338 JAMES BICHENO FRANCIS. 



forms of construction most durable and convenient of application. 

 Records of all the data necessary for this were carefully taken and 

 kept, and selections made from them by Mr. Francis, and j^ublished in 

 1855 under the title of "Lowell Hydraulic Experiments." In addi- 

 tion to the turbines there were some records of experiments on the 

 flow of water through rectangular channels, which was important to 

 the different manufacturing establishments to enable them to secure 

 their respective rights. 



It was necessary that the gaugings should be frequent, that they 

 should involve no stoppage of any works, nor impairment of the power? 

 and that it should be made under the normal conditions of working. 

 This was so secured by rectangular channels and the use of deep tube 

 floats. 



The practical application of the system and the results, together 

 with some experiments on submerged orifices and diverging tubes, 

 were given in a second edition of the " Hydraulic Experiments/' pub- 

 lished in 1868. 



By this work the reputation of Mr. Francis was extended beyond 

 this country. Here he was well known not only as an engineer of 

 the most important water power in the United States, to the success of 

 which he had contributed so much, but by his extensive consulting and 

 expert practice, (which continued to incr-jase till his health was im- 

 paired,) and his many contributions to the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute, the Transactions of the Society of Civil Engineers, and pub- 

 lished reports. Mr. Francis was a man of method, and studied care- 

 fully not only matters of engineering, but all the numerous subjects on 

 which he was consulted outside of his profession. Of most of these, 

 the data obtained are preserved with his calculations ; and so varied 

 and important are they that it has been thought expedient to file and 

 index them, which has been done by his son and successor, Colonel 

 James Francis, and they are now kept in the office of the Proprietors 

 of Locks and Canals, open to all who have an interest in these 

 subjects. 



His friend, the eminent engineer Uriah A. Boyden, appointed Mr. 

 Francis and Hon. William G. Russell trustees of his estate, inventoried 

 at $180,000, for the establishment and maintenance of a mountain 

 peak observatory or to aid in the same. In investigating observatories 

 Mr. Francis visited the principal ones in the United States, taking 

 them in the line of what he called his vacations, and with but little 

 charge to the estate. Through economies of administration the trus- 

 tees turned over to Harvard College $232,560, to be used by the 



