Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1898: Volume 54, November 1898Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1898: Volume 54, November 1898
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
scientific truths should be popularly put forward in simple, untechnical
language, and made accessible to all."
Later, in his chairman's address before the Chemical Subsection of
the American Association, in 1878, he had this subject in mind, and
mentioned it as part of the work of the section "to attract public
attention to the subjects that interest us, and to do what we can
to secure for chemistry a wider appreciation and greater means for
development.... If the general public," he said later in his address,
"is not interested in chemistry, it is because we as chemists have
neglected a part of our duty. We have but to speak, in order to command
the public ear."
Another side of scientific advancement to which Professor Clarke's
working life has proved him much attached is presented in this address
at the American Association meeting of 1878, and more minutely as to the
particular point we have in mind in an article on Laboratory Endowment,
in the tenth volume of the Popular Science Monthly. In the association
address he insisted strongly upon the physical side of chemical
research, stated briefly as the study of the phenomena which occur
during the reactions in chemical experiments, or of the transformations
of energy, and upon the importance of the co-ordination of studies
separately pursued to the systematic and permanent advancement of the
science; for which purpose he considered endowed laboratories for
research extremely desirable. In such laboratories adequate corps of
thorough specialists should co-operate in those investigations which
individuals could not undertake; every worker should be assigned to
definite, positive duties, the accurate and careful performance of which
would eventually be sure to advance exact knowledge. The work would be
hard routine, and the real value of the institution would be independent
of everything sensational, and would rest upon considerations of the
most severely practical kind. As an example of such work he mentioned
the study of the connection between the composition of a substance
and its physical properties. Supposing this taken up systematically
by a well-organized body of investigators, the first step would be to
determine, carefully and with the utmost rigor, the physical properties
of the elements. Each one of these substances would have to be isolated
in quantity and in a chemically pure condition, such as has never
been attained as to some--a labor which would of itself involve a
great amount of research. Then would come the measurement of physical
relations, thermal, electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical, and so
on; and the determination of all their "constants" under widely varied
conditions, notably of pressure and temperature; labors which would
in many cases involve the comparative testing of various methods of
research, and often the invention of new experimental processes. The
number of elements and of their compounds which should be taken up in
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