RECORDS 135 



The meeting was devoted to the presentation of reports of 

 summer work by members. 



Summary of Papers. 



Professor William Hallock reported that he had tried and 

 failed to secure permission of the Calumet and Hecla Company 

 to make measurements of underground temperatures in their 

 shaft at Keweenaw Point. He gave a brief review of the report 

 upon underground temperatures rendered to the British Associ- 

 ation at their Glasgow meeting (1901). 



Professor Hallock also described a new and very simple form of 

 wired musical instrument which he found on sale at the Buffalo 

 Exposition. The instrument was operated by blowing through 

 the nose, and the mouth cavity of the operator acted as the 

 resonance chamber. The tone quality of the instrument was 

 very similar to that of a flute. One of the instruments was 

 exhibited before the Section. 



Professor J. K. Rees reported that the Astronomical Depart- 

 ment of Columbia University had recently received from the 

 Lick Observatory a number of star photographs which were to 

 be measured for the determination of parallax. 



Professor Harold Jacoby reported upon some photographs of 

 stars near the celestial poles, which had been received by the 

 Astronomical Department of Columbia. 



Professor R. S. Woodward reported the results of an inves- 

 tigation he had carried on upon the effects of secular cooling 

 and meteoric dust on the length of the terrestrial day. His 

 investigation showed that, due to secular cooling, the length of 

 the day will not change or has not changed as the case may be, 

 by so much as a half second in the first ten million years after 

 the initial epoch, and that the total effect from secular cooling 

 will accrue before the effect from meteoric dust will begin to be 

 appreciable. 



Professor Doremus gave a brief account of the research lab- 

 oratory in chemistry which had been lately established at Sche- 

 nectady, N. Y. ^ -. ^ 



. ,/' , F. L. Tufts, 



Adjourned. ^ 



■' Citcretary. 



