540 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 617. 



at Oxshott, Surrey,' by W. H. Dines (Proc. 

 Roy. Soc, Vol. 77, 1906, 440-458). This 

 work was done under a grant from the British 

 government and from the British Association. 



E. DeC. Ward. 



RESEARCH LABORATORY OF PHYSICAL 



CHEMISTRY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS 



INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 



The Research Laboratory of Physical 

 Chemistry has opened with a staff consisting 

 of seven research associates and four research 

 assistants. The new members of the staff are 

 Herbert T. Kalmus, M. I. T. '04, Ph.D. 

 (Zurich), Ledyard W. Sargent, A.M. (Har- 

 vard), E. B. Spear, A.B., Manitoba, and Fred 

 C. Mabee, A.M. (McMaster University). In 

 addition, researches are being pursued in the 

 laboratory by five candidates for the degree 

 of Doctor of Philosophy and one candidate 

 for that of Master of Science. All the mem- 

 bers of last year's staff remain. 



To one of the research workers, Mr. Richard 

 C. Tolman, a grant of three hundred dollars 

 has been made during the summer from the 

 C. M. Warren Fund of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences, to enable him to con- 

 struct what will probably be the most power- 

 ful centrifugal machine ever made for experi- 

 mental purposes, to be used in connection 

 with an investigation of the electromotive 

 force produced at the two ends of a rapidly 

 rotating solution of any ionized substance. 

 A grant of three hundred dollars from the 

 Rumford Fund of the American Academy 

 has also been made to Professor A. A. Noyes, 

 which is to be used for the construction of a 

 calorimeter adapted to direct thermochemical 

 measurement with solutions up to 100°. 



A gift has just been made to the laboratory 

 of a large diamond valued at three hundred 

 and fifty dollars by the Ansonia Brass and 

 Copper Company. This is to be used in in- 

 sulating the electrode within the bomb used 

 in the conductivity investigations at high 

 temperatures, and will entirely eliminate the 

 error due to contamination which has been 

 involved in the previous work where it was 

 necessary to use quartz insulators. 



A series of twelve articles on the electrical 

 conductivity of aqueous solutions, describing 

 the investigations on this subject made dur- 

 ing the last three years in the laboratory, is 

 in process of publication by the Carnegie 

 Institution at Washington. A large part of 

 a revised scheme of qualitative analysis for 

 the common elements, which has been worked 

 out during the past year by A. A. Noyes and 

 W. C. Bray, has just appeared in the Sep- 

 tember number of the Technology Quarterly. 



THE PERKIN LIBRARY. 



Professor Chandler, who presided at the 

 Perkin Jubilee banquet in New York, made 

 the following statement with regard to the 

 proposed Perkin library: 



In order to honor the name of our distin- 

 guished guest for all time, it is proposed by 

 the committee of 150 chemists and other 

 prominent citizens who have organized this 

 jubilee celebration, to establish in New York 

 City a complete chemical library in duplicate; 

 one set of books to constitute a permanent 

 reference library always available for any one 

 who wishes to consult it at the home of the 

 Chemists Club, and one set equally complete 

 for circulation throughout the country among 

 the members of the chemical profession. 



It can be truly stated that there is not a 

 complete chemical library in the United 

 States. Several of our larger universities 

 have fair libraries, but each one of them lacks 

 something that the searcher is sure to want. 

 Moreover, these libraries are not accessible to 

 many of the chemists. There are now about 

 8,000 professional ehem)ists in the Unilted 

 States — teachers in our universities, colleges 

 and high schools ; professional consulting 

 chemists and chemists in manufacturing es- 

 tablishments, water works, experiment sta- 

 tions, etc. Very few of them have access to 

 even a respectable chemical library. 



It is proposed that the circulating library 

 shall be cared for by two or more thoroughly 

 educated chemists to whom any chemist in the 

 United States may apply for information on 

 any chemical subject. The chemists in charge 

 will keep reference lists of the best books and 



