48 CARNKGIE INSTITUTION 



4.. Perso7inel Required . — Assuming, then, that a special laboratory, 

 staff and director are requisite to the successful prosecution of 

 geophysical researches, I offer the following estimates of the 

 personnel and plant appropriate to such an institution, basing 

 the plans largely upon the experience of the Physikalische Reich- 

 sanstalt of Charlottenburg, with modifications adapting them to 

 American conditions. 



The plan is in general terms as follows : In addition to a director, 

 one mathematician, four experimental physical investigators, one 

 chemical investigator and one analytical chemist are recommended. 

 The necessity for a first-class mathematician is too evident to need 

 comment. For years to come one physicist should confine himself to 

 the study of elasticity, plasticity and rupture. A second physicist 

 is required to take charge of high temperature work, beginning with 

 an extension of thermometry to the melting point of platinum and 

 the quantitative determination of the fundamental physical relations 

 at those temperatures. 



A third physicist should devote himself to the study of viscosity 

 and diffusion, beginning with solutions at ordinary temperatures. 

 Osmosis, with inorganic septa, and capillarity, two topics of very 

 great importance to geophj^sics, should be entrusted to a fourth 

 investigator. A complete geophysical laboratory must include at 

 least one chemist to study the chemical relations of eutetic mixtures 

 and investigate afl&nities at high temperatures. An analytical 

 chemist is required for the numerous chemical analyses which will 

 be called for in all branches of the work. 



This corps of investigators must be provided with assistants to 

 relieve them of the simpler details. Mechanical assistants and a 

 small office force will also be required. 



In estimating for the salaries of the principal members of the staff, 

 I have taken as a basis the best salaries paid to college professors. 

 Unless such salaries are paid there would be danger that the men 

 might be tempted to abandon geophysics for college positions, much 

 to the detriment of the proposed research. Investigators in geo- 

 physics must learn to take a somewhat novel attitude towards the 

 science of the earth . They must attain a sufficient grasp of geology 

 and its phenomena to perceive the demand for physical research, 

 the application of its results and their relative importance. A man 

 who has attained this unusual standpoint cannot readily be replaced 

 either by a physicist unacquainted with geology or by a geologist 

 insufficiently trained in physics. 



