August 25, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



219 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE PITTSBURGH MEETING OF THE AMERI- 

 CAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 



(American Chemical Society News Service) 



From an industrial standpoint the meeting 

 of the American Chemical Society in Pitts- 

 burgh from September 4 to 8 will be one of 

 the most important scientific gatherings ever 

 held in this country. It will be of particular 

 interest and value to the automobile industry. 

 Among the important inventions which will be 

 publicly described for the first time is a 

 new zinc oxide, much smaller in particle size 

 than any zinc oxide heretofore made, the work 

 of Frank G. Breyer, chief of research for a 

 New Jei'sey zinc concern. This pigment used 

 in the tread of automoibile tires gives almost 

 twice the wear of tires containing ordinary 

 zinc oxide. 



Dr. Thomas Midgley, Jr., and T. A. Boyd, 

 of Dayton, Ohio, will give a demonstration in 

 Carnegie Hall of how various fuels detonate 

 and explain how "knocking" may be reduced 

 by the use of various compounds. Their work 

 is of great importance, inasmuch as it prob- 

 ably will be the basis, in the future, of building 

 automobiles of much greater power and 

 increased efficiency in the use of fuel. 



Nearly all the sixty-four local sections of 

 the society, located in nearly all the states, will 

 be represented at the meeting. From 1,500 to 

 2,000 chemists are expected to attend. 



Dr. Charles L. Parsons, secretary of the 

 society, who has just returned from Europe, 

 where he attended the International Confer- 

 ence of Pure and Applied Chemistry, held at 

 Lyons, France, the last week in June, says that 

 European scientists are watching American re- 

 search work with great interest, but that very 

 few, if any, will attend the Pittsburgh meet- 

 ing, as economic conditions, particularly on the 

 continent, make it almost impossible for Euro- 

 pean chemists to travel. They, however, are 

 keeping in close touch with Americal chemical 

 progress through the literature of the society. 



As an instance of the respect of European 

 chemists for American procedure and methods. 

 Dr. Pai-sons pointed out that the Commission 

 on Nomenclature of Mineral Chemicals decided 

 that the "Formula Index" printed in Chemical 



Abstracts, one of the publications of the Amer- 

 ican Chemical Society, be the standard for 

 scientific purposes the world over. Likewise, 

 the abbreviations used in Chemical Abstracts 

 were adopted as the standard by the Commis- 

 sion on Chemical Periodicals. 



The chief address of the Pittsburgh meeting 

 will be by Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, author of 

 "Creative Chemistry," on "The constructive 

 chemist." Dr. Slosson, who was for many 

 years literary editor of The Independent, is 

 now editor of Science Service, Washington. 



Information received by the American Chem- 

 ical Society indicates a tremendous increase, 

 since the war, of interest in chemistry as a 

 result of the work being done to explain in 

 "every-day" language some of the achieve- 

 ments of this science. These results seem to 

 be directly due to efforts of Dr. Edgar F. 

 Smith, president of the society, to get Amer- 

 ican chemists to speak before clubs of men and 

 women, social and business, throughout the 

 country, and through the writings of such men 

 as Dr. Slosson, Ellwood Hendrick, of New 

 York, and others. 



At the Pittsburgh meeting further steps to 

 advance improved methods of teaching chem- 

 istry, from the high schools up, will be taken 

 by the Section of Chemical Education, of 

 which Dr. Smith is chainnan. 



EXHIBIT OF OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS 



Arrangements are now being completed for 

 the exhibit of optical instruments and appara- 

 tus to be held at the National Bureau of Stand- 

 ards, Washington, in connection with the an- 

 nual meeting of the Optical Society of America, 

 October 26 to 28, 1922. 



The leading manufacturers of optical equip- 

 ment have already signified their intention of 

 participating. However, the exhibit will not 

 be limited to standard commercial types. Indi- 

 viduals and research laboratories are also 

 invited to exhibit special research apparatus. 

 Brief descriptions of instruments and their 

 purposes supplied by the exhibitors will be 

 printed in the program and published later in 

 the minutes of the meeting in the Journal of 

 the Optical Society. The exhibit of new ap- 

 paratus will thus constitute just as definite a 



