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SCIENCE 



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Friday, April 30, 1920 



CONTENTS 

 Inventions and Patents: Db. Andeew Stew- 



AKT 421 



The Use and Ahvse of the Genus: De. "Wit- 

 MEB Stone 427 



Oscar A. Bandolph: O. 0. Lestee 429 



Alfred J. Moses: H. P. "W 429 



Scientific Events: — 

 Investigations in Polynesia; The Pan-Pa- 

 cific Scientific Congress; Appropriations for 

 the New York State College of Agriculture ; 

 Selenium and Tellurium; Physical and 

 Chemical Constants 430 



Scientific Notes and News 433 



University and Educational News 435 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 . Unification of Syrnbols and Diagrams: De. 

 Waltee p. White. Carbon Monoxide: W. 

 M. The Attainment of High Levels in the 

 Atmosphere: Peofessor Alexandee Mc- 

 Adib 436 



Scientific Books: — 



McCoy and Terry's Introduction to General 

 Chemistry: Peopessoe James F. Noeeis. . . . 438 



Notes on Meteorology and Climatology: — 

 Bainfall Interception by Trees and Crops; 

 Atmospheric Moisture in the United States: 



De. Chaeles F. Beooks 439 



Special Articles: — 



Limits of the Genera VandeUia and Urino- 

 philus : Peopessoe G. H. Eigenmann 441 



The American Association for the Advance- 



. ment of Science: — 



Section H — Anthropology and Psychology: 

 Peofessob Edwaed K. Steong, Jr 441 



General Meeting of the American Chemical 

 Society: Ohas L. Paesons 444 



MSS. intended for 'publication and books, etc. .intended for 

 review should be Bent to The Editor of Science, GarrieoD-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



INVENTIONS AND PATENTS 



. The status of the inventor witliin the goT- 

 ernment service, of his invention and the ad- 

 ministration and utilization of the same, pre- 

 sents a problem that has been growing increas- 

 ingly acute during the last decade. 

 : The pressing need for some one government 

 agency to undertake, under a unified, compre- 

 hensive system, the administration and indus- 

 trial development of patentable inventions and 

 patents originating in the government bureaus 

 ■was formulated by Dr. F. Gr. Cottrell, of the 

 Bureau of Mines, in a paper, entitled " Grov- 

 emment Owned Patents," presented to the 

 American Mining Congress, in ilTovember, 

 1916. 



Dr. Cottrell was brought to the full realiza- 

 tion of the highly unsatisfactory situation of 

 the government inventor thro"ugh his experi- 

 ence with some patents of his own. It was his 

 desire to make the public the sole beneficiary 

 of these, but for reasons which will appear be- 

 low, there was no practicable way of accom- 

 plishing this. Donation to the government 

 was not feasible because there was no govern- 

 ment official or agency authorized by law to 

 accept assignment of patents ; so he finally con- 

 ceived and brought into existence a non-divi- 

 dend paying corporation,^ and to this assigned 

 his patents for administration and license. A 

 fundamental stipulation in its certificate of 

 incorporation was that the profits, over and 

 above actual running expenses, should be used 

 for the advancement of research, and thus a 

 public double benefit was effected. 



This new departure in economics has been 

 in successful operation for several years and 

 the achievement has pointed the way for and 

 has justified the attempt to try out an experi- 

 ment along similar lines in the government 

 service; and this has culminated in a bill 



1 Besearch Corporation, New York. 



