Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1910 [PAGE 618]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

580

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

[June 29

The principle of diffraction indicates that the echo in the Auditorium may be stopped by altering the form of certain walls. Thus by introducing panels in the walls of the dome with rather deep recesses, the sound would be widely scattered. It is my intention to try this effect first on a small scale with short wave lengths, and then make deductions that will apply to the larger problem in the Auditorium. The use of sounds of small wave length also affords a means of testing conveniently on a small scale the effect of a stream of air on sounds. Additional information along this line confirms the opinion advanced in the earlier report that the introduction of a directed sheet of air in the Auditorium will help the acoustics. The investigations outlined in the previous paragraphs will take time and will defer the final solution. One line of investigation has suggested itself to me that may lead to a more speedy, though perhaps a partial, relief to the annoyance now experienced in the Auditorium. By directing a sound of a short Wave against certain walls, an echo can be set up. Then by interposing large sheets of canvas, it seems probable that this sound may be intercepted and the echo stopped. Such a canvas, or some substitute, might be hung in the Auditorium until a better cure is found. Respectfully submitted,

F. R. WATSON.

NUTRITION INVESTIGATION. 12. Report of progress of the nutrition investigation:

JUNE 28, 1910.

President Edmund J, James, University of Illinois:

DEAR PRESIDENT JAMES—I wish hereby to report projgress in the work of

the nutrition investigations of the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry. During the last fiscal year the Nutrition Investigation Commission has had two meetings. It has approved the general form of publication for the report, viz, that volumes 1 and 2 of the report will contain a detailed, readable presentation of the entire investigation, giving condensed summary tables of the experimental results, while the remaining three volumes will give, in scientific, technical form, the detailed experimental results of the entire investigation. The commission has approved for publication three volumes of the report and has also made a detailed study and approved parts of the remaining two volumes. I enclose herewith Exhibit A, which gives a brief summary of the contents of the several volumes of this report. At present, negotiations are under way with publishers and printers with a view to ascertaining how the completed report may be best published. I am firmly convinced that, if it is possible, it will be best to have the report put out by such prominent publishers as MacMillan, Appleton, Longman, Green, or Lippincott and Company. Unless unforeseen difficulties arise, three volumes of the report will be placed in the hands of the publishers within the next six weeks. On account of the unusually large mass of data which has been collected in connection with this experiment and the difilculty attending the proper interpretation of such data, due to the "individual idiosyncrasy" or "functional variability" of the subjects experimented upon, it has been found necessary to obtain the advice of Dr. Rietz, statistician of the Agricultural Experiment Station. Dr. Rietz and Mr. Mitchell of this laboratory have applied to the interpretation of the data of this investigation mathematical methods which will be of much value in arriving at correct and logical conclusions in connection with this, as well as other, investigations of a similar nature. The results of their study of the mathematical methods available for such work are to appear in print in the near future in a noteworthy contribution from this laboratory. Up to the present time sixteen papers based upon the data obtained from this nutrition investigation have been published from this laboratory.