TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



71 



DIVISION OF GENERAL, INORGANIC, AND PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY 



Mr. W. C. Reibling was appointed chief of this division on 

 July 1, 1912. The work of the division has been seriously handi- 

 capped during- the fiscal year 1913 by shortage of chemists and 

 laboratory assistants. We have lacked the services of two first- 

 class chemists which are provided for in our regular schedule 

 of employees, and have been still further handicapped by the 

 resignations of Messrs. Beyer and Paterno. On the other hand, 

 the work of the chemists who were available suffered from the 

 lack of trained laboratory apprentices, the considerable time 

 required to train new assistants, and the repeated necessity of 

 shifting chemists from one class of work to another. 



Mr. Paterno was appointed on December 1, 1912, and it re- 

 quired several months of careful training on the part of Mr. 

 Gana and others to teach him to be a competent water analyst. 

 He resigned on April 15, just about as soon as his services had 

 become of some value. Since then we have been training a 

 civil-service employee, with the hope of obtaining much-needed 

 help in routine analyses. Likewise, considerable time was lost in" 

 training Mr. Davis, who was appointed January 25, 1913, and 

 transferred to the Bureau of Customs April 10, 1913. Mr. King, 

 who was employed to occupy the position left vacant by Mr. 

 Davis, has proved to be very capable and energetic. The 

 vacancy left by Mr. Beyer on January 25 was filled about June 1. 



ROUTINE WORK 



The data in the table give a general idea of the routine done 

 by this division during the last fiscal year, and for the purpose 

 of comparison corresponding figures for the fiscal years 1910, 

 1911, and 1912 are included. 



» Work classified "Miscellaneous" in 1910 is largely segregated in 1911, 1912, and 1913. 



