Evening star., 1915-09-13
NAVAL ADVISERS
MEET OCTOBER 6
First Session of Inventors Sc
Iected by Secretary Daniels
to Be Held in This City.
WILL DIRECT ACTIVITIES
TOWARD IMPROVING NAVY
Thomas A. Edison, Chairman, to
Preside-Names of Members
of the Board.

Officials began plans today for the
meetings of the new naval advisory
board, which will direct it's activities
toward improving the United States
Navy through science and invention.
It's first session will be held at the
Navy Department. October g. Thomas A.
Edison, the chairman, will preside.
The twenty-five members of the
board-eXclusive of Mr.. Edison-were
nominated by eleven scientific and en-
gineering societies at the request of
Secretary Daniels. who sought to
mobilize the country's inventive genius
for the navy as step in national de-
fense plans. The boards recommenda-
tions and conclusions will have great
of the administrator proposals to
Congress and in the operation and
development of the navy.
Members of the Board.
The members of the board and the
societies which nominated them fol-
low:
American Aeronautical Society-Hud-
son Maxim, Brooklyn ordnance and ex-
plosive expert and maker of the first
United States government; Matthew
Bacon Sellers. Baltimore, authority on
aeronautics and the first to determine
the dynamic air pressure on arched
surfaces by means of the wind fun
nell
American Society of Automobile En-
gineers-Howard E. Coffin, Detroit,
Mich, and Andrew J. Riker. Bridge
port, Conn.,, inventors, automobile
builders and now vice presidents of
panies.
The Inventors Guild-Dr. Peter Coop
er Hewitt, New York, inventor of ap-
pliances for telephones, hydroplanes,
aeroplanes. balloons and electric
lights, and Thomas Robbins, Stamford.
devices, including the belt conveyor for
coal and ore; served the New York
naval reserve and observed military
conditions at the front in France dur
ing the present war.
Native of Belgium a Member.
American Chemical Society-Dr. w.
r. Whitney, Schenectady, N Y, creator
and director of the research laboratory
of the General Electric Company: L. H.
Backeland. Yonkers, N. Y. a native of
Belgium. famed particularly for the in
vention of a Photographic paper
American Institute of American En-
Eineers-Frank Julian Sprague, New
York, an early assistant of Edison, who
directed the building of the first sue
cessful electric trolley railways in the
United States, Italy and Germany and
equipped the first electrically trained
gun for the navy; Benjamin G. Lamme.
Pittsburgh, inventor and head Of q
committee which passes upon all West
inghouse inventions.
Washington Man on the Board.
American Mathematical Society
Robert Simpson Woodward, president
of the Carnegie Institution at WASH
ington. D. c., and an authority on
geography and mathemati-
cal physics, and DR.. Arthur Gordon
Webster, Worcester. Mass. professor
of physics at Clark University, inventor
and the leading authority in America
on sound.
American Society of Civil Engineers
Andrew Murray Hunt, New York.
graduate Of the United States Naval
Academy and experienced in develop
ment of hydro-electric steam and gas
plants. and Alfred Craven. New York,
son of an American rear admiral and
now chief engineer of the New York
public service commission.
The American Institute of Mining
Engineers-Wiiliam Lawrence Saun-
ders. New York. inventor and engineer.
former newspaper and magazine editor
and former mayor of Plafnfield, N j.,
and Benjamin Bowdich Thayer. New
York. metallurgist and explosive ex-
pert and now president of the Ana
conda Mining Company.
University Professor Included.
The American Electro-Chemical So
ciety-Dr. Joseph William Richards,
South Bethlehem, Pa, professor of
metallurgy at Lehigh University, and
Lawrence Add:cks, Chrome. y. j., met
allurgical engineer and president of the
American Electro Chemical Society
The American Society OF Mechanical
Engineers lie Roy Emmet,
Schenectady, n. Y. engineer and in
ventor and first serious promoter of
electric ship propulsion, having con-
Quoted the recent epoch-making series
of experiments on the naval collier
Jupiter; and Spencer Miller. South
Orange. n. j.. inventor Of apparatus
that has simplified coaling of ships, and
of the breeches buoy device now used
by the coast guard service in ship
wreck rescue work.
The American Society of Aeronautic
Engineers-henry Alexander Wise
student of naval aeronautics and re-
garded by many as the worlds fore
most authority on the engineering fea-
lures of the art of printing; and Elmer
A. Sperry. electrical inventor and man
ufacturer.
The new naval advisory board will be
expected to initiate improvements as
well as to pass upon the merit of ideas
of others.
Secretary Daniels said today that he
expected it's members to take the initia
tive wherever they have any feasible
idea for improving anything whatever
in the navy. They will act as a purely
advisory board. The main work of de-
velopment of the navy. of course, will
continue to be done by the navy itself.
Relied Upon the Societies.
Secretary Daniels was asked TODAY
how IL happened that men like Alexan-
der Graham Bell. OrvilIe Wright, Henry
Ford and others eminent in their profess
sions were not among the personnel of
the board He said that IL he appoint
ed a single man. no matter how emf
nent. after the societies had chosen the
two to represent their particular lines
he