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sidered by many engineers that a combination of the steam and gas turbine will be found to be a satisfactory solution.

Herr Holzwarth has, however, devoted many years to the production of the gas turbine alone, and has made noteworthy progress. 1 The Holzwarth turbine unit comprises a small com- bustion chamber supplied with a mixture of gas or oil vapour and air by a suitable pump, through mechanically operated inlet valves.

The mixture is delivered under small pressure and ignited by a H.T. magneto. The resulting gases, at high temperature and pres- sure, then discharge through a spring-controlled flap valve termed the " nozzle valve," and issuing from the nozzle impinge on the vanes of the rotor. Having passed the vanes, the gases enter an exhaust chamber wherein a partial vacuum is maintained by a suitable exhauster. Shortly after ignition .the nozzle valve is slowly closed mechanically, sufficient time being allowed for a gust of scavenging air to be passed through the combustion chamber, which is thus cooled and cleared in readiness for the next working charge; this air-gust also cools the nozzle and rotor vanes.

Thus the action is intermittent, and three valves and charging and exhausting pumps are required. In an actual turbine several such units are disposed around a turbine wheel, or " rotor."

Towards the end of 1920 the first gas turbine, using oil fuel, was built in Germany to a definite order by Herr Holzwarth. This turbine is direct-coupled to an alternator, and is stated to develop 500 B.H.P. with an overall thermal efficiency of 26%.

(c) The " SHU " Engine. This is a combination of an internal combustion engine and a steam engine. The working cylinder at one end uses a combustible mixture of gas or oil vapour and air, and at the other end of steam produced from the exhaust of the " internal combustion " end of the engine. The quantity of steam generated from the heat of the exhaust is stated to be about 7 Ib. per B.H.P. hour at full load.

An experimental " Still " engine tested by Prof. Vernon Boys gave an average mean effective pressure on the 4-stroke internal combus- tion side of 90 Ib. per sq. inch, and from the steam side of 14 Ib. per sq. inch; thus the effect was equivalent to that of a normal 4- stroke internal combustion engine giving a mean effective pressure of 90 (2X14) = 1 18 Ib. per sq. inch, as the " steam " end has a 2-stroke cycle.

A high thermal efficiency is claimed, and it was stated in May 192 1 2 that official trials recently carried out on a 350 B.H.P. experimental " Still " engine under Lloyd's inspection had shown such favourable results that Messrs. Scott's Shipbuild- ing & Engineering Co., the licensees, had decided to standardize designs of 6-cylinder marine sets of 2,000 B.H.P. using oil fuel in the manner of a 2-stroke cycle Diesel engine, with " solid," i.e. mechanically sprayed, injection of fuel into the cylinders. These engines would be started and reversed by steam. The develop- ment of this combination of internal combustion engine and steam engine was one which in 1921 was being followed by engineers with much interest. (G. A. Bu.)

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION. An important part of the scheme for a League of Nations embodied in the Peace Treaty of Versailles in 1919 involved the creation of a new International Labour Organization. The Labour part of the Treaty (Part XIII.) rested on the principle laid down in its preamble that there can be no social peace which is not based on social justice. It represented the aspiration which moved all classes to carry over into peace the community of sentiment and of action which had held them together during the dark hours of the World War.

Aiming therefore at the promotion of social peace, the Inter- national Labour Organization was founded on two main beliefs the belief that there must be international cooperation in the industrial sphere, if suicidal competition, leading to much human misery, and perhaps to fresh wars, was to be avoided, and the belief that such cooperation must be based on the collaboration between the State, Capital and Labour. The organization was therefore to consist of all the states forming the League of Nations, who were to meet annually in conference and draw up international agreements for regulating and improving industrial conditions. By raising the standard of living and the lot of the

!v. "The Gas Turbine," Holzwarth & Chalkley (Griffin 1913). 2 v. The Times " Engineering Supplement," May 1921.

worker everywhere, the worst evils of commercial rivalry, and the penalty which it had hitherto imposed on progressive social legislation, could be gradually removed. This could only be done by international agreements having the force of treaties. Under the provisions of Article 405 of the Treaty these agreements are cast in the form of " draft conventions " and " recommendations," which each State is bound to lay before its legislative or other authorities within a maximum period of eighteen months. Special provision is made to meet the case of federal constitutions, such as those of Canada, Australia and the United States, where labour legislation is not within the competence of the federal authority, but is a matter for the individual states or provinces. There were some who took part in the Paris negotiations and who wished to go further. They advocated that the Conference should be vested with the powers of a super-parliament, whose decisions should be immediately binding; but finally the more modest proposal of the British delegation, who put forward the scheme, was adopted, and it was left to the sovereign power in each state to accept or reject the proposals adopted by the conference. The constitution as defined by the Treaty provides therefore that the final decision rests with the government or parliament of each country. Once its approval is given to a draft convention, the formal ratification is conveyed to the secretary-general of the League, and the enforcement of its 'provisions becomes a treaty obligation.

This procedure is, apart from the imposition of a time-limit, not essentially different from the usual procedure followed by diplomatic conferences before the war, but when the composition of the International Labour Conference is considered, several marked departures from precedent will be observed. In the past governments alone took part in international discussions which were to result in creating international obligations. This meant that the delegates were tied down to carrying out their official instructions, and that mutual concession must be carried to the point where virtual unanimity was reached, if any practical con- sequences were to follow. The constitution of the International Labour Conference broke away from the diplomatic tradition. It provided for four delegates from each country, two only representing the government, the other two being chosen in agreement with the most representative organizations of employ- ers and of workers in each country. The reason for this innova- tion is not far to seek. In discussing labour problems it is im- possible to ignore the great employers' associations and trade unions, which are primarily interested and which are the con- trolling factors in modern industry. Once unofficial delegates were admitted, it followed as a necessary corollary that each national delegation could not be expected to act as a whole, but that its members must be free to speak and vote as they pleased. Hence it was no longer possible to look for unanimity, and it was accordingly provided that a draft convention or recommenda- tion must be carried by a two-thirds majority, but that once so carried, its consideration (though not its adoption) became obligatory on the governments, whether their representatives had voted for it or not. By this means international public opinion could exert its influence even in countries which might be unwilling to accept the standards of the majority.

One further point requires brief notice. During the original discussions in Paris there was considerable division of opinion on the question whether the governments should have one vote or two. It was argued from the Labour point of view that the double vote would place the workers in a hopeless minority, and reduce them to impotence against the three votes exercised by the governments and the employers. On the other side, it was pointed out that not only was it probable that the official del- egates would be as often on the side of the workers as on that of the employers, but that on the equal voting system the latter would with the assistance of a single government be able to block any proposal. Moreover, unless the majority of the governments accepted a draft convention, there was small likelihood of its being ratified, and this in itself justified their larger voting power. The subsequent experience of the Washington and Genoa con- ferences may be held to have justified these contentions.