SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Ground was broken on April 5 for the new building of the Medical 

 Society of the District of Columbia, to be erected on M Street between 

 Seventeenth Street and Connecticut Avenue. 



The Weather Bureau's earthquake summary shows that 87 earth- 

 quakes of appreciable intensity occurred in fhe United States in 19 19, 

 as compared with 127 in 1918. As usual, a considerable number of 

 quakes (10) during this year occurred in the Mississippi Valley region. 

 One earthquake occurred near Front Royal, Virginia, but was less 

 intense than the one of 19 18 which was central in the same general 

 region and which was felt in the District of Columbia. 



During the development of an optical method for studying recording 

 instruments, it has been found at the Bureau of Standards that the 

 photographic records obtained furnished incidentally an excellent 

 means of determining the uniformity of motion of the clockwork used 

 to drive the recording mechanism. A study of this feature has been 

 undertaken using clockwork of foreign and domestic manufacture, and 

 it is believed that the method will prove to be directly applicable to 

 clu-onographs. 



The Bureau of Standards has completed arrangements to test the 

 comparative durability of upper leather made from shark and porpoise 

 skins as compared with that from calfskin and cowhide. The coopera- 

 tion of the National Boot and vShoe Manufacturers' Association has been 

 secured in the making of the necessary shoes for the tests. 



Dr. Lyman J. Briggs, formerly physicist in the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, who has been on temporary 

 assignment to the Bureau of Standards for research on aeroplane 

 problems during the war, was transferred permanently to the staff of 

 the Bureau of Standards in January. 



Mr, John B. Ferguson, formerly of the Geophysical Laboratory, 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, and now a member of the research 

 department of the Western Electric Company of New York City, has 

 accepted a position as Associate Professor of Chemical Research at 

 the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. He will assume the new 

 position in July. 



Mr. L. H. Greathouse, of the U. S. Fixed Nitrogen Research Lab- 

 oratory, resigned on March 3 1 to accept a position with the Atmospheric 

 Nitrogen Corporation in New York City. This corporation has been 

 organized by the General Chemical Company and the Semet-Solvay 

 Company. 



Dr. P. J. S. Cramer, of Java, known for his studies on the culture of 

 rubber, visited Washington in March. 



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