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Signs are not wanting that the policy we have so often urged in these pages, that the present is the appropriate time for all public libraries to pay strict and systematic attention to their collections upon science and its technological and industrial applications, is being adopted by several libraries. An interesting example is that of Richmond, where a special “trades” section is to be formed having as its purpose the collecting and segregating of industrial literature, and Aberdeen has formed a sub‐committee to revise its collections similarly. No librarian believes there is anything novel in either case, since the competent librarian is continually reviewing his collections with the object of replacing obsolete works; but the public particularising of the technology sections is at the moment a policy the wisdom of which cannot be gainsaid. Moreover, numbers of books on important, but little understood, industries are coming from the press at present, and an unusual alertness is necessary to prevent them passing out of notice. Further, definite advertising of the books was never more desirable. In this connexion we have not seen any recent lists more calculated to serve the purpose than those issued by the Coventry Public Libraries, and not their least virtue is their unpretentious character— they are single leaflets with brief library information, a carefully selected set of titles, and an invitation to manufacturers, artisans and other readers to use the telephone in their search for information. We do not suppose that a very great number will avail themselves of the privileges these collections and bulletins offer; but it is all‐important that they should exist. A keen publicity spirit, which is not ashamed of or deterred by lack of visible results, is required now in order to reach the employer and the young worker in particular. Many methods suggest themselves: Lists posted at workshops, special catalogues such as that issued by Gateshead, bulletins such as those at Coventry, even visits from the librarian to the various factories, workshops, business houses and schools. Some of these have been tried, we know, but the circumstances of two years ago are not those of to‐day; and, if results were discouraging in the past, they need not be so now; and, in any case, new efforts should be made.

To improve organizational performance and sustain a competitive advantage many Australian businesses have begun to embrace e‐commerce. For example, businesses from the automotive, banking, insurance and retail industries have been able to leverage the benefits of information and communication technologies. Yet, those from the construction industry have been slow, perhaps even reluctant, to implement information and communication technologies to support ecommerce. Thus, this paper aims to determine the barriers that small‐medium sized contractors are experiencing when confronted with the need to implement e‐commerce to sustain their competitiveness. Unstructured interviews were undertaken with managers from 20 small‐medium sized contractors from the State of Victoria in Australia, which had annual turnovers ranging from $1‐50 million. The financial, organizational, technical and human barriers that were identified from findings are presented and discussed. The paper concludes by proposing strategies that small‐medium sized contractors may adopt if they to leverage the benefits of e‐commerce.

Since world attention has been focussed on the quality and safety of drugs, thought is being given to improving the methods of dealing with this branch of control under the Food and Drugs Act, 1955. This work is entirely different to the several projects now being undertaken, such as the Government‐sponsored “safety committee” dealing with the clinical testing of new drugs before sale; this deals mainly with toxicity trials, therapeutic efficiency and adverse reactions and is designed to prevent such catastrophies as the recent drug‐induced deformities of babies. The recently proposed scheme of the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry for an advisory centre had similar objectives.

IN A PAPER ON THE ABOVE SUBJECT presented to The Institute of Petroleum in January by G. A. Dickens and W. B. Broadbent (both of Mobil Oil Co. Ltd.), these authors said that the lubrication problems arising from electrification of railway locomotives are not great and although there may be no entirely new lubrication problems, diesel traction on a large scale is new to the U.K. and in this field, service life between overhauls is very dependent on the quality of crankcase lubricating oil. Dividing diesel traction into three categories, namely shunters, railcars, and main line locomotives, they discussed the differing lubrication requirements of each. Shunting diesel engines are mainly 600/800 r.p.m. units developing up to 4,000 h.p. ; main line and mixed traffic locos utilise diesel units of 600/1200 r.p.m. developing from 800 to 2,000 h.p.; railcar and light weight trains use engines of 1,500/2,000 r.p.m. developing up to 250 h.p.

ENGINEERS and designers often adopt a somewhat lofty attitude towards exhibitions, decrying them as public shows and therefore not meriting serious consideration. But, actually, exhibitions serve an extraordinarily useful purpose since they present the opportunity of seeing exactly “what the other fellow is doing,” and so by the assimilation of new ideas prevent that mental staleness which continuous concentration on certain types of production only is apt to engender.

With growing interest in the uses of hedonic technologies and gamification in system design, the concept of cognitive absorption (CA) has become increasingly salient in the information systems literature. However, little effort has been made to evaluate the research status and consolidate the current literature findings. To fill these research gaps, the authors conducted a literature review on CA. The authors then proposed an integrative framework that summarises the key elements of and variables related to CA and their relationships. The major findings of the study are discussed, and an agenda for future research is proposed.

The inhibition of corrosion of Al‐Cu (4%) alloy B26S in decinormal solutions of phosphoric acid by different amines has been studied. The efficiency of the inhibitors increases in the order: triethylamine, di‐cyclohexylamine, diethylamine, cyclohexylamine, di‐n‐propylamine, isopropylamine, ethylenediamine, trimethylamine, n‐butylamine, dimethylamine, ethylamine, hexamine, n‐propylamine, methylamine. At constant acid concentration, the inhibitor efficiency increases with increase in the concentration of the inhibitor whereas at constant inhibitor concentration the efficiency decreases with increase in the concentration of the acid. Very little correlation appears to exist between either the pKb values or the molecular weight and the extent of inhibition. Maximum inhibition is achieved in those cases where the pH of the inhibited solution lies in the non‐corrosive range (4.5–8.5).

Previous work has suggested that the adhesion between oil and metallic surfaces of an engine could be an important factor in determining crankcase cleanliness. It can be shown that it is only necessary to measure the spreading pressure of an oil on metal in order to get a direct measure of the work of adhesion, Surface tensions of lubrictaing oils vary very little and it can be assumed that the critical film pressure (C.F.P.) obtained with a given apparatus is an acceptable measure of the work of adhesion as well as of the spreading pressure. Oils of similar properties may vary tenfold in their C.F.P's. The addition of additives influences the spreading pressure, the largest increments in C.F.P. being given by dispersant and detergent additives.

The MAIN PURPOSE OF THIS INVESTIGATION was to examine and compare new and regenerated crankcase oils.