398 
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
Brig. -General Marlborough Churchill, Military Intelligence Division, U. S. A. 
Major-General Wm. L. Sibert, Director, Chemical Warfare Service, U. S. A. 
Brig. General Clarence C. Williams, Acting Chief of Ordnance, U. S. A. 
Comfort A. Adams, President, American Institute of Electrical Engineers. 
Philip N. Moore, Past President, American Institute of Mining Engineers. 
A. A. Stevenson, Past President, American Society for Testing Materials. 
George S. Webster, American Society of Civil Engineers. 
Generals Churchill, Sibert, and Williams automatically become members 
of the Military Division; Messrs. Adams, Moore, Stevenson, and Webster were 
elected members of the Engineering Division to represent the Societies as 
indicated. 
Paul B rocket t was elected Assistant Secretary of the National Research 
Council. 
The franking privilege was extended to the Committee on Patents, the 
Camouflage Committee, and the Committee on Neurology and Psychiatry, for 
official correspondence. 
Mr. Hale requested in a telegram that all persons holding office connected 
with the National Research Council should take the 'oath of office' and the 
Interim Committee has directed that this be done. 
The appointment of the Committee on Nitrate Investigations was reported 
and it was decided to report to the Executive Board the official authorization 
of this Committee contained in the following letter: 
April 16, 1918. 
From: The Acting Chief of Ordnance. 
To: Mr. Edward R. Stettinius, Second Assistant Secretary of War. 
Subject: Plan for organizing nitrate investigations. 
1. Under date of March 30 the National Research Council submitted to you a plan for 
organizing nitrate investigations. This plan was referred by you to the Ordnance De- 
partment and by direction of the acting chief of ordnance was the subject of conference 
between the officials of the Nitrate Division and Drs. Hale, Johnston, and Noyes of the 
National Research Council. 
2. The following report is submitted as a joint recommendation: 
It is our opinion that the best method of securing the desired cooperation is for the Sec- 
retary of War to request the National Research Council to designate two or more research 
men, who shall be appointed Consulting Chemists to the Ordnance Department, and who, 
together with the officer in charge of the Research Section of the Nitrate Division (now 
Lieutenant Colonel A. H. White), shall constitute a small executive committee whose duties 
shall be (a) to survey the researches now in progress, (b) to plan further investigation re- 
lating to nitrogen-fixation processes, (c) to arrange for the active prosecution of such inves- 
tigations, and (d) to exercise close oversight over their progress; the actions taken by this 
committee and the allotment of funds recommended to it to be subject to the approval 
of the Chief of the Nitrate Division. 
It has been arranged that, if this request be made, the Council will designate as Chair- 
man of the Committee, Arthur A. Noyes, Chairman of the Nitrate Supply Committee 
appointed by the Secretary of War, and Director of the Research Laboratory of Physical 
Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and as second member of the 
Committee, John Johnston, Executive Secretary of the National Research Council and 
