Physics 555 



MISCELLANEOUS AND TECHNICAL 



The publications of the Smithsonian Institution include a large 

 number of papers more closely related to physics than to any 

 other science, but yet of a miscellaneous or technical nature. 

 Brief reference to a few of these will be desirable. One of the 

 earliest is a " Syllabus of a Course of Lectures in Physics," 

 prepared by Joseph Henry and published in the Smithson- 

 ian Report for 1856. It was originally intended to continue 

 this syllabus in subsequent reports, but this was not done. 

 As published, it is restricted to a general outline of the course, 

 with an abstract of the general properties of matter and a 

 beginning in mechanics. Although prepared forty years ago, 

 any instructor in physics will do well to examine it carefully. 

 In the same volume there is a paper on the "Mode of Testing 

 Building Material," also by Henry, originally read before the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is 

 essentially a report of the most important results obtained by 

 a commission appointed by the President of the United States 

 for the purpose of examining the marble used in the extension 

 of the United States Capitol, of which commission Henry was 

 a member. The paper contains a number of interesting con- 

 clusions based on the experimental work of the commission, 

 notably those relating to the use of lead plates in crushing 

 cubes of stone ; the composition of the marbles used in the 

 wings of the Capitol is given, and there are some thoughtful 

 remarks on the general subject of molecular cohesion, as illus- 

 trated in the use of the testing-machine. In the Reports for 

 i860 and 1 86 1 will be found a course of five lectures on 

 " Roads and Bridges," by Fairman Rogers, then professor of 

 civil engineering in the University of Pennsylvania. They 

 contain much extremely valuable material for a people among 



