EVERY FORTNIGHT No. 40 31 OCTOBER 1952 IMPERIAL COLLEGE DR COMPTON S CHALLENGE AN EXCELLENT SPEECH BY THE SPECIAL VISITOR The Commemoration Celebrations Started with the procession from Prince Consort Road to the University Examination Halls, and this year once again the weather restrained itself to keen our paint and powder dry. After a regrettable delay in seating the large number of staff, the Hector opened the proceedings by inviting t^e Special Visitor, Dr. Karl Compton, and Mrs. Compton, to join the platform party. Though it may be doubted whether I.C. have yet mastered the solemnity of their newly created Commemoration, Dr. Compton's-clear and rich voice made his challenging- speech properly the climax of the ceremony. An account of his address is given below. This was preceeded by the presentation of the newly elected Associates, Diplom- ates, Masters, Doctors, and Honorary Fellows. Dr. Compton and Sir Frederick Handley Page were among those who were presented with their scrolls of Honorary Fellowship of the College. The ceremony was attended by many important guests, including the American Ambassador and the Principal of London University. COMMEMORATION DAY The Student Orator, Brian Walker, The Hector, Mrs.Compton, Dr.Compton, Viscount Falmouth, and the American Ambassador reads the Proclamation of Celebration , The Special Visitor at this year's Commem- COMMEMORATION BALL oration Day w6.s Dr. Karl T. Compton, Chairman of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. lis address was on "The Growth of Most of the FELIX staff who could afford a ticket Higher Technological Education in the Tv.'entieth enjoyed the Ball too thoroughly to record any clear Century and th Benefits of International links impressions for their less fortunate fellows. Though in this Field". we were announced in sonorous tones and received by pres- idents, the true ~.C. grain broke through the Park Lane After thanking the Governors for the award veneer, even to the extent of a Boomaleia at the end. of his Honorary Fellowship, Dr. Compton went en We have a vague recollection of a 21st birthday to say that, he war, proud of the association starting at Midnight, of eminent U.L. Hockey and Rugger between the two great institutions of M.I.T. and gentlemen doing the Latin dmces with gusto, of soft Imperial College. Many personal friendships lights, and,softer and brighter, eyes. Ca.rousing went had grown up and there had been a rapid inter- on in the Union in the early hours, while cold water and change of new ideas. Dr. Compton enumsr-ated coffee were in demand. the people from this country, some from this Altogether a good Commemoration 3all, even if we do college, who were now working at the Institute, have to go rather quietly for the rest of the year. and pointed out, that much of the inspiration and guidance for the establishment of M.I.T. in 1360, management of technical enterprises and for co- came from Kensington. ordination of various areas of applied science, In discussing the growth of technological all this in addition to the more generally recog- education in the 20th ewfcvry Dr. Compton had nised task of training specialised designers and time to consider only one aspect, that revealed operators. This poses a, difficult problem ir by a remark of Sir Richard Southwell that the organisation of the programmes of the engin- Industrial Structure must determine the structure eering schools,which is. continually with us as of engineering education. Since thj beginning new requirements and opportunities arise. of the SOth Century there had been tremendous advances in automobile, aeronautical, chemical and Dr. Compton c'oncluded, "but one lesson I electronic engineering which had been accompanied think stands out from the logic of our experience; by corresponding changes in the teaching of our aim should be at the present and the future, engineering and applied science. It must be not at the past; for in the field of science realised that it is not, sufficient for education the future comes quickly upon us". to fallow indtisiry, it must alsc anticipate the After the address Dr. Compton presented to future requirements by wisely interpreting the the chairman and Rector of T.C. the official trends and foreseeing the needs. This means greetings of the M.I.T. in the form of a leather - education for research and development, for bound manuscript. FELIX PROFILE CROSSLE Y In the year of grace one thousan off his beard). Throughout nine hundred and twenty six at two his career at T.C..Derek has oclock in the dark and stormy morn- attained many prominent positions. ing of December 29th, there appeared In 1951 he was Vice-president of on the face of the earth one large Guilds, he has served on T.C Council moustache hotly pursued by Derek for three years and been the I.C. Riley Crossley, alias 'Tash', alias representative on U.L.U. for two Moostash1, alias 'The Tank', alias years. Last year he was secretary of 'Farook', or alias just plain Derek. U.L.A;U. and at present is captain In those days he was often referred of U.L.R.F.C., vf0n. Secretary of the to by his loving relatives as " a Links Club and Guilds representative sweet little thing" - but, alas, on the Old Centralians Committee. the ravages of time have played He is a very keen sailor and their part and now enough/ swimmer and to his intimate friends At the early age of four Derek he is characterized mainly by the began to learn French before he knew following :- his cheerful and willing the alphabet (no mean task for even nature, his moustache, his ability to the most advanced child 1 ) sink a pint, and, lastly, by Kate XT. In 1934 he went to Bishop Stortford College where The point that needs clarifying is Kate IT. She can he stayed until he was eighteen, during which time he be seen most days outside the Union, sometimes dress- became head of the school and captain of the school's ed in an old tarpaulin but at othertimes she is quite rugby, hockey and swimming teams. exposed. She is in fact his eighth wonder of the After a short course at Glasgow University he was world, namely Derek's much treasured 1926 Morris commissioned in the navy, operating on minesweepers, Cowley. He acquired her in 1950, since which time until he was demobbed in the early part of 1948. Then they have travelled to many wide and varied parts of for one and a half years he pursued a diverse series Europe, including Switzerland in 1951 and Scotland of jobs. Ke obtained H.S.C. in six months at a cram last summer. Whilst north of the Border, Derek was school, then after helping to build Charringtons' engaged in tunnelling on the Glen Quoick hydro- brewery in Mile End Road he became an engineering electric scheme. Asked what he thought of mining, he apprenticed in Bristol. It was during the course of the replied "it's merely a side branch of mechanical latter that he added a beard to his then already engineering". However, it is interesting to note famous moustache. that at one particularly drunken party his moustache In October 1949 he entered through the illustrious was actually cut for the first time in its life ( I portals of I.C. to read mechanical engineering at the am not at liberty to disclose the burial place of City and Guilds, (it was at this time that he shaved the offender.'). Photograph by P.K.N.Ward UNION COUNCIL MEETS A POLITICAL (TEA) PARTY The new Union Council met last week for the Professor Levy again displayed his amazing powers first time this year, and finished its business in of eloquence in an extremely objective talk on the sub- an hour and a quarter. ject of Current Affairs at the Annual Freshers Tea of The meeting first elected C.E. Morris to be the Literary, Debating and Political Societies given on the Chairman of the I.C. Entertainments Committee - Monday, 20th October, at 5.15 p.m. The sceptical in the place of S.A. Scott, who is now in the armb- laughs, which arose whenever "Russia" or the "Red Dean" and the remaining time was largely spent in swift were mentioned, were skilfully employed by the Profec^or dealings with routine affairs. Reports of the to illustrate the use of emotionally charged language Executive and the Overseas Students' Committees, and prepared backgrounds to introduce bias into factual and of preparations for the Commemoration Ball statements. He went on to show that the record of the v.ere received, but there were none from the Vaca- United Nations Forces in Korea was by no means as clear tion Works, Refectory, Bookstall, and the other as the Press would have us believe. Although the many committees that had not then met. provocative nature of Professor Levy's address There was a discussion on the importance of evoked no violent reactions this year there is no standard blazers of colours being sold only to doubt that the majority of his audience departed members of the Union, and the meeting ended by somewhat less complacent than they arrived. deciding to add one further particular publication Earlier in the evening the Society's activities to the magazines in the Union Lounge. were outlined by Mr. Hell Blackmore, who chaired the meeting and spoke on behalf of the Literary and Debat- ing Societies. Mr. Steve Ruhemann, the Cha.irman of TOUCHSTONE the Politics.l Societies, appealed for a.