November 23, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



509 



Hooven, Owens, Eentschler Company, of 

 Hamilton, Ohio, for the development of in- 

 genious methods used in the manufacture of 

 this typewriter. 



This machine is capable of producing type- 

 written form letters much faster than they 

 can be written in the ordinary way. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



A SPECIAL board of chemists to investigate 

 explosives, the uses of gases in warfare and to 

 act as advisers to the Bureau of Mines, has 

 been appointed. The board will study the 

 problem of increasing the production of ma- 

 terials used in explosives manufacture and 

 will advise the bureau in the operation of the 

 recently enacted law regulating the sale of ex- 

 plosives. The members are: Dr. William H. 

 Nichols, of the General Chemical Company, 

 New York, chairman; Professor H. P. Tal- 

 bot, head of the chemical department of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Wil- 

 liam Hoskins, of Chicago, a consulting chem- 

 ist; Professor H. P. Venable, of the Univer- 

 sity of North Carolina; Professor E. C. Frank- 

 lin, of Stanford University, and Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons, of the Bureau of Mines. 



Peesident J. G. ScHURMAN, of Cornell Uni- 

 versity, has announced that the State Food 

 Commission, of which he is a member, had 

 completed its organization. Its work is now 

 in three divisions — production, under Commis- 

 sioner Wieting; distribution, under Commis- 

 sioner Mitchell, and conservation, under Com- 

 missioner Schurman. For each of these 

 divisions a bureau has been established with a 

 director at its head. Calvin Huson, a former 

 commissioner of agriculture, heads the bureau 

 of production, and Cyrus Miller, a lawyer of 

 New York City, the bureau of distribution. 

 Professor Howard E. Babcock, of the State 

 College of Agriculture at Cornell, now di- 

 rector of Farm Bureaus, has been appointed 

 director of the bureau of conservation. Pro- 

 fessor Babcock will receive a leave of absence 

 from the university for the period of his serv- 

 ice with the Food Commission. 



The mission sent to France by the Rocke- 

 feller Foundation to assist in combating the 



threatened increase of tuberculosis has de- 

 cided to work in three sections under the gen- 

 eral direction of Dr. Livingston Farrand. 

 The first section will establish in one of the 

 arrondissements of Paris and in certain large 

 provincial towns a complete antituberculosis 

 organization consisting of dispensaries, clin- 

 ics and laboratories, with provision for domi- 

 ciliary attendance. This section will be di- 

 rected by Dr. Miller. A second section, under 

 Dr. Charles White, will undertake the distri- 

 bution of assistance. A third section, under 

 Professor Gunn, wiU be concerned with the 

 education of the public; it has already com- 

 menced to organize traveling exhibitions, 

 meetings and kinematograph displays. 



The British Industrial Research Committee 

 of the Board of Education have made a grant 

 to Professor G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., of the Uni- 

 versity College of North Wales, which will 

 enable him to devote the whole of next session 

 to the carrying on of some special research 

 work in aeroplane construction of national 

 importance. In the first instance Professor 

 Bryan proposes to work at the University of 

 Bristol. 



The following-named officers. Engineer 

 Officers' Reserve Corps, are relieved from duty 

 at the Engineer training camp, and will re- 

 port by letter to the director. United States 

 Geological Survey, for assignment to duty 

 connected with military mapping: From Fort 

 Leavenworth, Hans., Second Lieutenants 

 Ebner LeC. Goldsmith, John W. Lewis, Ed- 

 ward J. Francis, Elmo N. Murphy, Carl R. 

 French, William D. Lewis, and Charles B. 

 Moore. From American University, District 

 of Columbia, Second Lieutenants Charles M. 

 !Madden, Edward H. Stelle, Frederic E. Smith, 

 Edward P. Asbury, George B. Davidson, 

 Frederick W. Look, Gordon D. Cooke, Joseph 

 W. Geary, Jr., and Walter K. Wood, and also 

 Second Lieutenant Herman J. Switzer, Engi- 

 neer Officers' Reserve Corps. 



Mr. A. H. Gilbert has accepted a position 

 as a pathological inspector with the Federal 

 Horticultural Board with headquarters at 

 Washington, D. C. Mr. Gilbert was formerly 



