176 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1338 



range between indoor and outdoor tempera- 

 tures. Lord Kelvin actually proposed to heat 

 a house by a reversed heat engine or refriger- 

 ating machine. I am not aware whether this 

 has actually been tried in practise. 



By the efficiency of a boiler we mean the 

 ratio of the energy, contained in the hot 

 •water and steam into which it has been eon- 

 verted, to the amount of heat that may be 

 realized by burning the coal. This suffices to 

 indicate the performance of the boiler, while 

 that of the engine is a separate thing, and 

 suffices to compare the performance of the 

 engine with that of a perfect engine, limited 

 as it is by the second law of thermodynamics. 

 Mr. Forbes casts doubt upon Carnot's cycle 

 being the most perfect one, but that was 

 thoroughly proved by Carnot to be the case. 

 In fact the gas-engine and the Diesel, which 

 approach most nearly to the Carnot cycle, 

 have the highest efficiency that has been at- 

 tained. Mr. Forbes is correct in pointing out 

 the fact that the efficiency of electric heating 

 is unity, a fact which interests the consiuner, 

 who in this rare case knows that the meter 

 can not do him an injustice, and yet, for all 

 that, this is not a cheap method of heating. 

 Electricity can compete with the ice-man. 

 Arthur Gordon Webster 



reversal of the sodium line 



To THE Editor of Science: On a recent 

 visit to a large plate-glass factory in the 

 vicinity of Charleston, West Va., I had the 

 good fortune to note the reversal of the well- 

 known sodium line "D." The instrument 

 used was a small pocket direct-vision spectro- 

 scope, which I carry with me on technical 

 trips. 



The furnace was a 200-ton plate-glass type, 

 gas fired; and the reversal was noted at the 

 peep-hole near the charging end, and shortly 

 after the introduction of a fresh charge of the 

 " mix." The reversal was noted in the case 

 of two furnaces, one of these giving a steady 

 reversal, and one giving a wavering and 

 intermittent reversal. The phenomenon was 

 noted both by myself and also by three dis- 

 tinguished technical friends attendant on the 



trip. Of course the reversal of the sodium 

 lines is frequently observed in the electric arc, 

 but this is the first instance in my experi- 

 ence that I have noted such reversal in a fuel- 

 fired furnace. The temperature of the fur- 

 ance was probably approximately 3,000° F. 



The observation may be more common in 

 the experience and observation of others; but 

 if this brief note should prove of value, the 

 writer will be glad to answer any detailed 

 questions regarding this rather imique mat- 

 ter. I have long held the opinion that the 

 spectroscope has not been — and is not yet — 

 used for its full technical worth in the prac- 

 tical arts. 



Charles S. Palmer 



United Fuel Gas Co., 

 Charleston, "West Va. 



the carnegie foundation and research 

 in the colleges 



In a paper on college government and the 

 teacher's salary, in the 14th annual report of 

 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement 

 of Teaching, the statement is made that much 

 of what passes for research in American uni- 

 versities is only imitation research, which is 

 detracting from the quality of the teaching to 

 which the students are entitled. The conclu- 

 sion is drawn, by inference at least, that the 

 large sums of money spent on this kind of 

 research could be expended much more profit- 

 ably in strengthening the teaching work. It 

 is unnecessary to debate the correctness of the 

 writer's judgment as to the quality of the 

 research work done in the universities. A 

 large part of the research work done every- 

 where is mediocre or poor and it would be 

 surprising indeed if this did not imply also to 

 the colleges. No doubt the work done in 

 some institutions is inferior to that of some 

 others just as the teaching is of different de- 

 grees of i)erfection. It seems, however, that 

 the writer has entirely overlooked one aspect 

 of research work which in the colleges should 

 be given the most serious consideration. 



For many years the appreciation of the 

 value of research has been growing in this 

 coimtry. This interest has been greatly stini- 



