8 Experiment Station Bulletin 363 



that does not include mathematicians and mechanically-minded scientists, 

 along with chemists and hoilogists. may waste inexcusable time in using 

 antiquated time-consuming methods in the search for new knowledge. 

 Two or three examples of the uses of mechanical equipment might be 

 taken from recent practices in our own station work. ^ 



Of course the slide rule and the mechanical adding machine are not 

 new. Industries have used the adding machine, and practicing engineers 

 have carried rules for some considerable time. However, the first slide 

 rule was assembled no longer ago than 1850 and so-called adding ma- 

 chines are being systematically improved and perfected to accomplish 

 other results than addition even down to the beginning of this war. In 

 this director's undergraduate days such equipment was conspiciouslv ab- 

 sent from the Agricultural College offices and laboratories. With the 

 comparative!}- recent emphasis on statistical methods, even for developing 

 experimental plots and arrangements, together with innumerable figures 

 that become available to condition results when added, divided and other- 

 A\ise n^nipulated, a majority of our own departments now own, or have 

 access to, one or more mathematical computing machines. Such ma- 

 chines of the present day not only operate with electric motors but also 

 multiply and divide automatically, as well as add when complicated fig- 

 ures are properly introduced and the machines are set in motion. 



The '^Electric Eye" and the photo-electric cell are now used for 

 chemical anah'ses to judge certain combinations visually and much more 

 accurately than is possible through tedious and painstaking manual mani- 

 pulation of chemical reagents. Such equipment is represented in our 

 Agricultural and Biological Chemistry Department by a Klett-Summer- 

 son Photoelectric Colorimeter and Fluorimeter and a Beckman Spectro- 

 photometer. 



As an undergraduate your director's meager comprehension of 

 chemistry revolved around the concept that an atom was the "smallest 

 conceivable division of matter." In recent years, that concept has been 

 greatly modified to encompass the comprehension of atoms themselves 

 as being subdivided or "smashed" like so many glass marbles. Specifical- 

 ly, the significant part of "atom smashing" is that the nucleus of an atom 

 is made up of many parts, again infinitely smaller than the atom itself 

 and it is this part that gets its protons and neutrons disrupted and the elec- 

 tric equilibrum upset with electrons at the perifery of the atom. The 

 atom as a whole then becomes unstable. This accounts for radioactivity, 

 discovered no longer ago than 1896. Radioactivated phosphorus, for 

 example, can no\\" be used experimentally and practically as fertilizer. 

 Due to its activation, it can be detected in leaves, stems, or wherever in 

 th^ plant it travels. This may be a fundamental problem on occasion in 

 fertilization. The process of sensitizing or activating chemical elements 

 requires very expensive equipment, but detecting the presence of ma- 

 terials once they are activated can be done with a small hand instrument. 

 Co-operating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology we have 

 been able to get some activated material for experimental use made in 

 their own "cyclotron" together with considerable sympathetic help and 

 direction in its fundamental use biologically in our agricultural research. 



