The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-02-27
D. JAoIEs 3. MORROW-

chase and pays his money DOWN.
The question sounds like a dull prob
lem in everyday morals. So ii IS In
many cities and towns. It is said that IN
a single State east of the Allegheny
Mountains the people are losing $4oo0O.OO0
annually by dishonest scales alone. 1t
may be that quart measures and yard
sticks are also crooked; in which event
the sum would have TO be doubled, per-
hapG
Unsensational and commonplace as the
question seems. IT leads back into Slip
she'd condition OF things and into seien-
tihc technicalities so subtle, intricate, In
lnitesimal, and monumental that only
physicist can comprehend them. on
cially, and possibly IN ali other ways.
Samuel Wesley Stratton is the greatest
physicist in the United States. Still he
IS a cheerful, wholesome. and modern
looking man. BY title and among special
lists Ike himself he Is known as the chief
Of the Bureau of Standards.
Keeps the Instruments.
Theoretically, and practically. too. in
sense. the original and legal pound weight
and foot-rule by which all others must
be measured, are in the watchful Gus
tody of DR.. Stratton. They are locked in
a vault and kept under glass. The gas
meter IN your cellar the steam gauge on
your furnace, the thermometer in your
sitting ROOM the pedometer in your
pocket or the speed-indieator on your
bicycle or automobile are the lawful
mechanical descendants of measuring in
struments tested at the Bureau of
Standards-that IS, if they do what Is
claimed for them.
Scientifically. which has no bearing. OF
course. on his relations to the weight OF
your bread. meat, and coal. DR.. Stratton
is a tremendously important man. Indeed,
he is so bewilderingly professional that a
part at least, OF his familiar discourse Is
a matter OF guess, rather than OF under
standing Working and thinking and
even playing in the high and dry afti-
tudes of ultimate mathematics. with him
primary geometry, trigonometry and a
good share Of algebra are mere grasses
and little wild flowers under mis- feet
A physicist, it goes almost without say
ing. is q person who is up in physics. and
physics, an authority asserts. has four |
branches-the science of force, otherwise |
the change in the velocity or direction
Of a body in motion; the science of mole |
cules, which means the study Of matter
a block of granite, for instance, or OF /
particle OF dust-together With the forces |
In and surrounding its molecules; the !
science of gravitation, and the science of /
ether, which may be defined as light, |
electricity, and magnetism Well. the |
chief of the Bureau of Standards is /
noted physicist. Most men would prefer
10 be something else.
Enjoys study OF Mechanics. !
It was even so with Dr. Stratton back |
on his fathers farm in Illinois. he was 1
infatuated with machinery as a boy-reap- |
ers. mowers, and thrashers. TO say that /
he had a violent curve toward machinery |
might possibly be more appropriate and 1
technical Anyhow, when he matricu- /
lated at the University OF Illinois he |
thought he would be a mechanical engi- |
neer. He tutored other students and I
copied lectures and papers for the pro- /
fessors and thus earned a good share /
Of his expenses.
ANY young man of the right sort who /
gets started at college" he said to me
positively, will have little trouble in /
finding employment or obtaining the
money with which to complete his course,
10 matter where he may be"
At his graduation. when he was twenty
three, Dr. Stratton became an instructor
IN physics Then he was appointed as
sistant professor and afterward professor
Of physics at the University OF Chicago.
Ever since then he has been a profess
sional physicist He was chosen chief Of
the Bureau Of Standards at its establish
rnent by Congress IN 1901, and voted a
salary OF 5000 a year. He is a blue-eyed,
brown-haired. and brawny man Of the
Roosevelt type, only he is Unconditional
and pedagogical instead OF being i'm
petuous and clerical.
About 100 physicists and chemists are
employed at the four brick laboratories Of
the Bureau Of Standards. Nearly ali of
them are young men. The buildings are
on seven and one-half acres OF high
ground. northwest of Washington, and are
surrounded by beautiful lawns and oak
trees OF primal growth. In one room /
saw tests OF sugar; in another of liquids
When a cargo OF sugar is received in the
country a sample is sent to the bureau
that It may be analyzed and taxed accord
ing to its purity. Spirits-alcohol brandy.
and whisky-under the internal revenue
laws, are taxed upon their density,
Concerned with Measures.
But the bureau in the main is con-
cerned with measures-measures for
everything from vapor to pig iron, and
especially electricity. Some Of the in
struments are so sensitive that they are
affected by the heat of the human body. =
The German clock. measuring time has
been placed in a vacuum. If it should vary
one one-hundredth of a second IN twenty
four hours from the time sent each day
at noon by wireless telegraph from the
Naval Observatory. the mournful irregu-
lartiy would be Immediately noted In
fact the German clock is so accurate,
that the fixed stars are no longer used
in certain calculations. !.
1.-The variations would not be serious"
DIT. stratton said. If the clock should !,
gain or lose time with mathematical regu-
larity. The fraction Of a second a day !.
either way could easily be corrected. But
a tenth of a second one day and the fiftieth
part OF a second another day would indi-
cate that the machinery had lost In pre- :
cisl0n."
But. I asked, ARE not your physicists !
and chemists wearing their lives away r
In splitting hairs; otherwise in the long I
and terrible labor Of being exactly
rlght?"
When DR.. stratton talks. as I have
stated he uses the language of science.
I have tried 10 translate him into news
paper English. II l make him say augnt !,