332 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1422 



help to impart to it. Nor is this enterprise one 

 which should influence Southern California 

 alone, for since men of affairs come to this 

 region as to scarcely any other region in the 

 United States, no section is more favored than 

 is this one in its opportunity of contributing its 

 own good things to the progress of the country 

 as a whole. 



Finally, I wish to accept this gift in the name 

 of all those who believe, as I do and as the 

 trustees of this institution have from the start 

 believed, that science in itself is not the most 

 important thing in this world, but that the 

 salvation of the world is to be found in the 

 cultivation of science together with the cultiva- 

 tion of a belief in the reality of moral and 

 spiritual values. Science alone may destroy 

 this world instead of saving it, but the trustees 

 of this institution have from the start differen- 

 tiated it from most technical schools in the 

 altogether exceptional emphasis which has been 

 laid in its curriculum upon cultural and spiri- 

 tual development. One expression of this ideal 

 is seen in the atmosphere which has been thrown 

 about the campus by the architectural beauty 

 of the buildings which are already found here, 

 a beauty which the architect, Mr. Goodhue, has 

 known how to put in exceptional degree both 

 into the exterior and the interior of the Nor- 

 man Bridge Laboratory. I accept your magni- 

 ficent gift. Dr. Bridge, in the hope and the 

 belief that it will be an important factor in 

 the creation at the California Institute of Tech- 

 nology, not only of men with the highest tech- 

 nical skill, but of men of the finest character 

 and of the broadest citizenship. 



R. A. MiLLIKAN 



A JOINT INVESTIGATION OF THE CONSTI- 

 TUTION OF MATTER AND THE 

 NATURE OF RADIATION 



The establishment of the Norman Bridge 

 Laboratory of Physics, if my estimate is cor- 

 rect, is an event of no small significance in the 

 progress of science. Dr. Millikan has explained 

 its bearing on scientific and technical education, 

 and pointed out that research, as conducted in 



1 Address at the dedication of the Normau 

 Bridge Laboratorj'. 



the Bridge Laboratory and the Gates Chemical 

 Laboratory, accompanied by the best instruction 

 in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, must 

 provide the firmest of foundations for the entire 

 superstructure of the California Institute of 

 Technology. It remains for me to speak of a 

 joint investigation of the constitution of matter 

 and the nature of radiation which the organiza- 

 tion of the Bridge and Gates Laboratories has 

 rendered possible. 



Matter occurs in nature under the widest 

 variety of composition and form. The 

 physicist, who approaches this complex problem 

 by the simplest and most direct route, deals 

 chiefly with the chemical elements, and evolves 

 powerful methods of research which enable him 

 to penetrate to the core of the atom, to visual- 

 ize the electrons swinging in their orbits, and 

 to remove them one by one for detailed study. 

 The chemist, concerned primarily with the union 

 of atoms into molecules, and the combination 

 of molecules of one or more elements, neces- 

 sarily attacks matter of greater complexity, ex- 

 tending all the way from the single atom of 

 hydrogen to compounds containing hundreds 

 of linked atoms of many kinds. The astro- 

 physicist, permitted by his powerful telescopes 

 to penetrate to the depths of the universe, ob- 

 serves matter in the state of luminous gaseous 

 elements, associated in the cooler stars with 

 certain chemical compounds. The cosmic 

 crucibles in this vast laboratory of nature ex- 

 hibit conditions of temperature and pressure 

 often transcending those attainable on earth, 

 and thus present for observation experiments 

 on an immense scale, the interpretation of 

 which has already added much to our knowledge 

 of physics and chemistry. A general study of 

 the constitution of matter should therefore ap- 

 proach the problem simultaneously along the 

 converging lines of physics, chemistry, and 

 astrophysics. 



The progress of research, particularly during 

 the last quarter century, has brought us to the 

 present critical juncture, when the possibilities 

 of such a joint investigation are especially 

 favorable. In each of the branches of science 

 involved the methods and instruments of re- 

 search have advanced to a high degree of per- 



