5:30 p.m.      Executive Committee Meeting

6:30 p.m.     Dinner:

7:30 p.m.     Presentation of Outstanding Student Awards and Student Poster Session

Reservations: Reply to Myra Crumley, Phone (864) 294-2056; E-mail: myra.crumley@furman.edu, Deadline for reservations is April 15, 2005

After four years of negotiating with the ACS Committee on Constitution and Bylaws, our Local Section has finally won their tentative approval for new bylaws. On February 19, 2004, during our regular meeting, the revisions as proposed were approved by the members present. The revised bylaws are available through the links below for your review. The changes, which incorporate both the comments of the WCACS Section's Executive Committee and the comments of the ACS Committee on Constitution and Bylaws, are in red. There also has been reformatting suggested by the Committee.

The original document is the WCACS official bylaws on file with ACS and can be found at http://membership.acs.org/w/wca/Business/Bylaws.html on this site. Current ByLaws are approved as amended effective July 7, 1978; Committee on Constitution and Bylaws final approval on 12/29/1978.

Would you like to visit one ACS web page and access links to current chemistry news headlines, journal article briefs, and features on chemical patents, research advances, historical events, and meeting updates from the American Chemical Society?

* A new online feature on chemistry.org, "Chemistry Headlines", serves up all this and more. "Chemistry Headlines" is a compilation of headlines from external news sources and a variety of ACS magazines and journals, including C&EN Online, as well as headlines from Heart Cut, Patent Watch, Today in Chemical History, chemistry.org feature articles and other ACS products and resources. Staff members from chemistry.org, C&EN and ACS Publications have collaborated to help make a wide range of content available in this forum. Go to: www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/newscenter.html, the same URL that was used previously for the first generation of the chemistry.org Newscenter.

* Interested in a personalized demonstration of this new resource? Join staff from chemistry.org and C&EN on the exposition floor at Pittcon 2005 (Feb 28 - March 3, 2005 I Orlando, FL) and the 2005 ACS National Meeting (March 14 - 16, 2005 I San Diego, CA) for a personal demonstration of "Chemistry Headlines", special daily meeting events, and prize drawings.

* Pittcon 2005 - Booth # 4745

* 2005 San Diego National Meeting - Booth # 820

* Have questions or comments concerning "Chemistry Headlines", Email webmaster@acs.org and include "Chemistry Headlines" in the subject line of your message.

Community Outreach Coordinator

* Recruits coordinators for community outreach programs (e.g. National Chemistry Week, Chemists Celebrate Earth Day, Chemag-ination, etc).

* Determines overall outreach budget, including soliciting funding.

* Facilitates or coordinates correspondence with schools and other partner organizations to ensure program consistencies.

* Coordinates with Public Relations Chair to ensure media coverage of local section outreach events.

* Serves as liaison and point person for Local Section Executive Committee.

* Schedules Program Coordinator meetings.

* Keeps lines of communication open to all Program Coordinators

* Reduces duplication of effort by volunteers by identifying redundancies in programming.

Programs supported by the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Office of Community Activities (OCA) are designed to assist volunteers in becoming more involved in their local section, division(s), and community by providing reliable resources that can be easily used for promoting the contributions of chemistry. Participation in community activities provides opportunities for ACS members to increase media and public awareness of the importance of chemistry in our daily lives.

Chemists Celebrate Earth Day is an environmental awareness campaign. The event provides activities that are designed to enhance public awareness of important contributions made through chemistry in preserving our planet and improving our environment. The event is held annually on April 22. For more information visit chemistry.org/earthday.

National Chemistry Week (NCW), a community-based outreach program, is designed to reach the public with positive messages about chemistry and to make a positive change in the public"s impression of chemistry. Activities include chemical demonstrations, hands-on activities, lectures, open houses, displays, contests and games. NCW is celebrated annually from Sunday through Saturday during the fourth week of October. For more information visit chemistry.org/ncw.

Chemagination is a creative innovation and writing contest for high school science students In the contest, students are asked to imagine that they are living 25 years in the future and have been invited to write an article for ChemMatters, a magazine for high school students that focuses on the role of chemistry in everyday life. The subject of the article is:

"Describe a recent breakthrough or innovation in chemistry (and/or its applications) and how it has improved the quality of people?s lives today."

In addition to the article, students are asked to design a cover for the magazine.

Finalists are named at three levels - local, regional and national. For more information visit chemistry.org/chemagination.

For advice on these or other community activity programs available through ACS, contact the Office of Community Activities at 800-227-5558 x 6097, or 202-872-6097.

The spring regional meetings are soliciting abstracts and are now open for advance registration. The North Jersey Local Section is hosting the Mid-Atlantic Meeting, May 22 - 25, at Rutgers Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ. They have prepared a stunning and very unique program. Visit their web page at http://www.marmacs.org/ for more information and links to online abstract submittal and advance registration. Abstracts close March 15. June 15 - 18 are the dates for the Northwest Regional Meeting to be held in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaska Local Section has worked diligently to provide an exciting and diverse program in an equally exciting setting. Check their web site at http://www.norm-schb-2005.org/ for the details and to sign up to become part of this scientific adventure. The"spring" season ends in July this year as Western Connecticut is hosting the Northeast Regional Meeting at the beautiful campus of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. You still have plenty of time to submit a paper and participate. For more information, contact Linda Farber, General Chair, at 203-365-7596 or farberl@sacredheart.edu. Their web site was not ready at press time. Please visit the ACS regional meetings website (www.chemistry.org/meetings/regional) for details.

Information on these meetings and all the 2005 regionals will be available at the Regional Meetings Booth 827 in San Diego. Stop by and enter the drawing for a free registration to the regional meeting of your choice.

For info on all the 2005 meetings, please visit the ACS Regional Meetings web page at www.chemistry.org/meetings/regional or call us at 800-227-5558, Dept. of Meetings and Expositions Services.

In 1990, the American Chemical Society (ACS) established a program to assist scientific exchanges with selected countries. Called ACS International Initiatives, the program of competitive grant awards was designed to foster scientific collaboration with scientists who have little opportunity to interact with U.S. laboratories. The goal of the 2005 ACS International Initiatives program is to provide professional development opportunities for chemical scientists (chemists, biochemists, materials scientists, etc.) and chemical engineers, either in-country or in the United States, and build ACS's relationships with chemically related organizations in countries in Latin America and Africa. Visits by chemical scientists from countries to U.S. laboratories with reciprocal visits to the country by the U.S. partners strongly encouraged. The following countries are eligible for participation in the 2005 program: Bahamas, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, Panama, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. All travel and associated expenditures for this year's ACS International Activities Program must be completed by December 31, 2005. Deadline: Mar. 1, 2005. http://www.chemistry.org/international

In 1984, the American Chemical Society launched an initiative to assist institutions that have a need for scientific publications. Project Bookshare, as the program has come to be known, is charged with collecting chemistry textbooks and back numbers of journals from donors and making these materials available to libraries in selected small U.S. colleges and to university libraries in mostly developing countries. Donated books and journals from Project Bookshare have reached across the United States (Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, South Dakota, and Tennessee, among others) and around the world to help improve the educations of chemists and chemical engineers in Africa (Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Sudan), Asia (China, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand), Europe (Albania, Armenia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Turkey), and Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, and Venezuela). If you are interested in making a donation to Project Bookshare, you are asked to submit a list of publications to be donated to the ACS Office of International Activities, listing each book by title, author, and date, and journals and magazines by title and issue date. Books should be no more than ten years old, except for "classic" titles. Donors are asked to cover the costs of shipping to U.S. addresses. Whenever possible, Project Bookshare staff try to match donors and recipient institutions to save time, money, repacking, and excessive handling. Project Bookshare is intended to bring U.S. chemists closer to colleagues in less advantaged situations worldwide. The generosity of ACS members, U.S. corporations, institutions of higher learning and others has made Project Bookshare a true national and international success. Send your list of publications to: Dr. J.C. Torio, ACS Office of International Activities, American Chemical Society, 1155 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036 USA; phone: (202) 872-4548 or (800) 227-5558, x 4548; fax: (202) 872-6317; email: j_torio@acs.org

ChemunityNews is a bimonthly electronic newsletter that connects chemistry educators to the activities of the ACS Education Division. It provides updates on newly published resources and materials, programs for students and educators, and upcoming workshops and meetings. You may view a recent issues by visiting the ChemunityNews Archives at chemistry.org. To subscribe, simply email education@acs.org.

Effective January 1, 2005, the ACS Member Insurance Program welcomes New York Life Insurance Company as the new underwriter for the following ACS Member Insurance Plans:

* Term Life

* Hospital Indemnity

* Disability Income

* Accidental Death and Dismemberment

New York Life will also underwrite two new plans now being offered through the ACS Member Insurance Program. ACS members are encouraged to take advantage of our 10 and 20 - year Group Level Term plans. Applying for Group Level Term through ACS offers convenience and flexibility, with up to $2,000,000 in coverage designed especially for ACS members. The plan allows members to lock in already competitive rates for specific time periods, providing valuable and affordable coverage. And best of all, the plans are portable – coverage continues even if you change jobs. The ACS Member Insurance Program is keeping you covered by expanding its portfolio and providing you with plans designed to help meet your needs and give you peace of mind. To receive more information about the ACS 10 and 20 - year Group Level Term plans please call the plan administrator at 1-800-752-0179. If you have questions regarding the ACS Member Insurance Program, please contact 1-800-227-5558 ext. 2119. Sponsored by the Board of Trustees, Group Insurance Plans for ACS Members - Your colleagues working for you!

Prepared for SCALACS, the Journal of the Southern California, Orange County, and San Gorgonio Sections, ACS

The copy I recently acquired of "The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art" for the year 1848 is unfortunately missing its Frontispiece, an engraving based on a portrait of Baron Alexander von Humboldt . That year saw the publication of the second volume of Humboldt's great treatise "Cosmos" which is a bold attempt to summarize all aspects of its subject. In addition to his synthesizing abilities as an author Humboldt was a great explorer and traveler, involved in studying the geography, geology, botany, zoology, anthropology, and history of the many remote regions he visited. One of the universities in the system in which I work, the California State University, is named Humboldt State in his honor, and the cool Humboldt current, running from Alaska down past California, keeps the Pacific Ocean cool off the California coast even in summer.

Humboldt's chemical investigations are not, perhaps, as familiar as those in the areas mentioned above, but they had interesting consequences. The account that follows draws heavily on Maurice Crosland's magisterial study "Gay-Lussac; Scientist and Bourgeois" (Cambridge, 1978). Gay-Lussac, after graduating with distinction from the Ecole Polytechnique, became assistant to the great French chemist Berthollet. The latter had a country house just outside Paris at Arcueil and an informal scientific group began meeting there. Its members, in addition to Berthollet and Gay-Lussac, included Humboldt, who visited Paris frequently, Laplace, Biot, Thenard and others. For a few years the group met regularly, undertook joint researches in many areas of science, presented and discussed their results, and even published a journal.

In 1805 Gay-Lussac and Humboldt, extending work each had done separately, collaborated on a careful study of the combining proportions of hydrogen and oxygen. Gay-Lussac was no stranger to pneumatic chemistry. His famous and record-setting balloon ascents with Biot and alone in 1804 had been made to study whether the composition of the atmosphere changed with height. In 1802 Gay-Lussac published almost simultaneously, but independently, with Dalton on the regularity of the expansion of gases with increasing temperature. Gay-Lussac modestly attributed the discovery to the earlier work of Charles, but most modern historians of science have found little precedent in Charles' work for the Law of Dalton and Gay-Lussac. Returning to the hydrogen-oxygen combination Gay-Lussac noted that ?hydrogen combines with oxygen in double the volume of the latter? and in 1807, observing the sulfur dioxide and oxygen produced when copper sulfate is heated strongly he remarked "These two gases are approximately in the ratio by volume of 2:1 but I will return later to the exact determination of this ratio." He did!

In December 1808 Gay-Lussac published in the Memoirs of the Society of Arceuil a paper titled ?Memoir on the combination of gaseous substances with each other? in which he announced the results that have come to be known as Gay-Lussac's Law: "the compounds of gaseous substances with each other are always formed in very simple ratios, so that representing one of the terms by unity, the other is 1, or 2, or at most 3". He illustrated this proposition with many examples drawn not only from his own work on hydrogen and oxygen, sulfur dioxide and oxygen, carbon monoxide and oxygen, and reactions between boron trifluoride and ammonia, but also with results recalculated from work published by Wollaston on carbonates; by Davy on nitrogen oxides; by Berthollet on ammonia; and by Biot and Arago on ammonia and hydrogen chloride.

This strikingly simple law, whose origin can be traced back to the collaboration between Humboldt and Gay-Lussac, was seen by Gay-Lussac (but not by Dalton - but that's another story) as confirmation of Dalton?s new atomic theory. The opening sentences of Avogadro"s famous article "Essay on a manner of determining the relative masses of the elementary molecules of bodies, and the proportions in which they enter into these compounds" published in 1811 and announcing what has come to be known as Avogadro's Law read as follows: "M. Gay-Lussac has shown in an interesting Memoir that gases always unite in a very simple proportion by volume. The first hypothesis to present itself, and apparently even the only admissible one, is the supposition that the number of integral molecules in any gases is always the same for equal volumes, or always proportional to the volumes." Gay-Lussac and Humboldt's experiments had indeed had profound consequences for chemistry.

Prepared for SCALACS, the Journal of the Southern California, Orange County, and San Gorgonio Sections, ACS

In the immediately preceding column I touched on "The Year-Book of Facts In Science and Art" for 1848 but then launched into an article primarily about Gay-Lussac. I now return to the Year-Book to bring you up-to-date (!) on the discoveries of 1848. The epigraph to this volume is interesting: "Every Fact, if it be deserving such a description,- that is to say, if it be truly observed, and accurately stated,- is welcome to the man of Science." - Sir R. H. Inglis Proc. Brit. Association, 1847.

The section in the Year-Book on electrical sciences has several descriptions of new and improved voltaic batteries, of particular interest at the time to telegraph companies. As an example I quote from the Rev. N. J. Cullan, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal College, Maynooth. He modified Grove's platina [platinum] battery by substituting platinized lead or cast iron for Grove's pure platinum, and nitrosulfuric acid and potassium nitrate as electrolytes instead of Grove's mixture of nitric and sulfuric acid. "A plate of cast iron or platinized lead may be had for a shilling [0.05 of a pound], whilst a platina plate of the same size will cost nearly three pounds."

An anticipation of the future is seen in an article on the refining of copper by electricity, the very process that is used today. The optimistic tone of the article, that electricity produced by batteries would be cheaper than the fuel used at the time for copper refining, was not borne out in practice, and electric refining had to wait for the invention of the generator. Nevertheless the imagery used is striking: "In a very few years Australia will send to market more copper than is now produced by all the rest of the world. But if our future penny-pieces are to bear any proportion to the reduced cost of the value of the metal, they must be made of the size of dinner plates!"

Dr. Robert Hare of Philadelphia, most recently Professor of Chemistry at the best-known medical school in the United States, that of the University of Pennsylvania, reported in the Philosophical Magazine improvements in his hydrogen-oxygen blowpipe which allowed him to obtain malleable platinum directly from platina ore. This was an improvement over the method of Wollaston, which produced purer platinum but by a much more elaborate procedure.

The relatively newly discovered metal platinum, first prepared in a state of purity by Wollaston, features prominently in this year's articles as indicated above and also in a report delivered by H. M. Noad on aspects of industrial chemistry to the College of Chemistry. The lead chamber process is now standard for the production of sulfuric acid. Some of the chambers are of enormous size, upwards of 180 feet long and of a volume of around 35,000 cubic feet, producing over 10 tons of acid per week. "The great saving effected by the modern improvement of substituting vessels of platinum [many fabricated by Wollaston] for those of glass for the final concentration of the acid, notwithstanding the enormous price of the former, is manifested by the fall in the price of sulphuric acid from 4d. to 1 1/2 d. per pound."

"Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh, has discovered an Anaesthetic Agent, as a substitute for sulphuric ether in surgery and midwifery, viz. Chloroform, or the Perchloride of Formyle." Chloroform had been prepared at about the same time (1831-32) by both Soubeiran and Liebig, and its composition was established by Dumas in 1835. Simpson was the first to ascertain its anaesthetic properties, and to use it in surgery. It was the third anaesthetic to be used, after nitrous oxide and ether, and Simpson urged its advantages over the other compounds including a more profound effect with a smaller quantity, the advantage of a liquid rather than a gas, a lower cost, and a more rapid and more persistent action. Chloroform became the preferred anaesthetic particularly in midwifery. Inevitably there was some reaction against the use of anaesthetics in childbirth from those who decided it was against "natural law", but the reformers prevailed against the reactionaries. Chloroform was accorded the cachet of Royal approval; Queen Victoria had a number of her children born while she was mildly sedated by chloroform, a state known at the time as "Twilight Sleep."

At its meeting in early December 2004, the ACS Board of Directors voted to provide funding of $250,000 for a Matching Gift Fund (MGF) Program for 2005. The MGF matches contributions to eligible Society Programs. Through the MGF Program, the Society will add one dollar for every two dollars donated to support the following programs:

* Project SEED

* Scholars Program

* World Reach Fund

* National Chemistry Week

* Teacher Training

* National Historic Chemical Landmarks

* Women Chemists Committee Programs

* PROGRESS (a pilot project aimed at facilitating participation and advancement of women chemists and chemical engineers)

* Stanley C. Israel Regional Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences

The minimum donation that will be matched by the MGF Program is $3,000, which must be given by an individual, foundation, company, or organization. The funding authorized by the ACS Board is for 2005 only. Gifts and pledges will be matched per the program stipulations throughout the year or until the fund has been committed in its entirety, whichever comes first. Gifts may be paid over a three-year period, 2005-2007. All gifts made to the ACS are tax-deductible. For more information, contact Mary Bet Dobson in the ACS Development Office by mail (1155 Sixteenth St., NW, Washington, DC 20036) or phone (202-872-4094).

This year (2005) will be the last year for the Matching Gift Fund. The ACS Board also voted at the December meeting to expand the Development Office and to redirect the resources, formerly dedicated to the Matching Gift Fund, to achieve annual fundraising targets.

The highly popular ACS Video Course, Starting with Safety, has been adapted for delivery via the Internet. The Internet version includes all of the materials from the original Video Course including the video scenes and the Teacher's Guide. As an added bonus, the complete ACS Video Course, Seeing the Light, Eye and Face Protection, is also included in this ACS Internet Course.

Now you and your students can access this valuable training program from any computer connected to the Internet at any time, day or night. (We do recommend a relatively high-speed connection, such as a DSL, cable modem or higher. And you will need to install the Flash 6 player to view the videos).

This program is designed to be used as part of a standard high school or introductory college chemistry curriculum that is taught by an experienced chemistry teacher. The program is NOT meant to be a stand-alone training course. Students should only use this program under the supervision of a qualified teacher.

For complete details about this program, visit the American Chemical Society website at http://chemistry.org/elearning and click on the link to Starting with Safety.

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In October, the Technology, Tools and Operations Subcommittee of the Local Section Activities Committee and the Office of Local Section Activities launched a new HTML newsletter for local section leaders! The quarterly newsletter is sent via email to all current local section officers. The goal of the newsletter is to provide officers with timely information, tools and tips for success, and innovative ideas and activities that local sections may find of interest. The newsletter is available online at http://membership.acs.org/l/localsections/leading_together. If you wish to subscribe to future issues of this newsletter please send an email to olsa@acs.org and indicate your subscription request.

Editor's Note:All requests for address changes should be sent directly to National ACS headquarters in Washington, DC and not to the Editors of The Periodic News. Address labels are supplied to the Editors on a monthly basis by the American Chemical Society and are determined by the current active membership. The Editors cannot be held responsible for incorrect mailing labels.