The Structure and Properties of Porous Materials [antikvár]

Foreword The name of Edward Colston, the great seventeenth-century philanthropist and educationalist, is associated in Bristol with a number of scholastic and charitable institutions. It was adopted by a group of public-spirited citizens when, in 1899, they established the 'University College Colston Society', with the aim of fostering the young and struggling University College. For a decade it played a part in the movement which culminated in the institution of the University of Bristol in 1909. The Society then changed its name and made its object more precise: it became the 'Colston Research Society' and devoted itself to the encouragement of original work in the University. It made grants for the purchase of apparatus and for the other expenses of research. As resources increased activities expanded and, notably, in the later 'thirties the Society financed a full-scale Social Survey of Bristol. After the war a new reconsideration of policy led to the decision to devote the major part of the Society's efforts to the promotion of an annual symposium, the first being held in 1948. The rapid growth of the symposium as a means for the advancement of knowledge is one of the remarkable features of the intellectual life of recent years. Usually such meetings are fostered by bodies interested in one particular field of learning. As the list of titles (on the page opposite) shows, no such limitation applies to the symposia of the Colston Research Society. That the subject should be one at an interesting and active stage of development is the main factor in making a choice. The fact that the symposium is held in one of the younger seats of learning, with its home in an historic city, is a stimulus not only to the University but also, we believe, to the visiting guests who have come from many countries. The publication of the proceedings ensures the communication of the papers and discussions to wider circles. It was my privilege to be President of the Colston Research Society for the year 1957-58, during which the tenth symposium was promoted by the Society. The subject was 'The Structure and Properties of Porous Materials' and the proceedings are printed here as the tenth volume of the Colston Papers. Waldegrave