Use Of Flame Research Articles

BY the death of Dr. Thomas Porter, for many years science master at Eton College and one of the founders of the (Public Schools) Science Masters' Association, on March 31, aged seventy-three years (NATURE, 131, 496, April 8, 1933), science teaching in Great Britain suffered a severe loss. An obituary article in the Journal of the Chemical Society of December 31 stresses Dr. Porter's influence as a teacher. Though he was gifted with remarkable talent, he never allowed himself to specialise. This wide range of interests was the source of inspiration which many of his pupils gained from him. Porter was born at Bristol and was educated at the Grammar School, from which he gained a scholarship in natural science at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1878. In 1885 he was appointed at Eton, and there he taught for forty-eight years. He was responsible for many improvements and extensions in the teaching of science at the College. Dr. Porter's own investigations covered a wide field. His most serious contribution was on the phenomenon of ‘flicker’, contributed to the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1898, 1902 and 1912. He was the first to notice the non-homogeneity of X-rays (NATURE, 54, 149, June 18, 1896). Papers on Newton's rings and the use of flames for enhancing the intensity of sound were published in the Philosophical Magazine.

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