conferred last June on three of the research workers in the laboratory, Messrs. Raymond Haskell, Robert B. Sosman, and Morris A. Stewart.

Last May the laboratory suffered a painful loss in the sudden. death of one of its research associates, Mr. Guy W. Eastman, a man of high character and promise.

Several members of last year's research staff have accepted technical or academic positions elsewhere. Their places have been filled by the appointment to the research staff of Professor Carl L. von Ende (Ph.D., Göttingen), Mr. John Johnston (B.Sc., St. Andrews), and Mr. Roger D. Gale, (S.B., M. I. T.). Mr. Robert B. Arnold (S.B., Rose Polytechnic) enters as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Dr. Gilbert N. Lewis, who has recently been appointed Assistant Professor of Physico-Chemical Research, is acting as director of the Research Laboratory for such time as Professor Arthur A. Noyes devotes himself to the duties of the presidency of the Institute.

This year, in addition to the seminar for research reports, the members of the laboratory meet weekly under the direction. of Professors Noyes and Lewis to discuss the progress of the various investigations in the laboratory and the immediate problems to which they give rise. Two other seminars are also conducted, one by Dr. William C. Bray on Applications of Physical Chemistry to Inorganic Chemistry, and one by Professor Lewis on Free Energy and Chemical Equilibrium. These seminars are attended not only by members of the Research Laboratory, but also by many instructors and advanced students from other Departments and by several advanced students of Harvard University. The course in glass blowing is again offered by Mr. Charles A. Kraus, and the opportunity of acquiring proficiency in this useful art is being taken by a large number of men from several Departments of the Institute.

During the past year a gift of $500 has been received from the William E. Hale Research Fund. In addition, Professor

Noyes has received a grant of $2,000 from the Carnegie Institution for assistance in prosecuting the researches on the conductivity of aqueous solutions at high temperatures.

The results of the numerous investigations in this field which have already been completed in this laboratory have recently appeared in a comprehensive memoir, published by the Carnegie Institution. The work is being continued in several new directions. A new form of conductivity bomb, capable of withstanding very high pressures, has recently been constructed. In this bomb the vapor-pressures, density, and compressibility of water up to the critical point are being studied, as well as the influence of pressure upon the electrical conductivity of solutions. Closely allied investigations are being made upon electrical transference in mixed salt solutions, the solubility of salts in water at high temperatures, and the dielectric constant of water up to its critical point.

In another field of investigation which is receiving special attention in this laboratory several investigations are under way. These are directed towards the determination of the common electrode potentials, and of the free energy of important chemical reactions. Through experiments carried on during the past year Professor Lewis has succeeded in determining with precision the potential of the hydrogen electrode and its dependence upon pressure and temperature and upon the concentration of hydrogen ion. Mr. Ledyard Sargent measured by a new method the potentials between a number of common solutions, thus removing one of the chief obstacles to the exact determination of electrode potentials.

Professor Goodwin and Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus have finished an extensive investigation of the latent heat of fusion of salts, and the electrical conductivity, viscosity, and density of fused salts. They are now commencing an equally fundamental research upon the specific heats of gases at very high temperatures.

The general scheme of Qualitative Analysis, developed by Professor Noyes and Dr. Bray, is nearly completed in as far as

it concerns the common metals, and is now being extended to include the acid radicals.

Other investigations are being brought to a successful conclusion. Mr. Kraus is publishing a series of articles comprising the results of his highly original researches upon the solutions of metals in liquid ammonia. The powerful centrifugal machine for the study of electromotive forces generated in a rotating electrolyte, and the calorimeter for determining the heats of reaction at 100°, are now completed and in operation. Both pieces of apparatus were constructed with the aid of grants from the research funds of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

At the request of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers a course of lectures has been established under the Lowell Teachers School of Science on the principles of Physical Chemistry and their application in the teaching of elementary Chemistry. The lectures are being given in this laboratory by Professor Lewis, and are attended by about sixty science teachers. It is hoped that the course will serve to demonstrate, in this field also, the very practical nature of the modern ideas which are comprised in the science of Physical Chemistry.

GILBERT N. LEWIS.

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.

The Electrical Engineering Course of the Institute was the first formal course of electrical engineering study established in the country. The only other course in Electrical Engineering which rivals it in age, the one maintained at Cornell University, was established, it appears, a few months later than the course at the Institute. The first students graduating from each of these two courses were in the class of 1885. In each instance the Electrical Engineering Course was the offspring of the Physics Department and remained so for some years, with the Professor of Physics in charge of the work in Electrical Engi

neering; and the Institute is indebted to Professor Cross for the high reputation which was promptly created for the electrical engineering instruction here afforded.

The Course in Electrical Engineering was separated from the Physics Department a number of years ago. Dr. Louis Duncan was then appointed Professor of Electrical Engineering in charge of the Department of Electrical Engineering. After his resignation Professor Clifford was given acting charge of the Department. My appointment to the position of Professor of Electrical Engineering in charge of the Department was made. in the late summer of 1906, but it was provided at that time that I should not enter upon the duties of the position at the Institute before the opening of the second term. Professor Clifford kindly consented to continue his relations in charge of the Department through the first term of the Institute year then about to open.

The past Institute year signalizes the inception of some important modifications in the Electrical Engineering Course. Certain changes made in the Civil Engineering and the Mechanical Engineering Courses, especially the shifting of Applied Mechanics to an earlier place in the Courses, opened the opportunity to modify similarly the Electrical Engineering Course. The modifications were presented to the Faculty by the Department, and they have now been in large measure adopted to go into effect with second-year students during the present year. A brief statement of the proposed modifications was published in the Technology Review for July, 1907.

In considering the plan of these modifications, resort was made to the valuable advice of the visiting committee of the Corporation and the special advisory committee of the Department. The latter committee consists of Professor Elihu Thomson, Mr. Charles L. Edgar, Mr. Louis A. Ferguson (M. I. T., '88), Mr. Hammond V. Hayes, and Mr. Charles F. Scott, all distinguished and widely known electrical engineers or executives. This committee had been appointed by the Corporation in the academic year 1905-06 at the suggestion of Professor

Clifford. It was intended that the committee should serve as an advisory committee for the Department, and I have found that the members of the committee take great interest in the educational problems of the Department. I have therefore not hesitated to call upon them for counsel and advice.

The teaching staff of the Department seems to me to be reasonably well balanced, except that it is desirable to adjust the relations of the younger members of the laboratory staff so that there will be less change in the personnel at the end of each year. I think that this can be accomplished. As the advantages of the modifications in the Course become effective, I believe that the teaching will become even more effective than . heretofore. Each member of the Department who holds faculty rank has an important and absorbing field of effort which he is making his own. At the same time, measures are being put into effect to keep the instructors and assistants in touch with the more experienced teachers. The criticism that is likely to be made of the arrangement of the teaching force resides in the fact that there are relatively too many assistants in proportion to the number of men of the immediately higher ranks.

Certain changes in the teaching force followed in the train of the resignation of Professor W. L. Puffer from the position of Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, which took place in the summer of 1906 shortly before the opening of the Institute year. Professor George C. Shaad of the University of Wisconsin was appointed to fill the vacancy and to take up most of the teaching theretofore carried on by Professor Puffer. Professor Ralph R. Lawrence at the same time took undivided charge of the Electrical Engineering Laboratory. Professor Shaad was given the title of Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the time of his appointment, and he has since been advanced to the grade of Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering.

My part in the teaching at my former location (the University of Wisconsin) has of late years related mostly to the phenomena of alternating currents and alternating current ma