The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-10-17
-Dietz on Science
FARADAY FIRST
TO POPULARIzE
SCIENCE FACTS
British Proud of Ability to
Explain Subject in
Terms for Youth.
BY DAVID DIETZ
scripps- Howard Science Editor

More than a century ago, the
great Faradsy, father of the mod
ern science of electricity, inaugur-
ated the custom of a series of Illus
trated lectures at the Royal Insti
tuition in London to be given at
Christmas time for an audience of
children. Faraday himself gave no
less than nineteen such courses of
lectures.
The custom, established by Fara-
day. has gone on ever since. The
most important scientists of Eng
land always have considered it an
honor to be chosen to give these
lectures.
Undoubtedly they have been a
good thing for science as we'll as for
the children. For they emphasized
the necessity of disseminating scien-
tific information and made
scientists proud of their abilities to
state the most recent advances of
their science in the simplest of
language.
1t may be the influence of these
lectures that have made British
scientists so pre-eminently success
ful rs popularizers of science. In
this connection one thinks of Hulk
ley, Tyndall, Lodge, Eddington and
Jeans
Children Hear Scientist
No one has been more successful
in his ability to address a chiIdren's
audience than the present director
of the Royal Institution, Sir William
Bragg.
l recall how ten years ago, when
the British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science was meeting
in Toronto, Bragg was asked to give
a lecture for children. The front
of the lecture room was crowded
with school children fortunate
enough to be chosen to hear the
famous scientist.
But in the back Of the room we're
a couple of dozen of the most
famous physicists and astronomers
of England and America
1t was difficult to say who enjoyed
the lecture most. the children.
fascinated by the experiments with
which Bragg illustrated his lecture,
or the savants. astounded by his
ability to couch the most difficult
facts Of science in simple, pictur-
esque and interest compelling Ian
guage
Gives Lecture Series
A few years ago. Bragg gave a
series Of children's lectures at the
Royal Institution. These later were
expanded and published in a book
suitable for either adults or high
school students. 1t was titled Con
corning the Nature of Things
The book still remains one of the
best available for the layman who
desires an elementary knowledge of
the way in which gases. liquids and
solids are built of atoms and mole
cules and why they behave as they
do.
In 1881, Bragg gave another series
OF Children'S lectures at the Royal
Institution. These have now been
expanded into a book which is pub
liShed in this country by the Mac
milan Company at $3.50 The title
is The Universe of Light"
Laymen who have felt the lack
of a proper background of knowl-
edge in attempting to follow the
latest experiments and the most re-
cent talk of photons, quanta. cos
mic rays. wave mechanics, and so
on. vii find the background they
need in this new book by Bragg.
Theories Are Explained
He goes back to the beginning.
shows how two conflicting theories
of the nature of light developed. how
each was supported by a group of
experiments, and how
knowledge progressed because of
the rivalry between the two theo-
rieS.
One. the wave theory of light,