Research and Prediction: The inaugural Hartley Lecture delivered at the Royal Society, 21 May 1974

1974 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-27
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
British Association ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Great Exhibition

I think it must have been Harold Hartley’s sense of history which first marked me down for his attention. In 1950 he had been President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 1951 was the centenary year of the Great Exhibition, inspired and largely managed by Prince Albert. Harold apparently made up his mind that it would be appropriate for me to succeed him as President of the British Association for that anniversary year. Furthermore, he hoped thereby to enlist my interest in all things scientific in the expectation that this connexion would give encouragement to scientists. In this way, at the age of 30, I was ‘Hartled’ into a position for which I had absolutely no qualifications whatever and which is usually reserved for the most distinguished scientists of the day. What is more, I was a serving Naval Officer with the Mediterranean Fleet and therefore not entirely unoccupied. It was Sir David Martin who first publicly referred to the verb ‘to Hartle’ which is declined like this: ‘I think’, ‘You do’, ‘It is successfully accomplished.’ Sir David Martin explained the process this way: ‘If Harold, in his persuasive way, says he thinks something or other should be done and convinces you that you can help, you don’t gripe about it, you put off other things to do what he suggests and do it much better than you thought you were capable of doing it.’

scholarly journals I.—The Mechanism of Stromboli

1874 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
pp. 529-542
Author(s):  
G. Poulett Scrope
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Activity ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
The Mediterranean

Mr. R. Mallet—whose theory on the source of volcanic heat was noticed in a former number of this Magazine—has followed it up by a second paper, read before the Royal Society in June last, and published in the last number (155) of the Proceedings, upon “The Mechanism of Stromboli,” one of the Lipari Islands, well known for the permanence of its volcanic activity, which seems to have been incessant for the last two thousand years at least. This insular and conical mountain rises more than 3,000 feet above, from a depth of nearly 2,000 feet below, the level of the Mediterranean, and exhibits the usual structure of a volcano, having an old breached crater on one side, from the bottom of which red-hot scoriæ and fragments of lava are thrown up, together with much steam, by explosions occurring at irregular intervals of from two or three to thirty or even occasionally forty minutes.

1. Notes on Dredging in Madeira

1878 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 153-154
Author(s):  
Robert Boog Watson
Keyword(s):  
British Association ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Way

The difficulties in the way of dredging at Madeira are many and considerable. This has probably prevented any of this work having been done since the publication of Mr Macandrew's list of Mollusca, presented to the British Association in 1854. The author having dredged for several years at Madeira, confirms Macandrew's generalisation of the Mediterranean character of the Mollusca— excludes 12 of Macandrew's named list as having crept in by mistake, and to the 115 remaining species identified by Macandrew as Madeiran has added 200 to 250 more, making nearly 400 in all, of which 80 or perhaps 100 are probably new. These he hopes soon to publish.

A Society against Ugliness

2020 ◽  
pp. 200-217
Author(s):  
Anton Howes
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Private Company ◽  
The World ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Great Exhibition

This chapter examines the Great Exhibition of 1851, which is considered an industrial audit of the world that included exhibits from Britain's empire and other foreign nations. It talks about the East India Company, a private company that exercised control over almost all of the Indian subcontinent that provided displays of the products of India in the Great Exhibition. It also explains the aim of the Great Exhibition, which was to reveal to merchants and manufacturers in Britain the kinds of raw materials that might be imported for Englishmen to work upon. The chapter highlights the Royal Society of Arts' activities over the previous century, which focused on the spread of information instead of awarding premiums for exploiting new resources. It describes how the products of Britain's colonies brought attention to merchants and manufacturers in Britain itself.

scholarly journals VI. Electrification of air, of vapour of water, and of other gases

1898 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 187-228 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Atmospheric Electricity ◽  
British Association ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
The Subject

1. In this paper we describe a long series or experiments on the electrification of air and other gases, with which we have been occupied from May, 1894, up to the present time (June, 1897). Some results of our earlier experiments, and of preliminary efforts to find convenient methods of investigation, have from time to time been communicated to the Royal Society, the British Association, and the Glasgow Philosophical Society. 2. The method for testing the electrification of air, which we used in our earliest experiments, was an application of the water-dropper (long well-known in the ordinary observation of atmospheric electricity). Its use by Maclean and Goto, in 1890, led to an interesting discovery that air in an enclosed vessel, previously non-electrified, becomes electrified by a jet of water falling through it. An investigation of properties of matter concerned in this effect, related as it is to the “development of electricity in the breaking up of a liquid into drops,” which had been discovered by Holmgren as early as 1873, and to the later investigations and discoveries described by Lenard, in his paper on the “Electricity of Waterfalls,” forms the subject of 25-37 of the present communication.

scholarly journals Arthur George Tansley, 1871-1955

1957 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 227-246 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Preparatory School ◽  
Biographical Information ◽  
Style Of Writing ◽  
Better Than

When he died in 1955 Sir Arthur Tansley had fortunately acceded to a standing request from the Council of the Royal Society for biographical information and in 1953 had supplied them with a typescript of what he called ‘factual biographical notes’. These were in fact a good deal better than ‘notes’, for they are carefully composed and constitute an excellent example of his own delightfully lucid and almost laconic style of writing. Since moreover that part of them which concerns his earliest school and university career is nearly unavailable from other directions, and contains his own characteristically objective comments upon the teachers and scientists of those days, it has seemed appropriate to derive this biography, up to the turn of the century and Tansley’s migration to Cambridge in 1906, almost directly from his own notes. This is signified below by the quotation marks and the concluding bracketed initials (A.G.T.). ‘Tansley was born on 15 August 1871, at 33 Regent Square, W.C., the only son of George Tansley and his wife, Amelia Lawrence. He had one sister, seven years older than himself. ‘[His father] was opposed to Arthur’s engaging in business, and very anxious that he should go to one of the old universities, for which George had the deepest respect and admiration. Arthur showed scientific leanings, especially towards botany, which had been stimulated by a member of the Working Men’s College—a wood turner by trade—who was an excellent and enthusiastic field botanist. From the age of 12 to 15 (1883-6) Arthur was at a preparatory school at Worthing where two successive masters were keen field naturalists, and their example fostered his attraction to field botany.

On what the colonial magnetic observatories have accomplished

1857 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 395-413 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
British Association ◽  
Magnetic Observatories

It has been suggested to me, that a brief review of what has been accomplished by the Colonial Magnetic Observatories, instituted on the joint recommendation of the Royal Society and British Association, would be acceptable; and that the officer who has been entrusted with the superintendence of these establishments is the person from whom such a review may most properly be expected. Fully assenting to both propositions, I have readily undertaken the task; and have availed myself of the occasion to add a few remarks and suggestions on the measures which appear to be required for the further prosecution of the objects for which the observatories were recommended. The magnetic investigations designed to be carried into execution by the Colonial Observatories recommended by the Royal Society embraced a much wider scope than had been contemplated by any previous institutions, or than had been provided for by the arrangements or instrumental means of any then existing establishment, whether national or private.

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