IS A HIGH-SCHOOL CHEMISTRY CLUB WORTH WHILE? Although much time and effort are required, a high-school chemistry club can be of great aid to the department by providing model plants and mineral collections, by raising money for moving picture machines,films, etc., and by sup$+ ing other equipment of lasting value. Some of the major projects carried out during the @st feu, years by the Bloom$eld High School Chemistry Club are described.
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Many chemistry teachers are skeptical concerning the value of a chemistry club. Occasionally I hear one say that he has tried it and felt that for the time and effort required, it was not worth while. That has not been
our experience. Although we admit that it requires much time and planning, we feel that our club has more than justified its existence. The Bloomfield High School Chemistry Club was started shortly after the end of the World War. Incidentally, the first president was a young man who had fought with the Marines in France. Feeling that his education was not satisfactory, he returned to our school a t the age of twentyfour and prepared for entrance to a technical college. At that time the club boasted of about twenty members. Today we have a hundred, the largest club in the school. Our meetings are of the usual type. There are talks by men from various chemical plants, demonstrations by club members, moving pictures of chemical operations, etc. Our activities are many. We make visits to industrial factories. The club furnishes a prize medal twice a year to the member of the graduating 2238
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class who has made the highest average in chemistry. All of these things are excellent, hut we feel that the projects carried out are the most valuable, and it is to these that we owe most of our success. The first project of the club consisted in making frames for charts. pictures, chemical trees (coal tar, etc.) to he hung in the lecture hall. As time went on, we became more ambitious. We decided that we wanted Dr. Edwin Slosson from Washington to speak to the students, their parents, and friends. Dr. Slosson's visit was the topic of conversation for weeks. It gave us publicity and acted as a strong impetus. This lecture strained o&financial resou&es to the limit, and we had to go slowly for a while.
3.-NITRIC FIGURE
ACID PLANT
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NovEawER. 1931
With the inauguration of the American Chemical Society Prize Essay contest, we realized that we should have a more extensive chemical library. Within two years we raised a hundred and fifty dollars, with which we bought books. Many of our students wrote essays, and we won three state prizes. For those teachers whose Boards of Education will not furnish the money, or for those who can use model plants and other equipment for which they do not care to ask authorities, our other projects may be of interest. EDUCATION Using Dr. Dennis' plans as given in the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL in the October, 1929, issue (modified to some extent) a group of our boys built a model sulfuric acid plant, a picture of which is shown in Figure 1. The diagram, Figure 2, is drawn to scale. Except for one or two parts, it is made of cast-iron piping and fittings. In the contact chamber we used platinized asbestos. The total cost exclusive of the pump, which we already had, was sixty-five dollars. The good feature about the plant is that it works. To accompany this model plant, another group assembled a companion apparatus to prepare nitric acid synthetically, using a Model T Ford spark coil, a Ford spark plug, and a large glass bottle and stopper. This is shown in Figure 3. Many of the boys and some of the girls are interested in the slide-rule. As the club furnished the money, an eight-foot demonstration rule is now permanent equipment in the lecture hall. At present a group is working on an apparatus to show the effect of ultra-violet rays on crystals. As zinc ores are especially sensitive to these rays, it will be of extra interest in this locality. Still another group is helping to get ores for a permanent layout of the various sources of the metals. This year we have bought a modem moving-picture machine at a cost of over two hundred dollars. Moreover, we have selected one that can be converted at small cost for use with sound when needed. With the machine we purchased films on the subjects of steel and sulfur. As time goes on, we shall add more films which can be used to supplement the work in the classroom and laboratory. As to the future, we are looking for new worlds to conquer. As the club is getting large, and as the members have so many diversified interests, we shall probably copy the arrangement of the American Chemical Society and have several sections according to special bents, such as photography, mineralogy, etching, etc. Mr. Paul M. Mazur points out that "The world is now only at the threshold of industrial and commercial expansion. The possibilities of new markets and new indnstries become overwhelming if even the slightest increase is e5ected in the demands of all men and women." Such is the faith behind engineering research.-WILLIS R. WEITrnY
