KLUYVER AS PROFESSOR; CHRONICLES OF THE LABORATORY 



While these years of inspiration had yielded many important scien- 

 tific successes, they also produced another fruit that filled Kluyver with 

 great joy. This was his election to the Royal Netherlands' Academy 

 of Sciences in 1926; and for six years he could attend its monthly 

 meetings in the company of his father. In this august body he estab- 

 lished contacts with exponents of the diverse branches of the natural 

 sciences for which the wide interests of his synthesizing mind hankered. 

 And he deemed it an honour to communicate the results of investiga- 

 tions conducted in his institute at the Academy meetings. At a riper 

 age he would be called upon to serve the Academy as its highest 

 functionary. 



CONSOLIDATION 

 1928-1938 



The years that followed were happy ones. The work in his institute 

 progressed steadily; more and more frequently Kluyver's attention 

 was solicited elsewhere ; and the scientific world took increasing notice 

 of his accomplishments, proofs of which became abundant. But, how- 

 ever much his field of activity expanded, the Delft laboratory remained 

 the nucleus. 



Kluyver keenly realized that the passion for work engendered in his 

 pupils would inevitably lead to increased demands for a well-equipped 

 institute. He had succeeded in bringing about some important im- 

 provements. The gas-lit incubators had gradually been replaced by 

 new, electric thermostats ; a compressed-air line was installed through- 

 out the laboratory. The latter greatly facilitated aeration experiments 

 with the well-known Kluyver flasks [Kluyver, Donker, and Visser 't 

 Hooft, 1925], which up to that time had been used in conjunction with 

 water suction pumps. The new facilities considerably simplified the 

 study of microbial oxidation processes. The kitchen, always an impor- 

 tant part of a microbiological laboratory, was expanded. 



These changes had been accomplished in spite of a government 

 subsidy which, by present standards, must be deemed very scanty in- 

 deed. In fact, it was barely sufficient to defray the running expenses; 

 very little was left for the purchase of new instruments. Hence the 

 material aid of the Rockefeller Foundation, which made it possible to 

 buy various much needed pieces of equipment was most welcome. 

 Nevertheless most things had to be done with home-made apparatus, 



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