100 YEARS AGO

The long-standing question as to the admittance of women into full fellowship of scientific societies was brought before a meeting of the Lady Warwick Agricultural Association for Women on Thursday last, and the following resolution, supported by a paper by Mrs. Farquharson, was adopted: “That it is desirable and important that duly qualified women should have the advantages of full fellowship in scientific and other learned societies, e.g. the Royal, the Linnean and the Royal Microscopical.” The arguments in favour of and in opposition to this proposal have been stated so many times that most members of scientific societies are familiar with them. Six years ago the council of the Royal Geographical Society elected several ladies as fellows, but their action was disapproved at two special meetings, and resolutions to the effect that it was inexpedient to admit ladies as ordinary fellows were carried by conclusive votes. … The time may of course come when women will be equally eligible with men for membership of the learned societies, but facts such as those cited show that there is distinct opposition to the admittance of women at present, and no sudden change of feeling can be expected, though individual cases of “duly qualified” women might be considered.

From Nature 26 October 1899.

50 YEARS AGO

All through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, mathematicians studied the problems suggested by the generation and propagation of waves on the surface of the sea and other bodies of water. But during all this time there was very little scientific observation of waves, and practically none of it was by means of specially designed measuring instruments. Oceanographers paid very little attention to the details of the phenomena. But during the Second World War, it was part of the preparation for the landing of troops and material on beaches that forecasts should be made of the state of swell and surf on those beaches at particular times… C.C. Bates, of the United States Navy, gives an account of the utilization of wave forecasting in the invasions of Normandy, Burma and Japan. Excluding cases in which forecasts of winds were in error, it was found that forecasts of waves on Normandy landing beaches were correct for 88 per cent of the time.

From Nature 29 October 1949.