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Originally, this article took the form of the Twenty‐first Brancker Memorial Lecture delivered to a meeting of The Institute of Transport. The author began his lecture by saying how honoured he was by the invitation to present the 1964 Brancker Memorial Lecture and that he felt especially privileged to have the opportunity of surveying a prospect which he believed would have excited Sir Sefton Brancker's most ardent enthusiasm—the prospect of reducing inter‐continental journey times‐by air to the same durations as those universally accepted for inter‐city journeys by rail and road. Previous Brancker Memorial Lectures had summarized the general development of British civil aviation from its earliest days to 1946 and had covered particular aspects of its very rapid expansion since that date. 1946 was a significant year because it marked the resurgence of commercial flying after seven years of wartime restrictions and regulation; it promised a new deal to both operators and travelling public, with the opportunity of usefully applying technical advances achieved during the war period; at the same time it threw into sharp contrast the relative design capabilities of the British and American aircraft manufacturing industries.

In the first part of this article, in our last issue, DR. BRANCKER discussed the fundamental elements of emulsification, the orientation and wetting theories and their connections with lubrication. In this part he discusses metal cleaning, solid emulsions and atomisation. The theories discussed are of primary importance in connection with spraying metal surfaces for corrosion inhibition or for lubrication. The theories of atomisation are also important in connection with lubrication by aerosols.

WHEN a substance composed of microscopic particles is subjected to chemical or mechanical disintegration wherein the dimensions of the particles approach the range of 2—100μμ or if the aggregation of molecularly dispersed particles is arrested within this range, a colloidal condition is attained. In most types of emulsification encountered in lubricating practice the former of these two conditions operates and microscopic droplets of water are formed which undergo by chemical and mechanical processes a reduction in size to colloidal dimensions. For certain steam cylinder oils and soluble cutting oils the formation of stable oil‐water emulsions is desirable, but can be detrimental in the case of steam turbine lubricants where it is essential to employ an oil which shows rapid demulsification.

TWO lectures have been delivered recently which to some extent impinge on the same aspect of, more particularly, commercial aviation, though from very different points of view. The two papers to which we refer are that on ‘Structural Safety’ delivered by Professor Pugsley before the Preston Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Brancker Memorial Lecture on ‘The Influence on Civil Aviation of Some Current Researches’ by SIR ARNOLD HALL to the Institute of Transport.

The aeronautical engineer is all the time struggling to improve aircraft performance. His problem is essentially the attainment of maximum economy—to get the maximum duty out of the material at his disposal. In the field of aerodynamics his progress depends upon the progress of his knowledge of the behaviour of air in a variety of circumstances. In the field of structures it depends upon the exactness of his knowledge of the distribution of stress and strain. In the field of oscillations, where the influences of aerodynamics, structures and inertia combine, he needs the support of the theory of vibration.

THE opening paragraph of last month's article stated that perhaps speed is the most important factor in air transport. That was due to an error in transcription and is far removed from the writer's opinion. There should be one consideration only constantly in the mind of the ground engineer—that of safety. That there may be safety in flying is the prime reason for the existence of ground engineers and it is with this object always in view that their duties should be carried out.

EVERY day, in every way, aeronautics becomes more and more abstruse. We imagine that very few of our readers but shared our own ignorance of the extreme complication of the new regulations introduced by the Federation Aéronautique Internationale covering attempts on altitude records. There are even, doubtless, many who, like ourselves, were not even aware that new regulations had been introduced. This is only one of the many examples that could be quoted of the increasing specialization that is gradually encompassing, we had almost written “smothering,” aviation. The day of the individual with encyclopaedic knowledge is long since departed. It seems strange now to recall the days when it was possible to visit, say, Brooklands and watch some pilot, such as Hawker, climb into the cockpit of his machine with a recording barograph on his knee, or suspended by a cord round his neck, and gradually disappear into the blue until his machine became a speck just visible through binoculars. To watch the aeroplane gradually get larger and larger as it circled round and slowly came down to land on the precise spot from which it had taken off a few minutes earlier. To rush up to the pilot and almost snatch the barograph from his hands in order to read the height attained, which was duly announced as the new record.

ON the basis of the kinetic theory, molecules in a liquid, at a given temperature, are at a certain energy level. Before the molecules can undergo a transition to a higher energy level they must acquire an activation energy designated by E. The Maxwell distribution law states that the number of molecules possessing sufficient energy for transition are in relation to the expression e‐E/RT where R is the gas particularly over extended temperature ranges, a study has been made of these deviations to ascertain whether they are anomalous or whether equation la fails to apply to such cases.

BY tracing the history of the “R.101” since her launch a year ago and detailing the information regarding her last flight and the circumstances of the crash, so far as this has been divulged, we have tried, on other pages, to give some indication of what may have been the cause and—no less important—to eliminate improbable theories.