November 23, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



507 



bouization and gasification other than those now 

 used in gas works? 



4. Can electric power be obtained more cheaply 

 if the coal used for steam raising is first sub- 

 jected to processes of carbonization and gasifica- 

 tion? 



5. Will the more scientific development of the 

 preparation and use of fuel, which would be im- 

 plied in the successful working out of the forego- 

 ing questions, enable the peat deposits of the 

 United Kingdom to take a serious place as eco- 

 nomic sources of fuel for industrial purposes? 



6. Can the use of gaseous fuel in industrial 

 operations be forwarded by the development of 

 more scientific methods of combustion in the fur- 

 naces, muffles and ovens used in metallurgical, 

 ceramic and chemical operations? 



Answers to these questions, the report points 

 out, will be obtained only by coordinated re- 

 search carried on the lines of a broad and 

 well-considered scheme, but at the same time 

 the Fuel Eesearch Board think it is to be ex- 

 pected that solutions of some of the problems 

 will be supplied by workers in the industries, 

 and they would regard it as a great misfortune 

 were the establishment of a government or- 

 ganization for fuel research to result in dis- 

 couraging or in any way limiting the activi- 

 ties of outside workers or organizations. 



It was realized that the conditions required 

 for the research station could be fulfilled only 

 by a site in the neighborhood of a large gas 

 works. Some months ago the director of Fuel 

 Eesearch approached Dr. Charles Carpenter, 

 the chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas 

 Company, and subsequently Dr. Carpenter on 

 behalf of the directors of his company, made 

 the following very generous offer: 



1. To lease the goverimient at a peppercorn rent 

 sufficient land at the East Greenwich gasworks for 

 the erection of the research station. 



2. To prepare drawings and specifications for 

 the station on lines laid down by the board and to 

 make contracts for its erection; and 



3. To give every facility for the transport of 

 coal and other supplies to the station and to take 

 over at market prices the surplus products, gas, 

 tar, liquor and coke, resulting from the operations 

 of the station. 



The site consists of a strip of level ground, 

 about 250 feet wide by 700 feet to 800 feet long. 



situated on the main siding which connects the 

 gas works with the South-Eastern Railways 

 and possessing access to an existing road. The 

 station, as planned, will be capable of any ex- 

 tensions required for future researches. Of 

 the four acres to be leased, only one acre will 

 be occupied by buildings under the present 

 scheme. Further, a large part of the equip- 

 ment of the buildings will be of a permanent 

 character and will serve all the general pur- 

 poses of a research station. Future exten- 

 sions, therefore, will not repeat this perma- 

 nent equipment, but will be based upon it. 



THE COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE 



The great scientific bureaus of the govern- 

 ment at Washington with their thousands of 

 employees dealing with the country's problems 

 in every branch of science, and the important 

 learned societies and scientific establishments 

 of the national capital, were influenced in 

 their early growth and development in a 

 greater or less degree by a scientific society 

 which flourished in Washington during the 

 early years of the last century. The Colum- 

 bian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and 

 Sciences, now all but forgotten, was the first 

 learned society established in Washington, its 

 organization dating from June, 1816, sixteen 

 years after the occupation of the city as the 

 federal capital, and less than two years after 

 the invasion by the British troops. The 

 population of Washington was at that time 

 little more than 10,000, and the repair and 

 reconstruction of the public biiildings was still 

 in the initial stage. The history, organization 

 and achievements of this society are fully de- 

 scribed in an interesting Bulletin of the 

 United States ISTational Museimi by Mr. 

 Eiehard Eathbun, assistant secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, in charge of the Na- 

 tional Museum. 



The objects of the Columbian Institute, 

 which was chartered by Congress in 1818 for 

 a term of twenty years, were as a whole very 

 diversified, those specifically named in the be- 

 ginning having been almost wholly of a utili- 

 tarian nature, such as the government has 

 from time to time assumed and made the basis 

 of the work of several scientific bureaus. 



