The Spike: or, Victoria College Review 1912
Chemical and Physical Society
Chemical and Physical Society.
This Society exists essentially for the promotion of ideas in Chemistry and Physics among students. One of the main objects of the Society is to instil in the minds of the students the idea of research, by making them acquainted with research work actually carried out by the author of the paper. But the difficulty of obtaining papers on original work done at the College, or by the author himself elsewhere, is one that the Society has to face from time to time, and so another object of the Society has en to bring before its members the most recent discoveries and explain them. In accordance with this idea, at two of the meetings this year, papers dealing with important recent researches were read. At one meeting Mr. Burbidge reviewed the work of Trouton on "New Methods of Osmotic Pressure Measurement."
At the other meeting. Mr. McDowall read a paper on the "Synthesis of Rubber," showing how rubber has been obtained from isoprene, which can be obtained from oil of oranges, and also from fusel oil.
At one of the meetings the work of Mr. Rigg, a well-known member of the Society, was reviewed by Professor Easterfield. He showed how Mr. Rigg had succeeded in separating and identifying the various constituents of moutan wax, the composition of which had never been satisfactorily explained by previous investigators.