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NEW FIELDS OF MAGNETIC IRON

(Science Service)

The largest deposits of magnetic iron ore known to man have been discovered in Russia, it became known here to-day through the visit of Prof. Dr. P. Lasareff, director of the magnetic division of the Physical Institute of Moscow, who is in this country as the guest of the American Society of Zoologists.

Lying near Kursk in European Russia about midway between Moscow and Crimea, they extend for 150 miles, and at one point are 10 to 20 miles wide. The deposits take the form of a great subterranean mountain with its peak 450 feet under ground.

Magnetic observations made primarily for the advancement of science are responsible for the discovery, Prof. Lasareff explained.

For fifty years the compass needle has been known to act strangely in the vicinity of Kursk. The vertical dip at one point was over three times as great as that at the magnetic North pole where the earth's magnetism is felt most strongly.

In 1919 while civil war was still in progress in that region, Prof. Lasareff, using only instruments constructed in the laboratory at Moscow, began a magnetic survey of the area for the Russian Academy of Sciences, of which he is a member. Investigations continued during the summers following, and gravitational measurements were added to the magnetic.

To measure the force of gravity, Prof. Lasareff used the Eotvos balance, a very sensitive instrument invented in Germany, that will detect very small changes in gravity caused by masses in the earth's crust. It is said that this new device is so sensitive that it will detect a man thirty feet away.

Combining the gravitational and magnetic observations, Prof. Lasareff was able to map the deposits of magnetic iron ore before they were discovered.

Diamond and churn drills were set at work at points designated by Prof. Lasareff and the huge ore body of magnetite was actually found. It lies about 450 feet under the surface and already the drills have penetrated over 500 feet without any sign of its exhaustion. The top portion of the deposit analyzes 40 to 45 per cent. iron, but deeper portions run over 50 per cent. So colossal is the deposit that Prof. Lasareff would not attempt to estimate the quantity in tons. The next largest deposit known is in Norway and has a length of only about six miles.

After the steel churn drilling tool had penetrated the deposit of ore for about 100 feet it became so highly magnetized that it would attract and hold ten to twenty pounds of iron.

This summer Prof. Lasareff will make an exploratory trip into Siberia and the same methods of investigation will be used.

Prof. Lasareff believes that with the possible exception of the United States and Canada, Russia is the land of greatest promise for future natural resources.

Journal

of

Chemical Education

Published by

Section of Chemical Education of The American Chemical Society

Easton, Pa.

Entered as Second-class Matter, January 31, 1924, at the Post Office at Easton, Pa., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized January 31, 1924.

Vol. I

MARCH, 1924

No. 3

THE

EDITORS' OUTLOOK

HE outlook for the universal acceptance of the metric system is very encouraging. The effort which is being made by medical, pharmaceutical, scientific, and engineering societies to adopt this system wherever possible, should prompt us as teachers to do all we can to secure its adequate teaching in our schools, so that when our young men and women go out to take up their life work in the various industries, they will not only be better fitted for their work but will be anxious to further its adoption where necessary. Many teachers have promised to buy pure chemicals and apparatus on metric specifications. Are we living up to our agreement? We cannot expect the Apparatus and Chemical Companies to send us our orders in metric units if we persist in using the English system. Let us make the small effort which it will cost us to help forward this simplified system of standards. When we view what benefit this universal adoption of the metric system will mean to all future scientific work, it makes the effort required for such adoption seem trivial. Let it be said there are no "slackers" among the teachers in this most important moveN. E. G.

ment.

THE

"HE future seems to promise much in the way of improved nomenclature in chemistry. The points which Dr. Sy made regarding the loose or wrong use of chemical terms in his paper "A Plea for a Pedagogical Scrapheap in Chemistry" in the February issue of THIS JOURNAL have already been given a hearty approval by some teachers. It is expected that many other comments will be forthcoming. Comments and criticisms lose much of their value unless they are turned into constructive channels.

For the benefit of those teachers who wish to do their part in helping forward this standardization work to which Dr. Sy's paper must give an impetus, I would call to their attention the work being done by the American Chemical Society's Committee on Nomenclature, Spelling and Pronunciation, under the chairmanship of Dr. E. J. Crane, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. If you have any definite ideas on improving chemical nomenclature send them to E. J. Crane. He will welcome such suggestions. W. SEGERBLOM

THE

HE Washington report on a "Standard Minimum High School Course in Chemistry" is being put in tune with the criticisms which it has received from the teachers since the Milwaukee Meeting. These criticisms covering a national scope give promise of a most satisfactory outline. Come and take part in its adoption. The date is April 25th, 9-10 o'clock. N. E. G.

ONE

NE has only to read the radio programs in our daily newspapers to realize the great possibilities which radio offers in chemical education. The Minnesota Section of the American Chemical Society just demonstrated its usefulness in a series of lectures which were given to help forward the great Prize Essay Contest. Will the time come when we will have fewer and better lectures, or will the personality always be necessary in the lecture halls? Mr. Killeffer's article in this issue should help us to get the proper perspective of radio potentialities in chemical education.

N. E. G.

CHEMICAL EDUCATION VIA RADIO*

D. H. KILLeffer, AssoCIATE EDITOR, INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY, NEW YORK, N. Y.

For the purpose of the present discussion, education may be considered to be of two distinct kinds, each with its own objects and each with its own methods. The education of the class-room has very definite characteristics and is primarily directed to the training of the mind and the teaching of principles rather than the imparting of definite information. As distinct from this type of direct teaching, which requires the segregation of those receiving instruction into more or less definite groups, according to their abilities to learn, there is still another type of education which aims at the instruction of comparatively large, unsegregated groups of people to a definite idea or ideas. This second type of education is represented by our newspapers, magazines, advertising, and most recently by the wireless telephone. It is with this last phase we shall deal here.

Within the past two or three years the development of the radio telephone has been extremely rapid in this country. It has literally swept the country and converted hundreds of thousands of people to nightly listeners to the programs which are broadcasted from more than five hundred broadcasting stations scattered throughout this country and Canada. On this account, the value of the ether waves as a medium for the dissemination of information has become almost inestimable. Teachers, politicians, preachers, lecturers, musicians, advertisers, and indeed everyone who might conceivably be benefited by general publicity have used this medium at one time or another, and the results achieved as well as the continued interest of the audience attest the success of this new means of education.

In the early days of the wireless telegraph, before the art had developed to the point where the transmission of speech was practicable, it was realized that the principal draw back to its use to replace telegraph lines was the impossibility of directing the radiated waves toward any definite point and the consequent lack of any possible privacy. From the transmitting station ether waves radiate in all directions with nearly, if not quite, uniform intensity, so that any properly tuned receiving instrument within their range could pick them up with equal ease. This original disadvantage has become the keynote of the present system of radio broadcasting, for the fact that the ether waves carrying sound waves can be received with equal ease by every listener-in makes possible audiences larger than had ever before been dreamed of.

So far it has been impossible to place even an approximate estimate on

* Read before the Section of Chemical Education at the Milwaukee Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Sept. 10, 1923.