August 31, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



267 



condenser head to permit prompt drainage 

 of these tubes when the condenser is taken 

 out of active operation. Considerable dif- 

 ficulty has been encountered in getting the 

 system operated properly at the voltage 

 suitable for the prevention of galvanic 

 action in the hands of the regular opera- 

 tors, as they persisted for a long period in 

 reading amperes instead of volts in adjust- 

 ing the currents, thiis not providing except 

 by accident for the requirements. The 

 efficiency of the apparatus amply justifies 

 the expense of its installation, while its 

 operation is not expensive and the plant 

 here described will now be followed by 

 other protecting plants of the same char- 

 acter. 



This paper forms a most excellent illus- 

 tration of the application of theoretical 

 physics to the solution of a concrete prob- 

 lem in commercial engineering. The sa- 

 ving of $100,000 a year in water rates at 

 the expenditure of $250, or even more, per 

 year, in a scientific preventive should be a 

 sufficient answer to the commercial man 

 who asks 'Does science pay?' 



The paper on "The Justification of the 

 Use of the Expression ' Engineering Mathe- 

 matics,' " by Arthur E. Haynes, professor 

 of engineering mathematics. University of 

 Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., describes 

 the conditions as they exist in a large uni- 

 versity of the central west wherein mathe- 

 matics is taught to students pursuing all 

 kinds and classes of courses. The paper 

 will be published in full in the Proceedings 

 of the Society for the Promotion of Engi- 

 neering Education. 



The last paper, and in some respects one 

 of the most interesting and valuable papers 

 presented before Section D, was by J. J. 

 Clark, manager of the text-book depart- 

 ment of the International Correspondence 

 Schools, Scranton, Pa., on 'The Corre- 

 spondence School: Its Relation to Tech- 

 nical Education, and Some of Its Results.' 



The paper will be published in full in the 

 Proceedings of the Society for the Promo- 

 tion of Engineering Education and will 

 doubtless be abstracted by the technical 

 press. 



When Professor Edgar Marburg read a 

 paper^ in 1899 on 'The Correspondence 

 School in Technical Education' there were 

 about 80,000 students enrolled in the In- 

 ternational Correspondence Schools. In 

 the following year this number had in- 

 creased to 181,000. Owing to a number of 

 circumstances, it was impossible at that 

 time to furnish reliable figures in regard 

 to the work being accomplished. Hence 

 the reports which were made were both un- 

 satisfactory and unjust to the correspond- 

 ence school. Since December 31, 1899, 

 the school has grown at a rate of more 

 than 100,000 per annum,. the total number 

 enroUed on June 27, 1906, was 902,906. 

 After relating something of the history of 

 the growth of the schools and their meth- 

 ods of securing students, the author de- 

 scribes their system of education as being 

 based on ideas that are almost the direct 

 opposite to those practised by the regular 

 schools and colleges. The regular tech- 

 nical school or college aims to educate a 

 man broadly; the aim of the correspon- 

 dence schools of the country is to educate 

 him along some one particular line, and to 

 make each course fit the particular needs 

 of the student who takes it. Hence, with 

 a few exceptions, almost every one of the 

 courses is a special course. 



The author then describes other methods 

 of conducting correspondence schools by 

 the use of the regular text-books and corre- 

 spondence concerning the difficulties en- 

 countered by the student. The author 

 states that such schools have always failed 

 or made very little progress, 'for the rea- 

 son that the ordinary text-book is not 

 ^Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion 

 of Engineering Education, Vol. VII., p. 80. 



