SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey reports the completion of the 

 new outHne map of the United States on the Lambert Conformal 

 Conic Projections; scale, i : 5,000,000; dimensions, 25 X 39 inches; 

 price, 25 cents. This map is intended merely as a base to which may 

 be added any kind of special information desired. It is based on the 

 same system of projection (the Lambert projection) as that which was 

 employed by the armies of the allied forces in the military operations 

 in France. For an area of the shape and position of the United States, 

 this projection has several marked advantages over the Mercator and 

 the Polyconic projections. Throughout the larger and more important 

 part of the United States, that is, between latitudes 3072° and 49°, 

 the maximum scale error is only one-half of one per cent. The standard 

 parallels of the map of the United vStates are latitudes ^5° and 45°, 

 and upon these parallels the scale is absolutely true. The scale for any 

 other part of the map, or for any parallel, can be obtained from Special 

 Publication No. 52, page 36, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



The Office of Drug and Oil Plant Investigations, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, is installing a laboratory at Arlington Farms to study the 

 technology of fats and vegetable oils, in connection with its projects on 

 oil-yielding crops and utilization of waste. 



The Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer Surveyor left Norfolk, Vir- 

 ginia, on April 21 en route to the Pacific via the Panama Canal. Deep- 

 sea soundings will be made from off Chesapeake entrance to the Ba- 

 hamas and from Jamaica across the Caribbean Sea. 



The Twelfth Annual Conference of Weights and Measures Officials, 

 composed of delegates from the States and larger cities of the United 

 States, met at the Bureau of Standards on May 21-24, iQiQ) 27 States 

 being represented. The object of these conferences is to bring about 

 uniform laws and regulations regarding the inspection of commercial 

 weights and measures and also to discuss matters of technique and pro- 

 cedure. Among other results of the Conference was the adoption of a 

 resolution favoring the metric system. Officers elected for the following 

 year were : President, S. W. Stratton, Director of the Bureau of Stand- 

 ards; First-Vice President, Chas. G. Johnson, State Superintendent for 

 the State of California; Second Vice-President, Thure Hanson, Com- 

 missioner of Weights and Measures of Massachusetts; Secretary, L. A. 

 Fischer, of the Bureau of Standards. 



Dr. Paul Bartsch, of the National Museum, returned in May from 

 a trip to the Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas, where he has been 

 conducting breeding experiments under the joint auspices of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



Professor L. C. Graton, of Harvard University, came to Washington 

 in June and expects to spend several months in the Bureau of Internal 

 Revenue of the Treasury Department, in charge of copper mine valua- 

 tion under the Income Tax Unit of the Bureau. 



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