A Palace

The $1,500,000 building erected jointly by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council, Washington, was appropriately dedicated last week, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Academy. It occupies a site overlooking Potomac Park and adjoining the Lincoln Memorial, and is a result of a gift of $5,000,000 by the Carnegie Corporation for building and endowment.

Under the great central dome and in adjoining rooms are a series of exhibits illustrating striking natural phenomena and scientific discoveries, so arranged that the visitor may himself perform the experiments. They include: P: Mirrors to catch the sunlight at all hours and project it through a telescopic lens in an image showing the sun spots. P: A spectroscope to resolve the sun rays into the component colors, showing the Fraunhofer lines of the various chemical elements in the sun's spectrum. P: The interferometer of Dr. A. A. Michelson, with which he measured the wave length of light and the diameter of Betelgeuse.

P:Seismographs and electromagnetic instruments from the Weather Bureau and other Government offices, for recording terrestrial conditions.

P:A Wilson-Shimizu apparatus in a dark room, where may be seen alpha particles flying off from atoms of radium at 20,000 miles a second.

P: The spinthariscope, by which the "Brownian movement," or perpetual ac tivity of the molecules, can be seen. P: The formation of crystals under polarized light, showing how the world would look if we had the power of seeing by ultraviolet rays. P: Faraday's classic magnet apparatus side by side with the latest developments of radio. The visitor can control the exhaustion of a vacuum tube, and the beautiful effects of electrical discharge through the rarefield gas. P: The famous dinosaur eggs discovered by the third Asiatic expedition of the American Museum of Natural History.

P:The most recently discovered remains of ancient man in Europe.

At the exercises, Dr. Michelson, President of the Academy, was in the chair. Addresses were delivered by President John C. Merriam, of the Carnegie Institution, Secretary Vernon Kellog, of the Research Council, Professor T. H. Morgan, of Columbia.