May 27, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



811 



A. Noyes. The special subjects at present 

 under investigation are: (1) the transference 

 numbers of tri-ionic salts by Dr. K. G. Falk, 

 with the purpose of determining whether in- 

 termediate ions, such as KSOj" or PbNOj*, 

 exist in considerable quantity; (2) the elec- 

 trical conductivity of mixtures of salts, by 

 Mr. A. C. Melcher, Dr. W. C. Bray and Mr. 

 F. L.. Hunt, with the purpose of establishing 

 the general law governing the ionization of 

 salts; and (3) the solubility of salts in the 

 presence of other salts, by Dr. W. D. Har- 

 kins, with the purpose of determining em- 

 pirically the form of the law of solubility ef- 

 fect which must be substituted for the inexact 

 mass-action form of that law. This line of 

 research has again been aided on the financial 

 side by a grant of $3,000 made to Professor 

 A. A. Noyes by the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington. 



Another of the main lines of research in the 

 laboratory, which is being carried out by 

 graduate students under the direction of Pro- 

 fessor G. N. Lewis, is the experimental de- 

 termination and computation of a system of 

 values for the free energy of chemical sub- 

 stances analogous to the system of values for 

 the total energy previously developed by ther- 

 mochemical investigators. The problem is 

 one of fundamental importance to the science 

 of chemistry, since from the free-energy data 

 for the substances the equilibrium of the 

 chemical reactions in which they are involved 

 can be computed. The special reactions now 

 being studied in this direction are : (1) that 

 between sulphur and water, producing sulphur 

 dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, by Mr. Merle 

 Eandall; (2) that between nitric oxide, nitric 

 acid and water, producing nitrous acids, by 

 Mr. Arthur Edgar; and (3) that between 

 chlorine gas and chlorine-ion in aqueous so- 

 lution, which is being studied by electromo- 

 tive force measurements by Mr. P. P. 

 Eupert. 



Dr. W. C. Bray has continued the studies 

 of the equilibrium of some chemical reactions 

 begun a few years ago in this laboratory by 

 Mr. G. M. J. Mackay; namely of those be- 

 tween solid cuprous iodide, iodide and eupric 



iodide in solution, between potassium iodide 

 and polyiodide in solution and between iodine 

 and water. 



During the past year articles describing 

 theoretical studies upon the newly developed 

 principle of relativity have been published 

 by Professor G. N. Lewis and by Mr. E. C. 

 Tohnan; and an article upon the quantitative 

 application of the theory of indicators to 

 volumetric analysis has been prepared by 

 Professor A. A. Noyes. An experimental 

 study of indicators from this standpoint has 

 been undertaken by Professor M. S. Sherrill. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Professor George Davidson, of the Univer- 

 sity of California, eminent for his contribu- 

 tions to astronomy, geography, navigation 

 and geodesy, celebrated, on May 9, his eighty- 

 fifth birthday. 



Commander Egbert E. Peary lectured be- 

 fore the Imperial Geographical Society of 

 Vienna, on May 18, and was presented with 

 the gold medal of the society. 



Professor Walter Nernst, professor of 

 physical chemistry at Berlin, has been elected 

 an honorary member of the Manchester Liter- 

 ary and Philosophical Society. 



It is stated in Nature that the council of 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers has made 

 the following awards for papers during the 

 session 1909-10 : a Telford gold medal to Mr. 

 C. M. Jacobs (New York) ; a Watt gold 

 medal to Mr. J. D. Watson (Birmingham) ; a 

 George Stephenson gold medal to Mr. D. A. 

 Matheson (Glasgow) ; Telford premiums to 

 Messrs. F. C. Buscarlet (Sunderland), A. 

 Hunter (Glasgow), I. C. Barling (Tyne- 

 mouth), J. Dalziel and J. Sayers (Derby), 

 and J. Shaw (Birkenhead), and the Manby 

 premium to the late Mr. C. W. Hodson (Lon- 

 don). 



One of the Carnegie research scholarships 

 of the Iron and Steel Institute, London, has 

 been awarded to Professor Paul Gorens, of the 

 Eoyal Technical College, of Aix-la-Chapelle, 

 for a study of the properties of cold-hardened 

 iron and steel. 



