Marcu 17, 1904] 
NAT ORE 
477 
directors. Questions relating to commercial, technical, 
artistic, and agricultural training are fully discussed in the 
resolution. 
A new building, called Palmer Hall, which has been 
opened at Colorado College, Colorado, has cost more than 
50,000l., and is to be devoted chiefly to the scientific depart- 
ments. The dedicatory address was delivered by the presi- 
dent of Stanford University, Dr. D. S. Jordan, who in the 
course of his remarks said :—‘‘ As the university ideal of 
England is one of personal culture, that of Germany is one 
of personal knowledge. An educated German may lack 
culture—of this there are many conspicuous examples, just 
as in England a cultured gentleman may lack exactness of 
knowledge on all points. In America, a new ideal is arising 
as a result of the creative needs of our strenuous and complex 
times. We value education for what can be made of it. 
Our idea is personal effectiveness. We care less and less 
for surface culture, less and less for mere erudition. We 
ask of each man not what he knows, but what he can do 
with his knowledge. This ideal of education has its 
dangers. It may lead us to sacrifice permanent values for 
temporary success. It may tend to tolerate boorishness and 
shallowness, if they present the appearance of temporary 
achievement. But the fact remains, the value of science 
lies in its relation to human conduct. The value of know- 
ledge lies in the use we can make of it. As each thought 
of the mind tends to work itself out in action, so does each 
accession of human knowledge find its end in fitting men to 
live saner and stronger lives.. We may, therefore, rest con- 
tent with the ideal of effectiveness.” 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, February 18.—‘‘Note on the Formation of 
Solids at Low Temperatures, particularly with regard to 
Solid Hydrogen.’’ By Morris W. Travers, D.Sc., Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry at University College, Bristol. Com- 
municated by Sir W. Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. 
In the year 1902 Dr. Jaquerod and the author carried out 
some experiments on liquid and solid hydrogen with the view 
of determining its vapour pressure on the scales of the con- 
stant-volume helium and hydrogen thermometers. They 
found that hydrogen remained liquid down to 14°-2 (He 
scale), the lowest temperature to which they could reduce a 
large mass of the liquid by means of the pump at their dis- 
posal. When, however, a small quantity of liquid hydrogen, 
cooled to 14°-2 in a glass tube immersed in the liquid con- 
tained in the large vacuum vessel, was allowed to evaporate 
under reduced pressure, it solidified when the pressure fell 
to 49 or 50 mm. of mercury. This pressure corresponds to 
a temperature of 14°-1 on the helium scale. The presence 
of the solid was determined by mechanical means, and it 
was not possible to observe its appearance.’ 
Dewar gives the melting point of hydrogen at about 15° 
absolute, and the melting pressure at 55 mm. of mercury. 
He describes its appearance as that of ‘‘ frozen foam,’’ or 
as “‘ clear transparent ice.’ * 
It appeared to the author worth while to carry out a 
few experiments to try to determine whether solid hydrogen 
formed definite crystal, or, indeed, whether the glassy sub- 
stance was a true solid or merely a highly viscous fluid. 
The following is an instance in which both such changes 
occur. 
If an organic liquid, such as ethyl acetoacetate, is cooled 
slowly to the temperature of liquid air it is converted into 
crystalline solid, the formation of the crystals commencing 
when the liquid is cooled to about —150° C., usually at 
several points on the side of the vessel, and spreading 
rapidly throughout the mass. If, on the other hand, the 
liquid is cooled very rapidly, a hard glassy substance is 
formed, and though crystals may begin to appear, they will 
only do so locally, as the velocity of crystallisation decreases 
rapidly as the viscosity of the liquid increases. The glassy 
substance is really a liquid of high viscosity; it is formed 
1 Phil. Trans., A, vol. cc., p. 170. 
2 British Association, Presidential Address, 1902. See also paper on 
“*Solid Hydrogen,” Brit. Assoc. Report, 1899, reprinted in Nature; also 
Roy. Inst. Proc., 1900. 
NO. 1794, VOL. 69] 
with perfect continuity from the normal liquid state, and 
should differ from the solid (crystalline) form in its physical 
properties. Such a substance might, for convenience, be 
called a pseudo-solid. 
In the investigation of solid hydrogen the apparatus shown 
in the accompanying figure was employed. The liquid 
hydrogen was introduced into a small 
clear-glass vacuum-vessel 15 cm. 
long and 4 cm. in internal diameter. 
This vessel was placed inside a glass 
tube BB, which communicated with 
an exhaust pump through a tube 
DD sealed to it, and was closed by 
a rubber stopper C. A short glass 
tube E, 6 mm. in diameter, passed 
through the stopper, and through it 
passed the stirring rod FF. To 
allow of free rotating motion to the 
stirrer, and to make the apparatus 
gas-tight, a short piece of rubber 
tube G was passed over the end of 
the tube E and was wired to F. The 
lower part of the apparatus was con- 
tained within the vacuum vessel H, 
which contained a small quantity of 
liquid air. 
When the liquid hydrogen was 
made to boil in vacuo, its tempera- 
ture fell, but the liquid did not 
appear to become more viscous. At 
length films of a colourless glassy 
substance formed at the surface, and 
broke away as the bubbles rose. 
After a short time the vessel became 
filled with these flakes, and while in 
this condition stirring, by giving the 
top of the rod F a rotatory motion, 
did not appear to indicate that the 
portion which remained liquid had 
undergone any considerable increase 
in viscosity. After a time the mass 
contained so much solid that it be- 
came pasty, and finally the whole of 
it appeared fairly homogeneous. 
The solid evaporated fairly 
rapidly, so that after about ten 
minutes only a hollow cylinder of it, about 3 cm. long and 
2-5 cm. in diameter, remained. This had the appearance 
of a film of ice which had partly thawed, consisting of clear 
granules connected by thinner and less transparent portions 
of solid. No crystals were observed on either of the three 
occasions on which the experiments were carried out. An 
attempt was made to examine the solid in the field of a 
polariscope, but it was unsuccessful. 
Though there is no direct evidence of the formation of 
crystalline hydrogen, the author’s experiments lead to the 
belief that solid hydrogen is a crystalline substance and not a 
pseudo-solid. The sharpness with which the solid hydrogen 
is formed, and the constancy of the apparent melting 
pressure, are distinct evidence in favour of this conclusion, 
though it must be allowed that the rate of change in 
viscosity, when the temperatures are measured on the Centi- 
grade scale, will probably appear to be more rapid at low 
temperatures than at high temperatures. 
The whole question of the formation of solids at very low 
temperatures is of great interest both from a physical and 
from a biological standpoint. It is quite possible that if 
living organisms were cooled only to temperatures at which 
physical changes, such as crystallisation, take place with 
measurable velocity, the process would be fatal, whereas if 
they once were cooled to the temperature of liquid air, no 
such change could take place within finite time, and the 
organism would survive.’ 
These experiments were made in connection with some 
investigations which were being carried out at University 
College, London, with the assistance of a grant from the 
Royal Society. As the author is at present unable to con- 
tinue the work, he has decided to publish this note. 
1 Experimental results are given by Macfadyen, Roy. Soc. Proc., vol. 
Ixvi., 1900, pp. 180, 339, 488; Swithinbank, Roy. Soe. Proc., vol. Ixviii., 
TgOT, Pp. 502. 
