964 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 312. 



neglected. The great nature-study movement 

 which is making such rapid strides in this coun- 

 try would be encouraged and assisted by many 

 more such books as this if we had the investiga- 

 tors and writers able to make such careful 

 studies and to put them in print in such ad- 

 mirable shape. 



L. O. Howard. 



Transactions of the American Society of Mechan- 

 ical Engineers. Vol. XXI., New York Meet- 

 ing, 1899, Cincinnati Meeting, 1900. New 

 York ; published by the Society, 1900. Pp. 

 1778 ; 8vo., 372111.; 33 papers, reports of com- 

 mittees, etc. Printed by J. J. Little & Co. 

 This large and handsome volume represents 

 the work of the American Society of Mechan- 

 ical Engineers, so far as it can be exhibited in 

 type, for a single official year. The organization 

 was effected in 1880, after many unsuccessful 

 attempts had been made by other less influen- 

 tial or less tactful members of the profession, 

 and started off v'th a =!mall number of members 

 selected from among the leaders of the profes- 

 sion of engineering. It now has a total mem- 

 bership of 2,064, including 113 foreign members. 

 The oflficers are a president, six vice-presidents, 

 nine managers, a treasurer and a secretary, 

 while its governing body, the Council, includes 

 the officers, and the past-presidents of the So- 

 ciety are 'honorary councillors ' holding their 

 positions for life or during their continued con- 

 nection with the Society. Two conventions are 

 held each year, one in New York, at headquar- 

 ters, the other at usually, some large city in 

 the central or western portion of the country. 

 All persons engaged in engineering are eligible 

 to membership, under certain restrictions and 

 in classes, as members, honorary members, 

 juniors, associates ; the Council making a first 

 revision of the list and recommending to the 

 Society those whose credentials are considered 

 satisfactory. The headquarters of the Society 

 are at its own house, No 12 West 31st St., 

 New York City, formerly that of the Academy 

 of Medicine. 



The published papers and their discussions 

 cover a very wide range of topics and are sup- 

 plemented by a series of ' topical discussions ' 

 in answer to queries suggested by members and 



sent out by the Council. These volumes are 

 rich in valuable fact and data thus derived. 



The papers are often of considerable length 

 and their value is often proportional to their 

 volume. Thus the report of the Committee of 

 a Standard Method of Steam-boiler Trials, 78 

 pages, is followed by a discussion occupying 27 

 pages ; Admiral Melville gives 17 pages to 

 ' Engineering in the U. S. Navy ' ; Thurston on 

 ' The Steam-Engine at the Close of the XlXth 

 Century,' occupies 61 pages ; Dr. Eddy on 

 'Entropy,' submits 17 pages; Laird on a 

 ' Kemarkable Steam Pumping Engine Trial,' 24 

 pages ; Goss on a similar work, 39 pages ; 

 Robertson on the 'Test of a 125 horse-power 

 Gas-Engine,' covers 43 pages; Herschman on 

 'The Heavy Automobile,' 30 pages; Kerr's 

 admirable paper on the ' South Terminal Sta- 

 tion, Boston,' occupies 27 pages ; Professors 

 Cooley and Wagner on a ' Nordbury Engine, ' 

 admirably full, 96 pages, while the most gener- 

 ally intereaiiug paper of the volume, appar- 

 ently, that of Professor Higgins on ' The 

 Education of Machinists, Foremen and Engi- 

 neers,' 19 pages, is discussed in 86 pages and 

 is supplemented at the second meeting of the 

 volume by another paper, occupying 40 pages, 

 in which the author closes a most extraordi- 

 narily interesting and instructive discussion, 

 perhaps the most important and instructive 

 respecting technical education ever yet put in 

 type. 



A very large proportion of the papers are 

 devoted to accounts of investigations of the 

 performance of heat-engines and of machinery 

 of interesting, and commonly of novel, charac- 

 ter and to descriptions of the processes of 

 experimental research and resultant data. 

 The file of the twenty years past is extraordi- 

 narily rich in this, to the engineer, most super- 

 latively valuable material. A large part 

 naturally comes from the technical schools and 

 colleges ; but it is always practically valuable 

 and often, if not invariably, conveys a form of 

 knowledge that the practitioner most desires. 

 The fact, however, that the ' practical man ' 

 cannot be induced to present oftener, and in 

 good form, the outcome of his experience and 

 the results of his endeavors to secure improved 

 design, to invent new devices and processes, 



