bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Waltham Black Act: A Study of the Legislative Attitude Towards Crime in the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Radzinowicz L.
Published: January 2009

In 1723 a statute was enacted (9 Geo. I, c. 22) bearing the following title: ‘An Act for the more effectual punishing wicked and evil disposed Persons going armed in Disguise, and doing Injuries and Violences to the Persons and Properties of His Majesty's Subjects, and for the more speedy bringing the Offenders to Justice.’ This statute is commonly known as the Waltham Black Act—a name indicative of the local circumstances which led to its being passed. According to Blackstone, the statute was enacted to stop the depredations which were being committed near Waltham, in Hampshire, by persons in disguise or with their faces blacked; he also observes that the technique of these offenders, who operated in the forests of Waltham, seemed to have been modelled on the criminal activities of the famous band of Roberdsmen, or followers of Robert, or Robin, Hood, who committed great outrages in the reign of Richard the First on the border of England and Scotland. An interesting reference to the Waltham Black Act occurs in Gilbert White's ‘The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne in the County of Southampton,’ and it is significant that while Blackstone cautiously refrains from expressing any opinion on this statute, White says that it is ‘severe and sanguinary’ and that ‘it comprehends more felonies than any law that ever was framed before.’ Actually, no other single statute passed during the eighteenth century equalled 9 Geo. I, c. 22, in severity, and none appointed the punishment of death in so many cases. The Waltham Black Act may, in fact, be looked upon as a kind of ‘ideological index’ to the large body of laws based on the death penalty which were in force in England at the end of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth, centuries. The main features peculiar to this Act reappear, sometimes in a modified form, in almost all the other capital statutes of the period. Thus, an accurate knowledge of the Waltham Black Act is essential if the structure and guiding principles of the capital enactments in general are to be understood; moreover, the fact that the struggle for the repeal of this extraordinary statute was both intense and prolonged, further enhances the symptomatic importance of the Act, which might otherwise seem to be but an obscure enactment designed to meet a purely local emergency.
Warranties of Land in the Thirteenth Century
Authors: Bailey S. J.
Published: January 2009

We have seen that a tenant of land, who had a warrautor, had the right to ‘vouch’ that warrantor if some adverse claimant sued him for the land. Thereupon the warrantor was obliged to defend the action for him and, should the adverse claimant prevail, to compensate him with other land (escambium). Vouching to warranty, however, was not the only procedural device that enabled a third party to intervene and defend an action for land in the thirteenth century. Not infrequently, for example, a defendant would say in Court that, for some reason or another, he ‘cannot answer without A,’ and that he accordingly ‘prays aid’ of A in the action.
The Central Office of the Supreme Court
Authors: Ball W. Valentine
Published: January 2009

It is not always appreciated that before a case is ready for trial, a vast amount of preliminary work has to be carried out. The playgoer who sits before the footlights, sees the actors, and hears them say their parts. He is but dimly conscious of all that has gone before—the playwright toiling at his manuscript, the rehearsals, and the labours of the dresser and the stage carpenter. So a visitor to the Law Courts who sees a judge on the bench provided with all the documents relating to the action, who watches counsel untie the red tape on his brief, and the solicitor produce documents from a dispatch case, is not always alive to the fact that all this has involved a deal of preparation, not only in the office of the solicitor and the chambers of learned counsel, but in the offices of the Supreme Court.
Police Powers and Public Meetings
Authors: Wade E. C. S.
Published: January 2009

Apart from the passage through Parliament at the end of last year of the Public Order Act, the Courts have in the past few years interpreted police powers on several occasions in the direction of restricting liberty. No excuse is therefore required for examining once again in this Journal a topic, one aspect of which was discussed in the last number. The case of Elias v. Pasmore [1934] 2 K. B. 164 raised important questions as to the right of the police to search premises in the course of making an arrest on a warrant. That case recognized for the first time the validity on such an occasion of a search, which resulted in the discovery of documents (not being documents in the possession of the person named in the warrant) containing evidence of an offence committed by any person, even though the search and seizure were illegal as regards other documents discovered on that occasion. This protection for police action only extends to the actual documents which are evidence of the commission of a crime; but it matters not that the crime is one alleged to have been committed by some one other than the person in the course of arresting whom the search is being made.
Common Law Misdemeanors
Authors: Jackson R. M.
Published: January 2009

The recognition of the misdemeanor of Public Mischief has raised the whole issue of whether it is desirable that the judiciary should be in a position to extend the criminal law. The abortive Draft Criminal Code, section 5, provided that all offences should be prosecuted either under the Code or under some other statute, and not at common law. Fitzjames Stephen strongly supported this proposal. The opposing view is that no legislation can foresee all the mischievous acts that may occur, and that it is therefore undesirable to take away from the judges their power of extending common law offences. Any full discussion of this problem requires some consideration of the part played by the judges in building up our criminal law. The purpose of this paper is to examine the main lines of judicial activity in this field.
Precedents in Continental Law
Authors: Cohn Ernst J.
Published: January 2009

The recent discussion of precedents in English law is of great interest to Continental lawyers, because Continental law also has some slight experience of the doctrine of binding force of judicial decisions.
Land Companies
Authors: Whittaker W. J.
Published: January 2009

[William Joseph Whittaker, after graduating as ‘Senior’ in the Law Tripos and Chancellor's Medallist, in 1888, and winning a Whewell Scholarship in 1890, was a very successful teacher in the Cambridge Law School till 1900, when he went into practice. In 1901 he was appointed Professor of English Law at University College, London, and, in 1905, to a post on the staff of the Council of Legal Education. In that year he married Hildegarde, daughter of Walter Wren, who survives him. He died in 1931.
The Language of Criminal Science
Authors: Radzinowicz L. , Turner J.W.C.
Published: January 2009

I.—Until quite modern times the expression ‘Criminal Science’ was taken to mean no more than study of criminal law. The nature and the method of criminal science at this stage is best illustrated by the well-known dictum of Carrara, one of the chief exponents of the classical school of criminal law, that ‘crime is not an entity in fact but an entity in law; it is not action but infraction’ (‘il delitto non è un ente di fatto ma un ente giuridico, è una infrazione e non un’azione’). The personality of the delinquent, the origin of crime, the nature and the efficacy of punishment, the relationship between society and criminal justice,—problems which now constitute such an important part of criminal research—for many decades remained completely outside the scope of criminal science as then understood.
Middleton's Caseand the Larceny Act, 1916
Authors: Turner J. W. C.
Published: January 2009

In English law the definitions of the most important crimes were framed in an age when economic conditions and social relations were simple and when the paramount need was to give protection rather against violence than against deceit. As time passed a much more complicated economic order developed and in consequence of this evolution the intellectual aspect of crime gained an ever increasing prominence at the expense of the physical aspect. Not only did more subtle forms of transgression in the economic sphere, such as are now the crimes of forgery, obtaining by false pretences, etc., make their appearance, but also the lines of demarcation between what should be regarded as business astuteness and what should be stigmatized as criminal fraud became more and more difficult to draw.
Rescue and Voluntary Assumption of Risk
Authors: Goodhart A. L.
Published: January 2009

In Mills v. Armstrong Lord Bramwell, in commenting on the judgments in Thorogood v. Bryan, said: ‘At present I will only observe that the four judges were great lawyers, and I believe that an experienced lawyer may be, as it were, instinctively right without at the moment being able to give a good reason for his opinion.’ Although such intuitive judgments may be satisfactory as doing justice between the litigants in a particular case, there is always the danger that they may prove to be misleading from the standpoint of the further development of the law, for it is natural to assume that as the judge has reached conclusion X by means of reason Y, therefore if conclusion X is correct then reason Y must be correct also. In future cases reason Y is accepted without further consideration because it has in the precedent case apparently led to a desirable result, even though, in fact, there may be no valid connexion between the reason given and the result. It may be suggested with all respect that the recent case of Cutler v. United Dairies (London), Ltd. may in the future have such an effect on the development of English law for, although the conclusion reached in it is obviously just and in accordance with established law, nevertheless some of the reasons advanced by the Lords Justices in support of their judgment are of doubtful validity, and may, if accepted apart from the facts of the particular case, lead to unfortunate results.
The Doctrine of Unjustified Enrichment: II. Unjustified Enrichment in French law
Authors: David R. J. A.
Published: January 2009

The law is not called upon to intervene merely because the assets of one person may happen to be increased as the result of a corresponding diminution in the assets of another person. But it is always possible, in particular circumstances, that the enrichment of one person owing to the impoverishment of another is manifestly unjust, and this would seem to give rise to an obligation to make restitution which is based on principles of natural justice. The Civil Law has a moral basis and is consequently called upon to provide the necessary means to enable justice to be done in such cases.
The Doctrine of Unjustified Enrichment: III. Does English Law Recognize a Doctrine of Unjustified Enrichment?
Authors: Gutteridge H. C.
Published: January 2009

When we contemplate the havoc which has been wrought in the field of English law by the enunciation of maxims of a rhetorical character —some of which are of uncertain origin and still more uncertain operation—it may, perhaps, seem strange that our law is so unreceptive when it comes to be a question of applying a broad general principle such as that of unjustified enrichment. The explanation seems to be that our law of quasi-contract, such as it is, has developed along a channel which was carved out for it by indebitatus assumpsit, and that this has proved to be too restricted to permit of the growth of remedies of a non-contractual nature, though it did not interfere with the destructive force of maxims of a negative character, as, for instance, when Lord Ellenborough applied the maxim of ignorantia iuris haud excusat in Bilbie v. Lumley to the case of money paid under a mistake of law.
The Persistent Offender
Authors: Radzinowicz L.
Published: January 2009

The persistent offender occupies, together with the juvenile offender, the central position in criminality, so that every investigation of the genesis and dynamics of his delinquency, and every elaboration of rational methods for curtailing his anti-social activities, must find a place among the fundamental tasks of modern criminology and penal policy. Hence, those provisions of the Criminal Justice Bill, 1938, which deal with the treatment of persistent offenders are undoubtedly of the greatest interest and of particular significance. They are also important because, unlike the other provisions of the Bill, they do not follow the lines set out by the course of evolution hitherto followed but absolutely break with the system established by the Prevention of Crime Act of 1908 (Part II), and they introduce one feature which is entirely new. As nearly all the modern Continental penal legislative systems have also introduced new modes of dealing with persistent offenders, an examination of the English system will be useful for comparative purposes.
The Attitude of the Common Law
Authors: Gutteridge H. C.
Published: January 2009

The English text-book writers have very little to say about conflicts in matters of quasi-contract. Dicey, who devotes only a short note to the question, is chiefly concerned with the problem of ‘classification’ and leaves it, otherwise, very much in the air. He refers in a footnote, without any discussion of its import, to a solitary case and gives no indication as to the rules which should, in his opinion, govern the matter. Westlake treats the question with more respect but with a lack of precision. He does not attempt any analysis of the different states of fact which may give rise to the problem in practice, nor does he discuss in any detail the rules to be applied. He confines himself to the statement that there can be little doubt that the proper law of a quasi-contractual obligation ought generally to be drawn from the place with which the act that occasions it has the most real connexion. Burge's Colonial and Foreign Law contains a somewhat obscure passage dealing with a very recondite aspect of the matter, but is otherwise confined to a short, statement of the views of certain Continental authors. Baty dismisses the question as being ‘comparatively unimportant’ Foote and Cheshire ignore the problem altogether, as also do the editors of the relevant title in the Hailsham edition of Halsbury's Laws of England.
Roman Law In Aulus Gellius
Authors: Oliver D. T.
Published: January 2009

The addition, four years ago, to the Loeb Classical Library of the Nodes Atticae of Aulus Gellius has made available to English readers in a most convenient form a work of great interest and value to students of Roman Law. The Latin text has been edited with an English translation by Dr. Rolfe of the University of Pennsylvania, who appears to me to have performed a difficult task in a most satisfactory manner, and although, perhaps, not above criticism in dealing with some passages of technical import, to have produced a translation which will rank as the standard English version of this work for many years. In the extracts quoted from the work in this paper I have freely availed myself of Dr. Rolfe's translation, making only such modifications as will, I think, bring out more accurately words or passages of technical application.
Mens Rea and Motorists
Authors: Turner J. W. Cecil
Published: January 2009

The ever-increasing number of deaths caused by accidents in which motor vehicles are involved has naturally suggested to many people's minds that some alteration in our law is required. This is an idea not confined to laymen, for there are frequent references to the matter in the legal periodicals; it has been publicly discussed by practising lawyers and the attention of the Legislature has been directed to the problem of devising some new enactment.
The Portuguese Bank Note Case
Authors: Hollond M. Tappan
Published: January 2009

In the three complementary parts into which this book is divided, namely, The Story, The Legal Solutions, and The Financial Solution, Sir Cecil Kisch has set out the several aspects of the famous Portuguese Bank Note Case (Banco de Portugal v. Waterlow & Sons, Ltd. [1932] A. C. 452) in a way to quicken the mind and gladden the heart of lawyer, economist and dilettante in detection alike. The primary purpose of the book, however, is to put to the test of economicanalysis the various views brought out in the course of the case as to the measure of loss to the Bank of Portugal arising from the fraudulent issue of Vasco da Gama notes
Sinclair v. Brougham
Authors: Wright Lord
Published: January 2009

The case of Sinclair v. Brougham has been generally regarded as an authority of first-rate importance. I think it has been properly so regarded, though my reasons for so thinking may not altogether agree with the reasons emphasized by some lawyers. I regard the case as primarily significant as embodying the leading principles on which the Court acts in exercising its equitable jurisdiction to give relief in order to prevent unjust enrichment, or to achieve restitution, if we accept the useful term which has been employed in the recently published American Restatement of the Law of Restitution. The word itself is only an echo of language which will be found in English judgments, indeed, in this very case of Sinclair v. Brougham. The case shows how the Court can do justice by applying equitable principles where the Common Law would have been powerless. But since every Court is now bound in the same proceeding to apply either law or equity or both as the circumstances may require, the distinction between law and equity is now only important in the sense that the differences of method and rules must be observed. In the case we are considering a company had borrowed money for purposes for which it was ultra vires for it to borrow. There could in law be no claim for money lent and no claim in law for the repayment on the ground of quasi-contract or, to use the now obsolete phrase, contract ‘implied in law’, because to allow such a claim as a merely money claim would be to sanction an evasion of the public policy forbidding ultra vires borrowing by companies. Further, as the money lent or its products could not be identified in the company's possessions, a claim in law could not be maintained. But the powers of the Court were not exhausted. The problem was further complicated by the conflicting claims of the shareholders.
Absolute Prohibition in Statutory Offences
Authors: Jackson R. M.
Published: January 2009

In all common law crimes, other than common nuisance, it appears that some culpable mental element, or mens rea, is required. The mental element is ‘culpable’ in the sense that the actus is only criminal when it is coupled with a realization of the probable consequences of the act or omission. In statutory offences this rule does not hold good; the actus may be prohibited in such language that a person may be liable for doing an act whether or not he did, or could, have foreseen the consequences. Such offences create what is commonly called Absolute Liability. Unfortunately our judges have used the expression mens rea in different senses. In this paper I use mens rea in its common law sense, and discuss at the end a meaning of mens rea that is now becoming common.
Undisclosed Principals in Contract
Authors: Goodhart A. L. , Hamson C. J.
Published: January 2009

THE comparatively recent case of Collins v. Associated Greyhound Racecourses, Ltd. has raised in a forcible manner two old difficulties—namely, the legal position of undis–closed principals, and, as a corollary, the meaning of ‘person–ality,’especially in contracts involving undisclosed principals.

We are here concerned with a situation in which A, an undisclosed principal, employs B, an agent, to contract with C, a third party, in B's own name. By ‘undisclosed principals’ here are meant principals whose existence is not known to the third party and not principals who, known to be existent by the third party, are nevertheless not identified by name. By ‘agent’ is meant a person who in his own name contracts ostensibly for his own account, but behind whom there stands an undisclosed principal.

Before discussing Collins' Case we propose first to examine the general position of undisclosed principals.
Leaseholds and the Rule in Howe v. The Earl of Dartmouth
Authors: Bailey S. J.
Published: January 2009

THE decision in Howe v. The Earl of Dartmouth, as developed and explained by subsequent cases, has long been recognized as authority for the rule that a residuary bequest of personalty to, or upon trust for, persons by way of succession, casts upon the personal representatives or trustees two duties. Of these the first is that such of this personalty as is of a wasting or hazardous nature must be sold, and the proceeds invested in authorized investments; while the second compels them, for so long as the property remains unsold, to pay to the person who is beneficially entitled to the income for the time being, only so much of the actual income as would be payable had the sale and investment already occurred. In short, the wasting or hazardous part of the personalty is held upon an implied trust for sale, and the beneficiaries are to be treated from the outset as though the conversion has already taken place.
This Polemis Business
Authors: McNair Arnold D.
Published: January 2009

Year by year in lecturing on the law of contracts I am asked by successive generations of students whether the Polemis decision applies to the measure of damages for breach of contract. This decision is one which gives no practitioner sleepless nights, but troubles the teacher and the student a good deal. It seems therefore worth while to preserve from destruction such documentary information as may throw any light upon the case beyond what is afforded by the reports of the judgments of Sankey J. (as he then was) and of the Court of Appeal. Accordingly, by the courtesy of Messrs. Holman, Fenwick and Willan, the solicitors for the owners of the Thrasyvoulos, I am able to print the following documents:—

1. Points of Claim.

2. Letters of April 26, 1920, from charterers' solicitors demanding particulars and of April 28, 1920, from owners' solicitors in reply.

3. Points of Defence.

4. Respondents' (charterers') Contentions.

5. Claimants' (owners') Contentions.

6. Award and Special Case dated December 20, 1920.

7. Further Finding by the Arbitrators dated February 11, 1921.

8. Judgment of Sankey J. dated May 5, 1921, which, though reported in 26 Commercial Cases and 37 Times Law Reports, is reprinted here from the transcript for the benefit of readers to whom these reports may not be available.
Law Reform
Authors: Hollond H. A.
Published: January 2009

In Quest of Justice, by Mr. Claud Mullins, the author of The Leipzig Trials, is a notable book. Mr. Mullins is a successful practising barrister, who has also had some experience as a Deputy County Court Judge. He is not as young as might be inferred from the statements made in Sir Leslie Scott's introductory letter that a young man need not fear criticism for taking up the subject of law reform, and that reforms almost always come from the young. The Law List reveals that he won a Certificate of Honour in 1912 and was called to the Bar in 1913.
Roman Law as Illustrated in Pliny's Letters
Authors: Oliver D. T.
Published: January 2009

The interest of students commencing the study of Roman Law would, I think, be greatly stimulated if the commentaries on the texts of the Institutes were furnished, as amply as the material available renders possible, with illustrations of the actual operation of the law in practice. It not only aids the understanding, but affords a great relief to the mind to be able to turn from the study of the abstract rules in vacuo, so to speak, and to observe their application in the actual circumstances of life at different periods. From the works of Cicero may be gathered a rich store of examples of the working of Roman Law at the end of the Republic, and in the Letters of Pliny we have much material which illustrates the rules and practice of the law in the period immediately preceding the age of the Antonines.
Deep sea-bed resources: a major challenge
Authors: Bowett D. W.
Published: January 2009

There is no novelty in the idea that technology presents a continuing challenge to Society in terms of the decisions which must be taken over the use and control of new developments and, indirectly, to the legal system which must acquire and apply the techniques of control desired by Society. However, there is novelty in the sheer pace at which technology is presenting this challenge to international society in relation to the exploitation of the resources of the sea. Within little more than a decade after the great U.N. Geneva Conferences on the Law of the Sea of 1958 and 1960—which introduced substantial codification—a general demand for revision of the law has led to plans for a new Conference on the Law of the Sea in 1973. The scope of the proposed conference is extremely wide and it is the purpose of this article to examine only one of the proposed topics, namely, the “international sea-bed area.” This is a topic which is currently exciting interest throughout the world, in Parliaments, Foreign Offices, Universities, learned societies, conferences, oil companies and even the popular press (the order does not indicate a hierarchy of influence). Behind this interest there lies, of course, money and—possibly a countervailing pressure—the increasing concern with the protection of the maritime environment in addition to the normal considerations of prestige, military security and national interest which condition any State's approach to questions of maritime jurisdiction. In order to appreciate the extent of this interest some brief mention should be made of the resources currently estimated to lie in or on the sea-bed outside national jurisdiction.
Hobbies and Hale on law, legislation and the Soverign
Authors: Yale D. E. C.
Published: January 2009

Many years after launching Leviathan and towards the end of his life Thomas Hobbes composed A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England in which he set out his final thoughts on fundamental matters of law, legislation and sovereignty. This work was published for the first time in 1681, two years after the author's death, and though it represents Hobbes's final thoughts on these questions it has received but slight study compared with his other works. Leviathan and other earlier works must, no doubt, take first place in interest for the political scientist. The Dialogue, on the other hand, is a work of a jurisprudential slant and is as deserving of the attention of lawyers as it has been largely neglected by them. To this neglect there is one important exception. Sir Matthew Hale rejoined in argument to Hobbes's thesis. His argument remained unpublished till modern times, and even the enormous modern literature on Hobbes's writings has generally preserved a silence upon Hale's Reflections. One modern author indeed remarks briefly that “Hale's short treatise is the most brilliant contemporary reply to Hobbes's theory of positive law,” but the remark is not developed. The prevalent opinion may be represented by Holdsworth's view, and this supposes that Hale failed to grasp Hobbes's idea of sovereignty and that Hale's criticism therefore missed its mark. It seems timely to re-examine the received opinion (if Holdsworth's may be so called) for more than one reason.
CO2/CH4 ratio in fumaroles a powerful tool to detect magma degassing episodes at quiescent volcanoes
Authors: Chiodini Giovanni
Published: January 2009

Long time series of fumarolic compositions at Campi Flegrei (Italy), Mammoth Mountain (California), Panarea (Italy) and Nisyros (Greece) show rapid increases, up to orders of magnitude, of the CO2/CH4 ratio systematically with the occurrence of volcanic unrest periods. These easily detected anomalies originate with the arrival of CH4‐poor magmatic fluids in the shallower levels of the volcanoes. The data suggest that volcanoes are characterized by magmatic activity at depth also in periods of apparent quiescence. The activity is constituted by the pulsing release of large amount of fluids which either cause unrest periods (seismicity and ground deformation) or possibly could precede volcanic eruption. This type of volcanic activity can be monitored trough the classical geophysical techniques together with the systematic sampling and analysis of fumaroles.
Ozone production in boreal fire smoke plumes using observations from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument
Authors: Verma Sunita , Worden John , Pierce Brad , Jones Dylan B. A. , Al‐Saadi Jassim , Boersma Folkert , Bowman Kevin , Eldering Annmarie , Fisher Brendan , Jourdain Line , Kulawik Susan , Worden Helen
Published: January 2009

We examine the photochemical processes governing the production of ozone in smoke from large Siberian fires that formed in July 2006 using colocated O3and CO profiles as measured by the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer as well as NO2and aerosol optical depths as measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument. The Real‐Time Air Quality Model (RAQMS) is used to explain the observed variations of O3. Enhanced levels of ozone up to 90 parts per billion (ppbv) are observed near and away from the Siberian fires (60°N and 100°E) when sunlight and NOxare available. We also observe significantly low O3amounts (less then 30 ppbv) in the smoke plume from Siberian fires in conjunction with optically thick aerosols. Despite this wide variance in observed ozone values, the mean ozone value for all observations of the smoke plume is close to background levels of approximately 55 ppbv in the free troposphere. Using RAQMS we show that optically thick aerosols in the smoke plume can substantially reduce the photochemical production of ozone and this can explain why the observed mean ozone amount for all plume observations is not much larger than background values of 55 ppbv. However, the anonymously low ozone amounts of 30 ppbv or less point toward other unresolved processes that reduce ozone below background levels in the plume.
Physics and biology—Where do they meet?
Authors: Rosenblith Walter A.
Published: January 2009

Few people would question the status of physics as a mature science. Physicists possess a highly developed and successful arsenal of techniques and instruments that serves them well in their quest for ever more encompassing conceptualizations. In contrast to physics and the physical sciences, the life sciences and medicine in particular have traditionally lacked precision in both measurement and concept. Until the Second World War the biological disciplines seemed condemned to a datarich and theory-poor existence. The lack of deep insight was hardly compensated for by the philo-sophical debates and doctrinaire battles fought under the banners of vitalism and reductionism.
Excavation with nuclear explosives…promise and problems
Authors: Johnson Gerald W.
Published: January 2009

The Plowshare Program, devoted to exploring the potential constructive uses of nuclear explosions, was formally established in 1957 by the Atomic Energy Commission. Many of the ideas, thoughts, and suggestions for such applications had been put forth from the time it appeared possible to release energy from the nucleus in a controlled manner, using either reactors or explosions. In fact, in 1939, immediately after the publication of the discovery of the fission of uranium early in that year, many speculations appeared in the press concerning possible industrial uses of nuclear energy. Congress, in writing the Atomic Energy Act, noted, in the declaration of that Act, that “atomic energy is capable of application for peaceful as well as military purposes”. In addition, the stated policy of the United States is that:

“a. the development, use, and control of atomic energy shall be directed so as to make the maximum contribution to the general welfare, subject at all times to the paramount objective of making the maximum contribution to the common defense and security; and

“b. the development, use, and control of atomic energy shall be directed so as to promote world peace, improve the general welfare, increase the standard of living, and strengthen free competition in private enterprise.”
“No Fugitive and Cloistered Virtue”—A tribute to Niels Bohr
Authors: Wheeler John A.
Published: January 2009

A decade and a half ago in Denmark's darkest days those who had taken her liberty were trying to snuff out her soul. To overwhelming force, the people of the country and their king presented unbending moral resistance. At the center of their spiritual unity stood Denmark's men of learning under the leadership of Niels Bohr. What does it mean to preserve a nation's soul? What makes a nation—or a man? In time of trouble the answer becomes clear: mankind is formless clay; his spirit he derives from his heroes, from his traditions, from well-accepted thoughts and ways of life, from storied legends, and from firmly held standards of value. To hold high Denmark's values Bohr and other leaders created and disseminated at their peril a great book entitled Danish Culture. Warned of a plot to seize him, Bohr had to flee for his life in a small boat across open waters to Sweden in November 1943, but the work went on and Danish resistance stood fast another year and a half.
Magnetohydrodynamic energy conversion
Authors: McCune J. E.
Published: January 2009

Although the title of this paper, as chosen originally, is broad enough to allow consideration of both magnetohydrodynamic generators and accelerators, the present discussion will be limited to MHD power generators. The subject of plasma propulsion (MHD accelerators) is discussed in another paper presented in this symposium [see Physics Today, March 1963, p. 24].
Letter of Correction
Authors: Fajans Kasimir
Published: January 2009

In the obituary of Theodore H. Berlin, on p. 96 of the February 1963 issue, I find the following omission. The last three lines of the second paragraph should read as follows:

“While at Michigan he had studied under Professors Fajans and Uhlenbeck, and at the time of his death he cooperated with the former on a book on chemical binding, with the latter on a book on statistical physics.”
Something new under the quiet sun
Authors: Pomerantz Martin A.
Published: January 2009

This article constitutes a first progress report on United States participation in the International Years of the Quiet Sun, a two-year, world-wide scientific enterprise, involving sixty-nine nations, that started on January 1, 1964. Before summarizing the current state of affairs, let us first view IQSY in historical perspective, and outline its aims and objectives. The immediate predecessor of IQSY in the evolution of international scientific programs, for which the zero point in time was 1882 (First International Polar Year), was the widely heralded International Geophysical Year (1957–1958).
I. Problems and methods in crystallographic computing
Authors: Jeffrey G. A.
Published: January 2009

Forty papers were presented in two and one-half days at the symposium on problems and methods in crystallographic computing, and this was a welcome change of pace from the rapporteured sessions of the previous week. With a few exceptions, the papers were concerned with programming for various aspects of crystal-structure analysis. General-purpose machines were invariably used, ranging from the IBM 1620 class to the ATLAS at Manchester.
Information centers in nuclear physics
Authors: Gove N. B.
Published: January 2009

To him who, in the love of nature, finds occasion to investigate, say, the nuclear properties of europium-152, nature offers a variety of approaches. The two lowest states have half-lives of 13 years and 9.3 hours, so their decay properties can be conveniently studied. Further, these states live long enough to be subjected to atomic-beam, isotope-shift, isomer-shift, mass-spectrometer, and cross-section experiments, and some such studies have been reported. Higher levels in Eu152 can be studied via neutron capture gamma rays and neutron resonances. They can also be studied through reactions, such as Eu151(d,p), Eu153(d,t), or Sm149(α,p).
The Deborah Number
Authors: Reiner M.
Published: January 2009

In 1928 I came from Palestine to Easton, Pa., to assist Eugene Cook Bingham at the birth of Rheology. I felt strangely at home. There was Bethlehem quite near, there was a river Jordan and a village called little Egypt. The situation was, however, also slightly confusing. To go from Bethlehem to Egypt, one had to cross the river Jordan, a topological feature which did not conform to the original. Then there were, here, places such as Allen town to which there was no analogy. And this could lead to strange situations, such as when a girl at school was asked where Christ was born and replied, “In Allentown”. When corrected by “No, in Bethlehem,” she remarked, “I knew it was somewhere around here.”
Origin and evolution of atmospheres and oceans
Authors: Cameron A. G. W. , Brancazio P. J. , Panagakos N. W.
Published: January 2009

In recent years it has become evident that the atmosphere and oceans have been produced by the outgassing of volatile materials from the earth's interior, principally from volcanoes. In 1950 W. W. Rubey presented geological evidence indicating that sea water has progressively accumulated in this way. At about the same time, Harrison Brown pointed out that the very low abundances of the noble gases in the earth's atmosphere constituted compelling evidence that at least the atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen were almost entirely of secondary origin, having been outgassed, possibly in different chemical form.
Recent developments in controlled fusion
Authors: Bishop A. S.
Published: January 2009

The basic problems of controlled fusion are well known. Briefly they are the following: first, with deuterium or a deuterium-tritium mixture, to produce a pure low-density plasma of exceedingly high temperature (several hundred million degrees Kelvin—i.e., several tens of thousands of electron volts); second, to confine this plasma adequately and stably by means of an appropriate magnetic field configuration for a sufficiently long time that an appreciable fraction of the nuclei can undergo fusion; and finally, to capture the energy released and harness it for useful purposes.
Symmetry and conservation laws
Authors: Wigner Eugene P.
Published: January 2009

Symmetry and invariance considerations, and even conservation laws, played undoubtedly an important role in the thinking of the early physicists, such as Galileo and Newton, and probably even before then. However, these considerations were not thought to be particularly important and were articulated only rarely. Newton's equations were not formulated in any special coordinate system and thus left all directions and all points in space equivalent. They were invariant under rotations and displacements, as we now say. The same applies to his gravitational law. There was little point in emphasizing this fact, and in conjuring up the possibility of laws of nature which show a lower symmetry. As to the conservation laws, the energy law was useful and was instinctively recognized in mechanics even before Galileo. The momentum and angular-momentum conservation theorems in their full generality were not very useful even though, in the special case of central motion, they are one of Kepler's laws. Most books on mechanics, written around the turn of the century and even later, do not mention the general theorem of the conservation of angular momentum. It must have been known quite generally because those dealing with the three-body problem, where it is useful, write it down as a matter of course. However, people did not pay very much attention to it.
Criteria for scientific choice
Authors: Weinberg Alvin M.
Published: January 2009

As science grows, its demands on our society's resources grow. It seems inevitable that science's demands will eventually be limited by what society can allocate to it. We shall then have to make choices. These choices are of two kinds. We shall have to choose among different, often incommensurable, fields of science—between, for example, high-energy physics and oceanography or between molecular biology and science of metals. We shall also have to choose among the different institutions that receive support for science from the government—among universities, governmental laboratories, and industry. The first choice I call scientific choice; the second, institutional choice. My purpose is to suggest criteria for making scientific choices—to formulate a scale of values which might help establish priorities among scientific fields whose only common characteristic is that they all derive support from the government.
Gravitational collapse
Authors: Chiu Hong-Yee
Published: January 2009

With the exception of a few supernova remnants which are in our galaxy, most cosmic radio sources are “radio galaxies”. Although flare stars do emit radio waves occasionally, no ordinary stars with strong, steady radio emission have been found. The typical optical power of stars is from 1030 ergs/sec (white dwarfs) to 1038 ergs/sec (super giants). For comparison, the optical power of the sun is 4×1033 ergs/sec. The typical radio power of supernova remnants is around 1036 ergs/sec. For a giant galaxy (containing approximately 1011−1012 stars with a total mass of around 1011⊙, where ⊙ = solar mass = 2×1033 g), the optical power is around 1044 ergs/sec. Radio emission from normal galaxies is generally weaker, the power ranging from 1037−1039 ergs/sec. For certain peculiar galaxies, the so-called “radio galaxies,” the radio emission rate ranges from 1041−1044.5 ergs/sec.
More on the solid-state amplifier and Dr. Lilienfeld
Authors: Johnson J. B.
Published: January 2009

In the February 1964 number of this journal, Virgil E. Bottom discusses three patents granted to the late J. E. Lilienfeld in the years 1930–1933 on a type of solid-state amplifier invented by him in the latter half of the 1920's. Attention is drawn by Dr. Bottom to similarity in operation of these amplifiers with that of the later transistor amplifiers. The reader is left with the conclusion that they are essentially the same, and with doubt as to whether the basic patents on the type-A transistor or the p-n Junction transistor were rightfully granted. Having familiarity with these Lilienfeld patents and having followed some of Dr. Lilienfeld's other work, I may be able to add some constructive comments to the discussion.
Low-energy electron diffraction
Authors: Germer Lester H.
Published: January 2009

Electron diffraction has become established as a research tool for studying the structure of surface layers and thin films, and it has now been used moderately extensively for this purpose for more than a third of a century. Yet its field of usefulness is not sharply separated from that of x rays. Both require material of considerable thickness. The ordinary electron-diffraction techniques are not sensitive to a single layer of atoms on a crystal surface. This is precisely the sensitivity required to make electron diffraction an indispensable research tool. It is needed in surface physics and surface chemistry; in the most important application, it is needed to understand catalysis. Lacking this sensitivity, as it does now, electron diffraction is not a serious competitor of x-ray diffraction in general usefulness, and it has no unique field as does neutron diffraction. It is often available as an occasionally used attachment of an electron microscope.
Technical reports I have known…and probably written
Authors: Gray Dwight E.
Published: January 2009

The technical report is a specialized form of exposition that in recent years has advanced from a position of semiobscurity in the scientific information field to one of major importance. Today a sizable fraction of the new and significant results of US scientific research first sees the light of publication day in the 75 000 or so such documents that are issued annually in this country.
Some Additional Data on the Production of Physicists
Authors: Barton Henry A.
Published: January 2009

THE American Institute of Physics has two general reasons for compiling manpower statistics annually. The first reason stems from the Institute's purpose “to advance the science of physics”. It helps this purpose to be able to acquaint the public, government, industry, and academic circles with statistical facts about the education, employment, remuneration, special competences, etc. of the physics profession. Policies affecting the advance of physics are, and should be, based on such information. Second, the Institute needs to predict the number of physicists who will, in the years of the next decade, have need of its publishing and other services to physicists and to the AIP Member Societies to which they belong. Only in this manner can the necessary space, facilities, and personnel be made available with greatest economy and efficiency. The Institute's motives are thus in part to be of public service and in part simple business foresight.
Physics in the missile and satellite fields
Authors: Kock Winston E.
Published: January 2009

Scientists in many and varied branches of physics are playing increasingly important roles in today's missile and space projects. The gamut of this activity ranges from nuclear through solid state, and includes optics, acoustics, electromagnetics, and even relativity. The demand for physicists trained in appropriate fields in college, or possessing pertinent experience in industry, has been great and is continually increasing. It is important that the physics departments of our colleges and universities be aware of this situation so that proper stress can be laid upon subjects which can effectively prepare physics students who wish to enter this field of activity.
Physics in the optical industry
Authors: O'Brien Brian
Published: January 2009

There are few commercial activities founded more completely upon physics than is the optical industry, but this foundation is very old, and the consequences are not altogether good. The foundation began perhaps with Huygens and Newton, followed with Young, Fresnel. and Fraunhofer, with a special debt to Maxwell. Helmholtz provided knowledge of the optics of the eye upon which the modern spectacle industry may be said to be built, but it was not until Ernst Abbe that a physicist really got busy and did something directly for the optical industry. Before his death in 1905 Abbe had developed an optical industry centering at Jena which was founded upon excellent and sophisticated physics of the period, and which for a long time dominated optics in the rest of the world. In fact so much good scientific material related to optics was assembled that the whole optical industry coasted, in a sense, for more than a quarter of a century, using up the research of the past.
Rheology comes of age
Authors: Myers Raymond R.
Published: January 2009

Maturity is frequently decided arbitrarily in terms of a given number of years. In the elevation of rheology to prominent stature as a science, the difficult process of growing up has required the better part of three decades; the result, which was apparent on November 4, 1959, is an organization on the threshold of maturity, with plenty of enthusiasm to ensure continued growth and yet with sufficient purpose to know where it is headed.
Midwest Solid-State Physics Conference
Authors: Lynch David W.
Published: January 2009

The seventh annual Midwest Solid-State Physics Conference was held on Saturday, October 10, at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. One of the purposes of the conference is to offer an opportunity for graduate students to attend a conference at modest cost and to present their papers in relatively relaxed surroundings. The conference provides an unusual opportunity for professional contacts as the separation of the participating institutions is sufficiently large to hinder frequent visits to neighboring campuses.