Travers helped Ramsay to determine the properties of the newly discovered gases argon and helium.

They examined the argon fraction for a constituent of lower boiling point, and discovered neon.

The institute was started in June 1911 with four departments: General, Organic, and Applied Chemistry and Electrical Engineering.

He returned to Britain at the outbreak of World War I and directed the manufacture of glass at Duroglass Limited.

[1] Travers continued his researches in cryogenics and made the first accurate temperature measurements of liquid gases.