50 Years ago

A further Committee of the Commonwealth Education Conference considered the extent to which the countries of the Commonwealth could help each other to meet their needs for training teachers ... Already more than 2,500 teachers a year leave the United Kingdom for service in other Commonwealth countries and the Government is to make every effort to increase this number. Canada, Australia and New Zealand made definite offers of assistance at the Conference, and both India and Pakistan hope to encourage their teachers to serve in other Commonwealth countries ... Steps should also be taken to promote a climate of opinion which will recognise service abroad as a professional asset.

From Nature 20 February 1960.

100 Years ago

The first part of a general description of the engineering and constructional features of the Panama Canal appears in Engineering for February 11 ... An average of 1,000,000 lb. of dynamite per month is consumed for the entire work, and the number of accidents has been relatively small, although, owing to the number of men in contracted areas, the casualties have been great. Premature explosions, attributable to concussion during loading, led to the substitution of pine-rammers for those of lignum vitæ ... No holes are now loaded which cannot be fired the same day, a precaution necessitated by the premature explosion of 22 tons of 45 per cent. dynamite at Bas Obispo, probably owing to some of the nitroglycerine having been liberated and exploded by concussion by a dobie shot in the vicinity. Accidents have occurred during electric storms, and the only possible precaution is now taken by stopping work.

From Nature 17 February 1910.