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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 652 



their appeal with energy and success, in the 

 face of strong opposition and without the 

 heartiest cooperation on the part of the board 

 of regents. The campaign was conducted by 

 a committee of alumni, ably seconded by the 

 Minnesota Alumni Weekly. The sum ori-' 

 ginally desired was $200,000, but the regents 

 voted to ask for only $150,000. Yet the 

 amount granted was $165,000. The issues of 

 the Minnesota Alumni Weekly ever since the 

 movement began have contained a quantity of 

 valuable material bearing on the general sub- 

 ject. Statistics were gathered the country 

 over, and the relation of teachers' salaries to 

 incomes from other professions and to the cost 

 of living was set forth. In addition, the 

 Weekly published letters from various sources 

 expressing hearty interest in the campaign. 

 From all parts of the state committees of 

 alumni and individuals addressed the members 

 of the legislature on behalf of the movement. 

 As a result, when the legislature came to 

 make up its appropriations for the university 

 fund, it was confronted not with the question 

 whether salaries should be raised, but with the 

 question to what extent they should be raised. 

 We believe that educators generally have 

 grounds for congratulations on this successful 

 movement. Here is a case where the needs of 

 higher education have been put definitely be- 

 fore the people of one of our most important 

 states, and they have responded in a way 

 which indicates a high appreciation of their 

 economic responsibility. Their action is a 

 challenge to emulation. — Columbia University 

 Quarterly. 



TEE AWARD OF TEE BOTDEN PREMIUM 

 BY TEE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE 



In 1859, Uriah A. Boyden, Esq., in his day 

 an eminent mechanical engineer, of Boston, 

 Mass., deposited with the Franklin Institute 

 the sum of one thousand dollars, to be awarded 

 as a prize to any resident of North America, 

 who should determine by experiment whether 

 all rays of light and other physical rays are 

 or are not transmitted with the same velocity. 



The Franklin Institute has religiously ad- 

 vertised the proposition of Mr. Boyden since 

 that time until the present, inviting investi- 



gators to compete for the premium. During 

 this period, which covers almost fifty years, a 

 large number of essays, possibly as many as 

 25 or 30, have been presented by investigators 

 for this award, but after careful investigation 

 by a competent committee, appointed in each 

 case, none was found sufficiently meritorious 

 to warrant the institute in granting the prize, 

 until the recent investigation by Dr. Paul R. 

 Heyl, assistant in the department of chem- 

 istry of the Central High School of Philadel- 

 phia, which, in accordance with the prescribed 

 conditions, was submitted anonymously. This 

 communication was referred to a special com- 

 mittee, consisting of Messrs. Hugo Bilgram, 

 mechanical engineer; Professor Arthur W. 

 Goodspeed, of the department of physics of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. 

 George Flowers Stradling, of the department 

 of physics of the Northeast Manual Training 

 School of Philadelphia, who reported unan- 

 imously in favor of awarding the Boyden prize 

 for an essay submitted under the pseudonym 

 ' Algol.' The name of the author was only 

 disclosed after the investigators had upon 

 careful examination proved its merits. An 

 abstract of the committee's report follows, 

 which will indicate the extremely delicate 

 nature of the tests required in the investiga- 

 tion. 



The applicant ' Algol ' for the Boyden pre- 

 mium has succeeded in demonstrating, by ex- 

 periment, that those of the ultra-violet rays of 

 light, for which glass is transparent, have the 

 same velocity as the light rays proper. 



He reasons that if the velocity of these rays 

 were different, they would not arrive, from a 

 distant source, at the same time. For his test 

 he selected ' algol,' a well-known variable star 

 in the constellation Perseus, as the source of 

 light. By means of a diffraction grating he 

 eliminated all but the ultra-violet rays of a 

 knovm frequency, and by focussing them on a 

 sensitive plate, obtained photographs of the 

 star. 



For the purpose of identifying the rays so 

 recorded with the visible rays, regarding the 

 time of their emission, he selected, for the 

 time of his test, the time during which the 



