202 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1417 



broot, when director of the National Physical 

 Laboratorj', recognized the waste of time and 

 the duplication of effort arising from this eon- 

 fusion. He had his opinion confirmed by many 

 men of science, Government Departments, trade 

 associations, and private firms. His successor. 

 Sir Joseph Petavel, and the Advisory Council 

 of Scientific and Industrial Research have taken 

 up the question where he left it, and now hope 

 to found a journal to deal with the methods 

 of measurement and instruments. A prelimi- 

 nary number is being prepared under the di- 

 rection of the Institute of Physics, the Re- 

 search Department, and the National Physical 

 Laboratory. It is hoped that the distribution 

 of this, the cost of which is to be borne by the 

 Department of Scientific Research, will secure 

 sufS.eient support to place the venture on a 

 permanent basis. There can be no doubt that 

 the establishment of the proposed journal 

 would be of value to the progress of all 

 branches of scientific work. 



JOURNAL OF THE OPTICAL SOCIETY OF 



AMERICA AND REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC 



INSTRUMENTS 



During the past few j^ears there has been an 

 increasing appreciation of the need in America 

 of a journal devoted to scientific instruments of 

 all kinds. This need is due to a number of 

 causes. The ever increasing volvime of scien- 

 tific material which is being offered for publica- 

 tion is so crowding many of our journals that 

 space does not permit an adequate description 

 of apparatus used. Further, many instruments 

 and instrumental methods, developed for a 

 single experiment, can be applied to a variety 

 of measurements. If described only in con- 

 nection with the work for which they were 

 developed, the description is relatively inaccess- 

 ible since it is subsidiary to the main scientific 

 discussion of the article. 



In many sciences there is no medium for the 

 publication of articles describing apparatus 

 primarily for pedagogical purposes in lecture 

 demonstrations and laboratory. Such short 

 articles or notes should serve a very useful 

 purpose since every real teacher is always on 

 the lookout for means of improving his teach- 

 ing. Further, newly developed apparatus and 



methods of one science are very frequently ap- 

 plicable to work in another science. A medium 

 of publication readily accessible to all would 

 save much time and energy. 



The first steps toward the development of an 

 instrument journal were taken by the National 

 Research Council and the Association of Scien- 

 tific Apparatus Makers of the United States 

 of America in jointly taking under advisement 

 the establishment of a hew journal for the pui-- 

 pose. After extensive consideration it seemed 

 unwise to start an independent journal. Final- 

 ly representatives of the Optical Society of 

 America, which was publishing a bi-monthly 

 journal under the title Journal of the Optical 

 Society of America, were invited to a confer- 

 ence which ultimately resulted in an arrange- 

 ment whereby the Optical Society, cooperating 

 with the National Research Council and the 

 Apparatus Makers Association, is to add to its 

 journal a section on scientific instruments. The 

 enlarged journal is to be published under the 

 title Journal of the Optical Society of America 

 and Bevieiv of Scientific Instruments, and will 

 be issued monthly, beginning with May, 1922. 

 It wUl be under the direction of an editorial 

 board composed of Dr. P. D. Foote, Bureau of 

 Standards, editor-in-chief; Professor F. K. 

 Richtmyer, Cornell University, assistant editor- 

 in-chief and business manager; and a repre- 

 sentative board of associate editors. 



In addition to articles on theoretical, ex- 

 perimental and applied optics in the section 

 on optics of the new journal, there will be 

 published in the instrument section original 

 articles on scientific instruments of all kinds 

 (i. e., electrical, mechanical, etc., as well as 

 optical) for research and instruction in chem- 

 istry, physics, biology and other sciences. The 

 editors announce that they will be glad to re- 

 ceive manuscripts for publication, and sugges- 

 tions as to desirable subject matter to include 

 in the journal. 



GIFT OF THE PROCEEDS OF RESEARCH 

 FOR RESEARCH 



On January 26, 1922, a contract was signed 

 between The Babies' Dispensary and Hospital 

 and the W. 0. F. Laboratories Company, 

 Cleveland, Ohio, in connection with the manu- 



