traced the history of scientific discovery from the Greeks to modern spacemen. This time the exhibition was held in the Christmas Term instead of the Easter Term. I think this was a mistake, for far too many boys seemed not to understand fully the experiments they were demonstrating. One term later they would have had a better understanding of their work and could have given more confident expositions. The one hundred and forty-six different demonstrations and experiments ranged from magic writing to nuclear physics, from beehives to Telstar, from geography to gas chromatography. As frequently happens, the most fascinating and most spectacular was often the most simple. A railway engine racing like the Red Queen to stay in the same place and prove one of Newton's laws, an enormous rabbit cage in which you could stand with electricity leaking out all round you, innocuous looking liquids that flashed dazzlingly blue when mixed, other liquids that could be coaxed steadily through all the rainbow colours, powerful electromagnets that melted nails and hurled chunks of metal in the air, bells that rang as you approached, a harmonograph that drew strange and wonderful pictures, a beautifully mounted skeleton of a cat, very dead dogfish and rats that had been most elegantly dissected—these were some of the simpler things that attracted my attention. Of the more complex and difficult I cannot write, certainly interesting they were, but I have not enough science to describe them as adequately as did, usually, their demonstrators. The greatest value of such an exhibition is the chance it gives to a large number of boys—about three hundred—to demonstrate in public some of their scientific work, and to show their parents and friends a few of the interesting things they do in learning about Science. This exhibition is considered by all to have been a very great success; it is believed that the Science staff have already started preparing for the next one.
CAREERS In the last few months I have visited a number of organisations, and the general impression gained is of a narrowing field of entry and consequent rising standards. There is no doubt that opportunities for the well qualified boy, who has played a full part in school life, are as good as ever, if not better, but for the boy with only two or three "0" Levels it is becoming increasingly difficult to find training which will lead to a professional qualification. The other impressions are that a qualification in Mathematics is almost universally needed, and that a good standard of English is more than ever being demanded. In the autumn, I visited the Royal Doulton Company and saw both their China Works and their Industrial Ceramics Works. In the former they manufacture crockery, figures and character jugs, whilst in the latter they are principally concerned with the manufacture of large insulators for the electrical supply industry. This type of industry offers considerable satisfaction to a young man interested in Chemistry and its applications to Ceramics Technology, and this may be a very good alternative for the boy who is interested in Chemical Engineering, but who finds it difficult to get into this industry. No doubt other large pottery firms offer similar 12
