132 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XL. No. 1021 



Hearder, in consideration of the contributions 

 to electrical science and telegraphy of her late 

 father, Dr. J. N. Hearder, £70; Miss Wil- 

 loughby, in consideration of the services of 

 her late father, Dr. E. F. Willoughby, in con- 

 nection with questions of public health, £30. 



The third biennial meeting of the New Eng- 

 land Federation of Natural History Societies 

 was held at the Glen House, White Mountains, 

 during the first week in July. Delegates from 

 a dozen of the federated societies joined in a 

 survey of the flora and fauna about timber line 

 on the Presidential Range. Among those pres- 

 ent were C. W. Johnson, curator of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History (diptera), W. T. 

 M. Eorbes, of Worcester (lepidoptera) ; J. H. 

 Emerton, secretary of the federation (arach- 

 nidse) ; John Ritchie, Jr., president (mollusca), 

 and E. B. Chamberlain, New York; Tracy 

 Hazen, Barnard College; M. A. Chrysler, 

 Orono, and others in the different groups of 

 botany. Mr. Johnson reports the taking of 

 much interesting material which serves to 

 corroborate and define the work of the earliest 

 botanists and W. S. Hunt, of Lynn, visited 

 the station for Sibbaldia and reported on it. 



The joint meeting of the Vermont Botanical 

 Club and Vermont Bird Club was held during 

 the second week in July at Fairhaven, Vt., the 

 two presidents, Dr. Ezra Brainerd, of Middle- 

 bury, and Professor G. H. Perkins, of Burling- 

 ton, being in attendance. The former led the 

 botanical trips and the latter cared for the 

 other interests. About twenty-five were pres- 

 ent, covering the length and breadth of the 

 state. Collections were made in the cedar 

 swamp at Fairhaven, which yielded a number 

 of rare species of plants and on the cliffs over- 

 looking the Poultney Eiver in West Haven, 

 places that have been little visited by botan- 

 ists. President Brainerd announced that the 

 check list of the plants of Vermont, prepared 

 by the club, will shortly be published by the 

 experiment station at Burlington. The com- 

 pany received the courtesies of the board of 

 trade of Fairhaven, which furnished transpor- 

 tation to the distant portions of West Haven 

 and thus greatly aided the collectors. 



A REPORT by Edson S. Bastin on the produc- 

 duction of graphite in 1913, just issued by the 

 IJ. S. Geological Survey, describes the proper- 

 ties, uses and origin of graphite, records the 

 production and imports in 1913, and describes 

 the mode of occurrence at most localities where 

 it has been quarried in the United States and 

 at foreign localities which contribute to our 

 domestic consumption. The island of Ceylon 

 is the world's greatest graphite-producing cen- 

 ter and the United States absorbs about one 

 half of its product. Other countries that con- 

 tribute graphite to our industries are Korea, 

 Madagascar and northern Mexico. These 

 large drafts on foreign sources, amounting in 

 1913 to 28,879 short tons, valued at $2,109,791 

 are in marked contrast to the small domestic 

 production of natural graphite, which in 1913 

 was only 4,775 tons, valued at $293,756. As it 

 has been fully demonstrated that natural 

 graphite occurs in our own country in prac- 

 tically inexhaustible quantities, the question 

 arises. Why should our industries be so de- 

 pendent on foreign supplies? The reason lies 

 in the mechanical diificulty in concentrating 

 the American product. Most of the graphite 

 found in this country occurs in small flakes in 

 banded rocks known as schists. The graphite 

 forms only 5 to 10 per cent, by weight of the 

 rock, and the crushing of the rock and clean 

 separation of the graphite flakes have proved 

 commercially successful only in a few favored 

 places. A number of new methods are now 

 being tried which it is hoped will prove more 

 efficient — notably the electrostatic process that 

 has been applied with so much success to the 

 treatment of zinc ores. The shortcomings of 

 the United States in the production of natural 

 graphite are in part atoned for by the large 

 amounts of graphite produced in the electric 

 furnaces at Niagara Falls. From its commer- 

 cial inception in 1897 the industry of manu- 

 facturing graphite has grown rapidly until in 

 1913 the output was valued at nearly a million 

 dollars. The various grades of manufactured 

 graphite are adapted to practically all the uses 

 to which graphite has been applied except 

 crucible-making. 



