2008
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
NOVEMBRK, 1929
A CHEMISTRY CLUB'S CONTRIBUTION TO ITS UNIVERSITY Every school and university organization likes to feel that it has made some permanent and tangible contribution to the institution of which it is a part. Every worthwhile organization does make intangible contributions which are doubtless far more valuable than any material gifts which it could bestow. Yet there is an additional satisfaction in being able to point to some concrete object of value which commemorates the club or class of which one has been a member. The opportunities for chemistry clubs in this respect are numerous. Special pieces of apparatus which the institution cannot afford to buy or which, though desirable, would he used too little in regular course work to justify the expenditure, may sometimesbe constructed a t relatively small cost for materials. The writer has personal knowledge of one small group of students in a high-school physics class which built and presented to the institution a very creditable X-ray outfit. The physics department purchased the X-ray tube, but every other unit of the set was constructed by the students. Incidentally, this apparatus was applicable to other uses, such as Tesla coil experiments, etc. Other groups have, over a period of years, made or accumulated valuable collections of wall charts, tables, diagrams, etc., and of lantern slides and other projection material. Still others have undertaken to care for and add to museum collections to be used for instruction and for general educational display. Further possibilities are represented by scrapbooks or files of magazine articles and pictures relating to chemicals and chemical processes which are studied in the chemistry course. Clubs may also contribute magazine subscriptions and popular books on chemistry to build up a library for themselves and future students. Nor should we overlook the value of gifts which might properly be classed as esthetic rather than utilitatian in purpose. Good prints or photographs of famous chemists or other chemical subjects suitably glassed and framed are worthwhile adornments to any classroom or laboratory. Of this order also are the wide variety of decorative or memorial plaques which find appropriate place in the halls of science. (One such plaque-that presented to the new chemistry laboratory of the University of Ohio by the first-year chemistry classes of 192G-27-was p. 332.) described and pictured in the February, 1929, JOURNAL, The accompanying illustration shows the allegorical bas-relief presented to the chemistry laboratory of the University of Cincinnati by the student chemists' club. It was purchased for the club in Germany by Prof. R. E. Oesper who has kindly furnished us with the photograph here reproduced. The panel is a galvano-plastic of light metal, probably silver-plated, and mounted in a dark wooden frame.
The title is "Art and Science." Mankind, represented as an old man, seated on the Sphinx, "The Eternal Riddle," is peering over the Sea of Ignorance, whose waves vainly dash against the foundations of the Temple of Learning. The blindfold over his eyes is being removed by Science, while her assistant Art is noting the new revelations. A pyramid is faintly seen in the right background, typifying the endurance of scientific achievement. Prof. Oesper has fnrnished us with information as to the cost of the plaque as well as with the name and address of the manufacturer. This information we will be glad to transmit to interested readers upon request.
