnes (Bishop of Birmingham), Abbe Lemaitre, and Sir Oliver Lodge. They all contradicted one another and afforded an intense intellectual entertainment.