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To facilitate future development of the cooled gas‐turbine, more test information is needed on the effectiveness of cooling in an actual turbine operating at high gas‐temperatures. Part I of this paper deals with some design aspects of a single‐stage experimental turbine built to enable an experimental investigation to be carried out on the air cooling of nozzles and blades. The turbine, built for operation at high gas‐temperatures, was fitted with internally air‐cooled blades having a large number of small cooling passages running the whole length of the blades. A description is given of the pressed powder technique used to introduce the small passages in blocks of heat‐resisting material from which the blades could be machined. Mention is made of some of the difficulties encountered in this method of manufacture and also of the need for careful consideration of suitable methods of disposal of the cooling air when internally cooled nozzles and blades of this form are used.

The report of the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries which records the proceedings taken under the Diseases of Animals Act for the year 1929 has just been issued. It indicates clearly the enormous amount and complexity of the work which devolves on the officers of the Ministry. They may very well say with John Wesley, “ All the world is my parish.” For instance in seven outbreaks of anthrax “ which …. occurred a few years ago,” the cause was found to be infected bone meal used as a manure and imported from an Eastern country (p. 43); another outbreak was traced to beans that had been imported from China (p. 44); again, special measures have been taken, at the instance of His Majesty's Government, by the Governments of Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentine to prevent the introduction of foot‐and‐mouth disease into this country by chilled or frozen meat (p. 46); an outbreak of foot‐and‐mouth disease at Los Angeles, California, led to an embargo being placed on the importation of hay and straw from that State (p. 52); while an outbreak in Southern Sweden led to similar steps being taken (p. 52). It is unnecessary to give further instances, but it is evident that the complexities of modern commerce and the development of rapid means of transport imposes world‐wide duties on the Ministry of a nature that were by no means contemplated when in 1865 the Veterinary Department of the Privy Council—of which the present Ministry is a lineal descendant—was instituted as a result of the outbreak of cattle plague which had ravaged the country. Table I. (p. 94) gives the total number of cattle in Great Britain for the five years 1925–1929 inclusive, each year ending in June. The percentage variation in the number of cattle during that time appears to be four per cent., so that the Ministry is responsible under the Act for about 7¼ millions of cattle, the 1929 return gives 7,190,539. The census and the subsequent co‐ordination of the returns made is in itself a task of no inconsiderable magnitude. In addition to this, however, veterinary skill of a high order is demanded, not only in the interests of a trade whose dimensions are indicated by the figures just given, but in the interests of public health in relation to notifiable cases, under the Act, of bovine tuberculosis. The number of cows and heifers in milk or in calf is given as 3,166,292 or 44 per cent. of the total number of bovine animals. It is of course from these that we derive our supplies of fresh milk, so that on their health our own health to a certain extent depends, and to a greater extent the health of invalids and children to whom milk is a prime necessity. It is therefore scarcely possible to over‐rate the weight of responsibility resting on the Ministry when the relation of its duties to the incidence of bovine tuberculosis is considered. Two important facts, however, demand attention. The first is that the Tuberculosis Order of 1925 was, as the Report points out, neither designed nor expected to eradicate bovine tuberculosis. The disease is widespread, and it is to be feared somewhat firmly established in our herds—an evil legacy from the past. The most that can be done at present is by means of the Order to remove as far as possible the danger to human health from the ingestion of the milk of infected animals and to reduce the number of these animals. Any attempt which might be made to completely eradicate the disease would in our present state of knowledge lead to a serious depletion of our herds throughout the country, and large expenditure in compensation (p. 23). In the second place while the Order of 1925 requires certain forms of the disease to be reported, no steps are at present taken or can be taken to search out the disease. An organisation designed so to do would be costly, as it would in the first place involve “ a considerable extension of periodical veterinary inspection of all dairy cows, coupled with the application of the biological test ” (p. 23). Hence leaving out of consideration our deficient knowledge of the disease, though its effects are horribly evident in our national life, the old conflict of public health versus public pocket is presented to us in an acute form.

Under this heading are published regularly abstracts of all Reports and Memoranda of the Aeronautical Research Council, Reports and Technical Memoranda of the United States National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and publications of other similar Research Bodies as issued

ONCE again we are enabled, through the courtesy of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, to publish a paper which is of outstanding importance in the development of internal combustion turbine engines.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of common ownership on corporate innovation, including innovation input, innovation output and postgrant patents.

This paper uses the ordinary least square model and the difference-in-differences technique to evaluate the effect of institutional interlocking shareholdings on the life cycle of corporate innovation.

The results show that common ownership impedes innovation measured by patent grants and citations through reduced R&D expenditures. However, common ownership protects postgrant patents by lowering the likelihood that a co-owned firm gets involved in patent litigation and by accelerating the settlement of lawsuits between co-owned firms.

From a regulatory perspective, common ownership in younger firms that rely heavily on R&D investment to produce innovation outputs is detrimental and needs to be regulated. However, common ownership in mature firms, which hold a big pool of patents or rely on acquiring patents to compete, is of less concern because of the protective role detected.

The paper provides a first comprehensive look into how same-industry common ownership affects innovation input, innovation output and postgrant patents. The research also reconciles the anticompetitive effect and the coordinative effect of common ownership documented in the literature.

‘WHAT A novel arrangement. Is any reason given?’

Vinegar, vin aigre or soured wine is a name that suggests the nature and origin of the substance which is the subject of this note. In France the name is applied to the substance that results from the acetous fermentation of wine. The name has at least the merit of accuracy. The term vinegar has, however, been extended in this country to denote the product obtained by the acetous fermentation of a malt liquor and in the United States of America to mean the substance resulting from the acetous fermentation of cider. In general it may be said that certain kinds of vegetable matter may be made to yield a vinegar by this process. The Census of Production under the common heading “ vinegar and acetic acid ” states that in 1924 the output of these substances, in this country, was 14,200,000 gallons of a value of a little over a million pounds sterling; in 1930 the corresponding figures were 14,600,000 gallons and £950,000; in 1935, 17,100,000 gallons and £790,000. It may be observed that vinegar and acetic acid are not by any means the same thing. Vinegar made by acetous fermentation contains about six per cent. or slightly under that amount of acetic acid as a main and essential constituent, but other substances are present that give it a characteristic bouquet. But whether vinegar be made from malt, wine, cider, or similar substances it is a palatable and wholesome condiment and preservative. It is the result of a biological as distinguished from a chemical process, and we suggest that the term vinegar be limited to the product resulting from the former and not from the latter if it be intended for use in the household as an element in the food supply. The Food Inspectors Handbook, VI Edition, 1913, p. 300, tells us that commercial vinegar is a more or less impure acetic acid. The different varieties according to their source being malt, wine, cider, beet, sugar, and wood vinegars. We cannot think that “ impure acetic acid ” is a particularly happy definition of the term vinegar. It is surely the “ impurities ” the result of secondary reactions that give the characteristic flavour and palatability to vinegar that serve to distinguish it from a merely dilute solution of acetic acid. In the same way whisky might be defined as impure alcohol, but no one, as far as we know; has ever seriously suggested that a dilute solution of absolute alcohol would be a satisfactory substitute for whisky. similarly we suggest that wood vinegar—derived as it is from the distillation of various kinds of wood—is in its origin a purely chemical product and in no sense a biological product. It would follow that if the term vinegar be restricted, as we suggest it ought to be, to the product of biological action the term wood vinegar though well known and often used is really meaningless. The Food Industries' Manual, 1945, written for the guidance of food manufacturers, describes artificial vinegar—made by diluting acetic acid with water and colouring the solution with caramel—as a very poor substitute for the genuine product. “ Artificial vinegar ” it says “is raw in taste and completely lacking in the fine bouquet of characteristic brewed vinegar.” The Extra Pharmacopœia says that vinegar is “also made by diluting acetic acid and colouring with burnt sugar.” The reference however, presumably refers to the use of this kind of “ vinegar ” in pharmacy—vinegar and brown paper for instance—and not as an ingredient in foods.

12. The provisions of these Regulations with respect to prohibiting any preservative or colouring matter or thickening substance in articles of food and requiring the labelling of certain articles of food and of articles sold as preservatives shall not apply in the case of any article which is intended to be exported or re‐exported or in the case of butter intended for use as ships' stores.

The Transfer of Functions (Food and Drugs) Order, 1955 (S.I. 1955 No. 959), providing for the transfer of certain food hygiene functions from the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to the Minister of Health, was laid before Parliament on July 5th.

5. During the preliminary enquiries into this subject several manufacturers were approached. One stated that when first manufactured more than forty years ago the substance had approximately the following composition:—