244 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



exercise are given. In closing, this statement is made : 

 "The action of this pnmp is similar to that of the kitchen 

 lift pump, Experiment 57. Examine the parts of this 

 pump if the apparatus is in the laboratory." Turning to 

 Experiment 57 we find a good, commonsense study of the 

 "ordinary kitchen lift-pump" or rather smction pump. 

 Why should any student spend time in the fitting to- 

 gether of glass tubing, rubber stoppers and other similar 

 materials into a model of a kitchen pump when later he 

 is asked to study the real article? Would there not be 

 far more educational value in furnishing a group of four 

 or five students with a real kitchen pump, a set of 

 wrenches, and requiring them to dissect and examine the 

 pump, sketch and describe it? In one corner of the lab- 

 oratory there should be permanently mounted one such 

 pump over a sink where its operation could be studied. 



I am unable to get free from the idea that a practical 

 course in physics for the high school should consist very 

 largely of two parts, so far as laboratory exercises are 

 concerned: First, we must continue to illustrate and 

 demonstrate some of the important laws and principles 

 of physics by means of special apparatus. Not every law 

 or principle can be illustrated profitably, nor can all de- 

 sirable quantitative relations be shown in any other way. 

 Our laboratories must contain some equipment not found 

 and not used in the ordinary walks of life. Second, Our 

 laboratories should be equipped also with many of the 

 available and commonly used pieces of machinery and 

 utensils which involve pliysical laws and principles. We 

 should banish models temporarily put together by the 

 students and made out of glass tubing, rubber tubing, rub- 

 ber stoppers, etc., playthings at best and time consumers 

 all the while. Physics study is primarily thinking, not 

 pottering with play stuffs. 



No suggestions need be made upon the equipment of a 

 physical laboratory to illustrate and demonstrate laws 

 and principles or to determine such constants as should 

 be determined. This custom is established. I think it is 

 desirable to suggest that a laboratory should be equipped 

 with many practical, rath-er small but life-sized, portable, 



