626 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



the main apparatus used. I have undertaken to attain an accuracy up to 

 one ten-millionth of a second, and the experiments already made encour- 

 age me to believe that I shall succeed. On account of the mechanical 

 difficulties involved by the high speeds used, the apparatus has had to be 

 changed a great many times, and the work has been very intermittent. 

 The apparatus is therefore not yet completed, but I hope it will be by 

 summer, when I shall be able to complete the experiments. The sum 

 of about $100 remains unexpended, but will be required before the ex- 

 periments are completed." 



Professor Henry Crew, of the Northwestern University, was granted 

 $400 in 1896, to aid a research upon the ai'C-spectra of metals. A 

 paper embodying in part the results of this research, entitled " Sources 

 of Luminosity in the Electric Arc," was recently presented to the 

 Academy, and is now in press.* An unexpended balance of $29.84 will 

 be employed in the prosecution of further research in the same general 

 direction. 



Mr. R. O. King, then of Harvard University, received a grant of $100 

 in 1896, for aid in a research upon the "Thomson E^ffect in Metals." 

 A paper embodying the results of the research thus aided, and entitled 

 " The Thomson Effect in Copper," was presented to the Academy by 

 Professor E. H. Hall at its meeting in April, 1898. A balance of about 

 $10 remains unexpended. 



It was voted by the Committee, at a meeting held IMarch 9, 1898, that 

 the Academy at its Annual Meeting be asked to appropriate the sum of 

 $1,000, as in previous years, to be expended under the direction of the 

 Committee in furthering investigations in Light and Heat. 



The Committee has also considered at length the question of an award 

 of the Rumford Medal. The claims of various investigators and inventors 

 have been considered with great care, and more than one among them 

 appeared to be deserving of such recognition. After prolonged considera- 

 tion, the Rumford Commitee has voted at two separate sessions, in accord- 

 ance with long established custom, to recommend to the Academy an 

 award of tlie medal to Professor James E. Keeler, now Director of the 

 Lick Observatory, for his application of the spectroscope to astronomical 

 problems, and especially for his investigations of the proper motions of 

 the nebulae, and the physical constitution of the rings of the planet 

 Saturn, by the use of that instrument. 



Charles R. Cross, Chairman. 

 May 11, 1898. 



* See Proceedings, Vol. XXXIII. No. 18. 



