652 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1114 



EEPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE HENRY DBAPEE 

 FUND 



Four members of the committee, without con- 

 sulting the fifth member (Professor Michelson), 

 recommended that the Henry Draper Gold Medal 

 be awarded to Professor A. A. Michelson, of the 

 University of Chicago, for his numerous and im- 

 portant contributions to spectroscopy and astro- 

 nomical physics. 



It is impossible in the brief space of this report 

 even to enumerate Professor Michelson 's major 

 services to science. These include the precise de- 

 termination of the velocity of light; the well- 

 known experiment (with Professor Morley) on 

 ether drift ; the measurement of the absolute wave- 

 length of light involved in his determination of the 

 length of the standard meter; the measurement of 

 tides in the body of the earth with new apparatus 

 of extraordinary precision; and the invention of 

 the interferometer, the echelon, and other instru- 

 ments of prime importance to the student of light. 

 He has also constructed a ruling machine yield- 

 ing diffraction gratings of the longest size and 

 the highest resolving power yet attained, and car- 

 ried on a multiplicity of researches of wide range 

 and fundamental significance. 



The committee also recommends that a grant of 

 $250 be made to Professor Philip Pox, director of 

 the Dearborn Observatory, of Northwestern "Uni- 

 versity, Evanston, Illinois, to apply toward the cost 

 of a machine for measuring astronomical photo- 

 graphs. 



Regarding previous grants from the Draper 

 Fund, the committee begs to report that the grant 

 to Dr. C. G. Abbot has been expended for com- 

 puter's services in an investigation which has es- 

 tablished the variability of distribution of radia- 

 tion along the sun's diameter. Grants to Messrs. 

 Campbell, Mitchell, Stebbins and Schlesmger, re- 

 spectively, for the construction of instruments or 

 the prosecution of researches not yet completed. 



George E. Hale, 



Chairman 



report of the trustees OP THE WATSON FUND 



The balance of the income of the Watson Fund, 

 available for appropriation, on April 1, 1916, was 

 $1,070.15. The undersigned accordingly recom- 

 mend the following votes: 



Resolved, That the sum of five hundred dollars 

 from the income of the Watson Fund be appro- 

 priated to Professor John A. Miller, director of 

 the Sproul Observatory, for measuring plates al- 



ready taken for the determination of stellar paral- 

 laxes. (Grant No. 10.) This is a continuation of 

 Grant No. 10 awarded last year. A report of the 

 work accomplished is enclosed. 



Sesolved, That the sum of three hundred dollars 

 from the income of the Watson Fund be appro- 

 priated to Professor Herbert C. Wilson, director 

 of the Goodsell Observatory, for measurements of 

 the positions of asteroids on photographs already 

 taken. (Grant No. 12.) 



In each of these cases, material has already been 

 collected whose preparation independently would 

 involve a large expenditure. A relatively small 

 sum will thus complete the work and secure the re- 

 sults for which the investigations were undertaken. 

 Edward C. Pickering, 

 W. L. Elkin, 

 Edwin B. Fkost 



report of THE COMMITTEE ON THE J. LAWRENCE 

 SMITH FUND 



The Committee on the J. Lawrence Smith Fund 

 reports as follows: 



No. 3. Edmund Otis Hovey, curator in the de- 

 partment of geology and invertebrate paleontol- 

 ogy in the American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York, received in 1909 a grant of $400 to aid 

 in the study of certain meteors. He has for some 

 time been with an expedition to the Arctic regions, 

 so that the work is not at the moment making 

 progress. 



No. 4. C. C Trowbridge, professor of physics 

 in Columbia University, New York, received in 

 1909 a grant of $400 in aid of his studies of the 

 luminous trains which are produced by some 

 meteors. A further grant of $1,000 in four an- 

 nual installments was voted by the Academy in 

 1912. Good progress has been made in the tabu- 

 lation of all existing records of such luminous 

 trains and in the preparation of illustrations of 

 them, as well as in other directions. Owing to 

 conditions in Europe the last installment of $250, 

 available a year ago, has not yet been called for. 



No. 5. George P. Merrill, head curator in the 

 department of geology in the United States Na- 

 tional Museum, has received grants in 1910, 1911 

 and 1913^ amounting to $800, to aid in verifying 

 the occurrence in some meteors of certain rare ele- 

 ments. This work has been very successfully com- 

 pleted, abstracts of results obtained have been 

 presented to the academy, and the final report 

 forms pages 1-26 of the Memoirs of the academy, 

 Vol. 14, just issuing from the press, and closing 

 the record of this grant. 



