c i 6 T H E J O U R N A L O F I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y . • J u l | i 9„
The regular w ork of the convention began on W ednesday morning w ith the semi-annual business meeting. The only m atter of particular interest taken up a t this m eeting was the report of a com m ittee which presented a schedule of standard dim en
sions for flange pipe fittings of all sizes, from i 1/, inches to 24 inches, both for standard weight pipe and extra h eavy pipe. These standards were prepared jo in tly b y a com m ittee of the N ational Association of Master Steam and H ot W ater F itters and a com m ittee of the Am erican Society of M echanical Engineers.
The standards w ill be printed and made available for those interested.
The Society is inaugurating a new departure in an endeavor to adequately cover a num ber of specialized fields of work, in which the m echanical engineer’s w ork has become of great im portance. Through the S ociety’s Meetings Com mittee, special com mittees are being organized, each one of them having responsibility for a certain particular branch of m echanical engineer
ing. The engineering of cem ent m anufacture is one of these branches, and the morning was spent in con
sideration of. a num ber of papers relating to this field.
NATIONAL ELECTRIC LIGHT ASSOCIATION.
The thirty-fourth convention of the N ational Electric L igh t Association, which was held at the Engineering Societies’ Building, New Y o rk , from M ay 29th to June 2nd, inclusive, broke all records for attendance, over 5,000 members and guests being registered. The m eeting was made up of 16 sessions, divided between general, commercial, technical, ac
counting and power transmission, three parallel sessions being the rule. Num erically the commercial section sessions were the m ost attractive to the dele
gates, and although the sm allest of the halls was allotted to the accounting sessions, this was not true of the attendance. In addition to the regular chapters a m eeting of the Public P olicy Com mittee was held at the New Theater, and there Mr. Samuel Insull read the set report of the com mittee, which concerned the various forms of welfare-co-partnership and insurance w ork am ong employees. This was followed b y an address b y Hon. Charles Nagle, Secretary of Com
merce and Labor, who lauded the proposals of the com m ittee, claim ing th at the adoption of them would go a long w ay tow ard w arding off unwise legislation.
SPECIAL COURSE IN HIGHWAY ENGINEERING.
The Trustees of Columbia U niversity announced a t their June meeting the establishm ent of a new course of instruction in H ighw ay Engineering and have called A rth u r H. Blanchard, of Brow n U niversity, as Professor of H ighw ay Engineering.
T he establishm ent of this course is due to the w ide
spread interest in the cause of good roads and the
PHARMACOPOEIA TRUSTEES.
The first annual m eeting of the Board of Trustees of the United States Pharm acopoeial Convention for the term of 19 10 -’ ! x was held a t Philadelphia on May 5th and 6th, w ith the full board in attendance. Prof.
James H. Beal, of Pittsburg, was elected chairman, and Dr. H enry M. W helply, of St. Louis, secretary.
The accounts of the treasurer showed that he had re
ceived a balance of $8,394 from his predecessor, the treasurer from 1900-1910. The sales of the English edition for the fiscal year ending April 30, 1911, am ounted to $6,188 and of the Spanish edition to
$1,169. Tw o hundred and ninety dollars were re
ceived as ro ya lty from the use of the text and $172 as interest, m aking the total receipts $16,213. The total expenditures, including the expenses for the convention of 1910, amounted to $7,874, leaving a cash balance on hand of $8,339.
INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CONGRESS.
The International A gricultural Congress has decided th at the tenth Congress shall take place in Belgium in 1913. A prelim inary m eeting will be held in Paris n ext year.
The Rum ford Prize of the Am erican Academy of A rts and Sciences was awarded to Prof. J. M. Crafts for his studies in high tem perature thermometry at the recent annual m eeting of the Academ y.
Prof. Jacques Loeb, of the R ockefeller Institute, has been elected a correspondent of the Academy cf N atural Sciences of Philadelphia.
The fourteenth annual meeting of the American Society for Testing M aterials was held in Atlantic City, June 27th to Ju ly 1st.
T he annual m eeting of the National Commercial Gas Association w ill be held on October 23, 191 r, in Denver, Colo.
The International A cetylene Association will hold its annual m eeting in A ugust, 191 r.
need of a closer scientific stu d y of the various prob
lems involved in road m aterials and c o n s tr u c tio n .
It is believed th at system atic instruction in the funda
m ental principles of highw ay engineering will lead to
standardization and im provement.
T he success of this course in H ighw ay Engineering has been insured b y the gift of $10,000 annually for five years from Mr. Charles H. Davis, C.E., ’87.
EDUCATIONAL
T H E J O U R N A L O F I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y .
EUROPEAN SCHOOL STATISTICS.
Consul General T. St. John Gaffney reports th at there
are 465,451 schools w ith 45,500,000 pupils in Europe,
p r e s i d e d over b y 1,119,413 teachers. A ccording to
the average, there is 1 teacher to every 45 scholars.
Twelve years ago there was only 1 teacher for every 60 scholars. The num ber of teachers in Russia is about 195,000, while those in G erm any num ber 168,- 000. In Russia there is 1 teacher to every 644 in
habitants, and in G erm any there is r teacher to 361.
In England there are 177,500 teachers occupied, which allows 1 teacher to every 234 inhabitants. In Germany there are 3 illiterates to each 1,000 of popula
tion, while in England the reare 10. The most illiter
ates are to be found in Russia, where there are 617 to every 1,000 inhabitants. In G erm any 68 per cent., of the attendance a t the schools is composed of children between the ages of 5 and 15; in Russia the average is only 27 per cent.
Mr. T. C. DuPont has given $500,000 to the Mass
achusetts Institute of Technology tow ard its proposed new site. Announcement is also made of a trust fund of between five hundred and six hundred thousand dollars, created b y Francis B. Greene some five years ago, for the assistance of students, and $500,000 from the bequest of Mrs. Em m a Rogers, widow of W illiam B. Rogers, the first president of the institute. These large gifts, in addition to the $100,000 for ten years appropriated b y the state, will make it possible for the institute to purchase a new site and erect the necessary buildings.
Governor Foss has signed the bill b y which the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will receive
$100,000 annually from the state for ten years. B y the terms of the measure the Institute will maintain 80 free scholarships to be apportioned am ong the 40 senatorial districts of the state.
The H. F. K ieth Com pany, of Boston, have g.ven
$5,000 to the Massachusetts In stitute of Technology, for a research on the decomposition and general
wholesomeness of eggs and for an investigation of the bacterial and chemical content of the product under varyin g conditions.
Dr. Bertram B. Boltwood, professor of radio- chem istry at Y ale U niversity, was elected to member
ship in the Am erican Philosophical Society a t its recent meeting, as was also Dr. A. A. Noyes, professor of physical chem istry a t M assachusetts In stitute of Technology.
Dr. Theodore W illiam Richards, professor of chem
istry a t H arvard, who is going to England a t the invitation of the Chem ical Society to deliver the F araday lecture, will be given the honorary degree of D Sc. b y the U niversity of Manchester on July 8th.
During his presence in New Y o rk C ity Dr. Svante Arrhenius lectured at the College uf the C itv of New Y o rk on the afternoon of M ay 17 th, at the C henusts’
Club on the evening of M ay 17th and at Crium bia U niversity on M ay 18th.
Prof. Charles H. Fult->n has resigned the presidency of the South D akota bchuul of Mines, Rapid City, S. D., and is goin'.' to the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland. Ohio, as professor of m etallurgy and head of its mining departm ent.
Lieut. Col. W. Robinson, of the U. S. A rm y, has been nominated by President T a ft to be professor of chem
istry at West Point com mencing October, 1911, to succeed Col. S. E. Tillm an who will retire then.
Dr. W. F. W atson, professor of chem istry and biology in Furm an U niversity, Greenville, S. C., has resigned the chair which he has occupied since 1890.
Dr. C. F. Mabery, professor of chem istry in the Case School of A pplied Science, has resigned the chair which he has held since 1883.
OBITUARIES
NATHANIEL WRIGHT LORD.1 1854— M ay 23. 1911.
Nathaniel W right Lord, b o m a t Cincinnati, Ohio, December 26, 1854, sprang from a notable ancestry.
His father was H enry Clark Lord, a man prom inent
*** the business and political life of his time, and son of Nathan Lord, for m any years President of D art
mouth College; his m other E liza B urnet W right, a
"■oman of rare vigor and ability.
Professor Lord’s education was begun in the public schools of his native city, and their training, de
veloped by a year of searching review under an
ex-Memorial adopted b y th e F a c u lty of O hio S ta te U n iv ersity in special sttson y ay 24 191,
acting foreign tutor of rare gifts, was enlivened b y frequent boyish forays into fields of natural history.
Hence, the rigorous course in m ining engineering taken 1872-76 a t Columbia College School of Mines caused him no difficulty. N ext came a year of hard
ship in Central Am erican mining, which nearly cost him his life. Upon his return and recovery the young engineer was appointed, N ovem ber 6, 1878, State A n alyst at Ohio State U niversity. On June 18, 1879, the Departm ent of Mining and M etallurgy was en
trusted to him, and remained under his control until the end of his life.
Professor L ord’s professional career was largely developed in the service of this institution. His
T H E J O U R N A L O F I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y . July, i9„
earliest engineering experience as the chem ist and technical director of a Gold Mining Com pany in Nicaragua, though it had been of great service in de
veloping his pow er and self-confidencc in the applica
tion of science to engineering, yet had given him little reputation. In the new position his ab ility and energy were soon recognized. He became, in 1883, chemist of the Geological Su rvey of Ohio, contributing in addition to his chem ical reports valuable chapters on the iron industry and on the differentiation of the coal seams of the state b y novel methods. His grasp of these subjects was so m asterly th at he became a national auth ority on fuels and fuel-testing, and for the past eight years has been chief chem ist or consulting expert of the Technologic Branch of the U nited States Geological Survey, now the Bureau of Mines.
Upon the College of Engineering, Professor Lord has left an enduring mark. As its first Dean, be
ginning in 1896, he carried it through its form ative period, and left it w ith policies and ideals well crystal
lized. His sane and practical mind rejected instantly everything th at savored of show or pretense. A s in his engineering, so every educational plan must rest upon a solid foundation. His constant struggle was to ground his students thoroughly— well assured th at upon such a foundation th ey would erect a secure superstructure. His teaching was a constant appeal to the reason, and to the constructive imagination.
To see him w ith a class a tta ck a problem new to both was a rare experience.
Combined w ith his power and inspiration as a teacher, was his pre-eminent ab ility as an investigator.
The training of the chemical laboratory, where every
thing m ust be accounted for, gave to his n aturally incisive thinking processes a precision and analytical power most unusual. No man could w ith more un
erring certain ty strip a com plicated problem of its
disguises and la y bare its fundamental principles.
No field of science upon which he touched failed to profit in some enduring w ay from his ever active mind.
No man could associate w ith him in any capacity w ithout adm iring him ; his large mind and generous spirit had no room for anyth in g little or sordid.
Creditable, useful, even brilliant, as m any of his con
tributions to science and engineering have been, his influence on his students and on his colleagues is the signal proof of his greatness.
T o the ve ry last he was a man of diversified interests and continually entered upon new pursuits with char
acteristic enthusiasm.
Professor Lord was a man of marked intellectual vigor. His mind was no less judicial than analytical,
’ He thought clearly and spoke with logical precision.
In action he was prom pt, decided and fearless. His moral convictions rested upon reason rather than upon auth ority or tradition.
W ith the reserve of a gentlem an who permitted no undue fam iliarity, he yet remained essentially demo
cratic, and no one felt humbled in his presence.
H onesty was fearless before him. To those who won his confidence, he was a loyal friend and a wise counsel
lor.
In the death of Professor Lord this Faculty mourns the loss, not merely of their colleague of longest un
broken service, bu t of the brilliant man of science, the incisive and powerful teacher, the keen yet broad
minded counsellor, the vigilant and strong supporter of the university, the loyal citizen, delightful com
panion and generous friend, the man of rare quality, originality and broad interest, whose place in the hearts of those who knew him intim ately, can never be filled. S. C. D e r b y,
W i l l i a m R. L a z e n b y, E d w a r d O r t o n, Jr.