ANNOUNCING ...and
N O W AVAILABLE
NEWS Details concerning requirements and proposals are available from the Director, Office of Isotopes Development, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington 25, D. C.
the N E W
Infrared Spectroscopy Course
\ N U C L E A R I N S T R U M E N T
CATALOG
The tenth special summer program on the technique and applications of infrared spectroscopy will be held during the weeks of June 22 and June 29 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sponsors are the Department of Chemistry and the Spectroscopy Laboratory of MIT. This program, claimed to be the oldest of its type, is aimed at providing intensive training for research workers in chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine. Basic theoretical aspects and instrumental training are included. The first week will deal with optics and performance of infrared spectrometers, techniques for measurement of spectra and quantitative analysis, and elementary theory of molecular spectra. The second week will cover theory of absorption, interpretation of spectra, and the relation between spectra
and molecular structure. There will be lectures in the morning and laboratory work in the afternoon during each week. Lecturers will include M I T personnel and invited speakers. Full details are available from James M. Austin, Room 7-103, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 38, Mass.
Scientific Director Needed Candidates are being sought to fill the post of scientific director, Headquarters, Quartermaster Research and Engineering Command, U. S. Army, Natick, Mass. This is a permanent civil service post with a starting salary of approximately $16,500. Duties involve supervision of a $25 million research and development program devoted to improving combat soldier's clothing, food, and equipment. Degrees and top level experience in physical sciences or engineering are required. Those interested may submit Federal Employment Application Form 57 or obtain further details from the above address.
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ft D LINE of INSTRUMENTS
Criteria Proposed for Presenting Organic Electronic Spectral Data
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Few things in chemistry are more wasteful of time than the retrieval of spectral data from the literature. This arises not only from having to deal with the welter of terms, abbreviations, and incomplete data, but also, in very large part, from the indexing policy of abstracting journals of grouping all kinds of spectra—ultraviolet, visible, infrared, Raman, emission—under a single term. In Chemical Abstracts, it is necessary to look up all references listed under spectra, even though only electronic spectra are desired. Moreover, the abstract itself seldom contains actual figures but rather some such statement as "ultraviolet spectra of all compounds are given," so that now the original paper must be referred to. These contentions are supported by the following example. To look up the ultraviolet absorption spectrum of
Circle No. 6 on Readers' Service Card 42 A
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ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
acetophenone in water commencing with the 1955 index and working backwards, reference was made to "Acetophenone, spectrum of" and to "Spectra, of acetophenone." Thirty-three references were listed and had to be consulted before the spectrum was found via the 1948 index. Of these, 12 were to infrared spectra and two were to emission spectra; only 19, or 57.6%, dealt with the type of spectra desired. Of the 33 references, 31 were listed under "Acetophenone" and two under "Spectra" together with six duplicate entries there. No reason for placing only these particular eight references under "Spectra" could be discerned. For the 19 references lying in the general field desired, the abstracts gave partial data (A max and solvent) for five, gave only the solvent for five and no data for nine. None of the 19 references gave absorptivity data; it is
