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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



markable when we recall the fact that 

 in Continental Europe the confidence 

 in banks of deposit has never attained 

 the strength that it has in this coun- 

 try and in England. Outside of strictly 

 commercial circles and people of large 

 means the practice of depositing money 

 with a banker is comparatively un- 

 known. Small dealers, mechanics, and 

 farmers, still adhere, in the main, to 

 the old custom of hoarding, in feather- 

 beds or underground, that has descend- 

 ed from the troublous days of the mid- 

 dle ages. That men should go from 

 the extreme of unfounded distrust of 

 stable and well-managed institutions 

 into the incredible folly of pouring 

 their money like water into the tills of 

 a barefaced swindler, would seem to 

 show that the springs of human action 

 have not been raised very much ; that 

 a love of great gains, a desire to get 

 more than our money's worth, a credu- 

 lous faith in the performance of impos- 

 sible promises are still deeply rooted, 

 and need but the stimulus of some new 

 and untried humbug to develop an 

 amazing number of credulous fools. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Knight's American Mechanical Diction- 

 ary. A Description of Tools, Instru- 

 ments, Machines, Processes, and Engi- 

 neering ; History of Inventions ; Gener- 

 al Technological Vocabulary ; and Di- 

 gest of Mechanical Appliances in Science 

 and the Arts. By Edward H. Knight, 

 Civil and Mechanical Engineer. 3 vols. 

 Pp. 2831 ; 7395 cuts. New York: Hurd 

 & Houghton. Price (cloth), $8 per vol. 



This comprehensive and valuable work 

 belongs in the rank of the cyclopaedias, al- 

 though its author has seen fit to choose for 

 it the less ambitious title of a dictionary. 

 It is qualified as mechanical, and answers 

 to this description, but mechanics goes deep 

 and sweeps wide in the field of Nature and 

 art. Indeed, philosophers are split into fac- 

 tions over the question how far mechan- 

 ics actually extends in the economy of the 

 world, some maintaining that even cerebral 

 action in processes of thought is resolvable 

 into mechanical elements and conditions. 



But, without going so far as this, it is indis- 

 putable that mechanical changes are exten- 

 sively and profoundly involved in the ongo- 

 ings of the material universe. It is a vul- 

 gar notion that the term mechanics is re- 

 stricted to cog-work and belting, wheels, 

 levers, and pulleys, and a glauce at Mr. 

 Knight's voluminous exposition of the pres- 

 ent state of knowledge on mechanical sub- 

 jects will quickly dispel the narrow notions 

 that may have hitherto prevailed regarding 

 it. As stated in his prospectus, " the work 

 deals with the mechanical side of every sub- 

 ject that can be known or mentioned, and, 

 as almost everything in the universe has a 

 mechanical side, the work becomes encyclo- 

 pedical." 



Mr. Knight seems to be a man cut out 

 for such an enterprise. He began it twenty- 

 five years ago, and as the volumes, in their 

 vast and accurate detail, abundantly show, 

 he must have had an enthusiasm for the 

 work that kept him at it with untiring pa- 

 tience and perseverance ; but as mere indus- 

 try, although a prime factor in the result, 

 must have been insufficient unless acting in 

 the most favorable circumstances, he went 

 to the headquarters of opportunity in this 

 country, the Patent-Office at Washington. 

 He was here " engaged in the editing the 

 Patent-Office Report " and classifying pat- 

 ents ; and subsequently editing the Offi- 

 cial Gazette and systematizing for examina- 

 tion the twenty thousand applications for 

 patents which are yearly presented at the 

 office. Sitting at the very centre and focus 

 of the mechanical thought of the country, 

 he had both the stimulus and the facilities 

 for carrying out his long-cherished purpose, 

 and the " Dictionary " no doubt owes its ex- 

 haustive completeness to the free command 

 of facilities afforded by his position. 



We know of nothing that more impres- 

 sively illustrates both the great advance of 

 knowledge in this sphere of science and 

 art, and the great activity with which it is 

 at present cultivated in all civilized coun- 

 tries, than a critical glance at the pages of 

 this elaborate work. And its statements 

 are so presented as to bring out this view 

 most impressively. Mr. Knight has intro- 

 duced a subsidiary feature of " special in- 

 dexes," which is not only very useful to 

 those who consult his work, but shows in a 

 striking way the extent to which inventive 



