204 re;ports op investigations and projects. 



ENGINEERING. 



Goss, W. F. M., University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois. Grant No. 488. 

 Investigations to determine (i) the value of superheated steam when 

 employed in single-expansion locomotives; (2) The performance of 

 compound locomotives when served with saturated steam and zvhen 

 served with superheated steam. (For previous report see Year Book 

 No. 6, p. 194.) $3,000. 



This grant provided for work to be done in cooperation with the locomo- 

 tive laboratory of Purdue University and the outline approved was designed 

 to cover four years' work. At the conclusion of the first year, September i, 

 1907, a change in the location of the grantee made it impracticable to proceed 

 according to the plan originally laid down, and it was agreed by all parties 

 concerned that, for the present at least, the investigation should be concluded 

 on the basis of work already accomplished. Fortunately, sufficient progress 

 had been made to justify this action without loss. Prof. Goss had planned 

 and completed a personal investigation of German practice in the use of 

 superheated steam in locomotive service. The experimental locomotive of 

 Purdue University, which had. by the courtesy of the American Locomotive 

 Company, been especially prepared for the work by being equipped with a 

 Cole superheater, had already been run 1,418,000 revolutions, equivalent to 

 4,851 miles. Thirty-eight tests had resulted from this process, a number suf- 

 ficient to define clearly the performance of the existing superheating loco- 

 motive Schenectady No. j. A formal report presenting the work accom- 

 plished will soon be ready for the printer. 



GEOLOGY. 



Chamberlin, T. C, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Grant No. 415. 

 Study of fundamental problems of geology. (For previous reports see 

 Year Books Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.) $6,000. 



The work under this grant has followed the lines set forth in previous re- 

 ports. The following papers have been submitted for publication. 



(i) A group of six correlated papers bearing on the tidal problem, in its 

 relations to the earth's rotation and hence to its deformation. The specific 

 titles of these papers and the authors are : 



The former rates of the earth's rotation and their bearings on deformation, by T. C. 



Chamberlin. 

 The rotation period of heterogeneous spheroids, by C. S. SHchter. 

 On the loss of energy by friction of the tides, by W. D. MacMillan. 

 On certain relations among the possible changes in the motions of mutually attracting 



spheres when disturbed by tidal interactions, by F. R. Moulton. 

 On the possibility of fission of a contracting rotating fluid mass, by F. R. Moulton. 

 The bearing of molecular activity on spontaneous fission in gaseous spheroids, by T. C. 



Chamberlin. 



