WILLIS RODNEY WHITNEY

Chemist, Research Director

Born at Jamestown, New York, August 22nd, 1868; S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1890. Ph.D. University of Leipzig, 1896; Assistant Instructor, Assistant Professor, to 1904, non-resident Associate Professor, 1904 to 1918, non-resident Professor Theoretical Chemistry since 1908 Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Director Research Laboratory of General Electric Company, Schenectady, New York, since 1904.

Member of U. S. Naval Consulting Board since 1915; Member of National Research Council. Trustee Albany Medical College. Member National Academy of Sciences; Fellow American Academy of Arts and Sciences, A.A.A.S.; President American Chemical Society, 1910 (Willard Gibbs Medal, 1916).

American Electrochemical Society, 1911. Member Institute of Mining Engineers, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, etc.

Author: Translation of M. Le Blanc's "Electrochemistry," 1896, and contributor to many scientific magazines and to the transactions of professional societies.

Professor Thomson goes on to say that unless a lighter gas than hydrogen be discovered upon earth, the actual existence of which it is impossible to conjecture, the outlook for securing lower temperatures is not promising. And this absolute zero is the temperature corresponding to a total absence of heat. At the absolute zero the molecules must be supposed to be at rest. At this temperature gases (if they may be called such) exert no pressure, and occupy no space save that which their molecules take up when closely packed together. The point of absolute zero is independent of the conventions of man. It is a point of absolute cold or total absence of heat, beyond which no cooling is conceivable. The pressure in air increases or diminishes by .00367, which is equivalent to about of its pressure at 0 degree for each centigrade degree of rise or fall of temperature, the volume being maintained constant. If the air were a perfect gas, and could be cooled down to -273 degrees Centigrade, it would cease to exert a pressure. The reason it would exert no pressure is that its particles would possess no kinetic energy, no motion. This is assumed, therefore, to be the absolute zero of temperature. We often speak of temperature absolute, and degrees on the absolute scale are found by adding 273 to the readings on the Centigrade thermometer. Thus 273 degrees absolute is 0 degrees Centi

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