University, who has established the laws governing it in a series of researches conducted during the past fifteen years.
The correction of the chapel was engineered by Mr. C. M. Swan, acoustical expert of New York City, and associated with Professor Sabine. Layers of highly sound-absorptive felt were placed on a portion of the interior surfaces of the chapel, the thickness, area and location being governed by the requirements of the problem. The careful consideration of these factors is said to be essential to a successful outcome to the work, as accurate figuring must be done to produce a mean condition satisfactory both for music and speaking. An over-doing of the treatment would produce a "dead" condition and a diminution of the loudness of the sound, which would prove as objectionable in its way as the original condition of general reverberation.
The treatment was installed by a local firm of contractors under Mr. Swan's direction, and was covered with a protective and concealing membrane in such a way that the untrained eye would not perceive the change. Even the most unskilled ear, however, is quick to perceive the change which has been brought about in favor of normal conditions of hearing. It is said that the improvement in the acoustics has been remarkable and that a degree of comfort is now experienced in the use of the chapel which has never before been possible.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the deaths of Dr. Jay W. Seaver, for twenty-five years director of the Yale gymnasium and professor of hygiene in the university; of William Harlow Reed, curator of the museum and instructor of geology in the University of Wyoming; of Mr. Richard Lydekker, F.R.S., known for his work and writings on natural science; of Dr. Arthur Sheriden Lea, formerly university lecturer at Cambridge on physiological chemistry, and of Professor Friedrich Loeffler, the distinguished pathologist, who in 1884 discovered the diphtheria bacillus.
Members of the National Academy of Sciences have been elected as follows: Dr. Charles Greeley Abbot, director of the astrophysical laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution; Dr. W. E. Castle, professor of zoology, Harvard University; Dr. G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University and professor of psychology; Dr. Frank R. Lillie, professor of embryology. University of Chicago; Dr. Graham Lusk, professor of physiology, Cornell Medical School; Dr. Robert A. Millikan, professor of physics. University of Chicago; Dr. Alexander Smith, professor of chemistry, Columbia University; Dr. Viator C. Vaughan, professor of hygiene and physiological chemistry. University of Michigan; Dr. H. S. White, professor of mathematics, Vassar College; Dr. S. W. Williston, professor of paleontology, University of Chicago.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie's gifts to the Carnegie Institute and Institute of Technology have now reached a total of $27,000,000, his latest contribution announced at Founder's Day, on April 29, being $2,700,000. Of this latter amount $1,200,000 is for new buildings and $1,500,000 for endowment.—The campaign to raise $1,385,000 for the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N. J., has been successfully concluded. The entire indebtedness of the college, amounting to $385,000 has been cancelled, leaving $1,000,000 to be used for the erection of new buildings and for endowment.
