I
Correspondence ADVICE FROM A STUDENT
Take a course in glass-blowing. Any man who expects to make chemistry his life work, whether he expects to teach or to practice industrial chemistry, will find a course in glass-blowing very helpful. The writer has recently completed such a course in Syracuse University and has already found it to be very beneficial in work done in the laboratory, and also to be extremely interesting. There is a great amount of satisfaction to be derived from being able to fashion a broken piece of apparatus or a few scraps of glass tubing into a useful article. In research work a man who has a knowledge of glass-blowing is always a handy man to have in the laboratory, and the student who is able to repair or construct simple pieces of apparatus will often find chances to pick up pin-money in this way. Many students spend their summer vacations working in industrial laboratories. Again a knowledge of glassblowing is extremely helpful. Laboratory technic often marks the good chemist, and the ability to handle glass apparatus properly is just the thing to better one's "technic." Syracuse University offers a full-year course which requires about three hours per week, and for which one credit hour is given. The text used is Frary, Taylor, and Edwards' "Laboratory Glass Blowing," published by the McGraw-Hill Book Company.* The course includes all fundamental operations such as the making of T-tubes, inner seals, and glass to metal seals, and then takes up more advanced operations such as silvering, stopcock grinding, etc. A little work in metal soldering is also given. This course is required by the University for the degree of B.S. in chemistry. Colgate University has provided a space for glass-blowing purposes in the basement of its new McGregory Hall of Chemistry, and expects to develop a course within the near future. Many universities, such as Cornell and Chicago, offer informal courses for which the student must pay an extra fee to the instructor. These courses do not give any college credit, but the student will find i t well worth his time and money to take advantage of them. STUART GRAVES SYEACUSBUNIVBBSITI SYX-*CUSS.NEW PORK
*For a review of the second edition of this book, published in 1928, see J. CHEW.
E~uc.,5, 903 (July. 1928). 971
