32 CHEMICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION 



was completed in 1913. This is the Wolcott Gibbs Memorial 

 Laboratory, erected in memory of the former Rumford pro- 

 fessor of that name, and endowed by a body of subscribers, 

 including more than one name famous in connection with 

 scientific research. Professor Richards' work on the atomic 

 weights of the elements and other of their properties had been 

 carried out under conditions which greatly added to the natural 

 difficulties attending that kind of work. The new building will 

 remove this reproach. Externally the Wolcott Gibbs Memorial 

 building shown in one of the pictures (Fig. 12) is built of Harvard 

 brick with limestone facings and granite foundations. It covers 

 an area of 71 feet by 41 feet and is 48 feet high. 



Inside, the laboratory is built of brick and reinforced concrete. 

 Great care has been taken in the construction to avoid materials 

 of an inflammable nature, and there is no wood except for the 

 doors, window frames, and furniture. The outside walls are 

 built of hollow bricks and terra cotta, and most of the windows 

 are doubly glazed in order to save heat as much as possible. 

 Air, warmed and filtered through canvas, is driven into every 

 room, and each room is provided with an auxiliary heating coil 

 with thermostat so that the temperature may be kept as constant 

 as possible throughout. The filtering of all the air admitted 

 makes the place almost incredibly free from dust, but a vacuum 

 cleaning plant is to be installed when funds permit. 



This building was constructed wholly for research and without 

 any provision for classroom work. It contains no lecture room, 

 but it is divided into a large number of separate laboratories 

 designed for different kinds of chemical and physico-chemical 

 investigation. There are in all over forty such rooms in the build- 

 ing, one being large enough to contain, if necessary, four investi- 

 gators, the others being intended for one or two. Although 

 many men could be crowded into the building it is designed for 

 a number not exceeding twelve or perhaps fourteen if the best 

 conditions are to be maintained. Research requires far more 

 space than ordinary class work, and most of the rooms are 

 therefore small. 



The following details are taken from an article by Professor 

 Richards in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin for 26th March, 

 1913 : 



" The large laboratory has within it a pier on a separate 

 foundation, disconnected from the rest of the building, for work 



