Dedication of the Chemistry Building at Princeton UniversityAuthor(s): William FosterSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 29, No. 5 (Nov., 1929), pp. 478-480Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/14700 .

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478 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

DEDICATION OF THE CHEMISTRY BUILDING AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

DISTINGUISiED scientists met at Princeton, New Jersey, September 26, 27 and 28, 1929, to attend the dedication of the new laboratory, and to be present at the international conference on catal- ysis and the mechanism of chemical reactions.

At 12:30 P. M., on September 26, the academic procession marched to the auditorium of the laboratory, and, fol- lowing the singing of "America," Charles Z. Klauder, the architect, pre- sented the symbolic key of the building to President Hibben. Mr. Klauder pointed out that one prominent feature of the laboratory is the centrally located stockroom.

President Hibben accepted the key for the university, saying that the laboratory would not be justified if the university had not had at its disposal the recently completed fund of 3,000,-

000 for research in pure science, and if it did not have men capable of conduct- ing excellent research.

Professor Hugh S. Taylor, chairman of the department of chemistry, then delivered the ehief address. He said that the successive laboratories at Princeton had covered the whole epocl of modern chemistry, and closed his address as follows: "We are indeed fortunate here that ways have been de- vised to ensure close cooperation be- tween the sciences and, by reason of that cooperative effort, we are drawing ever- inereasing numbers of students to our graduate schools from all parts of the world. We commend especially to the parents and guardians of our Princeton undergraduates a serious consideration of the rich opportunities for scientific training which Princeton now offers in contrast with earlier decades, and we

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THE NEW CHMSTYBILIG TPINEO

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T tlE lIl()GRtQl4SS OF SC(IENCE 479

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PROFES'SOR \ALX BOD)ENSTEIN DIIRECTOR OFRI]E INSTITUTE OF PHYSICAL CJEMr ISTRY AT TIIE UNIVER;SITry OF BERLIN, WIIO PRE- SEN-EI) 1is \\WOIR1K ON CATALYTIC OXIDATION OF

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PROFESSOR KAkRL F. BO3NHOIOEFER OF TIHE KAISER Wl IIEI,b\L INSTITUTE, DISCOVEtZER 01F 1'Al XAIXYDRO(GEN, ) 110H PRESENTFD A REPORT OF

I-I1IX WORK.

bespeak their counisel anld eclcourage- ment to their sons seriously to consider the opportunities to which they are heir. In return for their labors we offer them a life in science rich in its satisfactioni, full, scholarly and enduring. 'Non est mortutus qpti scientiani, vivificavit.'

At the close of Professor Taylor's ad- (Iress the honorary deg,ree of D. Sc.

PROFESSOR M POLANYI 01 TIIE KALIER WIL.EL IN STITUTE, WO PRE SENTED A PAXPEII ON ATOM'I(C REACTIIONS I-N IIIGhLY

DILUTE FLA~MES.

(Doctor of Sciencle) w as conf eirred by the university on the f ollow ing visiting chemists: Professor Mlax Bodenstein, director of the Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut, Berlini, Germany; Professor F. G. Donnan, F.R.S., University of Lon- don; Sir James C. Irvine, principal of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland; Dr. Irvincg Lanogmuir, assistant director of the re- searchi laboratories, General Electric Company, Schenectady, N. Y., and Pro- fessor Jean B. Perrin, director of the Laboratoire de Chimie-Plysiqie, Paris.

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480 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

The exercises wvere concluded by Dean Robert R. Wicks, of the University Chapel, who proniounced a prayer and benedictioln, and by the singing of "Old Nassau. "

The guests were eintertained at lunceh- eon at the Princeton 1111, and in the afterlnoon the ladies of the chemistry department held a receptioln in the library of the laboratory.

On the evening of the same dav Pro- fessor F. G. Donnan, of the University of Lonidoni, gave a public lecture on "The Applicatioll of Physical Chem- istry to Chemical Industry with Special Rteference to Catalysis."

The Chenmical Laboratory and equip- nient cost over $1,500,000. In addition to offices anid laboratories of faculty menmbers, it has nine large laboratories and thirty smaller onies, the fornmer be- inig for undergraduates and the latter for men engaged in research.

The small laboratories have very little permanent apparatus in them, and are so arranged that any type of equipment may be employed from time to time. Every room has outlets for all types o f electric current; and steam, gas, hot and cold water, and compressed air are piped to every room.

The main lecture room is completely equipped, and can be darkened easily and quickly by touching a button. The library is comfortably furnished; it con- tains two fireplaces which are attract- ively panelled, and above them are in- scribed the following mottoes:

FELIX QVI POTVIT RERVAM COGNOSCERE CAVSAS

" Happy is lie Awlo hath learined the wheniee and wherefore of thingo s '' (Ver- gil, Georgies, II, 490) ; anid

NON EST AMORTATVS QVI SCIENTIAM VIVIFICAVIT

"He is n-ot dead wA-ho hatlh given new life to knowledge." (Quoted by Richard de Bury, Philobiblon, Chal. 19, from Amagest of Ptolemy the Matlhematicialn, who lived about 139 A. D. The original work, in Greek, lhas beeln lost.)

At the conifereniee oni catalysis and the mechaniism of chemical reactionis the following papers were read and dis- cussed:

Chemical and Electrical Pr-operties of Ad- sorbed Films on Tungsten: DR. IRVING LANG- AluIr, of the Genieral Electric Company.

The Mechanism of the Catalytic Oxidation of Ammonia: PROFESSORa MAX PODENSTEIN, of the Un-iversity of Berlin.

Fluorescence and the P-oblem of Negative Catalysis: DR. FRANCIS PERRIN, of Paris.

Trace Catalysis and Chain Reactions: C. N. HINSHELWOOD, of Triniity College, Oxford, EIn- gland.

Atomic Reactions anid Luniinescence in ighly Diltte Flames: PROFESSOR M. POLANYI, of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut, Bellin.

Parahydrogen, Atomic Hydrogen and the Mechanism of Flame Reaction1s: DRS. K. F. BONHOEFFEPL an1d P. HARTECK, of the Kaiser Wilhelm Ilnstitut, Berlini.

Finally, Professor -Hugh S. Taylor summarized the follow-ing commrunica- tions:

"The Historical D)evelopment and Theory of Ammoniia Synthesis," by Drs. A. Mittasch and Frankenburger, of the I. G. Laboratories, Oppau, Germany, and "Kineties and Adsorption at Conitact Surfaces," by Drs. IH. Mark, Dohse anid Kdlberer, of the I. G. Laboratories, Lud- wigshaf eni, Ger many.

WILLIAM FOSTER

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