JCNE 6, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



549 



southwest corner of Locust and Thirteenth 

 Streets, at 8.30 o'clock. 



Arthur Gordon Webster, Sc.D., LL.D., professor 

 of physics, Clark University, Worcester, spoke on 

 the "Recent applications of physics in warfare" 

 (illustrated). 



Saturday, April g6, 



EXECUTIVE SESSION — 9.30 O 'CLOCK 



Special business — Action upon the proposed 

 amendments to the laws. 



Stated business — Candidates for membershiji 

 balloted for, with the result that the following new 

 members were declared elected: Robert Grant 

 Aitken, Sc.D., Mount Hamilton, Calif.; Joseph 

 Charles Arthur, ScD., Lafayette, Ind.; Edward 

 W. Berry, Baltimore; James Henry Breasted, 

 A.M., Ph.D., Chicago; Ulric Dahlgren, M.S., 

 Princeton; William Curtis Farabee, A.M., Ph.D., 

 Philadelphia; John Huston Finley, LL.D., Al- 

 bany, N. Y. ; Stephen Alfred Forbes, Ph.D., LL.D., 

 tJrbana, III.; Chevalier Jackson, M.D., Philadel- 

 phia; Dayton C. Miller, A.M., D.Sc, Cleveland; 

 George D. Eosengarten, Ph.D., Philadelphia; Al- 

 bert Sauveur, S.B., Cambridge, Mass. ; William 

 Albert Setehell, A.M., Ph.D., Berkeley, CaUf.; 

 Julius O. Stieglitz, Ph.D., D.Sc, Chicago; Am- 

 brose Swasey, Sc.D., D.E., Cleveland. 



10 o'clock 

 Hampton L. Carson, M.A., LL.D., vice-president, 



in the chair 

 Artificial formations resembling lunar craters: 



Captain Herbert E. Ives, of Philadelphia. 

 The meteorological service of the Signal Corps in 



the war: Robert A. Millikan, professor of 



physics, University of Chicago. 

 Detection of submarines (illustrated) : Harvey 



Cornelius Hayes, Naval Experiment Station, 



New London. (Introduced by Professor John 



A. Miller.) 



This paper discussed various possible methods. 

 The most effective one resulted from the develop- 

 ment of a system of multiple sound sensitive re- 

 ceivers mounted in such a way as to transmit to 

 both ears of the observer a cumulative or summa- 

 tional impulse which becomes a maximum when the 

 instrument is properly directed, thus showing the 

 direction of the submarine. It is clear that such 

 an instrument would be valuable in peace times 

 also in indicating the presence and direction of 

 vessels in a fog. 



Errors indxtced in bullets by defects in their manu- 

 facture: Ernest W. Brown, professor of mathe- 

 matics, Yale University. 

 Sound and flash ranging: Augustus Trotvbridoe, 

 professor of physics, Princeton University, and 

 late Lieutenant Colonel Engineers, of General 

 Pershing's staff and in technical charge of the 

 ranging service in the A. E. F. 

 The work of the Ballistic Institute of Clark Uni- 

 versity: A. G. Webster, professor of physics, 

 Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 

 Alternating-current plancvector potentiometer 

 measurements at telephonic frequencies (illus- 

 trated) : A. E. Kennellt, director, Research 

 Division, Electrical Engineering Department, 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cam- 

 bridge, and Edy A'elander. 

 The genesis of petroleum as shown by its nitrogen 

 constituents : Cuarles F. Mabery, emeritus pro- 

 fessor of chemistry. Case School of Applied Sci- 

 ence, Cleveland. 



Since so far as known complex nitrogen bases 

 are produced in. nature only through the agency 

 of vegetable or animal life the universal presence 

 of these bases in petroleum seems to be convinc- 

 ing evidence as to its origin. In most of the den- 

 ser varieties these bases have been detected, in 

 California and Russian petroleum in considerable 

 amounts. In the present paper results are pre- 

 sented which show that the same or similar bases 

 are generally present in the lighter varieties of 

 the eastern fields — Pennsylvania, West Virginia 

 and the Berea Grit of southern Ohio. I procured 

 authentic specimens from these fields and find that 

 they all contain from one part in 10,000 to one 

 part in 20,000. A special method of analysis had 

 to be devised to determine such minute proportions 

 of nitrogen, a combination of the Dumas method 

 for nitrogen and the oxygen method for carbon and 

 hydrogen. Briefly described, the combustion was 

 made in a glass tube one half filled with copper 

 oxide, and in the vacant space the oil was placed 

 in a boat with an oxidized copjwr roll behind and 

 next behind a large boat containing potassium 

 chlorate. In a second furnace was placed a steel 

 tube filled with copper oxide, and heated to full 

 redness to oxidize completely the hydrocarbons. 

 Tight joins were made with castor oil seals and 

 with a special form of rubber tube also luted with 

 castor oil. Nitrogen was suflSciently removed by 

 COj from a rear generator containing several 

 pounds sodium bicarbonate and repeated evacua- 

 tions with a power pump extending through sev- 

 eral days. The paper gives the results of analysis 



