282 HOW CROOKES 



Opening this volume, I see near its close pages with 

 many decimals (pp. 687-691) which naturally attract my 

 attention. 



I discover with joy a part of Crookes' Memoir on the 

 atomic weight of thallium, reprinted from the Philosophical 

 Transactions of 1873. 



In a few minutes I learn how Crookes actually obtained 

 his wonderful weighings to the millionth of the grain, by 

 reading kotv he obtained the more wonderful weighings to the 

 thousand-millionth of a grain* 



Das geht denn doch iiber das Bohnenlied! 



Crookes did not tamper with the individual weighing* ; 

 he falsified his weights. 



The Modus Operand!. 



Mr. William Crookes, in the summer of 1864, adjusted 

 and tested an evidently fine set of platinum grain weights 

 (1. c., p. 686). 



The testing was done according to the ordinary method, 

 taking the largest weight as standard of comparison. This 

 is a thousand grain weight (about 65 grammes). 



Since 1864 he has repeatedly tested these weights; " they 

 have shown up to the present time, absolutely no alteration " 

 (p. 691). 



" The present time," is 1873, when that paper was 

 printed in the Philosophical Transactions. 



Since it is reprinted by Mr. William Crookes, in 1886, 

 without dissent or annotation, we are entitled to conclude 

 that his set of platinum weights had shown " absolutely no 

 alteration" even to 1886, that is in 22 years. 



It is surely a most excellent set of weights, and Mr. 

 Crookes has handled it most carefully. 



On page 688 we find an important item about the balance, 

 apparently the very one " specially constructed for that 

 research." (see p. 122, supra). I must quote this footnote, 

 for I want to be fair, always; the italics are ours. 



" Although these decimals are carried to the sixth place, 

 li the balance would not indicate beyond the fourth place. By 

 " taking the mean of ten interchanged weighings, I could 



