REPORT OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 
483 
grants Nos. 18-20 (as announced below, p. 492) were recommended and that 
reports of progress on previous grants were as follows: 
No. 15. A grant of $300 was made in April, 1917, to Professor Herbert C. Wilson 
of Carleton College, Northfield, Minn,, for the continuation of the photographic determina- 
tion of the positions of minor planets. During the past year about 60 plates of minor planets 
have been secured, but measurement of the positions has been interrupted by loss of assist- 
ants. The results obtained under previous grants have been published in Publications of 
the Goodsell Observatory of Carleton College, Numbers 5 and 6, 1917-18 under the title, 
" Photographic Observations of Asteroids," by H. C. Wilson, C. H. Gingrich,and Julia 
Hawkes (No. 6). 
No. 16. A grant of $500 was made to Professor John A. Miller, Director of the Sproull 
Observatory of Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, for the employment of an assistant in 
measuring and reducing plates for the determination of parallaxes. This fund is being paid 
to Miss Carolyn H. Smedley, Research Assistant in the Observatory. In the fall she also 
aided in studying the corona of the eclipse of 1918. The sum of $500 is only part of her salary. 
The observatory has recently put into press fifty new parallaxes. A great number of series 
are in process of measurement. Between twenty and twenty-five additional parallaxes are 
ready for publication. 
A report was received from the Committee on the J. Lawrence Smith Fund 
signed by E. W. Morley (Chairman) stating that reports on previous grants 
were as foUows: 
No. 4. Professor C. C. Trowbridge, of the Department of Physics, Columbia Univer- 
sity, New York, has received grants amounting to $1400 to aid in the study of luminous 
trains of meteors. His lamented and untimely death in June last has put an end to this 
investigation. 
An unfinished paper on the spectra of luminous trains has been completed from his notes 
by a research assistant familiar with the whole investigation, and is now ready for submission 
to the Academy. Two other papers are to be completed in the same way: one contains a 
summary of theories hitherto advanced in explanation of meteor trains, and the other dis- 
cusses certain auroral phenomena and their relation to theories concerning meteor trains. 
Two other parts of Professor Trowbridge's research have probably not gone so far that 
they can be completed without further investigation. One concerns the drift and diffusion 
of meteor trains as bearing on the phosphorescent gas theory; the other concerns the height 
of meteor trains and its relation to the height of the atmosphere. A large amount of clas- 
sified information, arranged for convenient reference, has been collected by Professor Trow- 
bridge, which it is hoped will be utilized by some one who may interest himself in these or 
cognate matters. 
The department of physics in Columbia University has inquired what disposition shall be 
made of this material, and the committee suggest that it be forwarded to the Secretary of the 
Academy for preservation till it may become useful. We have also requested the research 
assistant of Professor Trowbridge to prepare a paper stating the nature and extent of th e in- 
formation contained in this material, which will soon be ready. 
No. 9. Professor S. A. Mitchell, University of Virginia, University, Va., has received 
grants amounting to $1500 to aid in securing observations of meteor paths and radiants, and 
in computing orbits where the observations sufl&ce. During the last year, war-time activities 
have interrupted this valuable work. It is now resumed, and the unexpended balance of the 
grant may well be sufficient for a time. 
There is now $850.39 cash in hand, as well as $2032.50 invested income^ 
making $2882.89 available for grants. 
