762 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol XII. No. 307. 



■while the system and tone of the discussion are 

 characteristic of the expert in this department. 



In consequence of the fact that the free-hand 

 classes are usually formed before the student 

 has studied descriptive geometry, the writer of 

 this work had found it necessary to give him 

 some introductory work in that branch, and it 

 thus furnishes a valuable series of exercises in- 

 troductory to the more formal treatment of 

 that subject later. The book is, in fact, a dis- 

 cussion of the principles of linear perspective 

 as employed in free-hand sketching. The illus- 

 trations throughout the book are especially in. 

 teresting as being fac simile reproductions of 

 such actual sketches, made with a free hand, in 

 the course of regular class work. The depar- 

 ture from the absolute perfection of line obtain- 

 able with instruments is clearly observable ; but 

 the accuracy of these lines, rectilinear and curve- 

 linear, made by the unaided hand, is a beauti- 

 ful illustration of the nicety with which the 

 senses may be developed in this field. A com- 

 parison of Fig. 126 with the immediately suc- 

 ceeding sketches, all of which are of peculiar 

 interest, illustrates this point. Nearly all the 

 illustrations are curiously perfect, in line and 

 in tone, as illustrative of free hand work. 



The last chapter, ' Sketches from Working 

 Drawings,' involves the most original of the 

 author's inventions and the most helpful, to the 

 student of mechanism. The methods of sketch- 

 ing from simple drawings are indicated and ex- 

 amples given, the principles of location of line 

 and angle and plane are shown very clearly 

 and a system is developed for the production of 

 a perspective drawing of the object when the 

 only data available are to be obtained from the 

 ordinary plan and elevation of the working 

 drawing of the shop. The perfection and the 

 extensive applicability of this new system are 

 well exhibited in the progression from Fig. Ill 

 to Fig. 114, in which a steam engine crosshead 

 is thus treated ; in Fig. 118 and Fig. 119, in 

 illustration of a complicated casting for an en- 

 gine-bed, and even more remarkably in Figs. 

 133-136, where a very diflHcult form of beam 

 and bell-crank for a pumping engine is brought 

 out. The teaching of this new art, to the 

 young engineer, particularly, is likely to give 

 him great facility in the reverse process of 



reading the working drawing, and it must 

 prove very helpful ; especially, where he is. 

 compelled to explain to the workman draw- 

 ings of peculiar or complicated forms, and' 

 shapes difficult to picture in the mind's eye, as 

 the pattern-maker and the finisher must picture 

 every piece on which he is to work and with 

 no other aid to his imagination than the plans 

 and elevation of the working drawings. 



Mr. Wilson has made a distinct advance in 

 his art, an invention of striking interest, one 

 probably of no small value. 



R. H. Thubston. 



Our New Prosperity. By Ray StANNArd 

 Baker. New York, Doubleday & McClure 

 Co. 1900. 12mo., pp. 267; many illustra- 

 tions. Price, $1.50. 



There is a class of books, illustrated by 

 Carnegie's 'Triumphant Democracy,' Wright's 

 'Industrial Evolution of the United States,' 

 Gannett's 'Building of a Nation,' and Dr. 

 Strong's 'Our Country,' which should interest, 

 absorbingly interest, every thinking man, es- 

 pecially every American citizen, and still more 

 especially every young man. To this class 

 belongs Mr. Baker's new book. It is a con- 

 densed and very impressive statement, based 

 upon official statistics, of the conditions which 

 have brought about the present extraordinary 

 flood of prosperity in all industrial departments 

 in this country, the good results that followed 

 the trying period of ' hard times ' of earlier 

 years in the clearing off of old scores and re- 

 duction of the business of the country to a solid 

 basis, the effects of the ' prosperity wave ' at 

 home and abroad, the development of the in- 

 dustries of the New South, the ' invasion of the 

 world ' by the exporters and manufacturers of 

 the United States, and glances at the prognos 

 tications of a future, not likely to be free from 

 trouble and an occasional retrogression, but on 

 the whole one of enormous promise, and appa 

 rently of certain rise to as yet unimagined 

 greatness. The statistical matter, which con- 

 stitutes the main and fundamental portion of 

 the work, comes from the Treasury Department 

 bureaux, those of the Blint, the Labor Commis- 

 sioner, the Geological Survey and the various 

 other departments at Washington, with acces 



