Science: Noble, Not Nobel

Last week when announcements of Nobel Prizes were imminent, a despatch from the Michigan College of Mining & Technology at Houghton, Mich, gave the startling information: “Corbin T. Eddy of Michigan Tech has been awarded the Alfred Nobel Prize for Science in the newly established Junior division for men under 30. . . .” No one had ever heard of any extension of the Prizes which the late Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-96) of Sweden established for eminence in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace.

The Michigan announcement contained a spelling mistake. Mr. Eddy, 27, assistant professor and head of the physical metallurgy division at Michigan Tech had won a new and confusing Alfred Noble Memorial Prize. Alfred Noble (1844-1914) was an able civil engineer, a builder of one of the five Sault Ste. Marie Canal locks, a builder of bridges across the Harlem and Mississippi rivers, an adviser on construction of the Panama Canal, a winner of the John Fritz and Elliott Cresson medals for engineering achievement. Several years after Engineer Noble died, five great U. S. engineering societies-jointly honored his memory. They sought $100,000, collected $20,000—insufficient for an imposing monument, yet enough to provide a $500 prize for any of their members not over 30 who should write the best technical paper for one of their journals. Thus the engineers’ prize somewhat corresponds to the chemists’ $1,000 prize for bright young men or women offered this year by Dr. Arthur Comings Langmuir and won by Professor Linus Carl Pauling of California Institute of Technology (TIME, Aug. 31).

Professor Eddy’s Manning essay was on “Arsenic Elimination in the Reverberatory Refining of Native Copper.” When the prices of copper and silver (which are often found in copper ores) are high, it is economic to separate the metals from intrusive materials by electrolysis. But when prices are as low as they are now (last week: copper, 7¢ per lb., and silver. 30¢ per oz.), copper mines and refineries must be shut down or copper reduction must be accomplished more cheaply. Professor Eddy pointed out ways of cheapening production.

* American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers. American Institute of Mining & Metallurgical Engineers, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Western Society of Engineers.