118 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 917 



mirably attained. The applied scientist, in 

 whatever branch of engineering he may be 

 engaged, will be able to read most of the 

 papers with interest and profit, and will find 

 that they will enlarge his view of the field of 

 engineering. Many of them deal with the 

 progress in certain branches of science within 

 the last few years, giving a summary of the 

 main events. There is little that is strictly 

 technical in the volume, and the writer re- 

 calls but one paper which is accompanied by 

 any mathematical formulae. 



The volume opens by a paper by President 

 Maclauren, entitled " Some Factors in the 

 Institute's Success." In this paper Dr. Mac- 

 lauren outlines most admirably the main fea- 

 tures which have contributed to the rapid and 

 great success of this school. Among the im- 

 portant contributing elements he names the 

 fact that the school was born in Boston, 

 where the value of education was fully ap- 

 preciated, and where the new venture re- 

 ceived moral, if not immediate financial sup- 

 port; then the impetus which applied science 

 had taken on at the time of its birth, owing 

 to the great discoveries in engineering which 

 had just preceded it; and finally, as a cause 

 to which Dr. Maclauren attributes special im- 

 portance, the fact that there has never been 

 any uncertainty or , indefiniteness as to what 

 the institute is aiming at in its scheme of 

 education. The institute was founded to em- 

 phasize the importance of the useful, using 

 the term in its broadest sense and not limit- 

 ing it simply to that which aids a man to 

 earn his bread and butter, but understanding 

 it to mean whatever cooperates in enabling a 

 man to make his life of greater use to him- 

 self and to the community. As contrasted 

 with the scholastic education which devotes 

 itself to the abstract, and sometimes even de- 

 cries that which is useful, the institute main- 

 tained that utility was the first object in the 

 study of anything. In accordance with this 

 idea, the method of teaching adopted at the 

 institute has been termed " learning by do- 

 ing," and Dr. Maclauren gives it as his be- 

 lief "that the do-it-yourself method has been 

 the greatest factor in the success of the insti- 



tute." Whether this is true or not, there 

 seems no question of the fact that the estab- 

 lishment of this school has had a great influ- 

 ence upon the traditional college education, 

 and it probably is not too much to say that the 

 trend in education to-day is in the direction 

 in which the institute has always moved. 



The technical papers in the volume are 

 sixty-eight in number, averaging, therefore, 

 only about seven pages in length. They are 

 divided into six sections. 



Section A deals with scientific investiga- 

 tion and the control of industrial processes^ 

 and contains seventeen papers, treating of 

 such subjects as the conservation of metal re- 

 sources, some causes of failure in metals, 

 metallography, improvements in cotton bleach- 

 ing, the gas industry, fire prevention, the- 

 utilization of blast furnace wastes, reclama- 

 tion in the west and similar topics. 



Section B treats of technological educa- 

 tion in its relations to industrial development, 

 and consists of thirteen short papers, several 

 of which emphasize the importance of the 

 method and aim at the institute, the value of 

 a thorough training in engineering, and the 

 influence of the institute upon education. 



Section C treats of administration and 

 management, and contains nine papers, sev- 

 eral of them devoted to the modern subject of 

 scientiflc management. One of these, en- 

 titled " An Object Lesson in Efficiency," is 

 contributed by Mr. Lewis, president of the 

 Tabor Manufacturing Company, of Philadel- 

 phia, the company in which the principles of 

 Mr. F. W. Taylor have been most thoroughly 

 carried out. The applicability of scientiflc 

 management to various branches of industry 

 are discussed in this section, and one of the 

 most interesting papers in the volume is that 

 of Mr. H. G. Bradlee, of the firm of Stone & 

 Webster, entitled " A Consideration of Cer- 

 tain Limitations of Scientific Efiiciency," in 

 which he points out the fact that scientiflc 

 management has distinct limitations which, 

 at the present time, we may be apt to over- 

 look. We are an hysterical nation, and the 

 pendulum swings rapidly from extreme to ex- 

 treme. After reading the highly colored ac- 



