A Meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society was held in the Great. Hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, Westminster, London, S.W.1, on Wednesday, 19th December, 1945, at which a paper by Professor N. Feather, Ph.D., F.R.S., entitled “ Atomic Disintegration ” was presented and discussed. In the Chair, the President, Sir Frederick Handley Page, C.B.E.

The idea of the disintegration of the atom appeared first—as a notion seriously entertained by a scientist of repute—in the hypothesis put forward by Rutherford and Soddy in 1903, in an attempt to explain the phenomena of radioactivity as known at that time.

The electrical measurement of strain is an art which has been developed gradually over a considerable number of years. It will be realised that the electrical measurement of strain includes the electrical magnification and measurement of a strain indicated by a non-electrical pick-up, such as a mechanical strain gauge, as well as the case of pure electrical measurement in which the pick-up unit itself operates electrically.

The principal reasons for the popularity of electrical gauges are their ability to record data at a station remote from the point of application of the gauge, thus allowing gauges to be attached in positions which would be inaccessible for direct measurement by mechanical or optical means, and the high dynamic response of the electric gauge which renders the gauge invaluable for dynamic work.

By means of a broad survey of the developments in aeroelastic science during the past ten years and of comparable developments in associated fields, in so far as they involve elastic deformation, the present paper attempts to show how the individual subjects concerned are developing strong interconnections. At one time the subjects were for the most part regarded as discrete entities; now they are developing into component parts of an integrated whole —the dynamics of a deformable aeroplane.

It is suggested that in the future it may be necessary to discontinue the present methods of treatment of the component subjects as separate, and to adopt a standard method of attack on the problem treated as a unified whole, especially when adequate computational aids become available. A modified approach, involving an arrangement of the subjects in a frequency spectrum, is also discussed. Some speculations on the elastic provisions which may be necessary in the future are included.