538 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1302 



for five years; it is recommended that it should 

 receive not less than £5,000 for the first year and 

 £20,000 for each of the four following years. 



3. That the board shall be representative of 

 the various sections of science and industry. 



4. That the board shall, as one of its chief func- 

 tions, consider all proposals for specific scientific 

 researches, and shall allot to the proper person or 

 persons the duty of conducting such specific re- 

 searches as it may approve. 



5. That in order to avoid centralization, and in 

 the interest of economy, the board, in the carrying 

 out of investigations, shall wherever possible co- 

 operate with the university, college authorities in 

 the various centers, with a view to making the full- 

 est possible use of their staffs and laboratories; 

 there shall also be set up local advisory boards to 

 inquire into, advise and report upon local prob- 

 lems. 



6. That one of the duties of the board shall be 

 to advise primary producers, and those engaged in 

 industrial pursuits, as to the results of scientific 

 investigations aifecting or calculated to benefit 

 their industries, including processes for the utilisa- 

 tion of waste products. 



7. That the board shall have power to establish 

 scholarships and also to award bonuses and prizes, 

 with the object of encouraging scientific and in- 

 dustrial research. 



8. That the board shall keep touch with gov- 

 ernment departments and also with scientific and 

 educational institutions, with a view to cooperation 

 in scientific investigation aa well as in furtherance 

 ■of scientific education and of everything which will 

 tend to foster a greater appreciation of the ad- 

 vantages of science, not only by producers, but by 

 the people at large. 



RESEARCH IN THE CERAMIC INDUSTRY 



The National Eesearcli Council and the 

 American Ceramic Society have established 

 a joint committee for promoting the investi- 

 gation of scientific problems underlying the 

 ceramic industry, especially by founding a 

 series of research fellowships whose holders 

 shall devote their attention exclusively to 

 these problems. A press statement from the 

 council says : 



The ceramic industries, including brick and tile 

 making, and general crockery and glass manufac- 

 ture as well as ornamental potteries, although 

 among the earliest ones developed by man, have 

 been the last of our great manufacturing industries 



to reach the status of an applied science. They 

 have been based for centuries on rule-of-thumb 

 methods, trade secrets and individual artistry. As 

 far as their artistic features go science can do little 

 or nothing for them, but in all other ways it can 

 be of great advantage to them. 



In sharp contrast to the painfully slow develop- 

 ment of these ancient industries is the extraordi- 

 narily swift development of such exclusively mod- 

 ern industries as those of synthetic dyes and others 

 entirely based on the discoveries of modern sci- 

 ence. The startling success and speed of growth 

 of these are almost entirely the fruit of highly or- 

 ganized scientific research, with methods of scien- 

 tific control at young stages of the operations. A 

 famous English scientist is authority for the state- 

 ment that the capital, large as it has been, which 

 the German dye firms have invested in scientific 

 research has been the best-paying investment which 

 the world has ever seen. It is certain that an or- 

 ganized effort to develop the fundamental science 

 of ceramics can have a great influence in advanc- 

 ing the industry. 



AWARDS BY THE HENRY DRAPER COMMITTEE 

 OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



In accordance with the recommendations of 

 the Henry Draper Committee, the following 

 grants and -award of medals have been made by 

 the National Academy: 



1. $400 to Dr. S. A. Mitchell, director of the 

 Leander McCormick Observatory, University of 

 Virginia, to complete the purchase of a measuring 

 microscope for use in the photographic determina- 

 tion of stellar parallaxes, on the basis of observa- 

 tions made with the 27-inch refracting telescope. 

 The academy awarded the sum of $250 from the 

 Draper Fund to Dr. Mitchell in 1916 to apply on 

 the purchase of this instrument. The microscope 

 cost $650. The proposed grant of $400 will com- 

 plete the purchase, in effect making the instrument 

 the property of the academy, and Professor 

 Mitchell will devote an equivalent sum, $400, to 

 the other needs of his parallax research. 



2. $300 to Dr. Joel Stebbins, professor of as- 

 tronomy in the University of Illinois, to assist in 

 the further development and application of the 

 photo-electric cell photometer. 



3. $400 to Dr. Frank Schlesinger, director of 

 the Allegheny Observatory, to enable him to test 

 an automatic zenith camera for the determination 

 of terrestrial latitudes with the expectation that 

 the results will be more accurate than any hitherto 



