Commercial Side Research Articles

Ealing provides the meat in the sandwich

For many years it has been customary for UK firms to recruit graduates; and as most readers will be aware, large companies devote many expensive man hours to the university ‘milk round’ selecting young men to be trained for scientific, technological, or managerial jobs in industry. On the administrative, commercial, and general management side companies interview undergraduates and graduates, and attempt to select those with a flair for business.

Repetition, Repression, and Return: Great Expectations and the Study of Plot

HAT FOLLOWS is intended primarily as a discourse on // a concept which has mostly gone unhonored in modern criticism, no doubt because it appears to belong to the popular, even the commercial side of literature. Reading for the plot, we were taught, is a low form of activity. Long caught in valuations set by a criticism conceived for the lyric, the study of narrative has more recently found its way back to a quasi-Aristotelian view of the logical priority of plot in narrative forms. In the wake of Russian Formalism, French narratology has made us sensitive to the functional logic of actions, to the workings of sequence and transformation in the constitution of recognizable narrative units, to the presence of codes of narration that demand decoding in consecutive, irreversible order.' Plot as I understand it, however, suggests a focus somewhat more specific than the questions of structure, discourse, and narrativity addressed by most narratology. We may want to conceive of plot less as a structure than as a structuring operation, used, or made necessary, by those meanings that develop only through sequence and succession: an interpretative operation specific to narrative signification. The word any dictionary tells us, covers a range of meanings, from the bounded piece of land, through the ground plan of a building, the chart or map, the outline of a literary work, to the sense (separately derived from the French complot) of the scheme or secret machination, to the accomplishment of some purpose, usually illegal. All these meanings, I think, usefully cohere in our common sense of plot: it is not only the outline of a narrative, demarcating its boundaries, it also suggests its intention of meaning, the direction of its scheme or machination for accomplishing a purpose. Plots have not only design, but intentionality as well. Some narratives clearly give us a sense of in higher degree than others. Our identification of this sense of plottedness may provide a more concrete and analyzable way into the question of plots than an abstract definition of the subject, and a way that necessarily finds its focus in the readership of in the reader's recogni-

Informations‐ und Datenverarbeitung im Apparate‐ und Anlagenbau

AbstractProcessing of information and data in construction of equipment and plant. Computers are playing an everincreasing role in plant construction. Partly integrated programming solutions have meanwhile become available for many sectors of the engineering and commercial sides of plant design. The design and construction of larger plants, which because of the necessity to save on energy and raw material consumption and to conform with ecologically unobjectionable standards are becoming more and more complex, is virtually impossible without the aid of computers. And this development trend is still continuing. At present efforts are mainly directed at the use of computers in the preparation of engineering drawings and to the assembly of partly integrated processing steps of larger integrated complexes. Projects of this nature are often beyond the capabilities of individual firms and demand cooperative development. Apart from a few exceptions, electronic data processing has not been exploited in plant construction beyond the commercial side. Even NC machines are frequently not employed in plant construction, mainly because of the custom‐built nature of the components. Essential rationalization even in this area poses the question of the extent to which a wider use of electronic data processing might be helpful.

Contributions to the Biology of the Panga Pterogymnus Laniarus (Pisces : Sparidae): Age, Growth and Reproduction

All the fish used in this investigation were caught by commercial side trawlers along the eastern Cape coast of South Africa. Age and growth of P. laniarius was determined from otoliths collected monthly from April 1974 to September 1975. The validity of annuli was proved by monthly edge examination of the otoliths. There is no difference in growth between the sexes. The Von Bertalanffy equation Lt = 48,1 (l-e-0,10(e + 0.22)) was found to describe the growth of the panga in length. Some fish become sexually mature at a total length of 26 cm. Fifty percent maturity is attained at a length of 28 cm, between the ages of 4 and 5 years. All fish are sexually mature at a total length of 32 cm, at an age of 6 years. The spawning season of the panga extends from mid-September to May.

Britain's contribution to medicine and the teaching of medicine in Iraq

The British contribution to medicine and public health in Iraq formed part of their interests which followed in the wake of Bonaparte's sweeping conquests in the Near East in the early part of the nineteenth century. For Britain the territory of Iraq, or rather its southern half, formed part of the Persian Gulf 'sphere of interest' in which British diplomacy had for two centuries built up a unique position. The suppression of piracy and the slave traffic, charting and safe navigation in the Gulf and Shatt al-Arab--these were valuable and commendable achievements that grew out of British interests and the presence of Britain in the area. On the commercial side a proportion of the Basra traffic was in British hands. Inland, the oldest-established river steamers on the Tigris were British. It was against this background that the Church Missionary Society established a mission with its church and hospital at Baghdad in 1882. Later it extended its work to Mosul. The British Resident and Consul-General together with his staff and a resident doctor kept a watchful eye on these establishments. With their own Residency surgeon and his dispensary, their river steamer 'The Comet' of the Royal Indian Marine, their sepoys, and their extraterritorial Indian post offices, successive Residents were forced, by the jealous disfavour of the velis, to fight hard for their privileges. At Karbala a Consular Agent of Indian Muslim extraction watched over Shi'ite interests.

In Situ Electron Microscopy of Thin Film Growth on Clean Substrate in Clean Vacuum: I. Technique

A technique to perform “routinely” in situ electron microscopy of thin film growth on clean substrate in clean vacuum was developed with use of a modern high resolution electron microscope without serious loss of its versatilities. The end vacuum in the main column of the microscope was improved to 3×10-7 Torr only by an elaborate reassembly without any change in the original commercial design. Differential pumping by additional orbital ion and sublimation pumps evacuates the specimen chamber down to 3×10-8 Torr. The commercial side entry specimen heating and tilting stage, which carries a thin crystal for substrate, can work without leak larger than 1×10-8 Torr. The stage and an evaporator containing two separate sources can exchange, respectively, substrate crystals and evaporants through air lock systems, recovering the vacuum of the specimen chamber within 10 min. Single crystal substrates with clean surfaces are prepared by in situ electron-beam-flashing cleavage or by in situ deposition. A wide applicability of the latter method is to be stressed. A further improvement of the vacuum environment in the vicinity of substrate by applying a liquid helium cryogenic tip was tried with promising preliminary results.

Bilateral Agreements

In speaking to the Air Law Group of this Society, I speak as no lawyer and offer no legal profundities. I speak as an airline man, with some experience in bilaterals. I propose to talk upon some practical aspects of bilaterals as they appear to an airline man and to touch little upon “-isms” and “-ologies”. The philosophical profundities matter only if they help an airline to trade where it wishes and to plan ahead with some hope of continuity and flexibility of routeing.I would like first to pay a tribute to the “only true begetter” of British policy in the bilateral field—Sir George Cribbett. It can have fallen to few Civil Servants to have had such influence on the commercial side of a great industry; it must be unique for such a man never even to have reached the principal post in his own Ministry. The very qualities which made his name so revered in the world at large were probably those which blocked his path at home. Our worldwide networks of today are his memorial. In the civil aviation field his epitaph might well be that on Wren's tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral—“Si monumentum requiris, circumspice”: if you seek his memorial, look around.

The Theatre in Dublin

DUBLIN is, very properly, the capital of Ireland; for, though the island is still divided (the northeastern section remaining as part of the United Kingdom) the British city of Belfast cannot, for all its progressive material development, produce the kind of cultural climate in which a university stops being called "red brick" and an art collection ceases to be "municipal." Since this is to be an article on the Dublin rather than the Irish theater I can only mention the Belfast companies in passing; but as these are but two in number against Dublin's halfdozen (and the two cities are of roughly the same size with just over half-a-million inhabitants in each) it will be enough to say that while the Belfast Arts and the Ulster Group theaters have a vigorous outlook and more than competent styles of production they have rarely come forward with a resounding succes d'estime, nor, on the commercial side, do they in any measure constitute a tourist attraction.

A high-volume high-speed weather information distribution system

The planners of aircraft operations, both commercial and military, have always required up-to-date information regarding predicted weather along flight paths and at destinations. The need for more timely weather information has been increasing for some years. On the commercial side the need has grown because of the increasing density of air traffic and the economic drive for more efficient aircraft operations. For the military side, apart from the constant drive for greater efficiency, the need has also been growing because of the increasing complexity of operations.

An analysis of carcass measurements of post-war British bacon pigs

(a) Measurements made on sides of bacon exhibited since the war at the National Pig Breeders' Association carcass shows at Stirling and Peterborough and on various commercial sides have been analysed to investigate differences between the shows, the years and the sexes.(b) In the Large White exhibits the sides from gilts were on average longer, thicker in the belly, thinner in back fat and with better developed eye muscles than the sides from hogs.(c) The area of the eye muscle of the carcasses entered in these shows between 1948 and 1952 shows an unexplained decrease over this period. The width of the eye muscle is the only character showing a definite show difference, being larger at Stirling than at Peterborough.

Censorship and Criticism

Twenty-five years ago, Father Martindale, writing on “The Movies” in the very first number of Blackfriars, decided that “the thing can be used as well as misused, like thyroid or theology”. Since he wrote, the situation has changed: it can no longer be said that in the cinema “voice-anxiety is eliminated”, and we are usually spared “Bishops wearing their mitres at the tea-table and Abbesses giving absolution”. The “hundreds of thousands” who visit the pictures weekly in this country have become as many millions. But the need for a solid basis of criticism is as urgent as ever. The vast technical development of the cinema, its tremendous commercial growth and social importance, have not been matched—at least not among Catholics—by much discrimination.It is of little use any longer to deplore the existence of the cinema. It is firmly established as the most popular form of entertainment, and one supposes that Catholics are to be found in their proportion to the population as a whole among the weekly millions. There are many features of the cinemas as an industry which are certainly deplorable, but these should not prejudice an objective examination of the cinema as a medium, though in fact “what is wrong with the films?” can usually be traced back to “what is wrong with the Big Business behind them?” But it is difficult to envisage much change in the commercial side of the cinema: the tendency is all towards more mergers, more mammoth corporations spreading their tentacles from the studio right down to the local Ritz. For the cinema is not strictly an art; it is an industry which—among many other people—employs artists. Like any other commercial undertaking, the question it ultimately asks is: “Will it pay?” From the factory (the studio) to the shop-counter (the box-office) this is the real preoccupation; and the millions queueing nightly from Barnstaple to Bogota, they are the people who decide.

The Cheshunt Research Station

THE annual report for 1937 of the Experimental and Research Station at Turner's Hill, Cheshunt, Herts, announces a new auxiliary venture. It was recognized that the control of virus diseases of cucumbers and tomatoes could only be accomplished by the use of seed from disease-free plants. A Seed Growers' Association is therefore to be formed to carry on this commercial side of the Station's activity. A capital of £3,000 has been subscribed, and will enable the venture to start. Many experimental trials which have been prosecuted in previous years are continued to give conclusive results. Such are the effect of restricted rooting upon early fruiting of the tomato, the use of electric light to hasten growth of cucumber seedlings, the use of soil heating for several crops, and the use of a surface rooting medium for tomatoes. Entomological investigations have included studies of rose thrips and onion thrips, and the use of a species of Scolothrips as a predatory control of red spider mite. Extensive mycological researches include the record, for the first time in Great Britain, of a leaf-spot of marguerite caused by the fungus Ramularia bellunensis. Physiological estimations of tomato seedlings have also been accomplished, and more general problems of soil nutrition have been studied.

Some reflections on long-term investments with particular reference to the business of life assurance

It is probably true to say that during the past two decades the most perplexing and important of the problems, with which those responsible for the management of Life Assurance Companies have been called upon to deal, has arisen from the investment side of the business rather than from the commercial and actuarial sides. On the whole, the investment policy followed has so far emerged successfully from the searching tests imposed upon it by the events of recent years but the future remains obscure and there are many lessons still to be learned.Life Assurance Companies, by the very nature of their business, are compelled to interest themselves in the problems of long-term investment, and it is worth while, therefore, to enquire whether the ordeal through which they have passed has revealed any defects in the present machinery of long-term lending and investing or in the basic principles which have heretofore governed investment policy.

The Dyestuff Industry

I FEAR that Prof. Armstrong is very angry with me (NATURE, June 1, p. 907); for with him such phrases as “management and commercial side”, “commercial community”, “commercial outlook”, “commercial mind” are of course terms of comprehensive opprobrium, and lie at the opposite end of the scale to such mellifluous, desirable and creditable phrases like “true technical leadership”. Perhaps after all I do deserve his anger, for he says “I have more than once discussed the situation, most recently in an article in the Pharmaceutical Journal”. As I regularly read most of what Prof. Armstrong writes, this was not news to me, although I have not yet reached the stage when I can, just because Prof. Armstrong says so, accept it as the complete and absolute faith.

The Dyestuff Industry

WHILST in general agreement with the admirable article on “The Dyestuffs Industry and its Lessons”, in NATURE of April 27, I cannot endorse your acceptance of Mr. C. J. T. Cronshaw's argument that “the industry languished because the pioneer spirit and the creative instinct which brought it into being abandoned it too early”. I hold that the breakdown was entirely on the side represented by Mr. Cronshaw—the managerial and commercial side. Often in the distant past have I discussed the problem from this point of view with Griess, Caro, Dewar, Witt, Meldola, Martius and others. The commercial community is not likely to recognise this, simply because the scientific spirit is foreign to its nature.

Training the Industrial Chemist

THE important subject of the training of an industrial chemist was discussed by Mr. Thomas Donaldson in his address as chairman of the Glasgow Section of the Society of Chemical Industry at a meeting held jointly with the Glasgow Section of the Institute of Chemistry in the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, on March 1. Mr. Donaldson is general technical manager of the Explosives Group of Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., and though he made it clear that he was expressing his own personal opinions, his long industrial experience and his position as a governor of the Royal Technical College give him an opportunity of forming an unbiased opinion by being able to look at the problem from both sides. His chief criticism of the present system is that the training usually considered necessary to equip a man for chemical industry is too long. In Scottish universities a student of chemistry takes an honours degree requiring four years study and then normally pursues research leading to a doctorate. This research period extends over three years for a Ph.D. and then, at the age of about twenty-four years, the man endeavours to obtain an industrial position. Once in industry, it requires a further two years training before the man can be considered to be a thoroughly efficient member of his profession, since the university training has scarcely touched on industrial chemistry. Mr. Donaldson suggested that instead of the present system a man should take a three years pass degree, and he could then decide whether he would continue to pursue a technical career. If not, then, by two years training on the commercial side, he could become a thoroughly efficient technical salesman. If he decided to remain on the technical side he had two alternatives. He could complete his honours degree and do one year's post-graduate research, or he could take a two years course in applied chemistry. On this matter of starting research, Mr. Donaldson said that it is far more important that students should be trained in the methods of research rather than that they should solve any particular problem.

Pitman's Electrical Educator

THE Preacher said that of writing books there is no end, and that much study is a weariness to the flesh. Judging by the contents of the first part of this popular educator, the second part of the above statement scarcely applies to this book. In the frontispiece it is stated that it is a highly valuable work for electricians, electrical engineers, contractors, apprentices and students. In addition, it is intended for those engaged on the commercial side of the electrical industry. Many eminent engineers and men of science are contributing to this volume. In the foreword, Dr. Fleming points out that electrical engineering has advanced so rapidly in recent years that it is quite impossible to deal with every part of the subject in a single volume. We are told that the student and the practical engineer desire to obtain a general acquaintance with the subject from a single book if possible, and that the articles will interest every engineer, whatever his status or knowledge. It will be seen that the programme is somewhat ambitious. We wish it success, but the first part does not enable us to judge of its practical value.

An Agricultural Enterprise

AN interesting and important development is recorded in the report under notice.1 The Qlympia Agricultural Co., Ltd., is a comparatively reirent enterprise which is farming nearly 10,000 acres of land on strictly business principles, one of the first examples of the application of industrial methods to the exploitation of land in this country. The company's land lies in six estates, and, in addition, the Suffolk estate of the chairman of the company, Mr. Joseph Watson, amounting to some 7000 acres, is linked up with the operations of the research department. It is not possible here to discuss the actual operations of the company in equipping its estates, the additions to and reconstructions of the buildings in order to fit them for large-scale farming, the provision of cottages, water-supply, etc., nor, again, the stocking and management of the farms. From this purely commercial side it is evident that an experiment is being made of extraordinary value in handling English land in a wholesale instead of a retail fashion and in providing for agriculture an organisation and an equipment comparable to that appertaining to any other great industry. It has often been thought that in such a way only can intensive production and adequate labour conditions be ensured in agriculture, and tha enterprise therefore becomes one of the utmost importance in our social and national economy.

The technical story of the synchronous converter

This is intended to be a semi-historical treatment of the engineering development of the synchronous converter as the author saw it. This development occurred over a long period of years and much of this was done inside of the electrical manufacturing companies, rather than in the operating field. In consequence, the many stages which eventually led to the great success of this type of electrical machine are but little known to the electrical public. The various steps in the development are described, covering many of the earlier troubles, and methods tried for overcoming them. The early evidences of hunting which eventually led up to the use of copper dampers; e. m. f. regulation; 60 cycle converters with their ups and downs and final success; the three-wire converter; the inverted converter; the application of commutating poles; the coming of the synchronous booster and the split pole types of converters, — all appear in the story, along with little incidents connected with the engineering and commercial side of the growth. Much of the material of the paper is given directly from the author's memory, checked at times by such technical data as were available. Representing principally the author's personal contact with the development, the story naturally cannot be considered as covering competitors' apparatus except in a very casual way. Errors of omission may thus be numerous, though unavoidable.

Elementary Agricultural Chemistry: a Handbook for Junior Agricultural Students and Farmers

TEACHERS at agricultural schools and colleges are placed in the difficult position of having to teach a branch of applied chemistry to pupils who have little time, and often less inclination, to study pure chemistry. The best method of procedure has probably not so far been found, nor has agricultural chemistry as yet fallen into the hands of the text-book writer to anything like so complete an extent as its parents on both sides. It is, however, pretty clear what the agricultural student ought to be able to do. He should have a good working conception ot chemical change, and be able to trace out the broad outlines of the great natural cycles involved in the synthesis of plant substances from carbon dioxide, water, c and, as the subject has a commercial side, he must be able to interpret the analysis of a feeding stuff or manure, and to make simple calculations involving a knowledge of the chemical composition of a few common substances. The scheme of teaching must take account of the rather special nature of the student. A young man commonly chooses agriculture as a profession because he loves the outdoor life of the farm and is of a keenly practical turn of mind, and this temperament is generally incompatible with systematic study of a subject for its own sake; he will work, however, and work hard, when his studies obviously subserve a useful end and fit in with the central idea of his life. Elementary Agricultural Chemistry: a Handbook for Junior Agricultural Students and Farmers. By Prof. Herbert Ingle. Pp. ix + 250. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price 4s. 6d. net.