SErxEjtBER 29, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



397 



Thus it appears even in the present 

 necessarily superficial summary of the 

 progress of physics within one hundred 

 years, that, curiously enough, just as the 

 nineteenth century began with dynamics 

 and closed with electricity, so the twentieth 

 century begins anew with dynamics to 

 reach a goal the magnitude of which the 

 human mind can only await with awe. If 

 no Lagrange stands toweringiy at the 

 threshold of the era now fully begun, su- 

 perior workmen abound in continually in- 

 creasing numbers, endowed with insight, 

 adroitness, audacity and resources, in a 

 way far transcending the early visions of 

 the Avonderful century which has just 

 closed. 



Carl Barus. 



Brown University. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Civil Engineering^ A Text-hooh for a Short 



Course. By Lieut. -Col. G. J. Fieberger, 



U. S. Army, Professor of Engineering, U. S. 



Military Academy, M. Am. See. C. E. 



It is not easy to rate the book under dis- 

 cussion at its true value. The tendency of 

 engineering education of the present day is 

 towards elaborate presentation of the several 

 phases of engineering practise and if there is 

 any reaction from the excessive develop-iient 

 of so-called specialties, it shows itself in a 

 greater concentration on elementary me- 

 chanics and other fundamentals. 



When engineering education was in its in- 

 fancy and when the science was being formu- 

 lated, Rankine, in his famous and classic book, 

 developed and put together all that was known 

 on the subject. Since then, the science and 

 knowledge of engineering have grown so 

 rapidly and extensively that, in spite of a 

 generous appreciation of the work of Rankine, 

 one is startled at a present-day attempt to 

 compress modern engineering knowledge into 

 a single volume of less than six hundred pages. 



The author explains that the book is in- 

 tended to give the military cadets, who have 

 to master many sciences and languages as well 



as military science and tactics, an eleaientary 

 knowledge of civil engineering. To properly 

 rate the value of the book, for its avowed 

 purpose, this condition nnist be kept in mind 

 and any comparison with other separate vol- 

 unaes, used in technical schools, must be care- 

 fully avoided. 



About one third of the book is devoted to 

 the mechanics of materials, and all ordinary 

 problems of strength in flexure, tension, com- 

 pression and torsion are given. Fifty nu- 

 merical problems, about one to every four 

 pages, are given to fix the principles stated, 

 and additional illustrative problems are said 

 to be used in the class room. 



Thirty-four pages are given to hydraulics 

 and seventy pages to bridge stresses, making 

 one half of the book devoted to fundamental 

 theory. While this theory is admirably pre- 

 sented, the principles and hypotheses carefully 

 stated, however condensed, the writer can not 

 help feeling that the average student mind is 

 too immature to successfully assimilate such 

 highly concentrated food, and further, he be- 

 lieves that much fundamental theory has been 

 omitted. For example, in hydraulics no prob- 

 lems involving the time of -emptying locks or 

 reservoirs are given, no formulae for velocity 

 of approach for weirs and no discussion of 

 submerged weirs. Xet space is taken for full 

 algebraic development of equations of moment 

 for continuous beams over four and even five 

 supports. 



Materials of construction, stone, cement, 

 steel, iron, etc., are discussed to the extent 

 of sixty pages. It is surprising, in view of 

 the thousands of tons of Bessemer steel used 

 annually in buildings, to read that ' open 

 hearth steel is preferred by engineers for 

 structural work,' while ' Bessemer steel is large- 

 ly used for steel railway rails,' and further 

 that ' cast-iron struts in the form of hollow 

 columns are employed in structures not sub- 

 jected to the shocks of suddenly applied loads.' 

 In the description of brick, but ten lines are 

 devoted to paving brick and the young officers 

 are there told that paving brick are tested in 

 a rattler used for castings or by dropping the 

 brick repeatedly on a hard floor. It would 

 have required so few additional lines to have 



