50 Years Ago

In a Cantor Lecture ... Dr. Tom A. Margerison described how science could be presented on television not only to the specialist audience but especially to the layman. In spite of the absolute necessity of science and technology, the 10–15 per cent of the population who guide the destiny of Britain, the professional men, the majority of teachers, the industrialists, the politicians, are almost completely ignorant about science. The bridging of this gap in this most influential part of the population is of great urgency. There are many ways in which television can help to close the gap.

From Nature 3 February 1962

100 Years Ago

Mr. Harding's letter ... reminds me of an experience which ... may be of sufficient interest to place upon record in these columns ... It must, I think, have been in 1866 or 1867 ... that I had occasion to go from the West to the East End of London. Starting upon my journey about 10 p.m., it began to rain soon after I left the house in Bayswater, and I opened an umbrella, which, to my surprise, became stiffer and heavier every moment, and was found on examination to be so thickly glazed over with ice that it was impossible to close it. At the same time the pavements and roadway were also becoming uniformly glazed; pedestrian movement was most difficult, and all horse traffic was suspended. Although an experience of some forty-five years ago, the impression left upon my memory is still vivid — the ludicrous sight of people carrying ponderous and rigidly frozen umbrellas which they could not close, the stream of skaters down Oxford Street and Holborn, and the silence due to the absence of vehicles, all came to mind on reading Mr. Harding's letter.

From Nature 1 February 1912