106 
those made for land and sea are now needed 
for the air.2? Wireless telegraphy and 
telephony have advanced by leaps and 
bounds, and simple inductive telephony 
has reached a high degree of development 
in the very front lines of the opposing 
armies.2 Electrical schools have opened 
up for the training of war-made cripples.’ 
The radiodynamies of torpedo and boat 
control offers a field for study almost new. 
The use of the X-rays requires constructors, 
operators and doctors who have acquired 
the requisite fundamental principles in 
good courses in physics. Electrochemical 
processes in general are becoming American 
for the first time, and every citizen is con- 
tinually being reminded in one way or 
another of the fact that the war is one of 
science, and that the reconstruction must 
likewise be one based on a knowledge of nat- 
ural laws. 
There is still another phase of our new 
development which makes a definite de- 
mand on the physics teacher. It is the part 
that women are to take in the life of the na- 
tion in the years to come. Whatever may 
be one’s idea of equal suffrage, he must 
recognize the fact that a large portion of the 
burden of the world war is being borne 
by women. They are entering the indus- 
tries; they are becoming electricians, ma- 
chinists, chemists, in fact everything that 
man has wished to be solely. And with 
this awakening will undoubtedly come wide 
interest in the sciences fundamental to in- 
dustrial activity. New economies have re- 
quired more detailed explanations of the 
scientific methods of obtaining them. 
Household physies, though a comparatively 
recent term, has now for the first time come 
to have a real meaning. Surely the present 
war, however unpleasant it may be other- 
22 Scientific American, April 20, 1918, p. 355. 
23 Scientific American, April 6, 1918, p. 305. 
24 Elec. World, November 17, 1917, p. 955. 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Vou. XLVIII. No, 1231 
wise, will serve above all other things to 
hasten the happy era of better ideals, when 
the joys and burdens of the world will be 
more equally shared by its men and its 
women. Hence, the instruction of the girl 
as well as of the boy makes new demands 
on the teacher, and affords him widening 
opportunities for developing his subject as 
an integral part of the school curriculum, 
and thereby better himself by bettering 
every one else. 
To enumerate additional problems brought 
to the physicist as a result of the war would 
be useless, but with the necessary increase 
in vocational education®® will come the nec- 
essity for a more practical type of physics 
as presented to the elementary class. This 
suggestion is not meant in any way to dis- 
parage the more advanced type of research 
work, for it will be in greater demand than 
ever ‘before, but, as always, the teacher 
must be the interpreter who shall spread 
abroad truths and thus justify the effort 
made in their discovery. 
You well know that to include in such an 
attempt as the present one a comprehensive 
statement of such advances in physics as 
those which we are hoping may aid in win- 
ning the war, is futile. We do know, how- 
ever, that advances are being made. We 
know something of the results. Those of us 
who are fortunate enough to have some 
knowledge of the details must remain silent 
because of military necessity. As recently 
expressed, 
Whatever startling developments have taken 
place during the year of 1917 are hidden behind 
the veil of the censor, and it remains for us to 
wait for the end of the war before a complete re- 
view can be undertaken.26 
That the effect on physical research re- 
sulting from the. present governmental co- 
25 Scientific American Supp., No. 2201, March 9, 
1918, p. 149. 
26 Scientific American, January 5, 1918, p. 7. 
