526 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



PROFESSOR THEODORE W. RICHARDS. 



Grants of October 12, 1898, $200, for the construction of a niicrokine- 

 toscope, the immediate application of whicli is to be a study of the birth 

 and growth of crystals; and January 10, 1900, $100, for a research on 

 the transition point of crystallized salts. 



'' I have had the honor of receiving two grants from the Rumford 

 Fund, the accounts of which have not been closed. 



" The first was given for the study of crystal growth by instantaneous 

 photography. Upon this research I have already made several reports. 

 Having pushed the photographic study of the growth of crystals in 

 aqueous solutions to the furthest limit which seemed possible without a 

 very much greater expenditure of money, we have turned our attention 

 to the study of the change of the crystalline sti'ucture of iron and steel at 

 a red heat. We have been able so to modify our apparatus, with very 

 slight extra expenditure, that such study seems to be possible. 



" The second grant of money was for prosecuting a research on new 

 fixed temperatures for thermoraetric standardization. Of this grant only 

 $27.50 have thus far been spent for materials which have not yet been 

 exhausted. We have succeeded in showing that the transition tempera- 

 ture of sodic chromate is very near 19.88°. but the exact point cannot 

 be fixed until our thermometers have arrived from the Bureau Interna- 

 tionale. These new thermometers are to be the property of the College, 

 hence all the remainder of the Rumford grant ($100 — $27.50 = $72.50) 

 will be available for the special purposes of this particular investigation." 



PROFESSOR WALLACE C. SABINE. 



Grants of January 12, 1898, $100, and March 15, 1899, $200, for 

 rasearches on ultra-violet radiation. 



Professor Sabine states that Mr. Lj^man, who is engaged upon the 

 investigation, "will publish a paper on a by-product of the investigation 

 which seems to me very interesting and important. In this paper he 

 proposes to show that among the spectra formed by the Rowland con- 

 cave gratings there are spectra not accounted for by the ordinary 

 theory of the grating; that such spectra are common, and at times fairly 

 strong and of excellent definition ; that these spectra are diffraction spec- 

 tra of much less dispersion than the ordinary recognized spectra, and that 

 the errors of ruling to which they are due are not local but general to 

 the whole surface of the grating He will also explain an experimental 

 method of sorting out these lines from thf regular and calculable spectra. 



