156 Scientific Intelligence. 



.Mount Wilson. Reducing these and other results to the absolute 

 scale of pyrheliometry, we may fix the average value of the solar 

 constant of radiation at 1'92S calories per square centimeter per 

 minute for the epoch 1905-1909. Making allowance for the 

 higher values which must prevail at sun-spot minimum, the solar 

 constant may be estimated at ) - 95 calories as an average value 

 for a sun-spot cycle. No reason has been found for departing 

 from the view heretofore held that short-interval variations of 5 

 per cent or more from this value occur. The energy distribution 

 in the solar spectrum outside the atmosphere has been determined 

 with the bolometer on Mount Whitney between wave lengths 

 0'29fi in the ultra violet and 3 - 0^t in the infra-red. This region 

 appears to contain full 99 per cent of all the solar energy outside 

 the atmosphere. The apparent temperature of the sun as com- 

 puted by three different methods comes out 6430°, 5840° and 

 6200° of the absolute scale. Researches on the transmission of 

 moist columns of air for long-wave rays such as the earth emits, 

 have been continued to wave lengths beyond 15/a, and for col- 

 umns of air 800 feet in length. Secondary pyrheliorneters, stand- 

 ardized to the absolute scale, have been sent to Russia, France, 

 and Italy, and also furnished to the United States Weather 

 Bureau and Department of Agriculture." 



2. Library of Congress. Report of the Librarian of Con- 

 gress and Report of the. Superintendent of the Library Buildings 

 and Grounds, for the fi seal year ending June SO, 1910. Pp. 305, 

 with 7 plates. Washington, 1910. — All of those immediately 

 interested in the important matter of library administration will 

 welcome this annual volume from Mr. Putnam, since the Con- 

 gressional Library, of which he has charge, rightfully serves 

 as a model to the other large libraries in the country. It is 

 interesting to note that the total appropriations for the Washing- 

 ton Library and associated copyright office for 1911 amount to 

 about half a million. The accessions to the Library, including 

 pamphlets, are about 90,000. Among the various appendixes is 

 to be noted that which enumerates the important series of manu- 

 scripts and transcripts which have been received during the year. 



3. Academic and Industrial Efficiency. A Report to the 

 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching • by 



Morris Llewellyn Cooke. Bulletin Number Five. Pp. vii, 

 134. New York City, 1910. — The investigation detailed in this 

 Bulletin was carried on by Mr. Cooke of the American Society of 

 Mechanical Engineers, under the direction of the Carnegie Founda- 

 tion. Eight institutions served as the object of investigation, the 

 effort being to obtain an estimate of the cost and output in teach- 

 ing and. in research in the department of Physics. The data 

 have evidently been obtained with all possible fulness and accu- 

 racy, and although the results are presented with some frankness 

 of criticism, and although the suggestions made as to the proper 

 place of research in an educational institution of the first rank, 

 will not meet with universal approval, there can be no question 

 of the value of having information of this kind brought together 

 and presented to the interested public. 



