JtTNE 18, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



969 



be obtained from the American Ethnological 

 Society, Sub-Station 84, New York City. 



The department of railway engineering of 

 the University of Illinois has recently erected 

 a drop testing machine which is identical in 

 design with the standard machine of the 

 Master Car Builders' Association. This appa- 

 ratus will be used in making impact tests of 

 such materials as car couplers, wheels, axles, 

 etc. It consists essentially of a spring-sup- 

 ported anvil weighing 20,000 pounds (upon 

 which is placed the specimen to be tested), 

 and a hammer weighing 1,640 pounds, which 

 runs in vertical guides rising at either side of 

 the anvil. This hammer may be dropped in 

 these guides from any height up to 50 feet. 

 The addition of this machine to the existing 

 equipment of the College of Engineering of 

 this institution renders it possible to make 

 there tension, compression, bending and im- 

 pact tests of all materials of construction, on 

 specimens of the full size ordinarily met with 

 in practise. Through the courtesy of Mr. A. 

 W. Gibbs, the Pennsylvania Eailroad Com- 

 pany furnished the drawings and loaned its 

 patterns for the construction of this machine. 

 The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. 

 Louis Eailroad Company, through its super- 

 intendent of motive power, Mr. William Gar- 

 stang, has donated to the university its serv- 

 ices in connection with the work of construc- 

 tion and assembling the machine, which was 

 done at the Tlrbana shops of this company. 



VNIVER8ITT AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 The state legislature now in session has 

 provided the University of Wisconsin with ap- 

 proximately $2,500,000 for the next two years, 

 beginning July 1. The permanent income of 

 the university is supplied by a tax of two 

 sevenths of a mill on each dollar of assessed 

 valuation of the property of the state. This 

 tax will yield the university approximately 

 $750,000 for the year 1909-10, and over $800,- 

 000 for the year 1910-11. The sum of 

 $100,000 annually for the next two years was 

 appropriated in addition to meet the needs of 

 the growth of the institution not covered by 

 the increase in the tax income fund. Besides 

 this $50,000 a year was given for books and 



apparatus. The legislature also provided 

 $600,000 for buildings to be erected in the 

 order of their greatest need during the next 

 two years. This is a continuation of the 

 building fund of $200,000 a year for a period 

 of three years. For extension work $50,000 

 was appropriated for next year, and $75,000 for 

 the year following. An additional grant of 

 $30,000 a year was made for agricultural ex- 

 tension, and $20,000 a year was provided for 

 farmers' institutes. 



Me. John Fritz, of Bethlehem, Pa., in 

 whose honor a gold medal was founded on his 

 eightieth birthday by the four great national 

 engineering societies, has given $50,000 t-o 

 Lehigh University for an engineering lab- 

 oratory. 



De. E. F. Nichols, professor of experi- 

 mental physics at Columbia University, has 

 been elected president of Dartmouth College, 

 where he was head of the department of 

 physics from 1898 to 1903. 



At the June meeting of the board of trus- 

 tees of the University of Arkansas a college of 

 agriculture was established. Dr. C. F. Adams, 

 acting director of the Experiment Station, 

 was promoted to the deanship and director- 

 ship of the college and station. 



Me. Alfred C. Lane has resigned his posi- 

 tion as state geologist of Michigan to take 

 effect on September 1. He will be in Hough- 

 ton during most of the summer. After Sep- 

 tember 1 his address will be Tufts College, 



H. E. Jordan, Ph.D., adjunct professor of 

 anatomy (in charge of histology and embry- 

 ology) at the University of Virginia, has been 

 promoted to the rank of associate professor. 



De. M. W. Blackman (Harvard '05), of 

 Western Reserve University, has been elected 

 assistant professor of zoology in Syracuse 

 University. He will succeed Mr. B. G. 

 Smith, who has accepted the position of in- 

 structor in zoology in the University of Wis- 

 consin. 



Me. F. G. Speck has been appointed in- 

 structor in anthropology at the University of 

 Pennsylvania, not at the University of Cali- 

 fornia, as was incorrectly stated in a recent 

 issue of this journal. 



