PHYSICO-TECHNICAL INSTITUTION IN CHAHLOTTENBURG, 409 



applications, b}^ founding- the Imperial Institution at Charlottctiburg. 

 The results have already- justified in a remarkable manner all the 

 expenditure of labor and money. The renown in exact scientific 

 measurements formerly possessed b}- France and P^ngland has now 

 been largeh^ transferred to CTerman3^ Formerl}^ scientific workers in 

 the United States looked to England for exact standards, especialh^ in 

 the department of electricity. Now they go to Germany. So com- 

 pletely has the work of the Reichsanstalt justitied the expectations of 

 its founders, and so substantial are the products of this already famous 

 institution, that other European nations are following Cxermany's 

 example. Great Britain has already made an initial appropriation 

 for a national ph3"sical laboratory, to be organized on a plan similar to 

 that of her Teutonic neighbor. Mr. R. T. Glazebrook, who has long 

 served as secretary of the electrical standards committee of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, has been appointed 

 director and has entered on his duties. The new institution will absorb 

 the old Kew Observatory, and other ])uildings will be added at once 

 for the extension of the functions of this observator}^ so as to include 

 the larger enterprise contemplated in the establishment of the new 

 national laboratory. 



Russia also has a luimber of large and well-equipped laboratories in 

 connection with her central ])ureau of weights and measures. One of 

 these is devoted to the verification of instruments for electrical meas- 

 urement. It employs fourteen men. and the budget is about |45,000 

 per annum. 



France is also moving in the same direction. The great service of 

 France in fixing standards of length and mass has long been freely 

 recog-nized ])y the civilized world. But her national bureau for this 

 purpose is now considered to be too limited in scope to solve the new 

 problems presented. Quite recently a committee of learned men from 

 Paris, under the leadership of Minister Bourgeoise, visited Charlotten- 

 burg for the purpose of examining into the working of the renowned 

 institution located there. Professor Violle, one of the most illustrbus 

 physicists of the French capital, accompanied the conmiittec. What 

 better evidence of the success of Germany's great institution can be 

 demanded than the consensus of favorable opinion among those best 

 qualified to judge that its fruits are already of the highest order of 

 merit and its imitation by other European nations the sincerest form 

 of flattery? 



It would not be just to form an estimate of the success of the Keic-h- 

 sanstalt without taking- into account its scientific publications. These 

 are numerous and of great value. Most of the reports of ^ work done 

 are made public with official sanction in various scientific and tech- 

 nical journals. During the past year thirty such papers have been 



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