Chapter XIX, page 276

Doubleday, Page & Co., New York https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48454_

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Electrical: A New Electric Phenomenon.

Writing recently in the London _Times_, Professor Silvanus P. Thompson has described a discovery of effects which "appear to point to a true electric momentum." "To two men, Professor Nipher, of St. Louis, and Dr. Mathias Cantor, of Würzburg, the question seems to have occurred whether, if a flow of electricity is caused abruptly to turn its path round a sharp corner, anything is observable in the neighbourhood of the sharp corner, that would suggest a momentum of the electric corpuscles. Nipher employed as conductor a sharply-bent splinter of bamboo, carrying a high-tension discharge from a large influence machine. Cantor used a thin metallic film of gold or platinum formed by deposition on the faces of a glass plate bevelled to a sharp edge; the current being provided by a battery. Nipher, investigating by photographic plates, discovered that the current passing the sharp corner emitted radiations akin to the X-rays, and capable of giving shadow pictures, even through ebonite 3/16 of an inch thick. He has also used thin metal wires bent into a series of sharp corners, and finds that at every corner some of the electrons leave the wire, tending to persevere in their original direction of movement rather than undergo a sudden change of direction. Cantor, exploring electrically with a wire attached to a charged insulated electrometer, found the electrometer discharged by the emanations (or radiations) from the acute angle of his conducting film. Later, but without knowledge of what Nipher had accomplished, Cantor also exposed a photographic plate to the angle of the film, and found it marked with streaks as if charged particles had left the angle in a particular direction. Both experimenters had already made numerous observations under different circumstances before publishing their results. Nipher’s discovery was communicated to the American Philosophical Society in the early summer, and an account of his work appeared in _Science_ of July 17 last [1909] . Cantor’s observations were announced to the German ‘Naturforscher’ meeting at Cologne on September 23.

"If," remarks Professor Thompson, "we accept the modern doctrine that all inertia in what we call matter is due to the magnetic field surrounding a moving charge of electricity, this newly-discovered effect takes its natural place beside the other known effects."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: TELEGRAPHY: The Printer System.

The _Electrical Review_ of January 2, 1909, gave the following account of the extent to which the "printer system" of telegraphy had then come into use in the United States: "Over fifty printer circuits are now in regular operation on the Western Union lines, between leading business centres of the United States, and additional wires are being equipped as fast as the printer apparatus can be installed. This is a system of rapid automatic telegraphy by which telegrams are transmitted at a high rate of speed and received at their destination printed on the regular message forms by a typewriter automatically operated by the electrical impulses transmitted over the wire. The appearance of the message as received is identical with a message turned out by the most expert typewriter operator on Morse circuits. The messages are ready for delivery as soon as they come off the wire, and the only attention required by the typewriter as it receives the messages from the wire is that of removing the blank when the message is completed and supplying a fresh, sheet to the machine for the next message."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Wireless Telegraphy. Statement from Marconi.

"Up to the commencement of 1902 the only receivers that could be practically employed for the purposes of wireless telegraphy were based on what may be called the coherer principle—that is, the detector, the principle of which is based on the discoveries and observations made by S. A. Varley, Professor Hughes, Calsecchi Onesti, and Professor Branly. Early in that year the author was fortunate enough to succeed in constructing a practical receiver of electric waves, based on a principle different from that of the coherer. … The action of this receiver is in the author’s opinion based upon the decrease of magnetic hysteresis, which takes place in iron when under certain conditions this metal is exposed to high frequency oscillations of Hertzian waves. …

"This detector is and has been successfully employed for both long and short distance work. It is used on the ships of the Royal Navy and on all trans-Atlantic liners which are carrying on a long-distance news service. It has also been used to a large extent in the tests across the Atlantic Ocean. … The adoption of this magnetic receiver was the means of bringing about a great improvement in the practical working conditions of wireless telegraphy by making it possible to do away with the troublesome adjustments necessary when using coherers, and also by considerably increasing the speed at which it is possible to receive, the speed depending solely on the ability of the individual operators. Thus a speed of over 30 words a minute has been easily attained. …

"In the spring of 1903 the transmission of news messages from America to the London _Times_ was attempted, and the first messages were correctly received and published in that newspaper. A breakdown in the insulation of the apparatus at Cape Breton made it necessary, however, to suspend the service, and, unfortunately, further accidents made the transmission of messages unreliable, especially during the spring and summer. {598} In consequence of this, the author’s company decided not to attempt the transmission of any more public messages until such time as a reliable and continuous service could be maintained and guaranteed under all ordinary conditions. … In October, 1903, it was found possible to supply the Cunard steamship _Lucania_ during her entire crossing from New York to Liverpool with news transmitted direct to that ship from Poldhu and Cape Breton."

_G. Marconi, Recent Advances in Wireless Telegraphy (Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 1905-1906, pages 137-142)._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Real Problem.

"It is well to remember that the year 1903 is the earliest date at which radio-telegraphy could be regarded as really workable, and of material practical utility. Previous to then, ‘wireless ’ working was very uncertain, but in that year tuning devices were introduced, the principle of which was originally due to Sir Oliver Lodge; and it is these that have made so much difference in the application of Hertzian waves for the purposes of telegraphy. Practical success in radio-telegraphy should not, in fact, be judged from the point of view of the distance at which signals can be sent—or received—but rather from the standpoint of non-interference and secrecy. The essential element in wireless telegraphy—above all others—is, indeed, a discriminating or selective method. For the main purposes of radio-telegraphy, immunity from interference by syntony is essential. Thus a selective system in time of war would be invaluable; a non-selective system almost worse than useless. Syntonic wireless telegraphy entails in the first place, a similar rate of oscillation, or time—i. e., a similar wave length—at the sending and receiving ends. Indeed, the real problem in wireless telegraphy is to arrange the receiving apparatus so that it is alive to notes of one definite frequency, or pitch, but deaf to any other notes, even though of but slightly different pitch. This is effected by the proper adjustment of inductance and capacity, as first shown by Sir Oliver Lodge. … It is, however, at present, impossible to secure really complete secrecy from any method of open wave radiation. A radio-telegraphist, with the right apparatus and a knowledge of the tune, could upset any system of Hertzian wave telegraphy. It should, therefore, be clearly understood that there are, as yet, definite limits to the practical results of tuning for securing absolute selectivity and secrecy."

_Charles Bright, The Useful Sphere for Radio-Telegraphy (Westminster Review, April, 1908)._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Singular Unexplained Phenomena.

Speaking at Stockholm, Sweden, on the occasion of his receiving the Nobel Prize, in December, 1909, Mr. Marconi gave the following account of some unexplained phenomena that are experienced in the working of radio-telegraphy. He said that "a result of scientific interest which he first noticed during the tests on the steamship _Philadelphia_ and which was a most important factor in long distance radio-telegraphy was the very marked and detrimental effect of daylight on the propagation of electric waves at great distances, the range by night being usually more than double that attainable during daytime. He did not think that this effect had yet been satisfactorily investigated or explained. … He was now inclined to believe that the absorption of electric waves during the daytime was due to the ionization of the gaseous molecules of the air effected by ultra-violet light, and as the ultra-violet rays which emanated from the sun were largely absorbed in the upper atmosphere of the earth, it was probable that the portion of the earth’s atmosphere which was facing the sun would contain more ions or electrons than that portion which was in darkness, and therefore, as Sir J. J. Thomson had shown, this illuminated and ionized air would absorb some of the energy of the electric waves. Apparently the length of wave and amplitude of the electrical oscillations had much to do with this interesting phenomenon, long waves and small amplitudes being subject to the effect of daylight to a much smaller degree than short waves and large amplitudes. …

"For comparatively short waves, such as were used for ship communication, clear sunlight and blue skies, though transparent to light, acted as a kind of fog to these waves. … It often occurred that a ship failed to communicate with a near-by station, but could correspond with perfect ease with a distant one. … Although high power stations were now used for communicating across the Atlantic, and messages could be sent by day as well as by night, there still existed short periods of daily occurrence during which transmission from England to America, or _vice versa_, was difficult."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Transatlantic Service.

"The Transatlantic wireless service was inaugurated in October, 1907, between Ireland and Canada, the charges being reduced from 1s. per word for business and private messages and 5d. per word for Press messages to 5d. and 2½d. respectively, these charges not including the land line charges on both sides of the Atlantic. …

"The first wireless messages across the Atlantic were sent from the Canadian station at Table Head, in Cape Breton, in 1902. This station was afterwards removed to its present site, five miles inland, and there greatly enlarged. Ever since 1902 Mr. Marconi has been conducting experiments and making new discoveries and improvements until, at the present day, wireless telegraphy across the Atlantic, over a distance of 2000 miles, is an assured success. … Press traffic … was started on October 17, 1907. On February 3, 1908, the service was extended to private and business telegrams between Montreal and London. The number of words transmitted during the past year is in the neighbourhood of 300,000."

_Correspondence of the London Times, June 25, 1909._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Equipments at Sea. Extent of the Service. Compulsory Legislation Pending.

"Although an installation was carried on the St. Paul for one trip in 1899, the credit of being the pioneers in the use of wireless telegraphy on the ocean belongs to the North-German Lloyd and Cunard Companies. The first vessel fitted was the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, and the lead of the Germans was immediately followed by the English company. Both vessels were fitted by the Marconi Company, which has the distinction of being the first company to equip vessels on a commercial basis. … The Marconi Company alone has up to the present fitted nearly 200 merchant ships, while the United Wireless Telegraph Company has fitted nearly 170 ships. …

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"A very large number of vessels engaged in the coasting trade of America and on the Great Lakes are fitted with wireless telegraphy; the American list shows that 133 vessels are equipped, while a statement issued by the United Wireless Telegraph Company shows 31 other vessels to have been fitted up to April 2, besides 15 Great Lake steamers either fitted or in course of equipment. …

"Nearly 500 warships belonging to nine different countries have been fitted, or are in course of equipment, with radio-telegraphy. According to the American list the United States Navy has been foremost among the navies of the world in the use of ‘wireless.’ On October 1 last 173 United States warships were fitted with various systems. The Berne lists, issued up to May 1 last, show Great Britain to have 157 vessels equipped, Germany 80, Netherlands 11, Denmark 9, and Spain 5.

"In February last the United States House of Representatives passed a Bill providing that ‘every ocean passenger steamer certified to carry 50 passengers or more, before being granted a clearance for a foreign or domestic port 100 miles or more distant from the port of her departure from the United States, shall be equipped with an efficient radio-telegraph installation, and shall have in her employ and on board an efficient radio-telegrapher.’ … The Bill, it is understood, will be considered by the Senate in the autumn, and will it is thought be passed after it has undergone some slight modification. Following the example of the United States Congress a Bill has been introduced in the Canadian House of Commons. … An Italian Royal Decree dated March 14 last provides that all vessels of whatever nationality clearing from Italian ports with emigrants shall carry a wireless installation. So far as this country [Great Britain] is concerned no legislative action is likely to take place, at least for the present."

_Correspondence of the London Times, July 2, 1909._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Cry that brought Help to the Steamship "Republic."

On the 23d of January, 1909, the service of the wireless telegraph to imperilled ships was illustrated by an incident which thrilled the world. In a dense fog, off the island of Nantucket, 26 miles distant, the steamship "Republic," of the White Star Line, was struck amidships by an Italian liner, the "Florida." Two passengers on the former were killed and two were seriously injured, while four sailors of the other were killed. Both steamers were shattered to the sinking point, but the state of the "Republic" was the worse. Fortunately she was equipped with the wireless apparatus for telegraphy, and its operator, "Jack" Binns, was a man equal to the emergency. His appealing signals, "C. Q. D." ("Come Quick! Danger"), were flashed out into all surrounding space, and brought many responses from sea and shore; but then came the difficulty of finding the sinking ships in the black fog. The first rescuing vessel to reach their vicinity was the "Baltic" of the "White Star Line," and she was helped in her groping to them, not only by the ceaseless exchange of wireless messages, but by the sounding of the submarine bell of the Nantucket lightship. The "Baltic" was fitted with receivers for taking guidance from these bells, as her Captain described afterwards in a published account of his search. "On my ship," he said, "there are two apertures on either side of the bow, which you might call submarine ears. They are connected by wires with a telephone receiver on the bridge. By listening at this telephone and switching the instrument from the starboard ‘ear’ to the port ‘ear’ and back again, you can hear the faint tones of the lightship’s submarine bell when you get in range of it. If the tone is louder through the starboard ‘ear’ than through the port ‘ear,’ you know the lightship is on your starboard side. If the tone is exactly the same through both ‘ears,’ you know the lightship is dead ahead. This apparatus helped me greatly."

Nevertheless, the "Baltic’s" search for the "Republic" went on through twelve hours, like that of "a hound on the scent," as the Captain described it. Meantime, the passengers of the "Republic" had been transferred to the "Florida," which seemed well afloat, and the "Baltic" now took everybody from both, the total exceeding 1500. The "Republic" was then towed toward Martha’s Vineyard, but sank a few miles from land, her Captain remaining until the last minute on board. The conduct of all connected with the peril and the rescue was fine, and none more so than that of the sleepless and tireless operator of the wireless telegraph.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Marconi Coast Stations in Great Britain taken over by the British Government.

The following announcement was made by the British Postmaster General in the House of Commons on the 30th of September, 1909:

"I am glad to say that arrangements have been completed with the Marconi Company for the transfer to the Post Office of all their coast stations for communication with ships, including all plant, machinery, buildings, land, and leases, &c., and for the surrender of the rights which they enjoy under their agreement with the Post Office of August, 1904, for licences or facilities in respect of coast stations intended for such communication.

"In addition, the Post Office secures the right of using, free of royalty, the existing Marconi patents and any future patents or improvements, for a term of 14 years, for the following purposes:—Communication for all purposes between stations in the United Kingdom and ships, and between stations on the mainland of Great Britain and Ireland on the one hand and outlying islands on the other hand, or between any two outlying islands; and (except for the transmission of public telegrams) between any two stations on the mainland; and on board Post Office cable ships. The inclusive consideration to be paid to the company is £15,000.

"The arrangement is in no sense an exclusive one. All the stations will, under the International Radio-Telegraphic Convention, be open for communication equally to all ships, whatever system of wireless telegraphy they may carry; and the Post Office will be free to use or to experiment with any system of wireless telegraphy at its discretion. All inland communication of messages by wireless telegraphy will be entirely under the control of the Post Office. The company will retain the licence for their long-distance stations at Poldhu and Clifden, which are primarily intended for shore-to-shore communication with America. Arrangements have also been made with Lloyd’s for the transfer to the Post Office of their wireless stations for communication with ships, and for the surrender of all claims to licences for such communication."

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SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Notes of Recent Progress.

A despatch from Seattle, March 5, 1909, reported that "the steamship Aki Maru of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha fleet accomplished her recent passage from Yokohama, Japan, to Puget Sound, a distance of 4,240 miles, without losing communication with wireless stations on either the Japanese or American coasts. The accomplishment was made possible by relaying messages through other vessels of the company, which were picked up between the Aki Maru and the coast. The Aki Maru was able to communicate directly with the Japanese coast stations, when she was 1,400 miles away."

According to Paris correspondence of the London _Daily Telegraph_, quoted in the New York _Evening Post_ of August 21, "wireless messages from New York are now received or intercepted almost daily by the military station on the Eiffel Tower. Occasionally radio telegrams have also been received from Canada, which, it is believed, forms a record in wireless telegraphy. The communications are at present only of a desultory nature, but the officer, Commandant Ferie, who is in charge of the station, hopes to be able soon to organize a regular service for government, and, perhaps, also for commercial, purposes. The new apparatus which is now being set up in the underground office on the Champ de Mars will be more powerful than any preceding ones, and will be ready probably by the end of next month. Wireless messages will then be exchanged regularly between Paris and the eastern coast of the United States, and perhaps also with Canada."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Electro-Chemistry: The Study of the Infinitely Little.

"A new branch of physical chemistry has lately been developed from the study of the infinitely little which promises to be the most important science of the future; for it deals most intimately with the problems of life. This subject is called electro-chemistry. It is based upon the effect of electricity in revealing the important reactions and motions of the smallest particles of matter. The literature of this subject in current periodicals already exceeds that of any other department of physical science. Until a comparatively late day, heat and light were considered the principal agents which chemists employed to study the reactions of matter. In the new subject of electro-chemistry, electricity occupies the first place, as a destroyer and a readjuster; and heat and light are merely subordinate parts of its manifestations, differing from it only in length of waves in the ether. The to-and-fro motion, which is our incontestable fact, is an electrical vibration. When we consider the investigations in electro-chemistry, we perceive that the most important actions of electricity are not those we are conscious of in their great practical applications; it is rather in subtle and silent effects that it works its greatest changes on life and matter."

_John Trowbridge, The Study of the Infinitely Small (Atlantic Monthly, May, 1902)._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Entomological Study: What we Owe to it? Practical Affairs.

"The insect friends and enemies of the farmer are getting attention. The enemy of the San José scale was found near the Great Wall of China, and is now cleaning up all our orchards. The fig-fertilizing insect imported from Turkey has helped to establish an industry in California that amounts to from fifty to one hundred tons of dried figs annually, and is extending over the Pacific coast. A parasitic fly from South Africa is keeping in subjection the black scale, the worst pest of the orange and lemon industry in California."

_Message of President Roosevelt to Congress, 1904._

"The business man, always on the outlook for a dividend, has sometimes complained that some of our inquiries do not seem to him practical, but he must have patience and faith. A few years ago no knowledge could seem so useless to the practical man, no research more futile than that which sought to distinguish between one species of a gnat or tick and another; yet to-day we know that this knowledge has rendered it possible to open up Africa and to cut the Panama canal."

_A. E. Shipley, on Research in Zoology, at Meeting of British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1909._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Esperanto.

Dr. Zamenhof, a Russian physician, inventor of the proposed international language called Esperanto, published his first pamphlet on the subject in 1887; but it was not until ten years later that the prospect of its extensive use as such began to be realized. "It was well received, first in Russia, then in Norway and Sweden. Then it was taken up in France, by M. de Beaufront. The latter had himself invented an artificial language, but gave it up as soon as he became acquainted with the admirable work of his Russian competitor. He is the man who forced the world at large to stop and seriously consider Esperanto as the solution of the great problem proposed by men like Roger Bacon, Descartes, Pascal, Leibnitz, Locke, Condillac, Voltaire, Diderot, and so many others. From France it went to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and finally to England, where thirty societies of Esperantists were created within a little over a year. …

"The general principle upon which Dr. Zamenhof has worked is this: to eliminate all that is accidental in our national languages, and to keep what is common to all. In consequence, and strictly speaking, he invents nothing; he builds entirely with material that has been in existence for a long time. Here, then, is the way in which he proceeds regarding the various elements that are necessary to the formation of a language.

"_The Sounds_. Sounds that are peculiar to one language are eliminated. The English _th_ and _w_ are not found in French or German, therefore they are dropped. On the other hand, the French _u_, the German _ü_, and the French nasals do not exist in English; they too are dropped. The Spanish _ñ_ and _j_, and the German _ch_, have the same fate. Thus, only sounds which are found everywhere are kept, and no one will have any difficulty about pronunciation, no matter to what country he belongs. Spelling is of course phonetic: one and the same sound for one letter. There are no mute letters, as in French; neither are there double letters. …

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"_The Accent_ is always on the penultimate syllable. Esperanto reminds one of Italian, when spoken, and has proved extremely melodious for singing.

"_The Vocabulary._ The principle of internationalism is applied here in a most ingenious fashion. Dr. Zamenhof proceeded thus: he compared the dictionaries of the different languages, and picked out first those words which are common to them all. He spelled them according to the phonetic system, dropped the special endings in each idiom, and adopted them as root-words in his proposed language. … Then he picked out those which appear in most languages, although not in all. … For the remaining words,—and there are comparatively few left,—which are never the same in the different languages, Dr. Zamenhof selected them in such a manner as to make the task of acquiring Esperanto equally difficult or equally easy for all concerned."

_A. Schinz, Esperanto: the Proposed Universal Language (Atlantic Monthly, January, 1906)._

The sixth international Congress of teachers and promoters of Esperanto is appointed to be held at Washington in 1910. An influential Esperanto Association has been organized in the United States, under the presidency of Dr. D. O. S. Lowell, of the Boston Latin School.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Eugenics: The Science and Art of being Well-born.

"We know that the old rule, ‘Increase and multiply,’ meant a vast amount of infant mortality, of starvation, of chronic disease, of widespread misery. In abandoning that rule, as we have been forced to do, are we not now left free to seek that our children, though few, should be at all events fit, the finest, alike in physical and psychical constitution, that the world has seen?

"Thus has come about the recent expansion of that conception of _eugenics_—or the science and art of being well-born, and of breeding the human race a step nearer towards perfection—which a few among us, and more especially Mr. Francis Galton, have been developing for some years past. Eugenics is beginning to be felt to possess a living actuality which it was not felt to possess before. Instead of being a benevolent scientific fad, it begins to present itself as the goal to which we are inevitably moving. … Human eugenics need not be, and is not likely to be, a cold-blooded selection of partners by some outside scientific authority. But it may be, and is very likely to be, a slowly growing conviction—first among the more intelligent members of the community, and then by imitation and fashion among the less intelligent members—that our children, the future race, the torch-bearers of civilisation for succeeding ages, are not the mere result of chance or Providence, but that, in a very real sense, it is within our grasp to mould them, that the salvation or damnation of many future generations lies in our hands, since it depends on our wise and sane choice of a mate. …

"Eventually, it seems evident, a general system, whether private or public, whereby all personal facts, biological and mental, normal and morbid, are duly and systematically registered, must become inevitable if we are to have a real guide as to those persons who are most fit or least fit to carry on the race. Unless they are full and frank, such records are useless. But it is obvious that for a long time to come such a system of registration must be private. … Through the munificence of Mr. Galton and the co-operation of the University of London the beginning of the attainment of these eugenic ideals has at length been rendered possible. The senate of the University has this year appointed Mr. Edgar Schuster, of New College, Oxford, to the Francis Galton Research Scholarship in Natural Eugenics. It will be Mr. Schuster’s duty to carry out investigations into the history of classes and of families, and to deliver lectures and publish memoirs on the subject of his investigations. It is a beginning only, but the end no man can foresee."

_Havelock Ellis, Eugenics and St. Valentine (Nineteenth Century, May, 1906)._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Gasoline Engine.

Writing in 1905, in an article entitled "The Age of Gasoline," contributed to the _American Review of Reviews_, Mr. F. K. Grain, M. E., gave this brief account of the rapid development of its use as a producer of power, threatening to supersede coal: "About fifteen years ago we first began to hear much of the gasoline engine, which was then in a very crude state. Its possibilities, however, were so attractive, and the field for its use so large,—practically unlimited,—that inventors and manufacturers at once bent their energies to its development, with the result that the gasoline engine has reached a degree of perfection in the past few years that is surprising in view of the fact that the designers were working out a new problem in a practically unknown field, and consequently had no data, theoretical or practical, of any value to assist. … As a motive power, utilized by means of the internal-combustion engine, gasoline is at this time revolutionizing travel, through the automobile. The automobile, in turn, has been the means of adapting gasoline to propulsion of railway trains, as this form of power is found especially useful on short lines where the traffic is light. Several railroads are now building gasoline motor cars of considerable size. …

"The gasoline engine as now made is an adaptation of the steam engine, employing the gas produced by gasoline as a means of energy. Contrary to the general understanding, the gas or gasoline engine is but a high-pressure caloric motor. The power in the gasoline motor is derived by igniting the gas produced in the cylinder, which in turn by its heat expands, the atmosphere imparting energy to the piston by its expansion. A common error is the supposition that the explosion of the gas produces the power, the same as a blow from a hammer, whereas it is the heat generated by the ignition of the compressed gases acting expansively."

One of the speakers at a Congress of Applied Chemistry held in London in May, 1909, said that it seemed almost certain that for most purposes on land the internal combustion engine would before long replace the steam engine, at any rate for moderate powers; for whereas the best types of the latter furnish only about 12 per cent, of the energy of the fuel in the form of work, the former can ordinarily be made to yield 25 per cent., and in the case of the Diesel engine the return is as much as 37 per cent.

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SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Interferometer, The: Principle of the Invention of Professor Michelson for Infinitesimal Measurements. Suggestion of an Unvarying Unit of Measurement.

"In the measurement of length or motion a most refined instrument is the interferometer, devised by Professor A. A. Michelson, of the University of Chicago. It enables an observer to detect a movement through one five-millionth of an inch. The principle involved is illustrated in a simple experiment. If by dropping a pebble at each of two centres, say a yard apart, in a still pond, we send out two systems of waves, each system will ripple out in a series of concentric circles. If, when the waves meet, the crests from one set of waves coincide with the depressions from the other set, the water in that particular spot becomes smooth because one set of waves destroys the other. In this case we may say that the waves interfere. If, on the other hand, the crests of waves from two sources should coincide, they would rise to twice their original height. Light-waves sent out in a similar mode from two points may in like manner either interfere, and produce darkness, or unite to produce light of double brilliancy. These alternate dark and bright bands are called interference fringes. When one of the two sources of light is moved through a very small space, the interference fringes at a distance move through a space so much larger as to be easily observed and measured, enabling an observer to compute the short path through which a light-source has moved. … Many diverse applications of the interferometer have been developed, as, for example, in thermometry. The warmth of a hand held near a pencil of light is enough to cause a wavering of the fringes. A lighted match shows contortions. … When the air is heated its density and refractive power diminish: it follows that if this experiment is tried under conditions which show a regular and measurable displacement of the fringes, their movement will indicate the temperature of the air. This method has been applied to ascertain very high temperatures, such as those of the blast furnace. Most metals expand one or two parts in 100,000 for a rise in temperature of one degree centigrade. When a small specimen is examined the whole change to be measured may be only about 1/10000 inch, a space requiring a good microscope to perceive, but readily measured by an interferometer. It means a displacement amounting to several fringes, and this may be measured to within of a fringe or less; so that the whole displacement may be measured to within a fraction of one per cent. Of course, with long bars the accuracy attainable is much greater.

"The interferometer has much refined the indications of the balance. In a noteworthy experiment Professor Michelson found the amount of attraction which a sphere of lead exerted on a small sphere hung on an arm of a delicate balance. The amount of this attraction when two such spheres touch is proportional to the diameter of the large sphere, which in this case was about eight inches. The attraction on the small ball on the end of the balance was thus the same fraction of its weight as the diameter of the large ball was of the diameter of the earth,—something like one twenty-millionth. So the force to be measured was one twenty-millionth of the weight of this small ball. In the interferometer the approach of the small ball to the large one produced a displacement of seven whole fringes."

_George Iles, Inventors at Work, pages 214-218 (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York)._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: International Congresses of Science.

The most notable of the gatherings at St. Louis in 1904, connected with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was the Congress of Arts and Science.

See (in this Volume) ST. LOUIS: A. D. 1904.

Hardly less important from some points of view was the meeting of the First Pan-American Scientific Congress, at Santiago, Chile, beginning on the 25th of December, 1908. It had been preceded by three scientific congresses of the Latin-American states, at Buenos Aires in 1898, at Montevideo in 1901, and at Rio de Janeiro in 1905. The Pan-American comprehensiveness was given to a fourth one by an official invitation from the Chilean Government to the Government of the United States to send delegates to the meeting, and a further invitation from the Chilean Committee of Organization to fifteen of the prominent universities of the United States to do the same. The response to the invitation was cordial, and both of the American continents were well represented at the Congress. The programme of topics for discussion included a number of historically and politically scientific questions of specially American interest, such, for example, as the following:

"An explanation of the reasons why the colonies of English America were able to unite into a single state after they had attained their independence, while those of Spanish America never succeeded in establishing a permanent union.

"The extent to which America has come to possess a civilization, as well as interests and problems, different from those of Europe.

"Given the special circumstances of the states of the New World, would it be feasible to create an American international law? and if so, upon what bases should it rest, and how should it be composed?"

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Moving Picture Show. The Millions entertained by it in the United States.

In 1908, in the United States, "the moving-picture show drew an attendance of 4,000,000 daily, a total attendance of more than a billion; or an average of one visit a month to this form of amusement for every man, woman, and child in the whole country. Already this infant industry has developed to a point where $50,000,000 is invested in it, and 7,000 moving-picture houses are scattered over the country. Of the larger cities, Chicago has at present 313 moving-picture shows, and probably will have 500 before the end of the present year. New York has 300, St. Louis 205, Philadelphia 186, San Francisco 131, Pittsburgh 90, and Boston 31. Hundreds of smaller cities and towns have from one to a dozen, and the craze has extended to Mexico, Central and South America, and the Panama Canal Zone. Nearly 1,000,000 feet, or 190 miles, of films are shown every day in the United States. … Making of these films is in itself an enormous business. The organization which controls them not only has agents photographing scenes in every part of the world, but maintains theatres and out-of-door establishments, where complete plays and all sorts of other activities are presented before the camera."

_New York Evening Post._

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SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Opsonins: A remarkable new Discovery in Biology.

Discovery of the functions of the white corpuscles found in the blood of animals was begun, it is said, by Dr. Augustus Waller, in 1843, and continued in much later years by Professor Metchnikoff, who was associated with the work of Pasteur. The latter determined the surprising and extremely important fact that the white corpuscles or cells are essentially minute living creatures, which serve the larger creature they inhabit as a sanitary guard, defending it against the invasion of microbes that are hostile to its health. They pursue and devour these malignant invaders; whence the name that has been given to them, of "phagocytes," or "eating cells."

"When we study the process familiarly known as ‘inflammation,’ we find the most perfect illustration at once of the duties of the white blood-cells and of the new phase and meaning of a common occurrence which are revealed by research. ‘Inflammation’ is a process which follows upon a large variety of injuries, and which marks the onset and course of many diseases, from a scratch on the finger to an inflammation of the lungs. … Given a simple scratch and the phagocytes stimulated by the injury to the tissues will come hurrying to the scene of the accident like ambulance men, eager to assist in the removal of any deleterious matter, and to give their aid in the healing process and in the formation of the new tissue, the production of which will complete the cure. But given a scratch that inoculates the finger with ‘dirt,’ which is only another name for microbes, and the nature of inflammation becomes clearer to us. In a few hours the finger will begin to feel painful; its temperature will rise; it will appear red and ‘inflamed,’ and it will exhibit swelling. Later on, if we puncture the swelling, we shall find a yellow fluid, which we name ‘pus,’ or ‘matter,’ escaping from the puncture. Now to what are the symptoms of inflammation due? The plain answer is, that they represent the results of a great migration of phagocytes from the blood-vessels, destined to attack, and if possible remove, the infective particles which threaten to do us injury. The inflammation, in this view, is the evidence of a battle being fought in our favour, and often with very long odds against us. If our phagocytes gain a complete victory, we escape the suppuration which we saw to result in the shape of the ‘festering’ finger. If, on the other hand, they sustain defeat, they will fight on, leaving their dead behind. It is the dead white blood-cells, which have fallen in the fray, which constitute the ‘pus’ or ‘matter’ we find in wounds. … These dead cells, like the corpses of soldiers who fall in battle, later become hurtful to the organism they in their lifetime were anxious to protect from harm, for they are fertile sources of septicaemia and pyaemia (blood-poisoning)—the pestilence and scourge so much dreaded by operative surgeons.

"Such is the story which forms the natural prologue to the history of ‘Opsonins.’ For many a day after the publication of Metchnikoff’s discoveries regarding the germ-killing power of the phagocytes, it was held that these living cells alone accomplished the duty of disposing of troublesome invaders. Later on, other opinions were advanced to the effect that while the phagocytes did undoubtedly accomplish their work in the direction indicated, they demanded aid to that end from an outside source. This source was indicated and represented by the plasma or blood-fluid itself. The fluid part of the blood had long been known to possess germ-killing properties, but the extent of its powers in this direction had not been duly determined, nor had the important point been settled whether the plasma as a whole or only part thereof aided the white blood-cells in their forays on microbes. … Researches made prior to the year 1903 gave cause for the belief in the importance of the blood-plasma in whole or in part, but it was in the year just named that very important investigations were undertaken with the view to determining the exact status of the blood-fluid in work of bactericidal kind. Drs. Wright and Douglas of St. Mary’s Hospital, London, undertook a piece of research conducted on lines somewhat different from those on which previous work of this nature had been carried on. They proceeded first of all by the aid of delicate processes to separate the blood-corpuscles from the blood-fluid. The white blood-cells were thus kept in a medium or fluid of neutral kind, while the blood-fluid itself on the other hand was obtained free from its corpuscles. Next in order an emulsion of certain microbes capable of producing disease was made in a solution of salt. When the phagocytes, alive, of course, in their neutral fluid, were allowed access to the germs they did not attack them. It was as if two contending armies had been brought face to face, waiting to attack, but restrained by some negotiations proceeding between the commanders. The case was at once altered, and the battle began, when the experimenters brought the separated blood-fluid into the field. Added to the germs and to the phagocytes these elements, which had been ‘spoiling for a fight,’ joined issue, and the white blood-cells performed their normal work of microbe-baiting. There was but one inference to be drawn from these facts. Clearly, the addition of the blood-fluid supplied some condition or other, necessary for the development of the fighting powers of the cells. … Our investigators are of the opinion that the real source of the power possessed by the blood-fluid or ‘plasma’ is to be sought and found in substances contained therein and called ‘Opsonins.’ We can now appreciate the meaning of this term. It is derived from the classic verb for catering, for preparing food or for providing food. The view taken of opsonic action justifies the use of the word, for it is believed that these substances perform their share of the germ-destroying work, not by urging on or stimulating the phagocytes to the attack, but, on the contrary, by acting on the microbes, by weakening their powers of resistance and by rendering them the easy prey of the white blood-cells. The ‘Opsonins’ are carried by the blood-stream everywhere, and it is when they come in contact with any microbe-colonies in the body that they exert their specific action on the germs. … The idea that the more active our white blood-cells are, and the more extensive and complete their work, the greater the amount of ‘Opsonins’ present, is one which seems to be founded on a rational basis. This view regards these substances as the real cause of phagocytic activity. That ‘Opsonins’ furthermore appear to possess definite degrees of power seems proved by the observation that a person’s blood may contain sufficient to deal with one disease in the way of stimulating the phagocytes to work, while the same quantity would not equal half that required to effect a satisfactory attack on another and different disease. What has been called the ‘opsonic index ’ of a person is the standard, if so we may call it, or measure of his germ-killing power, in so far as the amount of ‘Opsonins’ contained in his blood is concerned. By a technical procedure and calculation the experimenter can compute the opsonic power of a given specimen of blood."

_Andrew Wilson, About Opsonins (Cornhill, January, 1907)._

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SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Medical.

See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Physical: The New Conceptions of Electricity, Matter and Ether. Statement by Madame Curie. Sir Joseph Thomson’s Address to the British Association at Winnipeg. Sir Oliver Lodge on the Ether of Space.

"One point which appears to-day to be definitely settled is a view of atomic structure of electricity, which goes to confirm and complete the idea that we have long held regarding the atomic structure of matter, which constitutes the basis of chemical theories. At the same time that the existence of electric atoms, indivisible by our present means of research, appears to be established with certainty, the important properties of these atoms are also shown. The atoms of negative electricity which we call electrons, are found to exist in a free state, independent of all material atoms, and not having any properties in common with them. In this state they possess certain dimensions in space, and are endowed with a certain inertia, which has suggested the idea of attributing to them a corresponding mass.

"Experiments have shown that their dimensions are very small compared with those of material molecules, and that their mass is only a small fraction, not exceeding one one-thousandth of the mass of an atom of hydrogen. They show also that if these atoms can exist isolated, they may also exist in all ordinary matter, and may be in certain cases emitted by a substance such as a metal without its properties being changed in a manner appreciable by us.

"If, then, we consider the electrons as a form of matter, we are led to put the division of them beyond atoms and to admit the existence of a kind of extremely small particles able to enter into the composition of atoms, but not necessarily by their departure involving atomatic destruction. Looking at it in this light, we are led to consider every atom as a complicated structure, and this supposition is rendered probable by the complexity of the emission spectra which characterize the different atoms. We have thus a conception sufficiently exact of the atoms of negative electricity.

"It is not the same for positive electricity, for a great dissimilarity appears to exist between the two electricities. Positive electricity appears always to be found in connection with material atoms, and we have no reason, thus far, to believe that they can be separated. Our knowledge relative to matter is also increased by an important fact. A new property of matter has been discovered which has received the name of radioactivity. Radioactivity is the property which the atoms of certain substances possess of shooting off particles, some of which have a mass comparable to that of the atoms themselves, while the others are the electrons. This property, which uranium and thorium possess in a slight degree, has led to the discovery of a new chemical element, radium, whose radioactivity is very great. Among the particles expelled by radium are some which are ejected with great velocity, and their expulsion is accompanied with a considerable evolution of heat. A radioactive body constitutes, then, a source of energy.

"According to the theory which best accounts for the phenomena of radioactivity, a certain proportion of the atoms of a radioactive body is transformed in a given time, with the production of atoms of less atomic weight, and in some cases with the expulsion of electrons. This is a theory of the transmutation of elements, but differs from the dreams of the alchemists in that we declare ourselves, for the present at least, unable to induce or influence the transmutation. Certain facts go to show that radioactivity appertains in a slight degree to all kinds of matter. It may be, therefore, that matter is far from being as unchangeable or inert as it was formerly thought; and is, on the contrary, in continual transformation, although this transformation escapes our notice by its relative slowness."

_Madame Curie, Modern Theories of Electricity and Matter (Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, 1905-1906, pages 103-104)._

A remarkable summary of recent advances in physical science, by Sir Joseph Thomson, in his presidential address at the opening (August 25, 1909) of the seventy-ninth annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Winnipeg, Canada, contains what is, without doubt, the most successful of endeavors to give some understanding of the new conceptions of matter, ether and electricity, with which scientists are now working, to minds that have not been scientifically trained. Sir Joseph treats the subject at more length than can be given to it here, but abridgment seems possible without robbing it of the more important parts of its rich content of information:

"The period which has elapsed since the Association last met in Canada [1897] has been," said the President, "one of almost unparalleled activity in many branches of physics, and many new and unsuspected properties of matter and electricity have been discovered. The history of this period affords a remarkable illustration of the effect which may be produced by a single discovery; for it is, I think, to the discovery of the Röntgen rays that we owe the rapidity of the progress which has recently been made in physics. A striking discovery like that of the Röntgen rays acts much like the discovery of gold in a sparsely populated country; it attracts workers who come in the first place for the gold, but who may find that the country has other products, other charms, perhaps even more valuable than the gold itself. The country in which the gold was discovered in the case of the Röntgen rays was the department of physics dealing with the discharge of electricity through gases, a subject which, almost from the beginning of electrical science, had attracted a few enthusiastic workers, who felt convinced that the key to unlock the secret of electricity was to be found in a vacuum tube. {605} Röntgen, in 1895, showed that when electricity passed through such a tube the tube emitted rays which could pass through bodies opaque to ordinary light; which could, for example, pass through the flesh of the body and throw a shadow of the bones on a suitable screen. … It is not, however, to the power of probing dark places, important though this is, that the influence of Röntgen rays on the progress of science has mainly been due; it is rather because these rays make gases, and, indeed, solids and liquids, through which they pass, conductors of electricity. … The study of gases exposed to Röntgen rays has revealed in such gases the presence of particles charged with electricity; some of these particles are charged with positive, others with negative, electricity. The properties of these particles have been investigated; we know the charge they carry, the speed with which they move under an electric force, the rate at which the oppositely charged ones recombine, and these investigations have thrown a new light, not only on electricity, but also on the structure of matter. We know from these investigations that electricity, like matter, is molecular in structure, that just as a quantity of hydrogen is a collection of an immense number of small particles called molecules, so a charge of electricity is made up of a great number of small charges, each of a perfectly definite and known amount. … Nay, further, the molecular theory of matter is indebted to the molecular theory of electricity for the most accurate determination of its fundamental quantity, the number of molecules in any given quantity of an elementary substance.

"The great advantage of the electrical methods for the study of the properties of matter is due to the fact that whenever a particle is electrified it is very easily identified, whereas an uncharged molecule is most elusive; and it is only when these are present in immense numbers that we are able to detect them. …

"We have already made considerable progress in the task of discovering what the structure of electricity is. We have known for some time that of one kind of electricity—the negative—and a very interesting one it is. We know that negative electricity is made up of units all of which are of the same kind; that these units are exceedingly small compared with even the smallest atom. … The size of these corpuscles is on an altogether different scale from that of atoms; the Volume of a corpuscle bears to that of the atom about the same relation as that of a speck of dust to the Volume of this room. Under suitable conditions they move at enormous speeds, which approach in some instances the velocity of light. The discovery of these corpuscles is an interesting example of the way Nature responds to the demands made upon her by mathematicians. Some years before the discovery of corpuscles it had been shown by a mathematical investigation that the mass of a body must be increased by a charge of electricity. This increase, however, is greater for small bodies than for large ones, and even bodies as small as atoms are hopelessly too large to show any appreciable effect; thus the result seemed entirely academic. After a time corpuscles were discovered, and these are so much smaller than the atom that the increase in mass due to the charge becomes not merely appreciable, but so great that, as the experiments of Kaufmann and Bucherer have shown, the whole of the mass of the corpuscle arises from its charge.

"We know a great deal about negative electricity; what do we know about positive electricity? Is positive electricity molecular in structure? Is it made up into units, each unit carrying a charge equal in magnitude though opposite in sign to that carried by a corpuscle? … The investigations made on the unit of positive electricity show that it is of quite a different kind from the unit of negative; the mass of the negative unit is exceedingly small compared with any atom; the only positive units that up to the present have been detected are quite comparable in mass with the mass of an atom of hydrogen; in fact they seem equal to it. This makes it more difficult to be certain that the unit of positive electricity has been isolated, for we have to be on our guard against its being a much smaller body attached to the hydrogen atoms which happen to be present in the vessel. … At present the smallest positive electrified particles of which we have direct experimental evidence have masses comparable with that of an atom of hydrogen.

"A knowledge of the mass and size of the two units of electricity, the positive and the negative, would give us the material for constructing what may be called a molecular theory of electricity, and would be a starting point for a theory of the structure of matter; for the most natural view to take, as a provisional hypothesis, is that matter is just a collection of positive and negative units of electricity, and that the forces which hold atoms and molecules together, the properties which differentiate one kind of matter from another, all have their origin in the electrical forces exerted by positive and negative units of electricity, grouped together in different ways in the atoms of the different elements. As it would seem that the units of positive and negative electricity are of very different sizes, we must regard matter as a mixture containing systems of very different types, one type corresponding to the small corpuscle, the other to the large positive unit. Since the energy associated with a given charge is greater the smaller the body on which the charge is concentrated, the energy stored up in the negative corpuscles will be far greater than that stored up by the positive. The amount of energy which is stored up in ordinary matter in the form of the electrostatic potential energy of its corpuscles is, I think, not generally realized. … This energy is fortunately kept fast bound by the corpuscles; if at any time an appreciable fraction were to get free the earth would explode and become a gaseous nebula. The matter of which I have been speaking so far is the material which builds up the earth, the sun, and the stars, the matter studied by the chemist, and which he can represent by a formula; this matter occupies, however, but an insignificant fraction of the universe; it forms but minute islands in the great ocean of the ether, the substance with which the whole universe is filled.

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"The ether is not a fantastic creation of the speculative philosopher; it is as essential to us as the air we breathe. For we must remember that we on this earth are not living on our own resources; we are dependent from minute to minute upon what we are getting from the sun, and the gifts of the sun are conveyed to us by the ether. It is to the sun that we owe not merely night and day, springtime and harvest, but it is the energy of the sun, stored up in coal, in waterfalls, in food, that practically does all the work of the world. … On the electro-magnetic theory of light, now universally accepted, the energy streaming to the earth travels through the ether in electric waves; thus practically the whole of the energy at our disposal has at one time or another been electrical energy. The ether must, then, be the seat of electrical and magnetic forces. We know, thanks to the genius of Clerk Maxwell, the founder and inspirer of modern electrical theory, the equations which express the relation between these forces, and although for some purposes these are all we require, yet they do not tell us very much about the nature of the ether.

"Let us consider some of the facts known about the ether. When light falls on a body and is absorbed by it, the body is pushed forward in the direction in which the light is travelling, and if the body is free to move it is set in motion by the light. Now it is a fundamental principle of dynamics that when a body is set moving in a certain direction, or, to use the language of dynamics, acquires momentum in that direction, some other mass must lose the same amount of momentum; in other words, the amount of momentum in the universe is constant. Thus, when the body is pushed forward by the light, some other system must have lost the momentum the body acquires, and the only other system available is the wave of light falling on the body; hence we conclude that there must have been momentum in the wave in the direction in which it is travelling. Momentum, however, implies mass in motion. We conclude, then, that in the ether through which the wave is moving there is mass moving with the velocity of light. The experiments made on the pressure due to light enable us to calculate this mass. …

"The place where the density of the ether carried along by an electric field rises to its highest value is close to a corpuscle, for round the corpuscles are by far the strongest electric fields of which we have any knowledge. We know the mass of the corpuscle, we know from Kaufmann’s experiments that this arises entirely from the electric charge, and is therefore due to the ether carried along with the corpuscle by the lines of force attached to it. … Around the corpuscle ether must have an extravagant density; whether the density is as great as this in other places depends upon whether the ether is compressible or not. If it is compressible, then it may be condensed round the corpuscles, and there have an abnormally great density; if it is not compressible, then the density in free space cannot be less than the number I have just mentioned. With respect to this point we must remember that the forces acting on the ether close to the corpuscle are prodigious. … I do not know at present of any effect which would enable us to determine whether ether is compressible or not. And although at first sight the idea that we are immersed in a medium almost infinitely denser than lead might seem inconceivable, it is not so if we remember that in all probability matter is composed mainly of holes. We may, in fact, regard matter as possessing a bird-cage kind of structure in which the Volume of the ether disturbed by the wires when the structure is moved is infinitesimal in comparison with the Volume enclosed by them. If we do this, no difficulty arises from the great density of the ether; all we have to do is to increase the distance between the wires in proportion as we increase the density of the ether."

Some English journals, in discussing Sir Joseph Thomson’s address at Winnipeg, spoke doubtingly of its scientific soundness, regarding it as too speculative, representing conclusions in advance of what physical science had obtained a real warrant to draw. These newspaper critics were called sharply to account by Sir Oliver Lodge, and told that they were suspicious of Sir Joseph’s statements only because they knew nothing of the data on which he founded them.

In a magazine article of the previous year, Sir Oliver Lodge had already traversed part of the ground covered by the impressive review of Sir Joseph Thomson. In that article he said of the present conception of the ether of space, as accepted among the leaders of physical science:

"When a steel spring is bent or distorted, what is it that is really strained? Not the atoms—the atoms are only displaced; it is the connecting links that are strained—the connecting medium—the ether. Distortion of a spring is really distortion of the ether. All strain exists in the ether. Matter can only be moved. Contact does not exist between the atoms of matter as we know them; it is doubtful if a piece of matter ever touches another piece, any more than a comet touches the sun when it appears to rebound from it; but the atoms are connected, as the planets, the comets and the sun are connected, by a continuous _plenum_ without break or discontinuity of any kind. Matter acts on matter solely through the ether. But whether matter is a thing utterly distinct and separate from the ether, or whether it is a specifically modified portion of it—modified in such a way as to be susceptible of locomotion, and yet continuous with all the rest of the ether,—which can be said to extend everywhere, far beyond the bounds of the modified and tangible portion called matter—are questions demanding, and I may say in process of receiving, answers.

"Every such answer involves some view of the universal, and possibly infinite, uniform, omnipresent connecting medium, the ether of space."

_Oliver Lodge, The Ether of Space (North American Review, May, 1908)._

[Transcriber's Note: The Michelson-Morley experiment 21 years earlier had cast doubt on the ether concept. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70888]

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Radium and Radio-activity: The Discovery by Professor and Madame Curie. The Light it throws on many Scientific Problems. Faraday’s Prophetic Anticipation. The Dissolution of Atoms.

"In his first treatise on the X-rays, Röntgen [see in Volume VI.] drew attention to the fact that they proceeded from those parts of the Röntgen tubes where the glass, under the influence of the impinging cathode rays, showed the most fluorescence. It therefore seemed possible that the existence of these mysterious rays was in some way dependent on previously acquired fluorescence, and many physicists tried to ascertain with the well-known Balmain dyes, which become luminous after exposure to the light, if results could be obtained resembling those with a Röntgen tube.

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"Similar attempts by the French physicist, Henri Becquerel, were crowned with success in an unexpected direction. He exposed a uranium salt to the light, and then placing it in a dark room on a photographic plate covered with opaque paper he demonstrated the action of these rays on the plate through the paper, thin sheets of metal, etc. But the supposed and sought-for relation of the rays to the previous fluorescence was not evident, for Becquerel obtained precisely the same results with preparations of uranium which had not only not been previously exposed directly to the light, but had purposely been kept some time in darkness and could therefore display no stored-up luminescence. He had, however, discovered the uranium or Becquerel rays. …

"At Becquerel’s suggestion Madame Curie undertook a systematic investigation of all the chemical elements and established the fact that with none of them, excepting uranium and thorium, could an appreciable effect indicating rays be obtained with her apparatus. On the other hand, she found that many of the minerals investigated showed noticeable action in this direction. The fact that a few of them, the uranium pitchblende, for example, from Joachimsthal, Bohemia, emitted rays three or four times stronger than those of pure uranium, and which could not therefore be announced as uranium rays, led her to suppose that in the pitchblende itself, apart from the uranium, there must exist a still more powerful radioactive substance. It is a matter of record how, in this research, which might serve as a model for such work, she and her husband, so soon afterwards to lose his life by a deplorable accident, succeeded in tracing this supposed substance more and more accurately, and finally in obtaining it pure. Madame Curie thus became the discoverer of radium, a new element possessed of wonderful, of fabulous qualities.

"Besides Madame Curie no other investigator but Professor Braunschweig, so far as I know, has yet succeeded in obtaining pure radium."

_Franz Himstedt, Radioactivity (Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, 1905-1906, pages 117-118)._

"The phenomena of radio-activity revive interest in the prophetic views of Michael Faraday. In 1816, when he was but twenty-four years of age, he delivered a lecture at the Royal Institution in London on Radiant Matter. In the course of his remarks there occurs this passage:—‘If we now conceive a change as far beyond vaporization as that is above fluidity, and then take into account the proportional increased extent of alteration as the changes arise, we shall perhaps, if we can form any conception at all, not fall short of radiant matter; and as in the last conversion many qualities were lost, so here also many more would disappear. It was the opinion of Newton, and of many other distinguished philosophers, that this conversion was possible, and continually going on in the processes of nature, and they found that the idea would bear without injury the applications of mathematical reasoning—as regards heat, for instance. If assumed, we must also assume the simplicity of matter; for it would follow that all the variety of substances with which we are acquainted could be converted into one of three kinds of radiant matter; which again may differ from each other only in the size of their particles or their form. The properties of known bodies would then be supposed to arise from the varied arrangements of their ultimate atoms, and belong to substances only as long as their compound nature existed; and thus variety of matter and variety of properties would be found co-essential.’"

George Iles, Inventors at Work, pages 204-205 (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York).

"An ascertained commercial value of £4 per milligramme (equivalent to £114,000 per ounce) has been placed upon radium by a contract just entered into between the British Metalliferous Mines (Limited) and Lord Iveagh and Sir Ernest Cassel for the supply of 7½ grammes (rather more than a quarter of an ounce) of pure radium bromide. This very large order for radium will be supplied from the above named company’s mine near Grampound Road in Cornwall."

_London Times, June 21, 1909._

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Mono-Rail Gyroscopic System.

A mechanical invention not yet developed, but which seems more than likely to count among the most important of the next few years, is that known as the Brennan mono-rail system, which balances cars and trains of cars on a single rail by use of the principle of the gyroscope. It was first exhibited by its English inventor, Mr. Louis Brennan, in model form, before the Royal Society, in 1907, and won so much confidence in its possibilities that the British War Office and the India Office gave financial assistance to meet the cost of the long experiments that were necessary for adapting the system to service on a large practical scale. The result of these experiments was exhibited in public trials at New Brompton, England, and, subsequently, at New York, in the later part of 1909. The following account of the exhibition at New Brompton was given by _The Times_:

"The car with which the test runs were carried out is 40 ft. in length and 10 ft. in width; its weight is 22 tons, and it is designed for a load of 10 to 15 tons. The weight of the gyroscopes, of which there are two, is 1½ tons, each having a diameter of 3 ft. 6 in. The speed of rotation is 3,000 r. p. m., or considerably less than it was in the 6 ft. model exhibited before the Royal Society. It would be possible for the car to obtain the necessary power by collecting current from an overhead wire with a consequent saving of weight, but in the present example the motive power is provided by two Wolseley petrol engines, one of 80 h. p., and the other of 20 h. p., driving two direct-current shunt-wound motors of the Siemens type. It is not necessary that the car should be propelled electrically, and steam or other motive power could be employed; but in any case it would be necessary to spin the gyroscopes electrically, this method being ideal for the purpose. The air is exhausted from the gyroscope cases, the pressure in them being equivalent to from ½ in. to 5/8 in. of mercury. It is hoped in future installations to design the gyroscopes for higher speeds, and in that case it would be possible to reduce the size and weight of the equipment. In this first car the gyroscopes run in the vertical plane, but that is merely for convenience, the essential feature being that the trunnions should be at right angles to the track. …

{608}

"Several experimental trips were made on the factory circular track as well as on the straight, and the car travelled with remarkable steadiness throughout. It is not likely that the Brennan mono-rail will find any wide field of application in this country, but there would appear to be great advantages in the system for mountain railways in India and elsewhere, and, indeed, it seems suitable for adoption in any country where new railways are being planned. The inventor lays stress on the absolute safety of the system at speeds ranging up to about 150 miles per hour."

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Sanitary.

See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: Submarine Signal Bells.

In May, 1909, it was announced from Washington that "the Government, recognizing the substantial service rendered to shipping by submarine bells, has decided to extend their installation from time to time to light vessels and stations on both coasts and upon the great lakes. At present forty-six of the light vessels are thus equipped, and the signals which they send out are of undoubted aid to deep-water navigation. Canada, England, Germany, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark are following suit. The bells operate during fogs and at night and the sound waves emitted by the bell under water have been known to travel as far as twenty-seven miles. These sound waves are picked up by the receiving microphones on board ships, and by the code signal of each station the vessel’s navigator is able to tell where he is."

See (in this Volume) above, ELECTRICAL: WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY: THE CRY THAT BROUGHT HELP.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Turbine Steam Engine. Its Successful Development. First Use on Ocean Steamers. The "Lusitania" and "Mauretania."

"For a long time and well into the nineteenth century, water was lifted by pistons moving in cylindrical pumps. Meantime the turbine grew steadily in favor as a water motor, arriving at last at high efficiency. This gave designers a hint to reverse the turbine and use it as a water lifter or pump: this machine, duly built, with a continuous instead of an intermittent motion, showed much better results than the old-fashioned pump. The turbine-pump is accordingly adopted for many large waterworks, deep mines and similar installations. This advance from to-and-fro to rotary action extended irresistibly to steam as a motive power. It was clear that if steam could be employed in a turbine somewhat as water is, much of the complexity and loss inherent in reciprocating engines would be brushed aside. A pioneer inventor in this field was Gustave Patrich De Laval, of Stockholm, who constructed his first steam turbine along the familiar lines of the Barker mill. Steam is so light that for its utmost utilization as a jet a velocity of about 2,000 feet a second is required, a rate which no material is strong enough to allow. De Laval by using the most tenacious metal for his turbines is able to give their swiftest parts a speed of as much as 1400 feet a second. His apparatus is cheap, simple and efficient; it is limited to about 300 horse-power. Its chief feature is its divergent nozzle, which permits the outflowing steam to expand fully with all the effect realized in a steam cylinder provided with expansion valve gear. Another device of De Laval which makes his turbine a safe and desirable prime mover is the flexible shaft which has a little, self-righting play under the extreme pace of its rotation.

"Of direct action turbines the De Laval is the chief; of compound turbines, in which the steam is expanded in successive stages, the first and most widely adopted was invented by the Honourable Charles A. Parsons of Newcastle-on-Tyne. … In 1894 Mr. Parsons launched his Turbinia, the first steamer to be driven by a turbine. Her record was so gratifying that a succession of vessels, similarly equipped, were year by year built for excursion lines, for transit across the British Channel, for the British Royal Navy, and for mercantile marine service. The thirty-fifth of these ships, the _Victorian_ of the Allan Line, was the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean, arriving at Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 18, 1905. She was followed by the _Virginian_ of the same line which arrived at Quebec, May 8, 1905. Not long afterward the Cunard Company sent from Liverpool to New York the _Carmania_ equipped with steam turbines, and in every other respect like the Caronia of the same owners, which is driven by reciprocating engines of the best model. Thus far the comparison between these two ships is in favor of the Carmania. The new monster Cunarders, the _Lusitania_ and the _Mauretania_, each of 70,000 horse power, are to be propelled by steam turbines. The principal reasons for this preference are thus given by Professor Carl C. Thomas:—Decreased cost of operation as regards fuel, labor, oil, and repairs. Vibration due to machinery is avoided. Less weight of machinery and coal to be carried, resulting in greater speed. Greater simplicity of machinery in construction and operation, causing less liability to accident and breakdown. Smaller and more deeply immersed propellers, decreasing the tendency of the machinery to race in rough weather. Lower centre of gravity of the machinery as a whole, and increased headroom above the machinery. According to recent reports, decreased first cost of machinery."

_George Iles, Inventors at Work, pages 452-456 (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York)._

In August, 1908, the _Lusitania_ made the voyage from Queenstown to New York in 4 days and 15 hours; again in February, 1909, in 4 days, 17 hours and 6 minutes. In September, 1909, the _Mauretania_ crossed from New York to Queenstown in 4 days, 13 hours and 41 minutes.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Washington Memorial Institution. Extension of the Usefulness of Scientific Work in Departments of the Government.

See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: The Nobel Prizes.

See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES. See also EARTHQUAKES.

----------SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: End--------

----------SCOTLAND: Start--------

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1901 (March). Census.

According to the returns of the decennial enumeration made on the night of the 31st of March, 1901, the population of Scotland that day, "including those in the Royal Navy, and belonging to the Mercantile shipping in Scottish Ports or on Scottish waters, number 4,472,000 persons, of whom 2,173,151 are males, and 2,298,849 females.

"When compared with the corresponding population as enumerated at the Census of 1891, a total increase of 446,353 is found to have occurred; the male increase being 230,434, and the female 215,919. {609} The percentage rate of increase of both sexes during the decennial period is 11.09—that of the males being 11.86, and of the females 10.37. The corresponding total rate of increase during the preceding decennium, 1881-1891, was 7.77 per cent. … The rate at the present Census for Scotland is, with the exception of that at 1881, the highest since the decennial period 1821-1831. …

"In 19 Counties an increase in the population has taken place, in 14 a decrease. The highest rate of increase—both sexes combined—is in Linlithgow, 24.4 per cent.; followed by Lanark with an increase of 21.1 per cent.; Stirling with one of 20.6 per cent.; Renfrew with one of 16.5 per cent.; Dumbarton with one of 16.2 per cent.; Kincardine with one of 15.3 per cent.; Fife with one of 15.0 per cent. The greatest falling off occurs in Berwick, 4.6 per cent.; in Orkney, 5.7 per cent.; in Roxburgh, 8.8 per cent.; in Caithness 8.9 per cent.; in Wigtown, 9.4 per cent.; and in Selkirk 15.8 percent. Inverness stands almost as it was, having increased but 0.1 per cent., and the minimum rate of falling off as to population is in Banff, 0.3 per cent., and Argyll, 0.6 per cent. …

"Among the larger Burghs the increase of population varies not a little. Thus, in Motherwell, which heads the list, the increase during the decennial period 1891-1901, is at the rate of 62.5 per cent. Partick follows with a rate of increase of 48.6 per cent.; Wishaw with one of 36.8 percent.; Hamilton with one of 31.8 per cent.; Kirkcaldy with one of 25.5 percent.; Falkirk with one of 24.3 per cent.; Govan with one of 24.2 per cent.; Coatbridge with one of 21.3 per cent.; Aberdeen with one of 22.9 per cent.; Kilmarnock with one of 20.1 per cent.; Paisley with one of 19.5 per cent.; Airdrie with one of 16.5 per cent.; Glasgow with one of 15.5 per cent.; Ayr with one of 15.1 per cent.; Edinburgh with one of 14.8 per cent.; Dunfermline with one of 14.1 percent.; Leith with one of 12.6 per cent.; Inverness with one of 10.3 per cent.; Perth with one of 9.9 per cent.; Greenock with one of 7.4 per cent.; and Dundee with one of 4.5 percent.; while Arbroath indicates a decrease at the rate of 1.9 per cent."

_Preliminary Report to Parliament._

The division of population between town districts and rural districts is shown in the following table:

Groups of Districts. Males. Females. Total.

Town Districts 1,404,382 1,520,698 2,925,080 (Pop. 2,000 and upwards)

Mainland-Rural Districts 479,009 495,172 974,841

Insular-Rural Districts 58,666 67,060 125,726

Total 1,942,717 2,082,930 4,025,647

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1901. Mr. Carnegie’s great Gift to Universities and Students.

See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: SCOTLAND: A. D. 1901.

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1904-1905. Decision of the House of Lords against the Union, in 1900, of the Free Church with the United Presbyterian. All Property given to the Opposing Remnant.

"In 1900, the United Free Church was formed by the union of the majority of the Free Church with the entire body of the United Presbyterians, …

See, in Volume VI. of this work, SCOTLAND: A. D. 1900)

A new organisation placed in the field of Church politics in Scotland almost equals in respect of numbers and resources to the Established Church. The small minority opposed to this union inside the Free Church seceded, held some of the churches and manses by force, defying authority to the extent, in one instance, of a month’s imprisonment, and retained the denomination of ‘The Free Church of Scotland.’ As their fathers left a ‘vitiated’ Establishment on purpose to preserve the freedom and purity of the National Church, so they refused to enter the new union, in order, by standing out, to save the principles, doctrines, and purposes identified with the Disruption of 1843. This minority of not more than twenty-seven ministers and as many congregations, mostly located in fastnesses beyond the Grampians, is now the Free Church of Scotland, with Presbytery, Assembly, Moderator—in short, with the offices and institutions, on a condensed scale, which are essential in Presbyterian polity. These few determined people claim to be the faithful remnant of the Disruptionists. Like Milton’s Abdiel, ‘unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,’ nor moved to ‘swerve from truth’ or ‘change their constant mind,’ they claim to have kept their loyalty, their love, their zeal in the cause of the Disruption through all the temptations of an age in thought Pyrrhonist, in morality lax, and in religion Latitudinarian. On the assumption that they alone were the Free Church, they invoked the aid of the Civil Courts in their defence. The Court of Session—both the Ordinary and the Inner Courts—decided in favour of the United Free Church. Home-made law could not satisfy the minority, and, on appeal, the House of Lords reversed the judgment of the Court of Session, declaring the remnant to be the Free Church of Scotland, and finding that the United Free Church was a modern composite body which, on the evidence of its ambidextrous and Latitudinarian constitution, had abandoned the fundamental doctrines and principles held by the Disruptionists. In consequence of this decision, the property of the Free Church, as it existed prior to the union of 1900, now belongs to the remnant of the Disruptionists.

"From the side of the losing United Free Church a bitter cry has arisen against this finality in law. The decision is formally accepted, yet denounced as unjust and incompetent, as denying toleration and the right to change its creed to an autonomous body; and there are murmurs about of the necessity of an appeal to Parliament. … It seems the rankest injustice to transfer more than one million in invested funds, nearly a thousand church buildings, three superior colleges devoted to the training of Divinity students (one in Edinburgh, another in Glasgow, and a third in Aberdeen), the magnificent Assembly Hall in Edinburgh, with the offices attached, probably also much property in foreign missions, from the United Free Church to this remnant of Disruptionists, the custodians of the dying embers of Obscurantism in Scotland."

_J. M. Sloan, The Scottish Free Church (Fortnightly Review, September, 1904)._

{610}

To consider the situation created by the decision of the House of Lords, a Royal Commission was appointed, which investigated all the questions involved and reported its findings in April, 1905. In the judgment of the Commission, the Free Church (the "Wee Frees," as that body was now commonly dubbed) had neither the numbers nor the resources for putting to their proper use the enormous endowment which it claimed. At the same time there would be no justice in delivering those endowments unconditionally to the United Free Church. It was recommended, accordingly, that a Commission be constituted by Act of Parliament to take charge of the whole property and funds involved, and to arrange for the allocation of the same, to the end of securing "adequate provision for the due performance of the purposes for which the funds were raised and the trusts on which they are held." A Bill in accordance with this recommendation was passed during the next session of Parliament.

On the request of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the same Act enabled the Church to change the formula of subscription required from its ministers, under the Act of 1693, so that, on being ordained, a minister shall only make a "declaration of his faith in the sum and substance of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches therein contained, according to such formula as may from time to time be prescribed by the General Assembly."

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1904-1909. Peace followed by Threatened Conflict in the Coal Mining Industry.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1909. Working of the Old Age Pensions Act.

See (in this Volume) POVERTY, PROBLEMS OF: PENSIONS.

----------SCOTLAND: End--------

SCOTT, James Brown: Technical Delegate to the Second Peace Conference.

See (in this Volume) WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907.

SCOTT, Captain K. T.: Commander of Antarctic Expedition.

See (in this Volume) POLAR EXPLORATION.

SEAL FISHERY NEGOTIATIONS.

"Negotiations for an international conference to consider and reach an arrangement providing for the preservation and protection of the fur seals in the North Pacific are in progress with the governments of Great Britain, Japan, and Russia. The attitude of the governments interested leads me to hope for a satisfactory settlement of this question as the ultimate outcome of the negotiations."

_Message of the President of the United States to Congress, December 6, 1909._

SEATTLE: A. D. 1909. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.

"The fair at Seattle," said _The World's Work_ of August, 1909, "is beautiful; that goes without saying, for the best of man’s art is fitted to the best of Nature’s workmanship to make a balanced and blended picture never excelled in the long list of great exhibitions. But better than that, the fair at Seattle is a definite commercial lesson—and lessons in commerce last forever. Primarily, the fair is teaching the people of the United States to know the Pacific coast; secondarily, it is teaching them a little of Alaska, a little of Japan, and a little of the Philippines. And the distinctive feature of this particular fair is the determined effort to make those lessons true." This seems to describe the impression which the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition made generally on the visitors who went to it with an intelligent purpose in going. It gave them what they went to see, with fidelity, with fulness, and in most attractive forms of display. Like its Northwestern predecessor, at Portland, four years before, it was an almost startling revelation of the possibilities of planting and ripening in cities, states, and their social institutions, that lie within trivial spaces of time in this wonderful present age.

The Exposition was on the grounds of Washington University, and seven of the principal buildings erected for it were of permanent construction and remain for the use of the University. Again, as at Portland, the most interesting of these buildings architecturally was that for the forestry exhibit, built of logs and other timber in a state as nearly natural as it could be kept.

The Exposition was open from June 1st until October 16, and registered about 3,740,000 visitors.

SEBAHEDDIN.

See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).

SECTARIAN SCHOOL QUESTION.

See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1903; also CANADA: A. D. 1905.

SEDDON, Richard J.: Prime Minister of New Zealand. His Death.

See (in this Volume) NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1906-1909.

SEGNATURA, The.

See (in this Volume) PAPACY: A. D. 1908.

SEIYU-KAI.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1902 (August); 1903 (June), and 1909.

SELFRIDGE, Lieutenant T. E.

See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT: AERONAUTICS.

SENATORS, United States: Proposed Election by Direct Popular Vote.

See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES SENATORS.

SENEGAMBIA: A. D. 1904. Cession of a portion of territory by England to France.

See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).

SENUSSIA, SENOUSSI: The Pan-Islamic Movement in Africa. Sidi Mahomed bin Ali es Senussia and his Sect. His Doctrine and its Aim.

"We have recently heard, principally apropos of the disturbances in Egypt, a considerable amount concerning Pan-Islamism. Taking into consideration how much has been written on this subject, it is surprising to find how little has been said concerning one of the principal organisations for the propagation of Pan-Islamism. I refer to the sect known as Senussia. … At this present moment there is throughout Africa very general discontent among the native population, not only in Mohammedan countries, but universally over the length and breadth of the entire continent. …

"It is a comparatively easy matter to so influence any warlike Moslem people to religious enthusiasm that they are instantly ready in arms to strike a blow for the faith. But the most significant and sinister symptom of this anti-Christian crusade is that the message carried by the Senussia agents is, ‘Wait, for the time is not yet ripe. Rest now, but when the hour arrives, rise, slay, and spare not.’ Taking into consideration the fact that the Senussia sect was founded in 1835, that its rise has been enormously rapid, and that its propaganda has been actively and diligently preached in British possessions for many years past, with scarcely one definite item of intelligence concerning it being known, it shows clearly that the motive power and organising intelligence must be something considerably above the average. …

{611}

"The sect was founded in 1835 by Sidi Mahomed bin Ali es Senussia, otherwise known as Sheikh Senussi, an Algerian Arab born near Mostaganem towards the end of the Turkish dominion. A lineal descendant of the prophet Mahomed, he first gained a reputation for sanctity at Fez. He then proceeded to Mecca, where he commenced preaching. However his success, which was remarkably rapid, caused great local jealousy and he had perforce to fly to Egypt. He started a zawia or monastery at Alexandria, but being excommunicated by the Sheikh el Islam at Cairo, he was again compelled to seek safety in flight. This time he fled across the Lybian desert to Jebel el Akhdar near Benghazi on the north coast, where he again established a zawia, and in a short time had obtained a considerable following. There he lived and preached, and died in 1859 or 1860, having firmly established the Senussia sect. He was succeeded by his son Mahomed.

"The doctrine preached by the Sheikh Senussi, and which still comprises the doctrines and aims of his disciples, was as follows: To free the Mahommedan religion from the many abuses which have crept into it. To restore, under one universal leader, the former purity of faith. Finally, and most especially, to free all Moslem countries, more particularly those in Africa, from the dominion of the infidel."

_H. A. Wilson, The Moslem Menace (Nineteenth Century, September, 1907)._

"The growth of the Senoussi has been one of the most striking developments of modern Islam. They have adopted an active missionary policy and have spread southwards through heathen Africa, while their organization has been framed with the idea of including and coordinating all existing brotherhoods. The Senoussi have established in all countries where the Moslem is governed by an alien race a system of occult government side by side, and coinciding in its boundaries, with the state administration. This occult government exists in Algeria, Egypt, and India, and its emissaries are at work in Nigeria. The Senoussi now include within their brotherhood practically all the Sunnis, that is the majority of Moslems in Arabia, Turkey, North Africa, Turkestan, Afghanistan and East Asia. The Shiites, who predominate in Persia, are alone prevented by their conception of orthodoxy from being Senoussi.

"The Senoussi had their headquarters at Djarboub, but some twenty years ago it was decided to send their official representative to Constantinople, and the venerable Mokkadem who occupies this position is even more powerful in councils than the Sheik ul Islam, who, nominated by the Sultan, occupies in the hierarchy the place of Expounder of the Law, second only to that of the Caliph, the ‘Shadow of God on Earth.’"

_A. R. Colquhoun, Pan-Islam (North American Review, June, 1906)._

See, also, in Volume VI., page 835.

SERGIUS, Grand Duke, Assassination of.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.

SERVIA.

See (in this Volume) BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: SERVIA.

SEVASTOPOL: Riot and Naval Mutiny.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905 (FEBRUARY-NOVEMBER).

SHACKLETON, LIEUTENANT ERNEST H.: Antarctic Explorations.

See (in this Volume) POLAR EXPLORATION.

SHA-HO, BATTLE OF THE.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (SEPTEMBER-MARCH).

SHANGHAI: A. D. 1902. Withdrawal of Foreign Troops.

See (in this Volume) CHINA: A. D. 1902.

SHANGHAI: A. D. 1905. Boycott of Americans and American Goods.

See (in this Volume) RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1908.

SHANGHAI: A. D. 1909. International Opium Commission.

See (in this Volume) OPIUM PROBLEM.

SHAW, LESLIE M.: Secretary of the Treasury.

See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905, and 1905-1909.

SHEIKH-UL-ISLAM, The: His Authority and Function at Constantinople.

See (in this Volume) SENUSSIA.

SHEIKH-UL-ISLAM, The: His Part in the Turkish Constitutional Revolution.

See (in this Volume) TURKEY; A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER), and after.

SHEMSI PASHA, Assassination of.

See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1908 (JULY-DECEMBER).

SHERIAT, The.

See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).

SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT, of 1890.

See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1890-1902.

SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT, of 1890. Action of National Civic Federation on its Amendment.

See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &c.: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908-1909.

SHERMAN, James S.: Elected Vice-President of the United States.

See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).

SHEVKET PASHA, Mahmud: Commander of the Turkish Constitutional Forces.

See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).

SHIPBUILDING AGREEMENT (BRITISH) OF 1908, THE.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: ENGLAND: A. D. 1908.

SHIPPING COMBINATION, North Atlantic.

See (in this Volume) COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL: INTERNATIONAL.

SHIRÉ HIGHLANDS: Their Suitability for European Colonization.

See (in this Volume) AFRICA.

SHIRTWAIST-MAKERS’ STRIKE, THE.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1909-1910.

SHONTS, Theodore P.: Chairman of the Panama Canal Commission.

See (in this Volume) PANAMA CANAL: A. D. 1905-1909.

SHOOA-ES-SULTANEH.

See (in this Volume) PERSIA: A. D. 1905-1907.

SHORT BALLOT REFORM.

See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES.

SIA-GU-SHAN HILL, CAPTURE OF.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (May-January).

SIAM: A. D. 1902. Treaty with France.

By a fresh treaty with Siam, secured in October, 1902, France won from that kingdom another piece of territory to add to her Indo-China domain. The new acquisition is between the Rolnos and Piek Kompong Tiam rivers, on the Great Lake. In return France restores the port of Chantabun, which she has held for a long time without right, and which she agreed to restore in 1899.

See (in Volume VI.) SIAM.

{612}

SIAM: A. D. 1904. Declaration of England and France touching Influence in Siam.

See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).

SIAM: A. D. 1905. Suppression of Gambling and Edict for the Extinction of Slavery.

An official notification of the suppression of gambling and a royal edict decreeing the abolition of the last remnants of slavery in the Kingdom of Siam were communicated to the American Government, through its Minister at Bangkok, in March and April, 1905. In part, the former stated:

"His Majesty has long been impressed by the fact that although the revenue derived from gambling is an important factor in the finances of the Kingdom the evils resulting therefrom are much greater than the benefits. People expend in gambling not only their own wealth but the wealth of others. They devote to gambling time during which they should be attending to their work. Under present conditions large sums of money which come into the hands of the gambling farmers are sent out of the kingdom. Gambling is also responsible for much of the crime that is committed. The abolition of gambling would, therefore, not only result in an improvement in the morals of the people and in increased industry, but money now expended therein would remain in circulation within the country, thereby adding to the wealth of the community. In order, however, to replace the loss of the revenue derived from gambling, some taxes must be increased and new taxes devised. In the increase of certain of these taxes it will be necessary to enter upon negotiations with foreign powers. Gambling cannot, therefore, be suppressed at once, but must be gradually abolished. His Majesty, therefore, has been pleased to order the abolition of gambling within the period of three years."

The decree concerning slavery opens thus:

"Although slavery in our realm is very different from slavery as it has existed in many other countries—most slaves being persons who have become so voluntarily and not by force and the powers of the master over the slaves being strictly limited—yet we have always considered that the institution, even in this modified form, is an impediment to the progress of our country. We have, therefore, from the commencement of our reign, taken steps, by the enactment of laws and otherwise, for the abolition of slavery. … We now deem it time to take more sweeping measures which will gradually result in the entire disappearance of slavery from Siam." Accordingly, a law is decreed as follows: "All children born of parents who are slaves shall be free without the execution of the condition stated in the law of Pee Chau. No person now free can be made a slave. If any person now a slave shall hereafter become free he cannot thereafter again become a slave. Wherever any person is now held a debt slave, the master shall credit upon the principal of the debt for which he is held a slave the sum of four (4) tieals for each month after the 1st of April, 124, provided that no credit shall be allowed for any time during which the slave may desert his master. If a slave changes his master, no increase shall be made in the debt for which he is actually held."

SIAM: A. D. 1909. Treaty with Great Britain, Ceding three States in the Malay Peninsula.

By a treaty with Siam, signed on the 10th of March, 1909, Great Britain added 15,000 square miles to her dominion in the Malay Peninsula. Siam renounced, in favour of Great Britain, her suzerain rights over the native States of Kelantan, Trengganu, and Kedah, and perhaps other districts, in the Peninsula. In return the British Government consented to certain modifications in the extra-territorial rights enjoyed by British subjects in Siam. The Government of the Federated Malay States will advance to Siam the capital, about £4,000,000, required for the construction of railways in Southern Siam, by which it is hoped that direct railway communication will soon be established between Bangkok and Singapore. Kelantan lies 374 miles distant from Singapore and about 500 from Bangkok, on the shore of the China Sea. It is a purely Malay State under the rule of a Rajah, who has not, like his predecessors, adopted the higher title of Sultan, but who claims to be an independent Sovereign, though he has been compelled to acknowledge the King of Siam as his suzerain. This condition of affairs has led to the transfer of his allegiance, very much, it is said, against his wish.

SIENKIEWICZ, HENRY K.

See (in this Volume) NOBEL PRIZES.

SIFTON, CLIFFORD: CANADIAN MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR. How he started the "American Invasion" of the Canadian Northwest.

See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1896-1909.

SIGANANDA.

See (in this Volume) SOUTH AFRICA: NATAL: A. D. 1906-1907.

SILVER: Suspension of Free Coinage in Mexico.

See (in this Volume) MEXICO: A. D. 1904-1905.

SILVER EXCHANGE, WITH THE ORIENT.

See (in this Volume) FINANCE AND TRADE: ASIA: A. D. 1909.

SIMON, GENERAL ANTOINE: President of Haiti.

See (in this Volume) HAITI: A. D. 1908.

SIMPLON TUNNEL.

See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1903.

SINHA, Satyendra Prasanna: Appointment as a Member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India.

See (in this Volume) INDIA: A. D. 1908-1909.

SINN FEIN, THE.

See (in this Volume) IRELAND: A. D. 1905.

SIOUX INDIANS: Colony in Nicaragua.

See (in this Volume) CENTRAL AMERICA: NICARAGUA.

SIPAHDAR, The.

See (in this Volume) PERSIA: A. D. 1908-1909.

SIPIAGIN, M.: Assassination of.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1901-1904.

SLAVERY: In Portuguese Africa.

See (in this Volume) AFRICA: PORTUGUESE: A. D. 1905-1908.

SLAVERY: Abolition in Siam.

See (in this Volume) SIAM: A. D. 1909.

SLAVERY: Legal, but not Practical Ending in Zanzibar.

See (in this Volume) ZANZIBAR: A. D. 1905.

SLEEPING SICKNESS.

See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH.

SLOCUM, CONSUL-GENERAL C. R.: Report on Affairs in the Congo State.

See (in this Volume) CONGO STATE: A. D. 1906-1909.

"SLOCUM," BURNING OF THE.

See (in this Volume) "GENERAL SLOCUM."

SMALL HOLDINGS ACT.

See (in this Volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1907-1908.

{613}

SMIRNOFF, GENERAL.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-AUGUST).

SMITH, CHARLES E.: Postmaster-General.

See (in this Volume) UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905.

SMITH, GOLDWIN: On Discontent in India.

See (in this Volume) INDIA: A. D. 1907-1909.

SMITH, CONSUL-GENERAL JAMES A.: Report on Affairs in the Congo State.

See (in this Volume) CONGO STATE: A. D. 1906-1909.

SMITH, JAMES F.: Governor-General of the Philippine Islands.

See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1906-1907.

SYNDER, R. M.: Municipal "Boodler" of St. Louis.

See (in this Volume) MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT: ST. LOUIS.

SOCIAL BETTERMENT: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909. The Housing and Town-Planning Act.

A Housing and Town Planning Bill, brought over from the previous session of Parliament, was introduced anew in April, 1909, by Mr. John Burns, President of the Local Government Board. It passed the Commons and went in November to the Lords, who gave it amendments which were thought to have brought it to wreck. The House of Commons would not accept them; but many in both Houses were keenly anxious for legislation on the subject, and private negotiation brought about a compromise of their differences, securing the enactment in a fairly satisfactory form.

The first part of the Act aims at improving the dwelling accommodation of the working classes, both by making it obligatory on all local authorities to provide new housing where required, and also by elaborate provisions for sanitary inspection. Every county council is required to appoint a public health and housing committee and also a medical officer of health, who shall devote his whole time to the supervision of the county area. Almost all working class dwellings in the country are covered by provisions ensuring that they shall be kept fit for human habitation throughout their tenancy. Enlarged powers of compulsory purchase, of closing and of demolition are also conferred upon local authorities or their authorized agents.

The provisions of the Act relating to town-planning are commended by _The Times_ as marking "a new departure in legislation in this country. Hitherto new centres of population have been allowed to grow up, and existing urban areas have been allowed to expand, without control or prevision. The result has too often been that the haphazard development of land in the vicinity of urban centres has produced slums, prevented the orderly growth of towns, and involved enormous expenditure in clearing sites, widening streets, and providing necessary open spaces. The Bill aims at securing in the future sanitary conditions, amenity, and convenience by enabling schemes to be made under which building land will be developed with due regard to future requirements. With this end in view the Local Government Board are empowered to authorize local authorities to prepare town planning schemes in connexion with land likely to be used for building purposes, or to adopt any such schemes proposed by owners of land. The schemes are to have effect, however, only if approved by the Local Government Board. The Bill provides for the payment of compensation to any person whose property is injuriously affected by the making of a town planning scheme, and, on the other hand, the local authority is empowered to recover from any person whose land is increased in value by the making of the scheme a proportion of the amount of that increase."

In anticipation of the passage of this important Act, a party of eighty representatives of municipalities and other bodies in Great Britain who would be concerned in its administration passed the Easter holidays of 1909 in some of the German cities which are most famous for the manner in which they have dealt with the problems of town-growth. The four cities selected were Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, and Wiesbaden, each of which has formulated its own way of dealing with the problem and offers a different point of view.

SOCIAL BETTERMENT: PRUSSIA: A. D. 1905. A Government Bureau of Charities.

In 1905 a law passed by the Prussian Diet created a national Charity Bureau, the duties of which are stated as follows:

(1) To follow the development of charity work and keep the government informed of this development;

(2) to advise the state of conditions which justify change in existing laws or the passing of new laws, or which suggest change in government methods;

(3) to draw up opinions and make proposals which will help in framing laws for the benefit of the people;

(4) to take general control of relief stations in case of great calamities.

It will also be the duty of the department

(1) to establish relations between different charity organizations, suggest improvements in the methods of these organizations, and economize the forces of the various bodies;

(2) to follow the progress of charitable work and make an index and collection of all literature relating to the subject;

(3) to give information and advice in reference to philanthropic endeavor when requested to do so;

(4) to make reports to the state at short intervals in reference to the development and progress of the work in the nation at large;

(5) to draw up opinions and make proposals for the improvement or better organization of the charity propaganda in part or as a whole;

(6) to take charge of the development of the work in any section;

(7) to assist in putting in operation any suggestions or plans which may be made or worked out for the improvement of social conditions.

SOCIAL BETTERMENT: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900-1909. The National Civic Federation. Its Origin. Its Purposes. Its Organization. Its Work.

The Federation was organized in 1900, in Chicago, after a succession of national conferences had been held upon such subjects as Primary Election Reform, Foreign Policy and Trusts and Combinations. It consisted of an advisory council of five hundred members and an Executive Committee. On the Executive Committee were several of the members of the present National Executive Committee, including Franklin MacVeagh, Archbishop Ireland, Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, D. J. Keefe, John W. Stahl, and Benjamin Ide Wheeler. The prospectus, published at the time, stated the purpose of the organization to be as follows:

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"… To organize the best brains of the nation in an educational movement toward the solution of some of the great problems related to social and industrial progress; to provide for study and discussion of questions of national import; to aid thus in the crystallization of the most enlightened public opinion; and, when desirable, to promote legislation in accordance therewith."

"Fifteen national subjects were named, and it was expected that from time to time the formation of committees would result having as their special province the consideration of the subjects suggested.

"By vote, it was decided to take up for discussion, through national conferences, the three subjects of industrial arbitration, taxation and municipal ownership. The first conference, that on industrial arbitration, was held at Chicago, in December, 1900, and resulted in the organization of the Industrial Department, with A. C. Bartlett, of Chicago, chairman. In the following June a national conference on taxation was held in Buffalo, resulting in the formation of the Department on Taxation, with Edwin R. A. Seligman as chairman. It was the intention to hold the Conference on Municipal Ownership in New York the following December, but in the meantime a number of large strikes, especially the Steel Strike, the National Machinists’ strike and a threatened Anthracite Coal Strike absorbed so much of the energy and attention of the active members of the Federation at that time that the Public Ownership Conference was postponed for the time being.

"Through the work done by the committee in connection with the coal and steel strikes, Senator Hanna became interested in the organization, and in December of that year was made President of the organization. His selection for that office, together with the appointment of other men of national reputation on the committee, attracted the attention of the country to the organization. For two years following that department was the only one prominent before the public, and its work in the prevention of strikes and lockouts was naturally regarded as the only purpose of the organization. The conferences held during this period were naturally confined to the subject of conciliation and collateral phases of the work. As national labor disturbances then became less frequent after two years of this special work the organization was able to resume its original programme, holding itself, however, in readiness to concentrate its energies on the industrial work at any time the need might arise.

"It was at this time that the national conference on immigration was called, and the Department of Immigration organized. After that a national commission on Municipal Ownership was formed, and by that time the public began to take interest in the broader aspects of the organization. Later came the establishment of the Industrial Economics Department, which has taken up some of the most important problems of the day, including Socialism and Trusts and Combinations. The holding of a national conference on Political Reform resulted in the organization of a department especially devoted to these subjects.

"While the subjects to be taken up by the organization are determined by the Executive Committee, the fact is here emphasized that in devoting itself to other matters than questions relating to strikes and lockouts, the organization has not deviated from, but has returned to, its original lines."

_The National Civic Federation Review, March, 1909._

The following additional particulars of the organization and operations of the Federation are drawn from a pamphlet statement of 1909:

"The membership of the Federation is drawn from practical men of affairs, whose acknowledged leadership in thought and action makes them typical representatives of the various elements that voluntarily work together for the general good. Its National Executive Committee is constituted of three factors: the general public, represented by the church, the bar, the press, statesmanship and finance; employers, represented by large manufacturers and the heads of great corporations, and employers’ organizations; and labor, represented by the principal officials of national and international organizations of wage-earners in every important industry.

"There are useful organizations of farmers, manufacturers, wage-earners, bankers, merchants, lawyers, economists and other distinct but interacting elements of society, which hold meetings for discussion of affairs peculiar to their own pursuits and callings. The Federation, in addition to its Departments for the accomplishment of specific purposes, provides a forum where representatives of all these elements of society may meet to discuss national problems in which they have a common interest.

"Twelve national conferences have thus been held upon such subjects as Primary Election and Ballot Reforms, Foreign Policy, Trusts, Conciliation and Arbitration, Taxation, and Immigration. These conferences have usually been attended by delegates appointed by Governors of States and by representatives selected by various commercial, industrial, and educational bodies.

"The present activities of the Federation are exercised through the following agencies:

"Trade Agreement Department, "Industrial Conciliation Department, "Industrial Economics Department, "Industrial Welfare Department, "Public Employés’ Welfare Department, "The Woman’s Department, "Public Ownership Commission, "Immigration Department, "Political Reform Department.

"The Trade Agreement Department [John Mitchell, Chairman] consists of employers and representatives of workingmen, who make agreements as to hours, wages and conditions of employment. The membership of the department is equally divided between employers and labor leaders, the employers being officers of steam and street railway companies, coal operators, the publishers of large daily papers, building contractors, brewers, stove manufacturers, shippers’ associations, while labor is represented by officials in corresponding crafts. …

"The Conciliation Department [Seth Low, Chairman] deals entirely with strikes, lock-outs and arbitration. The services of this department have been enlisted in about five hundred cases, involving every conceivable phase of a problem interwoven with or underlying an industrial controversy. Its membership extends to every industrial centre, and includes representatives of leading organizations of employers and of wage-earners. Through this membership information of any threatened trouble between capital and labor usually reaches the headquarters, from one side or the other, in advance of any public rupture. …

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"The Department of Industrial Economics [Nicholas Murray Butler, Chairman] was formed to promote discussion of practical economic problems. Its membership is composed of leading economists, including the heads of the departments of political economy in universities, lecturers and economic and legal authors; editors of the daily press, of politico-social magazines, of trade papers and of labor journals; representatives of the pulpit; large employers and representatives of labor. This department has arranged a programme for the discussion, by the ablest experts to be procured, of each of the vital and frequently irritating questions that arise in the Conciliation Department in connection with the prevention or settlement of controversies. …

"The Industrial Welfare Department [the work of which is conducted by a number of sub-committees, at the head of one of which is the President of the United States, William H. Taft, as Chairman of the committee which studies the welfare of the Public Employés of the country, and the general Chairman of which is William H. Willcox] is composed of employers of labor in stores, factories, mines and on railroads. It is devoted to interesting employers in improving the conditions under which employés in all industries work and live. In extending the practice of Welfare Work the department has found of especial value conferences of employers, held under its auspices in different parts of the country, for the interchange of experiences. Illustrated literature is widely distributed, and stereopticon lectures are given. A bureau of exchange is maintained at headquarters, where descriptive matter, plans and photographs relating to betterments in different industries may be obtained by employers.

"Some of the subjects involved are;

"Sanitary Work Places: Systems for providing pure drinking water; for ventilation, including the cooling of super heated places, and devices for exhausting dust and removing gases; for lighting work places; and for guarding machinery; wash rooms with hot and cold water, towels and soap; shower baths for molders and stationary firemen; emergency hospitals; locker rooms; seats for women; laundries for men’s overalls or women’s uniforms; the use of elevators for women, and luncheon rooms.

"Recreation: The social hall for dancing parties, concerts, theatricals, billiards, pool or bowling; the gymnasium, athletic field, roof garden, vacations and summer excursions for employés, and rest rooms or trainmen’s rest houses.

"Educational: Classes for apprentices; in cooking, dressmaking, millinery; first aid to the injured; night classes for technical training; kindergartens and libraries.

"Housing: Homes rented or sold to employés, and boarding houses.

"Provident Funds: For insurance, pensions, savings or lending money in times of stress.

"The Woman’s Department [of which Mrs. William H. Taft is Honorary Chairman, Mrs. Horace Brock, Chairman, and which has a strong corps of other officers] "is composed largely of women who are themselves stockholders or who are financially interested in industrial organizations (including railroads, mills, factories, mines, stores and other work places) through family relationships, and who therefore naturally should be interested in the welfare of workers in enterprises from which they draw their incomes; there are also, among other influential members, the wives of public officials.

"The object of this department is: ‘To use its influence in securing needed improvements in the working and living conditions of women and men wage-earners in the various industries and governmental institutions, and to co-operate, when practicable, in the general work of the Federation.’ …

"The Public Ownership Commission [Melville E. Ingalls, Chairman], appointed by the Executive Council of the Federation, is composed of one hundred prominent men representing practically every shade of opinion on the subject. …

"The Department of Immigration [Franklin MacVeagh, Chairman] is composed of men selected to represent every locality in the Union affected by the admission of aliens.

"This Department was organized at the request of the National Immigration Conference, held in New York City, December 6-8, 1905, this conference being attended by more than five hundred delegates appointed by Governors of States, leading commercial, agricultural, manufacturing, labor and economic organizations, and by prominent ecclesiastical and educational institutions. It undertook an investigation of all important phases of the immigration problem, the Department being organized into seven distinct committees. …

"Largely through the work of the Immigration Department, Congress was induced to appoint a Commission on Immigration, which commission has, with unlimited funds at its disposal, undertaken a large part of the work that had been planned by the Federation’s department. In fact, two members of that department are on the commission and have utilized all the material gathered by the Federation’s experts, relating to both white and Oriental immigration. …

"The organization of a Political Reform Department was the practical outcome of a National Conference on that subject held in New York City, March 6 and 7, 1906, under the auspices of The National Civic Federation. The Conference was attended by delegates from all parts of the country, appointed by congressmen, governors, mayors, municipal and political reform bodies, and representing all shades of political opinion.

"It is the purpose of the Political Reform Department to teach practical politics, and especially to organize the young men of the country and induce them to participate actively, through their respective party organizations, in governmental affairs--Federal, State and municipal."

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SOCIAL BETTERMENT: A. D. 1904-1909. The American Civic Association.

"Organized effort for the systematic making of a beautiful America did not manifest itself until within comparatively recent years. Prior to 1904 there had been various short-lived state associations, a few interstate societies and two national organizations, working with the same general objects in view. But at St. Louis, in 1904, the year of the great exposition, a merger of the two national organizations brought forth the American Civic Association which, since that time, has carried on with increasing success and popular support the greatly needed work for a 'More Beautiful America’; and since that time it has been recognized as the one great national agency for the furtherance of that work. With its purpose as stated in its constitution clearly before it, it has constantly widened the circle of its usefulness until recently they were grouped under fifteen general departments, each department headed by an expert in his or her particular specialty.

"In classifying its varied activities, the Association announces that it aims ‘to make American living conditions clean, healthful, attractive; to extend the making of public parks; to promote the opening of gardens and playgrounds for children and recreation centers for adults; to abate public nuisances—including objectionable signs, unnecessary poles and wires, unpleasant and wasteful smoking factory chimneys; to make the buildings and the surroundings of railway stations and factories attractive; to extend the practical influence of schools; to protect existing trees and to encourage intelligent tree planting; to preserve great scenic wonders (such as Niagara Falls and the White Mountains) from commercial spoliation.’

"So vigorously has it pursued these activities that it has seen some of them develop to such proportions that they were ready to swing off from the parent circle into spheres of their own. Such was the case with the playground movement, which for years was fostered most energetically by the American Civic Association until it grew into an independent organization known as the National Playground Association, and which is now an agency of splendid achievements in its one specialized function."

_Richard B. Watrous, The American Civic Association (The American City, October, 1909)._

SOCIAL BETTERMENT: A. D. 1907. The Sage Foundation for the Improvement of Social and Living Conditions.

One of the most notable of gifts from private wealth for the endowment of undertakings to promote the general welfare of mankind was made by Mrs. Russell Sage, in 1907, when she placed a fund of $10,000,000 in the hands of trustees, to be administered under the name of The Russell Sage Foundation. On the announcement of this endowment, Mrs. Sage, through her counsel, Mr. Henry W. de Forest, authorized the following statement, which explains clearly and fully the purposes contemplated:

"I have set aside $10,000,000 for the endowment of this foundation. Its object is ‘the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.’ The means to that end will include research, publication, education, the establishment and maintenance of charitable and beneficial activities, agencies, and institutions, and the aid of any such activities, agencies and institutions already established.

"It will be within the scope of such a foundation to investigate and study the causes of adverse social conditions, including ignorance, poverty and vice, to suggest how these conditions can be remedied or ameliorated, and to put in operation any appropriate means to that end. It will also be within the scope of such a foundation to establish any new agency necessary to carry out any of its conclusions, and equally to contribute to the resources of any existing agencies which are doing efficient and satisfactory work, just as the present General Education Board, organized to promote higher education, is aiding existing colleges and universities. While its scope is broad, it should preferably not undertake to do within that scope what is now being done or is likely to be effectively done by other individuals or by other agencies with less resources. It will be its aim to take up the larger and more difficult problems, and to take them up so far as possible in such a manner as to secure co-operation and aid in their solution. In some instances it may wisely initiate movements with the expectation of having them maintain themselves unaided after once being started. In other instances it may start movements with the expectation of carrying them on itself. Income only will be used for its charitable purposes, because the foundation is to be permanent and its action continuous. It may, however, make investments for social betterment, which themselves produce income.

"While having headquarters in New York city, where I and my husband have lived and where social problems are most pressing and complicated, partly by reason of its extent and partly because it is the port of entry for about a million immigrants a year, the foundation will be national in its scope and in its activities. I have sought to select as my trustees men and women who are familiar with social problems and who can bring to their solution not only zeal and interest, but experience and judgment.

"The bill for incorporation of the endowment further provides: The corporation hereby formed shall have power to take and hold, both by bequest, devise, gift, purchase, or lease, either absolutely or in trust, for any of its purposes, any property, real or personal, without limitation as to amount or value, except such limitation, if any, as the legislature shall hereinafter impose, to convey such property and to invest and reinvest any principal, and deal with, and expend the income of the corporation in such manner as in the judgment of the trustees will best promote its objects."

SOCIAL BETTERMENT: A. D. 1907-1908. The Pittsburg Survey. A remarkable Investigation of Living Conditions in a great Industrial Center.

"Under the name of the Pittsburgh Survey, Charities Publication Committee has carried on a group of social investigations in this great steel district. In a sense we have been blue-printing Pittsburgh. Our findings will be published in a series of special numbers … covering in order:

"I.—The People; "II.—The Place; "III.—The Work.

"Full reports are to be published later in a series of Volumes by the Russell Sage Foundation, and, throughout, the text will be reinforced with such photographs, pastel, maps, charts, diagrams and tables as will help give substance and reality to our presentations of fact. …

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"The Pittsburgh Survey has been a rapid, close range investigation of living conditions in the Pennsylvania steel district. It has been carried on by a special staff organized under the national publication committee which prints this magazine. It has been financed chiefly by three grants, of moderate amount, from the Russell Sage Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions. It has been made practicable by co-operation from two quarters,—from a remarkable group of leaders and organizations in social and sanitary movements in different parts of the United States, who entered upon the field work as a piece of national good citizenship; and from men, women and organizations in Pittsburgh who were large-minded enough to regard their local situation as not private and peculiar, but a part of the American problem of city building.

"The outcome has been a spirited piece of interstate co-operation in getting at the urban fact in a new way. …

"The main work was set under way in September, 1807, when a company of men and women of established reputation as students of social and industrial problems spent the month in Pittsburgh. On the basis of their diagnosis, a series of specialized investigations was projected along a few of the lines which promised significant results. The staff has included not only trained investigators but also representatives of the different races who make up so large a share of the working population dealt with. Limitations of time and money set definite bounds to the work, which will become clear as the findings are presented. The experimental nature of the undertaking, and the unfavorable trade conditions which during the past year have reacted upon economic life in all its phases, have set other limits. Our inquiries have dealt with the wage-earners of Pittsburgh (a) in their relations to the community as a whole, and (b) in their relation to industry. Under the former we have studied the genesis and racial make-up of the population; its physical setting and its social institutions; under the latter we have studied the general labor situation; hours, wages, and labor control in the steel industry; child labor, industrial education, women in industry, the cost of living, and industrial accidents.

"From the first, the work of the investigations has been directed to the service of local movements for improvement. For, as stated in a mid-year announcement of the Survey, we have been studying the community at a time when nascent social forces are asserting themselves. Witness the election of an independent mayor three years ago, and Mr. Guthrie’s present fight to clear councils of graft. Within the field of the Survey and within one year, the Pittsburgh Associated Charities has been organized; the force of tenement inspectors has been doubled and has carried out a first general housing census, and a scientific inquiry, under the name of the Pittsburgh Typhoid Commission, has been instituted into the disease which has been endemic in the district for over a quarter of a century. A civic improvement commission, representative in membership and perhaps broader in scope than any similar body in the country, is now in process of formation.

"A display of wall maps, enlarged photographs, housing plans, and other graphic material was the chief feature of a civic exhibit held in Carnegie Institute in November and December, following the joint conventions in Pittsburgh of the American Civic Association and the National Municipal League. The local civic bearings of the Survey were the subject of the opening session of these conventions. Its economic aspects were brought forward at a joint session of the American Economic Association and the American Sociological Society at Atlantic City in December."

_P. U. Kellogg, The Pittsburgh Survey (Charities and the Commons, January 2, 1909)._

See (in this Volume), CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY; CHILDREN, UNDER THE LAW; LABOR PROTECTION, ETC.; MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT; PUBLIC HEALTH; POVERTY, PROBLEMS OF; ENGLAND: A. D. 1907-1908.

SOCIAL DEMOCRATS.

See (in this Volume) SOCIALISM: ENGLAND, AND FRANCE; also GERMANY: A. D. 1903; RUSSIA: A. D. 1905-1907; DENMARK: A. D. 1906.

SOCIAL REVOLUTIONISTS.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905-1907, and 1906-1907.

SOCIALISM: AT LARGE: A. D. 1909. The Socialist Press in all Countries.

According to a list of the Socialist Press, in the world at large, published in November, 1909, by the International Bureau of Socialists, at Brussels, fifty-seven Socialist daily newspapers are published in Germany. English Socialists have three weekly publications, and one that appears monthly. There is a daily Socialist journal in the Argentine Republic, a weekly review in Australia, and in Austria two daily publications and a bi-weekly review. The Socialists in Belgium publish four daily organs; those of Bulgaria support two bi-weekly reviews; and those of Canada one weekly review. One daily Socialist newspaper circulates in Denmark, and four weekly publications in Spain. In the United States there are four daily and eight weekly publications and a monthly magazine. France has two daily Socialist newspapers and ten weekly Socialist periodicals. In Greece the Socialists support a weekly publication, in Holland a daily one, and in Hungary both a daily and a weekly one. In Italy there are four daily Socialist newspapers; and a single one in Norway, Poland, and Sweden respectively. Socialists living in Switzerland have three daily and three weekly organs; while those in Russia have 20 monthly or bi-monthly ones, most of which are published secretly. In Rumania and Sweden there are also Socialist publications.

SOCIALISM: AUSTRALIA: Government Ownership of Railways.

See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: AUSTRALIA.

SOCIALISM: AUSTRIA: A. D. 1903. Adoption of a Resolution against Alcoholic Drinking by the National Convention of the Social Democracy.

See (in this Volume) ALCOHOL PROBLEM: AUSTRIA.

SOCIALISM: BELGIUM: A. D. 1904. Socialist Losses in the Belgium Elections.

See (in this volume) BELGIUM: A.D. 1904.

SOCIALISM: DENMARK: A. D. 1905-1909. Socialists Contending for Disarmament.

See (in this Volume) DENMARK: A. D. 1905-1909.

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SOCIALISM: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909. The Principal Socialist Organizations of the Present Day. --

"There are four principal organizations actively engaged in gaining adherents to the cause of Collectivism as a practical policy, all over the kingdom. They are: (1) The Social Democratic Party, formerly Social Democratic Federation, and familiarly known as S. D. F.; (2) the Fabian Society; (3) the Independent Labour Party or I. L. P.; (4) the Clarion Fellowship and Scouts.

There are several others of minor importance, though not to be ignored, for they all represent the spread of the central idea of Socialism. Among them is the Church Socialist League, which is significant as being a society of convinced Socialists within the Church of England holding that the ‘community should own the land and capital collectively and use them co-operatively for the good of all.’"

The oldest organization "began as the Democratic Federation in 1881, became the Social Democratic Federation in 1883, and has recently changed its name to the Social Democratic Party. Its object, according to the programme as revised in 1906, is:

"‘The socialization of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, to be controlled by a democratic State in the interests of the entire community, and the complete emancipation of labour from the domination of capitalism and landlordism, with the establishment of social and economic equality between the sexes.’

"It demands a large number of ‘immediate reforms,’ including the following:

"Abolition of the Monarchy. Abolition of the House of Lords. Payment of members of Parliament and administrative bodies. Adult suffrage. Referendum. Legislative and administrative independence for all parts of the Empire. Repudiation of the National Debt. Abolition of indirect taxation and a cumulative tax on all incomes exceeding £300. Elementary education to be free, secular, industrial, and compulsory for all classes. Age for school attendance to be raised to 16. State maintenance of all school children. Abolition of school rates. Nationalization of land, of trusts, railways, docks, and canals. Public ownership of gas, electric light, water supply, tramways, omnibuses, &c., food and coal supply; State and municipal banks, pawnshops, restaurants, public ownership of hospitals, cemeteries, and the drink traffic. A legal eight-hours day; no employment under 16 years; public provision of work for unemployed at trade union rates; free State insurance against sickness, accident, old age, and disability; a _minimum_ wage of 30s. a week; equal rates of pay for both sexes. Compulsory construction of healthy dwellings by public bodies. Free administration of justice and legal advice. Judges to be ‘chosen by the people.’ Abolition of capital punishment. Disestablishment and disendowment of all State Churches. Abolition of standing armies and establishment of national citizen forces. …

"The Social Democratic Party is the most downright and straightforward of the larger Socialist organizations. It is more outspoken and consistent, less hazy and opportunist, than the Independent Labour Party or the Fabian Society. It derives its inspiration from the Social Democrats of Germany and boldly upholds the ideal of revolutionary Socialism."

The Fabian Society, which comes next "in point of age, is at the opposite end of the scale in regard to policy. It was founded in 1884, on American inspiration, as a sort of mutual elevation society, but adopted Socialistic principles from Germany. Its ‘basis’ is thus stated:

"‘The Fabian Society consists of Socialists. It therefore aims at the reorganization of society by the emancipation of land and industrial capital from individual and class ownership and the vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of the country be equitably shared by the whole people.

"‘The society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of superior soils and sites.

"‘The society further works for the transfer to the community of the administration of such industrial capital as can conveniently be managed socially.’

"It is not surprising that thorough-going Socialists denounce the Fabians as make believe, Socialism-and-water ‘comrades,’ and hardly worthy to be called ‘comrades’ at all, an honour which the Fabians, for their part, show no desire to claim. Nevertheless, the Fabians are a very influential element in the Socialist movement. … The Fabian Society is numerically small, but growing rapidly, and that largely by the formation of provincial branches. The headquarters are in London, where it had in March last [1908] 1085 members out of a total of 2015. … Eleven Fabians are members of Parliament, and the society supports the Labour party; but its real work lies outside of politics, and is carried on chiefly by the distribution of literature and by lectures. It contains several well-known writers, and may almost be called a literary society. The output of tracts and leaflets sold and distributed last year was over 250,000. … Among the best-known Fabians are Mr. Granville Barker, the Reverend R. J. Campbell, the Reverend Stewart D. Headlam, Mr. Chiozza-Money, M. P., Mr. Bernard Shaw, Mr. Sidney Webb, and Mr. H. G. Wells, who has, however, recently seceded. Many members belong also to other Socialist organizations. …

"The third large organization on the list is the Independent Labour Party. It is considerably younger than the Social Democratic Party and the Fabian Society, but much larger and politically far more powerful than either or both together. In character it comes between them, being more opportunist and supple than the former, less nebulous and elusive than the latter. It was formally inaugurated at Bradford in 1893, under the leadership of Mr. Keir Hardie. The following are the principal [demands] in the official prospectus, revised for 1908-1909:

"‘1. A _maximum_ of 48 hours working week, with the retention of all existing holidays and Labour Day, May 1, secured by law.

"‘2. The provision of work to all capable adult applicants at recognized trade union rates, with a statutory _minimum_, of sixpence per hour.

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"‘In order to remuneratively employ the applicants, parish, district, borough, and county councils to be invested with powers to

(_a_) Organize and undertake such industries as they may consider desirable.

(_b_) Compulsorily acquire land; purchase, erect, or manufacture buildings, stock, or other articles for carrying on such industries,

(_c_) Levy rates on the rental values of the district and borrow money on the security of such rates for any of the above purposes.

"‘3. State pensions for every person over 50 years of age, and adequate provision for all widows, orphans, sick, and disabled workers.

"‘4. Free secular, moral, primary, secondary, and University education, with free maintenance while at school or University.

"‘5. The raising of the age of child labour, with a view to its ultimate extinction.

"‘6. Municipalization and public control of the drink traffic.

"‘7. Municipalization and public control of all hospitals and infirmaries.

"‘8. Abolition of indirect taxation and gradual transference of all public burdens on to unearned incomes with a view to their ultimate extinction.

"‘The Independent Labour Party is in favour of adult suffrage, with full political rights and privileges for women, and the immediate extension of the franchise to women on the same terms as granted to men; also triennial Parliaments and second ballot.’ …

"The most prominent individuals in the Independent Labour Party are Mr. Keir Hardie, M. P., its father and guide; Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, M. P., who pulls the political strings; Mr. Philip Snowdon, M. P., who is an active pamphleteer; and Mr. Bruce Glasier, who edits the _Labour Leader_. This organization, by far the most important in Great Britain, takes much less part in international Socialism than the Social Democratic Federation, with which it has never agreed very well. …

"The ‘Clarion’ organizations, - which make the fourth of the more important Socialist organizations, need only a brief mention here. They are not regular societies, like the others, but merely propagandist agencies organized by the _Clarion_ newspaper and manned by Socialists who belong to other bodies or to none. … The agencies include the _Clarion_ vans, which travel round the country and proselytize; the _Clarion_ fellowship societies, which are social bodies, and the _Clarion_ scouts, who are young recruits, organized for special purposes."

_From a series of Articles on "The Socialist Movement in Great Britain," in the London Times, January, 1909._

SOCIALISM: Work of the Anti-Socialist Union.

An Anti-Socialist Union in Great Britain is conducting a training school for speakers and workers whom the union sends into the constituencies to controvert the arguments of Socialist orators. Of the 175 students who entered the training school soon after the inauguration of the union in 1908 about 50 were reported the next year as qualified to take an active part in the anti-Socialist campaign. In reply to an appeal for volunteers, nearly 2,000 applications were received from men and women who were anxious to enter the training school.

SOCIALISM: FRANCE: The Trade Union Version of Socialism.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION; FRANCE: A. D. 1884-1909.

SOCIALISM: A. D. 1909. The Classes to which the Socialist Principle appeals. Strength of Socialist Political Parties. Their Leadership.

"The agriculturist loves the land which he usually owns, and would scout the idea of becoming a farmer under the State, which would be his position under a Socialistic regime; he is frugal, hard-working, and thrifty to the point of avarice, but intolerably narrow, suspicious and bigoted. Among this class Socialism can hardly make proselytes, nor can it do so to any great extent among tradesmen and commercial men, who are either their own masters or who hope to set up for themselves when they have amassed a small capital. We therefore find ourselves reduced to two classes, the artisans and the professions, and it is among these that we must seek the Socialist voters of France. … In France, thanks to the fact that members of Parliament are paid, the professional classes are available for the recruiting of labour leaders; indeed the younger section is naturally attracted to the Socialist standard. As regards this particular class, we can find in Great Britain no parallel. … Young Britons appear to be too busy with their sports or social pleasures to study political questions, so that we can hardly compare them with the continental ‘Intellectuals.’ The ‘Intellectual’ is essentially a product of modern Europe and is principally to be found in France, Germany and Russia. He is almost invariably highly educated, in sympathy with foreign progress, a humanitarian and imbued with ideas either somewhat or very much ahead of his time. The French ‘Intellectual’ is at his best in the twenties; he may then be quixotic, but he generally knows his subject and is fired with generous enthusiasms. … This curious factor must never be lost sight of when the Socialist movement in any European country is examined. In Great Britain members of the educated classes almost invariably belong to one of the two great political parties; but in France they are willing to join hands with the masses, not only as leaders, but with a view to the true enthronement of the people. It is probably for this reason that the Socialist party has made so much headway in France. Such being the soldiers and officers who march under the Red Flag, it is not surprising that their political organisation should have grown so powerful. The Socialist party has hardly suffered from the ups and downs of political life; every election has sent it back to power with a greater number of seats to its credit; at the present time the party has 74 representatives in the Chamber of Deputies, to whom we must add, in certain cases, 135 Radical Socialists. … The ‘Unified Socialists’ of the uncompromising type hold 53 seats, and the Independent Socialists 21; if we add these two figures to the 135 Radical Socialists, we find that they form a considerable portion of the 591 members. Though they have not an absolute majority, the weight of these 209 advanced votes is such as to colour very strongly modern legislation, and there is no reason to doubt that their progress will continue up to a certain point."

_W. L. George, France in the Twentieth Century,