SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



409 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



REGENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO EN- 

 GINEERING. 

 'Tunneling: A Practical Treatise,' 

 by Charles Prelini, of Manhattan Col- 

 lege, is a well-printed book, just pub- 

 lished by D. Van Nostrand Company, 

 which appears to fill a real need, since 

 no American work on the subject has 

 appeared during the past twenty years. 

 The various methods of driving tun- 

 nels through earth are fully illus- 

 trated, especial attention being given 

 to the shield process which has been so 

 thoroughly developed in recent years. 

 Submarine tunnels are discussed fully, 

 with illustrations of those in New 

 York, Chicago and Milwaukee. Tun- 

 nels in rock occupy nearly one- half the 

 volume, the modern methods used in 

 the St. Gothard and Simplon tunnels 

 receiving detailed notice. Subway con- 

 struction in Boston and New York is 

 also discussed. Interesting historical 

 information regarding ancient tunnels 

 is given, while methods of surveying, 

 centering, blasting and ventilating are 

 explained in a manner which sets forth 

 principles as well as facts. The book 

 is one that shows much painstaking 

 work on the part of the author, and it 

 deserves high commendation. 



In ancient times it was the cus- 

 tom for the title page of a book to 

 give a full account of its contents. 

 This plan is followed in a work by 

 James D. Schuyler, published by Wiley 

 & Sons, whose title is 'Reservoirs for 

 Irrigation, Water Power, and Domes- 

 tic Water Supply, with an account of 

 various types of dams and the methods 

 and plans of their construction, 

 together with a discussion of the avail- 

 able water supply for irrigation in 

 various sections of arid America; the 



distribution, application and use of 

 water; the rainfall and run-oflf, the 

 evaporation from reservoirs, the effect 

 of silt upon reservoirs, etc' The vol- 

 ume is a large octavo of 400 pages 

 with numerous full-page half-tones and 

 several folding plates. It is mostly de- 

 voted to constructions west of the 

 Rocky mountains; here hydraulic-fill 

 dams and rock-fill dams originated, and 

 the book contains descriptions of all 

 that have been built^ as well as ac- 

 counts of the most important masonry 

 and earthen dams. The treatment is 

 descriptive and statistical rather than 

 scientific, and the work is hence mainly 

 one of reference for the use of enjri- 

 neers. 



'The Cement Industry,' published 

 by the 'Engineering Record,' is an 

 octavo volume of 235 pages which gives 

 detailed descriptions of numerous 

 cement plants in Europe and America. 

 The production of natural cement in 

 the United States has been somewhat 

 checked during the last decade by the 

 rapid improvements in the manufac- 

 ture of the Portland product, particu- 

 larly by the introduction of rotary 

 kilns. From 1895 to 1900 the produc- 

 tion of Poi-tland cement increased from 

 one to seven million barrels per year, 

 and the price suffered a reduction of 

 nearly fifty per cent. The great de- 

 piosits of argillaceous limestone in the 

 Lehigh Valley form the principal 

 source of Portland cement^ but in the 

 west it is made by mixing clay and 

 marl in proper proportions, and there 

 are also two or three plants where 

 blast-furnace slag is used. The book, 

 which is well illustrated, gives full de- 

 tails of the methods of manufacture of 

 both natural and Portland cements. 



VOL. LIX. — 28 



