366 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1319 



$71,000 from tlie state for maintenance, as 

 compared witli $49,500 last year. An addi- 

 tional appropriation of $60,000 was made for a 

 physiology building and equipment. 



' The proposal to- admit women to be fellows 

 of tbe Eoyal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 

 after examination, on the same conditions and 

 with the same privileges as men, has been 

 accepted 



Dr. H. Monmouth Smith, who is at present 

 assistant director of the Carnegie Nutrition 

 Laboratory in Boston, and who was formerly 

 connected with Syracuse University, has been 

 appointed a professor of inorganic chemistry 

 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 



1 Professor Frank C. Whitmore, of the Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota, has succeeded Professor 

 Harry A. Curtis as professor of organic chem- 

 istry in I'iTorthwestern University, Evanston, 

 EL 



Mr. J. D. Black has been appointed professor 

 and chief of the division of agricultural eco- 

 nomics at the University of Minnesota, in the 

 place of W. W. Cumberland, whose leave of ab- 

 sence for service in Turkey as financial and 

 economic adviser to the commission to negoti- 

 ate peace between the Allies and Turkey has 

 been continued for another year. 



Mr. a. Amos, of Downing College, has been 

 appointed lecturer in agriculture in Cambridge 

 University. 



Dr. Hugo Fuchs, professor of anatomy at 

 the University of Konigsberg, has been trans- 

 ferred to the University of Gottingen, succeed- 

 ing Professor Merkel. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE ATTAINMENT OF HIGH LEVELS IN THE 

 ATMOSPHERE 



In the March 19, 1920, issue of Science ap- 

 peared an article by Alexander McAdie, en- 

 titled " The Attainment of High Levels in 

 the Atmosphere." As certain incorrect state- 

 ments which are detrimental to the Curtiss 

 Aeroplane & Motor Corporation appeared 

 therein the following correction is made. No 



criticism of Professor McAdie is intended, 

 nor any desire on his part to misstate a fact 

 is in any sense suspected. 



Unauthorized statements are made in the 

 press, the results of which are far reaching. 

 One of these is the innocent acceptance of 

 them by Professor McAdie as being correct 

 and the corresponding reappearance of the in- 

 correct values in the above mentioned article. 



On September 18, 1919, Eoland Eohlfs, the 

 test pilot of the Curtiss Engineering Corpor- 

 ation, made an altitude flight, obeying in 

 every particular the official rules laid down 

 for such contests. It should be stated here 

 that the compliance with these rules is a 

 serious handicap and in justice the same con- 

 ditions should be observed by all competitors. 



The flight was made in a Cmrtiss triplane 

 fitted with a K-12 motor without supercharger 

 and vtdthout the use of special fuel. The re- 

 sult obtained from the barograph chart by the 

 Bureau of Standards after all corrections for 

 instrumental errors had been made was 34,- 

 910 feet, this value being, however, imcor- 

 rected for the average temperatiu-e of the air 

 colmnn. The instrumental corrections to the 

 barograph readings were determined by sub- 

 jecting the instrument to the same variations 

 of pressure and temperature in the laboratory 

 as those encoimtered during the actual flight. 



The value of 34,910 feet, although imcor- 

 rected for air temperatures was homologated, 

 this being strictly according to the 1919 rules 

 and was of interest for comparison with the 

 French altitude flight of Jean Casale made 

 June 14, 1919, which was calculated by the 

 same method. 



It is well known that this way of expressing 

 results, that is, without air temperature cor- 

 rections, is not only unsatisfactory and un- 

 fair but also scientifically incorrect and the 

 Curtiss Company has always admitted that 

 the true (tape line) altitude reached by Eohlfs 

 became 32,450 feet when the air temperature 

 correction, also made by the Bureau of Stand- 

 ards, was applied. There is thus a large but 

 proper reduction in the indicated altitude. 

 This correction is the larger the colder the air 

 encountered in the flight. 



