292
RESEARCH
pupils, was designed to provide a tentative picture of the educa- tional characteristics of the primary four child as he appears in these schools. From information received in this project, together with school selection of probable failures, a further inquiry is being made in an attempt to define educational backwardness in Hong Kong and to determine the underlying academic, medical or sociological reasons for school failure. A committee on the teaching of English as a second language is designing tests to determine the attainment level in English of a large sample of students, and to find to what extent English influences success in other school subjects.
Research activities in the Department of Civil Engineering during the year included theoretical and experimental studies of many aspects of design and construction of multi-storey buildings. A simplified method of wind-stress analysis of high-building frames was evolved and the validity of the method is being verified by wind-tunnel tests and by experimental loading tests on small-scale models. Theoretical and experimental studies started on vibrations in buildings due to reciprocating and rotating machines. This work forms part of a comprehensive investigation being undertaken at the request of, and with support from, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. The Department of Electrical Engineering con- tinued its investigation into the performance of motors under abnormal conditions, and the effect of special windings in motors was also studied. The Department of Mechanical Engineering con- structed a second subsonic wind tunnel having a flow of 3,500 cubic feet per minute at a speed of 170 ft/sec. It also constructed a hydraulic model of the bellmouth spillway, discharge tunnel and stilling basin of the Shing Mun Dam, now being built as part of the Plover Cove and Hebe Haven Water Scheme. The object was to forecast the discharge coefficient of the spillway and to deter- mine the effect of the overflow on the river basin under normal and flood conditions.
The Department of Geography and Geology continued to make industrial and agricultural land-use surveys in the Ping Shan, Yuen Long and Fanling districts. An investigation was also begun on the tectonics of the Kowloon Hills in the vicinity of the Lion Rock Tunnel. Projects in the Department of History included work in the fields of Chinese, Japanese and south-east Asian history. The