Chemists in Denver

Hot, rainy days dulled the 84th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver last week. But the evenings were cool and refreshing. The chemists then renewed acquaintances, discussed the topics of their day, among which were:

Jobs & Incomes, Teaching seems to be the most profitable general field for women chemists. Women are also going in for research, routine commercial laboratories, hospitals, libraries, publications, civil service work. More than half of the 340 who answered Professor Helen L. Wikoff's (Ohio State) questionnaire about their occupations and incomes, were teaching. One full professor gets $9,000. In high schools an M.A. degree brings $600 more a year than a B.A. degree. Ph.D. degrees have no weight in high schools. In colleges a Ph.D. is worth $600 a year more than an M.A. Miss Wikoff finds that ''clinical laboratories present splendid opportunities, especially for those who can afford to become part owners."

Model Molecules. General Motors' Charles Franklin Kettering and L. W. Shutts had great fun constructing a model of what Professor Donald Hatch Andrews (Johns Hopkins chemist,G.M. consultant) told them a molecule of water must look like. They took two steel balls of equal weight to represent hydrogen atoms. For the oxygen atom they took a third steel ball weighing 16 times as much as each ''hydrogen atom." They also built spiral springs whose tension in relation to the weight of the three balls resembled the electrical forces which hold a molecule of water together. They joined the "hydrogen" balls to the "oxygen" ball with the springs and set the model shaking by means of a motor. At most speeds they saw little motion in their "molecule." There were, however, three speeds at which definite vibrations developed. The balls representing the atoms moved over paths of a pattern characteristic for each speed. To the delight of Messrs. Kettering, Andrews & Shutts, the relation of the speeds to one another coincided almost exactly with the relation of vibration lines in the spectrogram of water. Thereupon they built "molecules" of benzene, toluene, carbon tetrachloride and methane and found that they worked almost exactly according to current atomic theory, thereby confirming that theory mechanically and giving instructors beautifully precise tools for classroom exposition.

Senior Kudos. To Dr. Charles Lathrop Parsons, 65, went the American Chemical Society's senior kudos, the Priestley Medal. He has been the Society's secretary for 25 years, its business manager since last year. His work in pure chemistry flowered 30 years ago when he was busily exposing the properties of beryllium. As chief chemist of the Bureau of Mines he was a leader in the chemical prosecution of the War. Since 1919 he has practiced in Washington as a consultant chemist.

Junior Kudos. The Langmuir $1,000 prize for the stimulus of brilliant young chemists went to Dr. Oscar Knefler Rice, 29, son of an immigrant Viennese scientist, Harvard instructor, a prodigy in the application of higher mathematics to the problems of atomic and molecular physics.

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