committees originally established during the chairmanship of Dr. Mendenhall. At present there are 18 such committees, with a total membership of 107. Of these committees three are in the field of astronomy, one in mathematics, and the remainder in the field of physics. Seven completed reports by these committees have so far been published or are now in press.

At the close of 1920 approximately $7,000 of the original grant of $20,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation for the maintenance of these committees reverted, but a new grant of $15,000 was made by the foundation for the maintenance of these committees during the year 1921. The committees which have been started at work under this new appropriation are in borderland fields between the subjects covered by the division of physical sciences and other divisions of the council.

The experiment of cooperative work being carried out through these research committees is, in the opinion of the chairman of the division, to be regarded as highly successful. The average cost per member per meeting of these committees is in the neighborhood of $30. The cost of publication of the reports will vary widely according to the size of the report. At least two of the committees intend to publish reports, the publication of which may not have to be borne by the funds of the council, since there is a demand for these reports sufficient to warrant a publishing house in financing the publications. These two reports will be, respectively, a Manual of Research Technique and a Manual on the Use of Statistics.

OTHER ACTIVITIES.

In connection with the negotiations for the establishment of a scientific instrument journal, the division has withdrawn from the original attempt to have the journal conducted under the sole auspices of the National Research Council and has started direct negotiations between the instrument makers on the one hand and the Journal of the Optical Society of America on the other, looking toward the publication of the instrument journal under the auspices of this society. At present no financial support from the council to the joint enterprise is contemplated.

Two special projects of the division have received financial support to the amount of $500 each from the general funds of the council. These are the project of a revolving fund for securing the publication of mathematical monographs, and a contribution to the endowment fund which is being raised by the mathematical societies for the publication of mathematical abstracts. A third special project, namely, that of emergency support for the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, has received support from the council to the extent of $600.

During the past six months the chairman of the division of physical sciences, working in conjunction with the division of engineering, has organized an American section of the International Union of Scientific Radio-Telegraphy. France already has such a union, and it is expected that England, Italy, and Belgium will complete their organizations during the coming summer.

With the consent and, indeed, at the original suggestion of the Director of the United States Bureau of Standards, the division is endeavoring to devise some feasible method whereby the facilities of the bureau can be made available for wider utilization by research men. As a beginning in this undertaking the chairman of the division has been authorized to circularize the principal laboratories of physics of the country, stating the willingness of the Director of the Bureau of Standards to cooperate in special pieces of work, and inviting requests for such assistance to be sent to the chairman of the division.

RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP BOARD.

A considerable portion of the time of the chairman of the division has been devoted to the duties of the secretaryship of the research fellowship board. At the time of present writing (June 16) the number of fellows either holding fellowships or appointed to fellowships on which they will enter in the course of the next few months is 29, 10 of these in physics and the remaining 19 in chemistry. The number of applications for fellowships is steadily increasing, and the board feels that in the future it is desirable to arrange for personal interviews between the candidates and the secretaries of the board before the candidates' cases are brought before the board for final action.

DIVISION OF ENGINEERING.

[C. A. ADAMs, Chairman.]

(For present personnel, see Appendix A.)

Apart from the activities connected with specific projects, a brief account of which is given below, much of the time of the chairman during the past six months has been devoted to the establishment of the new plan of organization which involves the active participation of the engineering societies on the division.

This plan of organization which has been described more in detail in previous reports, has as its salient feature a general advisory board in each branch of engineering, which is sponsored by the appropriate society, and under which the several projects in that field are organized.

As in some cases this involves the reorganization of the research work of the societies and a closer coordination of that work with

the Division of Engineering, progress is necessarily slow; however, this work is progressing steadily and its completion will place the division in a much stronger position, with real working connections with the engineering societies which are represented on the division.

RECENT PROGRESS OF ACTIVE PROJECTS.

Heat treatment of carbon steel.-Funds for the conduct of this work up to the first of the year were provided by the United States Bureau of Mines and United States Bureau of Standards. Owing to the curtailment of the congressional appropriations for these bureaus, they are no longer able to render sufficient financial assistance. The National Research Council has therefore recently appropriated $1,000 which will be largely used for machining specimens. The services of Prof. Charles Y. Clayton, of the Missouri School of Mines, have been secured to assist Dr. Henry M. Howe in completing these investigations, his services to be paid for by the Bureau of Mines. A progress report will be published shortly which will contain the results obtained from the investigations up to date.

Fatigue phenomena of metals.-The original program provided for under the $30,000 appropriation of the Engineering Foundation has been completed, and considerable progress has been made on the extension of the investigations to study the fatigue properties of nickelsteel, which was financed by the General Electric Co.

The results of the investigations indicate that a rise of temperature test may furnish a reliable accelerated test for fatigue resistance. Although this test may not apply to alloy steels it seems to predict endurance limits for carbon-steel with accuracy, and a test can be completed in half an hour. Among the factors which lower the resistance of metals to repeated stresses may be mentioned:

(1) Sudden changes of the outline of the part.

(2) Localized stresses due to poor surface finish or to cracks in grooves caused by wear, by accidental blows, or by improper heat

treatment.

(3) Occasional overload, either a heavy overload applied a few times or a light overload applied some thousands of times.

A report embodying the results of the investigations is now finished and will be published shortly. This report contains the most valuable and complete information ever published on this subject.

Other industries are taking an interest in this work as is also the Air Service of the War Department, and this is likely to permit further extension of the program.

New hardness testing machine.-This committee has summarized its work in a paper which will be published in the July issue of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The report contains a

great amount of test data obtained by the committee and also a very complete summary of available knowledge on this subject.

Steel ingots. This committee was originally organized during the war to determine the best open-hearth practice for the manufacture of gun steels and fine steels generally, and to disseminate the information among the various manufacturers to the end of eliminating as far as possible numerous rejections, particularly on ordnance orders. The work has been completed and summarized in a report prepared by Dr. Henry M. Howe and Col. W. P. Barba, which will be published shortly. This report constitutes what is probably the best set of specifications for acid open-hearth practice ever prepared. Although the present activities of the committee have been completed there is a strong feeling that inasmuch as its membership constitutes the foremost experts on steel in the country, the committee should not be discharged.

Neumann bands.-The tests originally planned have been completed and a report will be published shortly. However, the work of this committee will be continued with a view to ascertaining whether the presence of Neumann bands is evidence of weakness of the metal, and the kinds of steel favorable for the production of Neumann bands.

Substitute deoxidizers.-The first phase of the work involving laboratory tests of fusibility and viscosity is finished, and the second dealing with the manufacture of the most promising mixtures and their try-out in steel making is well under way. A report will be published shortly embodying the results of investigations to date A number of large steel manufacturers have become interested in the work and have already rendered valuable assistance in the preparation of the deoxidizers, and in trying them out.

Specifications for standard tests for welds.-Difference in details of procedure for testing welds have caused such widely divergent results that comparisons are frequently impossible, with the result that the usefulness of much of the research work on record is greatly restricted.

A preliminary report, embodying the standardization of procedure for making tests of welds, has been completed and published in the proceedings of the American Welding Society.

Specifications for steel to be welded.-The quality and composition of the base or parent metal has an important bearing on the quality of the resultant weld. This committee is, therefore, devoting its activities to a study of existing specifications for steel, with a view to determining their suitability for welding purposes and modifying such existing specifications wherever necessary.

Electric arc welding, resistance welding, and gas welding-These committees are confining their activities for the present to the prepa

ration of critical summaries of existing knowledge and experience in the various branches of the welding field. The purpose of such summaries is to lay a sound foundation on which the much needed research may be properly planned.

Welding of storage tanks.-This committee was organized to meet the requests for information from the Standard Oil Co. as to the feasibility of welding storage tanks. Considerable difficulty has been experienced with the riveted tank, because such structures are not "oil-tight" for the lighter oils.

The result of this application of welding promises not only a cheaper but also a better storage tank, and will open a new and large field to which welding is particularly adapted. Several small tanks have already been built successfully in this way, although the designs were not specially adapted to welding. Specifications are in progress for the building of a large tank which will be constructed by the Standard Oil Co.

Training of welding operators.-The ultimate object of this committee is to draw up a standard for the training of welders which will meet the wide needs of the industry, varying from those of the manufacturer who is interested in one particular job to those at a shipyard and railroad, who are training men for all classes of work. Efforts for the present are confined to drawing up a set of questions designed for the special purpose of enabling the instructor to obtain a preliminary indication as to whether the prospective student has the necessary qualifications of becoming a good operator.

Welding wire specifications.-Specifications for welding wire by gas and electricity have been prepared by this committee for the welding of mild steel, and will be published shortly. Considerable progress has been made also in the preparation of specifications for a high-carbon electric-welding wire to meet the demands for the building up of worn surfaces where great resistance to abrasive wear is desired.

Core losses. This committee was organized for the purpose of reducing core loss calculations of electrical machinery to a more rational basis. Four phases of this work are now being conducted at four universities-Harvard, Washington (St. Louis), Missouri, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Manufacturers have promised to cooperate and will furnish the services of their engineers and the facilities of their laboratories.

Highway advisory board.—Since the beginning of the year the advisory board on highway research, established through the activities of the division of engineering to organize a national program of highway research, has been seeking sufficient funds to employ a