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medallist, Dr . Theodore William Richards, has prepared forthis occasion ."

Due to illness, Dr. Richards was unable to be present, and thePresident announced that the medal and accompanying certificatewould be forwarded to him . Dr. George A . Headley then readthe following address for Professor Richards :

THE ESSENTIAL ATTRIBUTES OF THE ELEMENTS .BY

THEODORE W. RICHARDS, CHEM .D ., M.D., PH.D., SC.D., LL.D.,

Director, Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory . Harvard university .

We come together to-day, in this world-renowned Institute,founded in honor of one of the greatest of our countrymen, toparticipate in an annual celebration of progress in pure and appliedscience . Franklin himself would have heartily approved of suchan annual celebration ; he was deeply interested in the study ofNature, and profoundly convinced of the importance to humanityof exact knowledge and its practical application. Inspired by hisconviction of the usefulness of science, he founded here in Phila-delphia the oldest .lmerican scientific society, and here he per-formed the first significant experiments in physics of the NewWorld . He would have eagerly supported the Institute in itsaims and activities, and he is fittingly commemorated in its name .

To be included in this celebration of scientific advance in thehome of Franklin, my own native city, is a privilege ; and I begto express my hearty appreciation of the very great honor whichthe Institute has conferred upon me .

As the title on the program indicates, my pleasant duty nowis to speak to you on the fundamental properties of the elements,which have formed the chief subject of my chemical and physicalstudies. At the outset one may well ask : What are the elements,and what shall we designate as their fundamental properties? Inthese iconoclastic days several of our old scientific idols seem tohave been shattered . If uranium and radium are only transitory,may not the other so-called " elements " also be slowly decompos-ing? In this case, ought we to count them as elements at all?Moreover, if, as some suppose, the atom is made up of nothingbut electrons (positive and negative), what has become of the oldatomic theory?

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These questions, disturbing although they may seen to be,are easily answered. Perhaps, from a philosophical and etymo-logical point of view, the chemical atom no longer deserves itsname ; but the fact remains that in all the ordinary affairs of lifeour relations with the chemical elements primarily concerning usare unchanged by all the fascinating new knowledge. These sameold elements remain as permanent as they ever were ; and theonly satisfactory explanation of the definite proportions by weightin which they combine is now, as of yore, the assumption of ulti-mate, undestroyed (if not indestructible) particles or chemical"atoms." The atomic theory is indeed even more convincingto-day with regard to mundane chemical affairs than it was beforethe dawn of radio-activity .

Of course, no one pretends nowadays that the chemical ele-ments are to be considered as absolutely incapable of decomposi-tion . Even supposing, however, that in the hottest stars some ofthem disintegrate, on earth, at least, they are amazingly permanent .It is concerning the earthly chemical elements, therefore-the old-fashioned kind of half a century ago-that I have to speak .

These elementary chemical substances build up everythingabout us, as well as our own bodies . It has always seemed to me,therefore, that the fundamental attributes which determine theirbehavior are worthy of very careful scrutiny .

Among the most fundamental of attributes, if not the mostsignificant of all, is the tendency possessed by the elements tocombine in definite proportions by weight . This we explain, asalready stated, by the assumption that all matter is made up ofatoms . One cannot believe that these atoms should have any-thing so important as their weight decided by mere chance or acci-dent . Therefore, I chose the study of the atomic weights as thefirst of the fundamental properties to be investigated, and perhapshalf of my time during the last thirty years has been devoted tothis subject.

Great accuracy in the work was sought for several reasons, themost important of which was an earnest desire to find if possiblethe suspected mathematical relationship between these funda-mental quantities . Such a relationship, if discovered, wouldgreatly deepen our insight : and if it is to be found, the data tobe compared must he determined as accurately as possible .

Another reason for taking great pains in determining atomic

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weights is the fact that these figures are used by chemists through-out the world in their daily work oftener than any other seriesof data . All the manifold happenings of Nature occur in materialbuilt up of these same atones . If we are to analyze or synthesize,or in any way have to do with the quantitative relations of react-ing chemical substances under any circumstances, we must ulti-mately turn to the atomic weights for help . It is not too muchto say that the atomic weights are the basis of quantitativechemistry .

More than two thousand years ago Plato said : " If from anyart that which concerns weighing, measuring, and arithmetic istaken away, little remains of that art ." To-day we may para-phrase this saying as follows : " If from chemistry are taken awaythe atomic weights (or other numerical data representing the samedefinite proportions), little will remain of that science." As ascience becomes more scientific it becomes more quantitative, andgreater accuracy in the determination of its fundamental mathe-matical basis is required .

There is not time this afternoon to go into the details ofmany determinations of nearly thirty atomic weights carried out(luring as many years at Harvard . The effort was made tobuild upon the basis provided by the careful work of Berzelius,Marignac, and Stas, with the help of the new discoveries inphysical chemistry concerning solubility, hydrolysis, adsorption,and solid solution . Metals were compared, as to their combiningproportions, especially with chlorine, bromine, and iodine ; more-over, many other careful comparisons likewise were made, as . forexample : oxygen with silver through lithium chloride and lithiumperchlorate ; silver into nitrogen and sulphur through silver nitrateand sulphate : oxygen with carbon and sulphur sodium carbonateand sulphate. and many others . These . taken together, tend toput our whole table of atomic weights upon a stabler basis . Theelements of which the atomic weights have been determined undermy own immediate supervision are the following : copper, barium .strontium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, nickel, cobalt, iron, uranium,cw.sium, sodium, potassium, chlorine, nitrogen, silver, sulphur,carbon, lithium, and radio-lead . To these should he added . aspart of the Harvard contribution . those studied by my most ener-getic pupil in this line of work . Prof. G. P. Baxter, long since anindependent investigator on his own account : arsenic, bromine .

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cadmium, chromium, iodine lead, meteoric iron and nickel, man-ganese, neodymium, praseodymium, and phosphorus. The mostinteresting outcome of my work is perhaps the discovery that leadfrom radio-active minerals possesses an atomic weight distinctlyless than that of ordinary lead-2o6 . i instead of 207.2-althoughit gives the same spectrum .

If I were to sum up in a few words the lessons of these pro-tracted investigations, I should be inclined to say that the secretof success in the study of atomic weights lies in carefully choosingthe particular substances and processes employed, and in checkingevery operation by parallel experiments so that every unknownchemical and physical error will gradually be ferreted out of itshiding-place . The most important causes of inaccuracy are : thesolubility of precipitates and of the material of containing vessels ;the occlusion of foreign substance by solids, and especially thepresence of retained moisture in almost everything . Each of thesedisturbing circumstances varies with each individual case . Farmore depends upon the intelligent choice of the conditions ofexperiment than upon the mechanical execution of the operations,although that, too, is important . I have often quoted the innocentremark which has occasionally been made to me : " What wonder-fully fine scales you must have to weigh atoms! " and have endeav-ored to point out that the purely chemical work, which precedesthe introduction of the substance into the balance-case, is muchmore important than the mere operation of weighing .

Laboratory work alone can furnish us with accurate valuesof the atomic weights . No speculative method involving highermathematics has as yet been able to solve definitively the cosmicpuzzle of their relative magnitudes . In this direction, as in manyothers, chemistry is still largely an inductive science. When wehave discovered the realities, we shall he in a position to attempt toexplain them . In the meantime more accurate views, discoveredlittle by little through patient investigationn will be of use to thethousands of men throughout the world who daily employ thesefundamental data of chemistry .

Matter possesses not only the fundamental properties of weightand mass, measured (from the chemical point of view) by thecombining proportions of the elements, but also an equally funda-mental attribute which causes it to occupy space. Thus, side byside with the study of weight and mass, the study of volume de-

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serves close attention . This latter property is more changeableand more puzzling in its varied manifestations than the constantattributes of weight and mass. Almost every solid expands,occupying more space as it is heated, expands yet more in the actof melting, and finally swells up into an altogether disproportionatevolume when it is converted into vapor . In each of these statesof matter the application of pressure produces a lessening of thevolume-very small, but still perceptible in the case of solids,usually greater in the case of liquids, and still very much greaterin the case of gases . The behavior of gases is very similar in eachcase : here the molecules must be far apart. On the other hand .solids and liquids behave in a manner entirely different from gasesand entirely different from one another . The molecules must bevery near one another, and the specific nature of each must comegreatly into play . Even for any single substance the space-fillingrelations of the solid and liquid form are highly complex, and whencomparison is made between different substances the complexityis vastly increased : yet none of these varying manifestations ofthe property of occupying space can be accidental . Each musthave its inner significance, and the relation of each to the othercannot but be fundamentally connected with the ultimate natureof the substance concerned . Some of the relations are openedto us by the science of thermodynamics ; but many of the datamust be found, like the atomic weights, by experiment alone .

These considerations led me, nearly twenty years ago, to beginthe study not only of the space occupied by the elements, especiallyin their liquid and solid states of aggregation, but also of manyother related fundamental properties of the elements and theircompounds, including the effect of increasing temperature andincreasing pressure. Some of the data needed in this study hadalready been provided by the preceding work of others, but par-ticularly in the case of compressibility, of which I wish especiallyto speak, very few data had been gathered even as recently asfifteen years ago. Only three or four elements had been carefullystudied, and these by methods of doubtful efficacy . Hence the firststep was to devise a simple and accurate method capable of deter-mining the exceedingly small compressibilities of the solid ele-ments . This method was devised in tgo2 . and with its help thecompressibilities of nearly forty elements have been determinedwith sufficient accuracy to trace with some precision their relations

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to one another and to the bulk occupied by these same elements .Bridgman has since carried the determination of a few of theseto much higher pressures, with confirming results .

The outcome is highly interesting. If the elements arearranged in the order of their atomic weight, we find that thecompressibilities show a very well-marked alternating periodicincrease and decrease as the atomic weight progresses . Thisfluctuation parallels in remarkable fashion the periodicity of theatomic volumes noticed long ago by Lothar Meyer. It appearsthat when an element has a large atomic volume (that is to say,when the bulk occupied by its atomic weight in grammes is large)the compressibility also is large, and vice versa; and the changesare of the same order in the two cases . That these two propertiesare fundamentally connected no one can doubt after studying theparallel curves showing their similar progression with increasingatomic weight . Neither can one doubt that in the tracing of thisparallelism a real step has been made in the study of the natureof the element .

Other properties, more or less related, also have been shownto have analogous rhythms, but lack of time prevents any attemptto explain them .

One may well ask : Can any conceivable interpretation be foundfor such parallel rhythms, analogous to Dalton's interpretation ofthe combining weights of the elements? In other words, can werefer effects concerned with the space occupied by gross matter tothe atoms themselves, somewhat as the combining proportions ofthe elements are refered to the weights of the atoms? It seems tome that this can be done .

If one assumes that the practical bulk of the atoms in solidsand liquids is compressible, most of these results fit naturally intotheir expected places . Those atoms which are much distended(that is to say, have large atomic volume) would be expected tobe the most compressible . We should expect also to find thatincreasing chemical affinity, by pulling the atoms more and moretogether, would likewise cause compression and, therefore, dimin-ish volume ; and cohesive affinity would have the same effect .There is much evidence to show that this interpretation is a reason-able one, but time forbids again that the details should be enteredinto here. The hypothesis is pragmatic ; it considers, not thehypothetical space which may or may not be occupied by an imag-

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inary centre or core in the atom, but rather the space which theatom actually requires in solids and liquids . That this space isdefinite and significant is proved beyond cavil by such curves asthose to which I have referred, as well as many other facts con-cerning solids and liquids. One may well hope that the combinedfollowing of this trail may lead one to heights from which abroader view of the materials constructing the universe may beobtained . But even if the hypothesis should some time be foundwanting, it has served already a purpose helpful to progress, forit has stimulated many researches leading to the acquisition of newfacts . These will stand in the future, whatever may be the fateof the theory .

Do these investigations concerning ultimate properties ofthings and these hypotheses concerning the correlation of theproperties seem to be remote from the pressing problems ofhumanity? Not so . We must remember that applied sciencefollows in the footsteps of theoretical science . The laws ofchemistry cannot be adequately applied until they have been dis-covered . Only by researches delving into the hidden secrets ofNature by some such processes as these can new discoveries inthe realm of pure science be made ; and no one can tell how greatmay be the gain to the philosophy of Nature, as well as to the dailylives of men, ultimately resulting from new knowledge thus gained .

The vital importance of chemistry to modern civilization iswell known to this distinguished audience . Some one has wiselyremarked that, whereas the nineteenth century was primarilydevoted to advance in mechanical and electrical directions, thetwentieth century bids fair to be an essentially chemical century .In war-now, alas! devastating the earth-as well as in the lastingpeace for which we hope, chemistry is bound to play an all-important part. We perceive that every manufacture is con-cerned with chemical substances ; we realize that recent chemicaldiscoveries have revolutionized the preparation of many thingsessential to our life and have initiated entirely new industries ofgreat importance and benefit to mankind. The great war has onlyintensified our appreciation of these facts . We recognize alsothat even we ourselves, so far as our material existence is con-cerned, are chemical machines, and that our every thought and actis intimately bound up with chemical reactions, without whichneither thought nor act could come into being. Let us hope that

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the triumphs of chemistry in the future will be used not only forfurthering manufacture and agriculture, thereby rendering Hemore comfortable and prosperous : but also, above all, for advanc-ing hygiene and medicine to a point where the physician will beable really to understand the complex anomalies which confronthim every day . Let us hope, too, that with this practical progressmay be united the growth of a broader and saner philosophy ofNature, founded upon a truer knowledge of the materials com-posing the universe and of the energy which animates it . To suchends, full of blessing to humanity, let us dedicate the science in thefuture .

In introducing Dr . John J. Carty, Dr. Keller said"Mr. President : In discussions on the teaching of science

in our schools and colleges there is often a tendency on the partof educators to underestimate, and even to belittle, the value ofapplied science. Only a few weeks ago I listened to an entertain-ing, and in some respects quite illuminating, after-dinner speechin which the applications of scientific knowledge were referred toas " ephemeral," while the speaker, an eminent biologist, laidgreat stress upon the permanent value of the results of scientificinvestigation . Such statements, Mr, President, are apt to lead toconclusions which are quite erroneous, and certainly at variancewith the traditions and the beliefs of this venerable Institute,devoted to Science and the Mechanic Arts . While we may readilyconcede that a new fact or principle, definitely established, is apermanent addition to the sum of human knowledge, and thatsuch a fact or principle may lead to applications that minister toour material needs, we also maintain that these practical appli-cations are no less permanent additions to human progress andcivilization . Whilst paying homage to the Faradays and theHertzes, to the Lavoisiers and the Liebigs, who have made thefundamental discoveries in electricity and chemistry, let us notforget to honor those who by their inventive genius and engineer-ing skill have utilized these discoveries in creating and developingthe marvellous industries of the electrical arts and the chemicalmanufactures . _lust as there are fundamental scientific discover-ies, so there are also basic inventions in the arts . The printingpress that turns out the enormous editions of our daily papers

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still embodies the crude but basic device of Gutenberg ; and thewonders of the transmission of human speech, which it is ourrare good fortune to witness here to-day, would scarcely havebeen possible without the pioneer work of Alexander Graham Belland Guglielmo Marconi,

But it is a far cry, an almost inconceivable advance, from theinfant invention of 1876, which then enabled Professor Bell totalk to his assistant, Mr. Watson, two miles away, to the vast BellTelephone System of 1916, which, with its vast network of lines,covers all the States of the Union, and, with the epoch-makingwireless extension during the past year, now permits one not onlyto speak without effort and distinctly across the continent, butto distant islands and continents and to ships at sea . It soundslike a fairy tale, indeed, to be told that messages sent fromArlington by wireless have been heard and the voice of the speakerrecognized at Honolulu, nearly five thousand miles away . To tellthe story of the marvellous development of the art of telephonyhere in America, the country of its birth, is to narrate the riseand development of an entirely new science-that of telephoneengineering . While a great army of engineers, inventors, finan-ciers, and others have played more or less conspicuous parts inthis development and contributed their share to the recordedachievements, the dominating figure in the story is that of himwho is now the chief engineer of the American Telephone andTelegraph Company, and who, in recognition of his life's work,is to receive from you, Mr . President, the Franklin Medal .

The story of his life is simple ; its great and dramatic eventsare his scientific achievements and their public recognition. Hewas born in Cambridge, Mass ., in 1861 . Circumstances did notpermit him to continue his education after his graduation fromthe Cambridge Latin School. A natural bent for mechanics wasdoubtless the reason for his seeking employment with the Tele-phone Dispatch Company of Boston . Thus he entered the tele-phone business as a boy of eighteen, and during the eight yearshe remained with this concern he made a number of valuable con-tributions to the telephone art, among them the construction ofa multiple switchboard, at that time the largest ever put in use,and of the first metallic circuit multiple switchboard, of whichcertain features are retained in all the boards of ,to-day . In

1887 he was placed in charge of the cable department of theVOL. 182 . No. 1087-7

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Western Electric Company in the East, and subsequently of theswitchboard department of this company . During these years hemade many important improvements in cable laying and manu-facture, as well as in the design of switchboards . In 1888 he hadperfected a " common battery " system, by which two or moretelephone circuits could be operated ; and it was from this thatthe present standard common battery system was evolved .

While thus engaged in the solution of various engineeringproblems, he also devoted some of his time to scientific research .A paper read by him in 1889, and entitled " A New View of Tele-phone Induction," called attention to the fact that electrostaticinduction is the main factor in producing cross-talk, and that thiscross-talk may be prevented by the insertion of a telephone at the" silent " or " neutral " point of the circuit . Tn a later coin-munication he explained how by twisting and transposing tele-phone lines they may be rendered free from inductive disturbances .

In 1889 he entered the service of the Metropolitan Telephoneand Telegraph Company, now the New York Telephone Company .In this position he accomplished the great tasks of organizing thevarious technical departments, of building up the staff of thecompany, and of repeatedly reconstructing and modernizing theentire plant . The extensions he then provided for constitute thepresent comprehensive telephone system of New York .

In 1887 he was appointed to the position he occupies to-day,that of chief engineer of the American Telephone and TelegraphCompany. He thus became responsible for all the engineeringwork, both of plant and traffic, of the great Bell System, and allthe great developments that have since been carried to a successfulconclusion were made under his direction .

Among these is the longest underground telephone cable in theworld, connecting Boston, New York, and Washington . Until1912 the steady improvement of the lines and apparatus permittedthe extension of the service to Denver, Colo ., a distance of 2100miles from New York City Three years later, in January . 1915 .the dedication to the use of the public of the completed transcon-tinental telephone circuits from San Francisco to New York andBoston was held, with impressive ceremonies . in the presence of amost distinguished gathering.

With achievements such as these it might he supposed thateven the most ambitious of mortals would he content to rest upon

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his laurels . Not so with our medallist . On the heels of thecompletion of the transcontinental telephone circuits came theannouncement that this wizard had accomplished and demon-strated what only a few years ago the wildest flights of the scien-tific imagination would scarcely have suggested as possible . Irefer to the transmission of the speaking voice by a wireless tele-phone to places outside and far beyond the network of the BellSystem . This epoch-making achievement, supplementing as itdoes the wire service, is now well under way to bring about theultimate goal of telephony-the establishment of a universalSystem .

Such, Mr. President, are the services for the benefit of man-kind which the master mind of the telephone art has rendered asthe results of a lifetime of indefatigable labor, guided by a scien-tific imagination of the highest order . But a few years ago hisname was comparatively unknown outside of his profession,to-day it is one to conjure with in every quarter of the Globe : itis Dr. John J. Carty. Chief Engineer of the American Telephoneand Telegraph Company, whom I have the honor to introduce toyou as recipient of The Franklin Medal ."

The President, in presenting the Franklin Medal to Dr. JohnJ . Carty, said : ` I have the honor, in the name of The FranklinInstitute, as recommended by its Committee on Science and theArts, and in recognition of your distinguished services to man-kind, rendered in the field of science, to present to you the FranklinMedal, the highest honor in the gift of the Institute ."

After expressing his appreciation of the honor conferred uponhim. Dr. Carty read the following address

THE TELEPHONE ART .

BY

JOHN J . CARTY, E.D ., D.SC .,

Chief Engineer . American Telephone and Telegraph Cornpany .Member of the Institute .

More than any other, the telephone art is a product of Ameri-can institutions and reflects the genius of our people . The storyof its wonderful development is a story of our own country . Itis a story exclusively of American enterprise and American prog-ress, for, although the most powerful governments of Europe