December 20, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



843 



ing a bust of Lobaclievski in the park beai-- 

 ing his name in front of the University 

 edifice in Kazan, the remainder of the cost 

 to be borne by the Municipal Council. 



A special committee, consisting of repre- 

 sentatives of the Municipal Council and of 

 the Physico-Mathematical Society, has made 

 a contract with Mile. Dillon, who engages 

 for 3,000 roubles to furnish a bronze bust of 

 Lobachevski, to be placed on a granite 

 pedestal, the height of the monument to 

 exceed 3 metres. 



It is hoped to unveil the bust between 

 the 15th and the 25th of September, 1896. 



This ' fete mathematique ' will follow the 

 ' congres des savants russes naturalistes et 

 mathematiciens ' at Kiev from 1st to 12th 

 of September, 1896, and be during the grand 

 Russian Exposition artistic and industrial at 

 Nijny-lSrovgorod in the summer and autumn 

 of 1896. Foreigners in any way identified 

 with the name of Lobachevski are invited 

 to the fete, and such as accept will be the 

 guests of the city and University of Kazan. 



For a second bust of Lobachevski to be 

 placed in the Assembly Hall of the Univer- 

 sity, 200 roubles have been given from the 

 Lobachevski fund, the remainder of the 

 cost to be borne by the professors of the 

 University. 



The remainder of the sum already col- 

 lected (640 r., 95 k.) will be added to the 

 fixed capital. The augmentation of the 

 capital will permit of a new edition of 

 Lobachevski's works in a few years, the 

 first volume of the Kazan edition having 

 already beconie rare (out of print). 



The Physico-mathematical Society of 

 Kazan has already received a large number 

 of works and memoirs relating to Loba- 

 chevski and non-Euclidean geometry, and 

 now having added its own collection of the 

 printed and manuscript works of Loba- 

 chevski, the Society has inaugurated a sep- 

 arate library under the name Bihliotheca 

 LohacMvshiana. 



It is hoped that in time this library will 

 collect all the literature of non-Euclidean 

 geometry and be an indispensable aid to 

 those engaged in its development. 



All writers on this fecund subject are 

 begged to send to this librarj^ copies of their 

 works. 



Alas ! That the Mathematico-physical 

 Society of Hungary, a country having an 

 equal claim to all the honors of the non- 

 Euclidean geometrj' through the genius of 

 Bolj'ai Janos, should have been content 

 with placing in 1894 a monumental stone 

 on his long neglected grave in Maros- 

 Vasarhely ! George Beuoe Halsted. 



Austin, Texas. 



AMEEICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGI- 

 NEERS. 



The sixteenth annual convention of the 

 American Society of Mechanical Engineers 

 was held December 3d to 6th, inclusive, in 

 N"ew York, at the house of the Society, ISTo. 

 12 W. 31st St., the old home of the Acad- 

 emy of Music. The program included the 

 presentation of 13 papers, mainly by mem- 

 bers of the faculties of various schools of 

 mechanical engineering, although the most 

 notable papers were, pei;haps, usually those 

 of well-known practitioners. Many inter- 

 esting and instructive ' topical discussions ' 

 took place also; and these usually brought 

 out the most extended debates. 



The papers of Messrs. McElroj^ and Web- 

 ber were devoted to the discussion of the 

 extent, availability and probable costs of 

 power derivable from the Caratunk Falls on 

 the Kennebec and the subject ' Water 

 Power; its Generation and Transmission,' 

 and Were rich in valuable data and statis- 

 tics of immediate use to the engineer and 

 hydraulician. Mr. Emery gave a brief ac- 

 count of his work of rearranging the ma- 

 chinery and apparatus of a great oil refinery 

 at Bayonne, bj'^ improving which he had 

 saved already 32,000 tons of fuel per annum, 



