OCTOiTER 6, Ht22] 



SCIENCE 



37- 



f^ble workers to visit libraries, to inspect manu- 

 facturing processes, and to atltend tlie meetings 

 of scientific societies. 



There is one thing which a research board 

 should avoid. It is, I am convinced, a mistake 

 for a governing body to call for an annual list 

 of publications from research laboratories. 

 Nothing could be more injurious to the irue 

 atmosphere of research than the feeling of 

 pressure that papers must be published or the 

 department will be discredited. 



What I have said so far may seem largely 

 a recital of 'new diffioul'ties, but they are not 

 •insurmountable, and to overcome them adds a 

 zest to life. It would have taken too long to 

 go more fully inito details, and I have tried to 

 avoid making my address a research syllabus, 

 merely giving in general terms ithe impressions 

 gained during the twenty years in which the St. 

 Andrews Research Laboratoiies have been in 

 existence. 



I have confined myself to the first stage in 

 the research development of 'the chemist. His 

 future path may lead him either to tbe factory 

 or to the leeture-room, and in the end the ex- 

 ceptional man will ibe found in ithe dii-eotor's 

 laboratory or in the professor's chair. How- 

 ever difficult these roads may prove, I feel that 

 with the financial aid now available, supported 

 by the self-sacrificing labors of those who de- 

 vote themselves to furthering this work, he has 

 the opportunity to reach the goal. It is tbe 

 beginning of a new scientific age, and we may 

 look forward confidently to the time when there 

 will be no lack of trained scientific intellects 

 to lead our policy and direct our efilorts in all 

 that •concerns the welfare of tbe country. 



J. C. Irvixe 



THE UNITED STATES FUNDAMEN- 

 TAL STANDARDS OF LENGTH 



AND MASS 

 The recently published volume containing 

 the testimony submitted to the Senate Com- 

 mittee on Manufactures, in favor of and 

 against the passage of Senate Bill 2267 "To fix 

 the Metric System of Weights and Measures as 

 the Single Standard of Weights and Measures 

 for Certain Uses," contains a mass of informa- 

 tion and misinformation of great interest to 

 students of metrology. 



The opponents of the metric system were 

 very active in marshalling their full strength 

 at the nmnerous "hearings" before the sub- 

 committee, about half of the volume being de- 

 voted to the evidence which they furnished, 

 either in writing or in the form of personal 

 testimonj^ 



These are the pages which the well informed 

 reader will certainly find most interesting, be- 

 cause of the remarkably illogical arguments 

 introduced, the total disregard of historic facts 

 and the apparently complete ignorance of the 

 fundamental principles of the science of 

 metrology. 



This is especially true of the testimony of 

 Mr. C. C. Stutz who, born in Italy of Swiss 

 parents, seems to have been thought particu- 

 larly fit to be chosen as the representative of 

 the opposition, being the secretary of the 

 American Institute of Weights and Measures, 

 an organization created, as the secretary de- 

 clares, "for the purpose of defending the exist- 

 ing American system of weights and measures 

 against pro-metric propaganda," — and also for 

 the improvement of the same, though evidence 

 of the latter objective seems yet to be forth- 

 coming. 



Mr. Stutz is especially agitated because, as 

 he says, "the impression has been spread 

 throughout the United States and abroad that 

 the meter and -not the yard is the legal standard 

 liere"^discussing that question at great length 

 on pages 173-4-5-6 and again pages 318-19-20 

 of the Report of the Hearings. He creates 

 an imaginary Amei'ican "inch," contending 

 that it is exactly the same as the English inch 

 and hence the English yard and the American 

 yard are identical. 



In reference to this particular part of Mr. 

 Stutz's volumiiious testimony the statement of 

 a few facts that are well Ivuown to most me- 

 trologists may be useful. 



The oonsititution of the United States de- 

 clares that Congress shall have power "to fix 

 the standard of weights and measures," but 

 Congress has never exercised that power, ex- 

 cept in a few isolated instances, the most im- 

 portant being the adoption of the decimal 

 system for the coinage and currency ' of the 

 United States in 1785 — with the subsequent 

 adoption in 1828 of a material standard "troy 



