TECHNICAL COMMITTEE REPORTS
OCT. 1 9 2 4
the background of the present schemes of standardi­
zation and rating of schools by professional bodies, the
evidences of detrimental as well as beneficial results
from such standardization, and the present state of
relations between engineering schools and engineering
societies abroad, particularly in Great Britain and
Germany.
3. Minimum standards which m a y properly be
established for the recognition of any institution as an
engineering school or any course of study as an engi­
neering course.
4. Standards of educational attainment, in other
than technological fields, which should underlie the
professional training of engineering students. This
would include languages, history, literature, economics
and psychological and sociological sciences.
5. Standards of educational attainment in the
common group of mathematical and physical sciences
and of technological studies which should underlie the
professional training of engineering students.
6. Sanctions concerning the normal length and the
degree of specialization of engineering curricula to
which the societies represented may be willing to give
support.
7. Sanctions concerning the desirable qualifications
of teachers who deal with professional engineering
subjects, their professional and economic status and
the appropriate scale of compensation for engineering
teachers, to which the societies represented may be
willing to give support.
8. The determination of aptitudes as a basis for
admission to engineering colleges.
9. The extent to which the relations of the pro­
fessional engineering societies to affiliated student
groups may advantageously be unified or coordinated.
10. The contributions which the profession-at-large
and the business and industrial organizations closely
allied to it may make to the fund of vocational in­
formation relating to engineering and the means which
may be employed to bring such information to the
attention of parents, teachers and students a t the
time of selection of a college or university and of a
course of general or professional college study.
11. The recognition to be given to graduation from
an engineering college in the requirements for admission
to professional engineering societies.
12. A survey of the occupational demand for engi­
neering graduates in the more distinctly professional
fields, as a complement to the surveys of demand in
industrial fields now being undertaken.
W . E . WICKENDEN,
E L E C T R O P H Y S I C S
Chairman,
C O M M I T T E E
To the Board of Directors:
ADVANCES IN ELECTROPHYSICS 1923-1924
No attempt will be made to point out outstanding
advances for the past year. Progress, in general, is
continuous and not in marked steps. For this reason,
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it has been the policy of this committee to keep the
membership informed by means of lectures by noted
physicists and research workers rather than by an
annual catalog of steps in progress. Such lectures
have taken place during the year on general and special­
ized subjects. I t has also been our policy to arrange
popular lectures or reviews on the latest status of
electrophysics. These lectures have probably always
been better attended than those on any other subject.
In passing, it may not be out of place to mention that
wonderful advance has been made in the past few
years in the knowledge of the interior of the atom and
the radiations or energy changes that occur from its
very heart. I t is suggested t h a t the committee next
year arrange a popular lecture covering the latest
knowledge of the atom.
LECTURES AND PAPERS
During the past year the Electrophysics Committee
has had technical sessions a t the Pacific Coast, the
Midwinter, the Annual and the Regional Conventions.
All of these sessions have been very well attended and
the discussions have been a t least as extensive as those
at any other technical sessions.
The papers have been on a large variety of subjects
such as insulation, transmission, ionization, magnetics,
heat convection, transients and oscillations, vacuum
tubes and detectors, radio and mathematics.
The committee expects an especially interesting
session a t the coming Pacific Coast Convention.
I t is hoped t h a t our Institute will continue to en­
courage this work.
F . W . PEEK, JR., Chairman.
(To be continued)
P E R F O R M A N C E
O F
E L E C T R I C
F U R N A C E S
B R A S S
·
The number of kilowatt-hours per ton required to
melt a given alloy under given conditions is helpful in
comparing the performance of different electric furnaces
among themselves, state Interior Department investi­
gators in Serial 2597, "Present tendencies in electric
brass-furnace practise," just issued by the Bureau of
Mines. In comparing electric furnaces with fuel-fired
furnaces, the price paid for electric energy must be
considered. In the early days of electric brass melting
it was unlikely to compete with fuel when power cost
over 1 cent per kilowatt-hour. With the development
of the more efficient furnaces and the change in cost of
fuel, it is today rare t h a t an efficient electric furnace
can not compete on 2-cent power.
I t generally happens when the location of a foundry
makes the price of electric energy high, or when the
count of energy used by a small electric furnace is so
little t h a t a low rate per kilowatt-hour is not obtainable,
t h a t the factors of location and small-scale operation
make the cost of melting by fuel correspondingly high.