Present-day Importance Research Articles

The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell

IT is not often that a reissue of the collected papers of an outstanding scientific man has been called for. Some of the papers cannot fail to have historical value because of the part which their original publication played in the development of science; but that value alone would not be sufficient to secure the demand. The work involved must be of present-day importance. Therefore its consequences must still be in process of development; and it follows that if, as in the present case, the republication follows the first publication after an interval of half a century, the main papers involved must have been of very epoch-making type. The condition of present value is a sufficient test; but the most essential condition is that of permanent value. Present value persisting after the lapse of fifty years suggests permanence, and at least points to some enduring quality—the direct impress of the distinctive personality of the man. The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell. Edited By W. D. Niven. (Photographic Reprint by arrangement with the Cambridge University Press.) Vol. 1. Pp. xxxii + 607. Vol. 2. Pp. viii + 806. (Paris: J. Hermann, 1927.) 3 livres 6.

The Sun, the Earth's Atmosphere, and Radio Transmission

THE immense present-day importance of radio communication has directed the attention of a wider circle than ever before to the conditions prevailing at great heights in the atmosphere. Even to the professional meteorologist it seemed formerly that what happens above a height of 30 or 40 kilometres has no bearing on the practical affairs of humanity, however interesting the problems of these upper levels might be to the pure theorist. Almost the only influence of these levels upon the technical operations of mankind seemed to consist in the occasional interruption of telegraphic communication at times of great magnetic storms and auroral displays; the interference was pretty clearly due to currents induced in the earth and the cables by the rapidly varying magnetic field, but the direct association of the latter with the upper atmosphere was somewhat hypothetical, though the auror e were quite indubitably atmospheric phenomena.

NOTE ON REFRACTORIES ENGINEERING1

A brief outline of training necessary to fit one for work as a Refractories Engineer. Nature of the work, its present-day importance and one verbal illustration of the work of such an Engineer.