August 11, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



171 



plied physics, your readers may be interested 

 in the following letter, which I have just un- 

 earthed, in one of those single-handed combats 

 in the perennial struggle against dirt, in which 

 an armistice has just been declared. (Pardon 

 the lack of unity in the preceding sentence. It 

 at least does not contain the word "due," nor 

 the adverbial phrase "back of," meaning be- 

 hind). 



I had written an article, the first in English, 

 describing the Physikalisch-technische Keichs- 

 anstalt in Charlottenburg, which I had seen 

 in its initial stages, and urging to the best of 

 my ability the establishment of such an insti- 

 tution in this country. This article I had sent 

 to the Popular Sci-ence Monthly, from whence 

 it was returned with a note from the editor. 

 Dr. Youmans, saying he did not believe that 

 such things were the function of the govern- 

 ment. What to do with it I did not know, but 

 finally Dr. G. Stanley Hall took pity on the 

 little wanderer, and published it in his Peda- 

 gogical Seminary, and the U. S. post-ofSce did 

 the rest. I sent copies to Sir Oliver Lodge, 

 who read an article on the same matter at the 

 meeting of the British Association, but I never 

 heard whether he got them. It was probably 

 as a result of his paper that the National 

 Physical Laboratory was founded. The United 

 States, as usual, brought up the rear. It was 

 not until eight years after my article that the 

 first step was taken leading to the establish- 

 ment of the Bureau of Standards, which now, 

 in size and expenditure at least, leads all the 

 rest. This is due to the extraordinary tact and 

 skill in management of its able director. Dr. 

 Stratton, whose name is now a household word. 

 May the bureau long continue to have success 

 under his wise direction. The letter follows : 



Cambridge, 1892, Jan. 13. 

 My dear Sir: 



Your article on a National Physical Ijaboratory 

 eame duly, and I thank you for sending it to me. 

 By this madl it goes back to you. 



I have read it with care and much pleasure, 

 and trust that you may soon publish it, for it 

 can not fail to be useful. What may be the best 

 way to bring it before the public I do not know; 

 but, from my limited means of judgment, it 

 seems to me that some one of the great New 

 York magazines might afford a good opportunity 



— -say the Century, or Soribner's. I should select 

 a periodical of large circulation — and not a 

 ' ' popular scientific ' ' one, where the public 

 reached is one which would in general require no 

 education on the subject, or else not to be of 

 the influential class of people. 



And when it is printed, I hope you will take 

 steps to insure that members of Congress and 

 professors of physics in our leading universities 

 shall have opportunity to read it. Possibly some 

 of the engineering journals might have the sort 

 of circulation which is desirable. 



Wishing you all success, and with cordial sym- 

 pathy with such a movement, I am. 

 Very sincerely yours, 



B. A. Gould 

 Dr. Arthur G. Webster, 

 Worcester. 



A. G. Webster 

 Worcester, 

 July 8, 1922 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



BASAL GLAUCONITE AND PHOSPHATE 



BEDS 



As a result of lithologic studies of carbon- 

 iferous formations in Texas I showed last year^ 

 that glaueonite beds characterized by certain 

 peculiarities occur at breaks in a sedimentary 

 series. Although I pointed out that this ob- 

 servation was merely an extension of Cayeux's 

 observation^ that phosphate beds occur in sim- 

 ilar positions, I thought at the time that the 

 relation of typical glaueonite beds to these 

 breaks had not been noted. I was therefore 

 much interested to learn in conversation re- 



1 Published with the permission of the director 

 of the XJ. S. Geological Survey. 



2 Goldman, Marcus I.: "Lithologic Subsurface 

 Correlation in the ' Bend Series ' of North-central 

 Texas," U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 129-A, 

 pp. 1-22 (especially pp. 3-4), 1921. "Association 

 of Glaueonite with Unconformities," Bull. Geol. 

 Soc. America, 32, p. 25, 1921 (abstract). 



3 Cayeux, L. : Contribution d I 'etude micro- 

 graphique des terrains sedimentaircs, Mem. de la 

 Soc. geol. du Nord. 4 pt. 2, pp. 427-432, 1897. 

 Genese des gisements de phosphates de chaux 

 sedimentaircs, Bull. Soc. geol. de France, 4e ser., 

 S, pp. 750-753, 1905. 



