Febeuaey 10, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



195 



searches in the solar spectrum, which, by 

 the active assistance of the aid in charge^ 

 have produced results now shortly to be 

 published. They are believed to be im- 

 portant and are referred to in another por- 

 tion of this report. 



The Secretary has not wholly discon- 

 tinued the studies which he has made in 

 regard to aerodromic experiments, and it is 

 perhaps not improper that he should state 

 that these have attracted the attention of 

 other departments so far that during the 

 war with Spain a commission was directed 

 by the Secretaries of War and the ISTavy to 

 inquire into them with a view of their pos- 

 sible utility in war. This is not the place 

 to state the results of these inquiries. 



The Secretary desires to repeat, however, 

 that his time is almost solely given to ad- 

 ministrative work, and that what he has 

 been able to do in these directions has been 

 done largely in hours which he might con- 

 sider his own. 



HODQKINS FUND. 



Although the Hodgkins fund competi- 

 tion announced by the Institution in the 

 widely distributed circular of March 31, 

 1893, was definitely closed so long ago as 

 December 31, 1894, a very general interest 

 is still expressed in the subject, and spe- 

 cialists in our own and other countries 

 not infrequently forward copies of their 

 original published memoirs as contributions 

 to the Hodgkins fund library of the Insti- 

 tution. 



Frequent applications for grants are re- 

 ceived, and, notwithstanding the fact that 

 the limitations on the use of the fund do 

 not permit it to be employed for the sup- 

 port of an investigation, unless under the 

 exceptional conditions of the first published 

 announcement, it has still been found prac- 

 ticable to approve several awards during 

 the past year. 



As noted in my last report, in July, 1897, 



an additional grant of $400 was made 

 to Mr. A. Lawrence Eotch, of the Blue 

 Hill Meteorological Observatory, Readville, 

 Mass., and in the following October a fur- 

 ther grant of $250 was approved to Mr. 

 Eotch. These sums are to be devoted to 

 experiments with automatic kites, for de- 

 termining, by means of self-recording in- 

 struments, meteorological data in atmos- 

 pheric strata inaccessible except by some 

 mechanical method of exploring the atmos- 

 phere, and it will be of possible interest to 

 the Board to learn that during the past 

 year, and (to slightly anticipate), shortly 

 after its close, experiments of remarkable 

 success and interest have been made by 

 Mr. Eotch, and, among others, that kites 

 have been flown to the unprecedented height 

 of 11,086 feet above the station, carrying 

 up with them meteorological instruments 

 which recorded the height, the pressure of 

 the wind, the dew point, and other facts of 

 interest at these great altitudes. 



Those who remember the situation at 

 Blue Hill, one of the highest landmarks on 

 the Atlantic coast north of the southern 

 shores of the Gulf, and the aspect of the 

 hills, blue with the distance from which 

 they take their name, may be struck by the 

 certainly notable fact that in these experi- 

 ments the kites sent up from Blue Hill, and 

 held there at the station, were occasionally 

 directly over the distant ocean. 



N"ovember 1, 1897, a grant of $500 was 

 made to Professor William Hallock, of 

 Columbia University, IS'ew York City, for 

 an investigation having for its object the 

 complete analysis of a particle of air under 

 the influence of articulate sounds, thus 

 contributing a study of the atmosphere in 

 one of its most important functions, that of 

 a conveyer of speech. 



In February, 1898, a final grant of $250 

 was made to Drs. Lummer and Pringsheim, 

 of the Physical Institute of the University 

 of Berlin. The investigation begun by 



