JOURNAL OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE VOL. LXIX Srn (JoHN) AMBROSE FLEMING, KT., M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. A selection from among many Scientific Attainments. Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering of the University of London. Honorary Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London. Honorary Member of the Royal Engineers' Institute, Chatham. Honorary Fellow of the Society of Engineers, London. Honorary Member of the Society of Engineers, Liege, Belgium. Honorary Doctor of Engineering, University of Liverpool. Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics, London. Corresponding Member of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Honorary Member of the Lancaster Astronomical and Scientific Association. Has been for more than fifty years closely and practically connected with the introduction into Great Britain, and working, of the epoch­ making inventions of the Telephone, Incandescent Electric Lighting and Wireless Telegraphy. In 1885 he was appointed the first Professor of Electrical Engineering in University College, London, a position he held for forty-two years. For more than thirty years he acted as Adviser to Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, and assisted in the design of the first long-distance wireless station at Poldhu in Cornwall. His most important invention in connection with wireless telegraphy was the first form of Thermionic Valve which has been the precursor of all sub­ sequent valves of 3, 4 and 5 electrode form. For this invention, the Royal Society of Arts, London, awarded him in 1921 their highest distinc­ tion-the Albert Medal. He received the Faraday Medal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1928, the Duddell Medal of the Physical Society of London in 1931 and the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1910. He has carried out a large amount of original research in Electrical Physics and has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of London for forty-five years. He has published some twenty books on various subjects, some of which have had a world-wide circula­ tion, and about one hundred papers on his scientific researches. He has been a Vice-President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and is President of the Television Society. He received in 1933 two Medals of Honour from the Institute of Radio Engineers of New York, U.S.A., for his wireless work, and was voted in 1935 the award of the Franklin Medal by The Franklin Institute of America, the highest award for the Physical Sciences in the United States. When the Institution of Electrical Engineers of London celebrated its Jubilee in 1922, he was selected to give the Oration on " Faraday and the Foundations of Electrical Engineering." In May, 1923, he gave the fourteenth Kelvin Lecture before the same Institution on " Problems in Telephony Solved and Unsolved," and in 1935 he was awarded the great honour of the Kelvin Medal in recognition of the eminent services he has rendered to engineering science by his work and investigations in those branches of engineering with which the late Lord Kelvin was especially identified. {J;h;,,z/ ~1?'1,ode Sf!Zn?',,~, .LY /, S?r. .9:., f.~ ? 00 JOURNAL OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF OR, 'l}gilosopgirnl Sotid!l of ~rrnt ~ritain. VOL. LXIX. LONDON: teubHsl)clJ by tl)c :!institute, 1, ~mtral 3Suilttings, ~cstmini;ter, ,t,.m.1. A L L RIGHT S RE 8 ER V E J>, 1937 LONDON: HARRISON A~D so~s, LTD,, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, PREFACE --- THE cordial thanks of the Institute are due to the authors of the ten papers, comprised in this volume. A great deal of time and trouble is necessarily involved in their preparation. That is shown from the high standard both of scholarship and exposition which characterises their contributions. Special mention ought to be made of the fact that the papers are so readable. They can be perused with pleasure, as well as with abounding profit to mind and heart, by any person of good education, although they deal with • matters which are, in their very nature, abstruse and complicated. That feature is specially characteristic of the contributions from the pen of our honoured President. Since he took office, Sir Ambrose Fleming has enriched successive volumes with discussions which combine in the most effective fashion vast stores of erudition and the gift of graceful and lucid explanation. One of the aims of the Institute is to arrange for such lectures by those who have specialised in some branch of research or investigation that the members may be kept in touch with the latest advances in the kingdom of knowledge. It must not, however, be supposed that the views expressed in ~hese ten lectures, or even in the discussion which followed their delivery, necessarily represent the convictions and conclusions enter­ tained by the Institute as a whole. Each contributor is given freedom within reasonable limits to embody in his paper the theories which seem to him to do the fullest justice to the facts in the field with which he deals. In many cases, the trend of the discussion will show at once that the contentions of the lecturer have not met with the unqualified approval of the members of the Institute. The latter believe profoundly in the need for free discussion as an indispensable aid for the elucidation of truth. The Institute is glad to provide a forum for such an exchange of ideas. If the views of vi PREFACE. the lecturer do not accord with those held by the members, the the paper is none the less appreciated, and none the less welcome. But it must be clearly understood that the inclusion of a paper in this volume does not imply that the imprimatur of the Institute is set upon all that it may contain. For those members who regularly attend its meetings, such observations are obviously superfluous. These volumes of Transa~tions, however, travel to the ends of the earth, and find a place on the shelves of numerous learned libraries. In these circumstances, it is perhaps desirable to state definitely from time to time that the standpoint of the Institute is thoroughly evangelical and thoroughly conservative. That seems as if it were an old-fashioned body, lagging far behind the march of modern thought. The Institute is not ashamed of its position, maintained from its foundation in the year 1865, only six years later than the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, whose teaching it has never ceased to criticise and oppose. In every department of human life, old fashions have got a way of becoming new fashions. It is manifest that, both in theology, philosophy, and science, the trend of thought is towards a position approximating much more closely to that of the Institute than any which has been occupied and defended by the learned world since the beginning of the century. The Institute, therefore, feels that it is rendering some public service by continuing to testify to the validity of the historic doctrines regarding the nature of God and His Universe. H. S. CURR, Editor of Transactions. VII CONTENTS -- PAGE PREFACE .... V REPORT OF COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 1936 1 THE ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING HELD ON MONDAY, MAY 3RD, 1937 9 ON SOME METHODS OF DETERMINING THE AGE OF THE EARTH AND THEIR ASSUMPTIONS. BY Sm AMBROSE FLEMING, F.R.S. (President) 15 Discussion.-Remarks by the Chairman, Alan Stuart, Esq., M.Sc., F.G.S., Mr. Douglas Dewar, B.A., F.Z.S., the Rev. Dr. D. E. Hart-Davies, Prof. A. S. Eve, C.B.E., D.Sc., F.R.S., Rev. H. A. Edwards, Dr. J. Barcroft Anderson 30 Communications from Lt.-Col. L. M. Davies, M.A., F.G.S., Prof. J. Satterly, D.Sc., F.R.S.C. 35 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. DOCTRINE OF THE Two NATURES. BY HENRY R. KINDERSLEY, EsQ., B.A. 41 Discussion.-Remarks by the Chairman, the Rev. Charles W. Cooper, F.G.S., Mr. Percy 0. Ruoff, Mr. George Brewer, Mr. R. Duncan 53 Communications from Major R. B. Withers, D.S.O., The Ven. Archdeacon W. S. Monie, M.A. 58 CHANGE AND THE ETERNAL. BY G. H. LANGLEY, EsQ., I.E.S. (retired) 67 Disc·ussion.-Remarks by the Chairman, Mr. W. N. Delevingne, the Rev. A. W. Payne, Mr. L. Everard Jose .... 81 Communications from Mr. W. E. Leslie, Rev. Principal H. S. Curr, M.A., B.D. 86 SCIENCE AND THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. BY ALAN STUART, Esq., M.Sc., F.G.S. 90 Discussion.-Remarks by the Chairman, Mr. W. E. Leslie, Mr. Douglas Dewar, Lt.-Col. Skinner, Mr. L. E. Jose, Mr. George Brewer 108 Communications from the President, Sir Ambrose Fleming, F.R.S., Lt.-Col. L. M. Davies, Dr. E. Cecil Curwen, Dr. J. Barcroft Anderson, Lt.-Col. P. W. O'Gorman, C.M.G., M.D., M.R.C.P., Dr. W. Bell Dawson, F.R.S.C. ... ... 114 viii CONTENTS OF VOL. LXIX. PAGE THE CROWN IN ENGLAND. BY MAJOR HUBERT C. CoRLETTE, O.B.E., F.R.I.B.A. .... 133 Discussion.-Remarks by the Chairman, Brig.-General W. Baker Brown, C.B., the Rev. C. W. Cooper, Rev. A. W. Payne, Mr. George Brewer 169 Communication from Lt.-Colonel L. M. Davies. 174 SOME RECENT Vrnws OF THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE AND OF TREIB REACTION ON PRESENT-DAY THOUGHT. BY THE REV. T. E. R. PHILLIPS, M.A., ~R.AA 1~ Discussion.-Remarks by the Chairman, Mrs. M. A. Evershed, F.R.A.S., Mr. P. 0. Ruoff, Lt.-Col.