136 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 31 



Research assistant. — L. B. Clark. 

 Stenographer. — Virginia P. Stanley. 

 Mechanic. — L. A. Fillmen. 



EXTENSION or HOUSING 



The large room No. 14 of the basement was added to the laboratory 

 in order to provide for the intensity measurements in the visible 

 and ultra-violet and development of the algae and wheat experiments. 

 Partitions have been built in order to provide sufficient dark-room 

 space. A room has also been constructed in order to make possible 

 the accommodation of a glass-blowing course, which Mr. Clark has 

 undertaken for the Department of Agriculture. Koom No. 12 has 

 been equipped as a thoroughly up-to-date machine shop by the 

 Research Corporation, with whom the division shares Mr, Fillmen's 

 time. Room No. 13 has been equipped for the shopwork of the 

 members of the division. 



COOPERATION 



The division has been especially fortunate in the cordial coopera- 

 tion of other institutions. This includes near infra-red work with 

 the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory, experiments in higher 

 plants with the Bureau of Plant Industry, sharing of equipment and 

 personnel with the Research Corporation, personal assistance from 

 the Astrophysical Observatory, assistance in the form of apparatus 

 and equipment from the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. and the General 

 Electric Co. 



GENERAL 



In undertaking experimental work along those biological lines 

 wherein radiation plays an important part it is inevitable that men 

 are required with special training and experience not only in biology 

 but also in the fields of physics and chemistry. To bring about the 

 cooperation in these border-line problems of men with specialized 

 training in each of these fields has been the essential dominating 

 idea in the development of the division. The lack of men with 

 specialized chemical training in the organic and photochemical fields 

 is more and more keenly felt. Furthermore although the division is 

 well provided with people of highly specialized training in the field 

 of plant physiology and physics it is handicapped by the lack of 

 sufficient laboratory assistance in order to carry out their ideas and 

 make their time effective. Without increasing its program or widen- 

 ing the scope of its activities the division urgently needs sufficient 

 funds to round out its personnel in this way. 



