theoretically, This may prove to be of fantastic significance for biology and all that turns on organic molecules and their behavior. It would seem that we are on the verge of such a breakthrough now. It is likely that it will be some time before the technique is sufficiently widespread and enough chemists have been educated in its use to have major impact on the average research, but it seems likely to come. Management in Full Light of Chemical Knowledge and Understanding. Every single technical program, whether i t be primarily chemical in nature or- not, such as atomic weapons and atomic energy on the one hand or the space program on the other, owe enormous debts to ehemistry. Not the least of the contributions is the chemical leadership given by men like Dr. Seaborg, Dr. Hornig, and Dr. Kistiakowsky in guiding these programs. (All of these distinguished gentlemen are chemists of the first rank.) Many of the largest corporations have chemists in high positions although they are not primarily chemical companies. The broad knowledge essential to a chemical career is a major asset in technical management problems. All of this will come about only if students in the high schools and in the colleges believe and are excited by the problems and possible discoveries and opportunities. Only if they come to rank these with other great adventures, and want to join in the attack; only if these things are true will our chemical future be a bright one. It seems to me, in short, that we must do everything
to assure this. When enrollments in our sciences falter, we should do everything to assure that they rise to the necessary level. Totalitarian societies have an advantage in this respect which we must be careful not to forget. Scientists have a way of talking to one another and not to the public in general and as a result there is a tendency for important work to be ignored for years and worse still for the understanding of how the work was actually done never to be brought out to help in the teaching of the subject. It is, therefore, of extreme importance that we improve scientific education by helping the teachers not only a t the college but also a t the high school level to impart the exeitement of ehemistry and seience in general so that the value of science, and ehemistry in particular, can be transmitted to their precious young charges. To be absolutely honest and practical we must try to interest the young student in science, and chemistry in particular, by showing him'the exeitement and wonderful thrill of discovery itself. We must show him how absolutely enthralled the top chemists have been during their active lives, and how productivity has aecompanied this devotion to the seience for its own sake and not just for its usefulness to mankind. For as useful as seience is to soeiety, this is not the reason seientists join up. It is the reason soeiety supports them and their effort, but it is not the reason they take up the challenge. There is no substitute for the burning curiosity about nature which only scientific research can assuage for young seientists. The teacher must remember this always. Only inspirational teaching can suffice.
Description of Fahrenheit's Thermometer Fahrenheit's thermometer consists of a slender cylindrical tube and a small longitudinal bulb. T o the side of the tube is annexed a scale which Fahrenheit divided into 600 parts, beginning with that of the severe cold which he had observed in Iceland in 1709, or that produced by surrounding the bulb of the thermometer with a mixture of snow or beaten ice and sal ammoniac or sea salt. This he apprehended to be the greatest degree of cold, and accordingly he marked it, as the beginning of his scale, with 0; the point a t which mercury begins to boil, he conceived to show the greatest degree of heat, and this he made the limit of his scale. The distance between these two points he divided into 600 equal parts or degrees; and by trials, he found that the mercury stood a t 32 of these divisions, when water just begins to freeze, or snow or ice just begins to thaw; i t was therefore called the degree of the freezing point. When the tube was immersed in boiling water, the mercury rose to 212, which therefore is the boiling point, and is just 180 degrees above the former or freezing point. But the present method of making the scale of these thermometers, which is the sort in most common use, is first to immerge [sic] the bulb of the thermometer in ice or snow just beeinnine to thaw. and mark the ulace where the mercurv, stands wiili H .{2, ihrn iiiiitiergt- 11 i i i lmilini; w;irf-r,a i d a&ain mark ihi- plan- w l i i ~ t -the rwrcury -tatid> i t I n k , wl.idi mark wiih the- i i i n n . 212, rxcrcding ihc I'uriticr h\- 1a0, ilividn.t; tlicrcforc i h c iiiwrmeiliair -Â¥'pact 11.10 IS0 c.lual part,, will i;ivc the si-alc nf t i n 1 tht-rinimrrer, a n d which u . q afterwards be continued upwards and downwards a t pleasure. ~~
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. .From Encyclopaedia Britannica, first American edition, Thomas Dobson, Philadelphia, 1798, pp. 496-7, Vol. XVIII. (Provided by Dr. DANIEL B. MURPHY, Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York, 10468.)
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Journal of Chemical Educofion
