SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



To aid in the rehabilitation of the hbrary of the Department of Botany, 

 Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, Alabama, which was destroyed by 

 fire on October 17, 1920, the Smithsonian Institution, at the request of Prof. 

 Wright A. Gardner, has undertaken to receive and forward to the Institute 

 such publications as botanists and others in the vicinity of Washington may 

 desire to present for that purpose. All packages should be plainly marked 

 "Library, Department of Botany, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, 

 Alabama," and delivered to the Smithsonian Institution, charges paid. 



The Washington Chapter of the American Association of Engineers has 

 begun the publication of a monthly news organ under the title of The Wash- 

 ington Engineer. A. D. Morehouse is editor and Thomas H. Faris associate 

 editor of the new publication. 



The Division of Graphic Arts of the National Museum has just received 

 from the American Museum of Natural History in New York fifty specimens 

 of metal movable type made from the fifty original bronze type which were 

 cast in Seoul, Korea, about 1406, and were owned by the Government Print- 

 ing Office. There seems to be little doubt that the credit for making the 

 first movable metal type belongs to Korea, as Gutenberg did not start his 

 press in Europe until about fifty years later. There was a movable clay 

 type in China about two hundred years earlier. 



The Pick and Hammer Club met on Saturday, January 20, at the Geological 

 vSurvey. Talks were given by F. H. MoFFiT on Some of the features of the 

 problem of making maps from aeroplane photographs; H. B. Sullivan, on 

 Some dilhculties attending the practical application of aerial photography to 

 mapping, from the viewpoint of the pilot of the observation plane; and W. T. 

 Lee, on .4 look fonvard — the use of aeroplane photography in geology. 



The Section of V^ertebrate Paleontology of the National Museum has re- 

 ceived as a gift from the Southern Coal, Coke and Mining Company of Shiloh, 

 Illinois, a beautifully preserved specimen of the extinct Carboniferous shark 

 Edestus heinrichsi. It was found by one of the miners. 



The Bureau of Standards announces a new method for producing very small 

 and light mirrors for use on oscillographs and similar apparatus. These mir- 

 rors can be made in dimensions as small as Lo by 0.5 by 0.1 mm., and of 

 satisfactory planeness and polish, by compressing aluminum between opti- 

 cally flat steel dies. 



Mr. J. W. GiDLEY, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Paleontolog}' at the 

 National IVIuseum, left Washington in January for a two months' exploratory 

 trip in Arizona, Cahfornia, and Nebraska for the U. S. Geological Survey 

 and to secure fossil mammals for the Museum collection. Important finds 

 of Pleistocene mammal remains in the vicinity of Benson, Arizona, have 

 already been made. 



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