m Contemporary News in Chemistry and Education I INDIANA UNIVERSITY'S NEW CHEMISTRY BUILDING*

Indiana University takes its origin from the State Seminary which was established a t Bloomington in 1820. Instruction in natural philosophy and chemistry was given a t Indiana in 1829 by P~oaEssoR J. H. H a ~ v e u . A lab- oratory, one of the first west of the Allegheny Mountains, was provided in 1841, and the first full-time professor of chemistry a t Indiana. Thomas C. Van Nuys, M.D., was appointed in 1874.

Wylie Hall, one of two original brick

renewal and further development of our program of expansion.

General Plans

The appearance of the north front of the structure, with two of the five en- trances, is illustrated in the accompanying sketch and the general arrangement is shown in the cut* of the first-floor plan, which is typical of all floors.

The building is constructed of concrete faced with buff Oolitic limestone and has

buildings on the present campus, has been the home of the department of chemistry from the date of erection, 1884. The growth of the department long ago exceeded the capacity and facilities which this building provided.

In the period 1886-1930, a total of 782 degrees have been granted in chemistry: A.B., 604; A.M., 157; Ph.D., 21. The number of students enrolled in chemistry in the year 1929-30 was 1959, including 26 chemistry majors in the graduate school.

I t is with pardonable pride that the chemistry department will soon be able to move into comrnodioua, modernly equipped quarters which will permit the -

*The formal opening and dedication will be held in Bloomington on April 2 . 1931, in connec- tion with the 81rt meeting of the Division of Chemical Education of the A. C. S .

the form of the letter E with a five and one-half foot service basement under the entire area. Machine room space for electric transformers, water heater, air compressor, etc., is provided in a sub- basement; equipment for the production and distribution of distilled water has been placed in the pent house. The roof construction is such that the openings from exhaust fans and the pent house are not visible from the ground level.

The central portion of the E, fronting north, is 192 feet long by 72 feet wide and four stories in height. The two-story auditorium projection to the south is 60 feet by 55 feet and the wings, the top and bottom of the E, each three stories, are 100 feet by 42 feet. By extending

*Cuts by courtesy of architect, Robert Frost Daggett, Indianapolis.

CONTEMPORARY NEWS

these wings additional space may be provided in the future without changing the present installations.

The building, which has a total cuhage of 1,255,154 cubic feet and a gross floor area aggregating 85,850 square feet, has been erected and provided with mechanical equipment for heating, venti- lating, plumbing, electric power, light and elevator, inclusive of architects' and engineers' fees, for $505,91800. or forty cents per cubic font.

The laboratories for each of the major divisions of chemistry, general, analytical, physical, and organic, occupy the central portion of the building, have north light and are grouped about a central stock- room on each floor. The stockrooms, in turn, are connected by elevator with the main supply and receiving rooms on the ground floor. Special dispensing rooms and conference rooms are located betwccn the two laboratories provided for general and also for organic chemistry.

Smaller laboratories are provided for advanced inorganic, industrial and bio- chemistry, gas, spectrum, palariscopic and micro analysis, catalysis, chemical microscopy, zymochemistry, conductivity, metallurgy, high-temperature furnaces.

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and electrochemistry, including storage batteries.

In addition twenty-three research rooms for graduate students are distributed throughout the building and each in- structor has been provided with a lab- oratory and office. The departmental library adjoins the general office on the ground floor at the west entrance. Three lecture rooms, each with a seating ca- pacity of one hundred ten, are provided in the west wing. The auditorium is equipped with 350 tablet-arm opera chairs on the main floor and 150 in the balcony. These rooms have wood floors laid on rock wool and have received special attention as to acoustical treat- ment, lighting, and projection equipment.

Provision has been made for a seminar and staff conference, or social purpose room on the first floor, a chemical mu- seum a t the entrance to the auditorium, a dark room, Kjeldahl room, shop, and vaults for storage of platinum ware and of alcohol.

Special Features

Lebomtory Furniture. The desks are built of wood. Alberene stone taps are provided on those for general, qualitative.

394 JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION FEBRUARY, 1931

quantitative, and organic chemistry. Master-keyed, changeable combination locks have been used on the desk drawers and cupboards. Both A. c. and D. C.,

110-volt, and battery current have been ~rovided on laboratory desks where required. Individual student panels carrying a switch, fuses, and binding posts are installed on those desks.

Plumbing. Duriron pipe has been used for all laboratory waste lines and the dilution tank. Ceramic sinks, lead traps, lead troughs, and buffed red metal plumbing fixtwes have been used through- out. Block tin lines with burned joints and tinned cocks have been provided for distilled water distribution.

Hood Ventilation. Transite wall hoods of the open Cornell type have been used throughout, except in the qualitative Inboratory, where Sheel downdraft table hoods are installed. The hoods are served by Duriron blade fans, located in the attic, through ducts equipped with adjustable, locking dampers to permit equalization of the pull. The vertical, inaccessible, fume hood ducts are constructed of Knight tile; other duct work is of copper-bearing steel, lead- plated and gilsonite-coated a t the time of installation. The movement of all air in the building is toward the hoods, thereby reducing to a minimum diiusion from laboratories into the corridors.

Electrical Installation. The electric furnace laboratory is equipped with a transformer which will furnish current of 110 volts and 300 amperes in steps, each of ahout 20 volts, down to 25 volts a t 2000 amperes. Direct current up to 300 amperes and 110 volts is also available for the electrolysis of fused salts and other work requiring it.

GeneralDetailr. Metal sashes with two movable and adjustable sections permit cleaning the entire outer surface of the windows from within.

The floors in all laboratories are sur- faced with acid-resisting mastic; the comdors and stairs with terrazzo.

All paints and lacquers used on the

interior were previously tested as to resistance to laboratory gases.

The architectural beauty of the building is enhanced by a limited amount of carving in conventional design. Its dedication to chemistry bas been emphasized by placing an the 46 ornamental shields, between the pilasters across the front, pairs of symbols of the known chemical elements in order of atomic number and selected alchemistic symbols on the shields an the wings and a t the rear of the building. Our effort has been to build and equip,

within available resources, a funda- mentally complete, durable and usable chemistry building.

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

The $1000 award for 1931 of the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science went to M. A. Tuve, L. B. HAZE- TAD, and C. D A ~ . of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, the Carnegie In- stitution, Washington, D. C., for their paper presented before the American Physical Society during the December 29th-30th meeting of the A. A. A. S. a t Cleveland. The paper dealt with the measnrement and artificial creation of radium rays in a 2,000,000-volt X-ray tube, which are more penetrating than any heretofore produced or measured.

The chemistry section of the meeting of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science a t Cleveland was sponsored by the Cleveland section of the American Chemical Society. It assem- bled on December 30th a t the Morley Chemical Laboratory of Western Reserve University, and the following program was presented:

Mosaic Disease of Tobacco. Isola- tion of an Active Virus Fraction Very Low in A~~.-CARL F. V w s o ~

The Structure of Gels.-LEO FDDMAN The Formation of Liesegang Rings in

Gels.-OL~ F. T o m n The Chemistry of Biologically Active

Lipoids from Tubercle Bacilli.-R. J. ANDERSON