concerned with the production problems of those plants. Then there are the lamp development and illuminating engineering laboratories a t Cleveland, specializing in incandescent lamps and illumination. What research has meant in the case of the General Electric Company is shown by a glance a t the products of the Schenectady works, just one of the company's plants. Two-fifths of the production them last year was in apparatus developed since the World War-apparatus not manufactured by the company a decade ago. Chief among these, of course, were radio and electric refrigerating apparatus. A quarter of a century ago the industrial experimental laboratoty was itself an experiment. Today it occupies a firmly established and most important position in accelerating the progress of American industry.
A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF ERROR IN RAPID WEIGHING Static electricity may be a nuisance in the chemical laboratory as well as to radio fans. In this laboratory appreciable errors in weighing have been noted which may be accounted for by static electrical effects. In rapid weighing, when using a watch glass on the balance pan, the watch glass is dried between weighings by rubbing with a dry towel. This gives rise to a static electrical charge which may be a source of error, especially if a metal spatula is used for transferring the solid being weighed, and this spatula is not removed from the immediate vicinity of the watch glass when making a weighing. We have observed as much as nine milligrams difference in the weight of the object when the spatula is directly above the watch glass and when it is removed. Of course, this error is not created if the spatula is removed before a final balance is made. This static charge also proves to be a nuisance when weighing fluffy solids, as they are repelled from the watch glass and from each other much as pith balls repel each other when charged alike. Both of these disadvantages may be avoided by first grounding the surface of the watch glass by touching various points on the rim with the metal spatula before the solid being weighed is placed on the watch glass. These static effects are most pronounced on dry, cold days and especially if the balances are located in a dry, cool place as they are a t this institution.
Chinese Tung Oil Exports. A cable dated May 4th, from U. S. A. Consul General
F.P. Lockhart, Hankow, reports the total April tung oil exports from Hankow as 7,694,160 lb., of which 6,722,000 lb. were shipped to the United States and 972,160 lb. to Europe. Stocks of oil at Hankow at the end of the month were estimated at approximately 3500 short tons.-Chem. Age, 20, 554 (June 8, 1929).
