THE PBOGBESS OF SCIENCE. 



41. 



THE CARNEGIE SCHOOLS. 

 IxsTiTUTiONS for Scientific educa- 

 tion and research are developing in the 

 United States with a rapidity that is 

 truly bewildering. Industrial condi- 

 tions, created by the advance of science, 

 have produced wealth that is both 

 widely distributed and collected in 

 great fortunes. Several of those who 

 have freely received have also freely 

 given. To them the world is forever 

 indebted, for they have not only by 

 their contributions to education and 

 science made new advances inevitable, 

 but, by repaying their debt to society, 

 they have contributed greatly to its 

 stability. During the past month Mr. 

 Jacob S. Rogers, of Paterson, N. J., a 

 manufacturer of locomotives, has be- 

 queathed nearly his entire fortune, $8,- 

 000,000 it is said, to the Metropolitan 

 Museum of Art in Xew York City, and 

 Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has given 

 $1,000,000 to Harvard University for 

 its Medical School. Mr. Carnegie's 

 gifts of $10,000,000 to the Scottish uni- 

 versities and of an equal sum for 

 American libraries have recently been 

 made, and now it appears that he is 

 planning with equal munificence for 

 technical schools at Pittsburg-. 



In the May issue of this magazine. 

 Dr. W. J. Holland, director of the Car- 

 negie Museum, described Mr. Car- 

 negie's great foundation. The trus- 

 tees of the Institute and Library were 

 requested by Mr. Carnegie to draw up 

 plans for technical schools, and they 

 appointed an expert committee, which 

 has just made a report. This commit- 

 tee consists of Professor Robert H. 

 Thurston, director of Sibley Engineer- 

 ing College, Cornell University; Pro- 

 fessor J. B. Johnson, dean of the Col- 

 lege of Engineering, University of 

 Wisconsin; Professor Thomas Gray, of 

 the Rose Polytechnic Institute, and 

 Professor V. C. Alderson, of the Ar- 

 mour Institute. Their report outlines 

 a technical institute covering the whole 

 field Avith unparalleled thoroughness, 1 

 including a college, a high-school and j 



special classes. The college would offer 

 courses in the sciences, in modern lan- 

 guages and in all departments of engi- 

 neering, and provide the fullest facili- 

 ties for investigation and research, 

 being in fact a great national school of 

 technology. The high-school would be 

 local in character, but would be a 

 model for the similar schools that will 

 surely be established in other cities. 

 Special classes will provide instruction 

 for those who are unable to give their 

 entire time to study. These are only 

 the recommendations of the committee, 

 but there is every reason to believe 

 that Mr. Carnegie has in view the es- 

 tablishment at Pittsburg of the great- 

 est technical schools in the world. 



THE TELEGRAPHONE. 



Mr. Poulsex, of Copenhagen, has 

 given the name telegraphone to an in- 

 strument in which he has most ingen- 

 iously combined the telephone and the 

 phonograph. Its general construction 

 will be understood from the illustra- 

 tions, originally published in the Lon- 

 don 'Electrician.' The details of the 

 two instruments differ, a short \\are 

 being used in the one and a long steel 

 ribbon in the other, but the general 

 principle is the same. The steel wire 

 or ribbon passes before the poles of an 

 electro-magnet in a telephone circuit, 

 and is thus magnetized in a manner 

 varying with the current in the tele- 

 phone circuit produced by the voice of 

 the speaker. \Yhen the steel wire is 

 then passed over the poles of an elec- 

 tro-magnet, the same undulations will 

 be set up in the current passing 

 through its coils, and the sounds will 

 be reproduced in the receiver. The re- 

 production is as definite as in a good 

 telephone and much superior in quality 

 to that of any form of phonograph. 

 The record can be used as often as de- 

 sired, and is said to last indefinitely, 

 but it can be mped out by passing the 

 v.ire over an electro-magnet. The wire 

 can be passed over any number of re- 



