Chronicle

In the Soviet Union

A ceremonial session dedicated to the centenary of the birth of Josiah Willard Gibbs, organized by the Zelinsky Physico-Chemical University, took place on March 11, 1939.

The session was opened by Academician S. S. Nametkin. The following reports were delivered at the session: 1) Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Prof. P. A. Rehbinder—an introductory address and an outline of Gibbs’s life (Prof. Rehbinder replaced the suddenly ill Prof. A. I. Bachinsky), 2) Prof. K. A. Putilov—“The Theory of Gibbs’s Thermodynamic Potentials,” 3) Prof. V. K. Semenchenko—“Gibbs’s Statistical Mechanics and Its Significance for Modern Physics,” 4) Prof. P. A. Rehbinder—“Thermodynamics of Surface Phenomena, Developed by Gibbs,” and 5) Prof. A. G. Bergman—“The Phase Rule and the Development of Physico-Chemical Analysis in the USSR.”

The sixtieth anniversary of Albert Einstein was marked on April 28 by a lecture organized by the Zelinsky Physico-Chemical University on the topic “Einstein’s Theory of Gravitation.” The lecture was delivered by Academician V. A. Fock.

At the training-and-production workshops of the Moscow Machine-Tool and Instrument Institute an opto-mechanical department of educational equipment for physics classrooms and laboratories has been organized, which had previously existed under the physics laboratory of the institute. The department has mastered the serial production of demonstration universal optical benches, comprising a large set of instruments for geometrical and physical optics. The bench includes rigid instruments: Fresnel mirrors, a Fresnel biprism, diffraction gratings, instruments for the polarization of light, a large right-angled prism for experiments with dispersion of light, an instrument for obtaining Lissajous figures, a precision rail with riders, an arc lamp, and others.

The workshops have also organized serial production of Lummer–Brodhun photometers and are developing the production of Braun tubes. In the workshops, experimental work is being carried out to master other types of equipment as well. Address of the institute: Vadkovskii Lane, 3.

In the X-ray laboratory of the Moscow Evening Machine-Building Institute, for presentation to the XVIII Party Congress, new high-productivity equipment for X-ray structural analysis was developed.

The institute’s scientific staff members, engineers Altshuller and Tsukkerman, have constructed a Bohlin camera using the focus of an X-ray tube as the camera slit. The camera is integral with the X-ray dismountable tube and makes it possible to carry out examinations in the range of Bragg angles \(30—80^\circ\). The exposure for obtaining a normally exposed Bolinogram of pure metals is 5–15 sec. with electrical tube parameters of 32 kV and

15 mA. The camera makes it possible to carry out investigations of specimens in a vacuum and at high temperatures.

At the present time the laboratory is completing the development of a Sachs–Weerts camera for measuring stresses in metals. The new design of the camera makes it possible to reduce the time required to obtain an X-ray photograph, for example for iron specimens, to 30 seconds. The development of a dismountable ion X-ray tube with auxiliary cameras for rapid X-ray structural investigations is also being completed. The tube operates from a rotary oil pump. The complex cameras include Sachs and Debye cameras for specimens of various types. The development of a very simple (which can be manufactured by any laboratory) recording microphotometer is being completed, making it possible to carry out photometry of X-ray photographs and spectrograms taken on film.

ON FOREIGN JOURNALS

Practical application of thin molecular layers deposited on a glass plate. If, by Langmuir’s well-known method, 42–44 monomolecular layers of stearic acid (or arachidic acid) are deposited on a glass plate, then the light rays reflected from the surface of the film and the surface of the glass will acquire a path difference equal to \( \frac{1}{4} \) of the wavelength \(D\) of the sodium line.

The amount of white light reflected from such a plate is quite insignificant (less than 1%).

It is known that in many cases light reflected from glass interferes with carrying out an experiment or observation, for example when examining pictures under glass, photographs of objects located behind a display window, etc.; internal reflections in optical systems are also very harmful. In all these cases, glass with molecular layers deposited on it may find wide application. At present investigations are being conducted on imparting strength to the surface film. If these experiments are successful, then glass with deposited molecular layers of stearates, etc., is guaranteed wide dissemination.

Practical application of high pressure. Highest pressures of about 1.5·10⁶ pounds per square inch are as yet accessible only to Powell. At a pressure of 180,000 lb/sq. in. some bacteria die; therefore high pressure finds application in the manufacture of sera. At 400,000 lb/sq. in. ordinary lubricants behave like copper at normal pressure. The behavior of oil under these conditions is of interest for a number of industries in which machines operate under high pressure (for example the manufacture of ball bearings). Of importance for industry are the processes of precipitation of particles from solution and the deposition of colloids under pressures of the order of 0.5·10⁶ lb/sq. in. Milk and meat under high pressure may be preserved for a long time. It is interesting to note that at a pressure of 1.5·10⁶ lb/sq. in. the volume of compressible oil diminishes by two times.

Clarification of temperature measurements. In recent months several notes have appeared in the foreign press on the need to revise certain definitions and rules in the field of temperature measurement. The American Institute of Physics proposes to convene a conference at which special attention will be paid to the following questions: 1) the relation between definitions of temperature in various branches of science, 2) revision of the principles of defining temperature. The list of agenda items for the conference is as follows: 1) definitions, 2) the thermodynamic temperature scale, 3) the international temperature scale in practice, 4) psychology of temperature perception, 5) theory of thermoelectricity, 6) heat transfer, 7) pyrometry, 8) temperature in modern physics, 9) thermohygrometry.

A permanent magnet of great strength. A new permanent magnet, capable of holding a weight 1,500 times greater than its own weight, has been obtained in the General Electric laboratory. The new magnet is made from an alloy of aluminum, nickel, cobalt, and iron (Alnico). Such outstanding magnetic properties are obtained not only as a result of selecting a suitable chemical composition, but also thanks to special heat treatment.

The work of the National Physical Laboratory of England in 1939. The central theme of the laboratory’s work plan is the study of the electrical apparatus of distribution equipment. As a result of work carried out earlier, the laboratory is now accepting orders for testing electrical devices intended for operation at voltages from 300 to 1,000 V and capacities not exceeding 250,000 kV. Extensive work is being conducted on the study of noise and on the search for ways of eliminating it in various kinds of machines (automobile engines, turbines). This same division of the laboratory is investigating the passage of sound waves through various building materials.

The lighting engineers of the national laboratory are engaged in the study of street illumination both by street lamps and by automobile headlights.

Interesting work has been carried out on the study of the properties of electrical equipment.

In memory of E. Thomson. At the end of February the Franklin Institute, together with the American Philosophical Society, organized in Philadelphia a meeting in memory of the life and work of Elihu Thomson. At the meeting, close acquaintances, friends, and colleagues shared the memories they had of E. Thomson as a teacher, researcher, electrical engineer, inventor (Thomson held 700 patents), astronomer, naturalist, etc.

In memory of Rutherford. On March 29 the first lecture dedicated to Rutherford’s memory took place at the Chemical Society of England. The lecture on the subject of Rutherford’s life and the significance of Rutherford’s work for chemistry was delivered by G. Tizard.

Conferences. At the international congress on metal casting to be held in London on June 12–17, the first report will be given by W. L. Bragg on the topic “The Atomic Structure of Metals.” The congress will include a section on physical chemistry.

★ On March 24, in Pittsburgh (USA), the third conference on problems of industrial physics took place. The following papers were presented at the conference: 1) T. K. Poulter, “The Use of High Pressures in Industry”; 2) J. Hipple, “Industrial Possibilities of the Mass Spectrograph”; 3) B. Lewis and G. Elbe, “The Physics of Flames and Explosions in Gases”; 4) W. Lewis, “The Future of Microfilms”; 5) K. Foss, “Color Measurements in Industry”; 6) A. Betz, “The Significance for the Metallurgist of Further Progress in the Physics of Metals”; 7) E. Abbot, “Measurement and Analysis of Sound in Industry.”

★ On March 23–25 the third conference on problems of industrial physics (organized by the Institute of Physics, London) was held. At the conference questions on the theme “Physics in the Textile Industry” were discussed. Among the papers we note the following: “Dyeing and Fading,” by Patterson K. K.; “Thermal Effects in Fiber,” by Darwin K. J.; “Physics of Moisture,” by Uiddington R.

Awards. The inventor of the modern X-ray tube, Coolidge (born 1873), has been awarded the Faraday Medal by the English Society of Electrical Engineers.

★ The Nobel Prize for 1938 was received by Enrico Fermi for his experimental work on the splitting of the nucleus by neutrons.