Armstrong College Research Articles

Mr. J. W. Bullerwell

JOHN WILLIAM BULLERWELL began teaching (two years before he entered college) as an assistant master at the Orphan House School, Newcastle, where he had previously been a student. While an undergraduate at Armstrong College, he taught mathematics and mechanics in Newcastle School Board evening schools, and after graduating in 1896 he became science master at St. Cuthbert's Grammar School and part-time lecturer in mathematics at Armstrong College. In 1901 he became lecturer in mathematics at Hartley College, Southampton, a post which he held only for a short time, before returning to Newcastle as lecturer in physics in 1902, becoming senior lecturer in 1919. He retired in 1938, but returned to duty again until 1942.

Prof. W. M. Thornton, O.B.E

WILLIAM MANDELL THORNTON was born in Liverpool in 1870 and had his schooling at the Liverpool Institute. After eight years of practical work with an engineering firm he entered the University College (now the University) of Liverpool, where he worked under Lodge and Carey and graduated in the honours schools of physics and engineering. He was senior lecturer in engineering in the University of Bristol during 1896–98, lecturer in electrical engineering in Armstrong College (now King's College), Newcastle upon Tyne, from 1898, and was appointed to the chair of electrical engineering when this was inaugurated in 1906. On retiring from the chair in 1937, he was elected professor emeritus of the University of Durham.

Location of Industry and Provision of Man-Power

THE memorandum, "Considerations Affecting Post-War Employment in the North-East", which has been issued by the Northern Industrial Group, consisting of employers and trade-union leaders in northern England, and which has been sent to the Minister of Reconstruction, is not only of interest in relation to post-war reconstruction and employment policy and the change from a war to a peace economy. It may well be compared with the report submitted in May 1935 to the District Commissioner for Depressed Areas by a joint committee of the local sections of the Society of Chemical Industry, the Royal Institute of Chemistry and the Chemical Society, and with a subsequent report, "The Industrial Position of the North-East Coast of England", issued later in the same year by the staff of the Economics Department of Armstrong College, Newcastle on Tyne. The conclusions reached in the latter report appear to be fully confirmed and to be as valid to-day as eight years ago, and substantially the same is true ofthe other report and especially of the section contributed by the sub-committee on science and industry.

The Ornithology of Siwa Oasis, with particular reference to the results of the Armstrong College Expedition, 1935

The Ornithology of Siwa Oasis, with particular reference to the results of the Armstrong College Expedition, 1935

Office Practice at Armstrong College

Office Practice at Armstrong College

Research at King's College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

FOLLOWING on the reconstitution of the University of Durham, involving, as it did, the amalgamation in King's College of the former Armstrong College and the College of Medicine, the Standing Committee for Research established in 1923 in Armstrong College with an endowment of £12,000 has been reconstructed so as to include representatives from the Medical School. The Standing Committee's report for 1936-37, which gives particulars of twenty-four grants, amounting in the aggregate to £900, made during that session, announces the provision of a senior research followship tenable during 1938-39, to enable a member of the staff of King's College to undertake research upon a specific problem necessitating complete absence from teaching duties. The report shows no signs of diminution of research activities in any department of the College. Conspicuous among them have been the Siwa Oasis Expedition, in respect of which Mr. J. Omer-Cooper received a grant from the Committee, Mr. R. F. Peel's investigations of sand formations and the movement of dunes in the Libyan desert, and botanical and zoological researches in the Hebrides.

Zoological Expedition to the Oasis of Siwa, Egyptian Libya

THE Armstrong College Expedition to Siwa, consisting of Dr. Malcolm Cameron, Mr. C. L. Smith and myself was financed by the Royal Society, the Godman Exploration Fund, the Percy Sladen Trust, the British Museum (Natural History) and the Armstrong College Research Fund. Its object was the study of a typical Libyan oasis. We left England in March and returned in October 1935, after spending six months in the Libyan Desert and achieving all our objectives. Transfer from the staff of the Department of Zoology, Armstrong College, New-castle-on-Tyne, to Grahamstown, South Africa, has been the principal cause of delay in presenting a preliminary report of the Expedition's results.

Library of the American Philosophical Society

THE report on the library of the American Philosophical Society for 1936 includes details of the more important additions (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society). Among the new exchanges of publications established during the year is one with the library of Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne. At the end of the year the Library contained 80,918 volumes, 48,468 pamphlets and 5,374 maps. The Library does not attempt to develop all fields of learning, but only those in which it is already strong or has historic interest. No expansion in modern books on medicine is contemplated owing to the existence in Philadelphia of a very important medical library, but fields in which development is intended include exploration ; botany, scientific and applied ; the history of science; the inter-relation of the sciences; the co-operation of learned societies and institutions. Further contributions have been made to the promotion of the Union Catalogue of Philadelphia, and the report includes a summary list of archival materials in the possession of the Library, the most important of which is the collection of Franklin manuscripts. Much work has been carried out in preparation for the issue of a descriptive catalogue of these manuscript collections.

Book Reviews

THE IRISH COUNTRYMAN. AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY. By CONRAD M. ARENSBERG. London: Macmillan. 8½ × ½. Pp. xi + 2l6. 10s. 6d. Reviewed by J. H. H. LIFE IN A HAITIAN VALLEY. By MELVILLE J. HERSKOVITS. Illustrated. Pp. 350 + xi + xix. A.A.Knopf. New York, London. $4.00 net. Reviewed by E. Dora Earthy. HANDWÖRTERBUCH DES DEUTSCHEN ABERGLAUBENS, Ed. by HANNS BÄCHTOLD-STÄUBLI, Vol. VII, Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin. 1935–1936. Reviewed by M. Gaster. MOTIF-INDEX OF LITHUANIAN NARRATIVE FOLK-LORE ; by JONAS BALYS ; Folk-Lore Studies, vol. II (Publications of the Lithuanian Folk-Lore Archives); pp. xxxvii and 295 ; Kaunas, 1936 ; price not stated. Reviewed by Kenneth Jackson. THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH AND MORALS. Riddell Memorial Lectures at Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the University of Durham. By B. MALINOWSKI. Oxford University Press. Humphrey Milford. 2s. 6d. net. Pp. 62. 1936. Reviewed by E. O. James. THE RENGMA NAGAS. By J. P. MILLS. Published by direction of the Government of Assam. Pp. x + 381 +17 plates. 8½ × ½. (Macmillan, London, 1937.) 25s. Reviewed by J. H. Hutton.

Research at Armstrong College

FROM Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, we have received a report for 1935–36, somewhat belated, by the Standing Committee for Research. The importance of some of the work accomplished with the help of the Committee's small subventions (twenty-six grants amounting in the aggregate to £846) is well brought out in an eighteen-page summary prefixed to the individual reports of the recipients and list of publications. An obvious advantage of a fund such as that administered by the Committee, unappropriated in advance to specified fields, is that its administration compels representatives of different departments to take an interest in research in each other's fields, and this promotes inter-departmental collaboration in research, instances of which are cited in the report. Of the role of philosophy in the University, the Committee takes a liberal view, for it' refers to works emanating from the College's Department of Philosophy as "original contributions towards the formation of that background of knowledge which forms, or should form, the background of university education".

Creative Moralit. By Louis Arnaud ReidD.Litt., Litt., Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in the University of Durham at Armstrong College, Newcastle. (London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.1937. Pp. 270. Price 10s. 6d. net.)

Creative Moralit. By Louis Arnaud ReidD.Litt., Litt., Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in the University of Durham at Armstrong College, Newcastle. (London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.1937. Pp. 270. Price 10s. 6d. net.)

X-Ray Studies of Proteins

AT the thirty-seventh lecture of the Bedson Club at Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on March 5, Dr. W. T. Astbury gave an account of his work on the “X-Ray Interpretation of Protein Structure”.

VII.—NEW BOOKS

VII.—NEW BOOKS Philosophy and Faith. By DOROTHY M. EMMET, Lecturer in Philosophy at Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Student Christian Movement Press, 1936. Pp. 164. 4s. 6d. net. W. G. DE BURGH W. G. DE BURGH Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Mind, Volume XLVI, Issue 181, January 1937, Pages 103–104, https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/XLVI.181.103 Published: 01 January 1937

The Training of the Engineer

IN his inaugural address as president of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders on Friday, October 23, Prof. C. J. Hawkes took as his main theme “The Training of the Engineer” and, as a background, his work and experience in the revision of the engineering degree courses at the University of Durham lent an unusual interest and value to his remarks. Engineering is not a science but an art depending on science and, between the two, there are still many gaps, which the engineer has to bridge. His decisions have to be in a form capable of being translated into practice, and he has to be trained to make use of established scientific principles in conjunction with a knowledge of the needs of the world, of the natural forces to be contended with, of the properties of the materials to be used, of the capacities and limitations of those through whom the work has to be done and of the plant, tools, and machinery on which the processes depend. Prof. Hawkes indicated; how the curricula at Durham have been revised to comply with these comprehensive demands. The more human aspects are provided for by weekly reports and discussions in college, and by the personal contact during the workshop training with men of all classes, perhaps the most broadening influence that could be found. By the limitation of available time, the graduate course is mainly confined to the study of scientific principles and their applications. Such subjects as economics, works organization and administration are considered preferably as post-graduate studies. Prof. Hawkes also took occasion to report the progress of research work at Armstrong College, which has been greatly fostered by the members of the Institution he was addressing.

Marine Biology at Cullercoats

THE Report for the year ending July 31, 1935, of Armstrong College Dove Marine Laboratory, Culler-coats, Northumberland, drawn up by the director, Prof. A. D. Hobson, and published by the Marine Laboratory Committee of Armstrong College, shows a successful period in the history of the Laboratory. Further alterations in the building have given more working space and the library has been extended, with most satisfactory results. Herring observations have been continued in accordance with those of previous years, also salmon investigations, the results of the latter work having been published in the Annual Report of the Tyne Salmon Conservancy Board. Interesting results have been obtained by Dr. Bull in his experiments on conditioned responses in fishes in connexion with changes of salinity, and he has also continued his observations on pollution in the Tyne estuary. Faunistic work, which has been made a speciality of the Laboratory researches, is progressing rapidly, many new additions have been made to the fauna, and a reference collection is in process of formation which will be of great value to future workers. A mussel survey of the Northumberland beds has been completed, and a report prepared and submitted to the Northumberland Sea Fisheries Committee. This report appears in the present publication, showing that the Holy Island and Budle Bay beds are the only areas of importance for bait supplies. Papers on the herring investigations by B. Storrow and Dorothy Cowan, on conditioned responses in fishes (Part 6) by H. O. Bull, and on heterogonic growth in the abdomen of Carcinus mcenas by J. H. Day (see NATURE, April 18, 1936, p. 669) are also included.

Riddell Memorial Lectures. Eighth Series. General Subject: Evolution and the Christian Conception of God. Delivered before the University of Durham at Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, November 1935, by Charles E. Raven, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. (London: Oxford University Press: Humphrey Milford. 1936. Pp. 56. Price 2s. 6d. net.)

Riddell Memorial Lectures. Eighth Series. General Subject: Evolution and the Christian Conception of God. Delivered before the University of Durham at Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, November 1935, by Charles E. Raven, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. (London: Oxford University Press: Humphrey Milford. 1936. Pp. 56. Price 2s. 6d. net.) - Volume 11 Issue 43

Chemistry of Crystals

THE thirty-fourth Bedson Lecture was delivered at Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on May 8, by Dr. C. H. Deseh, his subject being “The Chemical Properties of Crystals”. Dr. Desch said that a solid metal is a crystalline mass of which the chemical, as well as physical properties are anisotropic; acid attack, for example, not being uniform, but producing geometrically shaped pits indicating the symmetry of the constituent crystals. This constitutes a part of the evidence for a secondary or mosaic structure in crystals. The boundaries between the individual crystals have different chemical properties from the mass. Their form corresponds with that of foam cells, being determined by surface tension, and in certain alloys they can be separated by the action of specific reagents. Certain brasses containing aluminium, for example, fall to pieces, the grains separating like sand, when placed for a few seconds in a solution of mercurous nitrate. In the stainless steels, such intercrystalline disruption is explained by the segregation of carbides, but in other instances no boundary constituent has been detected. The stability of iron, aluminium and stainless steel in air is explained by the presence of a surface film of oxygen or oxide. The greatly increased chemical activity of a metallic surface under high local pressures, as in abrasion, was also discussed. The effect known as ‘corrosion fatigue’ is caused by the combined action of alternating stresses and chemical attack, in which the properties of the film and of minute cracks both play a part. Dr. Desch concluded with an account of the transformations within solid solutions, including the work of Prof. W. L. Bragg on the changes from disorder to order in a lattice.

<italic>Rousseau and the Modern State</italic>. By <sc>Alfred Cobban</sc>, Lecturer in History, Armstrong College, in the University of Durham. (London: George Allen and Unwin; New York: John Day Company. 1935. Pp.288. 10s)

<italic>Rousseau and the Modern State</italic>. By <sc>Alfred Cobban</sc>, Lecturer in History, Armstrong College, in the University of Durham. (London: George Allen and Unwin; New York: John Day Company. 1935. Pp.288. 10s)

X-Ray Studies of Molecular Structure

THE thirty-third Bedson Lecture was delivered on February 21 at Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, by J. D. Bernal, assistant director of research in the Crystallographic Laboratory, Cambridge, who took as his subject “Modern Crystallography and Organic Chemistry”. Mr. Bernal gave practical details of the method of X-ray examination of organic substances, which he explained constitutes an indirect method of seeing molecular structures. A pencil of X-rays is diffracted by all possible internal planes of regularity of a crystal to a series of points which can be photographed; the intensities and angles of deviation of these diffracted rays constitute the observed data which will unequivocally characterise a substance. It is also relatively easy to determine the symmetry of the molecule, which in some cases identifies an isomeride as cis or trans, and to determine the size of the unit cell of the crystal from which, knowing the density, the molecular weight can be found, and also the shape of the molecule, which has been of value in sterol chemistry. The complete interpretation of X-ray diagrams to yield the position of each atom in the unit cell and the electron density in each part of the molecule is much more laborious and has only recently been achieved. Besides confirming the classical organic structures, this method gives direct information of the distortion of valency angles in such cases as durene, and of the semi-aromatic nature of the bonds in benzoquinone and dinitrobenzene.

Research on Carcinogenic Compounds

THE thirty-first Bedson Lecture was delivered by Prof. J. W. Cook, of the Cancer Hospital, London, to the Bedson Club at Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on November 8. Prof. Cook took as his subject “The Synthesis and Biological Effects of Carcinogenic Hydrocarbons”, and said it has long been known that certain forms of skin cancer are due to occupational causes, such cases being prevalent among workers in the coal-tar and allied industries, in the shale oil industry and among mule spinners in cotton mills. This is due to the action of a common constituent of coal tar, and shale and lubricating oil, the isolation and identification of which was successfully accomplished about three years ago in the research laboratories of the Cancer Hospital, London. A very valuable guide in the difficult task of separating this substance from the other constituents of the mixtures was provided by the fact that these tars and oils having carcinogenic properties are all strongly fluorescent. An investigation of the nature of this fluorescence spectrum directed attention to the benzanthracene group of hydrocarbons. Many of these have been prepared artificially in the laboratory, and some have been shown capable of producing cancer in mice. The cancer-producing constituent of coal tar, etc., benz-pyrene, belongs to this group. More recently, it has been found possible to bring about the artificial conversion of substances normally present in the human body, namely, cholic and deoxycholic acids, into a hydrocarbon of the benzanthracene type, methylcholanthrene, and this was found to be more powerfully cancer-producing than any other substance yet investigated. The chemical changes by which it was obtained are of the type which are well known to occur in the body, and it may be that cancer in man is due to some such substance as a bile acid undergoing decomposition in an abnormal manner, with conversion into cancer-producing substances.