April 14, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



391 



During the war lie bad charge of the execu- 

 tion of manj' lines of research, including the 

 elaborate work done by the bureau on aviation 

 engines, the atmospheric conditions which are 

 encountered at heights up to thirty thousand 

 feet being produced for the first time in a 

 specially designed altitude chamber. This 

 work was of importance in many ways, such 

 as in fixing specifications for gasoline for avia- 

 tion engines, and determining their perform- 

 ance with variations in design. 



His contributions to knowledge appear al- 

 most exclusively as a long- series of papers in 

 the scientific and technologic series of the 

 Bureau of Standards. His work was most 

 painstaking and thorough and was always 

 thoughtfully planned and skillfully executed. 

 He was a delightful and inspiring companion 

 to work with, as I can testify from an almost 

 daily association extending over twenty years. 



Dr. Waidner was a man of wide acquaint- 

 ance, a member of the Washington Academy of 

 Sciences, the Philosophical Society of Wash- 

 ington, the Cosmos Club, the American Society 

 for Testing Materials and a fellow of the 

 American Physical Society and the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 



In addition to his scientific position, Waidner 

 naturally had at the bureau many important 

 administrative and advisory functions to per- 

 form, some of them bringing him into close 

 contact with his fellows. Thus, as a member 

 of the editorial committee, continuously from 

 its formation in 1903, he is largely responsible 

 for the policy and standard of the bureau's 

 publications. This position, as well as that 

 of the chairman of the personnel committee, 

 he filled with consummate tact and devoted 

 conscientiousness. He had the saving grace of 

 wit and common sense, and broke many a dead- 

 lock with a happy thrust that left no sting. 



His associates will remember him not only 

 for his high standard of work but for his ever 

 ready kindly advice, some times given to good 

 effect when not asked for, his sterling char- 

 acter, genial personality, intense loyalty to 

 his friends and to the institution of which he 

 was a dominating mind, and above all, during 

 the past few years, for his grit and cheerful- 



ness in combating the disease that finally took 

 him oft'. 



S. W. Stratton 

 Bureau of Standards 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 

 VIENNA INSTITUTE FOR ICE AGE RE- 

 SEARCH 



Scarcely any department of scientific re- 

 search is of more general interest than that 

 which concerns prehistoric man, his develop- 

 ment during the Ice Age and the changes then 

 taking place in the conformation of land and 

 sea. Yet, with the exception of the Institute 

 of Human Paleontology in Paris, generously 

 endowed by Prince Albert of Monaco, there 

 has hitherto been no special center for the 

 investigation of this period. 



A public institution for study of the Ice Age 

 has now been established in Vienna in connec- 

 tion with the Natural History Museum of the 

 Austrian Republic, and everj* effort will be 

 made to investigate the phenomena of the Ice 

 Age on a broad scientific basis. 



The geographical position of Vienna renders 

 it well adapted for this purpose, since the land 

 structures associated with the glaciation can be 

 studied in the vicinity and observed in their 

 ancient relations to the environment of pre- 

 historic man. Lower Austria is well known to 

 have furnished a rich store of ancient stone 

 implements and weapons. 



The Vienna Institute is under the leadership 

 of Dr. T. Bayer, director of the anthropological 

 and ethnographical collections. Dr. Bayer's 

 papers in which he demonstrates the existence 

 of no more than two distinct periods of glacial 

 conditions may be said to have created a new 

 basis for this field of research. He is assisted 

 by a group of colleagues and it is hoped to 

 extend the circle of workers to include those in 

 other countries who are devoting themselves to 

 this period of research. They are invited to 

 enter into conrniunication with Dr. Bayer at 

 the Natural History Museum, Vienna, who vdW 

 be pleased to give fuller information as to the 

 present activities of the institute. 



Julius Pia 

 Vienna, March 16 



