686 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The equipment of the station. — The station Avas originally installefl in 

 a small room of the agricultural scbool, but it lias gradually spread 

 itself into a large number of workrooms. Hand in liand with this 

 expansion, there has been a steady increase of the working force until, 

 at the present time, the i^ersonnel of the station consists of a director 

 (Dr. A. Grete), 5 permanent assistants, 2 clerks, 1 helper, and 1 botani- 

 cal assistant, besidesS temporary assistants employed during thespring. 



For such extended work the old apartments in the agricultural school 

 of the Polytechnic Institute were not sufficient, and consequently in 

 1886 new quarters were secured in the new federal chemical building. 

 The experiment station was assigned the entire first floor, about 98 feet 

 long and 33 feet wide, and the larger part of the basement. 



The first floor contains the director's office, to which is attached his 

 privjiite laboratory; a dark room for spectroscopic and similar work; a 

 large room for collections, and a smaller one used for storage of the deli- 

 cate apparatus, and also, since 1890, for the microscopic examination 

 of the feeding stufts, under the charge of a special botanical assistant; 

 and various laboratories so arranged that each investigation which the 

 station is most frequently called upon to make may have its sj)ecial 

 department, devoted to its special pnri)Ose and equipped according to 

 the needs of the case. This arrangement relieves the other labora- 

 tories of all determinations not directly bearing on the investigations to 

 which they are devoted. One laboratory is devoted almost exclusively 

 to the determinations of water-soluble phosphoric acid, the solutions 

 being made in the cellar and sent direct to the chemist, for analysis, 

 by means of an elevator. This laboratory has lately been jirovided 

 with a large revolving titration machine, which is arranged to simul- 

 taneously titrate 10 samples with molybdic acid solution, as described 

 by the author in Berichte der deutschen cliemiselien GeseUscha/t. 



There is also a large and well-equipped general laboratory in which 

 chiefly determinations of phosphoric acid insoluble in water are made. 

 This lal)oratory is furnished with 3 double worktables, standing in the 

 middle of the room, and 4 hoods. Each assistant is thus provided 

 with a hood, under which is arranged a sand and water bath. This 

 laboratory is also provided with a blast, driven by a water motor, and 

 has distilled water on tap at two points. 



A similarly equipped laboratory is set apart for potash determinations, 

 although it is often utilized for some other purposes. The atmosphere 

 of this room is kept ammonia-free. A room opens off this large labora- 

 tory which is furnished principally with the apparatus required for 

 nitrogen determinations. In hoods are the necessary furnaces, ovens, 

 etc. On a large table in the middle of the room are arranged distill- 

 ing apparatus^ and condensers, and racks with standard solutions for 

 titrating. 



'As distillation fiasl^s, the so callefl Erlenmeyer flasks of tinned copper, first sug- 

 gested by the author, Lave been used for a long time with excellent results. 



