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The International Committee Atomic Weights has the honor to offer the following report:

In the table of atomic weights for 1904 only two changes from 1903 are recommended. The atomic weight of caesium has been slightly modified to accord with the recent determinations by Richards and Archibald, and that of cerium in conformity with the measurements by Brauner. The value for lanthanum is still in controversy, and any change here would therefore be premature. The same consideration may also be urged with regard to iodine. Ladenburg has shown that the accepted number for iodine is probably too low, but other investigations upon

the subject are known to be in progress, and until they have been completed it would be unwise to propose any alteration.

Many of the atomic weights given in the table are well known to be more or less uncertain. This is especially true with respect to the rarer elements, such as gallium, indium, columbium, tantalum, etc. But some of the commoner elements also stand in need of revision, and we venture to call attention to a few of these. Among the metals, the atomic weights of mercury, tin, bismuth and antimony should be redetermined, for the reason that the existing data are not sufficiently concordant. Palladium also, on account

of discrepancies between different observers, and possibly vanadium, for which the data are too few, deserve attention. Among the non-metals, phosphorus has been peculiarly neglected; and our knowledge of the atomic weight of silicon rests upon a single ratio. In the latter case, confirmatory data are much to be desired. Upon any of these elements new investigations would be most serviceable.

There is one other point to which we may properly call attention. Many of the ratios from which atomic weights have been calculated, were measured in vessels of glass, by processes involving the use of strong acids. In such cases the solubility of the glass becomes an important consideration, even when no transfer of material

from one vessel to another has occurred. A slight conversion of silicate into chloride would cause an increase of weight during the operation, and so introduce an error into the determination. Such errors are doubtless very small, and still they ought not to be neglected. Now that vessels of pure silica, the so-called quartzglass, are available for use, they might well replace ordinary glass in all processes for the determination of atomic weights. An investigation into the relative availability of the two kinds of glass is most desirable.

(Signed) F. W. CLARKE,
T. E. THORPE,
KARL SEUBERT,
HENRI MOISSAN,
Committee.

The

Much annoyance is caused by the great difference of thermometer scales in use in the different civilized countries. The scale of Reaumur prevails in Germany. As is well known, he divides the space between the freezing and boiling points into 80 deg. France uses that of Celsius, who graduated his scale on the decimal system. most peculiar scale of all, however, is that of Fahrenheit, a renowned German physicist, who in 1714 or 1715, composed his scale, having ascertained that water can be cooled under the freezing point, without congealing. He therefore did not take the congealing point of water, but composed a mix

ture of equal parts of snow and sal ammoniac, about 14 deg. R. The conversion of any one of these scales to another is very simple, and easily made. To change a temperature as given by Fahrenheit's scale into the same as given by the centigrade scale subtract 32 deg. from Fahrenheit's degrees, and multiply the remainder by 5-9. The product will be the temperature in centigrade degrees.

To change from Fahrenheit's to Reaumur's scale, subtract 32 deg. from Fahrenheit's degrees, and multiply the remainder by 4-9. The product will be the temperature in Reaumur's degrees.